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Title: The lands of silence
A history of Arctic and Antarctic exploration
Author: Clements Markham
Release Date: July 5, 2023 [eBook #71127]
Language: English
Credits: Brian Coe and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LANDS OF SILENCE ***
THE LANDS OF SILENCE
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
C. F. CLAY, MANAGER
LONDON: FETTER LANE, E.C. 4
[Illustration]
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO.
BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, MADRAS: MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.
TORONTO: THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
TOKYO: MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
[Illustration: _Sir Clements R. Markham, K.C.B., F.R.S._
_printed by George Henry, A.R.A._]
THE
LANDS OF SILENCE
A HISTORY OF ARCTIC
AND ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION
BY
SIR CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM,
K.C.B., F.R.S.
CAMBRIDGE
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1921
PREFACE
Although there were few subjects in which the late Sir Clements Markham
was not interested, it may safely be said that Polar Exploration
stood nearest his heart. Not many persons had studied the ground as
thoroughly as he; no one was more widely acquainted with its explorers.
I was anxious therefore that his recollections of the personality and
work of the many distinguished Arctic navigators he had known should
not be lost, and some years ago suggested to him that he should record
the story of the gradual revealing of the Polar regions to our ken.
The idea pleased him, he began his task at once, and when, in January
1916, the sad accident occurred which brought his life unexpectedly
to a close, the book, though unrevised, and with one or two chapters
unfinished, was nevertheless in a tolerably complete state.
The author’s death would necessarily have delayed the appearance of
the work, but the prolonging of the war caused it to be laid aside
altogether, and it was not until the beginning of this year that I
took it in hand with the object of completing it for publication. So
numerous are the works which have been consulted by the author that
it was of course impossible for me to verify his facts and dates
throughout, and the indulgence of the reader is therefore asked for any
errors he may chance to notice. For Chapters LX and LXI, and a great
part of Chapter XXXIV, which were merely outlined or left unfinished,
the present writer is mainly responsible.
Between Sir Clements and his no less distinguished cousin, Sir Albert
Markham, a life-long friendship existed, and the latter did not long
survive him, dying soon after he had published his biography. I was
fortunate enough, however, before he passed away, to obtain his kindly
aid in reading the proofs of this volume, which, owing to his great
knowledge of Arctic matters, quite apart from his own wide personal
experiences of Arctic travel, was of no little value. The writer would
desire here to render his affectionate tribute to the memory of a
friend whose charming personality will long be recalled by all those
who had the privilege of knowing him.
In the revision of Scott’s journeys I have had the invaluable
assistance of Mr Frank Debenham, Fellow of Gonville and Caius
College, geologist to Capt. Scott’s last expedition, to whom my very
grateful thanks are due. To Mr Edward Heawood, Librarian of the
Royal Geographical Society, the reader is indebted for the helpful
chronological table and bibliography at the end of the volume; and,
finally, I have to thank Mr H. A. Parsons, of the Cambridge University
Press, for his most efficient assistance in compiling the index.
F. H. H. GUILLEMARD.
CAMBRIDGE,
_October, 1920_.
CONTENTS
PART I
CHAP. PAGE
I. THE ARCTIC REGIONS 3
II. ICE AND ICEBERGS 7
III. TRIBES AROUND THE POLE 13
IV. ULTIMA THULE 26
V. FIRST CROSSING OF THE THRESHOLD 30
VI. THE NORSEMEN IN GREENLAND 38
VII. NICHOLAS OF LYNN. ZENO. MEDIEVAL NAUTICAL
INSTRUMENTS 53
VIII. FIRST ENGLISH VOYAGES TO THE NORTH-EAST.
WILLOUGHBY. CHANCELLOR. BURROUGH. PET 58
IX. BARENTSZ. LINSCHOTEN. DE VEER 68
X. SIR MARTIN FROBISHER 81
XI. JOHN DAVIS 93
XII. THE MERCHANT ADVENTURERS AND RICHARD HAKLUYT 104
XIII. GREENLAND VOYAGE OF HALL AND BAFFIN 112
XIV. EARLY SPITSBERGEN VOYAGES 117
XV. EARLY VOYAGES TO HUDSON’S BAY 129
XVI. WILLIAM BAFFIN 138
XVII. JENS ERIKSEN MUNK. FOXE AND JAMES. WOOD 149
XVIII. HANS EGEDE AND DANISH GREENLAND 158
XIX. THE HUDSON’S BAY COMPANY. HEARNE AND MACKENZIE,
COOK AND PHIPPS 165
XX. RUSSIAN ARCTIC DISCOVERIES 175
XXI. THE BRITISH WHALE FISHERY AND THE SCORESBYS 188
XXII. BUCHAN AND ROSS 198
XXIII. PARRY AND HIS SCHOOL 205
XXIV. DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH COAST OF AMERICA. FRANKLIN.
RICHARDSON. BACK. DEASE. SIMPSON. RAE 222
XXV. JOHN ROSS, JAMES ROSS, AND THE NORTH MAGNETIC POLE 233
XXVI. THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION 238
XXVII. THE SEARCH FOR FRANKLIN. I 248
XXVIII. THE SEARCH FOR FRANKLIN. II 263
XXIX. DISCOVERY OF THE FATE OF FRANKLIN 272
XXX. THE EAST COAST OF GREENLAND. SCORESBY. CLAVERING.
GRAAH. KOLDEWEY 279
XXXI. SPITSBERGEN. EXPEDITIONS BEFORE 1872 285
XXXII. FRANZ JOSEF LAND AND ITS EXPLORERS 289
XXXIII. THE ROUTE BY SMITH SOUND. KANE. HAYES. HALL.
NARES. MARKHAM 298
XXXIV. SIR ALLEN YOUNG AND THE _PANDORA_. AMUNDSEN AND THE
NORTH WEST PASSAGE 311
XXXV. WEYPRECHT’S PLAN FOR SYNCHRONOUS OBSERVATIONS.
THE GREELY EXPEDITION 316
XXXVI. THE NORTH EAST PASSAGE. NORDENSKIÖLD. WIGGINS. DE LONG 322
XXXVII. GREENLAND AND ITS INLAND ICE. NORDENSKIÖLD, NANSEN,
PEARY 331
XXXVIII. THE TRANS-POLAR DRIFT. NANSEN AND THE VOYAGE OF THE
_FRAM_ 340
XXXIX. THE PARRY ARCHIPELAGO. SVERDRUP 347
XL. ATTEMPTS TO REACH THE NORTH POLE. CAGNI. COOK. PEARY 351
XLI. KOOLEMANS BEYNEN AND THE VOYAGES OF THE _WILLEM
BARENTSZ_. SIR MARTIN CONWAY AND SPITSBERGEN.
CAPTAIN BERNIER AND CANADIAN ARCTIC LANDS 358
XLII. EAST COAST OF GREENLAND. DANISH EXPEDITIONS 364
XLIII. LATER GREENLAND EXPLORATIONS. MIKKELSEN. RASMUSSEN. KOCH 376
XLIV. CONCLUSION 383
PART II
XLV. THE GREAT SOUTHERN CONTINENT 389
XLVI. CAPTAIN COOK. BELLINGSHAUSEN 394
XLVII. THE SOUTH SHETLANDS. FOSTER. WEDDELL 398
XLVIII. ENDERBY AND HIS CAPTAINS: BISCOE--KEMPE--BALLENY 403
XLIX. DUMONT D’URVILLE AND WILKES 407
L. FIRST ANTARCTIC VOYAGE OF SIR JAMES ROSS 410
LI. SECOND ANTARCTIC VOYAGE OF SIR JAMES ROSS 418
LII. THIRD ANTARCTIC VOYAGE OF SIR JAMES ROSS 422
LIII. ANTARCTIC OCEANOGRAPHY 426
LIV. REVIVAL OF ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION 430
LV. PRIVATE EXPEDITIONS--BORCHGREVINK. GERLACHE.
NORDENSKIÖLD. BRUCE. DRYGALSKI. CHARCOT. FILCHNER 433
LVI. PREPARATIONS FOR THE SOCIETIES’ ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION 444
LVII. THE SOCIETIES’ ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. FIRST YEAR 455
LVIII. THE SOCIETIES’ ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. THE _MORNING_ 466
LIX. THE SOCIETIES’ ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. SECOND YEAR 471
LX. SHACKLETON’S ATTEMPT TO REACH THE POLE 478
LXI. AMUNDSEN’S JOURNEY TO THE SOUTH POLE 482
LXII. MAWSON’S EXPEDITION 486
LXIII. CAPTAIN SCOTT’S LAST EXPEDITION. I. 489
LXIV. CAPTAIN SCOTT’S LAST EXPEDITION. THE END 500
LXV. REMAINING ANTARCTIC WORK 505
CHRONOLOGY OF POLAR VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS 509
BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY OF POLAR VOYAGES AND TRAVELS 514
INDEX 519
MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
PORTRAIT OF SIR CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, by George Henry, A.R.A.
(Photogravure by Mr Emery Walker from a photograph by Messrs
Cooper and Humphreys) FRONTISPIECE
MAP OF THE POLAR REGIONS 5
EFFECTS OF PRESSURE ON ANTARCTIC ICE. (From Scott’s _Voyage of
the Discovery_) 11
INTERIOR OF GREENLAND HUT (_Billeder fra Grönland_, 1852) 22
GREENLANDERS DANCING (_Billeder fra Grönland_, 1852) 22
VIKING SHIP. (_Phot._ O. Vaering) 35
THE SOUTH-WESTERN EXTREMITY OF GREENLAND 40
RUINS IN KINGOA-DAL, SOUTH GREENLAND 48
THE ZENI MAP. (Based on the facsimile in _Voyages of the Zeni_,
Hakluyt Society, 1873) 54
ASTROLABE IN GONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE (EARLY 14TH
CENTURY). (Venn, _Biographical History of Gonville and Caius
College_, vol. IV.) 57
WILLEM BARENTSZ. (De Vries, _Oud-Holland_) 69
NOVAYA ZEMLYA, SHOWING ENTRANCES TO KARA SEA 71
“A WONDER IN THE HEAVENS, AND HOW WE CAUGHT A BEAR.” (De Bry,
_India Orientalis_, 1599) 73
“HOW OUR SHIP STUCK FAST IN THE ICE.” (De Bry) 74
PART OF HONDIUS’S MAP OF 1611, SHOWING BARENTSZ’S DISCOVERIES
77
RELICS FROM BARENTSZ’S HUT. (From the National Museum,
Amsterdam, by kind permission of the Directorate) 79
“THE EXACT MANNER OF THE HOUSE WHEREIN WE WINTERED.” (De Bry)
79
SIR MARTIN FROBISHER. (Holland, _Heroologia_, 1620) 82
FROBISHER’S DISCOVERIES 87
THE VOYAGES OF JOHN DAVIS 97
MEMORIAL TABLET TO RICHARD HAKLUYT IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL 111
PART OF NORTH-WEST SPITSBERGEN 120
SIR THOMAS BUTTON 136
BAFFIN’S MAP OF HUDSON STRAIT 139
BAFFIN’S DISCOVERIES 144
CAPTAIN THOMAS JAMES. (From _Voyages of Foxe and James_,
Hakluyt Society, 1894) 153
PART OF FOXE’S MAP, 1635 155
HUDSON BAY 167
ALEXANDER MACKENZIE. (From the engraving by Condé, after
Lawrence) 169
BERING’S VOYAGE FROM KAMSCHATKA TO NORTH AMERICA. (Synge, _A
Book of Discovery_) 178
NORTH-EASTERN SIBERIA 181
NORTH-WESTERN SIBERIA 181
THE PARRY ISLANDS 210
SIR JOHN FRANKLIN 239
FACSIMILE OF FRANKLIN EXPEDITION RECORD. (M’Clintock, _Fate of
Franklin_) 244
CRITICAL POSITION OF _H.M.S. INVESTIGATOR_ ON THE NORTH COAST
OF BARING ISLAND, AUG. 20TH, 1851. (Colour sketch by S.
Gurney Cresswell) 264
LIEUT CRESSWELL’S PARTY SLEDGING OVER HUMMOCKY ICE. (Colour
sketch by S. Gurney Cresswell) 268
JULIUS PAYER 290
LIEUT PARR, R.N., _H.M.S. Alert_. (_Phot._ Maull & Co.),
COMMANDER A. H. MARKHAM, R.N., _H.M.S. Alert_. (_Phot._
Elliott & Fry), SIR GEORGE NARES. (_Phot._ J. Griffin & Co.),
LIEUT P. ALDRICH, R.N., _H.M.S. Alert_. (_Phot._ F. Johnson),
LIEUT L. A. BEAUMONT, _H.M.S. Discovery_. (_Phot._ Elliott &
Fry) 302
SUB-LIEUT GEORGE LE CLERC EGERTON, R.N. (_Phot._ Elliott & Fry)
306
LIEUT WYATT RAWSON, R.N. (_Phot._ Maull & Co.) 306
THE _PANDORA_ (CAPTAIN ALLEN YOUNG) IN PEEL STRAIT 312
ADOLF ERIK NORDENSKIÖLD 332
EAST COAST OF GREENLAND. (Based on map in Mikkelsen, _Lost in
the Arctic_) 366
GREENLAND 377
ORTELIUS’ MAP OF THE WORLD 391
GRAHAM LAND AND SOUTH SHETLANDS 399
MT EREBUS FROM THE SOUTH. (From Scott’s _Voyage of the
Discovery_) 416
ADÉLIE PENGUINS (From Scott’s _Voyage_ _of the Discovery_) 456
EMPEROR PENGUIN WITH CHICK (From Scott’s _Voyage_ _of the
Discovery_) 456
CHASM SEPARATING ICE AND LAND IN LAT. 82° S. (From Scott’s
_Voyage of the Discovery_) 463
THE _MORNING_. (From Scott’s _Voyage of the Discovery_) 466
TYPICAL LOOSE PACK--MT MELBOURNE IN DISTANCE. (From Scott’s
_Voyage of the Discovery_) 480
A TILTED BERG, SHOWING THE OLD SURFACE INCLINED TO THE LEFT
(From Scott’s _Voyage_ _of the Discovery_) 492
TYPICAL BERGS--_TERRA NOVA_ IN DISTANCE (From Scott’s _Voyage_
_of the Discovery_) 492
EMPEROR PENGUIN ROOKERY, CAPE CROZIER. (From Scott’s _Voyage of
the Discovery_) 497
BARRIER BERG AGROUND OFF KING EDWARD VII LAND. (From Scott’s
_Voyage of the Discovery_) 507
Acknowledgement is due to Messrs Smith, Elder & Co. and Mr John Murray
for permission to reproduce the illustrations from Scott’s _Voyage
of the Discovery_, to Mr John Murray for permission to reproduce
the facsimile of the Franklin Expedition Record; also to Mr William
Heinemann for leave to use the map in Mikkelsen’s _Lost in the Arctic_,
to Messrs T. C. & E. C. Jack for the block from Synge’s _A Book of
Discovery_, and to the Hakluyt Society for the portrait of Thomas James.
ERRATUM
p. 100, line 4 from bottom:
_for_ Sunrise _read_ Sunshine
PART I
CHAPTER I
THE ARCTIC REGIONS
The history of the Polar Regions, of those vast areas, difficult of
access, which include millions of square miles of land and ocean at
either extreme of our planet, is of surpassing interest and importance.
It is not only that we here meet with examples of heroism and devotion
which must entrance mankind for all time. It is not only that there
are dangers to be encountered and difficulties to be overcome which
call forth the best qualities of our race. These, no doubt, are the
main reasons for the deep interest which polar exploration has always
excited. But there are others of almost equal importance. These regions
offer great scientific problems. They present wide fields of research
in almost all departments of knowledge. They have in the past yielded
vast wealth, and have been the sources of commercial prosperity to many
communities, and they may be so again. Their history is a history of
noble and persevering effort; extending over a thousand years in the
Arctic where the work is well-nigh finished, but only just beginning
in the Antarctic regions, where it will have to be completed by our
descendants.
In approaching the subject it is well to have before our minds the
extent of these great areas, the history of which we would grasp and
understand. At the polar circle, which is 1410 geographical miles from
the centre, they have a periphery of 8460 miles, and each includes
6,000,000 square miles. The Arctic and Antarctic circles are in 66°
32′ North and South, but these parallels are merely conventional.
It is more convenient, as will be seen hereafter, to take the Polar
regions as beginning at about the 70th parallel, the Sub-arctic and
Sub-antarctic regions extending from 60° to 70°, a zone in which the
fauna is richer and more varied.
The division of these polar regions into quadrants is useful because
it facilitates geographical description and impresses the relative
positions of the different parts on the mind. In the Arctic regions
a line may be drawn from the Lofoten Islands to Bering Strait, with
another crossing it from the head of Hudson’s Bay to Cape Chelyuskin;
thus forming four quadrants.
At the present day a fringe of coast lines forming the northern
shores of the three great continents, with a deep interior polar sea,
are the main features of the Arctic regions, but it was not always
so. Looking back into remote geological periods, we have evidence
of marvellous changes in the Arctic regions since the globe was a
gradually cooling mass of vapour. In this process, extending over vast
ages, the polar regions must have been, as they are now, cooler than
the equatorial regions, and for the same reason. It was, therefore,
in the polar regions that life first became possible, and here the
life of the Silurian age arose. There is evidence of a continent in
Jurassic and Tertiary (Miocene) times where now there is a polar
ocean of great depth, save where Spitsbergen and Franz Josef Land
exist as the sole remaining fragments of that continent. There is
evidence that forests once flourished where now nothing higher than
the dwarf willow can exist. There is evidence, too, of tremendous
volcanic eruptions, covering great areas with sheets of basalt. In
contemplating these mighty revolutions, and the gradual changes through
long æons of ages, the leading fact connected with the polar regions
is that here life first became possible. Here it was first possible
that man could exist. The evidence that the arboreal vegetation of the
miocene period originated round the north pole appears to be quite
conclusive. The exploration of the Arctic area has disclosed proofs of
wondrous secular changes which no imagination, however vivid, could
surpass. Alike in the far south, as in the far north, there is food
for the imagination--lights thrown here and there on the history of
a marvellous past. Such speculations are a fitting introduction to a
study of the existing state of things, which has lasted through the
historical period, and probably for ages before the dawn of history.
[Illustration:
American Quadrant
Siberian Quadrant
Greenland Quadrant
Spitsbergen Quadrant
]
The two halves of the Arctic regions may be called the Old World or
Eastern, and the New World or Western halves. In the former the water
flows in, and in the latter it flows out, thus causing a great oceanic
circulation not yet fully investigated, but now clearly understood in
its general outline.
In the eastern half of the Arctic regions the warm current from the
Atlantic flows along the coast of Norway and then bifurcates, one
branch going north along the western side of Spitsbergen, the other
continuing along the Lapland coast and turning up the west coast of
Novaya Zemlya. All the great rivers of Siberia also empty themselves
into this eastern half. Thus there is a constant tendency, aided by
prevailing winds, for the whole drift from the eastern shores to flow
across the Arctic Ocean to the western side.
On the American or western side the tendency is to flow outwards,
but there is only one outlet, along the east coast of Greenland. The
in-flow is insignificant, Bering Strait is shallow, and but a small
volume of water finds its way within the Arctic area by that opening.
The flow from all the American rivers, except the Mackenzie and
Colville, is at once checked by land in front of their mouths. Hence
the whole tendency of aqueous movement is to flow out, while there is
only one means of escape.
The consequence of this general drift outwards, with but one
corresponding outlet, is very remarkable. The harvests of ice are
carried across the Arctic Ocean until they are brought up by the
American coast and islands, where they are completely stopped. Then
the ice gradually increases from annual snow falls and other causes
until it becomes upwards of a hundred feet in thickness. There is
some movement in the summer, and a tendency eastward to the north of
Ellesmere Island and Greenland, to join the Greenland current. The
other straits and channels are too shallow for such ice to pass. In
one place alone, between Melville and Banks Islands, there is a drift
of this heavy ice into the Parry Archipelago, for a distance of 500
miles, but it is then stopped by King William Island. Otherwise the
only outward current for the heavy polar ice is down the east coast of
Greenland. Even there the great body of ice comes from the Arctic Ocean
itself, and but a small part is due to the escape of ice that has been
pressed upon the western land. The outward current of Baffin’s Bay only
carries off the ice of one or two years’ growth, which has formed in
the bay itself and in the straits and channels leading into it. There
is thus a vast accumulation along the outer shores of the western
side, and the rising tendency of Arctic lands no doubt increases the
difficulty of escape, and the consequent secular and unchanging block
all along the western outer shores of the Arctic Ocean.
We may now turn to the quadrants of which mention has already been made
on page 4. On the eastern side the first quadrant extends from the
Greenwich meridian to 90° E., on an arc of the Arctic Circle, with two
converging lines each 1410 miles long. In this quadrant we have Arctic
Norway and Russia to Cape Chelyuskin, and the Spitsbergen, Franz Josef,
and Novaya Zemlya groups of islands. It may be called the Spitsbergen
Quadrant. The second quadrant on the eastern side includes the Siberian
coast from Cape Chelyuskin to Bering Strait--the Siberian Quadrant.
The third quadrant, being the first on the western side, includes
Greenland, Baffin’s Bay, and Baffin, North Devon, and Ellesmere
Islands. The fourth quadrant, being the second on the western side,
contains the northern coast of the American continent, and the Parry
Archipelago. It is the American Quadrant.
It is desirable thus to have before us a general sketch of the Arctic
economy before proceeding to the contemplation of the achievements of
discoverers. We shall better appreciate their labours, their splendid
efforts extending over centuries, if we know what they did not know,
the results of their combined victories over the mighty obstacles which
Nature placed in their way.
CHAPTER II
ICE AND ICEBERGS
A knowledge of the nomenclature of polar phenomena is an essential
preliminary to the study of the history of Arctic adventure. We must
know the meanings of words which constantly recur and which form, as
it were, the dialect of our subject. We begin then with the names for
different forms and appearances of polar ice.
It used to be thought that ice could only be formed in creeks and
inlets of the coast. It is now known that young ice forms on the
surface of the open sea, and thickens into dense masses, where it is
not disturbed by waves. _Young ice_ then is the thin film first formed
on the surface of the sea, when the temperature is sufficiently low in
the autumn. When it becomes rather thicker it is called _bay ice_. In
a ruffled sea the pieces of _bay ice_ strike each other on every side,
becoming rounded and having the edges turned up. This is _pancake ice_.
In a year, under favouring circumstances, the ice attains a thickness
of six feet, in two years of nine feet. Sometimes masses of ice
under-run each other, and the result is a thickness of 20 to 50 and
even 100 feet.
A _field_ is an expanse of ice of such extent that its termination is
not bounded by the horizon. A _floe_ is the same as a _field_ except
that its whole extent can be seen. _Floe bergs_, occurring on the
northern shores of the polar ocean, are large masses of sea ice, broken
off from ancient floes of great thickness, and forced upon the shore.
_Ground ice_ is formed on rivers or shallow inlets while the sea, as a
whole, remains unfrozen. _Land ice_ or the _land floe_ is ice attached
to the land.
_Field ice_ varies in thickness from 15 to 20 feet. On its surface
there is a deposit of several feet of snow which melts in the height
of summer, forming numerous fresh-water pools on the ice. Generally
an ice-field is traversed by long ridges of _hummocks_, often 40
to 50 feet high, brought about by the collision of two fields, the
irresistible pressure causing them to rise up.
The term _floe_ is applied to pieces which are from half a mile to a
mile in diameter. Pieces smaller than a floe are called _drift ice_.
When drift ice is so extensive that its limits cannot be seen, it is
called a _pack_, when the pieces do not touch an _open pack_, when they
are pressed together a _close pack_. A _patch_ is a collection of drift
ice, the limits of which are visible. A _stream_ is a drifting line
of drift ice. A _tongue_ is a projecting point of ice, under water.
A _calf_ is a mass of loose ice lying under a floe near its margin,
and, when disengaged from that position, rising with violence to the
surface. _Brash ice_ consists of fragments and nodules, the wreck of
other kinds of ice, and _sludge_ is the term applied to smaller pieces,
generally saturated by the sea.
A bright white line on the horizon, seen over an ice-field, and
denoting more ice, is known as the _ice-blink_. Over land or large
masses of ice it generally has a yellowish tinge. On the other hand a
blue streak on the horizon, denoting open water, is called a _water
sky_. A _lane_ or _lead_ is a narrow track of open water between floes
or pack ice. _Rotten ice_ is old ice partially melted, and in part
honeycombed.
When a ship is forcibly pressed by ice floes on both sides she is said
to be _nipped_, and she is _beset_ when closely surrounded by ice. To
_bore_ is to enter the ice under press of sail or steam and to force a
way through by separating the masses. _Sallying_ is causing a ship to
roll by making the men run in a body from side to side, to relieve her
from adhesion of young ice.
An _ice foot_ along a coast line is caused by the accumulation of the
autumn snow-fall, as it drifts to the beach, being met by sea-water
with a temperature just below the freezing point of fresh water. It is
at once converted into ice, forming a solid wall from the bottom of the
sea, constantly maintained. The upper surface of an ice foot is level
with high water mark. The terrace above this wall, from its edge to the
base of the _talus_, has a width dependent on the land slope. Thus an
ice foot will not be found either where there are perpendicular cliffs
or low coast lines, but only along sloping high lands under special
conditions.
The most striking features in the polar landscape are the icebergs,
and they are wholly derived from the land, the large icebergs from
Greenland, from Spitsbergen much smaller ones. To understand their
origin and movements we must turn to the great continental mass
of Greenland. It consists of a vast ice-cap fringed by a strip of
mountainous coast, which is penetrated by deep fjords and flanked by
numerous off-lying rocks and islands. The area of Greenland is believed
to be 512,000 square miles, of which 320,000 form the inland ice, and
192,000 represent the fringing margin of mountains not permanently
ice-covered. The widest part is 900 miles across; at Disco in 70° N.
it is 480 miles and thence the two coasts converge until they meet in
a point at Cape Farewell in 59° 49′ N. The length of Greenland is 1400
miles. The Greenland ice-cap is by far the largest in the northern
hemisphere--a continuous covering of snow, _névé_[1], or ice resting on
land, known as the “Inland Ice.” From it descend glaciers or rivers of
solid ice, coming from their sources in the ice-cap.
The “Inland Ice” of Greenland rises to a height of 8000 feet, and
the deep fjords run for 80 or 100 miles before they end at the foot
of walls of ice rising abruptly from the water. These walls are the
terminations of glaciers from the inland ice, which, constantly
throwing off icebergs, are called discharging glaciers. There are eight
principal discharging glaciers on the west coast of Greenland[2]. On
the Greenland continent the snow, converted into ice by pressure, has
in the course of ages filled all the valleys, covered the mountain
tops, and formed a smooth plateau far above them, so that the thickness
of the inland ice is measured by thousands of feet. The ice walls at
the heads of the discharging glaciers are driven onwards by the force
of gravity, the pressure of the superincumbent mass behind them being
enormous. In some cases the rate of movement is as much as 28 yards in
a day.
A discharging glacier, on reaching the sea, has a thickness of at
least a thousand feet. It continues to slide along the bottom until it
reaches a point where the depth of the water has sufficient buoyant
force to lift it. Still it continues its course. The action of the
tides gives rise to fissures in the enormous mass, and at length
the foremost part is broken off, and drifts away as an iceberg. The
icebergs are discharged from the fjords in vast numbers, and are
eventually carried by the current of Baffin’s Bay and Davis Strait into
the Atlantic.
The icebergs are alike the grandest and the most beautiful features of
the Arctic seas. Only one-seventh of their bulk appears above water,
yet they may be hundreds of yards in circumference, and their peaks
reach a height of 300 ft. A grander sight can scarcely be conceived
than new-born icebergs drifting out from the fjord of their birthplace.
When the icebergs drift well out into the open sea the weathering
and consequent reduction in size begins. They eventually lose their
equilibrium and capsize. The part that has been long under water
becomes the upper part, and it is now that the bergs assume their most
fantastic shapes. Very often a large piece breaks off from the parent
berg, and falls into the sea, churning it up into creamy waves. This is
called _calving_.
The colour of an iceberg is opaque white. Scattered through the mass,
and sometimes visible on the surface, are strata of deep blue ice,
varying in width from one to several feet. They have an exquisitely
lovely effect, contrasting with the deep white of the rest of the berg.
These blue stripes may be formed by a filling up of the fissures in the
inland ice with water. Such refrigeration of the water in the fissures
may be an important agent in setting these great mountains of ice in
motion. Sometimes there is a passage right through an iceberg. But it
is when a line of icebergs is refracted on the horizon that the polar
scenery is converted into a veritable fairy land. Some are raised
up into lofty pillars. Again a whole chain of them will assume the
appearance of a long bridge or aqueduct, and as quickly change into
a succession of beautiful palaces and temples of dazzling whiteness,
metamorphosed by the fantastic wand of Nature. When the ice breaks up
in summer, the current takes many of the icebergs into the Atlantic.
[Illustration: Effects of Pressure on Antarctic Ice]
“Like a scarlet fleece the snowfield spreads
And the icy fount runs free,
And the bergs begin to bow their heads
And plunge and sail in the sea.”
_Antarctic Ice._
The difference between the two polar areas--the Arctic an ocean
surrounded by continental lands, the Antarctic a continental land
surrounded by oceans--causes the differences in the character of the
ice with which the sea is laden.
The Antarctic continent is covered with an ice-cap, which along some
coasts is buttressed by ice cliffs terminating in the sea, and on
coasts facing east is bordered with lofty mountains through which
glaciers have forced their way. Throughout the Antarctic regions there
is evidence of much more extensive glaciation in former ages. The
glaciers are for the most part receding, although there are proofs
that some are still moving down to the sea. But there are fixed masses
of ice on the sea coast, in the form of cliffs: tongues which could
not have been deposited or fed by existing glaciers. At the period of
maximum glaciation the climate was much milder, and as the severity of
the temperature, due to less precipitation, increased, there must have
been sterile ice conditions, and consequent retirement of glaciers and
ice-fields. These receding glaciers do not supply bergs; and as the
Antarctic icebergs are by far the largest in the world, their origin
must be from some other source.
The great ice barrier of Ross fills a vast bay 400 miles across, and
at least 300 miles deep, with soundings of about 600 ft. There is no
reason why other such barriers should not exist in other parts of the
Antarctic regions as yet unknown. These barriers must be the sources
of the enormous tabular icebergs which float northward in such vast
numbers. Their height is about 200 ft., and their length from one or
two to as much as twenty miles.
Large floes are not very common, but there is a great deal of drifting
ice, broken off from fixed land ice, which forms closely packed or
sailing ice according to the winds. In December this pack ice is
usually 300 miles across from 66° to 71° S. in front of the Ross Sea,
but it lies further south in the King George IV Sea of Weddell. In
February the Ross Sea is navigable, and the pack is scattered.
CHAPTER III
TRIBES AROUND THE POLE
Before we begin to follow the achievements of the great Polar worthies,
it seems desirable to take a brief survey of the dwellers on the
threshold of the Arctic regions; for here are races who have for ages
found homes along the European, Siberian, and American coasts of the
Polar Ocean and in Greenland.
To begin with the Spitsbergen quadrant; the northern coast of Norway,
now known as Finmarken, and the Kola peninsula face the Polar Sea,
but, owing to the warm current from the south, this coast has its
bays and inlets clear of ice throughout the year. The coast is lined
by numerous islands, several of them of considerable size to the west
of the North Cape, and is indented by deep fjords. The most northern
point of Europe is in 71° 11′. Inland there is a flat mountain plateau,
with a height of some 1500 feet, consisting of stony desert with a few
patches of reindeer moss, and some morasses. The plateau is traversed
by rivers such as the Tana and the Alten, which force their way through
accumulations of gravel before reaching the sea. Pine forests have
now receded from the coast to the foot of the gneiss mountains in the
interior, and their place is taken by dwarf birch near the sea. The
Kola peninsula, known to the Russians as the Murman coast, has high
and precipitous granite cliffs and a line of central hills sending the
drainage on one side to the Murman, and on the other side to the White
Sea.
This is the land of the Lapps, encamped for hunting, and on the sea
coast for fishing in summer. Their average height is about 5 ft. 1 in.,
and they have high cheek-bones, small elongated eyes, wide mouths,
little or no beard, and dark straight hair. Their circular tents are
made of coarse cloth supported by branch poles of birch and pine. A
fire is lighted in the centre, and there is an opening at the top by
which the smoke escapes. The Lapps are always wandering for food for
their reindeer--moss and birch leaves, and in winter lichen. One family
requires a herd of at least 200 animals. The Lapps drive their reindeer
in sledges, make cheese from their milk, eat the venison, and make most
of their clothing of the skins. These people can march great distances
with a short quick step and carry very heavy loads. They live to a
considerable age. Their language is Mongolian, and their religion one
of magic and witchcraft, which inspired some awe in the minds of the
Norsemen who enforced tribute from them.
Eastward from the White Sea the nature of the country changes, and
we enter upon the _tundras_, a Russian name for the bare tracts
between the forests to the south, and the shores of the Polar Ocean.
The Petchora is the greatest river of the western tundra, flowing
northwards along the western spurs of the Ural Mountains towards the
gulf of Mezen, where the delta is 120 miles long, the channels winding
in a network round islets and banks which shift their positions at
every thaw. Fifty miles off the coast lies the island of Kolguev, 50
miles long by 40, entirely composed of sand and small stones, all its
deposits being referable to oceanic forces; it is, indeed, essentially
a water and ice-formed island.
The region from the White Sea to the Ural Mountains is inhabited by a
race called Samoyeds, brachycephalic Mongols with a Finnish admixture.
Of short stature, averaging a fraction over 5 feet, they have the short
broad Mongolian face, long oblique eyes, high cheek-bones and flat
noses. Like the Lapps they are dependent for locomotion, clothes, and
food on their herds of reindeer, and they also have dogs for rounding
up the deer. Their boots, loose tunics, and winter cloaks are of
deer-skin, and the Samoyed hut (_choon_) is made of birch poles covered
with deer-skin for winter, and with strips of birch-bark sewn with
sinews in summer. Like the Lapps too, and for the same reason--to drive
off mosquitos--they light their fires inside the _choon_. The Samoyed
sledge, drawn by three to five reindeer abreast, consists of two thick
runners curved upwards in front, about 9 feet long and 30 inches wide,
with four uprights and cross bars. These people worship great numbers
of wooden idols grouped round a seven-headed idol of Kesaks. They come
to the settlement of Khabarova, near the narrow strait which separates
the mainland from the island of Waigatz, during the summer; and they
look upon the latter as the holy island on which they wish to be buried.
Eastward of the Samoyed country is the Siberian coast, extending for
2000 miles of longitude along the Polar Ocean, a vast tundra traversed
by three great rivers--the Obi and its tributary the Irtish, the
Yenisei, and the Lena. To the east of the Lena there are three smaller
rivers, the Yena, Indigirka, and Kolyma, but all have their sources far
to the south of the Arctic Circle. Some other streams, merely rising in
the tundra, flow into the Polar Ocean. These are the Piasina, Taimir,
Khatanga, Anabara, and Olenek between the Yenisei and Lena, and the
Alaseia between the Indigirka and Kolyma.
The three great rivers have remarkable width and volume. The Yenisei
is more than three miles wide for at least a thousand miles, and a
mile wide for another thousand. The 200 miles of delta have a width
of 20 miles. The sudden melting of the winter accumulations of snow
gives rise to floods of great magnitude. Vast harvests of ice are
thus annually poured out. The tundra is generally a slightly rolling
plain sloping towards the rivers, intercepted by deep river valleys
with precipitous sides. The ground is frozen for several hundreds of
feet below the surface, and for eight months, from October to May, the
tundra is a sheet of snow 6 feet thick. In the summer a wild-looking
country appears, full of small lakes, swamps, and streams, swarming
with mosquitos and frequented by myriads of birds. The sun brings to
life a brilliant Alpine flora, and the tundra has a carpet of grass and
mosses.
The Siberian shores of the Polar Ocean forming the edge of the tundra
are for the most part low and flat, and Cape Chelyuskin, the northern
termination of the Taimir Peninsula in 77° 36′ N., is a low promontory.
This Siberian tundra is the coldest region in the world. The earth,
alternating in many places with strata of solid ice, is hard frozen in
perpetuity for a depth of several hundred feet. The mean temperature of
January is -65°, but the interior is much colder than the sea coast,
there being a difference of 20°. At Yakutsk -79° has been recorded, but
the greatest natural cold ever measured is -93° at Verkhoyansk, in 67°
34′, near the river Lena.
A great part of the Siberian coast is quite uninhabited, but some hardy
tribes extend their wanderings to, and even have permanent settlements
on the shores of the polar sea. The Samoyeds, with both reindeer and
dog-sledges, extend their wanderings to the Yenisei. The Ostiaks of the
Obi and upper Yenisei rivers, numbering 27,000, are Finnish and have
close racial affinities with the Samoyeds. They possess a fine breed
of dogs, but live chiefly by fishing. The Yuraks of the Yenisei are a
branch of the Samoyeds. The Tunguses and Yakuts wander further to the
east, as far as the Kolyma.
The mysterious Onkilon or Omoki inhabited the river banks and sea
shores of eastern Siberia. “Once there were more hearths of the Omoki
on the shores of the Kolyma than there are stars in a clear sky.” They
were established in fixed settlements. The remains of their forts,
built of tree trunks, and their tumuli are found, especially near the
banks of the river Indigirka. Nordenskiöld found the ruins of their
house-sites near his winter quarters, and his excavating operations
were rewarded by finding a stone chisel with a bone handle, slate
knives, bone and slate spear-heads, and a bone spoon. Some centuries
ago there was great pressure from the south, and the Onkilon, Omoki,
and Chelagi appear to have been driven northwards. The Omoki are said
to have gone away over the frozen ocean, but it is not known whither.
It is thought that they went to the land said to be visible from Cape
Jakan in clear summer weather. At all events they disappeared.
Their place was taken by the tribe called Chukchis, who occupy the
Siberian coast from Chaun Bay to Cape Chelagskoi. They are divided
into reindeer or inland, and coast Chukchis, each with about 400 tents
representing a population of 2000. The Chukchi race is the finest on
the Siberian coast, the finest eastward of the White Sea. They are
cleanly compared with the Samoyeds, with a higher type of head, more
intelligent-looking, and with a reddish-white complexion. They are a
hardy and thriving people, with many children, but indolent when not
forced to exertion by want of food. They live in large and commodious
tents both winter and summer, which are unlike those of any other
tribe. The Chukchi tents consist of an outer and an inner tent. The
outer one is of seal and walrus skins sewn to each other, and stretched
over wooden ribs bound together by thongs. The inner tent is covered
with reindeer skins and a layer of moss, and is warmed by oil lamps.
The tents are usually pitched on the necks of land separating the
strand lagoons from the sea. The boats of the Chukchis are of walrus
hide sewn together, and stretched on a frame of wood or bone. Their
dog sledges are very light and narrow, with runners of bone covered
with layers of ice, and they use shoes for their dogs, to prevent their
feet from being cut by the ice. Their snow-shoes, for the winter, have
a frame of wood crossed by well-stretched thongs. Expert with lance,
bow and arrows, fishing line and nets, they live on the spoils of the
chase, to which cloudberries are added in favourable seasons, when the
fruit is able to ripen. The Chukchis carve animals and other figures
during the long winter nights, and display considerable skill and
ingenuity in the conversion of all the means that Nature has placed
within their reach to their own uses. They are brave and independent,
intelligent and well disposed, and on the whole must be considered to
be the finest of the Arctic races.
The dogs used for draught by the Siberian tribes have much resemblance
to the wolf. They have long projecting noses, sharp upright ears, and
long bushy tails curling over their backs. They vary in colour, and
the size of a good sledge dog is about 2 feet 7 inches in height, and
3 feet in length. In summer they dig deep burrows in the ground or lie
in the water to avoid mosquitos. The feeding and training of dogs is a
special art, but their natural sagacity is extraordinary.
The homes of the Eskimo along the Arctic coast of North America
present an aspect which differs, in several respects, from those of
the Siberian coast. The American polar rivers are less numerous and
of far less volume than those of Siberia, and for the _tundras_ of
Siberia are substituted the “_barren lands_” of North America, which
are essentially different. The first consists of frozen earth and
ice for an immense depth, the second of low granite and gneiss hills
with rounded summits separated by narrow valleys. Except for limited
deposits of imperfect peat-earth in the valleys, the surface of the
“barren lands” consists of a dry coarse quartzose sand scattered over
with granite boulders. The American Arctic coast is faced by islands,
with narrow straits intervening, except for 800 miles to Bering Strait
where it faces the heavy ice of the Polar Ocean.
This American coast produces edible berries and roots, and on the land
are musk oxen, reindeer, wolverines, wolves, foxes, martens, hares,
and marmots. Salmon, with other fish, frequent the rivers, and many
wading birds, besides ptarmigan and willow grouse, ducks, geese, and
guillemots, come to breed. It is a Sub-arctic, not an Arctic region.
The whole coast, for 1700 miles, affords the means of subsistence.
Here the hardy little Eskimo race has dwelt for long ages, from the
Aleutian peninsula to Hudson’s Bay and Labrador. Their original
position is supposed to have been the coast near Bering Strait, from
Kotzebue Sound to the Colville river. They have preserved themselves,
for generations, by their great faculty of obtaining subsistence by
the most ingenious contrivances, and through hereditary skill and
perseverance. Their tales and traditions go back for untold years, and
with them have been transmitted those methods of hunting and fishing
which long practice, through many generations, has perfected. Living
mainly on seals, their southern neighbours, the Algonquin Indians, gave
these coast people the name of _Askikamo_ or seal-eaters, whence our
word Eskimo, but they call themselves Innuit.
The American coast Eskimos have a dozen winter settlements, four of
which are never altogether abandoned in the summer. They move about for
purposes of bartering and trading, as well as for hunting and fishing;
but they have permanent settlements, like that at Point Barrow, with a
population of 300 souls in 50 huts. These Eskimos average a height of
5 feet 4 inches, with square shoulders, deep chests, and great muscular
strength in the back. The hands are small and thick, and the lower
limbs well proportioned. In walking their tread is firm and elastic,
the step short and quick. Their hair is black and cut in an even line
across the forehead, the complexion fair enough to make the rosy hue of
the cheeks visible, giving place to a weather-beaten appearance before
middle age. The face is flat and plump with high cheek-bones, forehead
low, nose short and flat, eyes dark, sloping obliquely. The mouth is
prominent and large, the jaw-bones strong, with firm and regular teeth.
The expression is one of habitual good humour, but marred by wearing
large lip ornaments of stone.
The dress consists of a frock reaching half down the thighs, with a
hood and loose waist-belt, and a tail of some animal attached to it
behind. The breeches are tied below the knee over long boots. The
clothes are doubled, the inner frock of fawn-skin with the fur inwards,
and the outer of full-grown deer-skin with the hair outwards. The
winter habitations are entered by a passage 25 feet long, terminating
under the floor of the _iglu_ or hut, which is a square chamber from
12 to 14 feet by 8 or 10. The walls are of stout plank, and the roof
has a double slope with a square window on one side, covered with a
transparent membrane stretched by two pieces of whalebone. The oil
burner or fireplace is the most important piece of furniture. It is a
flat stone, hollowed on the upper surface, and placed on two horizontal
pieces of wood fixed in the side of the hut a foot from the floor. A
flame is kept up from whale or seal oil, by means of wicks made of dry
moss. The summer tents are conical, of deer or seal-skins, on poles
slung together by a stout thong.
In October the sea becomes closed and the men set nets under the ice
for fish, also angling with hook and line through ice holes. In January
they set out in search of reindeer, hollowing out dwellings in the
snow-drifts. Their hunting employment lasts until April, when they
return home to get ready their boats for whaling. In summer they are
scattered over the country in search of seals and birds.
These Eskimos are described as cheerful and good-humoured,
quick-tempered but placable, and with strong conjugal and parental
affections. They are shrewd and observant and some exhibit considerable
capacity. Far to the eastward, in Boothia, the Eskimos live in snow
houses instead of wooden huts. These snow houses are built of large
blocks of snow carefully laid and made in the shape of a dome with a
square hole for light. The dog sledges of the Boothians are rude, and
the runners made of folded seal-skin carefully coated with ice.
Still further east, in Melville Peninsula at the head of Hudson’s
Bay, the Eskimos average an inch or two more in height. Instead of
lip ornaments, they tattoo the face, arms, and hands, and as with the
Boothians their winter habitations are snow huts. Besides dog sledges
they have _kayaks_ 25 feet long, with a width of 21 and depth of 10½
inches, but no _umiaks_ or women’s boats. Their dog sledges are heavy,
with runners of bone scarped and lashed together. Their weapons are
spears, bows and arrows, and bird darts used with a throwing-stick.
Thus the Eskimos spread themselves over a vast extent of country,
wandering from Bering Strait to Labrador, a distance of 2000 miles.
They adapted themselves to their environment alike in the construction
of their dwellings and in their contrivances for fishing and hunting.
They are equally at home whether the building material is plank,
drift wood, stone or snow; and with the same versatility they adapt
their weapons and sledges to the materials within their reach. These
Eskimos, by reason of their vigour and courage, of their shrewdness
and intelligence, have been among the greatest and most successful
wanderers on the face of the earth.
The problem of the peopling of Greenland has been more difficult
to solve. It is now clear that the Eskimos, as we call them, who
established themselves in Greenland, originally came from the north. We
therefore seek for the evidence of movement of Arctic people. The most
remarkable migration was that of the Onkilon, Omoki, and other Siberian
tribes during a long period of years, owing apparently to pressure
from the south. We are told that their abandoned _yourts_ may still be
seen near the Indigirka and Cape Chelagskoi. As we have already said,
there is a tradition that they wandered away from Cape Jakan to the
land in sight in the distance, which we now know to be Wrangell Island,
and thence across the ice to the American continent. Finding the coast
already occupied they went northwards and eastwards seeking for a home.
They must have come in very small parties and at long intervals, for
the desolate country could not sustain a large migration. Wandering
along the coasts of Banks Island, they came to a region which, owing to
the absence of open water during long intervals, was unable to support
them.
This is one of the most wonderful migrations ever performed. It is
unrecorded. But the long route is strewn with abundant vestiges of
marches, during centuries perhaps, over the snow and ice, in search of
an abiding-place. Many must have perished. We found relics at frequent
intervals from Melville Island to Baffin’s Bay. Their appearance
and the lichens growing upon them, justify the conclusion that the
movement took place centuries ago[3]. The relics consist of stone
_iglus_ or winter huts, circles of stones to keep down summer tents,
stone fox-traps, stone lamps, graves built with stone slabs, and many
articles brought from a distance. Among these were portions of the
bones of whales used to support the roof of an _iglu_, other pieces
cut into a shape for running melted snow into a vessel, pieces of the
bone runners of sledges, and a willow switch 2 feet 3 inches long,
covered with lichens[4]. These vestiges are numerous and continuous
from Melville Island to Wellington Channel. Then the traces form two
branches; one along the coast of North Devon to Cape Warrender and the
north water of Baffin’s Bay, the other up Wellington Channel and the
western coast of Ellesmere Island, then across the land to Sir Thomas
Smith’s Channel. The most northern traces are near the 82nd parallel,
where the framework of a wooden sledge, a stone lamp, and a snow
scraper of walrus tusk were found[5]. Further north, life could not be
supported, and the wanderers wended their way southward to Greenland.
Perhaps a few followed the musk oxen and reached the east coast.
Thus, we may safely believe, was Greenland first peopled. A further
proof is that they have the word _umingmak_ (a musk ox), which does not
exist in Greenland, but was met with in the far northern wanderings and
the tradition handed down. Very gradually the Eskimos worked their way
south along the west coast of Greenland. But they were in the region
between Disco Bay and Holsteinborg in a far-off prehistoric period.
There have been rich finds of implements in North Greenland (68° to
71°) in deep deposits of great age[6]. The Eskimo appeared much later
in South Greenland.
The Greenland Eskimo differed very little from his congener of the
North American coast. He was dolichocephalic, with a short broad face,
small slanting eyes, cheeks broad, prominent, and round, hair straight
and black, and about the same average height. In Greenland the Eskimos
passed the winter in _iglus_ or stone houses, the floors of which are
sunk some feet below the surface of the ground. In summer they lived in
skin tents, while their property was moved from one hunting encampment
to another in their _umiaks_ or women’s boats, which are 30 feet long
by 5 wide and 2½ deep, flat-bottomed, and made of seal-skins stretched
on a frame. The _kayak_ or hunter’s canoe is the triumph of Eskimo art.
It also consists of seal-skin stretched on a frame, but the frame,
flat-bottomed and sharp at both ends, is designed on the most perfect
lines for speed and buoyancy. It is entirely covered except a hole for
the hunter, who ties a waterproof, which is attached all round to the
_kayak_, around his waist when seated. Then, with his double paddle,
he faces the wildest seas with dauntless courage, and with his harpoon
secures his prey with unerring aim. The Greenland _kayak_ is the most
perfect application of art and ingenuity to the pursuit of necessaries
of life to be found within the Arctic Circle.
The use of the _kayak_ among the Eskimo of Hudson’s Bay makes it
probable that, at one time, there was some intercourse by way of Davis
Strait.
[Illustration: Interior of Greenland Hut]
[Illustration: Greenlanders dancing]
Equally ingenious is the use of an air bladder attached to their
harpoons to retard the seal in its rush when struck, and to keep the
harpoon floating if the quarry is missed. The point of the harpoon
is also so fitted that, when the seal is struck, it slips out of the
shaft, obviating the danger of the shaft being broken by the animal’s
struggles, and of the barb slipping out of its body. The point is
attached to the shaft by a thong.
Seals provide material for clothes, boots, tents, and food. The
Greenland dogs are excellent for their purpose and draw sledges 30 or
40 miles a day over smooth ice easily; but the dog as a draught animal
is an Asiatic invention. The Greenland sledge consists of a couple of
boards for runners, 6 feet long, with cross pieces, and two upright
poles for guiding. All is kept together by seal-skin thongs, thus
affording elasticity. On smooth ice a pace of 16 miles an hour can
be attained, the load for dogs being nearly 500 lb. Eskimo necessary
furniture consists of lamps, wooden tubs, dishes, and stone pots. Their
arms are bows and arrows, bird darts, javelins, and lances.
The wood required by the Greenland Eskimo is provided by the Arctic
current. Flowing down the east coast of Greenland it is diverted by
the Gulf Stream, turns round Cape Farewell, and flows up the coast of
Greenland bearing abundance of drift wood. Again meeting the Baffin Bay
current, it is turned again down into the Atlantic. This drift wood
consists of coniferous trees which must come from Siberia. Pieces 60
feet long are found on the coast so far north as 60° 30′, one yielding
3 cords of wood in 63° N., and pieces of 12 to 30 feet are not uncommon.
The _Angekoks_, like the Shamans of Siberia, are the priests and
physicians of the Eskimos, who believe in a great first cause, and in
spirits, especially evil spirits, who have to be propitiated. They have
myths and traditions, but none that throw any certain light on their
origin and history. By far the best account of the arms, tools, and
utensils of the Eskimos of West Greenland is by Porsild[7].
