Letter V

Letter V

We have sailed into the ice and are now stuck in it. I cannot see the ocean; there are no waves: only ice as far as the eye can see. If we were to encounter another storm, the first mate told me, we would not survive it. I fully believe his statement; but I more so believe that God could not let a boy as young and full of warmth towards others as the little cook’s boy, die this young, and in circumstances such as these. He has become terribly sick; he is bedridden and has been for a day, said the first mate. I will take on his duties until he gets better. A boy as healthy and strong as him, he will be back to normal soon enough, before we get out of the ice I am willing to bet.

I had to cover my eyes as it was much too bright when I stepped onto the deck, I could not see the ship itself. It is entirely covered in snow; snow needles, not the soft snow back home. This snow deafens all sounds completely, like a cat’s paw.

I visited the young cook’s boy in his cabin, he says he feels tolerable, I worry he looks too weak and pale; but he can sit upright and talk. He told me of the recent events, not much they could do but drift farther north and into the ice, the conditions were terrible and their soulsucking fear of collision was their only fuel, as they got no sleep and barely any food. Their fear is understandable and all I have seen are the enormous icebergs as we sit still; I cannot imagine how frightful it was during the storm.

We had to detach the ship from the ice and I was of use in that mission. Staffs were used to stick into the icebergs and push us away with all our might; with all six of us, the ship moved along.

Then we came to an ice desert: no icebergs, only flat ice and snow; I thought we would be stuck once more. The Captain and deckhands jumped off board and onto the ice desert, they pulled the ship forward with a rope, all four, with the snow up to their knees, whilst me and the first mate used our sticks to push the vessel away from the edge so as not to cause friction. It was a difficult and slow process, and physically hard, we did not notice the cold as we worked for heat.

After smooth “sailing” we came to a ridge in the ice, a mountain-ridge more like, resembling the ones back home, any of them, all across the fjords.

As we neared the ridge we grew wary of cracks hidden in the ice, I was sent by the Captain to his quarters to fetch his spike, it is awfully sharp on the metal end.

As the Captain checked for cracks in the ice wall, a mighty rumble from the other side of the wall, that shook the surroundings, every one of us froze and stepped back. A white and rough head came up from the ridge, with sharp and hungry eyes watching my fellow sailors. From our frozen state the Captain ordered the deckhands to return to the ship, whilst he stood guard, his eyes never leaving the animal, as they turned to leave another head came along, even rougher. Greenland bears.

When the deckhands reached us, we had drifted too far from the edge, they could not come aboard, they were all four stuck there. I felt truly afraid for their lives, a Greenland bear is as serious of a threat as it gets, and two. The first mate ran to the Captain’s quarters for his gun, but found not the hailstones nor powder.

The animals came nearer, still on higher ground. Two burly, frightening predators, bloodthirsty and in a mood for hunting. It was a staggering sight, believe me darling, to see such beasts before your own eyes.

They stood still as statues and watched the men and ship with curious eyes, I do not think they had ever seen men before. Next their jaws fell open, baring their white, sharp teeth, and again they roared, much louder than before. I admit I trembled.

The poor little cook’s boy came running up the stairs, still sick with his bedspread wrapped around himself, the roaring must have frightened him out of bed.

The sounds were so terrifyingly dark and frantic, a cold sweat came over us all. Suddenly their roaring stopped as if dead, and they began tossing their heads, like ice-bears often do. Next the bears stretched their heads to find the best way to get down, to reach us. They went slow as if their prey were already theirs, already dead.

Finally the Captain reached the ship, and asked me for the broadest stick for them to climb up. As the first deckhand started to climb it, it began to shake abnormally, it was too weak, and the men had to abandon their only hope of rescue. The bears came closer, they slid from the ridge and plowed through the snow.

The Captain shouted that the bears were going to attack them, attack us, his voice had trembled and he turned towards the bears for defence. He held the staff with both hands and stuck it through the air towards the beasts. Even when facing this immediate danger his bravery never faded, to save the deckhands was his only mission. Himself, he thought of as a needed casualty, if it came to that, it seemed.

