Air Wonder Stories, May 1930 — page 19: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE ARCTIC RESCUE the tail, waving in their capacity of propeller in following the curve of the course, would be- flung high in the air only to descend quickly into the waves. x Willard compared. this tail gesture with the futile racing of the propeller of an-outboard motor, when a wave lifts the stern of the boat clear of the water, The bulk of the whale was-so gigantic, while the-little boat with its-crew was so puny, it seemed impossible that there could be any danger to the-huge beast, But I was reassured by the thought that the microbes and bacilli that often slay us humans are so small as to be almost - “invisible, ~ With bated breath we measured the distance from the boat to the whale; until it seemed as though the mate must be intent on driving the boat itself, instead of the harpoon, into the animal’s great side, Then we saw the boat mount to the very top of a passing wave. As it hung poised-for an instant on the crest, a short line of blue-white smoke shot toward the whale; and a moment Jater the quick, sharp detonation of the harpoon gim rang out over the. sea, = The great tail flukes lashed-the water to foam; and the whale shot forward with tremendous speed. We saw the coils of the harpoon line feap-into the air and straighten out. Then a muffled thud seemed to come from nowhere in par- ticular, just as the whale bounded with a mighty flourish of his spreading flukes, high in the air, “That-was explosive in the harpoon. They have made a fair hit,” said the Captain excitedly, “He is our meat.” Speedily we were tinder way, and the little boat was coming to meet us} paying out the great coil of Tope as it came. A line was dropped overboard and the whale line quickly snatched up and_attached to the forward winch, The Captain was now too busy giving orders to answer any questions, but asthe huge mate appeared over the side, Willard had this one for: him. “Do you think the whale is dead?” “Yes, dead as a mackerel,” he-answered confidently. And so it proved. _As the winch a to work, the line came steadily reeling in, as if-dragging a dead load; and soon we saw the dark carcass approaching the side. As: it broke water alongside, it assumed unbelievably huge proportions. “That is at least.a whale and a half,” said the Captain. “The old Museum: will have to build on an addition in order to house him.” + Indeed it seemed as though stich would be the case; for this monster of the deep so far outran our previous conceptions of great mammals that we could scarcely credit-our eyes; As we gazed in pop-eyed astonishment -the sailors were busy making the huge carcass fast alongside, for any attempt to hoist such a leviathan on deck was obviously out of the question. Stout iets were brought up from below and: spread ‘under the whale to insure it against-the onslaughts. of sharks or killer whales, after having first inflated the carcass: with air. And now, for the fitst time since putting out the boat, we took thought of our surroundings, / Ice-Bound O the south of ts the ice floe we had-earlier encountered had assumed startling proportions. Its white expanse stretched away almost endlessly; and its eastern border, which we had rounded in our pursuit of the whales a few hours earlier, was merging with a previously tinnoticed pack drifting down from the north. Thus all chance of returning the way we had come was cut off. To make matters worse, a blinding snowstorm came driving down from the pale; and the seething sea, now bitterly black in contrast with the pefting snow, assumed an angry aspect. There seemed to be nothing to-do but turn the ship’s prow northward, and bucking the storm to make our way around one-or the other of the converging ice floes. In the: evening the wind died down; bit in the morning it rose-again with greatly increased fury; this time from the southwest, We were now in-a-yery narrow lane running almost due north and: south; and inorder to prevent the quartering gale from driving us-into the ice pack we were obliged to keep under way with full steam ahead, For two. days we kept-on at high speed; atdeching the sur- face -of the sea all the-time with the binoculars for clear water. At length, becoming alarmed lest we should penetrate so far into the polar regions that we would-never be able to extri- cate, ourselves, we decided to turn: back and retrace-our course; hoping that somewhere the sea ‘might have Cleared behind: us. But-we soon found our way blocked and were forced to turn north again, Toward evening of the-fifth day the wind died down; but at the same time the ice closed in around the ship so firmly that it blocked all progress. The next morning the heaving ocean was -gone; and all - about tus was one vast field-of dead, motionless snow and ice. The ship and the great whale-were firmly fixed in the ice, and deeply rifted with snow. We were 4 egltim, and discouraged little band that busied ourselves shoveling snow all the: morning, while the Captain took bearings and tried to locate our position, “From our deductions we find that we are perilously far north,” the Captain reported, “in fact a long way further than we-had suspected.” What HopeP UR only hope-of release was that a mild turn of the weather or a great storm might sooner or later open to warmer seas the path throngh which we had arrived. Uneventiul, cold and miserable. were the weeks and months ~ that-followed. Although ‘our ship: had been liberally stored with blankets and clothing, and although we had bought a few raw furs where we had touched: the coast of Labrador, we were yet pitifully supplied: for the rigors of the long, dark Arctic winter that-would shortly be upon ts, Apparently there was no game to be had; and although there might be-fish in the deep waters far beneath us, there seemed little hope-of catching them, Under the Captain’s direction we. set to work to cut up blankets and fashion them into red suits of underwear, under trousers and outer garments. The giant mate busied himself for long hours constructing a-heating stove from sheet-metal and various odds and-ends, This heater was designed, with the help of a little precious coal, to burn strips of blubber and whale fat, And if. one could bring himself to overlook a certain amount of smoke and fumes, together with an unbelievably rank odor, the mate’s efforts may be said to have been successful. As. witter set. in, we fell into fairly routine habits, The Morning was given over to such work as was necessary about the ship; preparing food, making additional clothing and various other chores; while the latter part of the day—if one could call those dark. stretches days—was free for each man to do as he liked. At such, times the officers and men usually devoted. them- selves-to card. playing and checkers; while Willard:and I read the technical books that he had so providentially brought along, or held long. discussions about many things, more or less scientific, We racked our brains and-searched all our books. for: knowl- edge of radio. But. we found, somewhat to our surprise and chagrin, that neither of us knew anything of practical -value,