The most interesting tribe of Eskimos is that which was discovered by
Sir John Ross on the north coast of Baffin’s Bay, probably descended
from the last Asiatic arrivals. Having no canoes their progress south
was stopped at the curving shores of Melville Bay, 300 miles round,
nearly all occupied by glaciers coming down to the sea. Ross named them
the “Arctic Highlanders.” They had dogs and sledges but no _kayaks_,
consequently there was no communication with the Greenland Eskimos to
the south.
The coast from Cape York to Etah, within Smith Sound, is the country
of the Arctic Highlanders. It is broken by deep fjords, separated
by magnificent headlands, the breeding-places of guillemots and
kittiwakes, and the favourite home of millions of little auks or
_rotches_. The Arctic Highlanders are stout well-built little men,
thick-set and muscular, with round chubby faces, oblique eyes, and
small and very thick hands. With marvellous endurance they are
courageous, are ready to close with a bear, and have been known to
enter into a conflict of four hours’ duration with a fierce walrus, on
weak ice. Without wood, without bows and arrows, without canoes, they
still secure abundance of food with their spears and darts. In summer
they live in seal-skin tents, in winter their habitations are circular
stone huts built at permanent stations along the coast. Their utensils
consist of shallow cups made of seal-skin for receiving the water as it
melts from a lump of snow and flows down a shoulder blade of a walrus,
and of stone lamps. They eat their food raw and in large quantities.
Their weapons are a lance of narwhal ivory and a harpoon, and nets to
catch the little auks and other birds. The Arctic Highlanders possessed
knives of meteoric iron, made by inserting in a row along a slit made
in a haft of stone or ivory a number of thin flakes, carefully chipped
to a circular form. This meteoric iron came from three huge boulders at
the back of Bushnan Island, near Cape York.
The Arctic Highlander wears a shirt of bird-skin neatly sewn together
next to the skin, with the soft down inwards, over which there is
a loose _kapetah_ or jumper of fox-skin, tight round the neck,
where a hood is attached to it. The _nessak_ or hood is lined with
bird-skins and trimmed with fox fur. The breeches, called _nannuk_,
are of bear-skin and come down to the knees, and above are just in
contact with the _kapetah_, when the wearer is standing upright. On
the feet bird-skin socks are worn with a padding of grass, over which
come bear-skin boots. By means of their sledges these hunters can
move swiftly to the bear-hunting grounds, and no hunters in the world
display more indomitable courage and presence of mind, or more skill
and judgment in the exercise of their craft. Their number, when first
discovered, was about 300. From an ethnological point of view they are
the most interesting of all savage tribes, by reason of their wonderful
exodus and their isolation.
We have now passed in review all the dwellers on the Arctic Threshold,
from Lapland round the northern shores of Siberia and America to
Greenland, considering them with reference to their environment, and
we have traced the wanderings of the Onkilon until we find the last
remnant of the exodus on the northern shore of Baffin’s Bay. Such a
brief survey is a necessary introduction to the history of Arctic
enterprise.
CHAPTER IV
ULTIMA THULE
The first tidings of the existence of the Arctic Regions that reached
the civilised world were due to the voyage of a Greek navigator of
great knowledge and ability. The people of the Ionian city of Phocaea
in Asia Minor, scorning to submit to Median domination, had formed a
very flourishing commercial colony at Massilia, near the mouth of the
Rhône, on the southern coast of Gaul. Strange products reached them
from unknown regions to the north, coming over great distances and
then down the river Rhône. These products included tin and amber. The
interest of the able and imaginative Greeks of Massilia was aroused,
and a strong desire was felt that the regions whence this tin and amber
came should be discovered. Fortunately the colony possessed a man
eminently fitted to conduct an exploring expedition, in the person of
Pytheas, an astronomer and mathematician. As it is alleged by Polybius
that Pytheas was in poor circumstances, it is probable that the voyage
he undertook was not his own venture, but that he was placed in command
of a government expedition. It is certain that he prepared for his
perilous enterprise with great care. He first carefully fixed his
point of departure at Massilia by erecting a large gnomon divided into
120 parts. Observing its shadow at noon of the day of the solstice he
found that its length was 42 parts of the gnomon, less one-fifth, that
is 41⅘ths to 120, or 209 to 600. This proportion gave 70° 47′ 50″ for
the altitude of the sun. The length of the longest day was 15 hours 15
minutes. The obliquity of the ecliptic was found to be 23° 51′ 15″,
which was deducted from the altitude. The complement of the result was
the latitude of the place less the semi-diameter of the sun. With the
semi-diameter added, the result is almost exactly the latitude of the
Marseilles observatory, 43° 18′ N. Such accuracy is remarkable. The
next step taken by Pytheas was to fix upon the nearest star to the
pole as a guide for steering the ship. He found that there was no star
on the pole, but that there were two very close to it. These would
have been, in those days, β Ursæ Minoris and α Draconis, and Pytheas
used one of these as his pole-star. During the voyage the latitudes
were obtained by observation of the longest days. This involved long
detentions at some of the ports.
The nearest approximation we can get to the date of the voyage of
Pytheas is the time of Alexander the Great and of Aristotle, about 330
B.C.[8]
A Grecian ship in those days was strongly built on regular principles,
with sails on the mainmast, and rowing power. A large vessel would be
150 to 170 feet long, with a tonnage of 400 to 500, much larger and
more seaworthy than the crazy little _Santa Maria_ in which, 1800 years
afterwards, Columbus discovered the New World.
Well provided with all the knowledge of his time, Pytheas weighed
anchor and began his coasting voyage by the Pillars of Hercules and
the Sacred Promontory, the western limit of the known world. The Greek
ships of the time averaged about 50 miles a day. Sailing on along the
coast, Oestrymnis (Cape Finistère) was reached, the probable farthest
point of Himilco the Carthaginian. The island of Uxisama (Ushant) is
mentioned, with an observation for the length of the longest day equal
to 49° N. Thence a direct course was shaped for Cantion (Kent) where
there was a long stay, and the island of Britain was thus discovered.
Here Pytheas made a long journey into the interior, visiting Belerion
(Cornwall) and the tin mines, and noting several details respecting the
habits and customs of the people, our remote ancestors. In those days
Britain was almost entirely in a wild state. The valleys were covered
with primeval forests, their lower parts were occupied by vast swamps,
and it was only on the downs and hill-ranges that there were _gwents_
or open clearings. Still, the people raised wheat and other cereals,
had domestic animals, iron tools and arms, wooden chariots with iron
fittings, and ornaments of bronze and gold. Pytheas must have traversed
the great forest of Anderida on his way to the tin mines, and he found
the people hospitable. They did not use open threshing-floors owing
to the rains, but threshed their corn in large barns. They stored the
corn in pits under ground, and made fermented liquor from barley, which
they used as wine. Their houses were of wood and thatch, and Pytheas
mentions the war chariots, but adds that the chiefs were generally at
peace with each other.
When Pytheas returned to his ship in some haven of Cantion he proceeded
northwards. His next observation gave 17 hours as the length of the
longest day. This would be in latitude 54° 2′ N., somewhere in the
neighbourhood of Flamborough Head. Still coasting to the north in his
great voyage of discovery, Pytheas came to a point at the northern end
of Britain which, by a similar method of finding the latitude, must
have been Tarbat Ness in Ross-shire. As he advanced towards the Arctic
Circle he found that the cultivated grains and fruits and almost all
the domesticated animals gradually disappeared. The people in the far
north were reduced to living mainly on herbs and roots. The intrepid
explorer still pressed onwards to discover the northernmost point of
the British Isles. Coasting along the shores of Caithness and the
Orkney Islands he finally arrived, conjecturally, at Unst Island, the
northernmost of the Shetland Isles. Pytheas gives the name of Orcas to
this extreme point of the British Isles, a name which in later times
was transferred to the Orkneys or Orcades.
It was at Orcas that Pytheas received information of an Arctic land
called _Thule_[9], at a distance of six days’ sail, and near the frozen
ocean. There was no night there in the summer solstice. During one
season the night was continuous, and during another it was continual
day. Pytheas does not say that _Thule_ was an island, nor that he had
been there. It was possibly the coast of Norway in the neighbourhood
of Alstenoe and the Vefsen-fjord. Pytheas also received reports of the
physical aspect of the Arctic region beyond Thule. His account has been
turned into nonsense by Strabo, copying from the explorer’s adverse
critic Polybius. Yet even as we have it, the real meaning is clear
enough. It is a good description of a fog at the edge of broken-up
pack ice and sludge, “which can neither be travelled over nor sailed
through.”
Pytheas was thus not only the discoverer of Britain, but the first
explorer who received information respecting the Arctic regions. He
was, as Professor Rhys has truly said, “one of the most intrepid
explorers the world has seen.” To have taken five observations of the
lengths of the longest days the voyage must have occupied about six
years. Sailing south from Orcas, Pytheas returned to Cantion, and
eventually to his home at Massilia, whence he is said to have set out
on another expedition to examine the mouth of the Elbe, and the sources
of amber. He lived to return once more to his home.
Pytheas wrote one, if not two books to describe the events and results
of his memorable voyages. Both are unfortunately lost. We only know the
story from the extracts in Strabo and other later writers[10].
The Ionians of Phocaea and Massilia had been trained as mariners and
students for generations, alike in the mother city and in the colony,
and all their admirable qualities seem to culminate in the life work
of Pytheas. His learning and his discoveries form the fitting crown of
their history. Pytheas was a geographer and an explorer in the highest
sense. For he must have devoted long years to qualify himself for
his great task, and his attainments placed him in the first rank of
nautical astronomers before he undertook his voyages into the unknown
ocean.
CHAPTER V
FIRST CROSSING OF THE THRESHOLD
There is one part of the Arctic and Sub-arctic regions, and one only,
where a country retaining the warmth and the adaptability of the
temperate zone as an abode for civilised man extends far beyond the
Arctic Circle, and, as it were, connects the vast tracts of ice and
snow with the habitable earth. This is the Scandinavian peninsula.
It stretches northwards to 71° 10′ N., maintaining a temperature
throughout its length which renders it fit for the abode of a race of
men who have been leaders in progress and civilisation. This remarkable
phenomenon is due to the flow of warm water from the Atlantic, which
passes northward along the coast of Norway. The Atlantic current has
the effect of ameliorating a climate which would otherwise be of Arctic
severity, while at the same time it keeps off and checks the polar
icebergs in their southerly drift, so that ice is never seen on the
northern shores of Finmarken. Reclus has very truly said that this
current has played a chief part in the modern history of mankind.
The Norsemen appear to have arrived in the Scandinavian peninsula, and
superseded the Finnish tribes, a century or two before the Christian
era. The physical geography of the region moulded the thoughts and
lives of the new-comers. With a noble foundation to build upon, their
character was evolved by their environment. The stormy seas and
impenetrable fogs, the glories of the fjords with their mighty cliffs
and glittering cascades, the valleys and lakes, the dense forests and
mysterious ice fjells--all were made to form settings for the long
array of fancies created by the glowing enthusiasm of the Norsemen.
But the imagination of these people had a still wider and loftier
range. Influenced by the glories of nature which surrounded them, they
sought for the origin and first impulses of created things and strove
to make their conceptions co-extensive with the universe, while they
peopled nature with supernatural agencies of all kinds. Yet there was
a proud humility in the loftiest flights of their imaginations. They
elaborated a mythology and cosmogony, but alone among religious beliefs
that of the Norsemen recognised that there must be some greater and
higher order of things to follow that which, in the youth of the world,
sufficed partly to satisfy their own aspirations. Fimbultyn, “he who
sent the heat,” the great Helper, the mighty God, would guide the new
order and live for ever.
The most beautiful myth in the northern mythology is that of Arctic
day and night, of Balder and Hoder. It has been the theme of modern
poets from Œhlenschlager to Matthew Arnold. The death of the Sun-God,
the Deity of light and beneficence, through the treachery of Lok, but
by the unknowing hand of his blind brother Hoder, the God of Darkness,
is a myth the meaning of which is obvious. But the story of his death,
of the mourning of all created things, and of the efforts to save the
beloved one from Hela, the Goddess of Death, is deeply pathetic. The
funeral of Balder attended by the whole pantheon, including giants and
dwarfs, each deity with all his legendary attendants, and the launch
of the flaming ship bearing the body into the silent sea, reaches the
highest flight of poetic imagination.
Then Hermod, the messenger of the Gods, is sent by the All-father, on
Odin’s horse Sleipner, with an order for the death-goddess Hela in
Nifelheim, her abode of ice and snow, to release Balder:--
“And he came down to ocean’s northern strand
At the drear ice, beyond the giant’s home:
Thence on he journeyed o’er the fields of ice
Still north, until he met a stretching wall
Barring his way.”
The Arctic Circle! He puts Sleipner at it, the celestial steed clears
it at a bound, and Hermod, the first Arctic explorer, enters Nifelheim.
But the mission fails, for there was one thing that Odin could not do,
and that was to undo what he himself had ruled. So Hela held her prey
until the twilight of the Gods, when the old order passed away.
The Norsemen arrived in the Scandinavian peninsula, as we have seen, a
century or two before the Christian era, and the whole body of their
beliefs and legends, comprised in the Eddas, was written down mainly in
the 14th century, so their gradual conception and evolution occupied
several centuries. The lives of these people were passed in a hard
struggle with Nature, in wild adventures by fjord and forest, and in
constant warfare. The gods and giants seemed very near to them, to some
even visible in those young days of the world. In the black clouds
rolling down from the ice-fjells they saw the mighty Thor followed
by the hosts of Asgard, just as they heard his pealing thunder. In
the clang of battle the Val maidens, sweeping through the air on
their celestial steeds, were realities. The temples and sacrificial
ceremonies of the Norsemen were sacred. The seat-posts with deities
carved on the ends, generally Odin and Thor, were the most venerated
possessions of the chiefs.
As time passed, the districts along the coasts and in the more
accessible parts of the interior rapidly became populous. Constant
strife necessitated chiefs and leaders, but the people loved their
freedom, and the right of speaking and voting in their assemblies. A
free race, divided into many communities by the obstacles of Nature,
continued to work out its destinies, and to multiply on the isles and
fjords until the crowded state of their homes and the wild spirit of
adventure drove them to the building of ships and the search for new
homes beyond sea.
It is the proud boast of their descendants that the Norsemen were the
first people who definitely abandoned the coast, and sailed boldly
over the open sea. They crossed the North Sea to Shetland, Orkney,
Caithness, and even Ireland, probably as early as the 6th century.
They were also established in the Lofoten Islands and on the borders
of Finmarken in those early days. There the tales of their folk-lore
seemed to lure them further into the Arctic wilds. The fishermen of
Værö and Röst, the most southerly of the Lofotens, when out at sea in
stormy weather, fancied that they got a glimpse of a green and fertile
island which they called Udröst, sometimes Alfland or the “elf land.”
But when they sailed towards its shore, it always disappeared in the
clouds. It was said that only the wise and good have ever been on
Udröst, and then only in thought. So says the Lofoten song:--
“In the westerly sea, off the Halgoland shore,
An isle floats alluring and bright.
But as soon, we are told in the fishermen’s lore
As a sail comes completely in sight,
The clouds sink around it in darkness and mist
And the ship turns away on her keel;
For no man can land on those shores of the blest,
Nor can mortal its secrets reveal.
’Tis only in thought that wisdom can dwell
On the secrets of ice and of sea;
’Tis thus that the beautiful Alfland may well
Yield her wealth to the true devotee.
Let us stand then on Udröst if only in thought,
And there find the knowledge we seek:
The grand northern story as truthfully told
When we learn it from Andenäs peak.”
We hear the first authentic Arctic story from England’s own king,
Alfred--the most truly great, the wisest, and the best monarch that
ever ruled over any country. Always working for the good of his people,
he translated the geographical work of Orosius for their benefit,
inserting his own priceless additions and comments. Among them is the
narrative of an Arctic voyage obtained at first hand from a native of
that Halgoland whence Udröst was sometimes visible on the horizon. The
explorer, named Ohthere, came to Alfred’s court to tell his story, and
so it was saved from oblivion by being inserted in the King’s edition
of Orosius. King Alfred describes Ohthere as a very wealthy man, owning
600 reindeer, horned cattle, sheep, and swine; as having a small extent
of tilled land, but deriving the chief part of his revenues from the
tribute of the Finns (as the Lapps were called) in skins and feathers,
whalebone, and hides for making ropes. Ohthere gave the length of a
walrus as 15 feet, and of a whale as 96 feet. He told the King that the
best whale-fishing was off the coast of Halgoland. Ohthere’s own home
was at Gibostad on the mainland of Senjen in the province of Halgoland,
“the land of fire,” or “of the northern lights.” It was well within the
Arctic Circle.
Ohthere wished to discover the coast beyond his ken, so he undertook
a most adventurous voyage to the north and east, keeping the wild
rocky shore on his starboard hand, and the wide Arctic sea on what he
called his _boec bord_. He explored the whole of the Finmarken coast,
mentioning the business of fishing for walrus or “horse-whales” as he
called them, and he also described the Lapps, who were met with up to
the North Cape.
Ohthere reached the most northern point of Europe. This is Nordkyn
or Kinnerodde, at the eastern entrance of the Laxe fjord; but on the
island of Magerö the low projecting spit of Knivskjärodde reaches still
further north to 71° 11′. The bold black headland of the North Cape,
with its flat summit and nearly vertical strata of mica slate, has a
height of 1005 feet, but a mile less northing. The adventurous Ohthere
was thus the first to round the North Cape. He then shaped a course
eastward and finally entered the White Sea, sailing round the Kola
Peninsula as far as the mouth of the Karzuga river, and coming into
touch with people called Terfinna and Beorma. The former were the Finns
of Ter, the old name for the Kola Peninsula; the Beormas were the North
Karelians. This was the extent of Ohthere’s discoveries as recorded by
King Alfred.
In those far-off days, when Alfred the Great was devoting his life to
the good of his people, England was in the course of being made, and
the Norsemen were destined to have no small share in the making of it.
But it is worthy of note that even then the work of polar exploration
and the achievements of explorers were the subjects of investigation by
Alfred, an interest which has been continued for a thousand years.
[Illustration: Viking Ship]
The difficulty of communication by land, and the innumerable bays
and fjords in the country of the Norsemen soon led to extensive
ship-building, each district doubtless following its own designs, to
some extent, in build and rig. Fortunately we know exactly the build
of the Viking ships, for one dating from the 9th century was discovered
in 1880, buried in the blue clay at Gokstad near Sandefjord[11]. This
Viking ship is of oak, clinker-built, fastened and riveted with iron
bolts. In those days conifers had by no means superseded oaks in
southern Norway. The ship has the lines of an excellent sea boat, 78
feet long over all, with a 66 ft. length of keel and 16 feet beam, but
only 4 feet in depth. There was a mast and a long yard with a square
sail, as well as 64 rowlocks for oars in the third row of planks from
the top. The steer oar was fitted on the starboard quarter of the
vessel, which was sharp at both ends and drew very little water. Wooden
shields were hung round the bulwarks and the vessel contained utensils
for cooking, bedsteads, and various other articles. Hundreds of such
ships carried the Norse warriors along the coasts or to distant shores,
some of them, such as the “Ormen lange” of Olaf Tryggvason, being
probably much larger than the interesting relic of Gokstad.
The time came--as well in Norway as in Denmark and Sweden, and as it
appears to come sooner or later in all lands--when the most powerful
of the numerous chiefs forced the rest to submit, and united all into
one kingdom. “Harold of the fair hair” descended from the Ynglings
of Upsala, children of the God Frey, was the chief of Ringerike and
Vestfold in the south of Norway, a valiant and persistent warrior. He
succeeded in subjugating the whole country, and founded a dynasty which
lasted for five centuries. Harold reigned from 860 to 930 A.D. His
reign was the period of adventurous expeditions and of colonisation.
The population was increasing, and some of the chiefs could not brook
the enforced allegiance to an overlord. The spirit of adventure and
discovery was in the air. The northern Vikings loved the freedom of a
roving life upon the ocean. Brave and fearless, they were controlled
only by their code of honour, and the precepts of Odin’s rules
contained in the Havamel or high song of Odin, and in the lay of the
Valkyrie Sigfrida alone restrained them. Their fleets were the terror
of all the coasts of western Europe, and no creek or haven was safe
from the ravages of their leaders. Such a man was Rolf the Ganger, a
chief in Nordmore, who finally established himself as Duke of Neustria.
His commanding ability and statesmanship were shown by his great and
enduring achievement. Other Vikings settled in the Faroes, Shetlands,
Orkneys, Caithness, and the chief harbours of Ireland. Naddod seized
the Faroes, and in 863 Gardar Svafarson reached the coast of Iceland.
It is curious that both in the Faroes and in Iceland Irish monks were
found, who had gone there to find lonely places as dwellings for
anchorites. They went away on the arrival of the Norsemen, as they
would not live with heathens.
The great event of the period of Harold Haarfager was the colonisation
of Iceland. It was a forbidding home, yet the leading men of the
Norwegian fjords settled there in numbers. Ingulf Ormsson, who came in
875, was the first. Two years afterwards Gunnbjörn Ulfson followed,
sailing westward until he discovered islets (doubtless on the east
coast of Greenland) which were afterwards called Gunnbjörn’s Skerries.
He turned back, and shaped a course for Iceland, which he had passed
without knowing it.
Iceland is separated from Norway by a wide and stormy sea with a depth
of 2000 fathoms, while it has a sub-oceanic connection with the Faroes
and the Hebrides by banks and ridges with a depth of only 100 fathoms.
The great volcanic mass of the island embraces an area of 40,450 square
miles just south of the Arctic Circle and consists of snowy fjells
pierced by active volcanoes and very difficult of access. It has two
plateaux, built up by volcanic rocks of older and of newer formation.
The two deep bays of Breidifjord and Hunafloi divide the island into
two separate table-lands connected by an isthmus only 4½ miles across,
but 750 feet high. The only habitable parts of Iceland were and still
are the narrow strips of land along the sea shore, and even the famous
place where the Thingvalla or assembly of the people was held is in a
plain which was formerly the bed of a lava stream, between the geyser
district and Reykjavik.
The voyage to Iceland was long and dangerous, the difficulty of
colonising insuperable to all but men endowed with the Viking spirit.
The first settlers sent tidings that the sea abounded in fish, and
that cattle could live through the winter, so the tide of immigration
continued. The Icelanders elected their Judges, established district
courts, and were ruled by their own freely-elected _Althing_ or
assembly, held on the banks of the lake called the Thingvalla Vatn.
This land of freedom, under the Arctic Circle, became the fountain of
northern mythology and history, and it is to the Skalds of Iceland
that we owe nearly all our knowledge of the beliefs, as well as of the
deeds, of the ancient Norsemen. Iceland was also the stepping-stone for
further Arctic discovery.
The settlement of Iceland, with the roll of settlers, is recorded in a
famous work written by Ari Froði (1067–1148) called the _Landnamabók_.
CHAPTER VI
THE NORSEMEN IN GREENLAND
The enthralling story of the discovery of Greenland and America, as the
actual beginning of great Arctic enterprises, must be introduced by
some account of the authorities on which it rests, for parts of it have
been the subjects of much criticism and dispute.
The earliest writer who mentions the deeds of the Norsemen in Greenland
was Adam of Bremen, a Canon of the cathedral of that city and master
of the cathedral school, A.D. 1070. In those days Svend Estridsen, a
nephew (sister’s son) of England’s King Canute, was King of Denmark,
whose memory was a storehouse of facts concerning the history of the
Scandinavian races. Adam of Bremen accordingly made a journey to
his court and spent some time there, and the King was his authority
on all he was able to write relating to Greenland. Adam’s testimony
is, therefore, earlier than, and quite independent of Icelandic
manuscripts, and becomes a test for the truth of the sagas and
traditions. In this lies its great importance as an authority.
The detailed Icelandic narratives are two or three centuries later.
The first is the _Hauksbok_, composed not later than 1334. Its name
is derived from Hauk who was Lagman of Iceland in 1295, and in whose
handwriting a portion is written. It contains the Saga of Erik the
Red. The second manuscript is the Flatey book or Codex Flateyensis, so
called from having belonged to one Finsson who lived on Flat Island,
near the Breidifjord in Iceland. It is now in the Royal library at
Copenhagen, having been brought from Iceland by Thormod Torfason
(Torfœus) as a present to King Frederick III of Denmark. It was written
about the year 1387 and contains the Saga of Olaf Tryggvason, King of
Norway, in which two narratives are interpolated, the story of Erik the
Red and the story of the Greenlanders.
The two versions in the Hauk book and the Flatey book differ materially
in the details, but the main facts are the same. The version of the
Hauk book is the older and appears to be the more reliable, and in
the days of Hauk there was still communication with the Greenland
colony. Two complete vellum texts of the Hauk book survive. The
work, in addition to the Saga of Erik the Red, contains the Saga of
Thorfin Karlsefni. Hauk, who was a descendant of Karlsefni, one of the
Greenland heroes, died in 1334.
We learn from the Hauksbok that there was a man named Thorwald, living
in the district of Stavanger, in the south of Norway, with his son Erik
the Red. They had killed a man, and in consequence fled to Iceland and
settled at Hornstrandir in Haukadal, on the north shore of Iceland’s
north-west peninsula. Here Thorwald died, and his son married a widow
named Thorhild who bore him three sons, Thorstein, Leif, and Thorwald.
He also had a natural daughter named Freidis.
Erik soon got into trouble again. His thralls caused a landslide on
Valthiof’s farm, for which a kinsman of Valthiof, named Eyulf the Foul,
killed them. Erik retaliated by slaying Eyulf, as well as his friend
Hrafn “the duellist,” and being attacked by the friends of the men he
had killed, was driven from Haukadal. He then went to settle on two
small islands, called Oxney and Sudrey, at the mouth of Breidifjord,
naming his dwelling-place Erikstad. Here he was soon again in trouble
with a neighbour named Thorgest, with whom he quarrelled. Two of the
sons of Thorgest with some others were killed, and the two enemies
began to keep large bodies of men at their homesteads.
The people of Iceland were divided, but the adherents of Erik the Red
were the weakest. When the Court met at Thorsness-thing, in spite of
the efforts of his friends, Erik and his people were condemned to
outlawry.
[Illustration: The South-Western Extremity of Greenland, showing the
Norse Settlement of EAST BYGD]
While Erik was concealed from his enemies who were seeking for him,
a ship was equipped by his friends, for he had resolved to go in
search of land which Gunnbjörn, son of Ulf the Crow, reported that he
had seen. Erik, with his family and people, sailed out to sea from
Sneefells Jokul, and the famous voyage began, in the year 983. Sailing
westward, the adventurers rounded Hoitserkr, as they called Cape
Farewell, and the south-west coast of Greenland was discovered, known
afterwards as the East Bygd.
The wanderers found that they had reached a land with a climate like
that of Iceland. The great ice current, flowing down the east coast of
Greenland and diverted by the Gulf Stream, sweeps round Cape Farewell
and is closely packed along this shore until late in the season.
Almost the whole coast, with numerous islands and entrances to the
deep fjords, may be taken in at a glance from Cape Farewell, or at
least from Cape Christian to Cape Desolation. It comprises the whole
of the ancient colony of the East Bygd. Great precipices face the sea,
with black mountains, 3000 to 4000 ft. high, rising above them. Here
and there, between them, a glimpse is caught of the glistening inland
ice. Between the rocks and precipices the openings to the six deep
fjords can be made out, which penetrate from 30 to 40 miles inland. The
fjords, when frozen over in the winter, are colder than the sea coast,
but they are warmer in summer, and there is then a rich vegetation.
Groves of willows 8 feet high and of birch trees 14 feet high, rising
out of thick beds of juniper, angelica, alchemilla, and several berries
well known to the Norsemen, give beauty to the shores of the inner
creeks. Nor is suitable pasture wanting for cattle and sheep. It might
well receive the name of Greenland, as Erik saw it and named it, in the
height of summer.
Erik wintered on an island called by his name, and devoted the next
summer season to exploration. Thus they passed three winters, with the
intervening exploring seasons. Finally he selected a place far up the
Einarsfjord (_Igalliko_) for his homestead. It was named Brattahlid
because it was under a steep hill side.
Erik resolved to found a Greenland colony; he therefore returned to
Iceland and wintered under the protection of a powerful friend named
Ingulf the Strong, at Holmslatr, on the south side of Hoamms-fjord. In
the spring he began to organise his expedition to form a settlement in
the new land. Many friends and adherents accepted the invitation, and
in 985 A.D. a fleet of ships arrived in the fjords of Greenland with
horses, cattle, sheep, goats, and building materials. Red Erik made his
home with his wife and sons at Brattahlid. His friends occupied the
shores of the other fjords, which were called by their names. Herjulf
and his son Bjarni were in the fjord nearest to Cape Farewell, called
Herjulf’s fjord. Ketil was in Ketil’s fjord, the next to the north,
Rafn occupied the Rafn’s fjord, Helgi Thorbrandsen was in Alpte fjord,
and so on with Einar, Hafgrim, Arnlang, and other bold Vikings.
Erik and his followers still held the ancient faith, and for twenty
more years Odin and Thor presided over the fortunes of Greenland. But
it was a time of transition; news of the “white Christ” had reached
Iceland, and the masterful Kings of Norway, Olaf the Saint and Olaf
Tryggvason, were introducing the new creed by force.
The first important event in the new colony was the voyage of Leif,
the son of Erik, to Norway in 999. He was driven out of his course to
the Hebrides, where he passed the summer and became enamoured of a
girl of rare intelligence named Thorgunna. She had a son, Thorgils, by
him, and eventually brought him to Greenland to take his place as the
son of Leif. But Thorgunna remained at her own home when Leif left the
Hebrides and sailed away to the court of the King of Norway at Nidaros
(Trondhjem). He was well received by Olaf Tryggvason, who ordered
him to become a Christian, and to return to Greenland and proclaim
Christianity to the settlers.
Leif took leave of the King, and again put to sea. He encountered bad
weather, and was tossed about for many days and driven out of his
course. At length he came to a new land where there were currants and
self-sown corn, and also trees called _mausar_[12]. He had reached the
eastern coast of Newfoundland. Leif wintered at this land, which he
called Vinland. In the spring he shaped a course for Greenland, and
saved some people off a wreck in mid-ocean on his way. One of the
shipwrecked men may have been Bjarni the son of Herjulf, which perhaps
accounts for the confused story in the Flatey book, about Bjarni being
the discoverer. Leif arrived safely in his father’s homestead and
introduced Christianity[13].
Old Erik was unwilling to forsake the faith of his father. But his
wife did so, and built a church near the homestead, called Thorhilda’s
Church, where those who embraced Christianity could come to offer their
prayers. Settlers began to arrive in Greenland who were nominally
Christians, though imbued with the deeply-rooted ideas of the old
faiths. The change was gradual.
Among the first Christian settlers were one Thorbjörn and his beautiful
daughter Gudrid. This Thorbjörn received with his wife Hallveig an
estate in Iceland called Langarbrekke or “the warm spring’s slope,”
on the southern side and near the outer end of the Cape called
Snowfellsness. The wife died, and Thorbjörn’s motherless child was
fostered and brought up by Halldis and her husband, Orm of Arnastopi or
the eagle’s crag, a short distance to the north-east of Langarbrekke.
Gudrid, the foster child of Orm and Halldis, acted such a prominent
part in the history of the Greenland colony and the discovery of
America, that her story cannot be passed over. Though converted to
Christianity Halldis had stored the child’s mind with all the lore of
the Asgård mythology. For various reasons her father Thorbjörn resolved
to join his friend Erik the Red in Greenland, though he was blessed
with many friends in Iceland. He therefore sold his land and bought
a ship, which was fitted out in Hraunhavn, or the lava haven. Thirty
persons formed the crew, including Orm and Halldis, who both died
during the voyage. At length, on the verge of winter, the ship reached
Herjulfsfjord, the most southern of the Greenland settlements, where
Thorbjörn and his daughter were hospitably received by a settler named
Thorkel, and passed a winter in his house.
When the summer arrived Thorbjörn got his ship ready, and sailed away
with Gudrid until they came to Brattahlid. They were received with
open arms by Red Erik and his family, and Erik gave Thorbjörn land on
Stokkaness, where a good farmstead was established. Gudrid was married
to Thorstein, the eldest son of Erik the Red, and they went to live at
a farm called Lysefjord. But Thorstein died, and was soon followed by
Thorbjörn. So Gudrid became a great heiress, and Erik took her to his
home at Brattahlid, and treated her as his own daughter.
It was the union of the young widow with Thorfin Karlsefni, a young
Icelandic chief of noble lineage, descended from the renowned Ragnar
Lodbrog, which led to the discovery of America. One summer Karlsefni
fitted out his ship in Iceland, taking with him a follower named Snorri
Thorbrandsson and a crew of 40 men. At the same time two men named
Bjarni and Thorhall fitted out another ship. The two ships put to sea
together, with the intention of sailing to Greenland. They arrived at
Brattahlid in the autumn and began to do a goodly trade with Red Erik.
Thorfin Karlsefni and his comrades were invited to pass the winter
there, and before the winter was over he and Gudrid were united in
marriage.
Then there was mooted the project that Vinland, discovered some years
before by Leif, should be explored and settled. Thorfin Karlsefni and
his friend Snorri fitted out their ship for the adventurous voyage and
Bjarni Grimolfson and Thorhall also joined with their ship. Thorhall
had long served Red Erik as his huntsman. He was a man of great
strength and gigantic stature. Erik’s third son Thorwald accompanied
him. There was a third ship, the one in which Thorbjörn and Gudrid had
arrived in Greenland. Freidis, the natural daughter of Erik, a proud
and cruel woman, embarked in it with her husband Thorward. Gudrid
accompanied her husband.
This fleet of three _knorrs_--vessels such as the one found at
Gokstad--sailed for the land we now call America. Karlsefni first
steered northwards along the West Bygd to get clear of the southern
ice, and then stood across the strait to the barren coast on the
western side for two days. Karlsefni landed in his boat, and finding
large flat stones (_hellur_) on the beach, called that country
_Helluland_. Sailing southward they next came to a country where
there were great woods and it was named _Markland_ or the forest land
(Labrador). Then they sailed for many days, rounding a cape where
they found the keel of a ship and so named it _Keel-ness_. The long
coast-line on the starboard side received the name of _Furdustrandir_
or Wonder Strand. At length Karlsefni anchored in a bay where they
found berries and self-sown wheat. It was the Vinland of Leif. There
was a strong current, so they called an island in the bay _Straumsey_
and the bay _Straumfjord_. They landed their goods, and the live-stock
included cattle. Here Thorhall the hunter appears to have mutinied, and
to have sailed away in one of the ships with nine men. The story says
that he reached Ireland, where he and his companions were maltreated
and enslaved. After the winter Karlsefni sailed southward and came to a
small land-locked bay, called _Hop_. Here he built huts on the banks of
a lake.
Karlsefni had discovered America. His first land was what is now
called Baffin Land, his next the coast of Labrador, and the Vinland of
Leif is the east coast of Newfoundland. The Norsemen gave the name of
_Skrælings_ to the natives they met with. They had several encounters
with them, in one of which Thorwald, the son of Erik, was killed by a
“one footer” (_Einfœtingr_).
The furthest southern point reached by Karlsefni is a question of great
interest. In the Flatey book Leif is made to say that on the shortest
day the sun was above the horizon from _Eyktarstad_ to _Dagmalastad_.
We thus obtain rough data for ascertaining the latitude of Vinland.
The Icelanders ascertained the various times of the day by selecting
conspicuous marks round their houses, and noting the course of the
sun with relation to them. Names were given to the positions the sun
occupied at certain times of the day, and the Norsemen were thus, from
long practice, very accurate in assigning the points of the compass
at which the sun rose or set. The _Eyktarstad_ is clearly defined in
an ancient Icelandic book called _Kristinretter_. If the S.W. octant
be divided into thirds, the S.W. point being in the centre, it is
_Eyktarstad_ when the sun has traversed two-thirds. This gives the
amplitude of the sun, when it set on the shortest day at Vinland, W. 37
degrees 30′ S. The sun’s declination in A.D. 1005 was 23 degrees 34′
30″ N. With these data we find the latitude of the point of observation
on Vinland to have been a little south of 49 degrees S., which would be
in Bona Vista Bay, on the east coast of Newfoundland[14].
Karlsefni passed three winters in Vinland and here, in the year
1007, his wife Gudrid bore him a son who was named Snorri. From this
American-born child was descended the Lagman Hauk, the author of the
Hauk book, and many Danish families, including that of Thorwaldsen, the
famous sculptor. After the third winter Karlsefni and his followers
sailed away from Vinland on their return.
The ship of Bjarni was driven out to sea in a gale, and all perished
except one boat’s crew which is said to have reached Dublin. When the
ship began to sink it was found that the boat would only hold half the
crew. So they cast lots, and it fell to the lot of Bjarni to go in the
boat. When the lucky ones were all in the boat, an Icelandic youth, who
was left in the ship, cried out “Dost thou intend, Bjarni, to forsake
me?” “It must be even so,” answered Bjarni. “Not such was the promise
thou gavest my father,” replied the youth. “So be it, it shall not rest
thus,” answered Bjarni. “Do thou come hither and I will go to the ship,
for I can see thou art eager for thy life.” So he went on board again
and the youth got into the boat.
Karlsefni and Gudrid, with their little son, arrived safely in
Greenland, and remained at Brattahlid during the following winter, with
Erik and his son Leif. Then they sailed to Iceland and lived to a good
old age at Reynistadr in the north, a little south of Skaga-fjord.
Their son Snorri succeeded them, and, as has been already said, was the
ancestor of many great people in Iceland and Denmark[15].
In the fulness of time old Erik the Red died at Brattahlid, and was
succeeded by his son Leif. He died in 1021 A.D. Then Thorgils, Leif’s
son by Thorgunna of the Hebrides, took his place as owner of Brattahlid
and chief of the Greenland settlers. Later, in the same century, we
hear of Skald Helga being Lagmand of Greenland. The colony throve and
was prosperous. Settlements, called the West Bygd, were formed to the
northward as far as the island of Disco. Several churches were built
of stone at the settlements on the deep fjords of the East Bygd. There
was an Augustinian monastery of St Olaus at the head of Ketil-fjord,
and churches of St Nicholas and of Hoalsey in Hoalseyfjord. Ruins of
the latter are still standing at a place now called Kakortak, near
Julianshaab. The walls are of large and partly-hewn stones, with four
rectangular window openings and two doorways. The chief entrance
was at the west end, with a large window above it. There are small
niches in the interior walls. The church is 51 feet long by 25,
the walls 4 feet thick, and their height 22 feet[16]. Opposite to
Brattahlid, up Einarsfjord, was the cathedral church of Gardar, the
see of a bishopric. The first bishop of Greenland, named Adalbert, was
consecrated in 1055 A.D.
[Illustration: Ruins in Kingoa-dal, S. Greenland.]
The 11th century was a period of activity for the Greenland colony.
There was communication between Iceland and Norway and the colony, and
we are told that Thorgrim Troble, the head man in Einarsfjord, went
to Norway and even to England, bringing back beautiful clothes. In
the next century, 1121, Bishop Erik is said to have made a voyage to
Vinland, and in 1124 Bishop Arnold was consecrated by the Archbishop of
Lund, and arrived at Gardar. The Greenland settlers had cattle, horses,
and sheep, which were all stalled during the winter. The churches and
the foundations of the houses were of stone, but timber was in great
demand forhouses and outhouses. There must have been voyages to cut
wood in Markland and on the Wonder Strands, to supplement the supply
of drift wood[17]. We have few notices of these voyages, however.
The ancient annals of Greenland are scanty. But we may be quite sure
that, with stalwart arm and poetic brain, these Norsemen did what they
had to do with all their might. Our chief concern is with the Arctic
discoveries away to the north of the West Bygd. The most northern
station for a long time was in Disco Bay, at a place called Greipar.
The name for the most northern district was Nordsetur. The fisheries
were carried on with great activity. It is certain that, later, there
was a station at a place now called Kingiktorsuak in 72° 55′ N., for
the following runic inscription was found there in 1834:--
ERLING SIGVASSON AND BJARNE TORTARSON AND EINDRID ODSSON ON THE
SEVENTH DAY BEFORE THE DAY OF VICTORY[18] ERECTED THESE STONES
MCXXXV.
Thence these gallant explorers, or others, pushed still further north
through the ice floes, and formed a station which was probably in what
is now called Wolstenholme Sound, a little north of Cape York. It was
called Kroksfjordar Heidi or “The heights of the winding fjord.”
Thirty years after the bold adventurers Erling, Bjarni, and Eindrid
had set up their stones in 72° 55′ N., an Arctic expedition started
from Kroksfjord, of which an account is given by a priest in Greenland
named Hallder, in a letter to his friend Arnold, who had also been in
Greenland but was then, in 1266, court chaplain to Magnus Lagaboeter,
King of Norway. The notice of the letter in the Hauk book is so
important with reference to the Arctic discoveries of the Norsemen,
that we must consider it _verbatim_.
“This account was written by Priest Hallder from Greenland to the
Priest Arnold who was then King Magnus Lagaboeter’s chaplain. He
was in the ship that brought Bishop Olaf to Greenland[19], and they
suffered shipwreck off Iceland, and found in the sea some planks
which had been hewn with small adzes, and among them there was one in
which tools still remained. This summer came people who had travelled
further north than any one until that time of whom accounts had been
reported. They found no signs but of Skrællings who had once resided at
the Kroksfjord, and the people thought it might be the shortest way.
Therefore the priests sent a ship north of the farthest inhabitable
district that had yet been reached. They sailed away from Kroksfjord,
and they were out of sight of land. Then there came a south wind
with thick weather, and they let the ship go before the wind. The
storm ceased and it again became light and they saw many islands, and
different kinds of game, both seals and whales, and great numbers
of bears. They came right into the bay, and the whole coast came in
sight, as well as the south coast with glaciers, and south of them
there were also glaciers as far as they could see. There were signs
that Skrællingers had, in bygone times, lived in these places; but
they could not land because of the bears. They sailed back for three
days and found relics of Skrællingers. Then they came to some islands
south of Snaefell. They sailed thence south to Kroksfjord, a long day’s
rowing. On Jacob’s mass day[20] it froze at night, but the sun shone
both day and night, and was not higher at noon than in the south, _so
that if a man lay across a six-oared boat, stretched out under the
gunwale, the shadow from the side nearest the sun fell on his face, but
at midnight the sun was as high as it is at home in the settlement when
it is in the N.W._ They then sailed home to Gardar.”
The day of the summer solstice is implied as the time of this
observation. Proceeding upon this assumption Professor Rafn[21]
calculated that, in the 13th century, on the 25th of July, the sun’s
declination was 17° 54′ N., and the inclination of the ecliptic 23°
32′. Gardar was in 60° 55′ N. At the summer solstice, the height of the
sun there, when in the N.W., was 3° 40′, equivalent to the midnight
altitude of the sun on St James’s day (July 25th) in latitude 75° 46′,
which is the latitude of Cape York.
The Norse explorers, starting from Kroksfjord (Wolstenholme Sound)
sailed into the north water of Baffin’s Bay. They then went northwards
from about 76° for three _doeg_, 108 miles each _doeg_. This brought
them some distance up Smith Sound, beyond 80°. They saw many islands
and glaciers and then returned southward for three _doeg_, coming to
some islands, possibly the Cary Islands. Thence a long day’s pull
brought them to Kroksfjord. Seven hundred years afterwards, a lofty
cairn, built by unknown hands, was found on Washington Irving Island in
Smith Sound.
It is not to be supposed that this was the only voyage of the kind that
was undertaken by the Norsemen because it is the only one of which any
record has reached us. These enterprises must surely have constantly
succeeded one another, with a view to discovering fresh fishing
grounds. They must have been more or less continuous for two centuries
at least.
At its most flourishing time the Norse colony in Greenland numbered
about 2000 souls in 280 homesteads. There were 12 churches in the East
Bygd (the ruins of five have been found), and four in the West Bygd,
and one monastery. But at the end of the 13th century the prosperity
of the colony began to wane. Its existence depended upon annual
intercourse with Norway, and communication began to be more and more
irregular. There is a list of Bishops, but latterly few appear to
have visited their See. In 1341 a bailiff of the bishopric named Ivar
Bardsen was sent to Greenland to report upon the state of affairs. He
found the West Bygd deserted. Ivar Bardsen made a valuable report,
describing the topography of the East Bygd settlements in detail, and
giving 54 place names[22]. In 1347 a Greenland ship arrived in Iceland
with 18 men on board. She had been to Markland to cut wood, and had
been driven out of her course by a storm[23]. In the same year King
Magnus of Norway and Queen Blanche left 100 marks to Gardar Cathedral.
But two years later the Black Death decimated the Norwegians, and soon
afterwards all intercourse with Greenland ceased. Norway was a province
of Denmark for more than four centuries.
The fate of the Greenland colony has been variously explained; by a
change in the climate, by the Black Death, or by the attacks of an
army of Eskimos. But the climate is exactly the same now as it was
then, the Black Death broke out in Norway after intercourse ceased,
and the Eskimos had always been living with the Norsemen, having been
in Greenland many centuries before the Norsemen came. Moreover, the
Eskimos could not assemble and attack in large numbers[24].
The disappearance of the colony after a lapse of two centuries is fully
accounted for by the neglect of the Norwegians to send ships. The
colony could not exist without that help. Those settlers who remained
gradually died off, the survivors merging in the Eskimo population.
The vestiges confirm the narratives of the Sagas. There are the stone
church at Kakortak, the foundations of churches and homesteads, the
bones of oxen and goats in the refuse heaps. Two grave-stones have also
been found. One marked the place where the body of Hroaldr Kolgrimsson
rested. It was found in 1831, two miles north of Frederiksthal. The
other is a stone with a runic inscription, found nine miles from
Julianshaab in 1830:--
“Vigdis, daughter of Magnus, rests here.
May God gladden her soul[25].”
The history of the first period of Arctic discovery was thus closed in
mystery. Vigdis, daughter of Greenland, seems to speak to us across the
centuries. Her people achieved a great work:--the coast of Finmarken
to the White Sea discovered; then Iceland, and finally the whole west
coast of Greenland from Cape Farewell to Smith Sound, Baffin Land,
Labrador, and Newfoundland. We see in the qualities of these Norsemen
all that is required for the completion of the great work--energy,
indomitable perseverance, and dauntless courage combined with practical
enthusiasm. Such qualities were needed and were not wanting to achieve
the glorious work done by the Norsemen. Such qualities were needed
and have not been wanting in the English race--which received a large
strain of Norman blood, and produced the chief Arctic explorers of
modern times--to complete what was so well begun in those far-off days
of old.
CHAPTER VII
NICHOLAS OF LYNN. ZENO. MEDIEVAL NAUTICAL INSTRUMENTS
There was dwelling in Oxford, when Chaucer was young, a scholar known
as courteous Nicholas. He lodged with an old carpenter who had married
a very young wife. He had a room to himself, and was devoted to the
study of astrology and mathematics. On shelves at his bed head he had
several books, including the _Almagest_ of Ptolemy, as well as an
astrolabe, and _angrim_ stones used in numeration.
The poet Chaucer and the scholar Nicholas had tastes in common. Both
loved music and both studied what was then known of the sphere and the
means of fixing positions. Chaucer wrote a treatise on the astrolabe
addressed to his little son Lowys in 1391 and called it “brede and
milke for children.” In this treatise Chaucer mentions Nicholas with
great respect. We shall not be far wrong either in assuming Nicholas
the scholar to have been a friend of Chaucer, or in identifying him
with the Carmelite monk Nicholas of Lynn, who would take his place as
England’s first Arctic explorer if his work had not been lost--a loss
which is almost a national calamity.
In 1360 Nicholas of Lynn undertook an expedition to Norway and the
isles beyond towards the pole, beginning from 54° N. and fixing the
latitudes with an astrolabe. Hakluyt quotes Gerard Mercator as writing
that an English monk and mathematician of Oxford had been in Norway and
the islands in the north, describing all those places and determining
their latitudes by an astrolabe. He is said to have written a work
on his expedition entitled _Inventio Fortunata_, which is lost; and
another work is attributed to him, _De Mundi Revolutione_. Dr Dee wrote
that Nicholas made five voyages into the northern parts, and left an
account of his discoveries.
Dr Nansen is the first writer I know who treats Nicholas of Lynn
seriously. He shows that the work of Nicholas was known to Las Casas,
who had read it, and also to Martin Behaim, who on his globe places
isles all round the pole which are not shown on any older map and,
Nansen thinks, are evidently taken from Nicholas of Lynn. The maps
of Claudius Clavus, one of them quite recently brought to light, and
other medieval maps, also probably derived their information from our
forgotten Nicholas. One would give a good deal to know which were the
northern islands that he visited. Evidently his work had an influence
on the productions of the cartographers through the next century.
[Illustration: The Zeni map.]
We owe much to the cartographers, and it is deeply interesting to watch
their gradual acquisition of fresh knowledge, and their treatment of
uncertain and disputed points. But there have been cartographers of
a different kind who have invented and knowingly led students and
navigators astray. If such men gain a hearing, the injury they do may
endure for a century or more. Such a man was Niccolo Zeno.
This Niccolo Zeno, of a noble Venetian family, published what professed
to be an account of the voyage of two of his ancestors in the far north
in the service of a northern chief named Zichmni. Niccolo himself
lived in the 16th century (1515–1565) and the voyages of his ancestors
were supposed to have been made in the 14th century. The narrative
was accompanied by an extraordinary map covered with names. It showed
Greenland brought round to join Norway, Iceland, a large island called
Friesland between Iceland and Greenland, lands to the west near America
called Estotiland and Drogeo, and another large island in the Atlantic
called Icaria. Niccolo Zeno was accepted as an authority by Mercator in
his map of the world (1569) and by Ortelius (1570) and the narrative
found a place in Ramusio (1574). Meanwhile the false information
continued to mislead travellers and navigators. On the first English
globe by Molyneux in 1572 Zeno’s Friesland and Drogeo are shown. As
late as 1631 Luke Fox has “Frisland” on his polar card. The false
information held its ground for a hundred years.
Among modern writers there were differences of opinion. In 1784, J.
Reinhold Foster fully accepted all Zeno’s story as true, and identified
Zichmni with Sinclair, Earl of Orkney. Maltebrun accepted the story,
and Humboldt was inclined to accept it. Lelewel accepted it. Mr Major
gave whole-hearted credence to Zeno’s statements, and wrote a standard
work on the subject (1873). Desimoni (1878) claimed that Major had
settled the question.
There were other writers who were more or less sceptical. Washington
Irving rejected the story. Crantz and Graah, eminent Danish travellers
and writers, were doubtful, and more or less incredulous. Admiral
Zarhtmann of Copenhagen rejected both narrative and map, as did the
learned Danish writer Steenstrup.
All this was before the discovery of medieval maps which exposed the
whole imposition. These were, especially, the large map of Olaus Magnus
(Venice 1539), found in the Munich library in 1886, and the Zamoiski
map (1467), discovered at Warsaw in 1888; also a map of North Europe
and Greenland in the MS. Ptolemy at Florence, and the edition of
Ptolemy published at Ulm in 1482--the earliest printed map showing
Greenland.
Most of the names on the Zeno map were supposed to be original; due to
their discoveries, and not existent on any earlier map. The discovery
of these earlier medieval maps, however, has disposed of that delusion.
