The Impossible Voyage
Eight hundred miles in an open boat, or a slow death waiting.
By spring the drifting ice had carried the camp to the edge of the open sea.
The great floe finally broke, and the men took to their three small wooden boats.
After days of rowing through freezing water, they reached a bare and lonely island.
The land was solid, yet no ship ever passed it, and no help would ever come.
Weller understood that if they were to wait there quietly, they would all slowly die.
Only one plan remained, and it frightened even the bravest men in the crew.
He would take five men and sail eight hundred miles to a distant whaling station.
If they were to reach it, rescue for the others might still be possible.
If they were to fail, the boat would vanish, and no one would ever know.
He chose the strongest sailors in order that the tiny might survive the open sea.
The raised the sides of the boat in order that fewer waves would break aboard.
They packed only four weeks of food, since more weight would sink them in the swells.
Weller left his most trusted officer in order that the waiting men might keep their hope.
"If we were to turn back now," he said, "we would only be choosing a slower death."
The men on the island gathered on the shore to watch the little boat set out.
If the weather were to turn against them, no skill on earth could save the six.
Weller carried a small chart and a , in order that they might hold their .
The ocean between the island and the station was among the wildest in the whole world.
Waves there could rise as high as a church, driven by winds that never rested.
If a single great wave were to strike them wrongly, the boat would roll and drown.
Yet Weller spoke calmly, in order that the five men might trust the plan.
"We have survived the ice," he said, "and we were not spared in order to give up."
As they pushed off, the men on shore raised a thin and cheer behind them.
If the six were to succeed, they would return within a few short and terrible weeks.
If they were not seen again, the island men would face the winter entirely alone.
And so, against all , the smallest boat sailed toward the largest sea on earth.