Andrea Barrett - Voyage of the Narwhal

I can’t blame her for worrying. That Dr. Kane is home, while we have as yet no word of Zeke and Erasmus; that Dr. Kane is lionized for discovering the open sea Zeke hoped to find — we can only hope, Lavinia says, that Zeke and Erasmus are safe and have found some traces of Franklin. The truth, when one looks past the headlines, is that while Dr. Kane did remarkable things, he was in the wrong place; he didn’t learn until reaching Upernavik of Rae’s discoveries a thousand miles south and west of where he’d been. Also he lost his ship. But he is a hero nonetheless; and is not responsible for his father’s detestable decision; and will be in Philadelphia shortly. Lavinia has asked her brothers to seek an appointment with him, to find out if he’s seen any evidence of the Narwhal. But apparently he’s seeing few people.

LATER ERASMUS AND the rest of the crew would learn that their cove was only a corner of a bay previously named by Kane; their home only the width of Smith Sound from Kane’s winter quarters. Later Erasmus would lay out calendar pages and his journal entries and the newspaper stories of Kane’s return, matching up days and trying to understand how the Narwhal had failed to cross paths with Kane’s retreat party. They’d missed each other so narrowly it seemed only fate could have kept them apart. But he’d remind himself, then, that it had never been their charge to find Kane. Even as they’d been loading the Narwhal, the Navy had outfitted two rescue ships, which had left New York as the Narwhal left Philadelphia. Everyone had understood that they’d head directly toward Smith Sound, in search of Kane, while the Narwhal would head for King William Land, in search of Franklin. A simple division of labor.

The Narwhal had arrived in Smith Sound so late in the season, and so unexpectedly, that when Erasmus thought of Dr. Kane at all, he felt sure he’d already been found. By October, though, Erasmus couldn’t spare even a thought for his fellow Philadel-phian. Only once, when he was adding to his growing letter to Copernicus, did he wonder if Dr. Kane had reached this far north. He wrote:

Do you ever feel this in your travels out west? That all the unexplored parts of the world are closing their doors; that so many of us, traveling so far, cannot avoid crossing each other’s paths and repeating each other’s discoveries? Perhaps you’ve passed the Absarofya Mountains, into the Wind River Valley or Jackson’s Hole, and wondered what it would have been little to be the first one there. I wish I could pretend to be another Meriwether Lewis, but those days are half a century behind us. Some- times I have such a feeling of people crowding the world. Up here all is emptiness, we see no human beings; yet we can’t know for sure that we’re the first ones here. I have no idea where you are. You have no idea where I am. I would give anything to know what you’re doing this very night

Then he returned to work, ashamed of having stolen even a moment. Although there were men weeping in odd corners; although those who couldn’t write crept up to Ned and Dr. Boer-haave and asked for help drafting last testaments; although Captain Tyler disappeared periodically and was of little help; still Erasmus tried not to give in to despair. But the Narwhal wasn’t yet ready for winter, and the ice thickened with each tide.

He did whatever Zeke asked, helping the men dismantle the upper masts and lashing the lower yards fore and aft amidships. Around that framework they laid planks, which housed in most of the upper deck, and a thick layer of insulating felt. Boats and spars and rigging and sails they stowed in a shed hurriedly built on shore, along with all their coal, the supplies from the hold, and most of the plant and animal specimens. Alongside the storehouse they built another hut in which Zeke set up the meteorological instruments.

Through a wavering cloud of frost smoke, Erasmus glimpsed the full moon gleaming. The thermometer read ten degrees, then zero, then ten below; cold hands, cold feet, shoulders hunched against the wind. All the men complained and swore they couldn’t get used to it, then did. When the weather permitted, Joe went hunting in the brief slots between the parenthetical twilights. No dovekies, no murres, no ptarmigan; but before the other animals disappeared he shot two musk oxen, seven caribou, and many hares. Erasmus made lists of the meals these might provide, along with their initial store of provisions and the salted fish Zeke had purchased at Godhavn. He might have made another list — on one side Zeke’s impulsive maneuvers, which had stranded them here; on the other Zeke’s foresight with the supplies that fed and sheltered them. With the help of Joe and Dr. Boerhaave, he dug out the Esquimaux furs Zeke had purchased and fitted each man with a suit.

Later Dr. Boerhaave wrote to his friend William:

I couldn’t even tell who it was at first; two furry figures huddled over a moaning third. But it was Isaac, who was careless and exploded his powder box; his hand is in danger. I extracted several shards of metal and sluiced out as much of the powder as I could. A poultice of yeast and charcoal may draw out the rest.

Everyone’s cold. This place — in the morning, when the sun is low in the east, the peninsula shadows us. In the afternoon we’re shadowed by the hills to our south, later by the three grounded icebergs; Commander Voorhees couldn’t have chosen a colder place. Away from him the men refer to the icebergs sarcastically as “Zeke’s Follies.” Some folly. I meant to be back in Edinburgh by now, writing up papers and arguing happily with you and the others: walking, talking, drinking, thinking. Instead I have only Mr. Wells; but I’ve grown fond of him. If it were not for him and the work we do together, I think I would feel desperate.

THERE WAS NO point, Zeke said, in trying to maintain separate messes for men and officers. Their fuel was limited, they must conserve. Ned and Scan Hamilton moved the galley to a spot under the main hatch. Then Zeke rearranged the sleeping quarters, setting Thomas Forbes to remove the bulkhead between the men’s forecastle and the officers’ cabin.

“You’d never see this on a whaling ship,” Captain Tyler grumbled. “How are you going to maintain discipline, if we’re all

mixed together?”

“I’m not doing this to be democratic,” Zeke retorted. The previous night several of the men’s bedclothes had frozen about their feet. “Just to be practical. We have only the one small stove besides the galley stove, and the best way to keep everyone warm is to allow the heated air to circulate.”

As a concession to Captain Tyler, Zeke had Thomas build two shoulder-high partitions, each of which stretched from one side of the hull toward the midline, where the stove was set, and stopped a few feet short of it. From this common island the stove radiated warmth impartially fore and aft. Air flowed not only around the stove but also over the partitions, and although sound traveled freely between the men’s and the officers’ bunks, when the crew lay down they were hidden. When they pulled their stools close to the stove for warmth, the half-ring of officers aft and the half-ring of men forward could see each other, and talk if desired, yet were separated at least by the stove and its pipes. The division was more symbolic than real, yet it served, Zeke argued. By a judicious lowering of the voices and averting of the eyes, the officers might preserve an illusion of privacy. More importantly, they were warm.

Zeke took great pride in this, Erasmus saw, as he did in every aspect of their housekeeping arrangements. Otherwise Erasmus couldn’t guess what Zeke was thinking. The mistakes that had lodged them here, the families anxiously waiting for them back home, the true nature of the relics they’d brought from Boothia — if any of these worried Zeke, he gave no sign. Mostly he seemed pleased with himself: that he’d had the good sense to bring the planks and felted cloth that sheltered them, the furs that warmed them, the extra fish to supplement their diet. That he’d had the sense to find Joe, who was so much help. Perhaps he was also pleased that Captain Tyler and the mates had no real function, now that the Narwhal was a cramped but stable household, and not a sailing ship.