CHAPTER I.
LAST DAYS ON THE “TEGETTHOFF.”
1. We could now return with honour. The observations and discoveries we had made could not be wrested from us, and our many anxieties on this ground were at an end, henceforth the greatest evil that could befall us was death on our homeward voyage. The intervening days were given up to the recruiting of our exhausted powers; Klotz called this time the “plundering of the ship.” Not very much time, indeed, was left for this, but the short spell of good living, in which we all shared, transformed the ship into an abode of Epicureans. But withal we redoubled our diligence to secure the results of our toils and labours. Lieutenant Weyprecht deposited our meteorological and magnetical readings, the log-books and the ship’s papers, in a chest lined with tin, and soldered it down, and a few days afterwards I made exact duplicates of the surveys, and of measurements, which I had taken. I took especial care so to prepare these, that another person might be able to construct from them a map of Franz-Josef Land, should I myself perish on the return journey. These sheets also were packed in a chest lined with tin and soldered, and along with them were placed our zoological drawings and about 200 sketches of the country, of the Arctic Sea and our adventures, the flag too of the sledge journeys, and my journals. Of the zoological collection itself, only a small selection of the specimens most easy of transport could be taken with us.
2. The time passed away with unexpected rapidity; the days had scarcely begun before they seemed to have come to an end. Everyone was busy in getting his clothes ready. In the quarters of the crew, sewing went on without intermission, and piles of thread disappeared under their fingers, to appear again in the strangest patterns worked on the old garments. Avalanches of cast-off clothes hung over the hull of the ship. The vessel—no longer trim as before—came to wear the look befitting the catastrophe that awaited her. A great number of bears’ carcases lay on the ice,[52] for only the brain, the tongue, and the prime portions of the flesh found their way to the kitchen, the remaining parts lay about half buried under snow-drifts, given up to the dogs to tear to pieces, who now for the first time found themselves exempted from rations served out according to time and circumstances. A month later, and such a field of carnage would have become a very home of pestilence.
3. Short excursions with the dog-sledge enabled us to finish our observations on the motion of glaciers, which the great depth of the snow had hitherto made a matter of much difficulty. The last of these expeditions took place on May 15th. On the spot on which we had first set our foot, we took farewell of the grave of our departed comrade and of the Land to which we had drifted through the happy caprice of an ice-floe, and the discovery of which rendered a return without humiliation possible. But with this farewell the business of the expedition came to an end, all our thoughts were now occupied with getting back to Europe. Of the issue we dared not form the least conception; but whether it were deliverance or destruction, our lot must at any rate be decided within three months, as for this period only we could drag with us the most indispensable provisions.
4. On our equipment Lieutenant Weyprecht and I bestowed much thought and care, and our measures were carried out with the greatest exactness. All these were based on the excellent apparatus for sledging already described; the additional precautions were confined to the more convenient stowing away of the provisions, and to the diminishing, as much as possible, of the baggage. The rapid decrease of the cold and the consequent rise of the temperature, even above the freezing point, enabled us to reduce our clothing to a minimum without endangering our health; and no more comfortable sleeping-place for Arctic explorers can be conceived than the interior of a dry boat, covered in like a tent and provided with bed-quilts. There was more danger that we should suffer from heat than from cold; the apprehension of insufficient provisions was better founded.
5. Three boats were selected for the return expedition. Two of these were Norwegian whale-boats, 20 feet long, 5 feet broad, and 2½ feet deep. Lieutenant Weyprecht, Dr. Kepes, Lusina, Orasch, Latkovich, Palmich, Vecerina and Klotz, formed the complement of the one; and Zaninovich, Haller, Lukinovich, Scarpa, Stiglich, Pospischill, Midshipman Orel and I, the complement of the other. The third and somewhat smaller boat carried Lieutenant Brosch, Captain Carlsen, Cattarinich, Lettis, Sussich, Marola and Fallesich. Each of these boats rested on a sledge, and was laden with the following articles:—
10 light oars. 2 long steering oars. 1 sail and mast. 1 ice-anchor. 2 boat-hooks. 1 harpoon and line. 1 fishing-line. 1 small hatchet. 1 ice-borer. 1 screw-driver. 1 caulking-iron. 1 saw. 6 reserve sledge screws. 1 bag of nails. 2 Lefaucheux rifles. 1 Werndl rifle. 1 case with 100 shot cartridges. 1 case with 50 ditto. 2 cases of 50 Lefaucheux cartridges. 25 Werndl cartridges. 8 sledge traces. 6 lamps. 6 weights for measuring provisions. 2 pairs of reindeer shoes. 2 oil cans. 1 bag of nails. 20 boxes of lucifer matches. 1 steel and tinder. 1 compass. 1 sextant. 1 bundle of wicks. 1 telescope. 1 signal horn. 1 50-fathom line. 1 box of lard. 1 pair of tin-cutters. 1 grindstone. 3 bungs.
