Upside Down Voya cov 6/21/06 1:36 PM Page 1 W U L F F S O N / LY A L L S Stranger than fiction but based in truth, this is a story polar bear cub, and survived to tell about it. Of course, not everyone believed his tale. Would you? S T H E U P S I D E - D OW N VOYAG E of a whaler somewhere in the Arctic seas, befriended a UPSIDESDOWN S VOYAGE WRITTEN of the surreal seven-year adventure of Bruce Gordon, a young seafaring lad who emerged from the wreckage THE BY Don Wulffson ILLUSTRATED BY Dennis Lyall
In 1757 a ship named the Anne Forbes left the port of Aberdeen, Scotland, and headed for the Greenland whaling grounds. On board was a boy by the name of Bruce Gordon. Although Gordon had no way of knowing it, he was leaving on what would turn out to be one of the strangest sea adventures of all time. 4
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No sooner was the ship out of port than a vicious storm hit. Driven by screaming winds, mountainous waves slammed into the Anne Forbes and cascaded over her decks. The ship began to take on water. Terrified and seasick, Gordon manned the pumps with his crewmates for the next 12 hours. 6
With reduced fury, the storm continued for 15 days. Then, as suddenly as it had come, it passed, leaving only blue sky and the glassy, blue-green ocean as the Anne Forbes entered the Greenland seas. 7
Whales were plentiful, and dozens were taken. The crewmen stripped off the blubber with long flensing knives. Then they stored it in barrels in the hold, either in its natural fatty form or boiled down into oil. With each catch and each addition of weight the Forbes rode lower in the water. But the captain, a bully by the name of Hughes, was greedy. He wanted more whales taken always more. The days began turning frigid, and chunks of ice dotted the sea. Winter was fast approaching. Clearly it was time to head back to Scotland, but to the shock of everyone aboard, Hughes ordered the ship to maintain its northerly course. The sailors, including young Bruce Gordon, began to fear for their lives. 8
Two weeks passed, and then another. Few whales were spotted, and none were taken. Ominous icebergs loomed all around. Part of the horror of the towering bergs was their beauty it looked as though great white spires from cathedrals and palaces had arisen from the sea but the sailors knew they were deadly. They begged Hughes to head back, but he only laughed. He boasted that the ship could sail to China as easily as it could go back to Scotland. Though the captain s claims were arrogant nonsense, there was little the crew could do but follow orders. 9
O N E B L E A K, B I T T E R L Y C O L D A F T E R N O O N, the sailors realized that the ship had entered a strong current and was drifting rapidly northward. They were headed straight into a world of fog. Within moments, they were half-blinded by it completely enshrouded in white. Hughes became almost hysterical with fear and ordered the course be set due south. But the powerful current was against them. Huge chunks of ice banged against the Anne Forbes on all sides, and endless floes soon surrounded the vessel. For a time, the ice chunks remained loose enough to allow for slow sailing, but then a viselike pair of ice-mountains loomed ahead. A momentary break in the fog allowed everyone to see that the Anne Forbes was headed straight into the frozen grip of death itself. With his terrified shipmates, Bruce Gordon stood on deck awaiting his approaching doom when the side of his face suddenly exploded with pain. Up to the masthead, you worthless imbecile! bellowed Hughes, his hand open, and ready to strike Gordon again. Keep a sharp lookout! 10
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H I S H A N D S T R E M B L I N G A N D N U M B W I T H F E A R, G O R D O N slowly climbed the slick, frozen mast and picked his way out onto a yardarm. Fog rose like steam all around. He squinted into the intense, blinding glare. At first, all seemed clear but then, there it was. Dead ahead an iceberg, a jagged outline of white against white, lying in wait in the dense fog. Berg! Dead ahead! Gordon screamed to those below. Hard a-port! bellowed Hughes. The Anne Forbes began to swing left. The stern anchor was dropped, the mizzen sail was cut free but it was too late. With a tremendous jolt, the Anne Forbes tore into the berg, its timbers buckling and snapping. Gordon, screaming, almost lost his grip on the frozen wood and almost plunged to his death on the deck below. Gasping, holding on for dear life, he watched in horror as the crumpled bow of the ship began to sink. Huge waves washed over the decks, sweeping the men and whatever else it could grab into the frigid waters. For a moment, the whaler listed to port. Then, in a great sweeping arc, it heeled over to starboard. Gordon felt his fingers slipping. His mouth opened in a silent scream as he flew free. Whiteness rushed up at him, then a bone-jarring impact, and his mind went blank. 13
W H E N G O R D O N R E G A I N E D C O N S C I O U S N E S S, he found himself lying face-down on an iceberg the same one the Forbes had collided with. His eyelids were frozen half shut. Icicles of blood hung from his gashed forehead and chin. Every part of him ached. Knocking away the shards of red ice, he sat up and stared in horror. The Anne Forbes had vanished. Only the floating, ice-encrusted bodies of Gordon s shipmates marked the spot where the ship had gone down. Stunned, he mourned his lost friends. 14
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T H E N A S T R A N G E S O U N D roused him from his reverie. Giant, noisy bubbles welled up from the depths of the sea as the black bottom of a ship broke the surface. It was the Anne Forbes! Miraculously, it had risen from its underwater grave. Gordon watched in amazement as the upside-down craft drifted with the current. It slammed into a thick spire of ice sticking up from the sea, shattering the thing before the impact caused the capsized ship to change course. With a crunch, the vessel ground into a V-shaped cleft in a nearby iceberg, where it was held firmly in place by the growing clutter of ice. 17