Ilatsiak - 25

“Best we reach the shelter as soon as we can. Once you’re in your blankets, we can try and dry your clothes.” said David.
Mr Shanks didn’t need any proding. He was silent the rest of the way to the depot and in fact, was the first to reach the shelter. When David arrived a few minutes later, Shanks was already under his blankets and David could see he was shivering even in their warmth. When David asked for his own clothes back, Shanks just growled something and David decided to wait until the morning before asking again.
Managing to get the little stove going, David used the axe they had found in the stores to open one of the food cans. It turned out to be a beef and vegetable soup. He set the whole can on the little spirit stove and waited for it to heat up. It seemed to take forever, so while it was heating up, he climbed up on the pile of containers to survey their camp. Far to the east, out on the ice he saw nothing, but as he glanced away, he thought there were tiny dark spots scattered here and there on the ice. Still, staring directly at them seem to make them disappear. Towards the west, David could see the clouds had begun to thicken even more and even though the sun was still up, it had gone behind them and would remain behind as it swung through the northern sky. Tomorrow would bring poor weather for drying clothes David thought as he climbed back down to check on the soup.
The stove was doing its best but was hardly up to the job of heating a 9 pound tin of soup over a single flame. In the meantime, Shanks began to complain of being thirsty again and David ladled some of the soup liquid into a mug and gave it to him to drink. He spat it out immediately.
“It's cold, Mr Young!”
“Of course, Mr Shanks, the soup has yet to heat.” said David, “It will be hot in due course.”
David was slowly coming to the realization that Mr Shanks, a man who had shipped on the Terror, was not a person he had known well known. His fellow ship-mates from the Erebus, had gossiped about him as not being the easiest of companions to be alone with, although he was known for his strength and stamina. David began to picture what it was going to be like during the next couple of weeks. When the soup was at last hot, they both ate their fill and then some. David kept thinking all the while, that they would not be able to eat again like this if the food was to last until the sledging party returned for them.
After eating, David tried to get Shanks to hang up his wet clothes to allow them to dry, but he simply refused to exit his blankets.
“You’re the cabin boy, me lad. Would you be so kind as to deal with it? Or would you like to settle it with a domino game?” he said in a mocking fashion. David, not wishing to upset their fragile relationship any further, came back with, “As you wish, milord.” and attempted to lay the still soaking clothes out in places where he felt they might possibly be dried by the slight wind if not the sun. Dominoes was not David’s favourite game, but one that, like Lt Irving, Shanks seemed addicted to and while it was distasteful to play with him, David was prepared to do anything to raise his spirits and keep him from being miserable and hard to get along with.

