Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands 1842/Icebergs

ICEBERGS.

There was a glorious sunset on the sea,
Making the meeting-spot of sky and wave
A path of molten gold. Just where the flush
Was brightest, as if Heaven's refulgent gate
One moment gave its portals to our gaze,
Just at that point, uprose an awful form,
Rugged and huge, and freezing with its breath
The pulse of twilight. Even the bravest brow
Was blanched, for in the distance others came,
Sheer on the horizon's burning disk they came,
Attendant planets on that mass opaque.

They drifted toward us, like a monster-host,
From death's dark stream. High o'er old ocean's breast,
And deep below, they held their wondrous way,
Troubling the surge. Winter was in their heart,
And stern destruction on their icy crown.
So, in their fearful company the night
Closed in upon us.
The astonished ship

Watched by its sleepless master held her breath,
As they approached, and found her furrowing feet
Sealed to the curdling brine.
It was a time
Of bitter dread, and many a prayer went up
To Him, who moves the iceberg and the storm
To go their way and spare the voyager.

Slow sped the night-watch, and when morn came up
Timid and pale, there stood that frowning host,
In horrible array, all multiplied,
Until the deep was hoary. Every bay,
And frost-bound inlet of the Arctic zone,
Had stirred itself, methought, and launched amain
Its quota of thick-ribbed ice, to swell
The bristling squadron.
Through those awful ranks
It was our lot to pass. Each one had power
To crush our lone bark like a scallop-shell,
And in their stony eyes we read the will
To do such deed. When through the curtaining mist
The sun with transient glimpse that host surveyed,
They flashed and dazzled with a thousand hues,
Like cliffs with diamond spear-points serried o'er,
Turrets and towers, in rainbow banners wrapped,
Or minarets of pearl, with crest of stars,
So terrible in beauty, that methought,
He stood amazed at what his glance had done.

I said, that through the centre of this host
'T was ours to pass.
Who led us on our way?
Who through that path of horror was our guide?
Sparing us words to tell our friends at home
A tale of those destroyers, who so oft
With one strong buffet of their icy hands
Have plunged the mightiest ship beneath the deep,
Nor left a lip to syllable her fate.

Oh thou! who spread us not on ocean's floor
A sleeping-place unconsecrate with prayer,
But brought us to our blessed homes again,
And to the burial-places of our sires,
Praise to thy holy name!

Monday, April 19, 1841.

The morning of Sunday, April 18th, was serene but cold. Walking on the deck before breakfast, I could not but imagine that I detected the latent chill of ice in the atmosphere; but the apprehension was not admitted by those who had more knowledge of those watery regions than myself. Our noble ship, the Great Western, vigorously pursued her way, and the deep, slightly agitated and strongly colored, was exceedingly beautiful.

We had divine worship in the saloon, and the dead-lights, which had been in for nearly a week, were removed. The service was read by Captain Hoskins, and the Rev. President Wayland gave an impressive discourse on the right education for eternity, from the passage, "Now see we through a glass darkly, but then face to face."

At seven we went on deck to see a most glorious sunset. The King of day, robed in surpassing splendor, took his farewell of the last Sabbath that we were to spend at sea. While we were gazing with delight, a huge dark mass arose exactly in the brilliant track of the departed orb. It was pronounced by the Captain to be an iceberg three quarters of a mile in length, and its most prominent points one hundred feet high. Of course its entire altitude was four hundred feet, as only one third of the ice-mountains appear above the surface. It presented an irregular outline, towering up into sharp and broken crags, and at a distance resembled the black hulks of several enormous men-of-war lashed together. Three others of smaller dimensions soon came on in its train, like a fleet following the admiral. We were then in north latitude 43°, and in longitude 48° 40". We literally shivered with cold; for on the approach of these ambassadors from the frigid zone, the thermometer suddenly sank below the freezing point, leaving the temperature of the water 25°, and of the atmosphere 28°.

