The English at the North Pole Part I of the Adventures of Captain Hatteras   By: Jules Verne (1828-1905)

PART I OF THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN HATTERAS

BY

JULES VERNE

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE I. THE "FORWARD" . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 II. AN UNEXPECTED LETTER . . . . . . . . . 14 III. DR. CLAWBONNY . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 IV. DOG CAPTAIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 V. OUT AT SEA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 VI. THE GREAT POLAR CURRENT . . . . . . . 44 VII. DAVIS'S STRAITS . . . . . . . . . . . 52 VIII. GOSSIP OF THE CREW . . . . . . . . . . 61 IX. NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 X. DANGEROUS NAVIGATION . . . . . . . . . 78 XI. THE DEVIL'S THUMB . . . . . . . . . . 88 XII. CAPTAIN HATTERAS . . . . . . . . . . . 98 XIII. THE PROJECTS OF HATTERAS . . . . . . . 109 XIV. EXPEDITION IN SEARCH OF FRANKLIN . . . 118 XV. THE "FORWARD" DRIVEN BACK SOUTH . . . 127 XVI. THE MAGNETIC POLE . . . . . . . . . . 135 XVII. THE FATE OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN . . . . 144 XVIII. THE NORTHERN ROUTE . . . . . . . . . . 150 XIX. A WHALE IN SIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . 155 XX. BEECHEY ISLAND . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 XXI. THE DEATH OF BELLOT . . . . . . . . . 170 XXII. BEGINNING OF REVOLT . . . . . . . . . 178 XXIII. ATTACKED BY ICEBERGS . . . . . . . . . 184 XXIV. PREPARATIONS FOR WINTERING . . . . . . 193 XXV. AN OLD FOX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 XXVI. THE LAST LUMP OF COAL . . . . . . . . 209 XXVII. CHRISTMAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 XXVIII. PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE . . . . . . 222 XXIX. ACROSS THE ICE . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 XXX. THE CAIRN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 XXXI. THE DEATH OF SIMPSON . . . . . . . . . 243 XXXII. THE RETURN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

CHAPTER I

THE "FORWARD"

"To morrow, at low tide, the brig Forward , Captain K. Z , Richard Shandon mate, will start from New Prince's Docks for an unknown destination."

The foregoing might have been read in the Liverpool Herald of April 5th, 1860. The departure of a brig is an event of little importance for the most commercial port in England. Who would notice it in the midst of vessels of all sorts of tonnage and nationality that six miles of docks can hardly contain? However, from daybreak on the 6th of April a considerable crowd covered the wharfs of New Prince's Docks the innumerable companies of sailors of the town seemed to have met there. Workmen from the neighbouring wharfs had left their work, merchants their dark counting houses, tradesmen their shops. The different coloured omnibuses that ran along the exterior wall of the docks brought cargoes of spectators at every moment; the town seemed to have but one pre occupation, and that was to see the Forward go out.

The Forward was a vessel of a hundred and seventy tons, charged with a screw and steam engine of a hundred and twenty horse power. It might easily have been confounded with the other brigs in the port. But though it offered nothing curious to the eyes of the public, connoisseurs remarked certain peculiarities in it that a sailor cannot mistake. On board the Nautilus , anchored at a little distance, a group of sailors were hazarding a thousand conjectures about the destination of the Forward .

"I don't know what to think about its masting," said one; "it isn't usual for steamboats to have so much sail."

"That ship," said a quartermaster with a big red face "that ship will have to depend more on her masts than her engine, and the topsails are the biggest because the others will be often useless. I haven't got the slightest doubt that the Forward is destined for the Arctic or Antarctic seas, where the icebergs stop the wind more than is good for a brave and solid ship."

"You must be right, Mr. Cornhill," said a third sailor. "Have you noticed her stern, how straight it falls into the sea?"