Ilatsiak - 24

It was clear from their hushed conversations that the officers had been disturbed by the sudden appearance of the hunter. While he appeared harmless enough, they knew enough about his kind not to take unnecessary chances. After conferring for some time, they broke from their huddle and approached David and the other crew members.
“The arrival of the hunter has meant we will be changing our original plans somewhat. Two of you will remain here at the depot to secure its contents while we determine how to best deal with the situation. Mr Young, you will be in charge. Lt Irving and I will leave you and Mr Shanks here to see to the safety of this depot. Lt Irving, myself and Mr Kinnaird will return to Cape Felix in the morning. We will set about arranging the boxes in order to provide a shelter for you until we return with a sledge party in a week or so. Now that our supplies here have been seen by the natives, they will no doubt be broken into and scattered far and wide. Your duty will be to see that doesn't happen.
“Let’s see what food items can be had. You will need provisions for about two weeks at most, I would estimate before we return...”
The remainder of the time Lts Fairholme and Irving remained at the depot, they saw to it that David and Mr Shanks were as comfortably housed as possible by making a makeshift shelter using whatever supplies were to be found and that they were provided with whatever would be needed for the two week stay. The biggest problem was food and a means of heating it. There was almost nothing in the way of food items at the depot. Finally it was decided that the items left behind on their way to the depot would probably last the two weeks if both men were careful. In the morning, a cold overcast day with a nasty westerly wind to contend with, the two officers and Kinnaird set off on the return trek to Cape Felix. David was grateful to see the end of Lt Irving and the treatment he had been enduring during the trek out. He and Mr Shanks returned along the trail as far as the small food cache where they said their farewells to the others as they departed. The ice conditions had deteriorated even during the few days the party had spent at the depot and David found it useful to carry a wooden pole to use as a probe to test the ice as he walked along much like the hunter they had met had been doing. The others felt this was overly cautious and Lt Irving especially made fun of him, calling David, their little ‘Eskimo’ boy as he appeared to be imitating the man who had visited them the previous day.
Their goodbyes made, David and Mr Shanks began their return journey to the depot. They had no sled to carry the heavy cans of food which they had been left, however David soon improvised a piece of canvas and a length of rope into a sled suitable for pulling all the cans along over the ice. He was quite pleased with himself as he and Mr Shanks slowly made their way back across the frozen sea.
The day was turning hot and the radiation off the sea ice as the sun climbed higher began to bother both of them, especially Mr Shanks. He started to complain of being thirsty and tried to grab handfuls of snow to eat hoping to gain some relief from it. However, as time went on, he only became more and more thirsty. He was a big man, well built and seemed to possess considerable strength. However the heat and the glare seem to melt his strength away. David could see him staggering somewhat as he walked along, especially when it was not his turn to pull the food bag. Several times David had to speak to him about veering to the right towards the open water and the poor ice as they walked along. Each time, Shanks would complain that David was taking the long way around for nothing and saying that they would be forever out on the ice if they didn’t take a more direct route. David only shrugged his shoulders and continued along. He was certain that getting too close to the edge of the ice would be dangerous. Already his probe had gone through in a number of places and he was glad of the warning it gave him.
Shanks was some distance to the right of David and seemed to be walking closer to a patch of open water, gleaming blue and sparkling in the sunlight. On several occasions David heard him yelling in his direction, but was unable to make out his words. David yelled back each time, recommending that the ice was safer for walking where he was and that Shanks ought to stay well way from the open water. It was lost on Shanks, who began pointing at something near the ice edge and waving for David to have a look. David’s probe went through again and forced him to retreat and seek another route through the ice and watery maze that surrounded them.
Finally it happened. A cry brought David’s head up quickly. Mr Shanks was in the water. He had found a weak spot and broken through. David dropped the sled rope and testing for thin ice as he went, he ran towards Shanks as fast as he could. The ice seemed solid until about ten feet from where Shanks was floundering in the water. Each time he made a grab for the ice in order to haul himself out, he found nothing to hold on to except slippery wet ice. David held out his pole, but there was a current and Shanks began to float away from the ice edge, buoyed by his heavy woolen jacket.
“Grap the end!” he yelled to the half drowned Shanks, but it was plain to see the wooden probe was already too short to grab and the distance was increasing with each second.
“I can’t reach...”
Shanks saw himself drifting dangerously out of reach, but was quick enough to also see his best chance lay in letting the current carry him to the far side of the opening in the ice. He was not a swimmer, but somehow managed to flounder and float the few dozen yards to the opposite ice edge and finding firmer ice held on until David made his way around to him. Once there, it was an easier task to extend the probe and between the two of them, Shanks managed to pull himself out and onto the firmer ice.
“I’m frozen through, Mr Young. I’m nearly drowned. I’ll die here in the dreadful place!”
“Take off your parka. We’ll try to dry you off a bit. The sun’s quite hot. Perhaps you can wear some of my clothes in the meantime 'til we get yours dry.”
They began the odd business of undressing out on the ice, Mr Shanks piling his wet ones on the retreived food sled and then he and David attempted to divide up David’s dry clothes. Apart from having to wear his wet boots, they ended up working out a reasonable sharing of dry things fairly well. It also served to stem the stream of complaints coming from Shanks about taking the shortest route. However, once the safety of the shore was reached, he began to complain again of David being too slow, of being cold and being certain that he was near to death’s door. It was true, the heat of the day had passed, the sun being now lower in the sky and David was feeling chilly as well. Ominously a bank of high clouds appeared to be moving in from the west and blanked off the sun earlier than usual.

Ilatsiak - 23

Bernard’s Harbour seemed suddenly empty with the Inuit gone, but it did mean the scientists could get on with their plans for the coming spring and summer in relative peace and quiet. Their objective was to map the area more thoroughly, to collect samples of flora, fauna and geology and while some of these activities would be done while in the company of the local Inuit, much of it was more easily done without them. The first night during supper, talk returned to their recent visitors.
“I’ll miss them,” said Diamond. “I was hoping to travel with them during the summer, especially the group going over to Victoria Island.”
“That group will be back just before the ice goes out.” Patsy put in. “They’ll want to stock up before they go. I’m sure they’ll take you with them.”
“I was hoping to get some more recordings from the old shaman, as well. Any idea where he was headed, Patsy?”
“No. I...”
Patsy’s father interrupted suddenly. “That reminds me, Diamond. That old man said the damnedest thing the other day. I forgot to mention it to you.”
“What did he say?” quizzed Diamond.
“He told me that the thing that makes my boat go was broken, so it wouldn’t go any more.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? How would he know anything about your boat and what makes it go?”
“That’s just it. I kinda ignored the remark at the time. He doesn’t, or at least, I don’t know how he could much about sailing boats, but this morning I went aboard to ckeck that nothing had been lifted off her and damned if the main boom doesn’t have a big crack in her. He’s right, I’m not going anywhere in her, until I can replace that boom!”
“You mean, Ilatsiak knew the boom was cracked?”
“He seemed to. But I know no one had been on the boat. There were no signs of tracks or anything around her and as you know, the winter tarp’s still on, so he couldn’t have seen the boom...”
“I’ll be! That is a bit strange, isn’t it?”
Talked turned to other things after dinner, but once again, Patsy was forced to see again that Ilatsiak was a man surrounded in mysteries. How would he ever get to the bottom of who he was and how he knew what he did? He didn’t even know where he had gone, except somewhere to the east of them.