Of the 19 Zeno names on Iceland, 12 are in the Zamoiski map, 3 in the
Florence map, and the others in that of Olaus Magnus. On the Cantino
map in 1502 appears Frisland, placed due north of Scotland. It is a
clerical error in copying Stillanda from the Cosa map. This is the way
Zeno got hold of the name Frislanda. The whole was concocted by Niccolo
Zeno and his publisher Marcoloni in 1558, from materials on maps then
existing.
The Zeno imposture was first studied by Professor Storm, in the light
of the Zamoiski and Olaus Magnus maps, and he exposed the falsities
of the narrative, and the imposture of the map. The whole subject was
discussed in an exhaustive work by Mr F. W. Lucas, from which the above
details have been taken[26]. The mischief done by the Zeno forgery,
while it lasted, was very serious; causing confusion in the work of
cartographers as well as mistakes in the reports of navigators.
* * * * *
In the period of the beginning of English Arctic exploration, the
instrument mainly used for finding the latitude was the astrolabe. The
cross-staff had been invented, but was not in general use, nor was the
quadrant with a plumb-line, though it had been used by Columbus. The
astrolabe was a circular metal ring with inlet plates and discs. These
plates were fitted to drop into an inner depression of the ring, the
principal one being called the _rete_. It consisted of a circular plate
marked with zodiacs sub-divided into degrees, with narrow branching
limbs having smaller tongues terminating in points, each denoting the
position of a star. The plates, or “tables” as Chaucer calls them, were
differently marked for places having different latitudes. Within all
these scales of _Umbra recta_ and _Umbra versa_ there is a division
into 12 parts for taking and computing heights and distances by an
approximate method. The _alidada_ is a straight-edge across the ring
moveable with two sights, and a pin ties them all together.
[Illustration: Astrolabe in Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
(_early 14th century_)]
The _alidada_ is for taking the altitude of the sun, and the _rete_
adjusted to this altitude shows the hour of the day. To take an
observation the right thumb is put into the ring of the astrolabe, and
the left side is turned against the light of the sun. The _alidada_ or
rule is moved up and down until the rays of the sun shine through both
sights. Then the number of degrees the _alidada_ is raised from the
little cross placed to show the east line is the altitude of the sun,
read off on the outer ring. The Spaniards constructed their astrolabes
small and heavy, to prevent them from being blown about, not much over
five inches in diameter yet weighing 4 lbs. The diameter of the English
astrolabes was six or seven inches, sometimes more.
This instrument, invented by Hipparchus and developed by Ptolemy, was
in use until the days of Elizabeth. It has a peculiar interest for
those who are fond of studying the history of maritime discovery, but
it is by no means simple in construction and it is necessary to examine
the astrolabe itself to understand it and its uses[27].
Besides the astrolabe our earliest Arctic navigators were supplied
with large blank globes on which they puzzled out the navigation
problems, an armillary sphere, a great chart with all that was known
or conjectured on it, smaller navigation charts, compasses and
hourglasses, and the regiment of Medina, translated from the Spanish
at the instance of the Arctic navigator Burrough. With such slight and
rather unreliable help our brave seamen of the 16th century, in great
peril and difficulty, found their way over the trackless ocean, a way
now made easy for their descendants.
CHAPTER VIII
FIRST ENGLISH VOYAGES TO THE NORTH-EAST. WILLOUGHBY. CHANCELLOR.
BURROUGH. PET
Many reasons led English seamen to turn northward. East and west were
occupied by Portugal and by Spain, and our own adventurers, rather
later in the field, sought the discovery of routes to Cathay and the
Spice Islands by northern ways. Our seamen had long traded with Norway
and Iceland. The more northern voyages received hearty encouragement
from our Plantagenet kings, who granted charters in 1404, 1432, and
1463 for trade with the Scandinavian nations. Richard III specially
favoured the Iceland voyages. William of Worcester, in his chronicle,
tells us of the enterprises of William Canynge of Bristol, who sent
his ships not only to the Mediterranean and the Baltic, but so far as
Iceland, where one of his vessels of 160 tons was lost. Ships also went
northward from Lynn and other ports, and before long the commercial
ventures led to voyages of discovery. It must always be remembered that
the notices of voyages to be met with in the 15th century chronicles,
few and far between, represented but a small fraction of English
maritime activity and of the voyages actually undertaken. England was
preparing silently, but actively and strenuously, for her supremacy of
the sea, and for her great work in the Arctic regions.
Land was reported beyond the ocean to the westward of Bristol, and
as early as July 1480 we are told by William of Worcester that a
seaman named Thylde--the most scientific seaman, it is added, in all
England--led an expedition in search of the unknown land, and was
absent for 64 days. Others followed in his wake. At last the crew of
the Bristol ship _Matthew_ did actually discover Newfoundland, or
rather re-discover it, for it was the Vinland of the Norsemen. This
was in 1496, and in the following years there were other voyages from
Bristol to the new land. Nine years afterwards the Company of Merchant
Adventurers received their charter, and English Arctic enterprise was
not very long in starting under the auspices of that famous Company.
Mr Robert Thorne, a merchant of London who long resided at Seville,
and whose father had been an adventurer to the new land, was one of
those who urged the importance of northern exploration. In a letter
to the English Ambassador at Madrid, and in another to Henry VIII, he
counselled the discovery of routes to China and the Spice Islands by
the north. He pointed out that from the situation of this realm of
England it was nearest and aptest of all others for the prosecution
of such a discovery, which would win perpetual glory for the King and
infinite profit for his subjects. After reaching the Pole, he said, the
discoverers can decline to which part they list.
Such words were as seed falling on fertile soil. Arctic enterprise
needed stimulus, however, and received it from two young princes of
great promise, both alas! cut off in their prime--Edward VI and Prince
Henry of Wales. King Edward took a warm and personal interest in the
maritime prosperity of his country, and in the science of navigation.
His friend and companion, Henry Sidney[28], was imbued with the same
feeling. Under their auspices the first Arctic expedition was organised
and despatched by the Company of Merchant Adventurers to undertake a
voyage to Cathay by the north-east. The whole subject was considered
with the greatest care as regards the management and discipline, the
ships, the merchandise to be taken, and the provisions.
The most important matter of all was the selection of good commanders.
Sir Hugh Willoughby, a most valiant gentleman and well born, very
earnestly requested that he might be chosen to command the expedition.
Sir Hugh was a younger son of Sir Henry Willoughby, Knight Banneret
of Wollaton, who died in 1528, and whose altar tomb is in Wollaton
church[29]. Sir Henry left three sons John, Edward, and Hugh, and
Edward’s grandson was the builder of the present fine old mansion
at Wollaton, near Nottingham. Hugh was connected, by his father’s
marriages, with two names afterwards known in Arctic history, Markham
and Egerton. He himself married Joan, daughter of Sir Nicholas Strelly,
a Nottinghamshire neighbour. His portrait, now at Wollaton, of which
there is a replica in the Painted Hall at Greenwich, is that of a tall
and handsome man. He was to be Captain-General of the expedition on
board a ship of 120 tons called the _Bona Esperanza_, with a crew of
36 officers and men[30]; the second ship was the _Edward Bonaventure_
of 160 tons, with a crew of 51 officers and men; and the third was the
_Bona Confidentia_ of 90 tons, with 28 officers and men. Sir Hugh had a
relation with him, named Gabriel Willoughby, among the merchants.
As second in command, Richard Chancellor was selected from among many
applicants, on the recommendation of King Edward’s friend, Sir Henry
Sidney, who made a speech to the Merchant Adventurers, commending
an enterprise which, he said, would prove profitable and honourable
to our country. Chancellor had been in the service of Sidney, who
reminded the merchants that while they found the means but remained
at home, Chancellor hazarded his life amongst the perils of the sea.
He concluded by saying, “If it fall so happily out that he return
again, it is your part and duty liberally to reward him.” Chancellor
was in the _Edward Bonaventure_ as chief pilot of the fleet, and
he had with him Stephen Borough as master of the ship, his brother
William Borough, and Arthur Pet, all destined later to become famous as
Arctic navigators. The master of the _Bona Confidentia_ was Cornelius
Durforth, whose young son sailed with him as a seaman. King Edward VI
addressed a “letter missive,” in several languages, to the potentates
inhabiting the north-east parts of the world toward the mighty empire
of Cathay, commending the right valiant and worthy Sir Hugh Willoughby
to their good offices.
The three ships left Ratcliffe on May 10th, 1553, and started with
the ebb. They were towed by their boats, the sailors being dressed in
sky-coloured cloth, and passing Greenwich there was a great crowd on
the shore, and the courtiers stood at the windows of the palace, the
ships saluting. But, alas! the young King who had taken great interest
in the expedition, receiving news of it from his friend Henry Sidney,
was on his deathbed. There was a detention at Harwich owing to some of
the provisions being bad, but on the 23rd of June the little squadron
stood out to sea from Orfordness.
It was not until the 14th of July that Halgoland was sighted, the
home of Ohthere, the first Arctic navigator. They visited Udröst, on
the Arctic Circle and had friendly intercourse with the people of the
Lofoten Islands. They also touched at Senjen, but off the coast of
Finmarken, Chancellor, in the _Edward Bonaventure_, parted company
in a gale of wind. Sir Hugh Willoughby, with his own ship and the
_Bona Confidentia_, searched for the port of Vardö, which he called
“Wardhouse,” the rendezvous. But strong breezes obliged him to shape
a course to the eastward, and on the 14th of August he came in sight
of land in 72° N. He hoisted out the boat, but could not reach the
coast owing to the water being shoal. Sir Hugh had discovered Novaya
Zemlya, at the part now called the “Goose Coast,” It was known to the
adventurers of those days as “Willoughby’s Land,” but was shown on some
maps as a separate island[31]. Sir Hugh continued to work up along the
coast for three days, but the _Bona Confidentia_ was leaking badly,
and it was decided to seek a harbour in Finmarken in order to repair
her. After beating about for some days Sir Hugh finally brought the
two vessels into a haven at the mouth of the river Arzina, near Kegor
on the coast of Lapland. Here he determined to winter, as animals were
seen both on land and sea, but no human dwellers could be found.
The gallant explorer and all his companions perished before the
spring’s arrival, though some survived into January. The ship was found
by some Russian fishermen, and Mr Killingworth, the Company’s agent in
Russia, sent a ship to bring the property home. Sir Hugh Willoughby’s
journal and his will, with other papers, were recovered. Milton, in
his history of Muscovia, says that the ship was also despatched on
her return, “but being unstaunch as is supposed, she sunk by the way
with her dead, and them also that brought them.” Milton was, however,
mistaken. The ships returned safely to England under the command of
John Buckland, with the body of Sir Hugh Willoughby and his effects.
Like La Perouse and Franklin, Sir Hugh Willoughby, England’s first
Arctic explorer, perished in the midst of his discoveries--a glorious
close to his honourable career.
Chancellor, in the _Edward Bonaventure_, after parting from the other
two vessels, proceeded to Vardö, where he waited for seven days. He
then continued the voyage, entered the White Sea, and obtained supplies
and information from the Russians at Kholmogori, afterwards called
Archangel. He was told that the country was ruled by a king named
Ivan Vasilivitch, and eventually it was arranged that he should make
a journey to Moscow, where he was well received, travelling back to
his ship, and making the return voyage to England. He had discovered
Russia, and an important trade between the two countries was begun. It
would be difficult to over-estimate the commercial importance of our
first Arctic expedition.
The Muscovy Company received a charter of incorporation in February
1555, and in June Richard Chancellor was sent on a second voyage with
two ships, the _Edward Bonaventure_ and the _Philip and Mary_. George
Killingworth accompanied him as the Company’s agent. Chancellor again
visited Moscow, and rejoined the _Edward Bonaventure_ at Kholmogori
with a Russian Ambassador, in July 1556. In November she arrived off
Pitsligo, near Aberdeen, where she was driven on the rocks during a
heavy gale. Chancellor perished in an attempt to reach the shore in
a boat, but the Russian Ambassador was safely landed, and honourably
received in London. The narrative of Chancellor’s first voyage was
written in Latin by Edward Adam, the learned young schoolmaster to King
Edward’s pages, who received his information from Chancellor himself.
It is given in English by Hakluyt.
The first Arctic expedition thus opened the trade to Russia, a great
service, the first of many which Polar exploration has done to this
country. But we must leave the Company’s agents actively engaged in
the establishment of that trade to follow the course of discovery.
Of the crew of Chancellor’s ship, we hear again of at least six.
The two merchants John Hasse and Richard Johnson were useful agents
whose reports are given by Hakluyt. John Buckland, the master’s mate,
commanded the ship which went to recover the journal and effects of his
chief, Sir Hugh Willoughby. Stephen and William Burrough and Arthur
Pet continued the work of discovery, and the two former became very
distinguished naval officers.
Stephen Burrough is the third name on our Arctic roll of honour,
following Willoughby and Chancellor. He was born at Borough in the
parish of Northam near Bideford in Devonshire, in 1525, and was Master
of the _Edward Bonaventure_ under Chancellor at the age of 28. His
brother William was eleven years younger, and served as a sailor boy
under Stephen. In 1556 a pinnace called the _Searchthrift_ was fitted
out by the Muscovy Company for discovery, and Stephen Burrough was
entrusted with the command. His brother William went with him. On the
27th of April the _Searchthrift_ was at Gravesend, and was visited by
the managers of the Company and several ladies, who after a collation
on board, distributed liberal presents to the men, and gave a banquet
followed by dancing at the Christopher Inn. On the 29th they left
Gravesend, and by the end of May the _Searchthrift_ was off the
well-known headland to which Burrough gave the name North Cape.
Thence the explorers sailed along the Murman coast, as the Russians
call the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula. It consists of high and
precipitous granite cliffs with some harbours towards the western end.
At the river Kola the English voyagers met with a number of Russian
boats called _lodias_, chiefly belonging to Kholmogori (Archangel),
with 20 oars and a crew of 24 men each. They were engaged in walrus
and salmon fishing. The Russian captains were extremely friendly,
presenting Burrough with loaves of bread, oatmeal, and fish, and
piloting him along the coast. Crossing the entrance to the White
Sea, Burrough sighted Kolguev Island, the mouth of the Petchora, and
Kaninnoss, learning the names from his Russian friends. By the middle
of July the _Searchthrift_ sighted land right ahead, with distant
mountains to the north. This, he learnt, was called Waigatz, and the
northern land Novaya Zemlya. Part of its western coast, further to
the north, had, as we have seen, already been discovered by Sir Hugh
Willoughby.
Stephen Burrough discovered the strait, 25 miles wide, between Waigatz
and Novaya Zemlya, which rightfully bears his name. The limit of
knowledge was then the mouth of the Obi, but Burrough, pestered by
ice, fogs, and gales of wind, was unable to penetrate into the Kara
Sea. He landed on Waigatz, an island 70 miles long by 20 to 25 broad,
consisting of a limestone ridge on the east side, and a lower shaley
ridge to the west, with a swampy plain covered with small lakes
between. The climate is extremely severe in the winter, but in the
short summer the ground is covered with wild flowers. There are acres
of flowering plants a foot high, including a delicate pink-blossomed
crucifer, a yellow poppy, and a sort of lousewort (_Melampyrum
sylvaticum_) of many colours, from glorious yellows to rich pinks.
Buttercups carpet wide areas, and one water-loving species floats on
the meres and tarns like a miniature water-lily, filling the air with
its fragrance. There are stunted willows a foot high but no other
wood-forming plant. Birds are numerous, and the peregrine falcon and
the rough-legged buzzard nest on the cliffs of the island.
The approach of winter obliged our explorers to give up their attempt
for that year, and on the 11th September Burrough brought the
_Searchthrift_ to Kholmogori, intending to renew his efforts in the
following year. But the orders of the Company were that he should shape
a homeward course, and in the autumn of 1557 he returned to the Thames.
Both the brothers, Stephen and William, became distinguished officers,
showing what an admirable training Arctic service is for the navy, both
in its executive and scientific branches. Stephen Burrough induced
Richard Eden to translate the _Arte de Navegar_ of Martin Cortes,
then the best book on navigation, thus securing the means whereby our
seamen could obtain instruction. In 1563 he became Chief Pilot in the
Medway, with the duty of instructing and examining officers in the art
of navigation. He died in July, 1584, and was buried at Chatham. His
brother William continued to serve the Muscovy Company in voyages to
the White Sea, and in 1570 he commanded a fleet bound to Narva in the
Baltic. Both brothers were very attentive in observing the variation of
the compass during the voyage to Waigatz, and in 1581 William Burrough
published his _Discourse of the Variation of the Needle_. He became
Comptroller of the Navy in 1583, and commanded the fleet which conveyed
the Earl of Leicester from Harwich to Flushing in 1585. He constructed
charts and prepared sailing directions, besides serving with Drake at
Cadiz, and under Lord Howard against the Spanish Armada. His chart of
the mouth of the Thames was the best until the first trigonometrical
survey was made by Murdoch Mackenzie in 1790[32]. He died in 1599. For
such valuable services as these, the Arctic expeditions which trained
the Burroughs to observe and to act promptly and judiciously are
doubtless not a little to be thanked.
For more than 20 years after the return of the _Searchthrift_ the
northern voyages were devoted to the promotion of Russian trade and
not to discovery, but in 1580 Sir George Barne, a prominent citizen of
London, with his colleague, Sir Rowland Hayward, resolved to fit out
a small expedition with the object of continuing the discoveries made
by Stephen Burrough. They equipped two small vessels, the _George_ of
London, 40 tons, and the _William_ of London, 20 tons. Arthur Pet of
Ratcliffe, who had been a seaman in the _Edward Bonaventure_, received
command of the _George_ with a crew of nine men and a boy, including
Hugh Smith, an intelligent person who wrote an account of the voyage.
The _William_ was entrusted to Charles Jackman of Poplar, with a crew
of five men and a boy. Nicholas Chancellor, perhaps one of the two sons
of Richard, who caused him so much anxiety when he sailed into the
unknown with Sir Hugh Willoughby, sailed with Pet as merchant. They
were supplied with letters from the Queen. Sailing directions were
drawn up by William Burrough, with instructions for observing; a paper
of advice was written for them by Dr Dee, and a note on the commercial
aspects of the enterprise by Richard Hakluyt. Under these excellent
auspices the two tiny little vessels set out on the voyage to Cathay by
the north-east.
Leaving Harwich on the 30th May, 1580, the two boats rounded the North
Cape, and arrived at Vardö on the 23rd June. When they put to sea
again the _William_ was obliged to stop at Kegor for repairs, while
the _George_ continued her easterly course until she came in sight of
the coast of Novaya Zemlya. Here she was beset in the ice, and, having
been extricated with some difficulty, she reached the Bay of Petchora,
and sighted Waigatz on the 18th July. Six days afterwards the _William_
joined company again; but her stern post was broken, her rudder was
hanging loose, and she would not steer. The combined crews set to
work to remedy the damage by passing hawsers round the stern of the
_William_ and hauling them taut at a capstan, and they were again able
to steer her.
Captain Pet discovered the strait between Waigatz and the mainland,
and the two boats passed through it and made several attempts to bore
through the ice, sometimes entering the pack, and occasionally making
slight progress by sailing along lanes of water left between the
grounded ice and the shore. In August, when they found it impossible
to penetrate the ice, they gave up the attempt. Passing the shoals of
Kolguev Island, the _William_ again parted company in a fog on the
22nd August. Captain Pet brought the little _George_ safely back into
the Thames on the 25th of September. Jackman was less fortunate. The
_William_ wintered in the Trondhjem fjord, sailed in company with a
Danish vessel bound for Iceland in the spring, but was never heard of
more. The fearless audacity of these gallant seamen in attempting
to achieve the north-east passage in such frail vessels is worthy of
admiration, for they were well aware of the dangers and obstacles.
The moral effect of our earliest Arctic voyages was far-reaching
and enduring. They excited a spirit of emulation in our seamen, and
aroused a desire for honourable distinction in northern enterprise
and discovery which was deep and lasting. The immediate and practical
effect was the opening of a lucrative trade with Russia.
CHAPTER IX
BARENTSZ. LINSCHOTEN. DE VEER
In the struggle for independence against Spain in the height of her
power, the Dutch nation saw the necessity for making every effort to
increase her commerce in order to obtain the sinews of war, and it thus
came about that, while in the fight for freedom England and Holland
were close allies and friends, it was inevitable that in matters of
trade there should be rivalry.
It was not long before the Dutch, seeing the great success of England’s
trade with Russia by the White Sea, began to follow so promising a
lead. In 1565 a ship from Enkhuizen arrived at a spot on the coast
of Russian Lapland to which the name of Kola was given, and formed a
settlement. In the next year two merchants from Antwerp, starting from
Kola, reached the mouth of the Onega, and made a journey to Moscow.
Next, a trustworthy person was found to make a voyage to Kholmogori
to learn the Russian language and if possible to establish commercial
relations.
The name of the person selected was Oliver Brunel, a native of
Brussels. He was the founder of the White Sea trade of the Dutch, and
their first Arctic navigator. Brunel made a remarkable journey in the
country of the Samoyeds, crossing the river Petchora and reaching the
banks of the Obi. He was successful in acting as an agent for Russian
merchants, and in 1578 a Dutch ship anchored for the first time at the
mouth of the Dwina. It was quickly followed by another ship owned by
Balthazar de Moucheron, and thus the Dutch trade with the White Sea was
established.
[Illustration: WILLEM BARENTSZ.
(Originally a vignette in a chart published in Amsterdam between 1613
and 1615[33].)]
It was Balthazar de Moucheron, an eminent merchant of Middelburg, who
conceived the project of imitating the English adventurers, and sending
two vessels to discover a north-east route to China. One was the
_Swan_ of Keer in Walcheren, commanded by Cornells Nai of Enkhuizen,
the other the _Mercury_ of Enkhuizen under Brant Tetgales. They were
to attempt a passage by the Waigat. The merchants of Amsterdam fitted
out a vessel also named the _Mercury_ but, acting under the advice of
the cosmographer Plancius, they adopted another route, and resolved
to attempt a passage round the northern end of Novaya Zemlya. The
commander of this second _Mercury_ was Willem Barentsz, a native of
the island of Terschelling, an accomplished seaman and pilot. He had
translated the sailing directions of Ivar Bardsen the Greenlander[34],
and the journal of Arthur Pet; showing the close attention he had paid
to the former history of northern enterprise. Barentsz understood the
science of navigation, and was an excellent observer.
The three vessels, with Cornelis Nai as Admiral, sailed from the Texel
on the 4th June, 1594. On the 29th Barentsz parted company to pursue
his more northern route, while Nai and Tetgales shaped a course for
Waigatz. It was agreed that, if they had to return, they were to wait
for each other until September at Kildin, on the coast of Lapland.
Barentsz came in sight of Novaya Zemlya in 73° 25′ N. on July 4th, and,
proceeding northwards along the coast, passed Cape Nassau in 76° 20′ N.
on the 10th. Here the land turns nearly due east, with many glaciers,
and hills rising to 2000 feet behind them. Off the coast are the two
Orange Islands, each about half a mile long, with precipitous sides
and flat summits about 100 feet above the sea. Hitherto Barentsz had
been in a fairly open sea, but on rounding Cape Nassau he was stopped
by floes of ice. He persevered in an attempt to pass through them
for some days, but on the 3rd of August he was obliged to begin the
homeward voyage. Between Cape Nassau and the Orange Islands Barentsz
had put his ship about no less than 81 times, and had sailed over
1546 miles including all the tacks. On the 15th of August he reached
Matthew Island on the south coast of Novaya Zemlya, where he met Nai
and Tetgales. They had passed through Pet Strait, and had gone for a
short distance into the Kara Sea. All three vessels returned to Holland
in September. The narrative of his first voyage was written by Barentsz
himself.
[Illustration: Novaya Zemlya, showing entrances to Kara Sea.]
A well-known traveller and writer, Jan Huygen van Linschoten, sailed
with Tetgales in the Enkhuizen ship. Linschoten was born at Haarlem
in 1563. At the age of 16 he joined his brothers, who were merchants
at Seville. He went thence to Lisbon, and obtaining a place in the
suite of the Archbishop of Goa sailed for India in 1583. He remained
at Goa until 1589, when he took ship at Cochin to return with his
friend Dirk Gerritz, who had been 26 years in the East and had been
to China and Japan as gunner of a Portuguese ship. Dirk Gerritz wrote
notes upon China and India, and in 1598 he was pilot in the first
Dutch voyage through the Straits of Magellan. Linschoten stopped on
his homeward voyage at Terceira, one of the Azores, for more than two
years, which enabled him to give a full account of the memorable fight
of the _Revenge_. At length he got back to Holland in September 1592
and wrote his _Itinerary_, which was published in 1596. He was an
indefatigable collector of information of all kinds, and his book of
travels is most fascinating[35]. But, while busily engaged upon it,
Linschoten’s attention was diverted by the project of de Moucheron for
the discovery of the North-east Passage, and he sailed with Tetgales
as supercargo[36].
It was Linschoten’s sanguine report expressing a full conviction
that the northern route to the Indies was discovered which induced
the Dutch merchants to undertake a second voyage on a larger scale.
Seven vessels were fitted out, two in Zeeland, two from Enkhuizen, two
from Amsterdam, and one from Rotterdam. The _Griffin_ and _Swan_ from
Zeeland were again under Cornelis Nai, the _Hope_ of Enkhuizen was
commanded by Tetgales, and Barentsz had the _Greyhound_ of Amsterdam
and was chief pilot. Linschoten, Jacob van Heemskerk, and Jan Cornells
Rijp were the supercargos. Linschoten was also a Commissioner on behalf
of Prince Maurice of Orange and the States General.
The ships assembled at the Texel and sailed on the 2nd July, 1595.
On the 19th August they reached the entrance of Pet Strait which
was closed with ice, “most frightful to behold,” writes Linschoten.
Parties were sent across Waigatz Island to report on the state of
the ice in the Kara Sea. Barentsz himself crossed to the mainland to
get information from the Samoyeds, and several efforts were made to
pass through the ice, but all in vain. The crews began to murmur. The
attempt was accordingly abandoned and the fleet returned to Holland in
October[37].
The total failure of this voyage caused great disappointment, and the
States General decided that no further attempt should be made at the
public expense. Barentsz, however, supported by Plancius, persisted in
the opinion that a passage might be effected round the north of Novaya
Zemlya, so the merchants of Amsterdam were induced to fit out one
more expedition. It consisted of two vessels, one commanded by Jacob
van Heemskerk, the other by Jan Cornells Rijp. Barentsz went with
Heemskerk as chief pilot.
On the 9th June, 1596, the two ships came to a small steep island north
of the Finmarken coast which received the name of Bear Island[38].
It appears that the plan was to keep away from Waigatz Island, where
failure had attended the second voyage, and instead to shape a
northerly course.
[Illustration: A wonder in the heavens, and how we caught a bear.]
The Finmarken coast is separated from Bear Island by a sea 280 miles
wide with a depth of 300 fathoms. A wild cheerless waste presents
itself on the north-western half, covered with lakes and marshes, while
the south-eastern part is mountainous. Mount Misery rises to 1760
feet in height. The formations are of carboniferous limestones and
sandstones with rich coal beds on the north coast. Bear Island may be
considered as the southernmost headland of the submarine plateau out of
which Spitsbergen and Franz Josef Land rise.
Only 105 miles to the north is the South or Look-out Cape of
Spitsbergen. The Dutch explorers, on leaving Bear Island, continued
on a northerly course from the 13th to the 19th June. But no part of
Spitsbergen was sighted until they reached its north-western point in
79° 49′ N. A marvellous fight with a bear is recounted by Gerrit de
Veer, and two landings on the coast to get ballast and birds’ eggs.
There was another landing on the 23rd to observe the variation of
the compass. Then, as the ice stopped the way northward, a southerly
course was shaped on June 28th. The land was supposed to be a part of
Greenland. By the 1st July they were again at Bear Island.
[Illustration: How our ship stuck fast in the ice.]
There was much dispute between Barentsz and Rijp as to the course, and
it ended in Rijp returning with his ship to Holland. Heemskerk, under
the guidance of Barentsz, then made for Novaya Zemlya, and coasted
along to the northward, until he doubled Cape Nassau, and passed the
furthest point reached by Barentsz on his first Voyage. Here the ship
was beset and, after fruitless attempts to extricate themselves from
the ice by tacking about in various directions, Heemskerk and Barentsz
found themselves on the west side of a bay which was named Ice Haven.
Here “they were forced, in great cold, poverty, misery, and grief to
stay all the winter.” This was on the 26th August. The heavy pack ice
drifted into the bay, gave the ship several severe nips, and firmly
wedged her between grounded masses of pack ice. But the ice was seen to
be in motion in the offing until Christmas.
The crew consisted of 17 souls all told. Fortunately there was a large
supply of driftwood, and with this, eked out by planks from the ship,
they built a house, 32 feet long by 20 broad, into which they removed
all their provisions and valuables. A chimney was fixed in the centre
of the roof, a Dutch clock was set up and made to strike the hours,
bed-places were fixed along the walls, and a wine cask was converted
into a bath. Snowstorms and gales of wind prevailed throughout the
winter, which had the good effect of drifting snow round the house as
high as the roof and thus raising the temperature within.
They entered upon the year 1597 “with great cold, danger, and disease”;
but strove to keep up their spirits by mild festivity on Twelfth-night,
their meal consisting of a little wine and pancakes of meal and oil.
Foxes were caught in traps, and occasionally a bear was shot, but
sickness began to appear from want of exercise and unwholesome food.
The little ship’s boy died, Barentsz himself had long been ill, and a
man named Claas Adrianszoon was also in an almost hopeless state.
When the summer came and open water appeared it was found that the ship
was too much damaged by the ice to be seaworthy, so it was resolved to
retreat in the boat and the _schuit_[39]. Barentsz wrote a paper giving
an account of their proceedings, which was placed in the chimney. They
then dragged down the remaining provisions and merchants’ goods to the
boats, and loaded them. Willem Barentsz, who was unable to walk, was
brought down to the boats on a sledge. Claas Adrianszoon was conveyed
in the same manner; and the forlorn people divided themselves between
the two boats, each of which took one of the sick men. They all signed
a letter stating their reason for abandoning the ship, except four who
either could not write or were too ill to sign.
“So committing themselves to the will and mercy of God, with a
west-north-west wind, and on indifferent open water, they set sail
and put to sea,” on the 13th of June, 1597. They reached the Orange
Islands, and landed at Point Desire to melt snow and fill their
beakers, and to get birds’ eggs for the sick. Here Captain Heemskerk
fell into the water and nearly lost his life; but he was rescued, and
dried his clothes at the fire of driftwood they had made to melt the
snow. From the Orange Islands they sailed about 20 miles to Ice Point.
The boats being close together the captain hailed Willem Barentsz to
know how he did. Barentsz replied “I am well, mate, and I hope to be
able to run before we come to Wardhaus.” Gerrit de Veer, the mate, was
in the same boat with Barentsz. “Gerrit,” he said, “if we are near the
Ice Point [the northernmost point of Novaya Zemlya] just lift me up
again. I must see that point once more.”
On the 17th June the boats were beset by the ice, “it came so fast
upon us that it made our hair stand upright on our heads, it was so
fearful to behold.” The boats were hauled up on the ice and repaired.
The two sick men were laid on the floe. Barentsz seemed better, and
had some discussion with Gerrit de Veer about the chart. Then he said
“Gerrit, give me to drink.” He had no sooner swallowed the water than
he was taken with a sudden spasm and died. Claas Adrianszoon died soon
afterwards. On the 22nd they got the boats into open water and again
made sail.
With much labour, and frequent difficulties with the ice, the two boats
made their way southwards along the coast of Novaya Zemlya until, on
the 28th July, they fell in with two Russian _lodias_. By this time
they were all suffering, more or less, from scurvy. The Russians
sailed away towards Waigatz Island. The Dutchmen though very sick, and
scarcely able to pull their oars, also managed to reach the island
where, to their great joy, they found plenty of scurvy grass, which
cured them. They had heard of its healing virtues in Holland, and they
now ate the leaves in handfuls.
[Illustration: Part of Hondius’s Map of 1611, showing Barentsz’s
Discoveries.]
At length the weary voyagers reached Kola in Lapland, where they found
a Dutch ship commanded by the very same Jan Cornelis Rijp who had
parted company with them in the previous year. On the 30th of August
he came and welcomed them with great joy as if they had risen from
death to life again. He brought a barrel of beer, wine, spirits, bread,
meat, salmon, and sugar to comfort and relieve them. At Kola they left
the two boats in which they had sailed over 600 miles “whereat the
inhabitants could not sufficiently wonder.” On the 17th September the
homeward voyage was commenced in the ship of Jan Cornelis Rijp. Still
very weak, but rapidly recovering, they reached Amsterdam on the 1st
of November, 1597, in the same clothes they wore in Novaya Zemlya, and
were received by Prince Maurice.
The narrative of this remarkable voyage was simply but well written by
Gerrit de Veer, the mate, and faithful companion of Barentsz in his
last two voyages[40].
Willem Barentsz deservedly holds a high place in the roll of Arctic
worthies. He was a good sailor, and an accomplished pilot and
navigator. As an observer he was careful and remarkably accurate. But
he possessed still higher qualities. He was resolute and persevering,
and, while taking all possible precautions, he was ready to run some
risk in order to secure success. He knew well that to be over cautious
was to secure nothing, and that some slight dash of recklessness was
the very essence of achievement. Hence his deeds exceeded those of all
others in that 16th century. He was trusted by his men, and anxiety was
mingled with their sorrow at the loss of their “chief guide and only
pilot.”
For 278 years the winter quarters of Barentsz remained unvisited. The
north-east point of Novaya Zemlya was never again rounded until the
spell was broken by the Norwegian, Captain Elling Carlsen, who reached
the Ice Haven of Barentsz on September 7th, 1871[41]. He saw the
house standing at the head of the bay, with large puncheons standing
round it, and found the interior exactly as represented in the old
drawing which illustrates the narrative of Gerrit de Veer. There
was the row of standing bed-places, the Dutch clock, the halberd and
muskets, the great kettles and cooking-pans over the fireplace, the
instruments, and the books that had beguiled the weary hours of that
long night. One book was a translation of the Spanish work of Medina on
navigation, another a chronicle of Holland, another a Dutch translation
of Mendoza’s History of China. There was also a Dutch version of Arthur
Pet’s journal. Implements and utensils of all kinds too there were,
down to the flute and the small shoes of the poor little ship’s boy who
died during the winter[42].
[Illustration: Relics from Barentsz’s hut. (_National Museum,
Amsterdam_)]
[Illustration: The exact manner of the house wherein we wintered.]
Queen Elizabeth took great interest in the northern voyages of her own
subjects and of her Dutch allies. We find Sir Francis Vere, her General
in the Netherlands, sending home a full account of the first voyage of
Barentsz on 7th October 1594[43], and adopting Linschoten’s sanguine
views of the ultimate commercial success of the enterprise, which was
to be renewed in the following year. This letter was the consequence
of an order from the Queen to keep her fully informed respecting the
maritime, and more especially the Arctic, undertakings of the Dutch.
CHAPTER X
SIR MARTIN FROBISHER
It was more than 20 years after the expedition of Willoughby to the
north-east that the efforts towards the north-west were commenced.
Their inception was due to Martin Frobisher, one of the greatest of the
Elizabethan seamen.
Born at Altofts, in the parish of Normanton in Yorkshire, about 1535,
Martin was a nephew of Francis Frobisher, who had been Mayor of
Doncaster. His father, Bernard Frobisher, died in Martin’s infancy, and
his mother sent the boy, being one of several children, to the care of
her brother, Sir John Yorke, in London. Martin is described as “a youth
of great spirit and bold courage, and natural hardiness of body.” His
uncle seems to have found him more than he could manage, so he sent
him to sea. Martin’s first voyage was to the coast of Guinea in 1554,
and for many years he continued to make voyages to Africa and to the
Levant, becoming a thorough sailor, but without much book learning.
Yet he was deeply impressed with the importance of Arctic discovery
very early in his career. His great ambition was to lead an expedition
and to discover the strait which must, he thought, lead into the ocean
discovered by Magellan on the north side of America, as Magellan’s
Strait leads into it on the south.
Frobisher saw service in Ireland, and it has been suggested with much
probability that he there became acquainted with Sir Henry Sidney, the
Lord Deputy. This was the friend of the young King, Edward VI, who on
the part of his sovereign, took an active interest in the expedition of
Sir Hugh Willoughby, and obtained the appointment of Richard Chancellor
as second in command. Sidney would naturally take an equal interest in
the project of Frobisher, would encourage his enthusiasm, and exert
his influence to enable him to realise his ardent longing. So it was
that Sidney’s brother-in-law, Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, took
the matter in hand, brought it before Queen Elizabeth, and secured her
approval.
The discourse of Sir Humphrey Gilbert to prove a passage to Cataya and
the East Indies was printed in 1576, but it had been written some years
before, and its powerful advocacy was no small help to the persuasions
of Frobisher. It is divided into ten chapters. The first is to prove
the existence of a passage from authority, in the second is the proof
from reason, and the third shows that America must be an island. The
next four chapters discuss the traditions that the passage had been
sailed through[44], and the eighth contests the reasons given by
Anthony Jenkinson for preferring a north-east passage. In the ninth it
is argued that a north-west route will be more commodious for traffic,
and in the tenth the manifold advantages of the discovery are set
forth. At the close of his discourse Sir Humphrey exclaims: “He is not
worthy to live at all who for fear or danger of death shunneth his
country’s service or his own honor, since death is inevitable, and the
fame of virtue immortal.”
The advocacy of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and the support of the Queen’s
ministers and courtiers enabled Frobisher to make progress in
collecting funds. A difficulty was raised by the Muscovy Company,
represented by Mr Michael Lock, who maintained that the voyage was
contrary to the Company’s privileges. But the Privy Council ordered the
Company either to make the attempt itself, or to grant a licence to
Frobisher to do so, and the latter alternative was preferred. Moreover
Frobisher won over Michael Lock to his side, a most important ally.
[Illustration: Sir Martin Frobisher]
Lock’s father was an Alderman of London, and Michael was born in
1532. The father, Sir William Lock, was a mercer, and was also
Agent-beyond-the-seas in divers affairs for Henry VIII. After
keeping his son at school until he was 13, he sent him to France and
Flanders to learn the language. Michael afterwards passed through
nearly all the countries of Christendom, had command of a large ship
in the Levant trade for three years, and then settled in London as a
merchant. He was an ardent geographer, and had made a large collection
of books, maps, and instruments. He became an enthusiastic partner of
Frobisher, and they together began to sell shares in the venture, and
succeeded in raising £875 for the projected voyage. This sum was quite
inadequate, but Lock patriotically came forward and guaranteed the rest
on his own personal security.
Two small vessels, the _Michael_ of 25 tons, and the _Gabriel_ of 20
tons, were fitted out in the Thames, with a small pinnace of 7 tons
to be used in going ahead to sound and look out, and to explore bays
and inlets. Michael Lock’s maps and charts were diligently examined
and discussed, and frequent councils were held at which Frobisher and
Lock were assisted by Stephen Burrough, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and the
learned Dr Dee. The master and mate of the _Gabriel_, Christopher Hall
and James Best, also received instructions from Dr Dee in the use of
instruments and in computation. At length all was ready. On June 17th,
1576, the little squadron anchored off Greenwich Palace, and fired a
salute. The Queen stood at an open window and waved her hand, also
sending the adventurers a gracious message that she had “good liking
of their doings.” Proceeding down the river the crew received the
Sacrament at Gravesend, and on the 18th Harwich was left astern and the
voyage began.
Passing the Shetland Islands on June 26th a furious gale was
encountered and the little pinnace foundered with the loss of four men.
The _Michael_, commanded by one Owen Gryffyn, deserted soon afterwards
and returned with a report that the _Gabriel_ was lost. Frobisher held
resolutely on his way and sighted the south coast of Greenland, which
was supposed to be a (fabulous) land shown on the fanciful Zeno chart
with which he was supplied and called Frieslanda. The little _Gabriel_
continued her westward course with 18 men all told, amidst drifting
icebergs and dense fogs. Another gale sprang up with a fearful sea,
coming on so suddenly that there was no time to shorten sail. Her
canvas pressed the ship down until she was on her beam ends, and the
men were seized with despairing panic. The captain rushed up with an
axe in his hand, ran along the channels on the weather side, and cast
off the foretack, relieving her of pressure from the foresail. He then
ran aft and cut away the mizzen mast. The ship slowly began to right
herself, and was got before the wind. Seeing this the affrighted crew
made a rush to cut away the main shrouds, thinking further relief from
pressure would complete what their captain had done. But Frobisher
drove them back, ordering them to desist. As it was, the mainmast was
sprung, and had to be fished.
On the 28th July high land was sighted, receiving the name of Queen
Elizabeth’s Foreland. But the ice was floating in masses, and a huge
iceberg split up close to the little craft as she drifted past. A
landing was effected on an island, which was named after Christopher
Hall, the master. The men brought back grass and flowers, and a piece
of black stone which was destined to have a malign influence on
Frobisher’s project of discovery. He sailed up a channel with land
on either side, which received the name of Frobisher’s Strait, and
succeeded in establishing apparently friendly traffic with the Eskimos.
But the traffic ended in a catastrophe. The boat, with five men, went
away and, contrary to orders, pulled out of sight of the ship to barter
for skins. Neither men nor boat were ever heard of again. It was a
great calamity, for there was no other boat and the men were a serious
loss. Frobisher succeeded in capturing one savage, with his kayak, but
this was poor consolation. On the 26th August the return voyage was
commenced and by the 9th October the _Gabriel_ was once more in the
Thames.
Owing to the false report of the _Michael_, Frobisher and his people
had been given up for lost. They had a hearty welcome and the
gallant leader was well received at court. All would have proceeded
satisfactorily for the resumption of the work of discovery, if it had
not been for the black stone. Michael Lock got hold of it, forgetting
that “all that glisters is not gold.” He took it to the Assay Master of
the Tower who pronounced it to be iron pyrites. Then he went to another
assayer named Wheeler, who made the same report. Next he appealed to an
Italian named Aquello, who was more complaisant. He produced a little
gold dust. When he was asked how he had found gold where the other
assayers declared there was none, his cynical reply was “_Bisogno sap
ere adulare la natura_.”
Lock then spread the report that there were rich gold mines in
Frobisher Strait. There was great excitement. A gold-mining company
was formed called the “Cathay Company,” and a charter was granted on
the 17th March, 1577. The Queen took shares to the amount of £1000,
and lent one of her ships, the _Aid_ of 200 tons. She named the newly
discovered land “Meta Incognita.” The subscriptions came in rather
slowly, but Lock guaranteed the balance, and became Governor of the
Company.
Frobisher took command of the second expedition on May 25th, 1577.
It consisted of three vessels. The _Aid_, the Queen’s vessel, was
Frobisher’s flag-ship, with George Best as his lieutenant, Christopher
Hall as master, and 30 gentlemen volunteers and soldiers. The _Gabriel_
of 20 tons was commanded by Edward Fenton and had a crew of 18 men,
with William Smyth as master. Gilbert Yorke, possibly a cousin of
Frobisher, had the _Michael_ of about 25 tons, with a crew of 16 men.
They sailed from Blackwall on the 26th May, and next day the Vicar of
Gravesend came on board the _Aid_ and administered the Sacrament to
officers and men.
On July 7th land, which was believed to be the Frieslanda of Zeno,
was sighted, and an attempt was made to cross or get through the ice
and land, but it proved impracticable. This was of course Greenland.
Sailing onwards the _Michael_ lost her topmasts in a gale but
succeeded in regaining her consorts, and a few days afterwards the
land discovered during the first voyage was reached. The object of
the expedition was to load the ships with the black micaceous stones
which were supposed to be gold ore, and had nothing to do with Arctic
discovery. The gallant admiral, however, thought far more of rescuing
the men who were believed to have been captured by the Eskimos on his
former voyage than of the imaginary gold ore. He tried every means,
attempted negotiation with the savages, and made searches, but all in
vain. Some of their clothes were found in the Eskimo tents, and there
can be little doubt that they were murdered. The ships returned with
their cargoes of black stones, and the voyagers received just praise
from the Queen. Her Majesty “rejoiced at their great forwardness in
this so dangerous toiling and faithful attempt, especially she praised
so good order of government, so good agreement, every man so ready in
his calling to do whatsoever the General should command.” Elizabeth
had rightly formed a very high opinion of the ability and capacity of
Martin Frobisher.
The worthless character of the stones was not yet exposed and the
feeling was stronger than ever for further supplies. There was to be
a colony formed at the Countess of Warwick’s Sound. A timber house
was embarked, and miners were engaged from Cornwall. There were many
gentlemen volunteers, and no less than 15 vessels were engaged:--
_Aid_ (Admiral) Martin Frobisher
_Thomas Allin_ (Vice Admiral) Yorke
_Judith_ (Lieut.-Gen.) Fenton
_Ann Frances_ Best
_Hopewell_ Carew
_Bear_ Philpot
_Thomas_ (of Ipswich) Tanfield
_Emanuel_ (of Exeter) Courtenay
_Emanuel_ (Busse) (of Bridgewater) Newton
_Francis_ (of Foy) Moyles
_Moon_ Upcot
_Salomon_ (of Weymouth) Randal
_Dennis_ Kendal
_Gabriel_ Harvey
_Michael_ Kinnersley
The Queen received the captains at Greenwich, and threw a gold chain
round the neck of “her loving friend Martin Frobisher.” The fleet
sailed from Dover on May 31st, 1578, and shaped a course down channel.
The Admiral had issued an order prohibiting swearing or card-playing,
and ordering that there was to be Divine service daily in every ship.
Most of the ships were chartered, and the Admiral had not the same
control over them as if they had been Queen’s ships, which increased
his difficulties.
[Illustration: Frobisher’s Discoveries.]
After crossing the North Atlantic Frobisher again sighted Greenland,
still supposed to be the Frieslanda of the Zeno map, and once more
attempted to land. This time he was successful. Taking the pinnace,
and accompanied by Fenton and Christopher Hall, he forced his way
through the pack ice, and reached a bay where there were Eskimos in
their kayaks and a summer encampment of tents. He intended to continue
his discoveries but a dense fog came on, and he was obliged to return
and attend to the needs of the fleet. Frobisher was thus the first to
land in Greenland since the colony was abandoned to its fate by the
Norwegians.
During eight days the ships were crossing the ice-laden strait, making
for the land of the false gold ore which had been visited during the
two previous voyages. They were in much danger, encountering furious
gales of wind, amidst icebergs and drifting packs. One day there was
a violent concussion on board the _Salomon_, as if she had run stem
on to an iceberg; and a whale rose under her bows. She was brought up
all standing, and soon afterwards the whale was seen dead, floating on
the surface. Another vessel lost her topmasts in a gale, but at last
land was in sight and they were off Frobisher’s Strait. The entrance,
however, was blocked by the pack. The Queen’s Foreland and Lock’s
Island, names given in the previous voyages, could be seen over the
wide extent of ice.
Frobisher attempted to force his way through. Sending the pinnace ahead
to seek out leads, he entered the pack in the _Aid_, with the other
vessels following in line. There were numerous icebergs, and some
vessels, going very slow, ran against them, but without receiving much
damage. At last the _Aid_ was stopped by a floe of no great width,
and men were sent in boats to attempt to cut through it. Up to this
time the weather had been fine, but suddenly a gale of wind sprang up,
closed the pack between the ships and the open sea, and placed them in
great danger. Several were closely beset, others severely nipped. The
_Dennis_ was forced against an iceberg and sank, the crew being saved
by the boats sent to cut the floe. Every contrivance was resorted to
that they could devise to save the rest of the fleet. The loss of the
_Dennis_ was very serious, as she carried half the prepared timber for
the house or fort for the proposed colony. The great peril lasted for
13 hours, during which time the men, expecting death every moment,
worked like true English seamen. Next morning the wind veered round
and drifted away the pack between the ships and the open sea. This was
on the 3rd July. On the 9th another effort was made to reach the land.
A very strong current was noted to the south-west “the noise of the
stream being like the waterfall of London Bridge,” The largest iceberg,
which they called “Salomon’s Porch” was measured and found to be 330
feet high.
They were at the entrance of what is now known as Hudson’s Strait,
too far to the south. Frobisher suspected this, but a wide opening
leading westward was before him, and he cared much more for discovery
than for the supposed gold ore. After all, discovery was included in
his instructions. Christopher Hall was strong against the attractive
openings being Frobisher’s former strait, and words ran high. The
Admiral lost his temper and was in a great rage. Hall was mutinous and
would not keep company. The _Aid_ entered the newly-discovered strait,
followed by six or seven other vessels with like-minded loyal captains.
Frobisher went on to the westward for six or seven days, meeting with
natives on shore with whom he bartered, and noting much animal life. He
had discovered what is now called Hudson’s Strait. The great explorer
longed to push on, but there was his duty to the Cathay Company, his
duty to bring home shiploads of worthless stones. So, on the first fine
day, Frobisher had to observe for latitude, and of course found himself
60 miles too far south[45].
His duty obliged him to give up his discoveries and return to the
sordid work of loading the ships with black stones. On the 28th July
the _Aid_ was forced through the pack into the Countess of Warwick’s
Sound, other ships following, and the miners set to work collecting
their rubbish. The first part of the voyage was completed, and many
dangers had been overcome, difficulties encountered, and experience in
ice navigation gained. A solemn service of thanksgiving was held. The
chaplain was Master Wolfall, a patriotic clergyman who had given up
a good living to serve his country in a dangerous enterprise. He now
preached an eloquent sermon of thanksgiving and encouragement, shortly
afterwards administering the Sacrament to the crews on shore.
Autumn was approaching. The _Thomas_ of Ipswich had already deserted.
As half the timber intended for the fort was lost in the _Dennis_ it
was resolved that the idea of a colony must be abandoned. The ships
were accordingly loaded and began the return voyage. Before their
arrival, however, it had at last been discovered that the stones were
worthless. The bubble burst, the shareholders had to pay, and Frobisher
for a time was reduced to poverty. But the great Queen knew his worth,
and did not lose sight of him.
Frobisher had many good and loyal comrades in his Arctic voyages. First
and foremost was George Best, who wrote the narrative of the voyage;
next Christopher Hall, a fine seaman but not equally loyal; Edward
Fenton, who afterwards served against the Spanish Armada; Gilbert
Yorke, who did good service afterwards in the West Indies, his Arctic
service standing him in good stead; and Charles Jackman, pilot of the
_Aid_, an excellent and loyal officer who lost his life, as already
recorded, in the North-east Passage enterprise with Arthur Pet.
The provisions supplied for Frobisher’s voyages were sufficient if they
were good of their kind. They consisted of biscuit (16 tons for five
months for 115 men), meal 30 tons, beer, wine, salt beef and pork,
peas, stock-fish, butter, cheese, oatmeal, rice (a small quantity),
raisins, almonds, and liquorice, sea coal 30 tons, wood 14 tons, and
charcoal. The whole was in 240 barrels of 4 bushels. The ration was 1
lb. per man per diem, and a gallon of beer[46].
The _Emanuel_, busse, of Bridgewater, of which Newton was captain,
reported that on his voyage home in 57° 30′ he sailed for three days
along a high and well-wooded coast. The master, James Leach, and T.
Wiars, a passenger, corroborated the statement. The island, known as
the “Land of Busse” was shown by Plancius and on the Molyneux globe.