He ordered the deckhands to run along the ship and climb up the rope they had used to pull the ship with; again he yelled with more intensity for them to go up the rope, but his eyes never wandered from the bears. That seemed to prompt the men to run, faster than I had ever seen a man move, I followed them on board the ship, the young cook’s boy walking beside me, the poor young sufferer.

As they reached the bow they hesitated for the rope was a bit too far for them to reach, unless they jump in the freezing water. Now the bears were only ten feet away from the Captain, he still repeatedly stuck his staff out towards them, to either scare them off or slow them down.

And stop they did, but instead looked from the Captain, to the deckhands. The animals began turning left and walked in a half-circle around the Captain, towards the defenceless deckhands. Now they had to jump, or die.

The Captain ordered them to jump, now. The moment the deckhands saw the bears coming, they screamed in fright and threw themselves into the water, all at once. They all disappeared beneath the surface, but soon their heads shot back up, they managed to grab the rope despite their hands clamping up from the cold, and began climbing for their lives.

But when the bears saw their prey vanish, they roared terrifyingly and near sprinted to where the men had stood.

The first deckhand had reached the deck; the next right after him, his feet still dangling in the water; the third one’s head was only visible. The Captain tried to buy them some time, he waved his stick around like a mad man, and yelled loudly to draw the beasts’ attention back to himself again, away from the poor deckhands.

The bears stopped on the edge and watched the Captain’s actions, the first two deckhands were safe, but the last one was still half submerged in the Arctic sea.

The beasts’ patience had faded; they threw themselves in the water and swam towards the last deckhand. The poor man had nowhere to go but up the rope, and he was nearly out of the water when the bears caught him.

They extended their horrible paws up to him, like giant monstrous cats and managed to grab his feet with their claws. Immediately he lost his grip on the rope. With a fearing call he disappeared again from our sight. But this time between the unruly beasts with their gaping jaws full of sharp teeth, sharper than any knife.

I felt my blood freeze within my veins. The bears fought cruelly for their prey, I thought they would rip him in two, what a petrifying sight it was.

At last came the first mate with the loaded gun; he leaned overboard, took aim, and shot.

The fight between the animals was over, the shot had hit and one of the bears roared dimly, turned around in the water, and finally let go of the man, dead it disappeared into the darkness of the unforgiving Arctic sea.

The living beast held, in his sharp jaw, the man by his arm. The bear swam towards the edge of the ice desert, the Captain backed, therefore allowing the bear to crawl onto “dry land”, saving the deckhand from drowning. The bear easily lifted the man out of the water and pulled him onto the ice, there the animal threw him on the snow and laid down, its claws on the deckhand's shoulders.

No sign of life within the man was visible to us. The animal turned into a dog; one who is enjoying a bite of a big bone. The bear looked around, visibly salivated, licked the deckhand’s face, and then growled quietly signalling its happiness for this delicious feast.

Fortunately the beast did not get to savour the moment. The Captain now ran against the bloodthirsty beast with only his staff, the first mate stood beside me on deck wielding the loaded gun but dare not aim, in fear of accidentally shooting the Captain or deckhand.

The two deckhands that had been saved now came running with their knives from their cabin, a yell of fright came from them both as they saw the animal lay with its gaping mouth on top of their mate, in front of it stood the Captain with his staff. The bear growled at him but would not let go of the deckhand. The Captain advised the two deckhands to use the staffs with sharp metal at the end rather than their knives.

The deckhands threw the staffs onto the ice and jumped after them, as did the first mate with the gun, all ready to charge the beast. All whilst the bear had stood up, onto all fours, and prepared to attack the Captain. He wrapped both hands around his staff and rammed it with all his might in the beast’s chest, it went through.

A long and horrifying roar came from the animal due to the pain, it shook itself making the Captain lose his staff, it was stuck in the beast. Defenceless he had no other option but to run, the bear stood up on its hind legs and followed the Captain. Only a few strides and the beast struck the Captain and he fell onto the snow.