* * *
It was good to be away from the strangers living in Bernard’s Harbour, thought Ilatsiak. There were troubling things about them, things he couldn’t quite put his finger on. It was all very foggy in his mind and best forgotten like so many other things in his past, all of which now seemed unimportant.
That night, the sledding being good now the temperature had dropped below freezing, he just let the dogs keep pulling as he walked along beside the sled. He kept on going after the others stopped. He'd done that often in the past. They would follow eventually, but this time Ilatsiak decided it would be different. He looked down at his sled as it slipped over the snow and ice. It was heavy with his new possessions and he wondered why he had brought them along. Suddenly, he stopped the dogs and began untying everything. First to go were the new pot and the kettle. Then everything else he had acquired was lying in the snow beside the sled. He only stopped when he looked down at the shiny new knife he had just thrown away. Slowly, he bent down and picked it up. He’d keep that. It might be handier than his old ones made of hammered copper.
The dogs lie curled in the snow waiting for him. With his low gutteral command, they rose and once again headed eastward on the sea ice. Ilatsiak had it in mind to go as far eastward as he could. It was time to be alone. The experience in the trading post would leave him if he could only put enough distance between him and them. He had done that before in his life and he’s do it again. He’d go some place where he could live quietly and think about the better days when he had been young and full of life.

Ilatsiak - 22

Agayuq was forced to travel north of a direct line towards the strange objects he could see on the shore. In doing so he was better able to see the five strangers moving about and talking among themselves. It was obvious to him that they had seen him as one of them began to point in his direction. He continued towards them, determined to act bravely. He would have a good story to tell the others. Hopefully these strangers would have many interesting objects to give away much like those who had come so long ago.
Agayuk stopped short of the jumbled shore ice and hobbled one of his two dogs by sticking it’s left fore-leg through the part of its sled harness that acted like a collar. This forced the dog to hop on a single front leg and preventing it from dragging the make-shift sled very far if at all. Taking a single dog by its sled trace, Agayuq found his way through the piles of ice at the tide line and walked towards the five men. When he got to within 20 feet, he stopped and waited to see what they would do.
David was beside himself with excitement. Finally, after waiting nearly two years he was going to meet one of the inhabitants of this snowy world. He wracked his brain searching for some of the words he had learned back in Greenland, but now that he needed them, he could scarcely recall any words at all. He looked around at the others. Both Fairholme and Irving were checking their clothing to see if they couldn’t make themselves more presentable for this first encounter. The two crewmen were still leaning against the piled containers, peering over the top, waiting to see what the man would do.
The Eskimo was dressed in a fur jacket of some kind, perhaps deer-skin. He appeared to be very dark skinned, almost black, in fact. Now that he stood in front of them, David could see that he was about the same height as his ship-mates, roughly five and a half feet high. He wore pants made of seal-skins which had sewn patterns running up his legs from about his knees up to his jacket. Tall, brown leather boots on his feet disappeared into his pant bottoms.
They all stood staring at each other for several minutes before, David broke a big smile and said “Kimik” -dog, the word having suddenly jumped into his head. The Eskimo man looked down at his dog and then he too smiled.
“Eee, kimik.” Yes, a dog.
With that David walked up to him and removing his mitt, offered the man his hand. Together they shook, once up and once down, almost in very formal style. This action broke the cultural barrier and all the men then began to shake hands, again in the strange up and down manner. Once this had occured however, there was nothing to say or at least no words with which to say anything with. Again David’s quickness spared their awkwardness by suggesting they boil up some tea. While this was happening, Agayuq began loosening up a bit and started to examine their clothing, especially the shiny metal buttons on their outer parkas. He seemed intrigued with how they held the opening together. David could tell, he was not impressed with their boots, repeating showing David how much better his was, although why it was superior David could not understand.
The men all made an attempt to tell each other their name while tea was being handed out, but Agayuq quickly got muddled trying to pronounce their strange-sounding names. As for the tea, it was hard to tell if he liked it. He took a few sips, and kept looking into the pot as if something were missing. Finally deciding that everyone was getting the same fare, he drank the rest and handed back his cup to David. Once tea was drunk, Agayuq untied his dog, then he began saying something seemingly important and at considerable length, several times pointing dramatically to the east for some reason. Then suddenly David caught the word “umiak” - ship and realised he must be referring to their ships. He pointed back northward, the way they had just come and repeated “umiak, umiak” and at the same time held up two fingers.
This action only seemed to confuse Agayuq who seemed to agree with the two fingers, but again pointed to the southeast. It seemed pointless. There simply was too vast a barrier between them. Suddenly, as if he had forgotten something, Agayuq untied his dog from one of the containers and headed back the way he had come. He turned to smile at them several times, but was soon lost among the jumbled ice to the southeast.