Hall expected to see it in 1605, and subsequently said that he did see
it in 1606. Seller placed it with defined shape, and names of points,
harbours, and mountains. Several captains in the 17th century reported
that they had seen it. Fifty years after the last time it was alleged
to have been sighted in 1671, it was reported to have been submerged,
and it then became the “_sunken land of Busse_.” Lieut. Pickerskill, in
the _Lion_ in 1776, sought for it, and struck a bank in 57° N. with 330
fathoms. Sir John Ross found no bottom in 180 fathoms. There never was
any such island. If the people on board the busse ever saw anything,
it was a part of the south coast of Greenland. They can have taken no
observations, and were trusting to badly-kept dead reckoning[47].
Sir Martin Frobisher was one of our great Arctic heroes. He was imbued
with enthusiasm for discovery in the interests of his country. Of
dauntless courage, great capacity for work, and the gift of endearing
men to him by his noble qualities, he was also quick tempered, but as
quickly appeased. His Arctic training and experience were helpful in
his after career of great services to the country in the West Indies,
in the Channel, and in the defeat of the Spanish Armada, when he was
knighted. In 1594 Frobisher was called away from his home in Yorkshire
to command the Channel Fleet, and, with a land force under Sir John
Norris, to drive the Spaniards out of the fort of Crozon near Brest.
During the siege Frobisher, while leading on his men, was mortally
wounded; but Crozon was taken by storm. The Admiral was taken on board
the _Vanguard_, his flag-ship. The Queen sent him a letter in her own
handwriting. The wound need not have been mortal, but the surgeon
who extracted the ball left the wadding behind, and the neglect was
fatal. The great seaman and explorer died on November 22nd, 1594. Queen
Elizabeth, whose extraordinary insight into character was one great
element in the success of her reign, put complete trust in Frobisher,
and from 1589 she employed no other admiral during his lifetime.
Frobisher had unswerving faith in his religion, and devoted loyalty to
his Queen. In the dangers of storm and ice, as under the fire of his
country’s enemies, he ever combined presence of mind, forethought, and
prudence, with heroic bravery and dash when the moment for action came.
Among the Elizabethan worthies Sir Martin Frobisher justly takes his
place in the first rank[48].
CHAPTER XI
JOHN DAVIS
A substantial yeoman in the days of the great Queen possessed a small
freehold called Sandridge on the banks of the Dart, in the parish of
Stoke Gabriel. This yeoman had two sons, John Davis the future Arctic
navigator, and his brother Edward, the former born in 1550. The Dart,
in this part of its course, widens out, and has all the appearance of
a lake surrounded by wooded hills, the leafy boughs touching the water
at high tide. The view is closed in by the richly wooded heights of
Greenway Court, which was the home of Humphrey and Adrian Gilbert and
their half brother Walter Raleigh. All these boys were fast friends.
The Gilbert and Davis boys often met, and made excursions together.
Young Davis also had other friends. A mile beyond the neighbouring
village of Dittisham was the manor house of Bozomzele, where dwelt Sir
John Fulford, his wife, Lady Dorothy, daughter of the Earl of Bath, and
several children about the same age as young Davis. Here he was always
welcome, and one of his Bozomzele playfellows, Faith Fulford, later
became his wife.
John Davis was not in the same social position as his life-long friends
Adrian Gilbert and Walter Raleigh or the Fulfords, but he certainly
received a classical education, probably at Totnes grammar school. He
went to sea at an early age and was away from home for about 14 years.
He returned, at the age of 28, an experienced seaman, skilled in the
scientific branch of his profession, and recognised as a captain of
known valour and conduct, in whom merchants were willing to repose
trust and confidence. He had succeeded to the property at Sandridge,
and on September 29th, 1582, he married Faith Fulford.
Young Davis, master of his friend Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s _Discourse on
a North-west Passage to Cathay_, was deeply interested in an enterprise
which would so greatly benefit his country, and was filled with a
desire to undertake the leading of such an expedition. His friend
Adrian Gilbert--at this time a neighbour, having rented the manor house
of Stoke Gabriel--was equally enthusiastic. The two friends rode up to
London together, and Gilbert introduced Davis to Dr Dee, the famous
alchemist and mathematician at Mortlake, and to the great statesman Sir
Francis Walsingham. The four experts examined all available sources
of information, and consulted together. The great difficulty was to
ascertain the position of Sir Martin Frobisher’s discoveries, which
could not be reconciled with the Zeno map. Still, the main object of
finding a passage was most important, and a successful appeal was made
to the merchants of London. Sir Walter Raleigh entered into the plans
of the friend of his boyhood with characteristic ardour, and he induced
the Queen to grant a charter for the discovery to John Davis, Adrian
Gilbert, and himself. Raleigh recommended his associates to the good
offices of Master William Sanderson, a wealthy merchant and one of the
most enlightened adventurers of his time, who resolved to give liberal
support to the expedition. He superintended the preparations, and his
relative, John Janes, went out as supercargo. In the spring of 1585
Davis was busily engaged in fitting out at Dartmouth. He had two small
vessels, the _Sunshine_ of London of 50 tons, and the _Moonshine_,
built at Dartmouth, of only 35 tons. Davis and Janes were in the
_Sunshine_ with the master, William Eston, a master’s mate, gunner,
boatswain, carpenter, eleven seamen, four musicians to please the
natives, and a boy. The _Moonshine_ was commanded by William Bruton,
with John Ellis as master.
On the 7th June, 1585, the two ships left Dartmouth harbour. With
Eston the master, Davis made a careful survey of the provisions and a
calculation of the time they would last. They consisted of salt meat
and cod, biscuit and peas, butter and cheese, with beer. The clothing
was entirely woollen. As contrary winds detained the ships for several
days at the Scilly Islands, Davis employed his time in visiting every
island of the group, plotting and describing every isle and rock, and
making a regular survey for the use of navigators.
A fair wind at last sprang up and took them northward over the
Atlantic, where one or two porpoises were harpooned, and a number of
whales seen. It was on the 20th July, 1588, that Greenland, the country
of the old Norse colony, was sighted, and Davis named it the “Land
of Desolation”: for “the irksome noise of the ice and the loathsome
view of the shore bred strange conceits among us.” This was on the
east side. Davis considered that he was well to the westward of the
Frieslanda of Zeno, and in the channel between Labrador and Greenland
as shown on Mercator’s map, so, after rounding the southern point, he
steered north and on the 29th sighted land in 64° 15′ N. The wind being
strong from the north he anchored in a fjord, which was named Gilbert
Sound. It is the Godthaab of the Danes[49].
On the Greenland coast the numerous small granite islands scattered in
great numbers at the entrances of the deep fjords, are well clothed
with moss, grasses, and wild flowers in the summer, and embosomed in
a deep blue sea on which bergs and pack-ice float here and there, and
become distorted on the horizon by refraction. Nowhere does nature
present a more lovely scene.
Davis, with Janes and Eston, landed on a small island and had his first
interview with the Eskimos. He was followed by the captain of the
_Moonshine_ with the four musicians, and a good understanding was soon
established. Next day many kayaks were darting round the ships, and
there was perfect confidence. Five kayaks and some native clothing were
purchased. On the 1st of August Gilbert Sound was left and, shaping a
W.N.W. course, the opposite shore was sighted in 66° 40′ N., anchorage
being found in a bay which Davis called after his old school--Totnes
Road. He then discovered and examined the entrance to Cumberland Gulf.
He was very observant of the fauna and flora, the bears, five of
which were killed, the seals, and the numerous birds, and he described
_Ranunculus glacialis_ and _Papaver alpinum_. The men had complained of
the insufficiency of the food in such a climate, and a new dietary was
framed. Every mess of five men was to receive 4 lb. of biscuit daily,
12 quarts of beer, 6 stock-fish, and an extra gill of peas on salt meat
days.
From various indications, Davis was inclined to believe that Cumberland
Gulf was a strait, but a northwesterly gale had driven the ships from
the land, and on August 26th he determined to begin the homeward
voyage. He considered that his discoveries had materially increased
the amount of knowledge which must be collected before the passage was
likely to be found.
Davis was warmly welcomed by his steadfast friend Adrian Gilbert, and
he addressed a hopeful letter to Sir Francis Walsingham. He then went
up to London, and gave a personal account to the Secretary of State and
to Master Sanderson.
For the second expedition, which was immediately decided upon, the
merchants of Devonshire subscribed liberally. The little fleet was
composed of four ships, the _Mermaid_ of 120 tons, the _Sunshine_,
the _Moonshine_, and the _North Star_, a pinnace of 10 tons. Davis
himself was in the _Mermaid_ with his friend Janes, and Henry Morgan,
a servant of Master Sanderson, joined the expedition as purser.
Davis had resolved to divide his fleet. The _Sunshine_ under Captain
Pope, with the pinnace, was to seek for a passage on the east side
of Greenland as far as 80° N., and they parted company on the 7th of
June. The _Mermaid_ and _Moonshine_ sighted the southern extremity
of Greenland on the 15th, but Davis was unable to land owing to the
pack-ice extending for several leagues off the shore. He therefore gave
it the name of Cape Farewell, and once more entered the strait which
will bear his name for all time. Encountering very severe weather it
was not until the 29th that anchorage was found near Gilbert Sound,
where the Eskimos received their old friends with joyous welcome. Davis
put together a small pinnace which had been brought out in pieces, and
explored some of the fjords and inlets, also making long excursions
inland to observe the character and products of Greenland. Athletic
sports and football matches were then organised. In long jumping the
English beat the natives, but in wrestling matches the strangers found
their match. A vocabulary was collected of the Eskimo language, and
Davis wrote a very graphic account of these interesting people.
[Illustration: The Voyages of John Davis.]
The season was very unfavourable, there was much heavy pack, the ships
were nearly beset after leaving Gilbert Sound, and the crews became
despondent. Davis therefore made for the land again and reached it
in 66° 30′ N., at a place now known as Old Sukkertoppen. Here it was
resolved that the _Mermaid_ should return home, while Davis in the
_Moonshine_ continued the work of discovery with volunteers. On the
15th of August he crossed the strait, encountering much foul weather,
in spite of which the gallant explorer surveyed the west coast of Davis
Strait from the 67th to the 57th parallel. He found such enormous
quantities of birds breeding on the cliffs that he was led to suppose
that there must be a similar abundance of fish in the sea. He therefore
hove the ship to, and in a short time the men caught a hundred cod.
“The hook was no sooner over the side than presently a fish was
taken.” After examining the coast of Labrador, and the north coast
of Newfoundland, where there was a serious encounter with the Micmac
Indians, Davis shaped his course for England on the 11th September,
finally arriving at Dartmouth in October, 1586. Meanwhile the
_Sunshine_ and pinnace had reached Iceland, whence there was an attempt
to approach the east coast of Greenland, but the ice was too closely
packed, and Captain Pope sailed round Cape Farewell to Gilbert Sound,
returning to England on the 6th October. The account of this voyage was
written by Henry Morgan.
Davis had lost faith in Cumberland Gulf as a strait, but he had
discovered another great opening to the south which he thought might
be one, not knowing that Frobisher had already discovered and sailed
up it for six days. He also had good grounds for the belief that
these tentative expeditions could be made to pay their expenses by
bringing home cargoes of fish. He therefore resolved to continue the
enterprise although the west country merchants had lost heart. For a
short time he enjoyed the pleasures of home at Sandridge, discussing
the prospects with his neighbour and life-long friend Adrian Gilbert.
The two friends rode up to London together, were encouraged by the Lord
Treasurer and Sir Francis Walsingham, and obtained the necessary funds
from Master Sanderson and other patriotic merchants. The new Arctic
fleet consisted of the _Elizabeth_ of Dartmouth, the _Sunshine_, the
_Ellen_, a clinker-built pinnace, and another small pinnace taken out
in pieces. The _Moonshine_ was worn out. Davis had resolved to try and
make the expedition pay its expenses by fishing. He was a most popular
commander, and men who had once served with him always wanted to serve
again. John Janes, the nephew of Master Sanderson, again accompanied
him, and he appointed a native of his own parish of Stoke Gabriel,
named John Churchward, as pilot of the _Ellen_.
At midnight on the 19th May the three little vessels _Sunshine_,
_Elizabeth_, and _Ellen_ sailed out of Dartmouth harbour before a fresh
gale from the north-east. The _Sunshine_ sprang a leak which could
only be kept under by 500 strokes of the pump during each watch, and
the _Ellen_ was such a bad sailer that she had to be towed. On the 16th
June, in spite of these drawbacks, the three vessels came to anchor in
Gilbert Sound. Davis was so anxious that the expedition should pay its
expenses that he determined to despatch both the _Sunshine_ and the
_Elizabeth_ to the fishery, and to continue his voyage of discovery
in the little pinnace _Ellen_ of barely 20 tons. Then John Churchward
reported that the _Ellen_ had sprung a leak and that it required 300
strokes of the pump every watch to keep her clear of water. In this
wretched little craft the explorers were to hazard their lives. All
felt the crisis to be serious. Some hesitated. John Davis considered
the matter, and his decision was worthy of him. He told his people that
it would be better to end their lives with credit than to return with
infamy and disgrace. The crew accepted his words as final and resolved
to live and die together.
At midnight therefore on the 21st June all sailed from Gilbert Sound,
the two barks for the fishing voyage, and Davis in the pinnace to
continue the work of discovery. Proceeding northward along the west
coast of Greenland, to which he gave the name of the London Coast,
Davis took an observation on the 30th which showed the pinnace to be in
72° 12′ N. A lofty perpendicular cliff, in reality one of several small
islands off the coast, was named after the friend and chief promoter of
the expedition “Sanderson his Hope,” for here it was that there seemed
to be the chiefest hope of a passage. Sanderson his Hope rises to the
height of 850 feet above the sea, perpendicular save for narrow ledges
on which myriads of looms and kittiwakes rear their young.
Davis was now obliged to alter course to the west owing to a strong
northerly wind, and ran for 40 leagues in that direction without
sighting land. Throughout the voyage he paid close attention to the
phenomena of terrestrial magnetism, and did his best to increase the
data for studying the properties of the magnet during all his voyages.
The observations for variation at London have been continuous since
1580, and Davis had studied the work of another Arctic navigator,
William Burrough, whose _Discourse of the Compass and Magnetic Needle_
appeared in 1581, followed in 1585 by Robert Norman’s _New Attractive_.
While engaged in these observations, Davis found the progress of the
little _Ellen_ suddenly checked by broad floes stretching across
her path. This was the famous “middle pack” drifting towards the
Atlantic, sometimes extending for 200 miles, with an average thickness
of eight feet. A lane of water was followed for some distance but it
proved deceptive, and the _Ellen_ was lucky in being able to escape
from it without being beset. Davis then coasted along the southern
edge of the pack and succeeded in reaching the western side of the
Strait. By midnight of the 19th July the _Ellen_ was off the entrance
of Cumberland Gulf. Sailing along the coast they sighted Frobisher
Strait and “Meta Incognita” without knowing that they were Frobisher’s
discoveries, for the map-makers had placed them on the other side,
in Greenland. The _Ellen_ also crossed the entrance of the great
strait which Frobisher had discovered, and Davis named the point on
the south side Cape Chidley, after an old friend in Devonshire. The
confused current which Frobisher likened to the waterfall then existent
at London Bridge, appears to have been called by Davis “the furious
overfall” as shown on the Molyneux globe and the “new map” of 1599.
Davis in his log and Janes in his narrative describe it as “a mighty
overfall, with divers circular motions like whirlpools in such sort as
forcible streams pass through the arches of bridges.” The rendezvous
of the fishing vessels was in 54° N. on the coast of Labrador, where
the _Ellen_ waited until the 15th August, and then shaped a course for
England, arriving at Dartmouth on the 15th September, 1587. The logs
of the _Sunshine_ and _Elizabeth_ have not been preserved, but we may
hope that their cargoes remunerated Master Sanderson and the other
subscribers, and paid the expenses of the expedition[50].
The discoveries of Davis were most important. He converted the Arctic
regions from a confused myth into a defined area. He not only described
and mapped the extensive tracts explored by himself, but he clearly
pointed out the work cut out for his successors. He lighted Hudson into
his strait, as Luke Fox truly said. He lighted Baffin into his bay. He
lighted Hans Egede to the scene of his Greenland labours. He did more.
His true-hearted devotion to the cause of Arctic discovery, his patient
scientific research, his loyalty to his employers, his dauntless
courage and enthusiasm, his care for the welfare of his men, form an
example which has been a beacon light to the best Arctic explorers for
all time.
When Davis returned from his last Arctic voyage, England was
threatened by the Spanish Armada and there could be no thought but
for her defence. Our Arctic navigator was also an expert pilot of the
Channel, and had constructed a chart with soundings, mainly from his
own surveys. His ability and zeal were well known, but he could only
obtain the command of a small vessel of 20 tons called the _Black Dog_
to act as tender to the Lord Admiral. She served throughout the war.
Davis afterwards commanded the _Drake_ to unite with the squadron of
the Earl of Cumberland and prey upon Spanish commerce, joining him
between Flores and Fayal in the Azores. These war services had the
satisfactory result of enriching Davis with prize money and enabling
him to undertake an expedition having geographical discovery for its
main object.
The admirable character of the subsequent services of John Davis was
due in great measure to the influence of his Arctic training and
experience, but the plan of the present work makes it impossible to
recount those services in detail. In joining the second expedition of
Cavendish to the South Sea, the object of Davis was to discover the
passage thither by the north, entering on the west side. In an evil
hour Davis consented to unite forces with Cavendish, and commanded the
_Desire_ of 120 tons, contributing a large sum to the expedition. The
terrible story of the dangers and sufferings in the Straits of Magellan
and how through them all Davis diligently surveyed and prepared
sailing directions, and the disastrous voyage home, are all graphically
described by his friend Janes. This failure of the venture on which all
the hopes of Davis had been set was heart-breaking. All his money was
lost. To add to his affliction he returned to Sandridge only to find
that his wife had deserted him, and that his three little boys were
motherless.
Davis’s energy was in no way weakened by his sorrows and misfortunes.
For two years he lived in retirement at Sandridge, busily engaged on
his two works, _The Seaman’s Secrets_ and the _World’s Hydrographical
Description_. The first was dedicated to his old Admiral, Lord
Howard of Effingham, on the 20th August, 1594. It was a book of
instruction intended for sailors, a work on practical navigation,
treating exclusively on “those things that are needfully required
in a sufficient seaman.” “I distrust not,” he wrote, “but that all
honest-minded seamen and pilots of reputation will gratefully accept
this book, only in regard of my friendly good-will towards them, for it
is not only in respect of my pains, but of my love that I would receive
favourable courtesy[51].” But Davis’s work was by no means limited
to promoting the safety of English ships by his surveys and charts,
and greatly assisting their navigation by the publication of his
_Seaman’s Secrets_. He did much towards the improvement of instruments
for observing for latitude. The Davis quadrant was the forerunner of
the plan of taking angles by reflection and was a great improvement
on the cross-staff. It came into general use, and held its own until
the invention of Hadley’s quadrant in 1731. There was even one in use
on board the _Royal George_ when she sank at Spithead[52]. Davis’s
other work, _The World’s Hydrographical Description_ is a learned
disquisition on the discovery of a north-west passage to Cathay, and on
the advantages to be derived from Arctic exploration.
Davis’s career as a seaman and explorer did not terminate until many
years later when, on December 27th, 1605, he was murdered by Japanese
pirates off the coast of Malacca. As chief pilot of the first Dutch
expedition to the East Indies in 1598, and again in the service of
the East India Company under Sir James Lancaster, he did good work in
eastern waters. But his Arctic explorations were over. As a consummate
pilot, a scientific seaman, and a great discoverer he takes rank among
the foremost sea worthies of the glorious reign of Queen Elizabeth[53].
CHAPTER XII
THE MERCHANT ADVENTURERS AND RICHARD HAKLUYT
The merchant adventurers who supplied the funds for Arctic expeditions,
often at considerable sacrifice, and generally from patriotic motives,
deserve niches in the temple of fame as much as the actual explorers.
One could not have existed without the other.
Among the earliest was Master William Sanderson, the promoter and
supporter of the three voyages of Davis. This man was one of the most
liberal and enlightened adventurers of his time. He was a merchant of
great wealth, a member of the Fishmongers’ Company, and was married
to a niece of Sir Walter Raleigh. Before embarking on the venture
proposed by Davis and Gilbert he carefully studied the subject in all
its bearings; and, with other information, a discourse on the voyages
to the north-east was prepared for him by Mr Henry Lane. When fully
convinced, Master Sanderson most liberally provided the largest share
of the funds, and superintended all the preparations.
Geography owes Sanderson another large debt of gratitude. The cost of
the first English globes, constructed by Emery Molyneux, was defrayed
by him. These two globes, celestial and terrestrial, which are still
to be seen in the Library of the Middle Temple, are each two feet in
diameter, and are beautifully executed. They were completed in 1592,
and received additions in 1603. Such was the importance attached to
them that they formed the subject of special treatises by Hues and
Hood, and were elaborately described by Blundeville. The discoveries of
Davis, who probably assisted Molyneux, are shown in detail. The arms of
Sanderson, with his quarterings, are painted on one of the globes with
an inscription.
A still greater promoter of Arctic enterprise was Sir Thomas Smith.
Descended from a long line of yeomen in Wiltshire, his father was
Thomas Smith of Ostenhanger in Kent, better known as “Customer” Smith,
having been for many years one of the farmers of the Queen’s Customs.
He succeeded his father as Customer to Queen Elizabeth and became a
wealthy and successful London merchant, inheriting from his father the
manor of Bidborough, and an estate in the parish of Sutton-at-Hone
in Kent, called Brooke Place, where he built a large house. It was
his great merit to have furthered maritime enterprise and discovery
throughout a long life, not mainly for the sake of gain, but for the
honour of his country.
Sir Thomas Smith was an active member of the Muscovy Company, and was
among those adventurers who despatched the first ships to Spitsbergen.
He also took a leading part in the foundation of the East India
Company, and was elected its first Governor in 1600. He was knighted
by James I at the Tower on May 13th, 1603, and in the following year
was sent as Ambassador to Muscovy by way of Archangel. At Moscow he
obtained special privileges for English merchants from Boris Godenoff.
He returned in the following year, and was afterwards employed, on
several occasions, in affairs of state connected with commerce.
Sir Thomas Smith was re-elected Governor of the East India Company in
1607, and again in 1609, when for his great services, and for having
procured the first and second charters, the Company offered the sum of
£500 for his acceptance, but he declined to take more than half the
sum. The East India Company flourished under his wise and energetic
administration, and in 1610 the largest merchant ship that had ever
been built was launched in the presence of the King, and named _Trade’s
Increase_. At the same time the King placed a gold chain round the neck
of the Governor of the Company, with his Majesty’s portrait attached.
While thus developing the trade with India, Smith was ever mindful of
Arctic discovery. As a manager of the Muscovy Company he sent Jonas
Poole to Spitsbergen, and induced the East India Company to send
Captain Weymouth in search of a passage to Cathay. In 1612 he became
the first Governor of a new Company called the “North West Company,”
formed with the special object of finding the passage to Cathay.
Sir Thomas gathered round him as colleagues Sir Dudley Digges, Sir
Francis Jones, Sir John Wolstenholme, Sir William Cockayne, Sir James
Lancaster, Richard Wyche, Ralph Freeman, and William Stone, all names
well known in Arctic geography.
In 1615 Sir Thomas Smith was once more re-elected Governor of the
East India Company. The enterprises of these Companies received his
unceasing and laborious attention. Again in 1618 and again in 1620 he
was re-elected. At length in July 1621, he was allowed to retire, after
serving the East India Company for 20 years. He resigned from weakness
and old age, after having created and fully established the prosperity
of a famous body which, in after years, was destined to found a great
Empire.
Sir Thomas Smith fostered and encouraged the scientific branch of a
seaman’s profession, and lectures on navigation were delivered at his
house by Dr Hood, and by Edward Wright, of Gonville and Caius College,
Cambridge, the introducer and adapter of Mercator’s projection. At
the same time he was careful to ensure the safety of the journals of
voyages sent out under his auspices by furnishing materials to Hakluyt
and afterwards to Purchas. He was the perfect model of an enlightened
and patriotic merchant adventurer. This great man died on the 4th
September, 1625, and there is a monument to his memory in the south
aisle of the church at Sutton-at-Hone, with a long inscription[54].
One of the most active among the colleagues of Sir Thomas Smith in
the encouragement of Arctic enterprise was Sir Dudley Digges. He
came of a scientific family. His grandfather Leonard Digges was an
accomplished mathematician, architect, and surveyor, to whom we owe
the invention of the theodolite[55]. His father Thomas Digges, one of
the most eminent mathematicians of his time, was Muster Master to the
Queen’s Army in the Netherlands and prepared exhaustive reports on
fortifications with plans[56]. Dudley Digges was born in 1583, and was
educated at Oxford under Dr Abbot, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury.
He took his degree, studied at the Inns of Court, travelled on the
continent, and was knighted on his return. He married Mary, daughter of
Sir Thomas Kempe and heiress of Chilham near Canterbury, where he built
a stately mansion and had ten children[57].
In 1615 Sir Dudley Digges published a very able reply to an attack on
the East India Company, in which he gave an interesting account of
their ships, and of the progress of their trade. From that time he was
intimately connected with the projects of Sir Thomas Smith, who was
a relation of his wife. Sir Dudley was sent on an embassy to Russia
in 1618 and an account of this voyage to Archangel is preserved in
manuscript at Oxford. It gives, among other things, an account of the
Samoyeds, of the vegetation round Archangel, and of the Russian boats
and sailing vessels. Sir Dudley was also employed in a negotiation at
the Hague.
Sir Dudley was returned to Parliament in 1621 and again in 1626 for
the County of Kent. He was a liberal politician and was one of the
chief instigators of the charges against the Duke of Buckingham,
for which he was committed to the Tower by Charles I. When released
he continued to uphold the rights of the people, and in 1628 boldly
protested against the King’s command to the Speaker that no member
should speak against the government. In April 1636 he was made Master
of the Rolls. He died on March 18th, 1639, at the age of 56, and was
buried in Chilham church; one “whose death the wisest men reckon among
the public calamities of these times.” He was a learned lawyer, an able
diplomatist and a great promoter of Arctic discovery.
Alderman Sir Francis Jones was another active colleague of Sir
Thomas Smith in the encouragement of maritime enterprise. He was of
a Shropshire family, citizen and haberdasher of London, Alderman of
Aldgate Ward and Lord Mayor. He was also one of the farmers of Customs
and was knighted on March 12th, 1617. Sir Francis resided at Welford,
where he died in 1622.
The father of Sir John Wolstenholme, the patron of Baffin, also named
John, was a native of Derbyshire. He came to London and, after making
a fortune, established himself at Stanmore Magna near Harrow. His son
was born in 1562, and became an active promoter of voyages for the
discovery of a passage to Cathay. He was knighted at Whitehall, built
the church at Stanmore at his sole expense, and dying at the age of
77 in November 1639 was buried at Stanmore, where there is a handsome
monument to his memory.
Alderman William Cockayne was Governor of the Eastland Company and the
London planters in Ulster, and it was under his direction that the
City of Londonderry was founded. He became Lord Mayor and was knighted
in 1616. He was also a Director of the East India Company, and a warm
supporter of Arctic voyages.
Sir James Lancaster was a native of Basingstoke. He commanded the
first English voyage to the East Indies, and also the first voyage of
the East India Company. After his return in 1603 he was knighted, and
served as a Director of the East India Company. Sir James was wealthy
and lived in something more than comfort at his house in St Mary Axe,
actively promoting voyages of discovery. He died in June 1618, and left
a large sum to found a school at Basingstoke[58].
Richard Bell was another London merchant who embarked in various
enterprises having discovery as their object. He was a member of the
East India Company, also of the North-west Passage Company, and in
1618 he is mentioned as having fitted out two ships for the discovery
of some island in the West Indies. He died before 1622. One of the
branches of Gilbert Sound was named Bell’s river by Hall.
Quite as important to posterity as the liberality and patriotism of the
merchant adventurers were the labours of Richard Hakluyt. Without his
indefatigable diligence much valuable help would have been lost to the
explorers and many precious documents would have been lost to us.
Born of a good Herefordshire family in 1553, we first hear of Hakluyt
at Westminster School, “that fruitful nursery,” as he called it. His
thoughts were early turned to geographical studies. It was his hap,
he tells us, to visit a cousin and namesake, who was a gentleman of
the Middle Temple, on whose table he found some books on cosmography
and a map of the world. The curiosity and interest of the boy were
aroused. His cousin began by giving explanatory answers to his eager
questions, giving him a regular lecture on the divisions of the earth,
and ending with a disquisition on the commodities and requirements of
each country. From the map he took him to the Bible and made him read
the 23rd and 24th verses of the 107th Psalm, “They that go down to the
sea in ships and occupy their business in great waters.”
This geographical discourse made so deep an impression on the boy that
he never forgot it. He was then told, he says, “things that were of
high and rare delight to his young nature.” He made a resolution from
which he never swerved, that he would continue to study that subject of
geography, the doors of which had been so happily opened to him.
In 1570 Hakluyt became a student of Christ Church, Oxford. The study of
geography had completely fascinated him. He did not neglect his regular
work and took his degree in due course, but as soon as his time was his
own he devoured every narrative of adventure that he could get hold of,
and mastered six languages in order to be able to read them. He soon
began to see two great failings of his country, and set himself to
work with patriotic zeal to remedy them. The first was the ignorance
of our seamen as regards the scientific part of their profession. The
second was the absence of records, and the way in which important
voyages and travels were allowed to fall into oblivion. He strove
during a long life, with great ability and untiring perseverance, to
remedy these defects.
Hakluyt’s first public service was the delivery of lectures on the
construction and use of maps, spheres, and nautical instruments, “to
the singular pleasure and general contentment of his auditory,” as he
tells us. He constantly urged on the attention of those in authority
the importance of establishing a permanent lectureship on navigation in
the port of London. He looked upon the loss of journals, narratives,
and similar documents as a great national calamity, and he devoted his
life to the application of a remedy. His first book, published in 1582,
was entitled _Divers Voyages touching the Discoveries of America_. It
was the first impetus to colonisation. Virtually, Raleigh and Hakluyt
were the founders of those colonies which eventually formed the United
States.
Hakluyt entered holy orders, and went to Paris for five years
1583–1588, as chaplain to the English Embassy, during which time he
worked assiduously at the object of his life. Returning to England he
was made a Canon of Bristol Cathedral and rector of Wetheringsett in
Suffolk. His _Principall Navigations_, a folio volume, was published in
1589, as soon as he returned from Paris. In 1598 the first volume of
his more complete work appeared, the two others following in the two
succeeding years, and later several other books were brought out under
his auspices.
[Illustration: Memorial Tablet to Richard Hakluyt in Bristol Cathedral]
The great work of Hakluyt, the _Principall Navigations_ in three
folio volumes, is a monument of useful labour. Nothing could stop or
daunt him when there was a chance of obtaining new information. He
rode 200 miles to have an interview with the last survivor of Hore’s
expedition to America in 1536. He saved many journals and narratives
from destruction, and the deeds they record from oblivion. His work
gave a stimulus to colonial and maritime enterprise, and it even
inspired our literature. Shakespeare and Milton owe much to Hakluyt. He
supplied information and lists of commodities of various countries and
commercial instructions to the East India Company and to others engaged
in similar enterprises. As the years passed on, to quote his own quaint
language, he “continued to wade still further and further in the sweet
studie of the historie of cosmographie,” and he achieved his great
task, which was, in his own words “to incorporate into one body the
torn and scattered limbs of our ancient and late navigations by sea.”
He declared geography and chronology to be the sun and moon, the right
eye and the left, of all history.
When Hakluyt died, on the 23rd November, 1616, he was Archdeacon
of Westminster and had reached his sixty-fourth year. He left a
large collection of materials which came into the hands of the Rev.
Samuel Purchas, who, in due course, published _Hakluytus Posthumus_
or _Purchas his Pilgrimes_, an invaluable work, though marred by
injudicious curtailments and omissions. To the student of Arctic
history the works of Hakluyt are indispensable. In them are to be
found the journals and narratives, or all that could be saved of them,
between the date of the earliest English voyages, and that of Hakluyt’s
death.
CHAPTER XIII
GREENLAND VOYAGE OF HALL AND BAFFIN
The Norse colony in Greenland had been abandoned to its fate for
more than two centuries. The annual _knorr_ or ship had ceased to be
sent, and during that long period the Norwegians had shown no sign
of conscience, and remained careless and indifferent. At last a king
of Denmark and Norway arose who was not so callous. Christian IV was
the noblest and most patriotic Sovereign of the House of Oldenburg.
He resolved to send an expedition to succour the lost colony or to
ascertain its fate, the re-discovery of Greenland by Davis having
become known to him.
Three ships were fitted out. The _Trost_[59] (Consolation) built
by Davis Balfour, shipbuilder to the Danes from 1597 to 1634, was
commanded by John Cunningham, a captain in the Danish navy, and the
mate was James Hall of Hull, who is said to have been to Greenland
before. The second ship, _Den Röd Löve_, parted company and returned.
The third was the _Katten_, a pinnace, in charge of another Englishman
named John Knight.
The expedition sailed from Copenhagen on the 2nd May, 1605, and
sighted Greenland on the 30th. The _Trost_ and pinnace sailed on
until they came to in the neighbourhood of a cliff which was named
Mount Cunningham[60] between headlands which were named Anne and
Sophia[61] after the Queen and Queen Dowager of Denmark. This was in
the neighbourhood of the modern settlement of Holsteinborg. Hall went
on in the pinnace with Knight as far as 69° N. The _Trost_ had anchored
in King Christian’s Fjord[62] on the 12th June. The Danes kidnapped
five natives, and the _Trost_ and _Katten_ returned safely to Elsinore
on the 10th August. Hall was appointed a mate in the Danish Navy, but
the thoughts of the Danes had been diverted from the lost colony to
the hope of material gain, mistaking the glittering lumps of mica
for silver ore. A new expedition was fitted out in 1606 under Goolske
Lindenow, with Hall again as pilot and mate. It consisted of the same
three vessels and two others, the _Ornen_ and _Gilliflower_. This was
a mere search for imaginary silver ore, but in 1607 the _Trost_ went
again to try to find Eriksfjord, but did nothing without Hall. Again
several Eskimos were kidnapped with their kayaks and brought back to
Denmark. In a race at Elsinore these men easily beat the Danish boats,
but they did not long survive captivity.
Christian IV then gave up his attempts to find the lost colony,
and James Hall returned to England, eager to embark once more on
discoveries in the direction of Greenland, and full of projects
respecting silver ore and other mineral wealth[63]. He had with him
a faithful young follower, a Scarborough lad named William Huntriss,
who had accompanied him in all his voyages, and was so proficient a
navigator that King Christian had granted him a special allowance.
Hall succeeded in persuading four great merchant adventurers to aid him
in a voyage of discovery to Greenland in 1612. His partners were Sir
Thomas Smith, Sir James Lancaster, Sir William Cockayne, and Master
Richard Bell. Two small vessels were fitted out at Hull, the _Patience_
(140 tons) and _Heartsease_ (60 tons).
That great seaman and scientific observer William Baffin first
appears in history as pilot on board Hall’s ship, the _Patience_, an
experienced seaman in the prime of life. I have been baffled in all
my attempts to discover even a single fact respecting his birth-place
and early history. Every parish register in London and the suburbs was
searched, and only six persons of the name of Baffin were found[64]. We
find that a daughter of a William Baffin was baptised in the church
of St Thomas the Apostle, in Vintry Ward within the City of London, in
1609, three years before Baffin joined Hall’s expedition. This Ward
includes Queenhithe, a landing-place frequented by sailors, and a
likely locality for a seaman to take up his abode while on shore. We
know that Baffin had a wife, for she gave a good deal of trouble to the
East India Company after his death. Susan may have been his daughter.
But Baffin himself, though probably a Londoner, must have been
constantly at sea, and probably raised himself, by his good conduct and
talent, from a very humble position. There is no indication of the name
at Hull.
If Baffin was not a Hull man, he probably was not known to Captain
Hall. It may, therefore, be conjectured that one of the merchant
adventurers associated with Hall in the voyage, perhaps Sir Thomas
Smith, knowing Baffin’s worth and ability, recommended him as chief
pilot of the _Patience_. Andrew Barker was Master of the _Heartsease_,
William Huntriss mate, and John Gatonby, quartermaster[65]. All were
Yorkshiremen. The expedition finally left the Humber and made sail for
Greenland on the 22nd April, 1612.
The real interest attaching to the expedition is the record of Baffin’s
observations and the fact that it was his first Arctic voyage.
Cape Farewell was sighted on the 14th May. Gatonby, on board the
_Heartsease_, named a green and inviting-looking promontory Cape
Comfort, and on the 26th the two vessels anchored in 64° 15′ N. at
the mouth of a fjord which was named the Harbour of Hope. It was the
Gilbert Sound of Davis, the modern Godthaab. Hall proceeded to explore
the fjord in a boat, and named two of its arms Bell and Lancaster
rivers after two of the merchant adventurers. A cliff or hill received
the name of Huntcliff from its resemblance to Huntcliff Foot near
Redcar on the Yorkshire coast. Leaving the _Patience_ in Gilbert Sound,
Hall went on northwards to explore in the _Heartsease_ with Baffin,
going as far as Christian Fjord in 66° 25′ N. and Cunningham Fjord in
67° 25′. They then went south again to Rommel’s Fjord in 66° 54′ N.,
the modern Holsteinborg. On the 27th June the two vessels were together
in Cockayne Sound[66], the modern Sukkertoppen, in 65° 25′ N.
The Eskimos were in a very dangerous mood. Five had been kidnapped with
their kayaks by the Danes when Hall was with them, and one had been
killed. The relations, who recognised Hall, were sullen and revengeful.
The poor captives had tried to return in their kayaks, had even put to
sea in them to cross the ocean, but were followed and brought back.
They were overwhelmed with grief. One wept whenever he saw a mother
with her child, reminding him of his own wife and child. They all soon
died of home sickness. As they never returned, their friends sought for
opportunities for vengeance. They had already killed one sailor, when
on the 22nd July Hall came to land in his boat where there was a party
of Eskimos. One of them came within four yards and shot a dart at Hall,
hitting him in the right side. The wound was mortal and he died the
next day. On his death Andrew Barker succeeded him as Commander of the
expedition, and Huntriss was appointed Captain of the _Heartsease_.
Baffin had been most diligent with his observations. Like Davis he
paid special attention to terrestrial magnetism, taking frequent
observations for variation, and his latitudes were fairly accurate. He
was also constantly thinking out the means of finding the longitude.
One attempt by moon’s culmination was ingenious, and shows his mastery
of the subject and inventive faculty. Mr Coles[67] says, “It is most
surprising that Baffin should have obtained even such an approximation
as he did, and his method of observing with two plumb lines is both
original and ingenious.”
Baffin, in the portion of his narrative that has been preserved, gives
a description of the country and of the animals he saw. He describes
the Eskimo _kayak_ and _umiak_, and in his walks on shore and climbs up
the mountain sides he notices several plants. He mentions the dwarf
birch and willow four feet high, the crowberry (_Empetrum nigrum_),
the angelica, sorrel, scurvy grass, orpine, and a yellow-flowered
stone-crop.
The _Patience_ and _Heartsease_ put to sea on their return voyage on
the 4th August, and beat up against a foul wind. Baffin was now on
board the _Heartsease_, which parted company with the _Patience_ in
a gale on September 4th. On the 15th she arrived in Yarmouth Roads
and Captain Huntriss took her on to the Thames, entering the river on
the 19th. He caused the flag to be hoisted half mast, in token of the
death of his beloved Commander James Hall, and the ship was brought up
to St Katherine’s Pool. On September 17th, 1612, Barker brought the
_Patience_ into Hull Roads[68].
William Baffin, under the auspices of Sir Thomas Smith, then
entered the service of the Muscovy Company and made two voyages to
Spitsbergen[69].
CHAPTER XIV
EARLY SPITSBERGEN VOYAGES
The greatest English navigator in the Spitsbergen quadrant during the
first century of the renewal of Arctic discovery was Henry Hudson.
Scarcely anything is known of the personal history of this famous
sailor previous to the last four years of his life, during which his
four voyages were undertaken.
Hudson was a servant of the Muscovy Company, he had a house in London,
was married and had children. His selection is a proof that he was an
experienced seaman. It has been conjectured that he was a grandson of
another Henry Hudson who died when he was an Alderman of London in
1555[70]. There is also some reason for the belief that Thomas Hudson,
a merchant of London who had a house at Mortlake and was a promoter of
the voyage of John Davis, was his uncle and guardian[71].
Our first introduction to him is sufficiently striking. After morning
service on the 19th April, 1607, a party of sailors might have been
seen to issue from the door of St Ethelburga’s church in Bishopsgate
Street, where they had partaken of the Holy Communion with the
parishioners, and to wend their way to the river side. At the head of
the little procession was the master, Henry Hudson, with his little son
John by his side, followed by William Collins the mate, John Colman
the boatswain, and James Young, most vigilant of look-out men. Then
came the men, John Cooke, James Benbery, James Scrutton, John Playse,
Thomas Baxter, Richard Day, and James Knight. These eleven men and a
boy formed the crew of the little _Hopewell_ of 80 tons, waiting for
them at Ratcliffe, for in four days she was to sail on her great
enterprise. The intention was to find the passage to Cathay by sailing
due north from Spitsbergen, instead of north-west.
Hudson had studied the accounts of the voyages of Stephen Burrough,
Arthur Pet, and William Barentsz. He was led to the conclusion that
the attempts to the eastward had offered small hope of success, so he
reverted to the advice of Master Thorne to shape a course northward and
make boldly for the Pole itself. It was then thought that ice did not
form on the open sea, but only on the coast in bays and inlets.
On the 1st May, 1607, the _Hopewell_ sailed from Gravesend, was off
the Shetlands on the 26th, and on 13th June was in sight of very high
land. James Young was the first to report it, so it received the name
of Cape Young. Soon a coast-line was visible extending for 9 leagues.
It was the east coast of Greenland. Hudson always calls it Groneland,
while the name of Greenland (or Newland) is given to Spitsbergen in
accordance with the belief of Barentsz. He got the first name from the
misleading Zeno map[72].
Behind Cape Young a high mountain, like a round castle, received the
name of the Mount of God’s Mercy. On the 22nd, Hudson found himself in
72° 38′ N., and high land was again sighted in 73° N., which received
the name of Hold-with-Hope.
Hold-with-Hope is a little to the south of the Pendulum Islands,
visited by Clavering 200 years afterwards, and is a position which does
credit to the skill and perseverance of Hudson and his companions. His
conclusion was that he was too far to the westward, so he resolved to
follow the edge of the ice to the north-east, seeking for an opening.
This course brought the little _Hopewell_ to 78° N., and in sight of
the Newland or Greenland of Barentsz, afterwards named Spitsbergen.
This was on June 27th, when Hudson supposed himself to be near the
“Vogel Hoek” (Bird Cape) of Barentsz.
Unfortunately Hudson’s own journal is lost. We have only the journal
of one of the men named John Playse. It was no doubt copied from the
Master’s log, but in such a way that it is not possible to make out
the _Hopewell’s_ track by it. After encountering some severe weather,
she seems to have passed down the strait between the foreland and the
mainland of Spitsbergen, doubled the southern point, and then shaped
a northerly course until the 80th parallel was reached. On the 12th
July, William Collins the mate saw the land, called Newland by the
Hollanders, bearing S.S.W. 12 leagues distant, but Hudson continued
to stand to the north. He found that a green-coloured sea was most
free from ice and that an azure blue sea was an icy sea. At noon on
the 14th the land was approached where there was a bay with very high
and rugged mountains at the head of it, and high land at the entrance,
with an island which received the name of Cape Collins after the mate.
The bay was named Whale Bay. Here Colman and Collins with two other
men landed, reporting many footprints of animals, deer-antlers, and
much drift-wood. A cape to the north-west of Cape Collins received
the name of Hakluyt’s Headland. Hudson again stood along the edge of
the ice which closed in upon the land to the eastward. Eventually he
came to the conclusion that there was no passage to the north on those
meridians, and he resolved to steer southward. He thus discovered the
whole western coast of Spitsbergen. He examined the inlet afterwards
named Bell Sound, rounded the most southern point of the land, and
traced the coast for some distance to the east of it.
This western coast of Spitsbergen, first made known by Henry Hudson, is
well described by Scoresby. He tells us how its cliffs rise by steep
acclivities from the very margin of the ocean to a stupendous height,
the masses of purest snow contrasting with the protruding dark-coloured
rocks. The valleys, opening towards the coast, terminate inland with
a transverse line of ice-field showing an unbroken surface for many
leagues in extent. On the southern part of the coast there are isolated
mountains with conical or ridged summits, occasionally terminating in
sharp peaks. Further north the mountains are more disposed in chains
than in the south, with an inferior range running parallel with the
shore, whence ridges project into the sea, and terminate in mural
precipices.
[Illustration: Part of NORTH-WEST SPITSBERGEN]
“There is indeed a kind of majesty not to be conveyed in words in the
extraordinary accumulations of snow and ice in the valleys, and in the
peaks rising above the ordinary elevation of the clouds and terminating
in crests of everlasting snow. Approaching the shore under shelter of
the impenetrable density of a summer fog, sometimes the mist disperses
like the drawing of a curtain, when the strong contrast of light and
shade, heightened by a cloudless atmosphere and powerful sun, bursts
on the senses in a brilliant exhibition resembling the production of
magic.”
But these beautiful scenes were not the only attraction. Around them
they noted the vast flocks of birds, the numerous seals and walrus, and
the great abundance of whales. Hudson had discovered a source of wealth
which served to enrich two countries in the ensuing centuries.
In the end of July, Hudson decided on bearing up for his return to
England. He passed Cherry or Bear Island on the 1st August, and a few
days afterwards another important discovery was made. A lofty peak
was seen, rising out of the sea to a height of 5836 feet. It is on an
island about 30 miles long by 10 broad, in 71° N., and is now known to
be the lofty termination of a submarine volcanic range running out N.E.
from Iceland. Hudson gave the island the name of Hudson’s Touches[73].
The north-eastern cape was named Young’s Foreland, doubtless because
the peak was first sighted by that sharp-eyed look-out man James Young;
and another cape, almost exactly in 71° N., was named Point Hudson.
This island has since, without any justification, been called Jan Mayen.
After leaving Hudson’s Touches the little _Hopewell_ put into the
Faroes on the 15th August, and on the same day in September she arrived
in the Thames. It is not recorded whether Hudson again took his crew to
St Ethelburga’s church to offer up a thanksgiving, but it is more than
probable. Thus ended this memorable voyage.
Hudson had tried the route recommended by Master Robert Thorne and
had found it to be impracticable, but his employers were willing to
send forth another expedition under his command. He therefore decided
to try the north-east plan, conceiving that if he could once either
get round the north end of Novaya Zemlya, or through Burrough or Pet
Straits, and round Cape Tabin, which is shown on the old charts as the
northern point of Asia, the rest of the voyage to China would offer no
difficulties. This, then, was his plan for a second voyage. He had a
third way in his mind, for the Dutch on their latest charts had shown
Kostin Shar as a strait through Novaya Zemlya.
The little _Hopewell_ was again fitted out and sailed on the 22nd
April, 1608, with a crew of 14 in all, including Hudson’s little
son[74]. On the 3rd June the North Cape was sighted and on the 12th,
in 75° 30′ N., the ice was encountered, and the ship’s head was turned
to the east. Having examined the edge of the ice for a long distance
the _Hopewell_ was in sight of the Novaya Zemlya coast in 72° 25′ N.,
on the 26th July, at the place called Swarte Klip by the Dutch. Juet
and Cooke, the mate and the boatswain, went on shore with two men, and
reported having seen antlers and traces of deer, many streams of water,
and long grass. In the evening Stacey the carpenter and Ladley the
other mate landed and saw much driftwood and a great number of birds.
They brought some moss and wild flowers on board. Many walrus were seen
in 71° 15′, but none were killed.
When the compact character of the ice-floes between Spitsbergen and
Novaya Zemlya deprived Hudson of all hope by a northerly course, his
intention was to pass by the Waigat and the mouth of the river Obi to
Cape Tabin, the supposed northern point of Asia. But now a hope was
conceived that the quantity of walrus might defray the expense of the
expedition, and also that there might be a better passage to the east
side of Novaya Zemlya by way of Kostin Shar, as the bay in which he
was had been named--the Dutch believing it to be a strait. On the 2nd
July the boat was sent on shore with the mate, and brought back four
dozen birds, half a boat-full of drift-wood, and a report of many
reindeer. But a careful examination showed that the Kostin Shar was
only a deep bay and not a strait, to Hudson’s great disappointment. On
the 6th, all hope was abandoned of finding a passage by the north-east.
Hudson then resolved to ascertain whether “Willoughby Land” was in
the position in which it was placed on his chart, because if so he
considered it would be a good place for walrus. So he shaped a westerly
course. But no such land was seen, for in reality “Willoughby Land” was
the very land of Novaya Zemlya which they had been visiting. On the
18th July the North Cape was again sighted; and the _Hopewell_ arrived
at Gravesend on the 26th August, 1608. Hudson tells us that having
found the routes by the north pole and the north-east impracticable, he
had resolved to try the north-west the same year, taking the route of
Lumley’s Inlet and the “Furious Overfall” mentioned by Davis. But the
season was far spent and he felt it to be his duty to his employers to
return.
Hudson’s next voyage was in the service of the Dutch in 1609, when he
discovered the river which bears his name, and it was not until 1610
that he was enabled to undertake the enterprise he had in his heart, an
attempt by way of the “Furious Overfall” of John Davis. But that sad
episode belongs to another part of the Arctic story.
Of the great commercial as well as geographical importance of the two
first voyages of Hudson there can be no question. They led the way to
the famous Spitsbergen whale fishery. In 1609 the Muscovy Company sent
Captain Jonas Poole to complete the work of Hudson, and he carefully
examined the whole of the west coast of Spitsbergen, naming Bell Sound,
Ice Sound, and several other positions. He wrote interesting journals
which are given in Purchas, and he had a prosperous career before
him. But unfortunately he was “miserably and basely murdered between
Radcliffe and London,” after his return in 1611.
The reports of Hudson and Poole made it manifest that there was
great wealth to be derived from the fishery in the seas round the
New Land. In 1612 the Muscovy Company obtained a Charter from James
I excluding all others from the fishery, English or foreign, so that
henceforward it would be a question which had the strongest fleet.
Christian IV thereupon put in a claim on the ground first that the
country was Greenland, and then that it was part of Norway. The Dutch
obtained a Charter, similar to that of the Muscovy Company, from Prince
Maurice. Dunkirk privateers and Biscayners also began to arrive at the
fishery. The grand work of discovery, though never quite lost sight
of by the English, was practically put aside, and the sordid greed of
wealth-seekers was substituted.
The first appearance of the Dutch was in 1612, when a ship arrived at
the fishery piloted by an Englishman named Bonner. In that year also,
Captain Marmaduke, one of the most able and dashing sailors on the
Spitsbergen side in those days, with a crew from his native town of
Hull, boldly pushed forward to make discoveries, and we are told by
Fotherby, a reliable authority, that he reached 82° N.
The country was called “King James his Newland” by the Muscovy Company,
and Greenland by the Dutch and Danes and also for long by the English.