On this strange and appalling scene the stars looked out, one after another, with their calm, pure eyes. All at once a glare of splendor burst forth, and a magnificent aurora borealis went streaming up the concave. The phosphorescence in our watery path was unusually brilliant, while over our heads flashed and dazzled this vast arch of scintillating flame. We seemed to be at the same time in a realm of fire, and in a realm of frost; our poor, fleshly natures surrounded by contradictions, and the very elements themselves bewildered, and at conflict. And there they were, dashing and drifting around us, those terrible kings of the Arctic, in their mountain majesty, while, like the tribes in the desert, our mysterious path was between the pillar of cloud, and the pillar of flame.

At nine, from the sentinels stationed at different points of observation, a cry was made of "ice ahead! ice starboard! ice leeward!" and we found ourselves suddenly imbedded in field-ice. To turn was impossible; so a path was laboriously cut with the paddles, through which our steamer was propelled, stern foremost, not without peril, changing her course due south, in the teeth of a driving blast.

When we were once more in an open sea, the Captain advised the passengers to retire. This we did a little before midnight, if not to sleep, at least to seek that rest which might aid in preparing us for future trials. At three we were aroused by harsh grating, and occasional concussions, which caused the strong timbers of the ship to tremble. This was from floating masses of ice, by which, after having skirted an expanse of field-ice fifty miles in extent, we were surrounded. It varied from two to five feet in thickness, viz. from eight inches to a foot and a half above the water, and was interspersed wlth icebergs, some of them comparatively small, and others of tremendous size and altitude. By the divine blessing upon nautical skill and presence of mind, we were a second time extricated from this besieging and paralyzing mass; but our path still lay through clusters and hosts of icebergs, which covered the whole sea around us. The Captain, who had not left his post of responsibility during the night, reported between three and four hundred distinct ones, visible to the naked eye. There they were, of all forms and sizes, and careering in every direction. Their general aspect was vitreous, or of a silvery whiteness, except when a sunbeam pierced the mist; then they loomed up, and radiated with every hue of the rainbow, striking out turrets, and columns, and arches, like solid pearl and diamond, till we were transfixed with wonder at the terribly beautiful architecture of the northern deep.

The engine of the Great Western accommodated itself every moment, like a living and intelligent thing, to the commands of the Captain. "Half a stroke!" and its tumultuous action was controlled; "a quarter of a stroke!" and its breath seemed suspended; "stand still!" and our huge bulk lay motionless upon the waters, till two or three of the icy squadron drifted by us; "let her go!" and with the velocity of lightning we darted by another detachment of our deadly foes. It was then that we were made sensible of the advantages of steam, to whose agency, at our embarkation, many of us had committed ourselves with extreme reluctance. Yet a vessel more under the dominion of the winds, and beleaguered as we were amid walls of ice, in a rough sea, must inevitably have been destroyed.

By nine in the morning of April 19th, it pleased God to set us free from this great danger. Afterwards when the smallest sails appeared on the distant horizon, our excellent Captain caused two guns to be fired to bespeak attention, and then by flags and signals warned them to avoid the fearful region, from which we had with such difficulty escaped. Two tiny barks came struggling through the billows to seek a more intimate conversation with the mighty steam-ship, who, herself not wholly unscathed from the recent contest, willingly dispensed her dear-bought wisdom. There was a kind of sublimity in this gift of advice and interchange of sympathy between the strong, experienced voyager, and the more frail, white-winged wanderers of the trackless waste of waters. It seemed like some aged Mentor, way-worn in life's weary pilgrimage, counselling him who had newly girded on his harness, "not to be high-minded, but fear."

As we drew near the end of our voyage, we felt how community in danger had endeared those to each other, who, during the sixteen days of their companionship upon the ocean, had been united by the courtesies of kind and friendly intercourse. Collected as the passengers were from various climes and nations, and many of them about to separate without hope of again meeting in this life, amid the joy which animated those who were approaching native land and home, the truth of the great moralist's axiom was realized, that "there is always some degree of sadness in doing anything for the last time." Hereafter, with the memory of each other will doubtless blend the terrific sublimity of that Arctic scene which it was our privilege to witness, and the thrill of heartfelt gratitude to our Almighty Preserver.