Ilatsiak - 21

Just a single domino left. If Patsy could jump it he would win and not have to cook all week, but his turn came and went three times with the play still undecided. He was not alone either. His father, the Captain, had had two pieces left but had just lost one, so he now was left with one piece to play. Diamond and John were still actively in the game but both had several dominos left and didn’t pose as big a threat as the Captain.
Footsteps crunched louder in the snow as someone... no, two people, approached the cabin. Then they stopped at the snow porch leading in towards the entrance. After a few seconds the door sprang open and Ilatsiak and Uyarajuk, the camp boss came in bringing with them a cloud of steam and snow. The wind had begun to blow again, bringing back the snow and cold of winter in spite of the late April date. The game paused while everyone recognized each other. Patsy motioned towards the teapot on the stove and then having had to skip his turn again, got up and offered the two visitors a mug from the rack over the sink.
The game went around again. Diamond played his second to last piece, a six and three. The Captain kept peeking at his sole remaining piece and then at the string of pieces on the table seeming to have a hard time deciding where to play. Finally he said “Pass” and the turn moved to John who promptly played two pieces. Now everyone had only a single domino. Glancing back at the table, Patsy let out a whoop and slammed down his domino against John’s two and one. He had won! No cooking all week. Now to play for no dish washing...
Ilatsiak, usually slow moving in his actions, abruptly reached over and grabbed the dominos, almost like someone gone berserk. He peered intently at each one, turning them over and over in his knarled, chubby hands, picking others up and then dropping them as if they were too hot to touch. As he did this, he began entoning something in a strange language neither Inuktitut nor anything that Patsy could understand. He stood rocking slightly from side to side lifting one foot and then the other, his eyes seemed glazed over and dull.
Then without warning he stopped, quickly downed the last of his tea and was gone, the door way again a swirling patch of ice fog and snowflakes. The men listened as the footsteps led away into the night. Uyarayuq followed after thanking Patsy for the tea.
“What was that all about, then?” John was the first to recover from the strange behaviour.
“Beats me,” Diamond said closing the door behind Uyarajuq. “Maybe it would be wise to see him in the morning. It seemed the dominos set him off or something. Might be interesting to know more. You free after breakfast, Patsy?”
“Sure, I’m not cooking, remember?” he joked.
The game won and the time well past midnight, they turned down the lamp and began to bed down.
The next norning, Ilatsiak and many of the others from his camp were already distant specks out on the sea ice when Patsy heard Diamond making porridge and boiling water for the coffee. As he got dressed, the drifting snow, blowing even more strongly across the flat sea ice began to obliterate the dog sled tracks and erase the dark specks from view to those left behind at Barnard’s Harbour. Patsy never saw Ilatsiak again, yet the old man’s story haunted him for the rest of his days like a ghost who would suddenly appear and then fade away, only to return years later in another spot. Slowly, as he moved from place to place, from settlement to settlement along the coast of northern Canada, he began to piece together Ilatsiak’s story, who he was and how he had come to Bernard’s Harbour that day long ago. It was a curious tale and a remarkable one.