It seemed over for our dutiful Captain. At the same moment the two deckhands, each rammed their staffs into the beast’s body, for good measure the first mate put the gun to the animal’s neck and shot. Still the bear tried to rise up against his enemies, it was his last. He stumbled, bit off the Captain’s staff and fell into the bloodstained snow, a pool of his own blood, never to move again.

Finally this horrifying battle came to an end. The bears were dead, and two of our men lay injured on the icy battlefield. The animals were let be for a while, first had to examine the Captain’s wounds, he was incredibly pale, like a ghost.

The Captain was able to answer the first mate, but could not stand up. He insisted the deckhand be helped before him, but allowed the first mate to look over his injuries, his right arm was dislocated. With great difficulty the first mate managed to get the Captain on his feet, his arm hung, useless, down by his side and the pain was staggering, if to go by his grimace.

The Captain had to use his left hand for support against the first mate and told the deckhands to go over to their mate, who lay dead still where the bear had left him.

He was alive when they reached him, but his injuries were substantial, he was weak and could not move. They had to let him be for a while and pull the ship closer. The Captain came over to him with the help of the first mate, and laid down beside the injured deckhand as the first mate went to help the men pull the ship. I stayed on board, there was no reason for me to jump down to them, to help, and leave the sick little cook’s boy all alone. It was difficult to pull the ship and took half an hour.

I was able to help them attach the ladder, to transfer the injured men aboard, which was done extremely carefully, as not to make matters worse. Once aboard the ship the two of them were put in their own beds, to rest before examination, since the two deckhands had to change their clothes, they were still soaked from head to toe, due to their escape from the ice-bears.

First was to straighten the Captain’s arm out, and back to normal, that was easier said than done. No doctor was on board but stall we could not any further with the Captain’s arm as it was, luckily I have some knowledge of all things medical, as you know.

The whole crew had put their faith in me and the little I knew, they were all ready to help and competed to do so, even the sick little cook’s boy, although best would for him to go back to bed but he refused until all had been saved.

I will tell you how we fixed the Captain’s shoulder, should you ever be in a position to need know. The Captain sat on a chair and leaned backwards against a table, crucial was to remove his sleeve and we ended up cutting it off, since any movement caused him great amounts of pain.

Next I asked the two deckhands to push the Captain’s shoulder towards the table and the first mate to pull the Captain’s arm with every ounce of strength he had. I have never seen a man become as pale as the Captain did that moment.

The first mate pulled so hard the Captain cried out in pain and grabbed with his left hand the first mate’s arm. The first mate looked at me with a questioning look, again he had to pull, and even harder, it looked as if the Captain’s arm stretched and his tendons elongated, and lo and behold, the click I had been waiting for, now the arm was in place. Feeling the joint in examination beneath my palms, I found it had worked. The Captain, still in immense pain, had to lie down, now it was time to look at the other “patient”.

For him I had to have hot, sterilised water, I did not wish to order the young cook’s boy to do it, instead I decided to go with him, nothing could be done until the water was ready. We immediately lit fire and filled the kettle with snow and ice, soon enough we were able to take a full bucket of water down to the deckhand’s cabin.

Firstly, I asked the little cook’s boy to go to his bed; he was allowed to watch, but for his health I worried he had been out of bed much too long. Fortunately, he complied. Next I washed the injured deckhand’s wounds, the other two deckhands were tasked with filling the bucket of water as soon as it got empty.

The deckhand was horribly bitten, and bits of his clothes were stuck in his wounds; after the “bath” he informed me his wounds felt tolerable. The wounds are many but not dangerous, he should get better soon, the worst was how much sea he had swallowed. Fortunately he had vomited twice and should be better. I treated his wounds and secured the bandages. Now was time to look after the bears.

Despite his short time in bed, the young cook’s boy was now again cheerful and energetic, but I will ensure he goes to bed early.