A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder | Page 6

of us said a word.
We saw that our situation was very serious, and that we had been very foolhardy; but the
words were useless now. The only thing to be done was to pull for the ship with all our
strength, and that was what we did.
So we pushed off, and rowed as we had never rowed before. Our progress was difficult.
The sea grew steadily rougher; the wind increased; the snow thickened; and, worst of all,
the day was drawing to a close. We had miscalculated both as to distance and time. Even
if it had continued calm we should have had to row back in the dark; but now the sun was
setting, and with the darkness we had to encounter the gathering storm and the blinding
snow. We rowed in silence. At every stroke our situation grew more serious. The wind
was from the south, and therefore favored us to some extent, and also made less of a sea
than would have been produced by a wind from any other quarter; but then this south
wind brought dangers of its own, which we were soon to feel--new dangers and worse
ones. For this south wind drove the ship farther from us, and at the same time broke up
the vast fields of ice and impelled the fractured masses northward. But this was a danger
which we did not know just then. At that time we were rowing for the ship, and amid the
darkness and the blinding snow and the dashing waves we heard from time to time the
report of signal-guns fired from the ship to guide us back. These were our only guide, for
the darkness and the snow had drawn the ship from our sight, and we had to be guided by
our hearing only.
We were rowing for our lives, and we knew it; but every moment our situation grew
more desperate. Each new report of the gun seemed to sound farther away. We seemed
always to be rowing in the wrong direction. At each report we had to shift the boat's
course somewhat, and pull toward the last point from which the gun seemed to sound.
With all this the wind was increasing rapidly to a gale, the sea was rising and breaking
over the boat, the snow was blinding us with its ever-thickening sleet. The darkness
deepened and at length had grown so intense that nothing whatever could be
seen--neither sea nor sky, not even the boat itself--yet we dared not stop; we had to row.
Our lives depended on our efforts. We had to row, guided by the sound of the ship's gun,

which the ever-varying wind incessantly changed, till our minds grew all confused, and
we rowed blindly and mechanically.
So we labored for hours at the oars, and the storm continually increased, and the sea
continually rose, while the snow fell thicker and the darkness grew intenser. The reports
of the gun now grew fainter; what was worse, they were heard at longer intervals, and
this showed us that Captain Bennet was losing heart; that he was giving us up; that he
despaired of finding us, and was now firing only an occasional gun out of a mournful
sense of duty. This thought reduced us to despair. It seemed as if all our efforts had only
served to take us farther away from the ship, and deprived us of all motive for rowing any
harder than was barely necessary to keep the boat steady. After a time Agnew dropped
his oar and began to bail out the boat--a work which was needed; for, in spite of our care,
she had shipped many seas, and was one third full of water. He worked away at this while
I managed the boat, and then we took turns at bailing. In this way we passed the dreary
night.
Morning came at last. The wind was not so violent, but the snow was so thick that we
could only see for a little distance around us. The ship was nowhere visible, nor were
there any signs of her. The last gun had been fired during the night. All that we could see
was the outline of a gaunt iceberg--an ominous spectacle. Not knowing what else to do
we rowed on as before, keeping in what seemed our best course, though this was mere
conjecture, and we knew all the time that we might be going wrong. There was no
compass in the boat, nor could we tell the sun's position through the thick snow. We
rowed with the wind, thinking that it was blowing toward the north, and would carry us in
that direction. We still hoped to come within sound of the ship's gun, and kept straining
our ears incessantly