Ilatsiak - 20

David spent a lot of this time in the crow’s nest looking at the new land around him. At one point he was certain he saw people on the shore of Boothia. A few were paddling around in their kayaks, but then fog rolled in and cut off the view, making it impossible to take a boat over to meet them. Sir John assured David during dinner that evening that there would be plenty of opportunities during the long winter to meet any native people who might be in the area. David’s heart lept at the thought of renewing his adventures with them as he had the natives of Greenland, but he was surprised to hear that Sir John thought they would be spending another winter in the ice...
* * *
Lt. Fairholme looked around for David. “That lad is never where you want him,” he said half to himself as well as to Lt Irving. Even in the small magnetic observation camp here on Cape Felix, David had managed to go missing just when he was needed.“Never saw such an inquisitive boy.” Fairholme continued to himself as he ducked into the main supply tent and cast a quick glance around. Irving shook his head. The boys on the Terror had not turned out much better. His boy Evans was always up to something with Master Peglar and never where he ought to be either. Suddenly David’s head poked up from between the pile of stacked boxes.
“You want me, sir?”
“Yes, Mr. Young. We’re ready to leave.” Fairholme tried speaking in his most commanding tone. “We would appreciate your presence outside.”
“Yes sir. I just want to pack an extra pair of mitts.”
“They won’t be needed, Mr Young. It’s mid-May. Fine weather will be here any day now. Just come along. We wish to leave immediately.”
“Of course, as you say, sir.” David had his doubts, but he came around from the stacks of supplies and followed Fairholme and Irving out of the tent into the brillant sunshine. Cape Felix looked much like any other spot on the northern tip of land they found themselves, a flat series of stoney, snow covered raised beaches, slowly rising to an inland plain of low ridges and still frozen sedge ponds which stretched southward into the distance. The two men joined others who stood waiting for them outside the obervation tent. This was the only building which was designed to be somewhat permanent. In fact, it was the same pre-fabricated building the expedition had used on the Whitefish Islands off Greenland, and during the previous winter on Beechey Island.
“Gentlemen, our party is complete. We’re off!”
The five men began their march. The objective was the supply depot the Terror had deposited off the northernmost of the Matty Islands. It was hoped than these supples could be sledged overland to Cape Felix and placed back on the Terror now that a commitment had been made to follow the west coast of Prince William Land. Three men, picked from the two crews as much for their continuing good health as anything else pulled a light sled of supplies for the exploratory trip south along the east coast of King William Land. Later, larger crews would sledge the material back once a feasible route was determined.
The first day the easy pulling over the snow covered ground went well and 15 miles were made to the southwest before they stopped for the night. David was glad to stop. The whole day Lt Irving had made it his business to torment him for some unknown reason. As well, they were forever moving between the land and the sea ice. Granted in some places they had had to walk on the sea ice itself as the snow cover was too thin on the land to allow the sledge easy travelling, but Irving seemed to enjoy making a game of it switching back and forth for no real reason. This would not have presented a problem had it not been for the jumble of ice caused by the tides which had to be passed through each way. At night, David was forced to play a game of dominos, just he and Irving. The others seemed not to be able to play, or knew that this was Irving’s was of treating those he saw as his servants. Irving must have lifted the game from the Terror to entertain himself at the Observation site. The game had a sinister wrinkle to it which David soon found out. Each time he was unable to play a piece, Irving would demand a piece of meat from David’s next meal. Irving, being the much more practiced player, David found himself forfeiting his meal, and he became more and more frustrated by Irving’s bullying attitude not to mention the glee with which he kept describing how much bigger his next meal was getting. Fairholme chose to take no notice of David’s plight and never intervened. On the third day, they were forced entirely onto the sea ice because of the bareness of the land and its increasingly rocky nature. Around noon, the low lying Matty Islands became visible offshore. Fairholme was keen to cross over to them immediately, making a direct line for them, however Lt Irving held to the original plan of crossing at the narrowest point. He was anxious to avoid getting too far out on the ice where it might be thin and weak. He had made it very clear that he was afraid of going through the ice and for this reason he made David walk a few paces in front of him. He would joke to Fairholme about how grateful he was to have Franklin’s little ice tester out in front of the expedition. Once he passed the comment that when David did plunge into the water, he would get his whole ration rather than a few bites. David had little choice in all this, but to do as he was told, and again Fairholme seemed unwilling to stand up to Irving’s meanness. In the end, Irving’s longer route was followed although it did add an extra day to their trek. The crossing itself went smoothly, the only obstacle being a wide crack which forced them to detour several miles northward before they found a narrow section they could all jump across.
