II: Adrift in the Antarctic Ocean explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Survival and Hope

  Adam and Agnew struggle against the elements, hunger, and exhaustion, clinging to life through rowing, bailing, and cooking seal meat, while Agnew's optimism contrasts with Adam's despair.

• Colonial Exploration and Otherness

  The crew's encounter with the desolate Antarctic landscape and the seals reflects the colonial impulse to explore and claim uncharted territories, as seen in the naming of Trevelyan Peak.

Characters to notice

• Adam More

  The narrator and first mate of the Trevelyan; recounts his background and the harrowing drift southward after being separated from the ship.

• Agnew

  Second mate who accompanies Adam ashore; argues optimistically that the current runs north, providing a counterpoint to Adam's despair.

• Captain James Clarke Ross

  Mentioned indirectly through the reference to Captain Cook's 1773 voyage; not directly present in the chapter.

• Captain Bennet

  Master of the Trevelyan; cautious and reluctant to allow the seal hunt, he fires occasional guns during the storm before giving up hope.

Key passages

• “My name is Adam More. I am the son of Henry More, apothecary, Keswick, Cumberland. I was mate of the ship Trevelyan (Bennet, master), which was chartered by the British Government to convey convicts to Van Dieman's Land.”

  Adam More introduces himself as the son of a Cumberland apothecary and the mate of the Trevelyan, a ship hired by the British government to transport convicts to Van Diemen's Land in 1843.

  Establishes the narrator's identity and the historical context of the voyage.

• “We were fortunate enough not to find any ice, although we were within fifteen hundred miles of the South Pole, and far within that impenetrable icy barrier which, in 1773, had arrested the progress of Captain Cook.”

  Despite being 1,500 miles from the South Pole and beyond the ice barrier that stopped Captain Cook in 1773, they encountered no ice.

  Highlights the unusual open water and sets up the later encounter with ice.

• “We named it, after our ship, Trevelyan Peak, and then felt anxious to lose sight of it forever.”

  They named the promontory Trevelyan Peak after their ship and were eager to leave it behind.

  Illustrates the colonial practice of naming landmarks and the crew's desire to escape the desolate region.

• “The reports of the gun now grew fainter; what was worse, they were heard at longer intervals, and this showed us that Captain Bennet was losing heart; that he was giving us up; that he despaired of finding us, and was now firing only an occasional gun out of a mournful sense of duty.”

  The fading and less frequent gunshots indicated that Captain Bennet had lost hope of rescuing them and was firing only out of obligation.

  Conveys the growing despair and abandonment felt by Adam and Agnew.

• “One thing was certain—the climate was no colder. Agnew laid great stress on this. 'You see,' said he, 'we must be going north. If we were going south we should be frozen stiff by this time.'”

  Agnew argued that the stable temperature proved they were drifting north, since a southward drift would have brought much colder conditions.

  Shows the debate between Agnew's optimism and Adam's pessimism regarding their direction.

• “At last one night I was roused by Agnew. He pointed far away to the distant horizon, where I saw a deep red glow as of fire.”

  Agnew woke Adam to show him a deep red glow on the horizon, resembling fire.

  Introduces a mysterious and ominous phenomenon that hints at the unknown land ahead.