In 1613 the Muscovy Company fitted out a large fleet under the command
of Benjamin Joseph, an experienced seaman. The Admiral or leading ship
was the _Tiger_ of 200 tons, with Joseph in command and William Baffin
as pilot. The _Matthew_ of 250 tons was Vice-Admiral, and Captain
Marmaduke appears to have commanded her, with Fotherby as pilot. Thomas
Edge, who afterwards did such good service as a discoverer as well as
a whaling captain, was also in the fleet. The Rear-Admiral was the
_Gamaliel_ of 200 tons, the fourth ship was the _John and Francis_ of
180 tons, and the fifth the _Annula_ of 140 tons. There was also a
pinnace of 60 tons called the _Richard and Barnard_. The fleet left
the Thames on the 13th May, and by the 1st June, all the ships being
in company, they were off Prince Charles’s Island on the west coast
of Spitsbergen, anchoring in Sir Thomas Smith’s Bay between Prince
Charles’s Island and the mainland of Spitsbergen. On the 4th June they
killed their first whale.
At first the English were quite ignorant of the art of whale-killing,
and this, the most important part of the business, was left to two
dozen Basques who were shipped for the voyages and ordered “to be
used very kindly and friendly, being strangers, and leaving their own
country to do us service.”
In the middle ages a whale frequented the Bay of Biscay (_Balaena
Biscayensis_) rather smaller than the right whale, but differing
very little in other respects. It is now extinct. The fishermen of
Biscay and Guipuzcoa had been engaged in pursuing this whale from time
immemorial, and the dangerous occupation had trained a most expert and
daring race of sailors along those coasts. They did not use ships in
their whaling. There were _atalayas_ or watch-towers on the heights
above the little fishing towns, whence signals were made that a whale
was in the offing, and instantly the boats started in pursuit. The
King and the Church shared the profits. Fernando III of Castile and
Leon in about 1220 decreed that “_si mactaveris aliquam ballenam
dabis mihi unam tiram a capite usque ad caudam sicut forma est_.” The
churches received part of the whalebone, and in the church at Lequeitio
there is a most interesting record of whales caught, with occasional
notes of happenings, extending over a century. A whale figures in the
coat-of-arms of St Jean de Luz, Fuenterrabia, Guetaria, and Motrico.
When the Muscovy Company began to send fleets to Spitsbergen, it was
the custom to enter one or two boats’ crews of Basques from St Jean de
Luz or San Sebastian to attack and kill the whales, while the rest of
the crews got the gear ready on shore for boiling down. But it was not
long before the English had learnt their lesson from the Basques and
become expert harpooneers.
Captain Joseph found as many as 17 foreign ships on the Spitsbergen
coast. All submitted to his superior force, some were ordered away, and
a few were allowed to fish on the condition of surrendering half their
catch to the English ships.
Baffin showed the same diligence in observing for latitude and
magnetism (dip and variation) as in his voyage to Greenland, and he
records a very interesting observation for ascertaining the sun’s
refraction[75]. Whatever may be thought of the accuracy of these
original observations, the activity of Baffin’s brain and his constant
efforts on every opportunity to improve the art of navigation are most
remarkable.
Captain Joseph’s fleet returned with full cargoes in September[76]. We
have two narratives of the voyage of 1613, one by Baffin himself and
the other by Fotherby[77].
In 1614 there was a different story, for the Dutch were the strongest.
They were in great force under Antoine Monier, their fleet consisting
of 14 ships protected by three or four men-of-war. The English fleet
was much weaker. Captain Joseph was again in command with nine ships
and two pinnaces. He was on board the _Thomasine_ with Baffin and
Fotherby, and again the gallant Marmaduke was with them, in the
_Heartsease_. Sailing from Tilbury on the 4th May, 1614, and running
through loose pack on the 20th, it suddenly closed and they were beset
for some days, eventually reaching the coast. Sailing northwards as
far as Hakluyt Headland they sighted the formidable Dutch fleet, which
was avoided, and the _Thomasine_ proceeded to Fairhaven, where a snug
anchorage was found in 79° 34′, and named by Fotherby Trinity Harbour.
The interest of the voyage of 1614 consists in the expeditions of
discovery made by Baffin and Fotherby to the north and east in shallops
or open boats. In three or four expeditions they made their way round
Hakluyt Headland to the eastward, a coast which Captain Marmaduke had
already discovered in 1612. The royal arms were set up in several
prominent places. The explorers were at Cape Barren (Vogelsang) Saddle
Island (Cloven Cliff) Redcliffe Bay, Point Welcome, and Wyche’s Sound,
which was thoroughly explored down to Point Deceit at the farthest
end. They walked over Red Beach, where they were joined by Captain
Marmaduke, who discovered it. Passing onwards they rounded Cape Desire,
and discovered the great channel which was named Sir Thomas Smith’s
Inlet (Hinlopen Strait). These extensive discoveries in open boats
reflect great credit on the three able and adventurous explorers. The
_Thomasine_ returned to Wapping on October 4th, with full cargo and all
in good health[78].
There were bickerings and occasional collisions between English and
Dutch in the succeeding summers. The English fleets were led by Thomas
Edge, one ship being nominally for discovery. At last there was a sort
of agreement that the Dutch and Danes should have the north-west corner
from Fairhaven to Hakluyt Headland, and the north coast--much the best
stations for whales; while the English were to have the west coast bays
from Fair Foreland, the northern point of Prince Charles Island, to the
south point of Spitsbergen.
The Dutch fishery brought great wealth to Holland. A station, called
Smeerenburg, was founded at the south-eastern end of Amsterdam Island,
which for many years had all the appearance of a large town, with
warehouses, blubber-boiling sheds, dwelling huts, and even a church.
Smeerenburg began to decline from 1644, when the whales retreated
from the coast and were only taken at sea. But, until 1770, the Dutch
fishery throve.
Captain Edge was mindful of discovery as well as of the main business
of whaling. He explored to the south and east, and sighted Wyche
Land[79] far to the east. Indeed he and his predecessors completed the
whole outline of the Spitsbergen archipelago, except North-East Land,
some gaps being filled in by the Dutch. As the voyages of English and
Dutch were contemporaneous, it is not always clear to which nation the
discovery of each portion of coast should be attributed, though it is
certain that places discovered and named by the English now have Dutch
names on the charts[80].
In 1630 an English crew wintered in Spitsbergen for the first time,
in a hut in Bell Sound, and all survived and were taken home in the
following summer. In 1634 some Hollanders were left to winter at
Smeerenburg but they all died.
The archipelago of Spitsbergen, thus discovered by English and Dutch in
the early part of the 17th century, is 250 miles in length, from 76°
35′ N., to 80° 35′ N., with a width of 200 miles. It is a wild region
of barren mountains and glaciers, with some splendid scenery. It is
fairly well stocked with animal life both on land and in its seas;
bears, foxes, hares and birds on land; whales, walrus, seals, and fish
in its seas. Other discoveries connected with the Spitsbergen group,
especially as regards its internal physiography and geology, were
reserved for later times.
CHAPTER XV
EARLY VOYAGES TO HUDSON’S BAY
_Knight--Hudson--Button and the North-West Company_
Sir Thomas Smith was urgent in his efforts to induce the Directors of
the East India Company to take up the question of a northern passage
to Cathay, but they were lacking in enthusiasm. At last, in July
1601, the question appeared on the Minutes. It was not until January
1602, however, that the Directors were induced to pass a resolution
that “this Company has an express interest in a voyage to discover
a north-west passage” and that ships were to be got ready with all
expedition.
Two vessels, the _Discovery_ and _Godspeed_, were fitted out and
provisioned for 16 months. The command was given to Captain Weymouth,
who sailed from Ratcliffe on the 2nd May, 1602. But there was a mutiny
headed by the Chaplain, a Mr Cartwright[81], and Weymouth was forced
to return. At first the Directors resolved to make another attempt,
with Weymouth in command of one ship, but most of the Directors were
lukewarm, and on January 26th, 1603, it was resolved that the voyage
should be given up.
Sir Thomas Smith, in spite of the obstruction of his colleagues,
continued to press the Arctic question on their notice, and at last
succeeded in obtaining grants in aid. In this way an expedition was
fitted out under the command of John Knight, an able and experienced
seaman who had commanded the little pinnace _Katten_ in the first
Danish expedition to Greenland in 1605, and after whom Captain Hall had
named the Knight Islands[82]. He now had the _Hopewell_ of 40 tons
with Edward Gorrell as his mate, and sailed from Gravesend under the
auspices of the Muscovy Company on the 18th April, 1606. Leaving the
Orkneys on the 12th May, the first ice was sighted on the 3rd June and
after a dangerous collision with an iceberg, the _Hopewell_ reached the
coast of Labrador near the position of Nain in 56° 48′ N. Here Knight’s
journal ends abruptly on June 26th[83].
It is from another source that we learn the remainder of the story.
The _Hopewell_ seems to have got as far as the entrance to Hudson’s
Strait, and was anchored in a bay. Captain Knight, his brother, the
mate Gorrell, and three men landed on an island six miles from the
ship. They were well armed and carried instruments to make a survey.
It was in the forenoon. The boat was to wait for them, with two men,
the trumpeter and one Oliver Brunel. The Captain’s party walked over
a hill and were never seen or heard of again. Presently a crowd of
natives came over the hill and tried to seize the boat, but the two men
shoved her off. Search was useless, and the survivors were in great
distress, for the _Hopewell_ had damaged her rudder and had sprung a
serious leak. The crew constructed a temporary rudder with the pintles
made of iron bands off the Captain’s chest. For the leak they took
the main bonnet, thrummed it with oakum and passed it over the place.
Worn out with watching and hard work, they at length reached Dartmouth
in September 1606. This sequel of the sad story was written in the
Captain’s journal book by Oliver Brunel, one of the boat keepers[84].
Four years elapsed before Sir Thomas Smith could get his colleagues
together to enter upon the risk of another expedition. But in 1610,
together with his patriotic friends Sir Dudley Digges, Sir James
Lancaster, Sir Francis Jones, and Sir John Wolstenholme, he arranged
another voyage of discovery. Several noblemen and others also joined in
the venture.
That renowned sailor Henry Hudson had returned from the discovery of
the river which bears his name, and was at once selected to command
the new expedition. His ship was the _Discovery_ of 55 tons. Hudson,
as the event proved, was unwise in his selection of men to serve in
the expedition[85]. He took Juet, a treacherous rascal, as mate, whose
character he ought to have known, as he had been in his second and
third expeditions. Once more he took his young son Jack, who had just
reached the age of 17. Out of a complement of 23 there were not more
than half a dozen men who could be depended on, when the time for
testing them came. The object of the expedition was to seek a passage
by the wide opening pointed out by Davis, where a “furious overfall” is
marked on the Molyneux globe.
Sailing from Greenhithe on the 22nd April, 1610, the _Discovery_ made
a prosperous voyage to Iceland, where there were the first signs of
insubordination; Green, who appears to have been a man of thoroughly
bad character, having assaulted and beaten the surgeon. Hudson made
sail from Iceland and shaped a course direct for the opening indicated
by Davis. He then navigated his ship down the strait which bears his
name, with little or no obstruction from ice, until the entrance to
the great bay was reached--the Mediterranean of America as it has
been called--which was ever afterwards to be known as Hudson’s Bay.
The island on the south side of the entrance was named Digges and it
was observed that myriads of birds were breeding there. Hudson’s
journal unfortunately comes to an end on the 3rd of August, the day the
_Discovery_ arrived off Cape Digges. The story is continued by Habakuk
Prickett, whose narrative, that of an unscrupulous time-server, is open
to suspicion, besides being confused and unsatisfactory. During the
three months following the arrival off Cape Digges, it is not clear
what Hudson was doing, or what course he took.
Hudson must certainly have discovered all the east coast of Hudson’s
Bay, for in November he found himself obliged to winter in the
south-eastern part, now called James Bay. There were fir trees on
shore, yielding plenty of fuel, and some game to eke out the stock
of provisions on board. The ship was frozen in. A spirit of mutiny
and discontent appeared during the long and dreary nights, which
was fostered by one or two designing villains. The mate Juet had
been disrated for misconduct and the vindictive old man was ripe for
mischief. Green was only too glad to join in any mutinous conspiracy,
and William Wilson, who had superseded Clements as boatswain, was not
behindhand in disloyalty. It is probable that at first the conspiracy
was confined to these three. There were privations during the winter,
and John Williams, the gunner, fell ill and died. The provisions had
run very low, but Hudson hoped to obtain a sufficient supply for the
return voyage by salting down birds at Cape Digges. On the 18th of
June, 1611, the _Discovery_ broke out of winter quarters, and a course
was shaped for Hudson’s Strait.
Meanwhile the conspirators, who had been joined by three of the seamen,
Thomas, Pierce, and Moter, matured their diabolical plan. They thought,
or pretended to think, that there would not be enough food to take them
to England, and they conceived the infamous scheme of turning the sick
and weak adrift in a boat, to reduce the number of mouths. As they
knew that Hudson and the few loyal men would not consent to this, they
included them among their intended victims. The murderers had kept
their secret well, and there was no suspicion of the plot. Prickett
must be included among the criminals. He says that Green and Wilson
came to his bunk three days after the ship left winter quarters,
assuring him that the course they proposed to take was unavoidable. He
asserts that he entreated them to desist, but he never gave information
to his Captain, and was evidently a time-serving rascal. Being a
servant of Sir Dudley Digges the conspirators spared him to tell lies
for them on their return.
The day was fixed and the mutineers passed the greater part of the
night in whispered talk, arranging details, and going to Mathews the
cook and others to gain them over. Staffe, the carpenter, slept on
the poop. In the morning they were on deck, standing at the hatchway,
waiting for the Captain to come up. Hudson was entirely without
suspicion. He got up as usual, and, stepping on the deck, was seized
by Thomas and Bennet Mathews the cook, while W. Wilson tied his hands
behind his back. The unfortunate captain struggled and called for help
and Staffe the carpenter and two other loyal men ran to his assistance,
only to be overpowered by the mutineers, who had got possession of the
ship. The shallop, an open boat, was then hauled up alongside. The
poor sick men were pulled out of their berths, and forced into the
boat, including Mr Woodhouse. Hudson when he saw what was intended, as
a last hope called upon Prickett to remonstrate with the mutineers,
but the rascal kept in his berth, shamming illness, and said not a
word. Staffe, the carpenter, would have been allowed to remain, but
he declared that he would rather die with true men than live as the
associate of cowards. He got into the boat with his chest. Then young
Hudson, who had been his father’s companion in all his voyages, was
dragged out of his berth and forced into the boat. Arnold Ladley,
another good man and true, went into the boat rather than remain with
such infamous wretches, giving his candid opinion of them as he went
over the side. John King, another loyal man, also got into the boat;
Captain Hudson followed. The shallop was cast adrift with nine men
crowded into her, one fowling-piece, some powder and shot, an iron pot,
and a little meal.
One of the sick alone deserved his fate, a man named Michael Butt. He
had readily agreed to the captain and his son being cast adrift, and
so thought he was safe. But Mathews the cook declared that his chum,
Sylvanus Bond, should not go, so Butt, kicking and struggling, cursing
and swearing, was forced into the boat in Bond’s place.
The ship stood clear of the ice, and then hove to while the mutineers
ransacked the captain’s cabin. This aroused a hope in the minds of
the forlorn men in the boat that the villains had relented. They
pulled with all their might and soon came close to the ship again.
But they were doomed to cruel disappointment. As they came alongside,
the mainsail was let run, yards braced to the wind, and topsails
hoisted. The murderers fled as if from an enemy. Hudson and his doomed
companions were never heard of more.
“Hudson’s unburied bones for ever sleep
In the dim silence of the caverned deep;
Left on the wide and lonely wave to die
He fix’d in scorn his proudly mournful eye,
Where the light breath of the invisible gale
Seem’d to dissolve the fast-receding sail.”
Thirteen remained on board, with different degrees of guilt. Juet,
Green, W. Wilson, Moter, Pierce, Thomas and Mathews were criminals of
the worst type. Bylot, who was made captain, and Prickett were criminal
consenting parties through cowardice. Francis Clements was equally
criminal. Bond the cooper, and Edward Wilson the surgeon were less
guilty, and the boy Sims was probably not to blame.
On the 29th July, 1611, the _Discovery_ hove to off Cape Digges and the
five ringleaders went on shore unarmed. They were met by a party of
Eskimos. Two were bartering for venison, two were picking sorrel, one
was boat-keeper. Suddenly the savages attacked them. All were mortally
wounded as they were tumbling into the boat. Green was killed outright;
the others lingered for a few days, but all died. Never was retribution
so quick, sudden, and complete.
Bylot took charge and there were seven other survivors, Clements,
Prickett, Mathews, Bond, E. Wilson, Moter and the boy Sims. They shot
about 300 birds off Cape Digges, and put themselves on an allowance
of half a bird a day and a little meal; Mathews the cook keeping the
birds’ bones and frying them in candle-grease. Bylot after clearing
Hudson Strait shaped a course for Ireland. The last bird was in the
steep tub when they sighted Dursey Island and anchored in Bere Haven.
Bylot and Prickett hurried up to London to report. They must have told
some uncommonly clever lies, for no proceedings were taken and both
were employed again.
Henry Hudson was a great seaman and an enthusiastic discoverer. His
two well-conducted voyages in the Spitsbergen quadrant led to most
important results and his discovery of the Hudson River was equally
memorable in its consequences. In his last fatal voyage he discovered
Hudson’s Bay. He was a great and a good man, though not quite on the
same plane with Davis and Baffin. A younger son of Hudson received
employment from the East India Company on the ground that “his father
had perished in the service of his country.”
Sir Thomas Smith and his colleagues had continued their efforts for the
supply of funds for Arctic discovery during the absence of Hudson, and
they bore fruit. The promoters sued to be incorporated as a Company
to be called “The Governor and Company of the Merchants of London,
Discoverers of the North-west Passage.” The Common Seal had on one side
the royal arms with the Company’s title round it, on the other three
ostrich feathers, having _Jurat ire per altum_ across and _Tibi serviat
ultima thule_ round them. Sir Thomas Smith was appointed the first
Governor. With him were Sir Dudley Digges, Sir Francis Jones, Sir James
Lancaster, Sir John Wolstenholme, Sir E. Mansell, Sir W. Cockayne, and
Richard Wyche as Directors; Sir A. Dawes, Richard Hakluyt, the Earls of
Salisbury, Southampton, Nottingham, and other nobles and a long list of
others, were venturers. The date of the Charter was July 26th, 1612.
Young Prince Henry of Wales took a deep interest in the undertaking as
is shown by the ostrich feathers on the obverse of the seal; and, in
consultation with his friend Sir Walter Raleigh, he drafted and signed
the instructions for the first voyage. He was our Prince Henry the
Navigator[86].
The object of the first voyage of the Company was to follow up the
work left incomplete by Hudson. Two vessels were selected, fitted out,
and supplied with provisions for 18 months. An officer of tried valour
and experience named Thomas Button was entrusted with the command, and
the undertaking was under the special patronage of Prince Henry. Thomas
Button was the son of Miles Button of Duffryn in Glamorganshire, whose
family had been seated there for seven generations. Thomas was born at
Duffryn and went to sea in 1592. He was in the West Indies with Captain
Newport in 1603, and commanded a king’s ship in 1609. Button’s ship
for the expedition to Hudson’s Bay was the _Resolution_, the second
ship being the _Discovery_ under Captain Ingram. A relation named
Gibbons, and a friend named Hawkridge accompanied him, while Bylot and
Prickett, whose lies had prevented their cowardly acquiescence in the
mutiny against Hudson from being found out, were both on board the
_Resolution_.
The expedition reached Cape Digges without encountering any
difficulties from ice in Hudson Strait, and remained there three weeks
in order to put a pinnace together that had been taken out in pieces.
Button then entered Hudson’s Bay and proceeded westward, discovering
the southern coast of Southampton Island and the off-lying islets, to
one of which he gave the name of Mansell Island after his relation
Admiral Sir Edward Mansell, to another “Cary’s Swan’s Nest,” to a third
“Hopes Checked,” because there his expectation of making progress
received a check. Bad weather came on, and late in August Button sought
refuge in a small creek on the western side of Hudson’s Bay, which was
named Port Nelson after the master of the _Resolution_, who died and
was buried there. Button was thus the discoverer of the western side of
Hudson’s Bay as Hudson was of the eastern side. Button determined to
winter at Port Nelson, and at once set his people to work to procure as
much game as possible. They got in a large supply of ptarmigan, but the
winter was very severe and, although they had fresh food, the health of
the men suffered from the intense cold. It is interesting to find how
important the amusement of the crews and the occupation of their minds
during the Arctic winters was considered from the very first. We
have seen how Barentsz arranged a Twelfth-night entertainment. Button
kept the men’s minds employed by requiring them to answer questions
respecting the expedition and its objects, and by thus interesting them
in the work on which they were engaged.
[Illustration: Sir Thomas Button]
In June, 1613, the ice broke up, and the ship left winter quarters and
reached Cape Digges. In returning by Hudson Strait it was discovered
that the land on which Cape Chidley is situated is an island, and the
ships passed through the strait which is thus formed. The expedition
returned to England in the autumn of 1613. Button’s relation, Captain
Gibbons, started on another expedition in 1614, with Bylot as his mate
in the _Discovery_. Before he could enter Hudson Strait he was driven
by the ice into a bay on the coast of Labrador where he remained for
20 weeks and then returned home. The crew called the bay “Gibbons his
Hole.”
Button’s journal was never published, and we are indebted to Luke
Foxe, a later explorer, for all the information that has reached us
respecting his voyage. In 1618 he was in command on the coast of
Ireland. He was Rear Admiral in the fleet of Sir Edward Mansell, which
was sent against the Algerine pirates in 1620, and in 1623 he was again
employed in suppressing piracy. He became Admiral Sir Thomas Button,
married Mary, daughter of Sir Walter Rice of Dynevor and, dying in
April 1634, left a son who succeeded him at Duffryn.
The expedition of Sir Thomas Button to Hudson’s Bay was ably conducted,
and resulted in considerable additions to geographical knowledge.
CHAPTER XVI
WILLIAM BAFFIN
When Baffin was to the fore, good scientific work was certain to
be done. He had shown this in his first polar voyage to Greenland,
distinguished by the longitude observation by moon’s culmination; he
had shown it by his observation for sun’s refraction, and by others
during his two voyages to Spitsbergen. Now the North West Company was
so fortunate as to secure his services.
It is strange that Bylot should have been appointed Master of the
_Discovery_ in her fourth projected voyage to seek for the passage by
Hudson Strait. No doubt he told a plausible story, or Prickett told it
for him, yet his character still bore the taint of Hudson’s murder.
The old seaman had been in three Arctic voyages, and was obliging
and friendly when all went well, but there was nothing heroic about
him. Baffin, who was only rated as mate and associate of the master,
did all the work, directed the courses, took the observations, kept
the tabulated log, and wrote the journal. He was on excellent terms
with Bylot throughout, and said of him simply that “he was a man well
experienced that wayes.” The _Discovery_, though only 55 tons, carried
a complement of 14 men and two boys.
[Illustration: Baffin’s map of Hudson Strait.]
Sir John Wolstenholme and Mr Allwyn Cary, the ship’s husband, came on
board at St Katherine’s on the 15th March to see that all was well,
give promises of rewards, and wish the explorers God speed. On the 23rd
the ship was at the Downs and proceeded down Channel. But they were met
by a furious gale and sought shelter at the Scilly Islands and again
at Padstow. At last the _Discovery_ got away on her voyage, and on the
6th May the land near Cape Farewell was sighted. Two days afterwards
the ship was amongst icebergs and Baffin calculated the height of one
and found it to be 240 feet. As the coast on the opposite side of
Davis Strait was approached the _Discovery’s_ course was checked by a
line of closely-packed ice. The boldest course is usually the wisest,
and on this occasion the ship’s bows were put straight at the obstacle
and she forced her way into it. For six days the explorers were working
their way through the ice and drifting slowly to the south. At last
the pack became looser, they got clear, and soon afterwards sighted
Resolution Island on the north side of the entrance to Hudson Strait.
They anchored on the west side of that island and Baffin landed. On the
18th they were off islands on the north side of the strait, where dogs
and Eskimo tents were seen, so they anchored and Baffin again went on
shore. In one of the tents he found a leather bag containing little
images of men, and one with a woman and child at her back. He took
them, and put some useful articles in the tent in exchange, the people
having fled. The place was named Salvage Island.
Proceeding westward along the north shore of the Strait, Baffin paid
close attention to the tides and currents with a view to ascertain
the direction of the passage, if it existed. Sighting Nottingham and
Salisbury Islands the _Discovery_ came to a small new island which,
owing to the noise caused by the grinding of the ice, received the name
of Mill Island.
It was on the 22nd June that Baffin took his memorable lunar
observation for longitude. “While we were fast enclosed with ice, and
the weather fair and clear, I saw both the sun and moon very clear.
So I fitted my instruments to take both the almicanter and azimuth of
the sun, and also of the moon.” He then describes a complete lunar
observation. Not having an instrument with which he could measure so
large an angle, he resorted to the method of measuring the distance,
which was 104°, by the difference of azimuth[87]. The almicanters are
small circles parallel to the horizon, and therefore the observed
altitudes.
This method of finding the longitude was first suggested by John Werner
of Nuremberg in 1514, and again by Gemma Frisius in 1545. But Baffin’s
observation is the first recorded attempt to take a lunar at sea.
Baffin obtained the time of the moon being on the meridian at London
from Searle’s ephemeris, and at Wittenberg from that of Origanus[88].
He took another observation for longitude by the method previously
adopted by him in Cockayne Sound. Sir Edward Parry, when passing up
the strait in 1821, was much interested in these very remarkable
observations by Baffin. Sir Edward had seen the account in Purchas but
not the manuscript, where the result given is still more accurate.
As regards the study and practice of nautical astronomy, Baffin was
undoubtedly a genius.
Having completed the survey of the north side of the Hudson Strait,
the _Discovery_ stood over to the eastern coast of Southampton Island,
reaching a point which was given the name of Cape Comfort. Here the
various signs were again watched for any evidence of a passage by the
ice-laden sea to the north-west. Baffin’s conclusion that there is no
passage by what is now called Frozen Strait was based on the increased
quantity of ice, the water becoming less deep, and the sight of land
bearing N.E. by E., circumstances which led him to suppose that he
was at the entrance of a wide bay. He, therefore, relinquished the
enterprise so far as this route was concerned. Sir Edward Parry felt
a warm sympathy for the efforts of his distinguished predecessor, and
in 1821 he named an island Baffin Island near Cape Comfort, “out of
respect to the memory of that able and enterprising navigator.” He also
named a headland on Southampton Island Cape Bylot, as being probably
the westernmost point seen from the _Discovery_ in that July of 1615.
On the 29th July the _Discovery_ was anchored off Cape Digges, and the
men succeeded in killing 70 birds “which are called willocks” (looms),
for there are such numbers that “in few places else the like is to be
seen.”
Nothing remarkable took place during the voyage home, and the
_Discovery_ arrived safely at Plymouth all well, and without the loss
of man or boy. It was a well-conducted expedition, made memorable by
Baffin’s scientific observations. We have the tabulated log kept by
Baffin during the voyage, his report and journal, and the manuscript
chart drawn by himself. Besides numerous observations for latitude and
27 for variation of the compass, he took the first lunar ever observed
at sea.
Baffin’s report to the Merchant Adventurers was that he considered a
passage by way of Hudson Strait to be doubtful, but he was of opinion
that there was a passage and that it must be by Davis Strait. Accepting
the opinion of so high an authority, the five leading adventurers,
Sir Thomas Smith, Sir Dudley Digges, Sir Francis Jones, Sir John
Wolstenholme, and Sir James Lancaster patriotically resolved to send
an expedition by way of Davis Strait. The _Discovery_ was once more
got ready, with Mr Allwyn Cary, who had fitted her out for her former
voyage, as ship’s husband. Old Bylot was again Master and this time
Baffin’s rating was that of pilot. Seventeen men formed the crew.
On the 26th March, 1616, the little _Discovery_ left Gravesend on her
fifth polar voyage. She encountered strong westerly gales and sought
shelter in Dartmouth for 11 days, and for a day in Plymouth, but at
last she got fairly on her voyage. The first land that was sighted was
the coast of Greenland at Cockayne Sound, but Baffin did not stop,
pressing onwards until he reached Hare Island to the north of Disco in
70° 26′ N. On the last day of April, Hope Sanderson, the furthest point
of Davis, was reached, and next day the progress of the _Discovery_ was
checked by heavy floes. Anchorage was found near some islands whence
the native men fled, but some girls were left behind and received help
from the explorers, so Baffin gave the name of “Women Islands” to the
group. One of the islands is now the Danish station of Upernavik in 72°
48′ N. Kingitok, the most northern station, is in 72° 55′ N.
Baffin, knowing nothing of the ice movements, attempted to force his
way through the middle pack, a very risky and perilous course to take.
As the ship was forced onwards between the floes, they got closer and
closer “until we could see no place to put in the ship’s head.” Then
the able navigator wisely stood in towards the shore, and anchored
off Cape Shackleton among many islands in 73° 45′. Here Eskimos came
in their kayaks to barter, with seal-skins and the horns of narwhals,
and the place was accordingly named Horn Sound. They stayed there for
six days, making sail again on the 18th of May. Fortunately 1616 was
a remarkably open year and the _Discovery_ sailed across Melville Bay
in two days. Two hundred and thirty-four years afterwards it took the
writer forty days.
Baffin was now in the open water to the north of the bay, formed by the
drifting of ice to the south. Many narwhals were noticed, and on the
2nd July the ship was off a headland in 76° 35′ N. which received the
name of “Sir Dudley Digges his Cape.” They then passed a sound with
several bays and inlets, and an island forming two entrances, which was
named Wolstenholme Sound. Passing onwards a gale began to blow from W.
by S. which split their foresail, and when it cleared a little they
found themselves embayed in a sound. Standing over to the south-east
side, an anchor was let go, but both anchor and cable were lost. The
wind blew with such fury that they could find no anchorage, and were
obliged to stand off and on. In the afternoon the wind had less force
and they stood out. Many whales were seen in the sound, so it received
the name of Whale Sound, in 77° 30′ N.
Baffin then anchored off an island he named Hakluyt Island, between Sir
Thomas Smith’s Sound to the north, and Whale Sound to the south, but
it was such bad weather that the boat could not land. Of Sir Thomas
Smith’s Sound, Baffin says that it runs to the north of 78° and that
“it is admirable in one respect because in it is the greater variation
of the compass of any part of the known world; for by divers good
observations I found it to be above five points, or 56° variation to
the westward.” “Also this sound seemeth to be good for the killing of
whales, it being the greatest and largest in all the bays.”
It was blowing very hard when the _Discovery_ left her anchorage off
Hakluyt Island, and next day a group of islands was sighted which
received the name of Cary Islands, after Mr Allwyn Cary, their ship’s
husband. Baffin then stood over to the west side, and sighted land at
the entrance of a sound which was named “Sir Francis Jones his Sound.”
A boat was sent on shore, and the crew, on their return, reported that
they saw many sea horses, but no signs of people. This was the only
landing that was effected in the north part of the bay. On the 12th
July the _Discovery_ was off another great opening in 74° 20′ N. which
was called “Sir James Lancaster’s Sound.”
[Illustration: Baffin’s Discoveries.]
Baffin concluded that all the openings were bays. He was right as
regards Wolstenholme and Whale Sounds. But those named after Sir Thomas
Smith, Sir Francis Jones, and Sir James Lancaster are channels leading
to the Polar Ocean, not sounds.
In returning south the _Discovery_ had to run through much ice, and
Baffin was never able to reach the land on the west side, which he was
anxious to do, so as to obtain green food for the sick, for scurvy
had attacked them. Richard Wayman, the cook, died on the 26th July,
and Master Herbert[89], with two or three others, was very ill. So
Baffin stood over to the Greenland side, and reaching Cockayne Sound
on the 28th an abundant supply of scurvy grass, sorrel, and orpine was
gathered, while the natives brought salmon peel to barter. The scurvy
grass was boiled in beer, and made into salads with sorrel. In a week
all were restored to health, and on the 6th August, 1616, they were
homeward bound. The Irish coast was sighted on the 25th, and on the
30th the _Discovery_ anchored in Dover roads.
Purchas has printed the brief narrative of Baffin, and his very
interesting letter to Sir John Wolstenholme in which he says that
though there is no passage by Baffin’s Bay, voyages might be profitable
from the whalebone and oil, the seal-skins, and the walrus and narwhal
ivory. In this he was right, and his discovery led to the annual
acquisition of wealth for many years.
We only have in Purchas the _Briefe and True Relation_ and the letter
to Sir John Wolstenholme; but in the _Relation_ Baffin says, “all these
sounds and islands the map doth truly describe.” We are then treated to
the following exasperating note by Purchas, “This map of the author,
with the tables of his journal” (the tabulated log) “and sailing were
somewhat troublesome and too costly to insert.” The mischief done by
the loss to posterity of these precious documents endured for two
centuries. It led to such confusion in the ideas of map-makers that
at last the very existence of Baffin’s Bay was doubted. On the map of
Luke Foxe (1635) it is shown correctly[90]. But Hondius published a
version quite different from the reality, and others followed him. In
Moll’s Atlas (1720) both the correct delineation of Luke Foxe and the
very erroneous one of Hondius and his imitators are given. Van Keulen
and D’Anville caused still greater confusion. In the Maltebrun atlas
(1812) there is a slight improvement. Daines Barrington gives what
he calls “a circumpolar map according to the latest discoveries.” He
treats Baffin’s Bay as a semicircular dotted line with “_Baffin’s Bay
according to the relation of W. Baffin in 1616 but not now believed_”
written across it. Finally in Sir John Barrow’s _Chronological History
of the Voyages to the Arctic Regions_ (1818) Baffin’s Bay is entirely
expunged, Davis Strait being made to open northwards on a blank space.
Thus, owing to the omission of the map and log by Purchas, the great
discovery of Baffin became at length entirely ignored and discredited.
Baffin, on his return from his great discovery in 1616, had made five
voyages to the Arctic regions. The fjords and islets of west Greenland,
the glaciers and ice floes of Spitsbergen, the tidal phenomena of
Hudson Strait, and the secrets of the far northern bay which he
unveiled, were all familiar to him. He had practically investigated,
and deeply pondered over the absorbing questions of polar discovery. As
an astronomical observer and navigator his unwearied diligence was as
remarkable as his talent. If he was an untaught man who had risen from
a humble origin, he had so far educated himself as to be able to write
letters which are not only well expressed, but graced with classical
allusions.
Baffin, who was probably past middle age when he returned from his
great discovery, then entered the service of the East India Company,
being rated as Master’s Mate, under Captain Shilling, on board the
_Anne Royal_, one of the fleet which was got ready in the winter of
1616. His most important service during the voyage 1617–1619 was the
survey of parts of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. There is the
following entry in the Court’s minutes on the 1st October, 1619,
“William Baffin, a master’s mate in the _Anne_, to have a gratuity
for his pains and good art in drawing out certain plots of the coast
of Persia and the Red Sea which are judged to have been very well and
artificially performed.”
In the following year Captain Shilling was selected to command the
Company’s fleet. He was on board the _London_, and, at his special
recommendation, Baffin was appointed Master. The Company’s fleet
encountered the Portuguese off Jáshak, near the entrance of the Persian
Gulf in December 1620, and the fight continued without intermission
for nine hours. The Portuguese ships then anchored to repair damages.
The English, after raking them, put into Jáshak Roads on the coast of
Mekran. A second and more decisive encounter took place on the 28th
December, when the Portuguese were defeated, but the victory was dearly
bought by the death of Captain Shilling, who was interred at Jáshak on
the 9th January 1621.
Captain Baffin remained in command of the _London_, and the fleet
returned to Surat. The English then made a treaty with Abbas the Great,
Shah of Persia, to drive the Portuguese out of Ormuz, a Persian port
which they had occupied since 1515. The English fleet, consisting of
five ships, arrived at an open roadstead on the Persian coast near
Ormuz, where news was received that the Portuguese had erected a fort
on the island of Kishm to protect some wells. It was necessary to take
it before investing Ormuz. The Kishm fort was already beleagured by a
Persian army, and the English fleet arrived there on the 20th January,
1622.
After two days, Captain Baffin went on shore with his mathematical
instruments, to take the height and distance of the castle wall so as
to find the range “for the better levelling of his guns.” But while he
was so engaged he was hit by a shot from the fort, and killed on the
spot[91].
Baffin’s geographical discoveries were extensive and his scientific
observations were not only valuable at the time but were of permanent
use. Without his numerous magnetic observations Professor Hansteen
could not have constructed his first magnetic chart. Baffin’s devoted
zeal and untiring industry, his genius as an inventive observer, his
gallantry and intrepidity, and his great services have secured for him
a permanent and an honourable place among the naval worthies of the
Elizabethan era, side by side with Frobisher and Davis.
CHAPTER XVII
JENS ERIKSEN MUNK. FOXE AND JAMES. WOOD
Sir John Wolstenholme was one of the most persistent of the Merchant
Adventurers and, after Baffin’s return, he fitted out a ship in 1619
for John Hawkridge, the friend of Button who had accompanied him on his
voyage. But Hawkridge never got beyond the entrance to Hudson Strait.
The sailor King of Denmark then resolved to have a turn at the
North-west Passage and appointed Jens Eriksen Munk to command an
expedition.
The early adventures of this gallant Danish seaman are not without
interest. His father had an estate at Barbo near Arendal in Norway, but
the boy Jens was brought up by an aunt at Aalborg in Jutland from the
time that he was nine years old. Three years later, in 1591, he was
sent in charge of a Friesland skipper to England, and thence to Oporto
to learn the language, in the employment of a Portuguese named Duarte
Duez. Duez sent the boy at the age of 13 to his brother Miguel Duez
at Bahia in Brazil. On his arrival young Munk found that Miguel Duez
was gone, so the boy went on a returning ship to go home. The ship was
attacked by a French privateer and sunk, only seven of the crew being
saved, including the Danish boy. He was landed at Bahia destitute, and
became a shoemaker’s apprentice for eleven, and a portrait painter’s
boy for six months. At last Miguel Duez came back, and young Munk was
with him for three years. In 1598 two Dutch vessels arrived, and the
Spaniards on shore formed a plot to seize them. They were saved by
the youthful Dane. Getting wind of the treachery, he swam off to the
ships in the night, and warned them just in time. The Dutchmen were
grateful, and enabled their saviour to return to Copenhagen. In 1601,
Munk entered the service of a merchant named Hendrik Rommel, and made
voyages to the Baltic ports and to Spain. He became a Captain in 1605
and made a voyage on his own account to Iceland for a cargo of sulphur,
then to Archangel and Kolguev Island, where he was wrecked. In 1610 he
made a voyage to Novaya Zemlya. In 1611 he received a commission as
Captain in the Danish Royal Navy, and was in a naval action with the
Swedes, but peace was signed in 1613. Next he accompanied Jacob Ulfeldt
in an embassy to Spain, and in 1616 we find him at St Jean de Luz
engaging Basques for the whale fishery.
Christian IV could not have found a better man to command his Arctic
expedition than Jens Eriksen Munk, then aged 40. He was to lead
two exploring ships, the _Eenhiörningen_ (Unicorn) and _Lamprenen_
(Lamprey), sailing from Copenhagen on the 9th May, 1619. When Munk
sighted Cape Farewell he humorously remarked that he who gave it the
name never wished to see it again. The two exploring vessels had to
make their way through much ice before they could enter Hudson Strait.
Crossing Hudson’s Bay Munk decided upon wintering on the west side, at
a place now called Port Churchill, where they anchored in September,
and moored with six hawsers on the 28th during a terrible snow-storm.
Captain Munk did his best for the health of his people. He sent them
out to gather whortleberries and crowberries, and to shoot ptarmigan,
and also procured white whale flesh. There was weekly divine service
and Holy Communion, and exercise for the men, who were sent out on ski.
But the dreaded scurvy appeared very early. The first death was on
December 13th, the surgeon of the _Lamprey_. There was a solemn service
on Christmas Day, but the chaplain, Rasmus Jensen, took to his bed a
few days afterwards and died in February. Those who were strong enough
were sent to gather berries for the sick. Day after day more and more
were prostrated. Men were dying almost every day. At the end of March,
Munk wrote, “commenced my greatest sorrow and misery, attending all
day to the sick. I was then like a wild and lonely bird.” On the 1st
of April his own young nephew, Erik Munk, died, then his Lieutenant,
Morits Stygge, then the mate, a young Englishman named John Watson.
Munk had baths prepared for the survivors, and on April 20th he shot
three ptarmigan. Still there were deaths daily. Those smitten with
the scurvy suffered great pains in the loins, the body turning blue
and brown, and becoming powerless, the mouth in a miserable condition,
with all the teeth loose. Captain Munk was at last too weak to bury
the dead. Only three besides himself were left in June. He wrote a
note asking anyone that came to bury him. He and the other survivors
crawled about on shore, seeking for any green thing. Towards the end of
June they caught some fish, and got some every day. They began to gain
strength, and in the middle of July they were strong enough to get the
little _Lamprey_ ready for sea, leaving the larger vessel, and the four
survivors at length sailed, arriving at Bergen on the 25th September,
1620.
After this appalling experience Munk needed some rest. His ability,
however, was well known to the King and he was later much employed.
During the early part of the Thirty Years War he was in command in the
Weser. He became an Admiral, and died in 1628[92].
After Munk’s disastrous voyage there was a pause for a dozen years, and
then Luke Foxe, with his diligent research, whole-hearted enthusiasm,
and quaint humour engages our attention.
Foxe was a Yorkshireman and almost certainly from Hull. He tells us
that he was sea bred from a boy and had been in voyages to the Baltic
and the Mediterranean. He had evidently received a good education
and was well read. He had an excellent opinion of himself, and was
very young when he applied to Captain Knight to take him as his mate.
He was reminded of his youth and he afterwards admitted that he had
been rather presumptuous. Foxe was much with John Tappe, a bookseller
with a shop on Tower Hill, who published the _Maryner’s Book_, and a
translation of the _Arte de Navegar_ by Martin Cortes. This friend
enabled him to study Arctic history. Foxe also had the great advantage
of securing the friendship of Henry Briggs, the famous mathematician,
Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, who introduced the practical use of
logarithms. When Foxe resolved to get command of an Arctic expedition,
it was through Briggs that he obtained the patronage of Sir Thomas Roe,
the ambassador, who had returned from India.
In 1631, with the help of the Trinity House, Luke Foxe, full of
intense eagerness, secured his heart’s desire. He was allowed to have
H.M.S. _Charles_, an old gunboat of 70 or 80 tons, which had seen much
service, and had been ordered to be sold. The Master, whose name is
never given, and the mate Yourin or Hurin, were not of his choosing,
having been appointed by the Trinity House. Of the Master, Foxe says
he was “the most arrogant bull calf that ever went or came as Master
and the most faint-heartedest man.” The crew consisted of 20 men and 3
boys, and the ship was provisioned for 18 months. Foxe was against the
use of tobacco as “a thing good for nothing,” but all the men smoked.
The _Charles_ sailed from Deptford on the 5th of May, 1631, going north
about, instead of down channel.
Another expedition had sailed from Bristol nearly at the same time and
with the same object, under the command of Captain James. He sighted
Greenland encompassed about with ice, and worked continually to keep
clear of it. Passing down Hudson Strait and between Nottingham Island
and Cape Digges, Captain James, as we shall see, met the _Charles_ in
Hudson’s Bay on the 29th August.
Foxe first came to Lumley Inlet on the west coast of Davis Strait,
really Frobisher Strait, which Davis did not realise. Davis named it
after Lord Lumley who had “built the pier of that distressful poor
fisher town Hartlepool at a cost of £2000, and was a great favourer of
Davis.” In Hudson Strait the progress of the _Charles_ was much impeded
by ice from the 23rd June to the 4th July. Foxe describes the ice
and also mentions the use of log and line for registering the ship’s
run[93].
[Illustration: Captain Thomas James.]
In the middle of July Foxe tried to sail between Nottingham and
Salisbury Islands, but he was stopped by the ice in his attempt to
go to the north-west, as others had been before him. He therefore
turned to the south and made his way along the south coast of
Southampton Island, sighting Mansel Island and Cary’s Swan’s Nest,
named by Button. Foxe then discovered the wide opening between the
west side of Southampton Island and the main land, without finding the
narrow strait at the northern end. Supposing it to be a deep bay,
he named it after his patron, “Sir Thomas Roe’s Welcome.” An island
was named “Briggs his Mathematics” on the 31st July, after the great
mathematician to whom we owe the use of logarithms, who had died a few
months before Foxe sailed on his voyage of discovery. Our explorer then
visited the winter quarters of Button and Munk, finding the remains of
their ships, but, convinced that there was no passage on the west side
of Hudson’s Bay, he resolved to return to the east side of Southampton
Island and make another attempt by the north-west.
In crossing Hudson’s Bay the _Charles_ came in sight of another
vessel, which proved to be the _Henrietta Maria_, commanded by Captain
James. The two exploring ships stopped to communicate and Captain
James entertained Captain Foxe at dinner, the ships then proceeding
on their respective ways on the 1st September. Captain James wintered
at Charlton Island in the extreme south-east angle of Hudson’s Bay.
The party underwent the most terrible suffering, but the ship arrived
safely in England in the autumn of 1632[94].
On the 7th September the _Charles_ was off the south point of
Southampton Island. Much hampered by ice Foxe reached Mill Island
of Baffin, and then stood over to the north main land at a point he
called King’s Cape. He was now in the locality where Baffin turned
back, judging from the indications that there was only a large bay
ahead. All beyond would, therefore, be new discovery. He had reached
what we now know as Fox Channel. Sailing onwards, he passed two
promontories, 20 leagues apart, which he named Lord Weston’s Portland
and Cape Dorchester; then, on the 22nd, in 66° 47′ N., he reached his
furthest point, which he rather pompously called “_North-West Foxe his
furthest_.” He was on his way to a north-west passage or rather to one
lane by which the two oceans unite, for it could never be a passage.
The discovery was completed in after years by Parry, Ross, Rae, and
M’Clintock.
[Illustration: Part of Foxe’s Map, 1635.]
Foxe had found his master and mate to be nuisances and hindrances
throughout the voyage, and the former was very pusillanimous. Now his
difficulties were much increased by the spread of sickness among the
crew. His decision to return without risking a winter was no doubt
right. He took all possible means at his disposal for the good of the
sick, and established a dietary of four beef days in the week. Passing
Cape Chidley on the 15th, the _Charles_ arrived off the Downs on the
31st October, 1631, “not having lost one man nor boy, nor any manner of
tackling.”
The account of his voyage published by Luke Foxe is a remarkable book
in several respects. It is the first attempt to give a history of all
the Arctic voyages which preceded his own, from the account of Othere’s
voyage given by King Alfred down to his own time. It contains the
only narrative that has been preserved of the voyage of Button. His
own story is that of a well-conducted and, on the whole, successful
expedition. Above all, “North-West Foxe,” as he calls himself, has
given us the quaintest and most amusing narrative in the whole range
of Polar literature, which is fairly voluminous. His too obvious
self-conceit and very high estimation of the merits of North-West Foxe
himself may well be forgiven for the sake of his quaint remarks and the
amusing style of his writing. Foxe’s book is an acquisition to Arctic
literature.
One more rather unimportant expedition closes the first period of
Arctic endeavour. John Wood was a Master’s mate in the _Sweepstakes_
under Sir John Narborough when a voyage was undertaken through
Magellan’s Strait to Chile in 1669. He gave want of employment and
aversion to an idle life as reasons for submitting a plan to Government
for discovering the north-east passage. The plan met with the approval
of Samuel Pepys, the Secretary to the Admiralty, and Wood received the
command of the _Speedwell_, with the _Prosperous_ pink as a tender.
The _Speedwell_ also had the eminent hydrographer Grenville Collins on
board. The expedition sailed on the 28th May, 1676; the polar pack
between the North Cape and Novaya Zemlya was reached on the 22nd June,
and Novaya Zemlya was sighted on the 26th. But there was no one on
board with any experience of ice navigation; the _Speedwell_ grounded
on the 29th and became a wreck. Fortune, however, favoured the crew.
There was no loss of life, and all the members of the expedition
returned home in the pink, arriving in the Thames on the 24th August.
The civil war and the unsettled state of the country gave pause to
Arctic work until the 18th century, but this “Elizabethan era” of
polar discovery as it may comprehensively be termed, forms a truly
magnificent record. Novaya Zemlya and the two straits on either side
of the Waigat discovered, the greater part of the Spitsbergen shores
delineated, portions of the eastern side of Greenland sighted, the
whole west coast of Greenland from Cape Farewell to Smith Sound
discovered or re-discovered, the whole western side of Baffin’s Bay
and Davis Strait traced, Hudson Strait, Hudson’s Bay, and Fox Channel
discovered, and this mostly in frail little vessels of from 10 to 100
tons, with few appliances, no comforts, instruments most difficult to
work with any accuracy, and very limited means. But the Elizabethan
heroes had fortitude, indomitable energy, and the strongest sense of
duty, and were influenced by that loyalty and patriotism without which
no country can remain great. _Virtute non armis fido_ was their motto.
The splendour and magnitude of their achievements remains unsurpassed.
CHAPTER XVIII
HANS EGEDE AND DANISH GREENLAND
In the beginning of the 18th century there was living at Vogen, in the
diocese of Trondhjem in Norway, a priest named Hans Egede, who for
some years had been engaged solely in his parochial duties. In about
1708, when his age was 26, he became deeply impressed with the story
of the abandonment of the Greenland colony. The fact that Christians
had formerly lived in Greenland, that they had been abandoned to their
fate, and that the world had heard of them no more, preyed upon his
mind. He felt that it was the duty of every Norwegian to help in the
search for them. If no one else had that feeling he, a poor parish
priest, would do so single-handed. He was torn by conflicting duties to
his parish, and to his wife and children, but his Greenland duty seemed
the most urgent. This inward impulse was the strongest, and in 1710 he
addressed a petition on the subject to his Bishop. The reply commended
the project, but dwelt on the almost insuperable difficulties.
Hans Egede was looked upon as a fanatic, as a knight errant. At first
no one would listen to him. He went to Bergen to try and get support,
but none could be obtained, though some were touched by his zeal. One
great comfort was that after a time his wife embraced the idea and
became as enthusiastic as her husband. At last, in 1718, he determined
to go to Copenhagen and appeal to his King. Frederick IV admired the
good priest’s devotion to a noble cause, encouraged him in his efforts,
and used the royal influence for raising funds. At last a sum of £2000
was got together, while the King gave £40 towards the equipment of a
vessel and granted a salary of £60 a year to Egede.
A vessel called the _Hope_ was bought, and the adventurous priest
embarked with the crew and his wife and four little children, a party
altogether of forty souls. The 2nd May, 1721, was the memorable day
when the _Hope_ sailed from Bergen, and the history of modern Danish
Greenland was commenced.