Had it not been for Irving, David would have been happy to be away from the ships and in the open air again. The forced enclosure of on-board life was not his style. He much preferred the outdoors and the freedom it offered. The first winter at Beechey, while much of it was also spent within the confines of the ship, had at least been a novelty to some extent. This past winter had passed much more slowly. First there were none of the on-shore activities, nor were there the sledging trips and exploring they had done the previous year from Beechey Island. The general mood below decks was also less enthusiastic. More men were in sick-bay, the food was less and less to their liking. In fact, David was sure that the food was one of the factors which was making so many men sick. And now more men were ending up like Irving, seeming to delight in making the lives of others as miserable as they could.
The second day on the island they realised that yet another stretch of ice would have to be crossed to reach the depot. Tides running between the two islands had opened up much of the water forcing them once again to circle some distance northward before they felt safe crossing the ice. Before leaving the safety of the first island, they left behind about a third of their supplies to lighten their load.
Finally safe on the easternmost island, it was a short haul to the supplies which stood clearly up out of the flat, dreay landscape. Fairholme and Irving had placed a private wager on whether the supplies had been broken into during the winter. Fairholme lost. The supplies seemed to have been untouched and apart from having some of the canvas covers blown open and torn by the nearly constant winter winds, they were exactly as they remembered them having been left. David was on Fairholme’s side of the bet, not out of any loyalty, but rather because he hoped a break-in would indicate the presence of Eskimos in the area, something he had been hoping would happen sooner rather than later.
While the men and David set about erecting the tents for the evening, Fairholme and Irving made a more detailed inspection of the supplies. Some of the crates were certainly going to present difficulties moving them by sledge. These items might be best moved by ship’s launch during the coming summer and put directly on board, Surely this could be done before the ships moved south through the passage they were presently beset in. The remaining supplies could be moved by sledge provided the ice conditions did not deteriorate too rapidly. Fairholme and Irving were both astounded at how much further advanced the season seemed to be however, on this side of King William Land.
Once in the tents and preparing the evening meal, Fairholme announced to the others the decision to return immediately to the ships the following day. For once Irving had not pulled out his bag of dominos, which pleased David. Fairhomle explained how, if supplies were to be moved it would have to be done immediately before the ice deteriorated much further. David was disappointed with this news. He had hoped to continue exploring southward, but this was not to be if they were to return immediately.
Fairholme and Irving were up early and began urging the others to make haste packing the sledge for the return ship. David suddenly had an idea which, if accepted, would solve both his immediate problems.
“Lt Fairholme, sir. I would like to volunteer to stay with the supplies and protect them, until the sledge party returns, sir, if this meets your approval.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, David knew what the answer would be. Fairholme would see it as another attempt to shirk his duties aboard ship. Irving would certainly object as David was not a member of Terror’s crew, nor would he have anyone to torment on the return leg of the trip.
“Mr Young, that’s a generous offer, but as you can see, no one has disturbed the site for the past nine months. Lt Irving, what do you think...”
“Lt Irving, there’s someone out there... coming... Look sir. Lt Fairholme, out on the ice, to the east, there, maybe a half mile out!” The two crew-men were pointing to a dark figure, about half a mile out from shore, and slowly making his way towards them, leading a dog.
“I’ll be damned... Mr Young, you might get your wish after all. You and Mr Shanks here might find yourselves camp-mates for a while.” Lt Fairholme used his scope to study the figure out on the ice. His dog was dragging something while he walked towards them. He was using a tall stick of some kind which he jabbed into the ice as he walked alone towards the depot.
“Eskimos!” thought David. “Eskimos... Finally!”

