The Great Frozen Sea: A Personal Narrative of the Voyage of the "Alert"Markham, Albert Hastings, Sir
History
The Great Frozen Sea: A Personal Narrative of the Voyage of the "Alert"
Markham, Albert Hastings, Sir
Alert (Sloop : 1856-1895); Arctic regions; Nares, George S. (George Strong), 1831-1915
As it was impossible to keep their patient warm in the tent, these two
young officers burrowed a hole in a snow-drift, and into this cavity
they transported the sick man, themselves, and all their tent robes,
closing the aperture by placing over it the tent and sledge. They
deprived themselves of their own clothing for the benefit of the
invalid, whose frozen feet they actually placed inside their clothes in
direct contact with their bodies, until their own heat was extracted and
they were themselves severely frost-bitten in various parts. The poor
fellow was now in a very low state; he could retain neither food nor
liquid. "About 6 P.M. he was very bad; this time worse than before.
There appeared to be no heat in him of any kind whatever, and he had
acute pains in the stomach and back. We chafed him on the stomach,
hands, face, and feet, and when he got better wrapped him up in
everything warm we could lay our hands upon," namely, their own
clothing, which they could ill afford to lose; but they entirely forgot
their own condition in their endeavours to ameliorate that of their
comrade. Lighting their spirit lamp and carefully closing every crevice
by which the cold air could enter, they succeeded in raising the
temperature of the interior to 7°; but "the atmosphere in the hut became
somewhat thick!" This was, however, preferable to the intense cold. Let
us follow the story out, and learn how nobly these two officers tended
their sick and suffering companion. "We were constantly asking if he was
warm in his feet and hands, to which he replied in the affirmative; but
before making him comfortable" (fancy being _comfortable_ under such
circumstances!) "for the night, we examined his feet, and found them
both perfectly gelid and hard from the toes to the ankle, his hands
nearly as bad. So each taking a foot we set to work to warm them with
our hands and flannels, as each hand and flannel got cold _warming them
about our persons_, and also lit up the spirit lamp. In about two hours
we got his feet to, and put them in warm foot gear, cut his bag down to
allow him more room to move in, and then wrapped him up in the spare
coverlet. His hands we also brought round and bound them up in flannel
wrappers, with mitts over all. Gave him some warm tea and a little rum
and water, which he threw up. Shortly after I found him eating snow,
which we had strictly forbidden once or twice before. In endeavouring to
do this again during the night, he dragged his feet out of the covering;
but only a few minutes could have elapsed before this was detected by
Lieutenant Rawson, who, upon examining his feet, found them in much the
same state as before. We rubbed and chafed them again for over an hour,
and when circulation was restored wrapped him up again, and so passed
the third night."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account