Though ice was found blocking up the approaches to the Greenland coast,
a lane of water was seen apparently leading to the land, and the little
vessel was steered into it. But the ice closed, and she was beset,
a dense fog being followed by a strong gale, and for some time the
adventurers were in danger. The gale had the effect of clearing away
the ice, so that at last the _Hope_ was brought safely into Gilbert
Sound of Davis. Hans Egede called it Bell’s River. He appears to have
been ignorant of the details of Davis’s voyages, but he must have known
the expedition of Hall, who named one of the branches of the fjord
Bell’s river, after Mr Richard Bell, and the other after Sir James
Lancaster. Hans Egede set up the house he had brought out in pieces
on an island in Gilbert Sound, the native name of which was Kenget,
renamed by him Haabetsö or Hope Island. At first the Eskimos were very
friendly and Egede at once began to learn the language. But neither he
nor his people were at all efficient in hunting and fishing, and they
could only occasionally get food from the natives. The consequence was
that scurvy broke out, and most of his people returned in the _Hope_
when the navigable season arrived. But in 1723 two ships arrived with
provisions and the good news that the King had imposed a Greenland
assessment for the support of the colony.
It was found that the Dutch had long frequented Davis Strait for the
whale fishery. Several ships arrived every year and they made use of
two or three harbours, but had no permanent settlement.
In the second year after his arrival Hans Egede undertook a boat voyage
in search of the lost Greenland colony. The distance was great from
Gilbert Sound to Cape Farewell, and then round to the east side of
Greenland, for the general belief then was that the “East Bygd” of the
Norsemen was on the east coast. On Egede’s map Frobisher’s Strait was
shown to pass through Greenland, instead of on the other side of Davis
Strait, and he naturally relied upon being able to make a short cut
to the east coast by passing through it. This was the last time that
anyone was misled by the errors of Niccolo Zeno’s chart. For the first
land of Frobisher was supposed to be the Friesland of Zeno, in which
case the second land would be Greenland. In reality the first land was
Greenland, and the second land of Frobisher was the other side of Davis
Strait.
Hans Egede proceeded along the coast to the southward, examining the
principal fjords, discovering the ruins of the church at Kakortak[95]
and other vestiges of the Norsemen, little thinking that all the time
he was in the “East Bygd,” which he supposed to be on the other side
of Greenland. He looked out anxiously for Frobisher’s Strait, which of
course he never found, and went almost as far as Cape Farewell. The
lateness of the season at last obliged him to return.
Hans Egede then devoted all his energies to the instruction and
conversion of the Eskimos, who were scattered in small bodies along
the coast. He carefully sought out any words in their language that
resembled those of the Norsemen[96]. Probably he thought that these
Greenlanders had Norse blood in their veins, that in fact they
represented all that remained of the lost colony. The Danish Government
came to the conclusion that Greenland might be a valuable acquisition
and there was still a desire to reach the east coast where the East
Bygd of the Norsemen was supposed to be. In 1728 Major Paar arrived as
Governor with five ships, one of them a man-of-war, bringing materials
for a fort and a garrison, as well as horses for crossing to the East
Bygd, so little was the inland ice then understood. Major Paar removed
the settlement from Kenget Island to the mainland, on the south side
of Gilbert Sound, where it received the name of Godthaab, and is now
the capital of Danish Greenland. Unfortunately a form of scurvy broke
out and the people died off rapidly, the mortality continuing until
the spring of 1729, when the survivors were sent home, and this first
attempt at a colony came to an end, leaving Hans Egede almost in
despair. His eldest son Paul was sent to Copenhagen to complete his
education.
Governor Paar made an attempt to comply with his instructions about
the east coast. On April 25th, 1729, he set out with a party of seven
men to explore the Amaralik Fjord, but found it impossible to make any
progress on the inland ice, and returned on the 7th of May. On the
map in the English translation of the book by Hans Egede there is a
strait passing right across Greenland from Disco Bay with the following
legend:--“_It is said that these streights were formerly passable but
now they are shoot up with ice._” All the names from Ivar Bardsen are
scattered along the east side of Greenland in this map of 1740.
The attempt to form a colony had a very injurious result for the
mission, as it made most of the natives move northwards to Disco Bay.
The death of King Frederick IV, who had steadily supported Egede and
the Greenland enterprise, seemed to be a mortal blow. The Government
of his successor, Christian VI, saw no probability of any commercial
advantage, and considered that the ten years of missionary efforts had
produced little or no result. An order was therefore issued that the
colony was to be given up, Hans Egede being given the option either to
return with the rest or to remain. He resolved to stay, ten sailors
volunteering to stand by him, and after much importunity, a year’s
provisions were left with him. His youngest son Nils was now old enough
to assist his father, and undertook the commercial part of the work,
going about to collect blubber and other products, and striving, when
possible, to take the part of a catechist. But privations and anxieties
were telling upon Egede. A feeling of despondency was beginning to
weigh him down, and he was only encouraged to perseverance by the
heroic constancy of his wife.
At last hope was revived. In May, 1733, a ship arrived with the news
that the Greenland trade was to be continued, and that the King would
make an annual grant of £400 a year to the mission. In the same
ship three Moravian missionaries arrived who formed a station which
they called “New Herrnhuth,” a few miles from Godthaab, and worked
in harmony with the Danish missionaries[97]. But progress was still
further delayed by an appalling calamity. An Eskimo boy who had been
at Copenhagen brought back the smallpox. It spread like wildfire, and
threatened to wipe out the whole Eskimo race. The sufferings were
terrible and several thousands died.
Hans Egede’s eldest son Paul had returned, and gave lessons in the
Eskimo language, of which he was a master, having learnt it from
childhood, to the Moravian missionaries. He afterwards had charge of
the mission station of Christianshaab in Disco Bay until 1740. The
devoted wife of Hans Egede died in December 1735, a true Christian
heroine, full of zeal for the conversion of the natives and of helpful
care for their welfare. With the loss of his brave wife Hans Egede
felt that his work was at an end and sailed with his daughters and his
youngest son on the 9th August, arriving at Copenhagen on the 24th
September, 1736. His wife’s remains were taken with him, and interred
in St Nicholas churchyard.
Hans Egede had made a beginning. He had sown the good seed. He
left four missionaries and two catechists in Greenland, twenty or
thirty adult converts, and about a hundred baptized children. He
had formed rather a high opinion of the Eskimo character after an
experience extending over 15 years. He looked upon the Greenlanders
as even-tempered and good-natured, of orderly behaviour and hating
every kind of strife. There was no thieving among themselves, though
foreigners were considered fair game. They were hospitable, and every
one was content with his own state and condition.
On the arrival of Hans Egede at Copenhagen he had an audience of the
King, who appointed him Superintendent of the Greenland Mission, with
a salary of £100 a year. He passed the last years of his life in
retirement with his daughters on the island of Falster, where he died,
in his 73rd year, on the 5th November, 1758[98].
The Danish Government took both the Greenland Mission and the trade
under royal protection. For it began to be understood that there was
wealth in the products of Greenland, in the whalebone and oil, the
skins of seals, deer, and foxes, the walrus and narwhal ivory, and
the eider-down. There were to be royal factors and storehouses, side
by side with missionaries and churches. Stations were to be formed
at intervals along the coast, to be visited annually by ships which
were to receive the products collected by the factors during the year.
The larger stations consisted of the factor’s house, storehouse, and
smithy, the mission house and church, and the native huts.
The most southern station, Frederikshaab, was formed in 1742 by Jacob
Severin, a merchant of Jutland. About 40 miles to the north of this
station is the famous _Eis blink_, a great ice mass whose “glance” or
“blink” in the sky is seen for many leagues out at sea. It forms a vast
ice bridge over the fjord, two leagues across and eight leagues long
and the ebb tides take quantities of ice out to sea, under the bridge.
Further north is the bay which Hans Egede called Fischer’s Fjord, in
lat. 63° N. Here a station was formed in 1754, and, four years later,
on the same island, the Moravians settled their second mission, which
they called Lichtenfels. These were the only stations south of Godthaab
in the early days.
To the north, the station of Sukkertoppen was founded in 1755, and in
1759 Holsteinborg was established, and named after Count Holstein,
President of the Missions College. The first factor was Nils Egede,
younger son of the great missionary. Holsteinborg is well placed in an
excellent harbour with the numerous Knight Islands in the offing. Fifty
miles further north is the station of Egedesminde which was founded by
Nils Egede in 1759, who gave it that name in memory of his father. In
Disco Bay a settlement was formed by order of Jacob Severin as early
as 1734 and named Christianshaab. Paul Egede was the first missionary
there[99]. Claushavn was established further north in 1752. The shores
and islands of Disco Bay were, at that time, the most populous part of
Greenland. Another station was founded there in 1741, which was named
Jacobshavn in memory of the Director of trade, Jacob Severin. In the
south entrance of the Waigat the station of Rittenbenk was founded in
1755, and at the other end that of Noursoak in 1758. In those days
nothing was known further north, but these 12 stations had factors,
and were annually visited by ships to receive the year’s collection
of blubber and skins. Some 20 years later, in 1774, the station of
Julianshaab was founded in the far south.
Danish Greenland has since continued on much the same lines. The
Royal Trade Monopoly was established by a statute in 1774, and the
system of collecting the products along the coast commenced. There
are 176 inhabited places scattered over 1000 miles of coast, and 60
trading stations where the products are collected and sent to the
chief stations. Besides the yield of the cryolite mine these products
consist of oil, the skins of seal, reindeer, fox and bear, eider-down,
feathers, whalebone, narwhal horns, walrus tusks, and dried cod; the
net revenue being about £6600 a year, not including the cryolite
royalty.
The Danish Mission is also a government institution, there being eight
missionaries with small salaries, besides catechists, not counting the
Moravian missionaries with four stations.
CHAPTER XIX
THE HUDSON’S BAY COMPANY. HEARNE AND MACKENZIE, COOK AND PHIPPS
We have seen how quickly a lucrative trade and remunerative returns
followed on the heels of Arctic discoveries. It was so in the
Spitsbergen seas, it was so in Greenland and Davis Strait, and now we
shall see that it was so in Hudson’s Bay. The Hudson’s Bay Company,
under the auspices of Prince Rupert, was founded in 1668, and an
expedition was sent out, consisting of the ship _Nonsuch_, under the
command of Captain Zachariah Gillam. That officer wintered with his
crew in Rupert’s river and established a station called Fort Charles.
A charter was granted by which the sole right to trade in Hudson’s
Bay and Strait was given to the Company, with territorial rights and
jurisdiction. Stations were formed and a trade in furs was established
with the Indians, who received European goods in exchange.
Discovery was not altogether neglected, although nothing was thought
of but trade during the first 50 years. In 1720 a sloop was sent on a
voyage of discovery under two officers named Knight and Barlow, but
they were never heard of more. A Captain Scroggs was sent in search,
but without result. Again in 1737 a sloop and shallop were despatched
by the Company, also without result.
In 1741 a Mr Arthur Dobbs became the chief projector of an expedition
to discover a north-west passage by Hudson’s Bay. The Admiralty gave
assistance, and Captain Christopher Middleton received the command
of an old bomb vessel called the _Furnace_, with a pink called the
_Discovery_, under Captain William Moore, as a consort. Arriving
late in the season of 1741, Captain Middleton resolved to winter in
the Churchill river, housing his men in an old fort. In February,
1742, scurvy broke out. The only efficacious treatment was not then
understood, and Captain Middleton’s panacea was plenty of rum with
sugar to make punch. There were some deaths in March but not enough
to hinder the expedition, and in July 1742 the voyage was resumed,
the plan being to explore the great opening called by Luke Foxe “Sir
Thomas Roe his Welcome,” and to seek a passage by that route. The cape
on the western side of the sound in 65° 10′ N. Middleton named Cape
Dobbs. Proceeding up the Welcome he discovered an opening which at
first seemed likely to lead to the desired passage, but it turned out
to be the estuary of a river which was named the Wager River, after Sir
Charles Wager, then First Lord of the Admiralty. A point of land was
named Cape Hope, because hopes of a passage were revived on rounding
it and further north another opening to the west was seen, but it
could not be explored owing to the ice and the state of the weather.
It received the name of Repulse Bay. Then Frozen Strait was discovered
at the head of the Welcome and, on climbing a high hill, Middleton
saw that the coast trended south-east to the Cape Comfort of Baffin,
thus proving the insularity of Southampton Island. The expedition then
shaped a course down Hudson Strait, arriving in the Thames in October
1742.
Middleton had done his work well, and had made some important
discoveries. But he was subjected to an unjustifiable attack[100]
from Mr Dobbs, the projector, who accused the explorer of stating
that the Wager River was only a river when he knew it to be a strait.
Dobbs had sufficient influence to enable him to raise funds for a
second expedition. Two vessels, the _Dobbs_ and the _California_,
were fitted out and despatched under the command of Captain Moore,
who fully confirmed Middleton’s report. Mr Ellis wrote the history of
this voyage, and pointed to Chesterfield Inlet as a possible passage.
Accordingly Captain Christopher was sent to settle the question in the
sloop _Churchill_ in 1761, and again with Captain Norton in 1762, when
the survey of Chesterfield Inlet was completed.
[Illustration: Hudson Bay.]
The next expedition of the servants of the Hudson’s Bay Company was by
land, and was conducted by Samuel Hearne, who had been a naval officer.
Through the Indians who traded with the Company’s factories rumours
were received of a tribe which possessed copper mines on a river which
emptied itself into a northern sea, and the Governor of Fort Prince
of Wales on the Churchill river resolved to despatch an expedition to
ascertain the truth of these rumours.
Hearne made two false starts. In the first journey he was robbed by
Indians, in the second, when some months on the way, he had to return
owing to an accident to his great Cotton’s quadrant. At last he set out
in December, 1770, under the guidance of a remarkable Indian chief,
named Matonabi, and without any European companion. This guide was the
son of a northern Indian by a slave woman. His father had died, and
the boy was adopted and brought up by the Governor of Fort Prince of
Wales, who employed him as a hunter. He was a fine man, of nearly six
feet, and possessed of many good moral qualities. He had been on an
embassy to a powerful tribe, establishing peace and trade, and had also
visited the Coppermine river. It was indeed owing to his report that
the expedition was undertaken. Matonabi’s influence was so great that
he was made Chief of the northern Indians, and caused great quantities
of furs to be brought to the Churchill factory.
The method of travelling was for each man to drag his own little
sledge. These one-man sledges were 8 to 9 feet long by 12 to 14 inches
wide, made of boards a quarter of an inch thick sewn together with
thongs of deer-skin, with wooden cross-bars on the upper side. The fore
part was turned up so as to form a semicircle, to prevent the sledge
from diving into soft snow. The trace was a strip of leather with a
loop across the shoulders. The snow-shoes were 4½ feet long by 13
inches broad.
The country crossed by Hearne and Matonabi, accompanied by a large
party of Indians with their wives and children, was fairly well
supplied with game. In May, 1771, a lake was reached where they began
to build canoes and were joined by more Indians, eager to rob and
massacre the Eskimos.
The women and children were left behind, and the party of Indians,
in company with Hearne and Matonabi, entered the Arctic regions, and
began the descent of the Coppermine River on July 14th, 1771. Then five
Eskimo tents came in sight on the left bank. The Indians put on their
war-paint, formed an ambuscade, and approached stealthily. The wretched
Eskimos were completely taken by surprise, and Hearne was an unwilling
witness of a horrible massacre. One young girl clung to Hearne’s legs,
writhing in agony while the Indians drove their spears into her.
Hearne continued his voyage down the Coppermine River with his
bloodthirsty companions, until he reached the mouth on July 18th,
1771. He found that it was full of islets and shoals, with many seals
on the ice outside. For 30 miles there had been nothing but barren
hills and marshes. Above that distance there were stunted pines and
dwarf willows on the river banks. In returning, he visited one of the
surface copper mines. He gives an interesting account of the musk oxen,
deer, wild geese, salmon, and other sources of food-supply, and of the
building habits of beavers, and describes the Eskimo weapons and mode
of life.
[Illustration: Alexander Mackenzie]
On June 29th, 1772, Hearne returned to Fort Prince of Wales, and was
soon afterwards rewarded by being made Governor. But in 1782 a French
Expedition under La Pérouse destroyed the fort, carrying off Hearne and
the other Company’s servants as prisoners. Hearne was several years a
prisoner of war, and only returned to London to die. This disaster so
affected the faithful Matonabi that he committed suicide.
It was 18 years after Hearne’s discovery of the mouth of the Coppermine
that a young man named Alexander Mackenzie undertook to trace the
course of another river, flowing north from the Great Slave Lake. This
explorer was not one of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s servants, but at an
early period of life he had been led, with commercial views, to the
vast region north-west of Lake Superior. His voyage down the river
which received his name was undertaken in six canoes, chiefly manned
by French Canadians. Starting in June, 1789, he reached the numerous
channels which form the estuary of the Mackenzie river on July 13th,
and thus was the second European to reach the American polar ocean. The
river journey was over 1000 miles in length. Mackenzie was knighted in
recognition of the value of his discovery.
It was in a year between the dates of the two river mouth discoveries
that Captain Cook, during his third voyage, made his researches in
the Arctic Sea between the two continents of Asia and America. The
_Resolution_ under the command of the great navigator himself, and the
_Discovery_ under Captain Clerke, were commissioned in 1776, but it
was not until August, 1778, that they crossed the Arctic Circle. The
first Lieutenant of the _Discovery_ was James Burney, so well known to
geographers as the historian of voyages in the Pacific, and the writer
of an interesting account of Cook’s Arctic discoveries.
The Sandwich Islands had been discovered on January 18th, 1778, and on
August 4th the _Resolution_ and _Discovery_ anchored off Sledge Island
in 64° 30′ N. The westernmost extremity of the American continent
in Bering Strait, 65° 45′ N., received the name of Prince of Wales
Cape. Captain Cook then stood over to the Asiatic side, and landed to
investigate the Tchuktches, of which tribe he gives an interesting
account. Continuing his exploring work he crossed Bering Strait, and
proceeded along the American coast, naming a cape after another Arctic
explorer, Lord Mulgrave. On the 18th August the two ships were close to
the edge of a very heavy pack which was drifting towards the coast. The
furthest point seen was very low and much encumbered with ice. Captain
Cook gave it the name of Icy Cape, in lat. 70° 29′ N., long. 161° 42′
W. This was the furthest point reached on the American side.
Captain Cook found himself in a narrow lane in shoal water with the
ice coming down upon the ships. He plied to the westward, making short
boards between the ice and the shore. On the 19th the ships were
among loose pieces, and were brought to at the edge of a close pack.
There were immense herds of walrus on the ice, which afforded them a
welcome change of diet from the salt beef. Much attention was given to
soundings and to the force and direction of the currents. The sea in
Bering Strait is shallow, and the strait exercises no influence on the
general direction of the movement of the water. The principal current
in the strait is tidal and intermittent, flowing north with the flood
and south with the ebb.
From the 21st to the 29th of August the exploring ships were sailing
along the coast of Asia, which was low, with elevated land behind.
The furthest point was in lat. 65° 56′ N., long. 179° 11′ W., and
received the name of Cape North. The thick weather made it prudent
to return. The greatest depth north of Bering Strait was 30 fathoms,
the current slight. Passing through Bering Strait on a southerly
course, the distance across between Tchuktchi-nos and Prince of Wales
Cape was found to be 13 leagues. The ships arrived at a large bay on
the American side, which received the name of Norton Sound, after
the Speaker of the House of Commons (Lord Grantley). Here spruce was
collected to make spruce beer, and the men were sent on shore to
collect berries, for Captain Cook was ever thoughtful for the health of
his people. A corporal of Marines, John Ledyard, volunteered to go in
search of settlers in one of the frail _baidor_, a light wooden-frame
boat covered with whale skin, and he brought back two Russians whose
information was very useful to Captain Cook[101].
Captain Cook’s expedition returned to the Sandwich Islands, where the
great navigator was murdered. There was to have been a second voyage
to the Arctic regions in the next navigable season. Captain Clerke
succeeded to the command, but he was in a dying state. In April,
1779, the _Resolution_ and _Discovery_ arrived at Petropaulovsky in
Kamschatka, where they were most hospitably received by the Russian
Governor, and in July the ships again passed through Bering Strait, and
were among the ice in lat. 69° 20′ N. But on the 27th further attempts
were relinquished and it was decided to return to England. Captain
Clerke died on the 23rd of August.
The Arctic discoveries of Captain Cook extend on the Asiatic side to
Cape North, and on the American side to Icy Cape. For nearly 50 years
the knowledge of the polar sea north of America was bounded by Cook’s
Icy Cape, with the mouths of the two rivers Coppermine and Mackenzie.
A gun brig had been fitted out to meet Captain Cook in Baffin’s Bay,
the _Lion_, commanded by Lieutenant Pickersgill, who had served in
Cook’s second voyage. But he never got north of 68° 14′, though he
fixed several positions in Davis Strait. He left the Scilly Islands
June 20th, 1776, with instructions to protect the whalers from any
attacks from colonial rebels, as well as to meet Captain Cook’s
expedition[102]. In the following year the _Lion_ was sent north again,
under Lieutenant Young, but did still less.
Our Government then had a far clearer perception of their duties as
regards discovery than is the case now. By Acts George II cap. 17
(1745) and George III cap. 6 (1776) £5000 were offered for reaching 89°
N. and £20,000 for making the North-West Passage. In 1818 a further
attempt to stimulate discovery was made by offering proportionate
rewards for reaching high latitudes from 83° to 89°. But it was due
to the persistent representations of a private geographer that the
Government itself was induced to take action.
The Hon. Daines Barrington--brother of the excellent Dr Shute
Barrington, Bishop of Durham, and friend of Gilbert White of
Selborne--was born in 1727, and after leaving Oxford became a
barrister, and eventually a Bencher of the Inner Temple and Recorder
of Bristol. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Society of
Antiquaries, and the author of a translation of King Alfred’s work on
Orosius. He was deeply interested in northern voyages, and collected
many accounts of ships reaching high latitudes from English and Dutch
whaling captains. He published the information he had collected in
his _Possibility of approaching the North Pole asserted_[103], and at
the same time made strong representations to the Royal Society on the
scientific importance of a northern voyage. At last he induced that
body to make an appeal to the Government, and Lord Sandwich, then First
Lord of the Admiralty, resolved that an expedition should be fitted out
and despatched.
Two ship-rigged bomb vessels, the _Racehorse_ and _Carcass_, were
selected and specially strengthened. Captain Constantine John
Phipps, the eldest son of Lord Mulgrave, a scientific officer and
a good seaman, received the command of the expedition on board the
_Racehorse_, and Captain Lutwidge was appointed to the _Carcass_. The
Board of Longitude appointed Mr Israel Lyons as astronomer. Great pains
were taken with the outfit, but the ships were not intended to winter.
The surgeon, Dr Irving, had invented an apparatus for distilling fresh
from salt water, which was very simple, but answered its purpose
admirably. Lord Sandwich visited the ships on the 22nd April, and on
June 4th, 1773, the expedition left the Nore.
Phipps’s expedition was well conducted throughout. A latitude of 80°
50′ N. was reached, and the edge of the ice was examined along all the
meridians north of Spitsbergen, without a sign of any opening. Near
the Seven Islands the ships were closely beset, the ice piling up to a
great height, and there seemed little hope of extricating them without
a strong north-east wind. A party was sent to an island about 12 miles
off, under a midshipman, named Walden, to see if any open water was
in sight from its summit. He reported that there was water to the
westward. The island received the name of Walden. Boats were also sent
to see if a passage could be found into open water. One of the boats of
the _Racehorse_ was attacked by a herd of walrus, and was in danger of
being swamped when she was rescued by one of the boats of the _Carcass_
under the command of Horatio Nelson, a young midshipman not quite 15
years old.
The same young midshipman was keeping the middle watch on board the
_Carcass_, when a bear came in sight, and he started off after it with
a musket and one companion. A fog came down over the ice, and when it
rose young Nelson and his friend were seen at a considerable distance,
attacking the bear. A gun was fired which frightened their intended
quarry, and the boys returned. Nelson’s excuse to his Captain was that
he wanted the bear’s skin for his father.
The danger to the ships appeared to be so imminent that preparations
were made to abandon them, and all the boats were got ready. At the
same time all sail was made, and taking advantage of every slight
opening, the ships at length reached open water. They passed Hakluyt
Headland, and came to anchor in Smeerenburg Harbour in company with
some Dutch whalers. Very heavy weather was encountered during the
voyage home, but the ships reached the Thames safely and were paid off
in October, 1773.
This was an ably conducted expedition, and should have shown the folly
of attempting to approach the pole by trying to make headway against
ice drifting south, without the refuge of a land-floe. But it did
not. Captain Phipps published an interesting narrative of the voyage,
prefaced by a review of former attempts, with some valuable scientific
appendixes. He succeeded to the barony of Mulgrave on his father’s
death in the following year, and marrying into an old naval Yorkshire
family, Cholmley of Howsham, left an only daughter when he died in
1792. Captain Phipps was among the ablest of our scientific Arctic
explorers[104].
One important interest connected with the expedition of Captain Phipps
is the presence of Nelson as a midshipman on board the _Carcass_.
The future hero thus gained his first naval experience in the Arctic
regions, as other naval heroes of lesser fame have done before and
since his time. Nelson’s continued friendship for, and correspondence
with, his old captain show that his Arctic work was not forgotten
in after life. It is this phase of exploration that has the highest
importance. Great as are the commercial advantages obtained from Arctic
discovery, and still greater as are its scientific results, the most
important of all are its uses as a nursery for our seamen, as a school
for our future Nelsons, and as affording the best opportunities for
distinction to young naval officers in time of peace.
CHAPTER XX
RUSSIAN ARCTIC DISCOVERIES
The Russians have taken no inconspicuous part in Arctic discovery. If
we look at a map of 130 years ago, such an one as is used to illustrate
the book of Daines Barrington or Scoresby’s _Arctic Regions_, we
shall see the whole continuous coast line delineated in the Siberian
quadrant, while in the American quadrant there is nothing beyond Icy
Cape but the mouths of the Coppermine and Mackenzie rivers. Moreover,
in the achievement of their discoveries, the Russians often had to
overcome even greater dangers and hardships than their fellow explorers
in the other quadrants.
In the earlier period of the occupation of Siberia by the Russians,
the Arctic portions were discovered by Cossack leaders engaged in the
reduction of northern native tribes, the Samoyeds, Ostiaks, Tunguses,
and later the Tchuktches. As early as 1610 a Cossack had reached the
mouth of the Yenisei. In 1636 the Lena and the mouth of the Yana were
discovered, and by 1644 the Cossack Stadukhin was on the banks of
the Kolyma, and gave the first account of the Tchuktches. Two years
afterwards Issai Ignatieff and some fur-hunters made the first attempt
to navigate beyond the mouth of the Kolyma.
Simon Deshneff was the most enterprising of the Cossack pioneers. With
another Cossack named Ankudinoff, he built two small vessels in the
Kolyma and faced the icy Siberian sea. Ankudinoff was wrecked, but
Deshneff fought a battle with the Tchuktches, and navigated his little
craft through Bering Strait into the Gulf of Anadyr. For six years
Deshneff was a prominent figure in establishing Russian ascendancy in
those distant regions. He is last heard of in 1653, but his ultimate
fate is unknown.
It was in 1734 that trained and educated explorers first began to take
the place of pioneer Cossacks. Where English and Dutch had failed,
Russian officers, after persevering attempts and the loss of more than
one vessel, succeeded. They made the voyage from Archangel to the Obi.
Then vessels were built at Tobolsk, and after one failure, when his
vessel was wrecked, Lieutenant Owzin reached the mouth of the Yenisei
in 1737. He was succeeded by Lieutenant Minin, who surveyed the course
of the Yenisei from Yeniseisk to the mouth, and sent Sterlegoff on a
voyage northward, who reached a latitude of 75° 26′ N.
It was the object of the Russian Admiralty to examine the whole of the
Siberian coast either in sailing vessels or by the use of sledges,
and for this purpose they divided the coast into sections to be
undertaken by different expeditions. Vessels called _kotchys_ were
built in the Siberian rivers, but the most successful work was done by
sledge travelling. The native methods were adopted, and the _narti_
of the Tunguses and Tchuktches became the exploring sledge of Russian
officers. The runner of a Siberian _narti_ of the best construction is
5 feet 10 inches long, its width 1 foot 9 inches, height of runner 10¼
inches. The runners are of birch-wood, and the upper surface of the
sledge of willow shoots, woven together. All the parts are fastened
with hide thongs. Before use the sledges are turned over and water
is poured on the runners to produce a thin crust of ice which glides
easily over the snow. In summer these ice runners (_wodiat_) cannot
be used and whalebone is sometimes substituted. A well-loaded sledge
requires a team of 12 dogs, and they will drag 1260 lb. in spring, but
360 lb. is a heavy load in the intense cold of winter.
The earliest attempt to round the extreme northern point of Siberia
from the east side was made by Lieutenant Prontchishcheff, who sailed
down the Lena from Yakutsk in 1735, accompanied by his wife. Hampered
by ice, they were obliged to winter at the mouth of the Olenek. In
the next season Prontchishcheff forced his way nearly to the extreme
point, but he found the ice quite impenetrable. He and his wife died at
their winter quarters, leaving the command to the mate Chelyuskin, who
returned.
The Government at St Petersburg was still bent on rounding the extreme
northern point of Siberia. Lieutenant Cheriton Laptef was appointed to
command a second expedition, with Chelyuskin as his mate. They sailed
from Yakutsk in July, 1739, descended the river Lena, and reached Cape
St Thaddei in 76° 47′ N., but they were stopped by the ice, and forced
to winter at a permanent settlement of Tunguses at the mouth of the
Khatanga river. Convinced of the impossibility of rounding the cape,
Laptef resolved to return to the Lena, but his vessel was caught in a
furious gale, she sprang a leak, and when the wind went down, the crew
escaped to the land with much difficulty. The vessel drifted away and
probably sank. Laptef and his people were left without resources, and
underwent the most dreadful sufferings. Many died of hunger and cold.
At length they reached the old wintering-place on the banks of the
Khatanga. In April, 1741, Chelyuskin was sent with sledges to trace the
coast line and discover its northern point, which is in 77° 30′ N. In
this he succeeded, and this extreme northern point of Asia has since
been known as Cape Chelyuskin. Laptef explored the Taimyr peninsula,
and traced the river from its rise in the Taimyr lake to the sea. The
whole party reached the Yenisei, and arrived at Yeniseisk at the end of
August.
In the period from 1760 to 1766 a fur-trader named Shalaroff made
two expeditions and sighted the Liakhov islands, but his vessel was
ultimately destroyed by the ice, and he died, with his crew, of cold
and misery. He was the first to examine the great inlet called Chaun
Bay.
[Illustration: Bering’s Voyage from Kamschatka to North America.
(_From a chart of 1741 drawn by a member of Bering’s expedition; it
contains one of the few original drawings of the extinct sea-cow._)]
It was at an earlier date than this, however, that the Czar Peter,
just before his death in 1725, gave his instructions to Captain
Vitus Bering, a Dane in the Russian service. Bering was despatched
from St Petersburg to the furthest point of Siberia, with sailors
and shipwrights. Two vessels were built, one at Okhotsk the other in
Kamschatka, called the _Fortune_ and the _Gabriel_. Sailing in July,
1728, Bering ascertained the existence of the strait between Asia and
America which now bears his name. His second voyage was abortive, but
in the third and final one in 1741 he left Okhotsk in a vessel called
the _St Peter_, with a consort--the _St Paul_--commanded by Lieutenant
Chirikof. George Wilhelm Steller was with Bering as a naturalist.
The Aleutian Islands were explored and the grand peak of Mount St
Elias was discovered and named. Scurvy broke out among the crew and
the commodore himself was attacked by it. In November the _St Peter_
was wrecked on the island which afterwards received the name of the
ill-fated discoverer. Bering was very ill. He was carried on shore
and placed in a trench dug in the side of a sand-hill. Here he was
almost buried alive, for the sand kept continually rolling down, and
he requested that it might not be moved as it kept him warm. In this
miserable condition Bering died on December 8th, 1741. Steller, who was
the ship’s surgeon, as well as naturalist, was very anxious to procure
fresh food for his patients. He attributed the cure of those who
recovered from the scurvy to the flesh of the sea-otter. Nine hundred
skins of these were collected, for which the Chinese at Kiakta, on the
Russian frontier, would pay at the rate of £30 a piece. Thirty of the
crew died on the island, and the rest made their way to Kamschatka in a
boat built from the wreck of the _St Peter_. Steller discovered a rare
and previously unknown species of manatee or sea cow, which was named
_Rhytina Stelleri_. This animal not long after became extinct.
Next to Bering Strait the most important Russian Arctic discovery was
the group of islands off the coast between the mouths of the Lena and
Indigirka, now known as the Liakhov or New Siberian Islands. They
consist of five large and some small islands between 73° 10′ and 76°
10′ N. Liakhov, the most southerly, is only 25 miles from the Siberian
coast at Sviatoi-nos. It is 50 miles long and 30 broad. At a distance
of 55 miles N.N.W. of Liakhov is Kotelnoi, 100 miles long by 60 broad.
To the east Kotelnoi is connected by a sandbank with Faddiev (Thaddei)
Island, which is 50 miles long by 30, with a narrow spit 35 miles long
running out to the north-west. Faddiev is separated from New Siberia
Island by a strait 15 miles across, and Bennett Island lies due north
of the latter.
This group, which is very remarkable for several reasons, was
discovered in 1770 by a fur-hunter named Liakhov. He had seen a great
herd of reindeer coming south over the ice, and rightly concluded that
there was land to the northward. This led to his discovery of Liakhov
and Maloi Islands and in 1773 of Kotelnoi Island. Faddiev and Belkova
Islands were discovered in 1805, New Siberia in 1806, and Bennett
Island in 1881.
With the exception of a few granite hills, practically the whole soil
of Liakhov Island was found to consist of mammoth bones. Kotelnoi is
composed of strata of the Devonian period and Silurian coral. But New
Siberia with its “Hills of Wood” is the most curious island of all. On
its northern coast there are lofty and precipitous rocks of sandstone.
The “wood hills,” 210 feet high, are formed of horizontal sandstone
strata alternating with bituminous trunks of trees. On the summit there
are long rows of tree-trunks fixed perpendicularly into the rock, and
projecting 7 to 10 inches. The “wood hills” extend for more than three
miles along the coast. The largest trunk is 10 inches in diameter, the
wood is friable, black with a slight gloss, and not very hard.
The mammoth ivory from Liakhov Island soon became a source of
commercial profit; indeed, the quantity that was carried off by Liakhov
and his successors was enormous. In 1821 a merchant brought back
20,000 lb. of ivory, each mammoth tusk averaging a weight of 108 lb.
In 1809 Sannikoff collected 10,000 lb. of ivory. The supply continued,
and in 1856 and 1857 great boats are mentioned in the river Lena,
laden with fossil ivory. At Yakutsk, from 1825 to 1831, the sale of
ivory amounted to 54,000 lb. annually, besides 5700 lb. sold in other
markets. Middendorf’s calculation was that the annual sales amounted
to 110,000 lb., representing 1000 individual mammoths. A very large
proportion of this ivory comes from Liakhov Island, and there appears
to be no diminution in the supply. There is also believed to be a vast
additional store on the sea bottom, as tusks are found in abundance
when the sea recedes after a long continuance of easterly winds.
Sannikoff saw land to the north of the New Siberian Islands, but was
prevented from reaching it owing to open water. This was the Bennett
Island, discovered by De Long in 1881, in 76° 38′ N. and 148° E. He
explored 17 miles of the south coast of the island, and found great
numbers of birds breeding on the cliffs. Here also mammoth tusks were
met with. A barren rocky ice-capped islet, named Jeannette Island, was
also discovered by him, and another named Henrietta Island, 27 miles
away.
Hedenström, a Russian officer residing at Yakutsk, was employed by the
Government to survey the New Siberian Islands in 1809, accompanied by
Sannikoff, and he was occupied on this service for three years.
In 1821 Lieutenant (afterwards Admiral) Anjou was sent to make a more
accurate survey, and to discover the land reported by Sannikoff to
the north of Kotelnoi Island. He crossed the ice with _narti_ or dog
sledges, but at a distance of 40 miles north of Kotelnoi he was stopped
by unsafe ice on two occasions. On April 9th he started over the ice to
the eastward of New Siberia, and again met with thin ice at a distance
of 60 miles from the land. His conclusion was that all efforts to
advance on sledges to any considerable distance from the land would
prove unavailing owing to thin ice and open water. He completed a
survey of the New Siberian group of islands.
[Illustration: North-eastern Siberia.]
[Illustration: North-western Siberia.]
While Anjou was surveying these islands, his friend Baron Wrangell
was also occupied in exploration and research with his headquarters
at Nijni Kolymsk. He made four sledge journeys over the Polar Sea
from 1820 to 1823, in the _narti_ or dog sledges already mentioned.
He considered March to be the best time of the year for travelling,
because it is then easier work for the dogs. The dogs were fed on
frozen herrings. The men wore reindeer-skin shirts, leather boots
lined with fur, a fur cap, and reindeer-skin gloves. The party had
a reindeer-skin conical tent, 12 feet across on the ground and 10
feet high, with a light framework of six poles. When they camped they
lighted a fire in the centre of it, and were half smothered by the
smoke. Each man slept on a bear-skin, and there was a reindeer-skin
coverlet for every two.
In his first journey Wrangell surveyed the coast from the mouth of the
Kolyma eastward to Cape Chelagskoi, with the temperature sometimes as
low as -31° Fahr. His second journey, starting on March 27th, 1821, was
undertaken to see how far he could go over the ice to the northward,
away from the Siberian coast. At a distance of two miles from the
shore the party had to cross a chain of high and rugged hummocks five
miles wide. Beyond, the ice was fairly level, but after advancing for
140 miles Wrangell found the ice to be weak and rotten owing to large
patches of brine being lodged on the snow. It was therefore deemed
prudent to commence their retreat on April 4th. They returned to Nijni
Kolymsk on the 28th after an absence of 36 days, having travelled over
800 miles, averaging 22½ miles a day.
Wrangell was much struck by the wonderful skill displayed by the
sledge drivers in finding their way by the wave-like ridges of snow
formed by the wind. These, formed on the level sea ice by any wind
of long continuance, are called _sastrugi_ in Siberia. The ridges
always indicate the quarter from which the prevailing winds blow. The
inhabitants of the _tundras_ often travel over several hundred miles
with no other guide than these _sastrugi_. They know by experience at
what angle they must cross the greater and lesser waves of snow in
order to arrive at their destination, and they never err. It often
happens that the true permanent _sastrugi_ have been obliterated by
temporary winds, but the traveller is not deceived. His practised eye
detects the change, he carefully removes the recently drifted snow, and
corrects his course by the lower _sastrugi_, and by the angle formed by
the two.
On his third journey, Wrangell started northwards from the coast on
March 16th, 1822, chiefly with the object of ascertaining the truth of
a native rumour that there was high land in that direction. But again,
after travelling for many days through ranges of hummocks, showing
there must have been heavy ice pressure during the winter, he came to
weak unsafe ice at a distance of 170 miles from the land. He was away
55 days and went over 900 miles, a little over 16 miles a day. May 5th
saw them back at Nijni Kolymsk.
The fourth journey was begun on March 14th, 1823. At Cape Chelagskoi
a Tchuktche chief told Wrangell that, on a clear summer’s day,
snow-covered mountains might be descried at a great distance to the
north, and that herds of reindeer sometimes came across the ice,
probably from thence. The natives concurred in stating that Cape Jakan
was the nearest point to this northern land. Wrangell struck off to the
north when he had gone a little way beyond Cape Chelagskoi. A violent
gale came on, and cracked and broke up the ice, placing the party in
considerable danger. They only succeeded in crossing the cracks owing
to the incredibly swift pace of the dogs. Wrangell was obliged to turn
back at a distance of only 70 miles from the land. Even then the men
had to ferry themselves across many cracks on pieces of ice, the dogs
swimming and towing, the temperature of the sea being +28° Fahr. This
was in the end of March. Lanes of water were opening in all directions
and, without a boat, the little party was placed in a position of
extreme danger. The gale dashed the pieces of ice together with a loud
crashing noise, and broke some of the floes into fragments. The dogs
alone saved them. Land was reached on the 27th March, and Wrangell
continued the coast survey for some time longer, returning to Nijni
Kolymsk on May 10th, after an absence of 78 days, having travelled over
1530 miles.
The unknown land sighted from Cape Jakan was seen by Captain Kellett in
1849, and by Captain Long, an American whaler. Captain Kellett landed
on an islet near it in 71° 18′ N., 175° 24′ W., in 1849, which he found
to be a solid mass of granite, almost inaccessible on all sides, about
4½ miles long by 2½ across. It was named Herald Isle. But it was not
until 1881 that Lieutenant Berry, U.S.N., landed on and explored the
land seen from Cape Jakan. It is in 70° 57′ N. and 178° 10′ W., and is
70 miles long from east to west. Its distance from the nearest point of
the Siberian coast is 80 miles. Two ridges run parallel to the north
and south shores, and between them is undulating country traversed by
streams fed by the melting snow. Mammoth tusks and bones were found by
Lieutenant Berry’s party, as well as relics of Siberian tribes. The
hills rise to a height of 2500 to 3000 feet. It has been named Wrangell
Island, after the Russian explorer who encountered such great dangers
in seeking for it. The Russian explorers came to the conclusion that
there was a great deal of open water in summer to the north of the
Siberian coast.
In 1843 Middendorf was sent to explore the region which terminates in
Cape Chelyuskin. He went by land, descending the river Khatanga, and
reached the Taimyr lake in June. In August he got to the shores of the
Polar Sea and sighted the Cape, whence he saw open water and no ice
blink in any direction. The rise and fall of the tide was 36 feet.
F. Schmidt was also sent by the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St
Petersburg to examine the country between the Obi and Yenisei, and to
amplify the work of Middendorf.
The Russians were also occupied with the exploration of Novaya Zemlya,
an incentive being given to the merchants of Archangel by the belief
that silver ore was to be found. As the search for the philosopher’s
stone led to many discoveries in chemistry, and the quest for El Dorado
had as its consequence important discoveries in South America, so this
imaginary silver ore was the cause of the discoveries along the Novaya
Zemlya coast.
Novaya Zemlya is a long narrow strip of land stretching away N.E. for
some 500 miles with the Barentsz Sea on its western and the Kara Sea on
its eastern side, and separated at its southern extremity from Waigatz
Island by Burrough Strait. It is divided into two islands by the narrow
Matyushin Strait.
The southern island is 160 miles long, and there are a few Samoyed
settlements on its shores. The northern island is quite uninhabited.
The southern part of it is called Lutke Land after the Russian Admiral
who surveyed the western coast, and the northern part is Barentsz Land.
The two islands form an arc or curve with the concave side towards the
Kara Sea from lat. 70° 30′ to nearly 77° N. They are a continuation of
the Ural system and consist of a range of mountains with peaks of black
clay and slate chiefly, rising to 4000 feet, and land covered by an
ice sheet, with glaciers sometimes descending to the water’s edge. The
rocks are Upper Silurian or Devonian. The climate is colder than that
of Spitsbergen.
Opposite to Waigatz is Cape Menschikoff, the southern point of Novaya
Zemlya, the coast trending thence westward to the deep bay called
Kostin Shar, with the island of Meshdusharsky at its entrance. The
Kostin Shar hills have a formation of grey primitive limestone, like
the northern part of the Ural mountains. North of the Kostin Shar, on
the west coast, is Goose Land, a low stretch of coast extending from
71° 30′ to 72° 10′, a distance of 40 miles. It consists of grass flats
and small lakes, the breeding-place of geese and swans, and in the
short summer the flowering plants cover the land with as beautiful
a carpet as on the Waigatz. Belusha Bay, where there is a Samoyed
settlement, is on the South Goose coast, and there are submerged reefs,
as well as rocks and islets, which render the navigation dangerous.
Goose Land ends to the north at Moller Bay, the northern termination
of which is Cape Britvin (= Razor). Here the coast line rises to 300
or 400 feet, in raised beaches, and there is a depth of only 10 to 20
fathoms four miles from the shore. Nameless Bay is bounded on all sides
but the west by high hills, from 800 to 1500 feet above the sea, which
slope downwards, and terminate in precipitous limestone cliffs, with
a sheer face of a hundred feet, broken by narrow ledges. These cliffs
form the famous “loomeries,” extending along the southern side of the
bay for three miles, and here, during the breeding season, the birds
congregate in countless myriads.
The entrance to the Matyushin Strait has Cape Saulen on the south
side, and Silver Cape, 1885 feet high, on the north. On both sides
of the strait the mountains rise in a series of lofty peaks, covered
with snow, and with glaciers resting on their sides. Through this
mountainous region the deep and narrow channel called the Matyushin
Shar winds from the Barentsz to the Kara Sea. It is nowhere two miles
across, and in some places contracts to a quarter of a mile, and
the winding of the strait gives the appearance of passing through a
succession of lakes surrounded by lofty mountains and overhanging
precipices, while many glaciers pour down the mountain sides almost
to the water’s edge. At the eastern end there is a deep inlet on the
northern side. Throughout this region the raised terraces give evidence
of the land having been upheaved to a height of from 500 to 600 feet.
The eastern coast of Novaya Zemlya is comparatively low and barren.
It has many bays and harbours and all the promontories terminate in
steep cliffs. The beautiful little grass, _Pleuropogon Sabinii_, which
is found in Franz Josef Land, but is very rare in other parts of the
Arctic regions, grows in profusion in Novaya Zemlya and was found by
Colonel Feilden at Belusha Bay of South Goose Land, in Nameless Bay,
and in the valleys on both sides of the Matyushin Strait.
The west coast of Lutke Land forms a succession of large indentations,
and there are glaciers at the head of almost every bay, winding between
the mountain ranges. Beyond Admiralty Peninsula the coast trends more
to the east, and at Cape Nassau, in 76° 20′ N., it turns almost due
east. Here many glaciers extend along the coast, and the hills appear
to be from 1000 to 2000 feet in height. Off the northern coast are the
two Orange Islands, each about half a mile long, with precipitous sides
and flat summits about a hundred feet above the sea. The eastern shores
of Barentsz and Lutke Lands are low and barren.
The first circumnavigation of Novaya Zemlya is attributed to a
pilot named Loshkin in 1760, and eight years afterwards Lieutenant
Rosmyssloff wintered in the Matyushin Shar and made a survey. From 1821
to 1824 Admiral Lutke made an admirable survey of the whole west coast
of Novaya Zemlya during four summers. Subsequently the pilot Zinvolka
made several exploring voyages, in one of which he was accompanied
by Professor Baer[105], who made large botanical and zoological
collections. Zinvolka’s last voyage was in 1838, when he died during
the winter in Cross Bay.
The Russians also made expeditions to Spitsbergen. Their plan was to
form a depôt in Bell Sound, and Lieutenant Nemtinoff built five houses
there in 1764, where stores were landed. In May 1765 Captain Vassili
Tchitschakoff sailed from Archangel in command of three small vessels,
did battle with the ice during two months, but could never get further
north than 80° 26′. He returned to Archangel, and was sent to make
another attempt in the following year. He reached a latitude of 80° 30′
and then gave it up. The Russians had passed two winters in Bell Sound,
in charge of the stores.
The praise which Baron Wrangell bestows on the gallant Russian officers
and sailors, who faced and overcame hardships and dangers of no
ordinary kind, and did such splendid exploring work during more than
two centuries, is justly their due. It is satisfactory to reflect that
the Arctic discoveries of the Russians led to no barren results. They
were the direct causes of the establishment of a lucrative fur trade,
and of an equally flourishing trade in fossil ivory. Such have been
the almost inevitable results of Arctic enterprises, which enrich
communities while they confer great benefits on science.
CHAPTER XXI
THE BRITISH WHALE FISHERY AND THE SCORESBYS
A history of polar discovery would be incomplete without some notice
of the whaling trade in the Spitsbergen Seas and in Davis Strait, for
scientific observations were taken by some of the whaling captains,
and many discoveries were made. Their duties, of course, obliged them
to give the first place to the work on which they were employed. Sir
Martin Conway puts it very well when he says of Scoresby that “he never
neglected business in the cause of science, but was always mindful of
science when business permitted.”
The Dutch, at first our rivals, were for a long series of years far
superior to the English as successful whale-fishers. While the English
continued to fish round Bell Sound and the number of their vessels
decreased year by year, the Dutch, when the whales ceased to come to
the bays, sought them by facing the dangers of the open sea, abandoned
Smeerenburg, adopted new methods, and became very expert.
When the learned Frederik Martens of Hamburg made a voyage to
Spitsbergen in 1671, on board a whaling ship called the _Jonah in the
Whale_, he found Smeerenburg quite deserted. His history of the voyage
contains the first detailed account of Spitsbergen, with notices of
the fauna and flora[106]. Although Smeerenburg was so early abandoned,
the Dutch fishery continued to flourish for another century, enriching
the communities of the Netherlands with products annually yielding
great wealth. In 1709 their fishery in Davis Strait was commenced. In
the unsuccessful whaling captain Zorgdrager the Dutch found a diligent
historian[107].
The revival of the English whale-fishery was due to the fostering care
of Sir Robert Walpole’s government. In 1733 a bonus of 30s. per ton was
offered to owners of whaling ships, increased to 40s. in 1740. Then
the fishery began to flourish. Previously there were only from three
to six ships going north, but in 1749 there were 40, soon increased to
over a hundred from Hull and London. In 1787 there were 162 English
and 23 Scottish whalers, and in 1788 there were 255 ships going to the
Spitsbergen seas and Davis Strait, bringing back 5989 tons of oil, 380
tons of whalebone, and 13,386 skins of seals and bears. It was then
considered safe to reduce the bounty, the British whale-fishery being
established on a firm basis. From 1788 to 1790 London was the chief
port, Hull being a good second in 1788 with 29 sail for Spitsbergen,
and 7 for Davis Strait. Whitby began the whaling business in 1753.
Mr Pitt, by an Act of Parliament (26 Geo. III, c. 41) enumerated the
conditions constituting a whaling ship, the crew, boats, implements,
lines, etc., with so many apprentices according to tonnage, to be
indentured between the ages of 12 and 20. The Act was altered and
amended by later Acts down to that of 1815 (55 Geo. III, c. 32).
The whalers were vessels of 300 to 400 tons, doubled and strengthened
with plates of half-inch iron round the stem. The working of the sails
was arranged so as to be done by the fewest men, a bentick boom being
fitted for the foresail instead of tacks and sheets[108]. The look-out
had to be many hours at the mast-head, watching the ice and looking out
for whales. As this duty had often to be performed in the intensest
cold, the “crow’s-nest” was invented to protect the look-out men from
the weather. The improved top-gallant crow’s-nest, used since 1807, was
invented by Scoresby. It was fixed at the head of the main top-gallant
mast, with nothing above it and consisted of a cylindrical frame 4½
feet by 2½, covered with painted canvas, open above, and closed below
with a square hatch which served as the entrance. There was a small
seat, and places for the telescope and other instruments. A screen
worked on the upper hoop of the crow’s-nest, 2 to 3 feet long and 1
foot high, which was moveable, and adjusted to windward. The vessels
carried six or seven boats, carvel-built, 26 to 28 feet long by 5 feet
9 inches beam, of fir planks half an inch thick; the keel, gunwales,
stern and stem posts being of oak. They had six oars, 16 feet long,
the steer oar being 18 to 20 feet. The oars were fixed to thole-pins
by rope grummets. When the ship reached the fishing ground, the boats
were kept at the davits, ready to lower. The whale lines, beautifully
“flaked down” in the boats, were of 2½-inch rope, and a total of 4320
feet of length was carried in the six lines supplied to each boat, each
line being 120 fathoms. A bollard for passing them round was fixed near
the boat’s stem.