Ilatsiak - 19

David was not among the crew that went to the Terror’s assistance, but it soon became apparent that she was fairly hard aground on a falling tide. To make matters worse, a thick fog and pans of heavy ice began drifting in from the north-west together with a rising breeze. However, Sir John was confident she would float off on the high tide later in the evening, and so took the opportunity to call a conference in his cabin of the two Captains together with Misters Reid and Blanky, the ships’ Ice Masters. He was particularly interested in the advice of Mr Blanky of the Terror who had some knowledge of the coast gathered when he had sailed with Sir John Ross’s Victory in the 1830’s.
As usual, David served the evening meal in Sir John’s cabin, this time to the five men. It was obvious that very serious dicussions where being held and not without some considerable disagreement. Maps and charts were spread about, even on the floor which was not Sir John’s usual style. As well, David was frequently asked to search the ship’s library for various books and reports of earlier explorers who had had some familiarity with this region and whose journals might lend some advice to the ship’s predictament about exactly in which direction to head.
It was finally resolved that the ships would be unable to continue in the present southeasterly direction into what seemed to be a narrow and increasingly shallow channel which in any event probably ended in the low lying land seen by Ross to the southeast. Crozier argued forceably that the strong tidal flow passing the hull of the Terror could only be the result of a passageway into the straits discovered by Simpson and Dease. Mr Blanky was pressed over and over again to give a firm answer to the problem of whether a waterway could exist to the south. He could not be sure. He had only seen the country during the winter when all was frozen and snow covered. It was almost impossible to tell when one stood on ice covered sea or low lying land. Only by actually digging into the snow could one tell for sure. All the same, if there was a passage, he felt, it would be difficult for the two ships to traverse on account of the low lying islands and no doubt more of the shallows such as they had already encountered. He reminded both captains that their deep drafts of 17 feet or so and the difficulty of manuovering such large ships as the Erebus and Terror could easily get them into difficulty in such shallow and confining waters.
Relectantly, especially on the part of Crozier, it was agreed that in spite of the obvious difficulties it would present, the only practical solution would be to try and drive the ships through the old, heavy ice in the larger channel to the west of King Willand Land. It was still early in the season and there was reason to assume the ice would continue to melt during the month of August and probably loosen sufficently in the next few weeks to permit them to advance southward just as it had earlier at the entrance to Peel Sound. If they were unable to make it through this season using the engines, then surely they would be flushed out the following Spring. Crozier had argued strongly for a second attempt to enter the eastern Inlet, his main argument being the fact that the engines were nowhere near up to the task of making any progress in such heavy ice as had been encountered, but it was finally vetoed by Sir John and seconded by Fitzjames. To satisfy his curiousity, it was agreed that Crozier would be permitted to take a ship’s boat southward into the Inlet and map it’s coastlines if the ships were beset early, but this was thought unlikely given the recent good weather. Only the Ice Masters reserved judgement claiming the heavy multi-year old ice to the west was considerably thicker and heavier than they were used to seeing in their whaling experience prior to this present voyage. Neither of them viewed entering the ice pack with much enthusiasm, but agreed that it seemed their only option other than retreating back up Peel Sound which no one was yet prepared to do. Only the experience of the two ships previously in the Antarctic and the special iron sheathing and solid wood strengthening at the bows which had been performed especially for this voyage convinced Franklin that the ships were up to the challenge of the ice.
The high tide did not float the Terror free as expected. Anxious to be off, Capt Crozier began immediately off-loading various supplies and shipping them to shore on a nearby island with the understand of making a small depot which would be picked up later if necessary. This operation took most of the following two watches when on their return, the boat crews and the ship’s engine were finally able to back the Terror off the shoal and into deeper water. The crews then returned to the depot to make it tight for the coming months until it could be retrieved later during the fall or spring to come. In order that the cases not come to harm from the sea storming over the low lying island, Crozier gave the order that the depot be made on high ground which turned out to be about 300 feet from the shoreline. Most of the cases contained flour sealed inside the usual red painted tins. A few of the other cases contained ships’ biscuit and a small amount of pemmican. The whole depot was made secure with a canvas cover which in turn was nailed tight by long, wide, thick planks nailed into the wooden crates.
The grounding had not done the Terror much damage although the carpenters spent the next several days checking several areas of planking which had sprung and were leaking slightly.
Sir John then sent the Crozier and the Terror westward along the ice edge in hopes of finding some opening to the west, but after only a few hours of sailing it proved hopeless, the ice edge curving in a more and more northernly direction until it was seen to attach itself to the southern tip of Prince of Wales Island. To the west, the heavy ice extended to the westward to the horizon and beyond. Somewhat shaken by the prospects, Crozier gave the order to come about and turned back to Cape Felix to report to the anchored Erebus.
Fitzjames, in the Erebus, had had little luck in pushing his way through the heavy ice of the western channel. It was simply too heavy and thick, made up as it was of multi-year ice which had partly thawed only to refreeze again and again year after year turning it into an iron hard substance more than equal to any wooden hulled ship. This situation of searching here and there along the ice edge for an open channel continued through the month of August, 1846 when the fine summer weather began to fail, the darkness of night returned in ernest and then, late in the month, an early winter drop in temperature below the freezing mark found the ships once again frozen into the ice about a mile distant from each other, with little hope of making any further progress through the passage this year. In the end, it was simply a matter of deciding the best possible site to be beset in order to float through to the southwest the following summer. To the great disappointment of everyone they would have to spend their second winter where they were and not sailing through tropical seas, a victory in hand.