_Spare Clothes._
1 pair of drawers. 1 shirt. 1 woollen undershirt. 1 pair of trousers.
1 spirit measure. 1 pair of scales. 1 spirit can. 1 lever. 1 funnel.
To each boat was attached a large sledge thus laden:—
Pemmican—4 boxes of 50 lbs. 200 ” 1 box of 25 lbs. 25 ” 4 boxes of 5 lbs. 20 ---- 245 Peasmeal—2 chests of 100 lbs. packed in tin 200 ” 1 chest of 100 lbs. packed in paper 100 ---- 300 Potted Meat—1 chest of 80 lbs. 80 Boiled Beef—5 chests of 10 tins of 7½ lbs. 375 ” ” 4 ” 7½ lbs. 30 ---- 405 Flour—3 boxes of 33 lbs. 99 Bread—2 bags of 83 lbs. 166 Chocolate—3 boxes of 30 lbs. 90 Spirits—3 casks, each weighing 77 lbs. 231 Salt—1 box of 12 lbs. 12 Extract of Meat—2 boxes of 5 lbs. 10 Tea—1 box of 3 lbs. 3 ---- Total 1641 ====
To this must be added 100 lbs. of bread for the dogs, and a shovel and a complete cooking apparatus for each sledge. Our load therefore amounted in provisions alone to about 50 cwt., and including everything, to about 90 cwt. Parry, with twenty-eight men, in 1827 had for his journey of sixty-one days two boats and four sledges, carrying a total weight of 75 cwt.—about 2½ cwt. therefore for each man. Notwithstanding great obstacles from the ice, his expedition was, perhaps, more favoured than ours, for he passed over 1½ degrees of latitude in thirty days.
6. Of our dogs, two only, Jubinal and Torossy, were available to drag the small sledge; 1 cwt. of bread was all we could take for them, and for the rest they had to depend on the product of the chase. Gillis was shot on account of his intractability, and Semlja because of her weakness. Only Pekel was allowed to accompany us; he only of the dogs had the right of going about at liberty; yet his life too was safe as long as our provisions lasted.
7. Our stock of clothes consisted of two woollen shirts, one pair of woollen drawers, three pairs of stockings, leather water-boots, a cap, and of a fur-coat to sleep in. Clean woollen under-garments were much in request, and many a manœuvre was practised to get possession of them. Each of the party carried besides a large knife, a spoon, and a pair of snow-spectacles. Of luxuries none were permitted to us but a tobacco-pouch to each man; but filled with such art that it was like a stone in weight. We were not allowed to line our coats with tobacco.
8. Our plan was simple—to reach the depôt of provisions on the Barentz Islands, which lay in an almost directly southerly direction. After replenishing our stores there, we proposed to follow the coast of Novaya Zemlya with the hope of reaching one of those ships which the salmon fishery in the rivers of that country detains there to the beginning of harvest. It was also not impossible that we might be discovered before this, on the more northern coast of Novaya Zemlya, by a Norwegian seal-hunter. The boats were to keep together if possible; but in case they should be separated, the Wilhelm Islands were fixed on as the place of rendezvous up to the middle of August. At first, night was chosen for the march, and day was devoted to sleep; the observance, however, of this regulation was constantly prevented by special circumstances. The success of the expedition depended on our crossing the ice-covered sea by the end of August. The greatest difficulties were to be apprehended from the melting of the snow, for although the thermometer at the beginning of May fell 14° and even 17° below zero, and sharp north-east winds somewhat retarded the thaw, the mean temperature during the day approximated to zero, and on May 16 it actually rose above it. Two of our men, Stiglich and Vecerina, were unfit for duty, and had often to be dragged in the sledge. The rest of the men were healthy, and the swelling of the feet, from which the sledge-party had suffered, had disappeared.