The harpoon consisted of socket, shank, and “mouth” or point with barbs
or “withers,” and was 3 feet long. Later, the harpoon gun came into
use. Lances were 6 feet long, the socket, into which is fitted a stock
or handle, a shank 5 feet, and a sharp point 8 inches long. The fore
ganger is an important part of the harpoon gear. It consists of 8 or
9 yards of 2½-inch rope, spliced round the shank of the harpoon, the
swelling socket preventing it from being drawn off when the harpoon is
thrown. When a harpoon is ready with stock and foreganger, it is said
to be “spanned in.” The point, when not in use, is guarded by a shield
of oiled paper.
Each boat had two harpoons, six or eight lances, a pole and flag to
signal when a whale is struck, and a tail knife to perforate the tail
or fins of a dead whale. There was also an axe for cutting the line
if necessary, the _mik_ to support the stock of the harpoon, and a
_piggon_ for baling and for wetting the running lines to prevent the
bollard from catching fire.
It was thought politic to arouse the zeal of the chief officers by
giving them an interest in the work. The captain got three guineas for
each fish, 10 to 20 shillings per ton of oil, and a twentieth of the
value of the cargo besides. A harpooneer got six shillings per ton
of oil and 10 shillings for every fish he struck. The chief mate was
generally a harpooneer. The “speksioneer,” who directs the cutting of
the blubber, the boat-steerers, line managers, coopers, carpenters,
etc., were also given an interest in getting a full ship.
Sailing in the end of March the whaling fleet made the ice in 70° to
72° N.; the sea between 78° and 79° being most productive. Then the
captain was in the crow’s-nest for long hours at a stretch, conning
the ship through the ice, watching every change, and looking out for
whales; all on board being on the alert and watching for every sign
from the crow’s-nest.
Foremost among a splendid set of men stand the two Scoresbys for the
Spitsbergen fishery, and Captain Marshall for that of Davis Strait.
Thanks to the pious tribute of his son we can trace the career of the
senior William Scoresby from his boyhood. He was born at Nutholm farm
near Cropton, about 20 miles from Whitby, and was intended to follow
his father’s profession of a farmer. But at the age of eighteen he
resolved to go to sea, and got a recommendation to Mr Chapman, an
opulent ship-owner at Whitby. He walked to Whitby one February day,
and got a berth in a ship destined for the Baltic, but as she was
not sailing until April, he set out for his home, taking a short cut
across the moors. When miles from any house, he encountered a furious
gale with a blinding snow-storm, and lost all the tracks. He was in no
little danger. But he had noted the angle of the wind while he was on
the road, and by that means he recovered the track and finally reached
a house nearly exhausted. The intelligence and endurance he evinced on
this occasion foreshadowed his future career. In his Baltic voyages,
while doing his duty as a foremast hand and learning seamanship, young
Scoresby also diligently studied the theory and practice of navigation.
In 1782 Scoresby joined the _Speedwell_ cutter, taking stores to
Gibraltar, but he had the ill-fortune to be captured and became a
prisoner of war in Spain. He fled from San Lucar, and his final escape
appears to have been due to the sympathy of some Spanish girls for
the handsome young Englishman. They fed him and concealed him, until
at last he got on board a cartel, and returned home. After his return
he married and was two or three years at home. In 1785 he entered
the whaling trade on board the _Henrietta_, Captain Crispin Bean,
and devoted himself to the work. After his fifth voyage he was made
speksioneer and second mate, when the whaler was laid up. When Captain
Bean retired, he recommended Scoresby to succeed him, and in 1792 he
became Captain of the _Henrietta_ and afterwards of the _Resolution_ of
Whitby, 290 tons.
We may here glance for a moment at the ordinary mode of procedure in
the taking of a whale. Directly one is viewed from the crow’s-nest the
look-out man gives notice, and instantly a boat is lowered and another
follows. The harpooneer pulls the bow, the line manager the stroke oar.
The whale is dull of hearing but quick of sight. He seldom remains more
than two minutes on the surface, and is generally 10 to 15 minutes
below, moving half a mile or more. The knowledge and skill needed to
harpoon him during his short stay on the surface will be understood.
There is often danger when the fish is struck, from the violent
movement of fins and tail.
The moment a wounded whale goes down the flag is shown from the boat,
and there is a cry on deck, “A fall! a fall!” In an instant all hands
are on deck, boats lowered, and many of the crew go away half dressed.
When struck a whale goes down to a great depth. Sometimes a whale gets
under the ice and will run all the line out in ten minutes, when it
is probably lost. One or two turns of the line are taken round the
bollard, but the line flies out at such a pace that smoke rises and it
has to be kept wetted. If the line runs foul the boat is drawn under
water.
The struck whale goes down into the depths at a rate of ten miles an
hour, and keeps under water for half an hour or more. The longest
recorded time is 56 minutes. When, after a dive to 700 or 800 fathoms,
the great beast returns to the surface, he is again harpooned and plied
with lances, blood rises from the blow holes, he turns on his side and
expires.
All the boats in a line then tow the carcase to the ship, and it is
cleared of lines and placed alongside with the tail abreast the fore
chains and the head at the ship’s stern. The process of _flensing_
follows, the blubber being 2 or 3 feet thick. The band between the
fins and head is called the _kent_. The _kent purchase_ is passed
from the kent to the head of the mainmast, and the fall taken to the
windlass. The upper surface of the carcase is then raised one-fifth
out of the water, with the belly up. The harpooneers then go down with
“spurs” (iron spikes strapped to the foot) to prevent slipping, and
boys in boats are in attendance with knives. The speksioneer directs
the operations. The blubber is divided into oblong pieces or strips by
blubber spades and knives. _Spek tackles_[109] are fixed to each strip
and flay it off, being worked with winches. The spek tackle consists
of two single blocks, one fast to guys between the fore and main mast,
the other fast to the blubber by a strop. The blubber pieces, half a
ton to a ton in weight, are received on deck by the boat-steerers and
line-managers, the former dividing it into smaller pieces with _strand
knives_, the latter passing it between decks with _pick haaks_ down the
main hatchway. It is received by two men called _kings_, who pack it
in the _flens gut_. As soon as the strips are off, the whale is turned
on its side by the kent purchase taken to the windlass. The whalebone
is thus exposed, and is taken off on one side by bone handspikes and
bone knives and spades, with the help of the spek tackle. It is split
into junks on deck with bone wedges, and stowed away. Then there is
another kenting. When the flensing is finished the carcase generally
sinks. If it floats it is attacked by thousands of gulls and fulmars.
The flensing of 20 to 30 tons of blubber can be completed in three or
four hours, the average time. It is an extremely difficult operation,
however, when the sea is rough.
Some casks have been cleared out of the hold, and the space is called
the _flens gut_. When it is full of blubber comes the operation of
_making off_[110]. This is the freeing of blubber from all extraneous
matter, cutting it into small pieces, and stowing it in the casks. The
_skee-man_ directs these operations. The _spek trough_ is an oblong box
over the place where the casks are to be filled. The surface of the
lid forms a table, on which pieces of the whale’s tail are placed as
chopping blocks. A canvas tube, called a _eull_, is then led down to
the hold. The _kings_ then throw the blubber out of the _flens gut_. It
is received by the _krengers_, who remove all the muscular parts called
_kreng_. The harpooneers then slice off the skin, and the boat-steerers
divide the blubber into blocks 4 inches in diameter. The line managers
receive it in the hold by the _eull_, and put it in the casks through
the bung-holes. Their cries were “_let lob_” when they wanted the
blubber to come down, and “_rip the eull_” when it was to be stopped.
In the early days of the fishery the _making off_ was always done on
shore. The jaw-bones, 25 feet long, were brought home to make posts and
arches for gateways: still to be seen in the country round Hull and
even further afield.
It will be seen that the catching of a whale was not the mere
harpooning with the attendant danger and excitement, but that it
entailed a long and very hard day’s work, with incessant labour and
the exercise of much skill and intelligence. It was a splendid nursery
for our seamen, combined with the dangers of ice navigation and the
constant need for a bright look-out.
In 1806 Captain Scoresby had his son with him on board the _Resolution_
as Chief Officer. Both were good sailors and navigators and unrivalled
as whaling officers. The son had the advantage of a better education,
and was devoted to scientific research. Both were unostentatiously
religious, as all our great Arctic heroes have been.
In 1806, the Scoresbys determined to see how far north it was possible
to go, entering the ice in 76° N. on the 28th of April. Captain
Scoresby found the ice to be of extraordinary width and compactness. He
pressed into a pack which, to ordinary apprehension, was impenetrable.
There was a strong ice blink along the northern horizon which, to all
minds on board but one, precluded hope. But Scoresby, narrowly scanning
this ice blink from the crow’s-nest, discerned a blueish grey streak
_below_ the ice blink, and closely skirting the horizon. He knew this
to be an indication of open water beyond the pack. The watchful veteran
detected another sign. He perceived occasionally a very slight motion
of the water between the lumps of ice near the ship. He knew that this
could only arise from a distant swell, which must proceed from an open
sea either to the north or to the south. The distance he had penetrated
into the ice and the unmixed ice blink to the south, convinced him
that it did not come from that quarter. With this conviction came the
resolution to push on through the formidable body of consolidated ice
before him. Every effort was made. It was then that Scoresby invented
the practice of _sallying_, which consisted in the whole crew running
across from one side of the ship to the other in order to make her
roll, and so break up the ice close round her. Then boats were lowered
quickly from the bowsprit to break up the ice ahead. When a lane of
water was formed, there was tracking and towing. All this hard work
and perseverance was finally rewarded, and at length an open sea was
reached, bounded in the north by the solid polar pack. On the 24th May
the latitude was found to be 81° 30′ in 19° E. Though the ice was fixed
and solid to the north, there was an open sea, with a water sky, from
E.N.E. to S.E. This is the furthest north ever reached by a sailing
ship on the Spitsbergen meridians[111].
With the distinction of this highest latitude Captain Scoresby returned
with a full ship. After four more years of full ships, he resigned the
command of the _Resolution_ to his son in 1810. The elder Scoresby
lived on until 1829 as a respected citizen of Whitby and saw his
son’s successful career not only as a whaling captain, but also as a
universally esteemed man of science.
The younger Scoresby went to the fishery for three years in the
_Resolution_ and in 1813 was transferred to the _Esk_, a larger ship.
The dangers from the ice were far more serious than those to which
men were exposed in capturing whales. Many ships were lost in this
way, and the risks run are well exemplified in Scoresby’s account of
the perilous position of the _Esk_ in 1816. It was blowing hard with
a heavy sea when the vessel came upon the ice on the 30th April. It
freshened to a furious gale, the sea mountains high with huge blocks of
ice tossing in the foam. Scoresby tried to wear ship, but she failed to
go round, and fell off to leeward with terrible force. She continued to
beat against the ice wall, threatened with destruction every moment.
All the time Scoresby was in the crow’s-nest.
When the gale subsided it was found that there were 8½ feet of water in
the hold. At first an attempt was made at fothering, passing a thrummed
sail under the leak. But it was found that 22 feet of the keel and 9
feet of the garboard strake were broken and turned at right angles,
so that the sail could not be passed under the leak. Then an attempt
was made to heave the ship down alongside the ice-floe. Stores were
landed on the ice, scuttles were caulked and hatches closed. Hawsers
were passed under the bottom, clenched to the mainmast, and then led to
purchases on the ice. The keel was in this way drawn to the edge of the
floe, while anchors were suspended from the tops on the other side. The
crews of other ships came to help. But the attempt had to be given up,
though an effort to cut off the broken parts of the keel and garboard
strake was successful, and it became possible to pass the thrummed sail
under the leak. Half the cargo was given to another whaler, as the
price of staying by the _Esk_ on the way home; and Captain Scoresby
was welcomed and rewarded on his return for his splendid seamanship in
saving the good ship under his command.
In 1820 the _Baffin_ was specially built at Liverpool, and Scoresby
made commercial profit in her, as well as discovering and surveying
part of the east coast of Greenland. In the same year he published
his great work on the Arctic regions. He was devoted to science and
corresponded with Sir Joseph Banks and Professor Jameson of Edinburgh.
His book on the Arctic regions immediately became the standard work on
the subject, and has not been superseded by anything of equal merit
down to the present day. A few years after its publication Scoresby
resolved to terminate his successful career as a whaling captain and
take holy orders. With this object in view he went to Queens’ College,
Cambridge, took his degree, was ordained, and became D.D. in 1839. For
seven years, from 1840 to 1847, he was Vicar of Bradford, and after
his retirement he lived chiefly at Torquay. He specially worked at
terrestrial magnetism, but other branches of science received attention
from him and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. His last
work was a most interesting life of the elder Scoresby entitled _My
Father_. Dr Scoresby died at Torquay on March 21st, 1857[112].
The Scoresbys stand in the front rank, combining most able and
efficient work as seamen and whaling captains with zealous promotion of
discovery and scientific research. At the same time Captain Marshall of
Hull held a like position in the Davis Strait fishery.
By these fisheries, due to the discoveries of our earlier Arctic
worthies, several communities in England and Scotland were enriched
during a long series of years, and the welfare of the whole kingdom
was advanced. Further discovery received advocacy through the reports
of whaling captains, and an unequalled nursery for British seamen was
securely established.
CHAPTER XXII
BUCHAN AND ROSS
Polar exploration had been neglected since the return of Captain
Phipps owing to the protracted European war, which came to an end
in 1815. But the duty of prosecuting it had never been forgotten,
and the authorities, being educated and patriotic men, were quite
ready to consider suggestions favourably. The country is indebted
for those suggestions to William Scoresby. In 1817 he found that the
Spitsbergen seas were unusually clear of ice between 74° and 80° N.,
and he represented to Sir Joseph Banks what a favourable time there
appeared to be for expeditions of discovery. Sir Joseph brought
Scoresby’s letter to the notice of Sir John Barrow, the Secretary of
the Admiralty, who strongly represented the advisability of despatching
expeditions to discover the connection of the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans north of the American continent. One was to proceed by way of
Spitsbergen and the North Pole, the other by Davis Strait and the bay
supposed to have been discovered by Baffin.
Four whalers were purchased by the Admiralty and strengthened for
special service in the ice--the _Isabella_, 385 tons, and _Alexander_,
252 tons, for Baffin’s Bay; the _Dorothea_, 370 tons, and _Trent_, 250
tons, for the North Pole. Captain Buchan, R.N., who had recently been
employed on the Newfoundland coast and had made an important journey
into the interior of that island, received command of the _Dorothea_
in the Spitsbergen and North Pole expedition, with Lieutenant John
Franklin as his second, on board the _Trent_. Buchan’s first Lieutenant
was Arthur Morell, with Charles Palmer and William J. Dealy as mates,
George Fisher as astronomer, and Cyrus Wakeman as clerk. In the _Trent_
with Franklin were Lieutenant F. W. Beechey, son of the artist Sir
William Beechey, Andrew Reid and George Back, mates, and Alexander
Gilfillan as surgeon.
This expedition left the Thames in April, 1818, and was at Lerwick on
the 1st of May. The _Trent_ was leaking badly, and every effort to find
the place, while they were at Lerwick, failed. It was a serious matter,
as half the watches were occupied in pumping, which entailed a great
amount of extra labour, when the ordinary work was almost as much as
they could do.
On entering the icy region Buchan’s expedition was met by a furious
gale, and took refuge in Magdalena Bay. The expedition was fortunate
in its historian, for Morell, the first Lieutenant of the _Trent_, was
a man of high literary attainments as well as an accomplished artist.
The attack on one of the boats of the _Trent_ by walrus is as admirably
described by his pen as it is portrayed by his pencil. He also relates
the ascent of “Rotche Hill,” 2000 feet high, and describes the
little-auks or ‘rotches’ flying in such crowds that thirty came down in
one shot. It was calculated that 4,000,000 were on the wing.
When the two ships again put to sea they were driven into the pack-ice
north of the north-east point of Spitsbergen. There was a heavy swell,
and the huge masses of ice were crashing and grinding together,
breaking in pieces, and covering the sea with brash ice for miles. All
night they were striving to keep the ships’ heads to the sea, while
the leak in the _Trent_ increased, and all hands were at the pumps.
Pressing along a lead to the north of Cloven Cliff, they were stopped
by the ice, and laid out ice anchors. Here they were beset for 13 days.
The leak on board the _Trent_ had long been a serious drawback to
her efficiency, indeed ever since she left the Thames. At last its
position was discovered. Old Sir George Back used to tell the story.
The Assistant Surgeon, when lying half asleep in his berth, thought
he heard water flowing into the ship below the deck. He listened and
feeling sure, he reported. The spirit room was cleared, and it was
found that a bolt-hole had been left open. A remedy was at once applied
and, to the great joy of all on board, the work at the pumps was no
longer necessary.
While the ships were beset a party was sent to reach the shore. A dense
fog came down, and the men could not find their way back, being on
the verge of perishing before they could be rescued, after 18 hours’
exposure. Meanwhile the ships were pushed southward, and at length
reached open water. Great efforts had been made to attain a high
latitude, and they advanced to 80° 34′ N., but the ships were exposed
to great pressure, the _Trent_ being raised four feet out of the water
and some of the _Dorothea’s_ beams were sprung. After the ships were
released, Captain Buchan gave up all idea of trying the state of the
ice by the Seven Islands to the eastward, and determined to examine the
prospect in the direction of Greenland.
When the two ships were sailing along in sight of the main pack on the
30th of July a furious gale sprang up and the _Dorothea_ bore up to
seek shelter within the ice. The _Trent_ could find no opening. Huge
masses were broken up and tossed up and down on the waves, the ship
being in such violent motion that the bell tolled incessantly until it
was muffled. It was as if they were surrounded by battering rams. When
the wind went down it was found that the _Dorothea_ was very seriously
injured, beams being sprung and timbers broken. The two ships took
refuge in Fairhaven. By the end of August the repairs were finished
so far as was possible, but it was considered necessary that the
_Dorothea_ should return, and that the _Trent_ should keep with her.
The two vessels arrived in the Thames on the 22nd October, 1818; all on
board eager to volunteer again for Arctic service.
Buchan’s expedition was doomed to failure, for it was an impossible
route, as Phipps and Scoresby had already shown. It is hopeless to
struggle against the great Arctic drift with no land floe to hold
on by. Still there was gain. The experience of ice navigation at
its worst, acquired by several zealous naval officers, was a gain.
Beechey’s excellent narrative, illustrated by his own graphic pencil,
is one of the very best Arctic books[113].
We must now turn to the story of the companion expedition. The
_Isabella_ and _Alexander_ were well strengthened, and destined for
more important Arctic work. Owing to the suppression of Baffin’s log
book and map by Purchas, the existence of Baffin’s Bay had come to be
considered doubtful. On the map in Daines Barrington’s book, as already
stated, there is printed over the site of Baffin’s Bay “according
to the relation of W. Baffin in 1616, but not now believed.” It was
accordingly resolved by the Admiralty that the expedition should
proceed up Davis Strait, verify the discovery of Baffin, and seek a
passage.
Lord Melville was the First Lord of the Admiralty, and his colleagues,
Sir J. S. Yorke, Sir George Hope, and Sir Graham Moore, were
enlightened and accomplished naval officers. For the command of the
expedition Sir George Hope recommended his old shipmate, John Ross,
as zealous and energetic and a thorough seaman. This officer, born
in 1777, was the fourth son of the Rev. Andrew Ross of Ballaroch in
Wigtonshire, by Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Corsane, Provost of
Dumfries. Entering the navy at a very early age, he served for four
years, and was then in the merchant service for some years. Returning
to the navy he served under Sir James Saumarez in the Baltic and the
White Sea, where he fixed the longitude of Archangel by occultation of
Jupiter’s satellite. In 1812 he became a commander. He was in three
actions, and was wounded in every one. After his promotion he had
command of the _Briseis_.
The selection of Ross was very carefully made, and his second in
command was Lieutenant Edward Parry, on board the _Alexander_. The
two first Lieutenants were Robertson in the _Isabella_ and Hoppner,
a son of the artist, in the _Alexander_. The younger aspirants for
Arctic fame, all to be heard of again, were A. M. Skene, J. Bushnan,
Joseph Nias, and the Commander’s nephew James C. Ross. Drs Edwards,
Beverley, and Fisher were the surgeons. Captain Sabine, R.E., joined
the _Isabella_ for magnetic observations. An Eskimo interpreter was
also secured in the person of John Sacheuse, who had found his way
from Greenland to Leith. He was recommended as a useful member of the
expedition by Captain Basil Hall, R.N.
The expedition sailed in April, 1818, proceeded up Davis Strait, and.
reached Hare Island off the north-west cape of Disco I. on June 17th.
Here 45 whalers were found waiting to go north, and Ross received the
excellent advice from the captain of the whaler _Larkin_ to “stick to
the land floe.” The reason why all the attempts by the Spitsbergen
route failed is that there is no land floe to stick to. On July 2nd the
_Isabella_ and _Alexander_ were off Sanderson’s Hope, the further point
of Davis, and entering upon Baffin’s work. Up to this time the whalers
had never been north of 75° 10′.
The formidable ice-encumbered sea to the north received from Ross the
name of Melville Bay. Here they were beset, pressure raised the ships
out of the water, and they had to track through narrow lanes in the
ice. The point at the north end of Melville Bay, so well known in
after years, received the name of Cape York. Between Cape York and
Cape Dudley Digges the crimson snow was seen from the ships, and Mr.
Beverley landed on August 17th, and Ross’s nephew on the 18th, to
collect specimens of it[114].
It was on the 9th of August that people were first seen, coming over
the ice in dog sledges. Sacheuse was sent out to meet them, but found
that they spoke a different dialect from his own. Afterwards several
were induced to come on board. A most interesting people had been
discovered, for they had been isolated, possibly, for centuries.
Captain Ross took great pains to collect information about them. He
minutely described their persons, clothing, and weapons, and careful
drawings were made of a dog sledge, narwhal-horn spear, and a knife
made of thin circles of meteoric iron fixed into a bone handle. The
iron was said to come from a place near called Sewallik. Ross and
Sacheuse also collected 38 words, 24 of which had the same meaning
as in the Greenland Eskimos’ language. Sacheuse declared that the
tradition of his people was that they came from the north and pointing
to the newly-discovered men, exclaimed, “These are our fathers.”
Captain Ross gave them the name of Arctic Highlanders, and called the
heights at the back, from Wolstenholme Sound of Baffin to Melville Bay,
the Duneira Mountains.
The expedition then proceeded northwards, re-discovering Wolstenholme
and Whale Sounds, and the Cary Islands. But here Captain Ross began
to make fatal mistakes. He passed too far south of Sir Thomas Smith’s
Sound of Baffin to ascertain whether it was a channel, though he
named the two points at the entrance after his two ships. It was the
same with Sir Francis Jones’s Sound. He entered and advanced some
distance up Sir James Lancaster’s Sound, but unfortunately he fancied
that he saw high land across it, which he named the Croker Mountains
after the Secretary to the Admiralty. He then sent Lieut. Parry,
Captain Sabine, and a party on shore at a point on the south side of
Lancaster Sound, which he named Cape Byam Martin, to take possession
and make collections. This practically brought their work to an end,
and a homeward course was set. On his return Captain Ross wrote in
the highest terms of the correctness of Baffin’s latitudes, and quite
restored the good name of that illustrious navigator.
The mistakes of Captain Ross may well be forgiven, for his expedition
was in many ways most fruitful in results. Among other researches, he
took special pains to obtain specimens from great depths. For this
purpose he invented a very ingenious contrivance which he called a deep
sea clam, and on the 1st of September, 1818, in 73° 37′ N. he brought
up a beautiful _Caput medusae_ in 1000 fathoms. It was the first time
any animal was brought up from anything approaching this depth. A new
and very interesting gull was also discovered by Captain Sabine on an
island in Melville Bay, the _Xema sabinii_, usually found associated
with the Arctic tern.
The most important results of Ross’s expedition, however, were the
restitution of Baffin’s good name as a navigator and discoverer, the
discovery of the Arctic Highlanders, and the training of several young
naval officers in ice navigation. The greatest practical result was
that his voyage showed the way to the whalers, and that by reaching
the north water of Baffin’s Bay they would find another very lucrative
whale fishery. It was another example of the use of Arctic enterprises
in furthering the commercial prosperity of the country which encourages
them.
On the return of Ross’s expedition there was an outcry about the
supposed closing of Lancaster Sound, as some of the officers believed
it to be a wide channel leading westward. Lieut. Parry was decidedly
of that opinion. Sir John Barrow strongly represented the doubt to the
Board of Admiralty, and it was decided that another expedition should
be despatched in 1819.
CHAPTER XXIII
PARRY AND HIS SCHOOL
Sir Edward Parry was one of the greatest of Arctic discoverers.
Without an equal as an organiser and administrator, unsurpassed as a
leader of men, he was an accomplished officer and a bold and resolute
navigator, knowing when to take risks and when to avoid them. Parry
was a very perfect sailor, thoroughly well read in all that concerned
his enterprises, thoughtful and levelheaded. While promoting hilarity
and good-fellowship, he was, through life, deeply yet unostentatiously
religious. He was the beau ideal of an Arctic officer.
Parry was the son of a physician at Bath, where he went to school. As a
boy he was tall and athletic, very popular, with a good ear for music,
a talent for acting, and a habit of doing all he had to do with all
his might. Miss Cornwallis, a friend of the family and a near relation
of the Admiral then in command of the fleet blockading Brest, obtained
an appointment for him. Young Parry could not have entered the service
under better auspices. He continued to serve in the Channel, Baltic,
and North Sea, always fortunate with his captains and winning their
regard, until he attained the rank of Lieutenant.
His next service was on the coast of Scotland, and one season his
ship was employed to protect the returning whalers, when he made his
first acquaintance with pack ice. In these days Parry was devoted to
the study of navigation and surveying. He made several useful surveys
of harbours in Scotland, which his captain sent to the Hydrographer,
and he wrote a little book on nautical astronomy for the use of young
officers which his father caused to be printed. It contained useful
directions for finding stars in the northern hemisphere.
In 1813 he served on the North American station, and was engaged in
an important and very dangerous boat action up the Connecticut river,
when between 40 and 50 privateers and letters-of-marque vessels were
burnt. On this station Parry formed a life-long friendship with Charles
Martyn, the Admiral’s secretary, who was about the same age, but died
young in 1825.
After the peace Parry was anxious to be employed in an exploring
expedition. He had been much interested in African discovery, and had
read the narrative of Clapperton with deep interest. He therefore
volunteered for Tuckey’s Congo expedition, but could not get back in
time to join it. His letter and his little book on nautical astronomy
were shown to Sir John Barrow, who was so pleased with them that he
recommended Parry, whose age was then 28, for the command of the
_Alexander_ in Ross’s expedition. He then had had 15 years of service,
and had necessarily acquired a considerable knowledge of ice navigation
during Ross’s re-discovery of Baffin’s Bay.
The Lords of the Admiralty, as we have seen, were not satisfied with
Captain Ross’s report. It was thought that there should have been
a closer examination of the sounds at the head of Baffin’s Bay,
and accordingly it was resolved that another expedition should be
despatched to discover whether Lancaster Sound opened on to a channel
leading to Bering Strait. Lieut. Parry received the command of the
expedition, and nearly all the officers and men who had served in the
Buchan and Ross expeditions volunteered to go with him. They were to
receive double pay.
The memorable success of this expedition was perhaps due to the
youthfulness of the officers. The oldest was Captain Sabine, R.E.,
the astronomer, who was 30. Beechey, Parry’s first Lieutenant, the
accomplished artist and writer of the _Trent_, was 23. The other
Lieutenant, Hoppner from the _Alexander_, was about the same age. The
remaining executive officers were eight young midshipmen aged from 17
to 19, three rather more.
Two vessels were selected. The _Hecla_ was a very strong bomb vessel
of 375 tons, built at Hull in 1815. Her consort was a slow-sailing old
gun brig, the _Griper_ of 130 tons, with a deck of 6 feet raised upon
her, to increase stowage. Lieut. Liddon commanded her. Both were barque
rigged, the object being to restrict the number of men working the
vessels. Stores and provisions were got on board for three years[115].
The main objects of the expedition were the advancement of the
knowledge of geography and navigation, as well as of science generally.
On the 21st of July, 1819, the _Hecla_ and _Griper_ were off
Sanderson’s Hope, when Parry counted 88 icebergs from the crow’s-nest.
He boldly determined not to creep northwards along the land floe of
Melville Bay, but to force a passage through the middle pack direct
for Lancaster Sound. An older man would have hesitated. But there is
no great success without risks, and young men take them. The ice was
only 80 miles wide in that most favourable year, and Parry was at the
entrance of Lancaster Sound by the 28th July.
It would be difficult to imagine a more exhilarating moment than that
when the Croker mountains were found to have no existence and the wide
channel was discovered, leading into an unknown region. The lofty
cliffs, with their scored sides like pillars and buttresses, form a
grand portal to the unknown, as Dr Fisher described them, “like an
immense wall in ruins, rising almost perpendicular from the sea.” There
was a fresh breeze, and the _Hecla_ ran quickly up the channel, with
mast-heads and rigging crowded with officers and men eagerly looking
westward.
Then there was some ice obstructing a westward course, but a wide
channel opened to the south. Parry sailed down it for 150 miles, giving
it the name of the Prince Regent, while the western land was called
North Somerset, after Parry’s own county. A strong ice-blink across
the channel induced him to turn north again into the westward channel.
Then a wide open channel was discovered to the north and received the
name of Wellington, but that was not the way. Westward Ho! was the cry,
with new discoveries and new islands in every watch: Cornwallis Island,
named after Parry’s first naval patron; Cape Hotham after one of the
Lords who signed his instructions; Griffith Island after Admiral
Griffith, who was first Lieutenant of the _Culloden_ at the battle
of St Vincent. On into the unknown sailed the _Hecla_ and _Griper_.
Upwards of 20 islands were discovered and named, the group collectively
being called the North Georgian Islands. Pressing westward no landing
was effected until an island was reached which was honoured with the
name of the Comptroller, Sir Thomas Byam Martin. A more promising
land was found, within sight of Melville Island, the Arctic paradise.
Without knowing it Parry had passed the barren limestone isles, and his
first landing was on the more promising carboniferous region.
Sailing along the south coast of Melville Island, so named after the
First Lord of the Admiralty, the expedition crossed the 110th meridian
and thus became entitled to the bounty of £5000. In September the young
ice was forming fast, and the _Hecla_ and _Griper_ were brought into
snug quarters by sawing a long channel through the ice. The top-gallant
and topmasts were sent down, all but the maintopmast which was left as
a guide to returning sportsmen, and waggon-cloth housings were rigged
over the upper decks.
One of Parry’s greatest merits as an Arctic explorer was his success in
bringing officers and men through the long winter in good health. This
was due to his forethought, power of organisation, genial disposition,
and warm sympathy for all who served with him. He had prepared for
a winter before leaving England. The closest attention was given to
the prevention of damp between decks by means of hot air from the
Sylvester stove. Good bread was baked, beer was brewed, and rules were
enforced respecting diet, clothing, and above all sufficient daily
exercise. Parry wisely realised the equal importance of exercising the
minds of his people. A school was opened to teach reading and writing,
accomplishments which were not so general in those days as they are
now. A newspaper, edited by Captain Sabine, and entitled the _North
Georgian Gazette_, kept the officers amused, and they, in their turn,
devoted themselves to the amusement of the men. Parry was himself a
good musician, playing on the violin, and a capital actor. A theatre
was erected on the upper deck in spite of the intense cold, and the
farces popular in those days were performed by the officers, with songs
between the acts. An operetta entitled the “North-West Passage” was
also composed by Parry and acted with great applause. By these various
means, and by giving the closest attention to every detail, the first
modern Arctic winter was a splendid success. The gunner had slight
symptoms of scurvy which were soon removed, and one man died of some
other disease, but all the rest emerged from the winter in perfect
health.
On the approach of summer Parry resolved to equip an expedition to
explore the interior of Melville Island. The party was to consist of
himself as leader, Captain Sabine, R.E., Dr Fisher, two midshipmen
named Nias and Reid, two serjeants of marines, two privates, and two
seamen. Tents were taken, consisting of blankets passed over a ridge
rope, supported by two boarding pikes. Provisions were loaded on a cart
made of boards and the wheels of a field-piece. There were three weeks’
provisions, and the diet per man per day--which was insufficient--was:
1 lb. biscuit, ⅔ lb. of preserved meat, 1 oz. salep powder, 1 oz.
sugar, and half a pint of rum. Besides dragging the cart with 800 lb.
of provisions and tents, officers and men carried spare clothing and
sleeping-bags on their backs as knapsacks, 17 to 20 lb. each. Small
faggots of firewood were also taken.
The party reached the northern coast of Melville Island, and some land
seen to the north-east and supposed to be an island was named after
Captain Sabine. In returning, Parry kept more to the westward, towards
a range always in sight which the party called the Blue Mountains. In
an Arctic June the climate is not severe, and they travelled at night,
sleeping in the comparative warmth of the day. As the party approached
the southern coast, or rather the deep gulf on the south side of
Melville Island afterwards called Liddon’s Gulf, they entered a deep
ravine. The scenery was grand and imposing. In the steepest part the
axle-tree of the cart split in two. It was impossible to repair it, so
it was left, the wood of the cart being used to make a good fire to
cook their ptarmigan.
[Illustration: The Parry Islands.]
Two reindeer were also shot, and musk oxen, hares, ducks, and brent
geese were seen. The ravine of the broken cart was called “Bushnan’s
Cove.” Parry described it as “one of the pleasantest and most habitable
spots we have seen in the Arctic regions.” Mosses, dwarf willows,
saxifrages, and ranunculi were found growing. Owing to the breakdown
of the cart, the loads that each man had to carry on the return march
to the ships were from 60 to 70 lb. On the 15th of June the ships
were reached after an absence of a fortnight. The details of this
journey are specially interesting because it was the first naval Arctic
travelling of modern times.
Until the ships could be got out of their winter prison, shooting
parties were sent in various directions for fresh food, and 3766 lb.
were obtained, consisting of 3 musk oxen, 24 deer, 68 hares, 53 brent
geese, 59 ducks, and 144 ptarmigan. An inscription was carved on a huge
block of sandstone 12 feet high and 22 feet long by Dr Fisher. It will
for centuries commemorate the wintering of Parry’s Arctic expedition in
Melville Island.
When the ships got free of the ice, Parry again shaped a course to the
west as far as Cape Dundas, meeting with large, heavy, and extensive
fields of ice, which were quite impenetrable. This was the heavy
ice-flow from the polar ocean which finally impinges on the north-west
coast of King William Island. Nothing more could be done, and Parry
resolved to return home, surveying the west coast of Baffin’s Bay
to 68° 15′. The exploring ships arrived at Peterhead on the 29th of
October, and were paid off at Deptford on December 21st, 1820, all in
excellent health.
This is one of the most memorable of all the Arctic voyages. It
practically settled the question of a connection between the two
oceans. Great discoveries were made, and important scientific
observations were recorded. An Arctic winter was faced with
preservation of health and Arctic travelling was commenced. Men of
science as well as sailors received excellent training. This was the
only expedition which has produced a President of the Royal Society and
a President of the Royal Geographical Society. Besides the training of
Arctic officers who continued in that branch of the service, Parry’s
first voyage brought out qualities which shone forth in after years at
the battle of Navarino and in the first China war[116].
The Arctic discoverers were received with enthusiasm by their
countrymen, and the authorities justly placed the greatest reliance
on the skill and judgment of Parry, who was promoted to the rank of
Commander.
Captain Parry thought quite correctly that a passage could not be
forced by a sailing vessel on the parallel of the south coast of
Melville Island. His conclusion was that it could only be effected
along the north coast of North America, in which again he was quite
right. But at that time only the mouths of the Mackenzie and Coppermine
were discovered, and the distribution of land and water to the north of
America was known to be excessively complicated. Parry advised that the
next attempt should be by way of Hudson’s Bay.
The Admiralty accordingly resolved to despatch Parry on a second Arctic
voyage. He was to investigate and settle doubtful questions about
Middleton’s Frozen Strait and Repulse Bay, and then to get hold of the
north-west corner of North America, and if possible to follow that
coast to Bering Strait. The _Griper_ was too small, a bad sailer, and
ill adapted for the work. The great point was to select two vessels
with equal sailing qualities and of equal size. Two bomb vessels were
therefore commissioned, the _Fury_ of 377 tons by Captain Parry and the
_Hecla_ by Captain G. F. Lyon, with Hoppner as his first Lieutenant.
The other Lieutenants were three of Parry’s midshipmen in the _Hecla_,
Nias, Reid, and Palmer. Bushnan[117] was Assistant Surveyor; James
Ross, still a midshipman, was in every voyage. Three new midshipmen who
were afterwards distinguished as Arctic men appear for the first time
in the second voyage, Sherer, Crozier, and Bird[118].
Dr Fisher, who had published his journal of the first voyage, also
joined the expedition, as well as Mr Hooper, the purser, who had
been in the _Alexander_ and _Hecla_, a genial person who took five
characters in the theatricals at Winter Harbour[119]. The Rev. George
Fisher[120] took Captain Sabine’s place as astronomer. Captain Lyon
was an officer of varied accomplishments, a capable traveller, a good
writer, and an excellent artist.
Several improvements were made in the arrangements. The Sylvester
stove, an excellent invention, was better placed, and supplied more
constant currents of warm air. A tank was fitted over the galley fire
for melting snow. Hammocks were substituted for standing bed-places
for the men, and the allowance of Gamble’s preserved meat and soup was
increased. Greater economy in stowage was secured by having the spirits
above proof; and more flour for baking bread was supplied instead of
biscuit. The expedition sailed in May, 1821[121].
In passing through Hudson’s Strait it is pleasant to find how warmly
Parry appreciated the merits of his great predecessor Baffin as a
navigator and observer. An island was named after him near his farthest
point on Southampton Island.
Parry had to choose whether he would reach Repulse Bay by Sir Thomas
Roe’s Welcome or by Frozen Strait. Dobbs had declared that Frozen
Strait did not exist, but Parry preferred the evidence of Captain
Middleton to that of his malignant critic, and resolved to proceed up
Fox Channel and along the eastern side of Southampton Island. It was
very difficult navigation, but Parry was a consummate ice navigator,
and he succeeded in reaching and passing through the Frozen Strait of
Middleton, and in examining Repulse Bay. Thus the first part of his
instructions was complied with.
The next duty was to examine the coast to the northward until an
opening was reached. This was done with great care until the winter
set in; every inlet, some of considerable depth, being surveyed in the
boats. Winter quarters were found under the shelter of an island, and
the same routine was established as at Melville Island. The theatre
was rigged in much greater splendour, dresses had been supplied, and
there were performances once a fortnight. The most successful night
was when the “Rivals” of Sheridan was acted by the whole strength of
the company. Captain Lyon, as Captain Absolute in the “Rivals,” went
through the last act with two fingers frost-bitten.
Eskimo parties visited the ships during the winter, and received
much assistance in food. One of the women was a very intelligent
draughtsman, and showed Parry by the use of her pencil not only a
strait to the north, but also that he was on the eastern side of a
great peninsula. It received the name of Melville Peninsula.
On the 2nd of July the ships were extricated from their winter quarters
by sawing a long passage through the ice, and on the 12th a fine
fresh-water river was discovered, with a magnificent waterfall 100 feet
in height. Rich vegetation clothed its banks, and reindeer were seen
browsing with their fawns. It received the name of the Secretary to the
Admiralty, Sir John Barrow.
In August the long-looked-for opening was at length discovered. It was
found to be a strait, about two miles in width, but loaded with ice.
It was named Fury and Hecla Strait. The ships forced their way into it
for some distance, but the main body of ice was firm, and young ice was
forming. After beating about for several days in a heavy pack, they at
length reached their second winter quarters at the island of Igloolik,
near the entrance to the strait, where they found a colony of Eskimo.
Many of them were old friends at Winter Island. The habits and customs
of these natives were carefully studied, and an extensive vocabulary
was made of their language.
After leaving Igloolik in the middle of August, 1823, the wind fell,
the ships were beset, and drifted down Fox Channel in constant danger.
At length they were liberated in Hudson’s Strait and returned to
England. Besides the geographical discoveries and the studies of Eskimo
life, the scientific results of Parry’s second voyage were published in
a special volume, and Captain Lyon also published his narrative of the
voyage. Parry was promoted to the rank of Post Captain.
Parry’s discoveries led to the conclusion that an eastern portion of
the polar sea was at no great distance from Repulse Bay, and could be
reached by crossing the Melville Peninsula to the gulf called Akuli by
the Eskimo. It was considered a point of great interest to trace the
coast as far as the mouth of the Coppermine river. For this purpose
the Colonial Secretary, Lord Bathurst, decided to employ Captain Lyon
without loss of time, and the Admiralty supplied the _Griper_, a little
vessel very ill adapted for such service, to take him to Repulse Bay,
where he was to winter and begin his journey in the spring of 1825.
Captain Lyon left England on the 19th June, 1824, and after passing
through Hudson Strait, endeavoured to reach Repulse Bay by way of Sir
Thomas Roe’s Welcome. He was most unfortunate. There was thick weather
on the 1st September and the water rapidly shoaled, so Captain Lyon
came to with two bowers and a stream anchor. There was a tremendous
sea running and the ship was pitching bows under. It was high tide,
the fall 12 to 15 feet, so that at low water the total destruction of
the ship seemed inevitable. The long boat was got ready, and at dawn
a low beach was seen on which a terrific surf was running. At six the
ship was lifted by a tremendous sea, and struck the ground with great
violence along the whole length of the keel. Lyon thought this was
the forerunner of her total wreck. All hope of saving her was gone.
It is impossible to read Lyon’s narrative, describing the magnificent
behaviour of all his men, without feelings of admiration and pride.
At 6 p.m. the rudder rose, and broke up the after lockers. Then the
pressure ceased, and in the morning the anchors were weighed and the
ship was saved.
In a few days thick weather, with heavy seas, came on again. Lyon let
go both bowers and the sheet anchor; the seas swept them fore and
aft, while streams of heavy ice kept driving down upon the ship. The
wind increased to a hurricane and all the cables parted. The trysails
were set, but the fore trysail gaff went and could not be lowered,
every rope being encrusted with a thick coating of ice. They were
still 80 miles from Repulse Bay, with no hope of ever reaching it, and
accordingly Captain Lyon reluctantly decided on returning to England.
He bore up with a sad heart on the 15th September. Yet such a grand
story of the pluck and endurance of British seamen so admirably told is
worth much more than the journey from Repulse Bay to Cape Turnagain,
if it could have been accomplished. Captain Lyon, so enthusiastic, so
dauntless, so able and so beloved, is one of the greatest ornaments of
polar history[122].
Parry thought that Fury and Hecla Strait opened upon a sea which
communicated with Prince Regent’s Inlet, and here again he was right.
His idea was in a third voyage to take that route, and there was a
prospect of co-operation. Franklin was again exploring the northern
coast, while Captain Beechey, Parry’s old first Lieutenant, was
conducting a scientific voyage in H.M.S. _Blossom_ in the direction of
Bering Strait, and extending discovery from the Icy Cape of Captain
Cook to Cape Barrow.
At that period there was no lack of enthusiasm, and expedition followed
on expedition in rapid succession. The _Hecla_ was commissioned by
Captain Parry, and the _Fury_ by his old and faithful comrade in
all his northern voyages, Captain Hoppner, on January 17th, 1824.
Of Parry’s old shipmates in former voyages, besides Hoppner, there
were Sherer and James Ross, now Lieutenants; Crozier and Bird, still
midshipmen; and Mr Hooper, the purser. The most distinguished of the
new officers were Lieut. Foster, the Assistant Surveyor[123], and
Horatio T. Austin, first Lieutenant of the _Fury_.
The Arctic ships were accompanied by a transport which filled them up
at the Whale Fish Islands in Disco Bay. Here, on one of the smallest
islets, the observatory was set up, and Lieut. Foster set to work with
his magnetic instruments. Captain Parry and Hoppner went in a boat to
the Danish settlement of Lievely on Disco Island, where they made the
acquaintance of Lieut. Graah, the explorer of East Greenland.
On reaching the ice, Parry again resolved to attempt the middle pack,
but this time he was doomed to disappointment. The ice was closely
packed, and for upwards of 40 days they were battling with it. At
length they reached Lancaster Sound, but it was late in September
before they entered Prince Regent’s Inlet. Parry resolved to take
up winter quarters on the east side, in Port Bowen, which he had
discovered in 1819.
As at Melville Island there was a very well attended school under
the superintendence of Mr Hooper, the Purser, and Captain Parry was
convinced that to the moral effect it produced on the minds of the
men were owing their cheerfulness, good order, and in some measure
the excellent state of health which prevailed through the winter. At
Captain Hoppner’s suggestion there was a change in the amusements.
Masquerades were substituted for theatricals and with great success.
In the spring there were some travelling parties. Captain Hoppner got
over some very difficult country inland, Ross and Sherer went north
and south. But the great event was the capture of a “payable” whale by
these two redoubtable young Arctics, who had also achieved a similar
success during Parry’s second voyage.
On the 20th of July the ships were released from their winter quarters
and, standing over to the west side, began to shape a course to the
south. Then the ice in the centre of the channel approached the land,
and drove both ships on shore. They were got off, but the _Fury_ was
seriously damaged, officers and men being nearly exhausted by their
efforts to keep her afloat. On the 21st August she was once more
driven on to a stony beach under a very lofty perpendicular cliff, and
hopelessly stranded. The hold was full of water. The greater part of
her stores were landed and she was abandoned, officers and men being
taken on board the _Hecla_. The _Hecla_ reached Peterhead on the 12th
of October, 1825, all hands in excellent health.
For a time Parry’s Arctic work was laid aside, and on the 23rd of
October, 1826, he was married to Isabella, daughter of Lord Stanley of
Alderley. Meanwhile his proposal to attempt an approach to the Pole
by way of Spitsbergen was under the consideration of the Admiralty.
The idea was to make the attempt in boats, which might be hauled over
intervening ice. The Admiralty approved, and the _Hecla_ was ordered to
be commissioned again, Mrs Parry hoisting the pennant, to the delight
of all the old Arctics at Deptford. At this time Parry was also filling
the office of Hydrographer at the Admiralty. His hands were pretty full.
The officers of the _Hecla_ were Lieutenants James C. Ross, Crozier,
and Foster, Assistant Surgeon Beverley, and Mr Halse the purser, who
had served in all Parry’s expeditions.
The _Hecla_ rounded Hakluyt Headland and reached the high latitude
of 81° 5′ N. on June 14th, 1827. Parry then placed the ship in a
good harbour called Hecla Cove, on the north coast of Spitsbergen,
in 79° 55′ N. and 16° 53′ E. Crozier was left in command, and Foster
was fully occupied with his scientific observations. The two boats,
called the _Enterprise_ and _Endeavour_, left Hecla Cove on the 21st
of June, Parry and Dr Beverley being in the first, James Ross and Bird
in the second, with ten seamen and two marines in each. The boats were
flat-bottomed, 20 feet long, with an extreme width of 7 feet carried
well fore and aft. Their timbers were of tough oak and hickory. On
the outside of the frame a new system of planking was adopted, in
order to secure elasticity in the frequent concussions with the ice.
It consisted first of a covering of waterproof canvas coated with tar,
then a thin fir plank, then a sheet of felt, and lastly a thin oak
plank, all secured to the timbers by screws. On each side of the keel
there was a strong runner shod with metal, on which the boat rested
when on the ice. A hide span across the fore part of the runners had
two horsehair drag-ropes attached to it. The boats had two thwarts,
a locker at each end, and a light framework along the sides for
provisions and spare clothing; they carried a bamboo mast and tanned
duck sail, 14 paddles, and a steer oar. They started with 71 days’
provisions. The weight of each boat was 1539 lb., when loaded 3753
lb., or 268 lb. per man, besides four light sledges weighing 26 lb.
each. The daily allowance for each man was 10 oz. of biscuit, 9 oz. of
pemmican, 1 oz. of cocoa, and a gill of rum. They slept in the boats
and travelled at night.
When they started the weather was calm and clear, and as they paddled
past the Seven Islands with loose sailing ice ahead the prospect looked
very favourable. But on the 23rd they came to the close pack and hauled
the boats up on the ice in 81° 12′ 5″ N. The travelling work then began
and was most laborious and disheartening. The floes were of small
extent intersected by high ridges of hummocks, necessitating constant
launching and hauling up of the boats. The snow was soft, and there
were pools of water knee-deep on the floes. It was not until July 7th
that they reached a level floe, and on the 11th ridges of hummocks 30
and 40 feet high were again encountered. On the 22nd they at length
came to large floes some miles in extent, but it was too late. The
southerly drift of the ice was increasing to such an extent that they
lost by drift as much as they gained by many hours of laborious and
fatiguing work at the drag-ropes. Parry at length determined to retrace
his steps. His highest latitude was 82° 45′, the highest that anyone
attained for the next half-century. They were 172 miles from the
_Hecla_, having travelled over 292 miles of ground--200 by water before
reaching the ice and 92 over the floes.
After an absence of 61 days the boats reached Hecla Cove on the 21st
August, and the ship arrived in the Thames on the 6th of October,
1827. If Parry had wintered in Hecla Cove and started in February he
would have probably reached a much higher latitude. But success was
not possible owing to the southerly drift of the polar ice. The weight
of 264 lb. per man was much too great to drag for a lengthened period,
and the daily allowance of food was too small. Experience would have
corrected these details, and Sir Edward Parry, it should be remembered,
was the pioneer of Arctic travelling without the mistakes of others to
guide him.
Parry returned to his work as Hydrographer. Of his companions, James
Ross, Crozier, and Bird afterwards won renown as Antarctic discoverers.
Parry was knighted on the 29th of April, 1829. Although his Arctic work
was over, he was hard at work and in harness for the rest of his life.
In 1829 he was offered the difficult post of Agent to the Australian
Agricultural Company. Its affairs had been neglected and mismanaged,
and the Directors turned to Parry, as a most able organiser, to restore
their affairs to a proper footing. He was appointed Commissioner
to the Agricultural Company in New South Wales, receiving also the
D.C.L. at Oxford. He held the appointment for several years, returning
to England in June, 1834. In 1839 he organised the Holyhead Packet
Service, and in the same year became Comptroller of Steam Machinery.
During Parry’s time as Comptroller an immense advance was made in the
use of steam, and it was due to his strong advocacy that the screw
propeller was adopted for naval ships. In 1846 he was appointed Captain
Superintendent of Haslar Hospital and Clarence Yard, a position which
he occupied for five years, retiring in 1851.
Sir Edward took the warmest interest in the searches for his intimate
and dear friend Franklin. His visit to the _Assistance_ at Greenhithe
was ever a sacred memory to us all. In 1853 he was appointed
Lieutenant-Governor of Greenwich Hospital, and began to reside in
January, 1854. He died at Ems on the 8th of July, 1855, and was buried
at Greenwich.
Sir Edward Parry, as we have said, must be ranked as one of the
greatest of polar explorers. No one else had so many and such great
qualifications. His life was wholly devoted first to his country and
next to the good of his fellow men. It has been the privilege of few
men to have done so much good in his generation. His life story has
been beautifully told by his son, and should be read by all.
CHAPTER XXIV
DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH COAST OF AMERICA.