Ilatsiak - 19

David was not among the crew that went to the Terror’s assistance, but it soon became apparent that she was fairly hard aground on a falling tide. To make matters worse, a thick fog and pans of heavy ice began drifting in from the north-west together with a rising breeze. However, Sir John was confident she would float off on the high tide later in the evening, and so took the opportunity to call a conference in his cabin of the two Captains together with Misters Reid and Blanky, the ships’ Ice Masters. He was particularly interested in the advice of Mr Blanky of the Terror who had some knowledge of the coast gathered when he had sailed with Sir John Ross’s Victory in the 1830’s.
As usual, David served the evening meal in Sir John’s cabin, this time to the five men. It was obvious that very serious discussions where being held and not without some considerable disagreement. Maps and charts were spread about, even on the floor which was not Sir John’s usual style. As well, David was frequently asked to search the ship’s library for various books and reports of earlier explorers who had had some familiarity with this region and whose journals might lend some advice to the ship’s predictament about exactly in which direction to head.
It was finally resolved that the ships would be unable to continue in the present southeasterly direction into what seemed to be a narrow and increasingly shallow channel which in any event probably ended in the low lying land seen by Ross to the southeast. Crozier argued forceably that the strong tidal flow passing the hull of the Terror could only be the result of a passageway into the straits discovered by Simpson and Dease. Mr Blanky was pressed over and over again to give a firm answer to the problem of whether a waterway could exist to the south. He could not be sure. He had only seen the country during the winter when all was frozen and snow covered. It was almost impossible to tell when one stood on ice covered sea or low lying land. Only by actually digging into the snow could one tell for sure. All the same, if there was a passage, he felt, it would be difficult for the two ships to traverse on account of the low lying islands and no doubt more of the shallows such as they had already encountered. He reminded both captains that their deep drafts of 17 feet or so and the difficulty of manuovering such large ships as the Erebus and Terror could easily get them into difficulty in such shallow and confining waters.
Relectantly, especially on the part of Crozier, it was agreed that in spite of the obvious difficulties it would present, the only practical solution would be to try and drive the ships through the old, heavy ice in the larger channel to the west of King Willand Land. It was still early in the season and there was reason to assume the ice would continue to melt during the month of August and probably loosen sufficently in the next few weeks to permit them to advance southward just as it earlier at the entrance to Peel Sound. If they were unable to make it through this season using the engines, then surely they would be flushed out the following Spring. Crozier had argued strongly for a second attempt to enter the eastern Inlet, his main argument being the fact that the engines were nowhere near up to the task of making any progress in such heavy ice as had been encountered, but it was finally vetoed by Sir John and seconded by Fitzjames. To satisfy his curiousity, it was agreed that Crozier would be permitted to take a ship’s boat southward into the Inlet and map it’s coastlines if the ships were beset early, but this was thought unlikely given the recent good weather. Only the Ice Masters reserved judgement claiming the heavy multi-year old ice to the west was considerably thicker and heavier than they were used to seeing in their whaling experience prior to this present voyage. Neither of them viewed entering the ice pack with much enthusiasm, but agreed that it seemed their only option other than retreat back up Peel Sound which no one was yet prepared to do. Only the experience of the two ships previously in the Antarctic and the special iron bow sheathing and solid wood strengthening at the bows which had been performed especially for this voyage convinced Franklin that the ships were up to the challenge of the ice.
The high tide did not float theTerror free as expected. Anxious to be off, Capt Crozier began immediately off-loading various supplies and shipping them to shore on a nearby island with the understand of making a small depot which would be picked up later if necessary. This operation took most of the following two watches when on their return, the boat crews and the ship’s engine were finally able to back the Terror off the shoal and into deeper water. The crews then returned to the depot to make it tight for the coming months until it could be retrieved later during the fall or spring to come. In order that the cases not come to harm from the sea storming over the low lying island, Crozier gave the order that the depot be made on high ground which turned out to be about 300 feet from the shoreline. Most of the cases contained flour sealed inside the usual red painted tins. A few of the other cases contained ships’ biscuit and a small amount of pemmican. The whole depot was made secure with a canvas cover which in turn was nailed tight by long, wide, thick planks nailed into the wooden crates.
The grounding had not done the Terror much damage although the carpenters spent the next several days checking several areas of planking which had sprung and were leaking slightly.
Sir John then sent the Crozier and theTerror westward along the ice edge in hopes of finding some opening to the west, but after only a few hours of sailing it proved hopeless, the ice edge curving in a more and more northernly direction until it was seen to attach itself to the southern tip of Prince of Wales Island. To the west, the heavy ice extended to the westward to the horizon and beyond. Somewhat shaken by the prospects, Crozier gave the order to come about and she turned back to Cape Felix to report to the anchored Erebus.
Fitzjames in the Erebus had had little luck in pushing his way through the heavy ice of the western channel. It was simply too heavy and thick, made up as it was of multi-year ice which had partly thawed only to refreeze again and again year after year turning it into an iron hard substance more than equal any wooden hulled ship.This situation of searching here and there along the ice edge for an open channel continued through the month of August, 1846 when the fine summer weather began to fail, the darkness of night returned in ernest and then, late in the month, an early winter drop in temperature below the freezing mark found the ships once again frozen into the ice with little hope of making any further progress through the passage this year. In the end, it was simply a matter of deciding the best possible site to be beset in order to float through to the southwest the following summer. To the great disappointment of everyone they would have to spend their second winter where they were and not sailing through tropical seas, a victory in hand.