CHAPTER VI

AN UNPLEASANT SURPRISE

FORTUNATELY, there was spare clothing in plenty on board, and without delay all the officers and crew who had been on deck during the avalanche of water were able to change into dry kit.

For another three hours Captain Stormleigh kept the _Polarity_ on a due easterly course, literally groping his way through the fog-bank.

Beyond glancing gently against an occasional growler, the ship escaped serious collision, and when the fog lifted an expanse of open water lay in front of her. Away, broad on the port beam, could be discerned the rugged outline of the giant berg which had so nearly proved to be the tomb of the _Polarity_ and her crew.

"Five miles in length, and two hundred feet in height, at the very least," declared Travers.

"What causes an iceberg to form?" asked Guy.

"It's the seaward end of a glacier," replied the second mate. "Every year, as the temperature rises a few degrees, the mighty glaciers of the Arctic rid themselves of a few cubic miles of ice. These bergs, once they are afloat, drift southwards, gradually diminishing and toppling over, until they melt away."

"What causes them to topple?" asked Guy. "I know that, roughly, six-sevenths of a mass of floating ice is beneath the surface. It seems a lot to capsize."

"Normally six-sevenths of the bulk of a berg is underneath the surface," replied the second mate. "We may take it for granted that yonder berg is, since it has only recently taken up its present position. In that case, the berg is at least a quarter of a mile in depth. But the ice is constantly thawing in the water, although the part exposed to the air may not be. Consequently the melting process underneath proceeds until the berg becomes top-heavy, and then--well, you have just seen that specimen do a somersault."

For the next five or six hours all hands were kept busily employed in making good the damage which had been done by the destructive wave.

The crow's nest, which had marvellously escaped injury when the foremast was fractured, was again sent aloft, this time on the mainmast. The broken foremast was sawn through a couple of feet below the jagged end, and new preventer shrouds set up.

The wireless aerials, which had been carried away at the same time as the crow's nest, were placed in position again. The bulwarks were roughly repaired by bolting fir planks across the gap.

Unfortunately, the two smashed boats could not be replaced, and the only wooden ones remaining were two heavy cutters carried on deck amidships. There were also two double-ended, collapsible canvas boats, double-skinned, and, so long as the canvas remained intact, unsinkable. For use in open water these boats were invaluable, but there was always a danger of ripping the canvas on the sharp edges of the floating ice.

At "midnight," Captain Stormleigh made a solar observation, and announced that the _Polarity_ was sixty miles S.S.E. of Desolation Inlet. Unless unforeseen circumstances arose, the relief expedition ought to be at the anchorage by six in the morning.

Unfortunately, the vessel encountered pack-ice--a desolate plain of bluish-grey ice, which had only partly melted, and moved southward in the form of "growlers," and drift ice.

"Rough luck, this, sir," commented Captain Stormleigh.

Ranworth shrugged his shoulders impatiently.

"We must force a passage," he said.

"We'll try, sir," replied the captain. "There is always a danger of being caught in a southerly gale, and the old _Polarity_ wouldn't be worth much jammed up in a lot of heavy ice. Still, I'm willing to take the risk."

"Very good," assented Ranworth. "What do you propose to do?"

"Keep her at it as long as she carries way. The ice may be fairly thin, and there's every likelihood of its breaking up. If we can't force a passage that way, we'll have to blow up the ice and form a channel. Ten to one the pack isn't very broad."

"But if it extends for miles?" asked Ranworth.

"We'll have to anchor the ship in the ice and make a start with the sleigh, sir. By the time the expedition is ready to return, the ice may have broken up."

"That seems the only way," agreed the leader of the expedition. "I'll warn Hawke to get the sleigh ready for action."

Upon nearing the pack, the _Polarity_ stopped her engines. One of the canvas boats was manned and lowered, and rowed towards the edge of the ice. On returning, the officer in charge reported that the ice was "rotten," and capable of being broken by the impact of the ship's bows.

Gathering way, the staunch vessel charged the glacial barrier. Right and left, as her steel-protected bow sheared through the obstruction, fragments of ice cracked and flew in glittering showers.

For nearly a mile the _Polarity_ forced her way, then, with unpleasant suddenness, she came to a standstill.

"The hummocks are too much for her," declared Captain Stormleigh, and, hailing the crow's nest, he asked for a report of the ice-field ahead.

"Same as it is here for a couple of miles or so, sir," replied the look-out man. "But there's open water beyond."

Calling to Travers, the captain ordered him to take a couple of reliable men and fetch some dynamite cartridges from the magazine. The rest of the crew were told off to provide themselves with axes, crowbars, and augers, in order to cut holes in the ice for the reception of the explosives.

"Would you like to have a run on the ice--I was just going to say ashore?" asked Ranworth, addressing Leslie and Guy. "Aubrey Hawke is going to test one of the small motor-sleighs, so you can go with him if you like."

The two lads were only too pleased at the opportunity. Warmly clad in furs, with their feet incased in fur-lined knee-boots, and wearing goggles to protect the eyes from snow-blindness, they lowered themselves over the side of the ship and gained the ice.