FRANKLIN--RICHARDSON--BACK--DEASE--SIMPSON--RAE
Hitherto the northern coasts of North America had remained completely
unknown save for the work of Hearne and Mackenzie, and it was felt that
something should be done to fill up the large area of blank on the
map. The Secretary of State for the Colonies now resolved that, with
the co-operation of the Hudson’s Bay Company, the coast-line should be
discovered and surveyed.
The officer selected for this arduous duty was Lieutenant John
Franklin, who had just returned from the command of the _Trent_ in the
Spitsbergen seas. Few officers of his age had seen so much service. A
Lincolnshire lad, born at Spilsby and educated at Louth Grammar School,
Franklin entered the navy at the age of 14, and in his very first
ship, the _Polyphemus_, he was at the battle of Copenhagen and closely
engaged. Next he joined the discovery ship _Investigator_ under his
relative Captain Flinders[124], and was for two years engaged in the
survey of the coast of the great island to which Flinders gave the name
of Australia. At last the old _Investigator_ was found to be no longer
seaworthy. She was condemned, and her captain, officers, and crew were
embarked on board H.M.S. _Porpoise_ for a passage to England.
Entangled among the reefs off the coast of Queensland, the _Porpoise_
ran on shore, became a wreck, and young Franklin found himself one of
94 souls on a sandbank. Flinders went in an open boat to Port Jackson,
750 miles off, and returned with help, and eventually Franklin got a
passage in a vessel bound for Canton, with the object of returning
home in one of the East India Company’s ships. He was taken on board
the _Earl Camden_, Commodore Dance, and sailed with the China
fleet of merchantmen, when as signal midshipman he took part in an
ever-memorable action. In the Straits of Malacca the French Admiral
Linois was encountered with a line-of-battle ship and three frigates,
and after a sharp fight the French retreated, and were chased for three
hours by the English merchantmen.
In 1804 Franklin joined the _Bellerophon_ at the blockade of Brest,
and on the 21st of October, 1805, was at the battle of Trafalgar, when
he was once more signal midshipman. His next service was on board the
_Bedford_, escorting the royal family of Portugal to Rio. He became a
Lieutenant in 1808 and served in the Walcheren expedition. In 1813 he
convoyed a fleet of merchantmen to the West Indies, and his last war
service was a severe but successful action with American gun-boats near
New Orleans.
Franklin gladly accepted the appointment offered to him by the Colonial
Office to take command of an expedition to co-operate with Hudson’s
Bay Co. in exploring the north coast of America and surveying it. His
colleagues were Dr Richardson, who had sole charge of the natural
history work; two midshipmen named Back and Hood, selected for their
proficiency as artists, and a blue-jacket named Hepburn. Other members
of the expedition were to be engaged in the country, Hudson’s Bay men
and Canadian voyageurs.
George Back was then aged 22. He had entered the navy in 1808 on board
the _Arethusa_, and served in boat actions on the north coast of Spain,
where in his last fight 14 of his crew were killed out of 18. Back
was taken prisoner while making an attack on a battery of heavy guns
at Lequeitio and was detained at Verdun until 1814. On regaining his
liberty he served in the _Akbar_ under Sir J. Byam Martin at Flushing,
and afterwards on the North American station. He passed for Lieutenant
in 1817, and in the following year joined the _Trent_ under Franklin
in the Spitsbergen voyage. Franklin gladly secured the gallant young
officer’s services again for his first land expedition.
It was a difficult task, as the narrative of Hearne made sufficiently
clear. The explorers were to discover the north coast of America from
the mouth of the Coppermine eastward. The party reached York Factory
in Hudson’s Bay in August, 1819, and Fort Chipewyan early in 1820. In
July they were at Fort Providence on the north-east side of the Great
Slave Lake, and early in August they set out for the Coppermine river,
wintering at a station which was built on Winter Lake, and called Fort
Enterprise. The fatigue and difficulty of travelling thus far were
enormous. Franklin calculated that all the portages, each having to be
traversed four times, made together 150 miles.
One of the North West Co.’s men having joined the expedition, the party
now consisted of six Englishmen and twenty-six others, principally
Canadian voyageurs. Franklin arranged with the Indians that, on his
return, there should be supplies of food and Indians at Fort Enterprise.
The descent of the Coppermine river was then commenced, and the mouth
was reached on the 21st of July, 1821. Franklin and his gallant
companions then embarked on the polar sea in their frail bark canoes.
It was a rock-bound coast, fringed with masses of ice which rose and
fell with every motion of the tempestuous sea, and the undertaking
was in the highest degree perilous in canoes only fit for lake
navigation. Franklin nevertheless persevered in the discovery of the
coast-line until the 18th of August, when he felt obliged to begin the
return voyage. Their provisions were nearly run out, and they were
disappointed at not meeting with any Eskimos, from whom they might have
obtained supplies. Their furthest point was named Point Turnagain,
and was 6½° of longitude to the east of the mouth of the Coppermine.
Franklin decided to land in Arctic Sound, at the mouth of a river he
had named after Hood, and make direct for Fort Enterprise, rather
than return by the Coppermine. He hoped to find more game by the new
route. The canoes were broken up in order to construct smaller and
lighter boats for carrying round the portages, and they left the banks
of the Hood river on the 3rd of September, making straight for Fort
Enterprise. The country proved to be stony and barren, there was no
game, and their stock of provisions was soon exhausted. All they had
to subsist on was _tripe de roche_, a noxious unwholesome lichen. At
last, on the 10th of September, after six days of starvation, a herd of
musk oxen was seen, and one was killed.
Affairs were so serious that young Back volunteered to make his way to
Fort Enterprise and send back Indians with the supplies that had been
ordered to be collected there. Back started on the 4th of October, Fort
Enterprise being then 24 miles distant. The rest followed, several in
a state of extreme weakness. Some of the men got weaker every day. At
last it was settled that Dr Richardson, with Hood and Hepburn, should
remain with the sick, while Franklin, with the stronger men, went on to
Fort Enterprise for help.
Franklin, living on _tripe de roche_, took four days to reach Fort
Enterprise and, on his arrival, found to his horror and dismay that
there were no Indians there, no provisions, and that the place was
quite abandoned. There was a hurried note from Back saying that he had
gone on in search of Indians, and that if he found none, he intended to
walk to Fort Providence. He added that it was doubtful whether, in his
debilitated condition, he could make the journey. The temperature at
Fort Enterprise was 15° to 20° below zero.
On the 29th Dr Richardson and Hepburn quite unexpectedly arrived
at Fort Enterprise. They had a sad tale to tell. They were the
only survivors of their party, the others having died of cold and
starvation. But the horrors were made far more appalling by the crimes
of a Canadian voyageur named Michel. There was little doubt that he
had murdered two of his comrades, and feasted on their bodies, getting
fat and strong while the others became weaker every day, and were at
his mercy. He then shot Hood through the head, while the others were
away collecting _tripe de roche_, and they found the body of their
murdered friend on their return. Their only chance of survival now was
the death of Michel. Dr Richardson undertook the duty, and shot him.
The two survivors then walked on to Fort Enterprise. Here they all
remained in the last stage of starvation until on the 7th of November
three Indians arrived with food, having been sent by Back, and their
lives were saved. The Indians treated the starving explorers with the
greatest kindness, attending to all their wants until they arrived at
Fort Providence on the 11th December.
Back’s sufferings while in search of help had been quite as severe
as those of his comrades he had left behind. His sole food consisted
of a pair of leather trousers, a gun-cover, and an old shoe, with a
little _tripe de roche_. At length, after some days, he fell in with
the Indians and sent them with food to Fort Enterprise. Reaching Fort
Providence he found Franklin’s commission as Commander, and his own as
Lieutenant. On his arrival in England Franklin was promoted to the rank
of Captain on November 20th, 1822.
Franklin was busily employed, while in England, in writing the
narrative of his expedition, and in August 1823 he married Miss Eleanor
Porden. Their married life was a brief one, for she died in February
1825, soon after Franklin’s departure on his second expedition, leaving
a daughter.
When Parry sailed on his third voyage by way of Prince Regent’s
Inlet, it was resolved that Captain Beechey, in the _Blossom_, should
co-operate by way of Bering’s Strait, while another land expedition was
despatched to the north coast of America. Captain Franklin and Lieut.
Back were to explore to the westward of the Mackenzie River, while Dr
Richardson and Mr Kendall were to survey the coast between the mouths
of the Mackenzie and Coppermine. Three boats were specially built for
the expedition, combining lightness with stability. The largest was 26
feet long, the other two 24 feet.
The expedition left England in February, 1825. For a few days the
explorers rested at Fort Resolution, the only station of the Hudson’s
Bay Company on the Slave Lake, and then proceeded to the Mackenzie
River, which was reached on the 2nd of August. They descended the river
to the Hudson’s Bay post called Fort Norman. Lieut. Back, accompanied
by Mr Dease of the Hudson’s Bay Company, was then sent to the Great
Bear Lake to select a site and build a house for winter quarters.
Franklin and Kendall went down the Mackenzie to its mouth. They all
returned to Fort Franklin on the Great Bear Lake in 65° 11′ 50″ N. to
winter. The party consisted of 15 seamen and marines, nine Canadian
voyageurs, and some Indians with their families. Another boat was built
and named the _Reliance_.
The two parties, led by Franklin and Richardson, left Fort Franklin on
the 24th of June, 1826, descended the Mackenzie River together, and
parted west and east where the delta commenced, on the 3rd of July. In
making his way along the coast to the westward Franklin’s boats were
often in danger from heavy masses of ice, and suffered long detentions
from foul weather. On the 18th of August he found it necessary to give
up any attempt to proceed further, having discovered 374 miles of new
coast. He named his furthest point Cape Beechey. Captain Beechey in the
_Blossom_ was off Icy Cape by the middle of August, and sent a boat to
meet Franklin, and the two boats were within 160 miles of each other,
but Beechey and Franklin were not destined to meet. Beechey discovered
Point Barrow.
Franklin and Back returned to Fort Franklin on the 21st of September.
Meanwhile Dr Richardson and Kendall had discovered and surveyed the
coast between the mouths of the Mackenzie and Coppermine, returning to
Fort Franklin by the Coppermine River.
The large island facing the north coast has received several names, but
the Dominion Government wisely determined that it shall be known by one
only--Victoria Island. The strait between Victoria and the mainland was
named after the two boats in which Richardson and Kendall embarked,
_Dolphin_ and _Union_.
The expedition returned to England in September, 1827, after an absence
of over 2½ years, having surveyed a coast-line of more than 1000 miles,
hitherto unknown. Back was promoted to the rank of Commander, and
Franklin was knighted in 1829. On the 5th of November, 1828, he married
_en secondes noces_ Jane the daughter of John Griffin of Bedford Place,
who both on her father’s and mother’s (Jeanne Guillemard) side was of
Huguenot stock. He commanded the _Rainbow_ frigate in the Mediterranean
from 1830 to 1834, and was appointed Governor of Tasmania in 1837.
Franklin’s narratives of his two expeditions were published in quarto
volumes beautifully illustrated by Captain Back’s drawings.
The next expedition to the north coast of America was a private one.
A Committee raised the necessary funds, and the plan was to descend a
river which was supposed to have its rise in the Great Slave Lake, and
to fall into the Polar Sea. The object was to obtain tidings of, and to
succour, the expedition of the Rosses, which had not been heard of for
some years. Captain Back received the command, and his companion was
Dr Richard King, a medical man. Only three other men were taken from
England. The explorers started in February 1833, 15 men were engaged,
and the expedition reached the Great Slave Lake. The source of what
Back called the Great Fish River was discovered, but its course was
found to be tortuous and full of rapids. Back, therefore, caused two
boats to be built, specially adapted for river navigation, and for
being taken over the portages. They were sharp at both ends, with good
beam, and plenty of floor for stowage. They were 30 ft. long over all,
24 ft. keel, with extra oars, masts, and tillers. Their lower parts
were carvel, and the upper clinker-built. Runners, plated with iron,
were fixed on either side of the keel, so that they could easily be
drawn over ice by six dogs and two men. Eight men formed the crew.
Captain Back and Dr King were thus well equipped for discovering the
course of the Great Fish River. But at this juncture the news was
received of the safety of the Rosses, and it did not seem justifiable
to do more than descend the river to its mouth. This Back did, finding
that the river has a violent and tortuous course of 530 miles,
sometimes expanding into large lakes, and having 83 falls and cascades.
The estuary was surveyed, together with a large island named Montreal.
Back intended to have traced the coast as far as Cape Turnagain, but
only got 15 miles westward to Capes Richardson and Maconochie. Captain
Back and Dr King both published narratives of the Great Fish River
expedition.
There still remained unexplored the coast line from Franklin’s furthest
to Cape Barrow on the west side, and from Cape Turnagain to Repulse
Bay on the east. The Hudson’s Bay Company resolved to undertake
these discoveries. Peter Warren Dease, who had assisted the Franklin
Expedition, and Thomas Simpson were selected for the duty. Simpson
was a very intelligent and energetic young Scot, born at Dingwall in
Ross-shire in 1808. Dease was much older. The equipment was arranged
at Fort Chipewyan. The two boats were clinker-built, 24 ft. keel by 6
ft. beam, each with a small oiled-canvas canoe. They were named the
_Castor_ and _Pollux_. Thirty bags of pemmican, each weighing 9 lb.,
and 10 cwt. of Red River flour were taken for the whole season. The
daily ration per man was 3 lb. of pemmican.
Descending the Mackenzie, Simpson pushed on along the coast, passing
and naming the Colville river. When stopped by ice he resolved to reach
Cape Barrow by land. He took eight men each with a load of 40 lb.,
including pemmican and flour, a blanket, ammunition and instruments,
and one man carried a canvas canoe. They encountered very bad weather,
but they reached the long low spit of land which Captain Beechey had
named Cape Barrow, and were welcomed by the Eskimos settled there.
Simpson returned to the Mackenzie, and ascended that river to his
winter quarters at Fort Confidence.
In the following year Simpson went down the Coppermine river, to
discover the coast to the eastward. On the 17th of July, 1838, the
voyage was commenced. On reaching Cape Turnagain, Franklin’s furthest
point, Simpson went on by land with five of the Company’s servants
and two Indians. Each man carried a weight of 50 lb., including a
tent, a canvas canoe, a kettle, two axes, and provisions for ten days.
Open water was seen along the shores of Victoria Island while the
continental coast was choked with ice. The party, after this excursion
on foot, returned by the Coppermine to Fort Confidence to winter.
On June 15th, 1839, Simpson set out again for the Coppermine river on
foot, arriving where three men had been left in charge of the boat and
baggage. The boat sailed past Cape Turnagain, and on the 11th of August
the discoverers came to the strait, about ten miles wide, between the
continent and King William Island. It was named Simpson Strait. On the
12th there was a tremendous thunderstorm, with torrents of rain, and
the next day they reached Cape Ogle at the mouth of the Great Fish
River.
On the 16th Simpson landed on Montreal Island, where a depôt left by
Back was found. He then crossed the strait to King William Island and
explored its southern coast for nearly 60 miles, until it turned north
at Cape Herschel, where a lofty cairn was erected, on August 26th,
1839. They also went eastward along the American coast beyond the Great
Fish River, calling their furthest point after their boats “Castor and
Pollux.” In returning, Simpson explored the south coast of Victoria
Island.
Geographers were not satisfied until the region had been explored
between Simpson’s furthest and the Gulf of Akuli on the west side of
Melville Peninsula, reported by Parry’s Eskimo draughtswoman. The
Geographical Society urged the importance of this discovery on the
Admiralty, and the old bomb vessel _Terror_ was commissioned by Captain
Back, with much the same instructions as were given to Captain Lyon
in 1824. Many of Back’s officers had won or were to win distinction.
His first Lieutenant, Smyth, an artist of no mean powers, was the
second Englishman to descend the Amazon. Owen Stanley had served under
Franklin in the _Rainbow_ and became a very distinguished surveyor in
Australian seas, McMurdo was afterwards with Ross in his Antarctic
voyages, Graham Gore perished with Franklin, and M’Clure was the
discoverer of a North West Passage. These splendid officers received
their polar training under Back, in the icy storms of Fox Channel.
On the 14th of June, 1836, the _Terror_ left Chatham. Passing down
Hudson’s Strait, Back chose Parry’s route by Fox Channel for reaching
Repulse Bay. The _Terror_ was soon beset, and on the 13th of September
they were a few miles from land, off Cape Comfort. The ship was closely
wedged between blocks of ice, with no water in sight and was drifted
backwards and forwards between Cape Comfort and Baffin Island. In this
situation they entered upon an Arctic winter of exceptional severity.
In the depth of winter the ice broke up, and huge masses continually
dashed against the ship. She remained locked in the ice for four
months, and dragged helplessly about, until at length she was liberated
towards the end of July, 1837. Nothing could be finer than the conduct
of Captain Back and his officers throughout this trying time. The
_Terror_, battered and leaky, crossed the Atlantic almost in a sinking
state. Early one morning they came in sight of the Irish coast. The
first Lieutenant came down to the Captain, who was in his cot, “Captain
Back, Sir!” “Yes, what is it?” “The ship’s sinking, Sir.” “Very good,
Smyth, call me again at eight bells.” That day they reached safety in
Lough Swilly.
In 1845 Sir George Simpson determined to complete the discovery of the
Gulf of Akuli, starting from a base at Repulse Bay, which was to be
reached by boats from Fort Churchill. The command of the expedition
was given to Dr John Rae, one of the Company’s factors. The boats were
constructed at York factory, clinker-built, 22 feet by 7 feet 6 inches,
with two lug sails and a jib. The crew consisted of six Orkney men and
two Canadian half-breeds. On July 24th, 1846, they arrived at Repulse
Bay, where they wintered, having obtained 63 deer, 172 ptarmigan, 5
hares, and 116 salmon. They built a stone house, with a roof of moose
skin, and made toboggan sledges, 6 to 7 feet long and 17 inches wide,
of battens from the boats.
On the arrival of spring Rae resumed his journey, starting on April
5th. He had two sledges, each drawn by four dogs and six men. A snow
house was built each night. The food was pemmican, reindeer tongues,
flour, tea, chocolate, and sugar. Rae carried the books and instruments
himself, a weight of 35 lb. The rations were 1½ lb. of pemmican daily
for each man and ⅓ lb. of flour, but they obtained a seal from the
Eskimo, and had seal meat for eight days. They explored the west side
of the Gulf of Akuli as far as Lord Mayor’s Bay of Ross and returned
May 5th, having proved that there is no outlet to the westward as was
expected.
Rae’s next journey was for 28 days, from May 13th to June 9th, to
explore the west side of Melville Peninsula as far as the entrance
to Fury and Hecla Strait. The party, travelling over soft snow, only
got within ten miles of the Strait. Rae says that he traced 655 miles
of new coast. He certainly settled the question of any sea from Fury
and Hecla Strait to Cape Turnagain, and proved that Boothia was a
peninsula, not an island. The Gulf of Akuli is the termination of
Prince Regent’s Inlet.
In 1818, as we have seen, nothing was known of the northern coast of
America but the mouths of the Mackenzie and Coppermine rivers. In 1848
the whole coast had been mapped, from the Icy Cape of Cook to the
Fury and Hecla Strait of Parry, a distance of 1000 miles. Franklin,
Richardson, Back, Dease, Simpson, and Rae were the discoverers, and
their achievements entailed deeds of heroism such as have never been
surpassed, and seldom equalled, in the whole history of discovery.
CHAPTER XXV
JOHN ROSS, JAMES ROSS, AND THE NORTH MAGNETIC POLE
After his return from the re-discovery of Baffin’s Bay, Captain Ross
must have continually regretted his mistake about Lancaster Sound. He
was discredited, and longed to have another opportunity given him.
When Parry returned from his northern journey in 1827, Captain Ross
offered his services to the Admiralty to lead another expedition for
the discovery of a North West Passage. His idea was to take up the
plan of Parry’s third voyage and seek for a passage at the south end
of Prince Regent’s Inlet. The Admiralty declined, but he was fortunate
enough to find an old friend who was willing to supply the funds. This
was Sheriff Felix Booth, who gave him £18,000 towards the expenses of
an expedition. Captain Ross bought an old packet that used to run from
Liverpool to the Isle of Man. She was only 85 tons, but her stowage
was increased by raising 5½ feet upon her, and she was fitted with an
engine and paddle-wheels, but the engine was scamped and badly made,
and proved useless. She was named the _Victory_. Captain Ross persuaded
his nephew to go with him. James C. Ross, now 29 years of age, had been
with his uncle in the _Isabella_ and with Parry in all his voyages,
and in his last northern journey. In all his Arctic service he had
been a diligent observer, giving special attention to magnetism. He
also studied natural history and was a careful collector: moreover
his prowess had been shown in having killed and secured more than one
payable whale. He was the life and soul of his uncle’s expedition, and
such success as it obtained was mainly due to him.
Mr Thom, who had been with Captain Ross in the _Isabella_, was purser,
and Dr M’Diarmid, surgeon. Blanky, the first mate, had been with
Lyon in the _Griper_, and with Parry in the _Hecla_ in 1827. The
second mate, Thomas Abernethy, was a character who served in many
expeditions, whom I knew well in after years. He was born at Peterhead
in 1802 and went to sea at the early age of ten, serving in several
voyages to Davis Strait. He had been ten years at sea when he was
wrecked in the _Fury_ in 1825. He was with Parry in 1827, and was
afterwards gunner of the _Blossom_. Abernethy was a very handsome man
with a well-knit frame, and was resourceful and thoroughly reliable.
The crew consisted of nine good men, and seven weak or useless hands.
On July 5th, 1829, the little _Victory_ was off Cape Farewell. After a
short stay at Holsteinborg she was very fortunate in passing through
the ice of the middle pack, and it must have been with strange feelings
that Captain Ross entered Lancaster Sound, and sailed over his Croker
Mountains. The ship entered Prince Regent’s Inlet, visited the beach
where the _Fury_ was wrecked, so well known in after years as “Fury
Beach,” and sailed onwards to the south, hoping for an opening
westward. Upwards of two hundred miles of previously unknown coast-line
were thus revealed. Captain Ross gave to this new land the name of
Boothia Felix, in honour of his generous friend who fitted out the
expedition, and ultimately the _Victory_ was established in winter
quarters in “Felix Harbour” on the coast of Boothia in latitude 69° 59′
N.
It was not until January, 1830, that Eskimos were met with. Their
dwellings, which they could build in 45 minutes, were circular domes of
snow, 10 feet in diameter, entered by a long passage. Light was given
to the interior by an oval piece of clear ice, half-way up the dome.
The stone lamp was fed with oil and moss, and the cooking-dish was
also of stone. They used canoes for fishing in the summer, and a very
remarkable kind of sledge in the winter, drawn by dogs. To construct
this a number of salmon are packed together into a cylinder 7 feet
long and wrapped up in skins well corded with thongs. Two of these
cylinders are pressed into the shape of runners, and left to freeze.
Cross-bars made of the legs of deer or musk oxen are then fixed across,
and the bottom of the runner is covered with a mixture of mossy earth
and water, which freezes to the depth of two inches. The icy surface is
then made smooth so as to run easily over the snow.
Captain Ross gave a very good character to this Eskimo tribe, whom he
named Boothians. They are very affectionate to children, and treat
their aged people kindly. They are also very kind to their dogs, never
driving them for more than four days in succession, seldom so much, and
then giving them a day or two’s rest. The tribe only numbered about 160
souls, and were quite uncontaminated by civilisation. Like the Eskimos
of Igloolik the Boothians proved intelligent geographers. One of them
drew a chart showing that Prince Regent’s Inlet ended with the Gulf
of Akuli, and that there was no channel leading westward, a statement
which was afterwards confirmed by Dr Rae. James Ross, who conducted
all the travelling, received much assistance from these people. They
lent him dogs, sometimes drove them for him, and gave him much useful
information.
The young commander started on his first journey with a sledge and six
dogs on March 11th, 1830. Several short journeys followed. At last he
crossed the Isthmus of Boothia, 15 miles wide, with a large lake in
the middle, and reached the western sea. On May 17th he commenced the
great journey with Abernethy, first crossing the isthmus and turning
northwards. He had 31 days’ provisions and eight dogs. He discovered a
bay or channel with a large island in it, which was named Matty Island.
Crossing the channel, Ross and Abernethy left everything they could
spare, and pushed onwards to the northern point, named Cape Felix,
which was 200 miles from the ship. The newly-discovered coast was named
King William Land, and Ross appears to have thought that it was part of
the mainland of North America. The coast then trended to the south, to
a point which Ross named Point Victory (69° 37′ 49″ N). Here a cairn
six feet high was built, and a canister deposited in it with an account
of their proceedings. The furthest point visible to the S.W. received
the name of Cape Franklin.
On May 30th, 1830, the return journey was commenced, and they reached
their depôt the next day, ultimately arriving at the ship in safety.
The dogs, which had been overworked, had been useless after the eighth
day.
James Ross had been very diligent in taking magnetic observations,
and had deduced from them the position of the magnetic pole. After the
second winter he commenced his journey to the exact spot with Blanky
and Abernethy, and accompanied by Captain Ross as far as the western
sea. On the 31st May, 1831, the party arrived at their destination.
They discovered some abandoned snow huts which they found very useful.
The land was low near the coast, rising into ridges of 50 or 60 feet
about a mile inland. The dip of the needle was 89° 59′ and there was
total inaction of the horizontal needle. The British flag was fixed at
the magnetic pole in 70° 5′ 17″ N. and 76° 16′ 4″ W. Leaving Blanky
with the party, James Ross and Abernethy went on, and at their furthest
point found the coast line still running north. Here they built a cairn
of stones. In returning to the ship they were detained by a gale, and
did not reach it until the 13th of June, an absence of 17 days. A large
supply of fish had been secured during the summer.
During the three summer seasons it had never been possible to get the
_Victory_ clear of the ice. She left Felix Harbour only to be driven
into another hard by, which was named Victory Harbour. A third winter
was approaching, and it thus became evident that it would be absolutely
necessary to abandon the ship and retreat to Fury Beach in the ensuing
summer. After the third winter preparations were accordingly made for a
retreat, and on May 29th, 1832, the ship was abandoned. They travelled
on, going round every bay and inlet owing to the roughness of the ice
outside. James Ross with a sledge crew of the strongest men, Abernethy
and Park, pushed on to Fury Beach, and returned with supplies of food
for the sick and weak. On July 1st they all arrived at Fury Beach,
and a house was built for the winter. There were plenty of birds, 50
dovekies being shot on the 7th, and 100 on the 17th.
At Fury Beach they found three of the _Fury’s_ boats, and Captain Ross
and his nephew, with selected crews, proceeded in them to see the state
of the ice in Lancaster Sound. They got as far as Leopold Harbour, and
on September 2nd Captain Ross climbed the hill on the south side, about
600 feet high, but could see nothing but closely-packed ice. Returning,
they left the boats in Batty Bay, and journeyed on to Fury Beach,
where they passed a wretched winter--their fourth. The fifth summer
found them weak and desponding. Their only hope was to meet a whaler
in Lancaster Sound, and for this they set out. First there was a long
journey to the boats in Batty Bay, the sick being dragged on sledges.
Only two men had died, a man who had consumption when he shipped, and
Mr Thomas, the carpenter. Fortunately the boats met with the _Isabella_
whaler in Lancaster Sound, the same vessel in which Captain Ross had
re-discovered Baffin’s Bay in 1818. They were hospitably received, and
reached England in the following October.
Never before had explorers passed four consecutive winters in the
Arctic regions. The results were commensurate with their perseverance.
Upwards of 260 miles of coast line were discovered in the ship,
and the sledge journeys of James Ross covered another 500 miles of
newly-discovered land. The position of the magnetic pole was fixed, and
a large collection of natural history specimens was made.
The gallant explorers were very cordially welcomed in England. Captain
Ross was knighted and all he had expended was refunded to him. James
Ross was made a Post-Captain, and many of the crew received recognition
of their services. A Committee of the House of Commons refunded to
Felix Booth the £18,000 he had expended on the expedition, and he was
created a Baronet. Sir John Ross was appointed Consul at Stockholm in
1838.
Captain James Ross was soon employed on the magnetic survey. His
services were needed in 1836 for the relief of some whalers supposed to
have been frozen up. He fitted out a ship called the _Cove_ at Hull,
taking Crozier with him as First Lieutenant, and Erasmus Ommanney, then
a young Lieutenant, who got his first experience of ice navigation in
this voyage. The mate was A. J. Smith, who was afterwards with Ross in
the _Erebus_.
James Ross had now served fourteen navigable seasons and eight winters
in the Arctic regions, a record never reached by any other man.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION
When Sir James Ross returned from the Antarctic expedition, there were
the two well-fortified bomb vessels, the _Erebus_ and _Terror_, ready
for Arctic work. Sir John Barrow was still Secretary of the Admiralty,
and as eager as ever for the discovery of a North West Passage. There
were the ships and he knew the best man in the navy to command them.
James Fitzjames made the acquaintance of young John Barrow at the time
when he was in the _Excellent_, passing out as a gunnery lieutenant,
and he afterwards became acquainted with his father. Fitzjames was
certainly an exceptionally fine character, and held a splendid record.
He was in all the operations on the coast of Syria in 1840, and soon
afterwards he and his friend Charlwood were specially selected to take
out a steamer for Colonel Chesney’s expedition, transport her in pieces
across the desert, and put her together for service on the Euphrates.
He served for two years with Chesney in Mesopotamia, and was the
gunnery lieutenant of the _Cornwallis_ during the China War. He was in
nearly all the actions, including the command of the rocket brigade at
the taking of Nankin, when he was severely wounded. Fitzjames wrote
a graphic and most amusing history of the war in verse, which was
published. Promoted to the rank of Commander for his distinguished
services, he received command of the _Clio_ brig, and was very usefully
employed in the Persian Gulf. It was at this time that John Barrow
hinted to him the possibility of Arctic work, and he at once eagerly
volunteered.
When he paid off the _Clio_ in October, 1844, the proposal was further
discussed with Sir John Barrow. Before long it was settled, so far as
the Secretary of the Admiralty could settle it, that there should be an
expedition with Fitzjames in command, and his friend Charlwood in the
second ship.
[Illustration: Sir John Franklin]
Fitzjames was an orphan, an excellent sailor, full of zeal and devoted
to his profession. He was exceedingly popular, and an officer of rare
ability, with a talent for organisation and the management of men, the
beau ideal, in short, of an Arctic leader. But Sir John Barrow reckoned
without his Lords. They approved the scheme, but pronounced Fitzjames,
who was 33, and four years older than Parry in his first voyage, to be
much too young to have the command.
Sir John Franklin had just returned from Tasmania, where he had made
an excellent Governor. But in the last year he had suffered much
annoyance from the insubordinate and disloyal intrigues of the Colonial
Secretary. Lord Stanley, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, took
the part of the intriguer and not only treated Sir John Franklin with
great injustice but with flagrant discourtesy. Franklin came home very
sore at heart, and when he heard of the expedition he pressed for the
command. But he was nearly 60, at least 20 years too old. Sir James
Ross, fifteen years younger, had been offered it, but declined on the
score of age. Lady Franklin wrote that “such an appointment would do
more than anything else to counteract the effect of Lord Stanley’s
tyranny and injustice.” “I dread exceedingly the effect on his mind of
being without honourable and immediate employment.” Lord Haddington,
the first Lord, then consulted Sir Edward Parry, who represented that
the refusal of Sir John’s application would be a severe blow to him. He
was appointed with some hesitation and misgiving. Sir John Barrow then
assured Fitzjames that he would have the command of the second ship.
But Captain Crozier, who was at Naples, came back and laid claim to the
second ship as an experienced Arctic officer. He was appointed, though
much too old. All this was a bitter disappointment to Fitzjames. But
when Sir John Barrow told him he could go as commander under Franklin
if he thought it worth his while, he at once accepted. He was delighted
with Franklin and they worked together in perfect harmony.
Fitzjames naturally had a good deal to do with the appointment of
officers. The First Lieutenant of the _Erebus_ was Graham Gore,
who was at the battle of Navarino, and with Sir George Back in the
_Terror_. He served in the China war under Nias, who had been Parry’s
midshipman in his first two voyages and was “a man of great stability
of character, a very good officer, and the sweetest of tempers” wrote
Fitzjames. The second Lieutenant was Le Vescomte, who was First
Lieutenant with Fitzjames in the _Clio_; the third, Fairholme, had been
through trying adventures in Africa. When in command of a prize slaver
he was wrecked on the African coast and captured by the Moors, who
carried him off as a prisoner, but he was ultimately rescued by some
French negroes on the Senegal. He next served with Fitzjames in the
_Ganges_ in the Mediterranean, afterwards volunteering for Trotter’s
Niger expedition. He went up the river as far as Egga, but was
invalided. Afterwards he was in the _Excellent_ and _Superb_ until he
joined the _Erebus_. He was a zealous, smart young officer, as also was
Des Voeux, who was with Fitzjames in the _Cornwallis_. He was then “a
most unexceptionable, light-hearted, obliging young fellow.” Of the two
youngest officers, Sargent and Crouch, many good things were said. In
the _Terror_ were Hodgson, who was with Fitzjames in the _Cornwallis_,
and Irving, a relation of Sir George Clerk of Penicuick[125], who
had had experience of roughing it in the Australian bush. Hornby--a
good officer and messmate but a little disappointed at having so long
to wait for his promotion--and young Thomas, were the mates in the
_Terror_. Dr Goodsir, a man of considerable scientific attainments, was
the naturalist in the _Erebus_, and Macdonald, the Assistant Surgeon of
the _Terror_, had been for a cruise in a whaler, and had some knowledge
of the Eskimo language.
Sir Edward Parry was often down at Woolwich when the ships were fitting
out, giving Fitzjames the benefit of his experience. The _Erebus_
was an old bomb vessel of 370 tons, very strongly built, and with a
capacious hold. The _Terror_ was also a bomb vessel, rather smaller,
of 340 tons, repaired after Back’s voyage, and specially strengthened.
Fitzjames was very anxious to have steam power. There was little time,
but it was arranged that each ship should have a small auxiliary
engine and screw, to propel them a few knots during calms. This was the
first time a screw steamer was used in Arctic service.
Crowds of visitors came to see the ships before they left Woolwich.
On the 18th of May Sir John Franklin performed divine service for the
first time, off Greenhithe, and on the 19th the expedition started with
the brightest prospects.
Franklin’s instructions were to make for the coast of North America by
passing west of Cape Walker, high land seen by Parry at a distance, to
the south of Barrow’s Strait. He was also authorized to try a route by
Wellington Channel, if he found it free of ice.
At the Whale Fish Islands the observatory for magnetic observations
was set up on the same little island where Parry had done similar work
in his third voyage. From here they sailed away to battle with the
ice. The _Erebus_ and _Terror_ were last seen by the _Prince of Wales_
whaler, Captain Dannett, in 74° 48′ N., 66° 13′ W. All were well and in
remarkable spirits.
The expedition reached Lancaster Sound. Wellington Channel was found to
be clear of ice, and Sir John Franklin was persuaded to try that route.
Passing Cape Riley, Fitzjames must have noticed the excellent winter
quarters formed by Beechey Island. Reid, the Greenland pilot of the
_Erebus_, and Blanky of the _Terror_, who had served with Ross, were in
their respective crow’s nests, reporting “Water ahead! large water!”
So the ships sailed gaily up the channel for a hundred miles, reaching
77° N. There they were stopped by impenetrable floes of heavy ice. The
ships’ heads were accordingly turned to the south and they sailed down
a strait which they discovered between Cornwallis and Bathurst Islands,
finally taking up winter quarters in the snug harbour formed by Beechey
Island. Great discoveries had been made, and no expedition had ever
accomplished so much in a first season.
The winter at Beechey Island was no doubt passed happily. There was
scientific work, and such a genial commander as Fitzjames would be
sure to have provided plenty of amusement for officers and men. In the
spring a workshop and an observatory were built on shore, and a garden
was laid out with all the flora of North Devon. The naturalist had a
station at Cape Riley. Shooting camps were formed at Cape Bowden to the
north, and Caswall’s Tower to the east, sending in supplies of fresh
food for the ships’ companies. But a cloud loomed upon their horizon,
for the terrible discovery was made that the greater part of the tinned
provisions were unfit for food. A third winter would be fatal.
Three men died during the winter, but on the whole the explorers
must have emerged from their winter-quarters full of hope and bright
anticipations. The water was making fast in the offing. A canal was cut
to the edge of the ice, and at last the good ships were free. A record
was certainly left in the cairn, but it was never found. We do not know
whether any attempt was made to push westward from Cape Walker, in
accordance with the instructions. If so, the impracticable character of
the ice would soon have been discovered. Then the explorers would turn
for a passage to the east of Cape Walker. Parry had seen this cape as a
distant land to the south. Probably he saw a coast as well, which led
him to call it a cape rather than an island. Nothing was known between
the north coast of North Somerset and Cape Walker. It was evidently
a very open season. The ships sailed on without hindrance, making
discoveries of land on either side, all on board full of excitement and
hope. At length they reached the latitude of Ross’s magnetic pole. Then
the fatal choice was made.
It was all open to the south. If they had continued on their southerly
course the two ships would have reached Bering Strait. There was the
navigable passage before them. But alas! the chart-makers had drawn an
isthmus (which only existed in their imagination) connecting Boothia
with King William Land. So the explorers thought that the only way was
round the western side of King William Land. They altered course to the
west, and were lost. For they were soon beset in that mighty ice-pack
which flows down from the great polar ocean and impinges on the
north-west coast of King William Land. The ships were in a precarious
position, yet they must still have been full of hope that they would
reach the coast of North America in the next navigable season. They
were drifting very slowly to the west.
In the spring of 1847 travelling parties were organised. Fitzjames
provided them with records in tin cylinders to be deposited in cairns.
The records were as follows:
H.M. ships _Erebus_ and _Terror_
Wintered in the ice in
Lat. 70° 5′ N. Long. 98° 23′ W.
28 May 1847.
Having wintered in 1846–47[126] at Beechey Island in Lat. 74°
43′ 28″ N. Long. 91° 39′ 15″ W. after having ascended Wellington
Channel to Lat. 77° and returned by the west side of Cornwallis
Island.
Sir John Franklin commanding the expedition,
All well.
Party consisting of 2 officers and 6 men left the ships on Monday
24th May 1847.
GM GORE, _Lieut._
CHAS. F. DES VOEUX, _Mate_.
One party, probably led by Fitzjames himself, went east for magnetic
observations, passing Cape Felix of Ross. The other, under Graham
Gore, advanced southwards to the Cape Herschel of Simpson, and thus
discovered the North West Passage. Franklin’s party was thus the first
to discover the connection of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
When the travelling parties returned they found that Sir John Franklin
was dying. He heard of the discovery of the North West Passage, he
was confident that the ships would get clear in the summer, and he
was in comparative comfort. Doubtless he bade farewell to officers
and men, sent messages to Lady Franklin, and died happy and full of
hope. His funeral is admirably portrayed in the bas-relief below
his statue, by one who knew the Arctic regions well. The beautiful
epitaph in Westminster Abbey is by Franklin’s nephew-in-law, the poet
Tennyson[127]--
Not here! the cold North hath thy bones, and thou
Heroic sailor soul
Art passing on thy happier voyage now
Toward no earthly pole.
The date of Sir John Franklin’s death was the 11th of June, 1847.
[Illustration:
WHOEVER finds this paper is requested to forward it to the
Secretary of the Admiralty, London, _with a note of the time and
place at which it was found_: or, if more convenient, to deliver it
for that purpose to the British Consul at the nearest Port.
QU’INCONQUE trouvera ce papier est prié d’y marquer le tems et
lieu ou il l’aura trouvé, et de le faire parvenir au plutot au
Secretaire de l’Amirauté Britannique à Londres.
CUALQUIERA que hallare este Papel, se le suplica de enviarlo al
Secretario del Almirantazgo, en Londrés, con una nota del tiempo y
del lugar en donde se halló.
EEN ieder die dit Papier mogt vinden, wordt hiermede verzogt, om
her zelve, ten spoedigste, te willen zenden aan den Heer Minister
van de Marine der Nederlanden in ’s Gravenhage, of wel aan den
Secretaris der Britsche Admiraliteit, te London, en daar by te
voegen eene Nota, inhoudende de tyd en de plaats alwaar dit Papier
is gevonden geworden.
FINDEREN af dette Papiir ombedes, naar Leilighed gives, at sende
samme til Admiralitets Secretairen i London, eller nœrmeste
Embedsmand i Danmark, Norge, eller Sverrig. Tiden og Stœdit hvor
dette er fundet önskes venskabeligt paategnet.
WER diesen Zettel findet, wird hier-durch ersucht denselben an den
Secretair des Admiralitets in London einzusenden, mit gefälliger
angabe an welchen ort und zu welcher zeit er gefundet worden ist.
_J. Netherclife Sen^r. Farsun 6th 113 S^t Martin’s Lane_
London. John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1859]
Lieut. Graham Gore, his warm-hearted and steadfast friend, soon
followed his beloved commander. With the rest there was hope of release
during the summer months, but, as the month of September came to a
close, hope must have given way to something like despair. For the
ships had been much knocked about in their slow drift from off Cape
Felix to about fifteen miles from Cape Victory of Ross, a distance
of about 30 miles. If they ever got free of the ice it was doubtful
whether they would float. There was scarcely sufficient food for the
third winter, and what remained was slow poison. Nine officers and
thirteen men died during that fearful winter, and the rest were much
reduced and very weak.
Crozier and Fitzjames must have known the danger only too well. There
must be a retreat by Back’s Fish River, but only the strongest would
be able to get so far and none were really strong. Fitzjames set to
work to prepare two boats for the ascent of the river, taking as his
model the boat described by Sir George Back and Dr King. The boats were
originally carvel-built. For the seven upper strakes thin fir planks
were substituted clinker-fashion, for the sake of lightness. Above the
upper strake a weather-cloth, nine inches wide, was battened down round
the gunwale, supported by 24 stanchions, so placed as to serve as thole
pins for rowing. Six paddles were made for each boat, and they were
provided with masts and sails, and sloping canvas awnings. The boats
were 28 feet long and 7 feet 3 inches in beam. The sledges on which
they were to be carried until they reached the open water required very
careful consideration. There might be very rough ground, and it seems
to have been thought that it would not be safe to sacrifice strength
for lightness. The sledges, therefore, consisted of solid oak runners
23 feet 4 inches long, 8 inches high, and 2½ inches thick, with five
oak cross-bars 4 feet long, bolted down to the runners, which were shod
with iron. On the cross-bars there were supporting chocks for the boat,
securely lashed. The drag ropes were 2¾-inch whale lines, the weight of
the sledge 650 lb. Food and fuel for 103 men for 30 days would weigh
10,600 lb. If all hands dragged, the weight would even then be 200 lb.
per man. It was indeed a forlorn hope. If succour came down the river
in 1848 some might be saved. Crozier and Fitzjames did all for their
people that was possible. The date of abandoning the ships was fixed at
April 22nd, 1848. Boats’ cooking apparatus, pickaxes, spades, silver of
the officers’ messes and other things of the sort for barter with the
natives were taken and much clothing. There were also mementos of those
who had passed away, taken for their relations, such as Sir John’s
orders, a few books, and watches.
The travelling parties, with the two heavy boat sledges, started on
their journey with a full knowledge of their condition, and that many
must fall by the way. No more heroic band ever went forth to die. They
had made great discoveries and had served their country right well.
They reached Cape Victory of Ross, on King William Island, and
encamped. Lieut. Irving found the cairn erected by Graham Gore in the
previous year, and brought the printed form, with the lines written on
it, mentioned on p. 243, to Captain Fitzjames. Fitzjames had some ink
thawed, and wrote round the margin:--
In 1848, H.M. Ships _Terror_ and _Erebus_ were deserted on the
22nd April 5 leagues N.N.W. of this, having been beset since 12
Sept. 1846, the officers and crews consisting of 105 souls under
the command of Captain F. R. M. Crozier landed here in Lat. 69°
37′ 42″ N. and Long. 98° 41′. This paper was found by Lieut.
Irving under the cairn supposed to have been built by Sir James
Ross in 1831 4 miles to the northward where it had been deposited
by the late Commander Gore in June 1847. Sir James Ross’s pillar
has not however been found, and the paper has been transferred to
this position, which is that in which Sir J. Ross’s pillar was
erected--Sir John Franklin died on the 11th June 1847, and the
total loss by deaths in the Expedition has been to this date 9
officers and 15 men.
JAMES FITZJAMES, _Captain_
H.M.S. _Erebus_.
F. R. M. CROZIER,
_Captain and Senior Officer_.
And start on to-morrow 26th for Back’s Fish River.
On the 26th, in the early morning, preparations were made for a start.
The men had much less strength than they supposed. Much had to be
left behind. The boat’s cooking apparatus, shovel, pickaxe, canvas,
blankets, even Hornby’s sextant, a dip circle, the doctor’s medicine
chest, and a pile of warm clothing were left, the latter making a heap
four feet high.
Even thus lightened the boats were still much too heavy. Many of the
men dropped and died; Crozier probably succumbed early at the cape
which now bears his name, where a grave was found. A few reached
Todd Island with one boat. The other had been left, full of a great
variety of things, near Cape Crozier. The survivors crossed the strait
and reached the bay formed by the long promontory ending at Cape
Richardson. A few wandered inland. All perished. When the ice loosened
the _Erebus_ sank. The _Terror_ was drifted on to the American coast,
and ransacked by the Eskimos. Then a gale drove her off the rocks into
deep water, and she too sank.
A veil should be drawn over the last struggles of brave men fighting
cold, disease, and hunger. One likes to think that Captain Fitzjames,
the chivalrous, the sympathetic, the dauntless leader, was perhaps the
last,--that he tended them all and saw them all depart before him; and
that then
His soul to him who gave it rose
God led it to its long repose
Its glorious rest.
And though Fitzjames’s sun has set
Its light shall linger round us yet
Bright, radiant, blest.
CHAPTER XXVII
THE SEARCH FOR FRANKLIN. I.
The sad fate of Sir John Franklin and his gallant companions is
rendered still more melancholy by the reflection that some at least
of them might have been saved. When no news arrived in 1846 prompt
measures should have been taken, but the Admiralty asked advice and did
nothing.
Dr King, who accompanied Sir George Back down the Great Fish River in
1833, made earnest and repeated appeals to the Admiralty and to the
Colonial Office in 1847 to send a relief party down that river, and
he pointed out quite correctly the position where the _Erebus_ and
_Terror_ had been beset. His letters were not even answered. For Sir
James Ross told them there was not any reason for anxiety and gave a
strongly expressed opinion that the crews of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_
would never under any circumstances make for the Great Fish River.
Other authorities concurred. This sealed their fate. Admiral Beechey
alone thought that a boat should be sent down that river.
The year 1848 arrived, but no news reached England. Sir John Richardson
was accordingly sent out to examine the coast between the Mackenzie
and Coppermine rivers, but not to extend his voyage to the mouth of
the Fish River, where even then he might have saved a few. Two ships,
the _Enterprise_ and _Investigator_, were also fitted out to go to
the relief of the lost expedition, and Sir James Ross received the
command. He was on board the _Enterprise_, and his old Antarctic
first lieutenant Bird, who had been his companion in three of Parry’s
voyages, was Captain of the _Investigator_. But Sir James went in the
full conviction that he would meet the _Erebus_ and _Terror_, or that
they would pass him and that he would find them in the Thames on his
return.
In his ship were M’Clure, who had been with Back in the _Terror_,
and M’Clintock, greatest of sledge travellers, who was then entering
upon his glorious Arctic career. M’Clintock found a good friend in Sir
James, who took a great liking for the young lieutenant. Sir James was
then forty-eight, with an experience of polar work unrivalled by that
of any living man, but he was somewhat shaken by Antarctic work, and
lacked elasticity and the qualities of his youth, when he was foremost
in keeping his shipmates in high spirits and good health. In person he
was short but powerfully built, and was remarkable for his aquiline
nose and very piercing black eyes.
The expedition was unfortunate. It was stopped by closely-packed floes
across Barrow Strait and across Prince Regent’s Inlet. There was
nothing for it but to take refuge for the winter in Port Leopold, at
the north-east end of North Somerset.
From this position Sir James could only send a travelling party in
the spring for 80 miles to Fury Beach, to ascertain whether any of
Franklin’s people had visited the shore there; while he himself made a
more extended journey along the northern and western shores of North
Somerset. This journey is specially memorable as the initiation of
M’Clintock in that art of sledge travelling which he afterwards brought
to such perfection.
Sir James Ross arranged for an absence of 40 days, travelling with
M’Clintock and two sledges, each dragged by six men. The two tents were
9 feet by 6. They travelled at night, starting after a cup of luke-warm
cocoa. Luncheon at midnight consisted of a few mouthfuls of biscuit
and frozen meat, with some snow water and half a gill of rum. After
the tent was pitched supper consisted of 1 lb. of meat, and 1 lb. of
biscuit and the other half gill of rum with lime-juice. But the meat
was pork including bone, or preserved meat not weighing nearly what was
pretended. It was really less than half a pound of meat, and was quite
insufficient.
On reaching Cape Bunny, the north-west point of North Somerset, which
proved to be an island, they left the coast discovered by Parry in
1819 and, turning south, entered on a previously unknown region. The
furthest point to the south in 72° 38′ was reached on June 6th, whence
land, seen at a distance of fifty miles, was named Cape Bird. They
little knew how near they were to the solution of the Franklin mystery.
The sledge travellers reached the _Enterprise_ again on June 23rd. The
strength of all the men was much impaired, mainly from insufficiency
of food. Four broke down altogether, one having to be carried on
the sledge. The return journey had been a period of intense labour,
constant exposure, and insufficient food. M’Clintock alone returned
well. They had gone over five hundred miles in thirty-nine days. The
weight to be dragged per man was too great, and the whole scheme
required revision. Still, it was the greatest Arctic sledge journey
that had ever been made up to that time. M’Clintock noted everything,
down to the minutest detail, and with the eye of genius saw the
numerous improvements that might be made, and the great future that
sledge travelling had in the work of polar discovery.
As the summer advanced scurvy broke out, and it was only kept in check
by the very large number of birds (2300) that were shot. A long lane
had to be cut through the ice, and it was not until quite the end of
August that the ships were clear of their winter quarters. Sir James
Ross had intended to continue the search in Barrow Strait, but on the
very day after leaving Port Leopold the ships were closely beset and
drifted helplessly down Lancaster Sound into Baffin’s Bay. They were
not released until September 24th, having been firmly fixed in the
drifting ice for 24 days. There was nothing for it but to return to
England, which they did in the full expectation that they would find
the Franklin expedition safely returned before them. Bitter was their
disappointment.
In the spring of 1849 the old _North Star_ frigate, under Mr Saunders,
the Master who served in the _Terror_ with Sir George Back, was sent
out with stores to enable Sir James Ross to continue the search, but he
too was unfortunate. Unable to get through the ice of Melville Bay in
time, he was obliged to winter in Wolstenholme Sound on the Greenland
coast. In the summer of the succeeding year Mr Saunders landed a depôt
of provisions at Admiralty Inlet in Lancaster Sound and returned to
England.
The results of Sir James Ross’s expedition were the discovery of 150
miles of coast on the western side of North Somerset, the certainty
that none of Franklin’s people had been to Fury Beach, and above all
the experience gained by M’Clintock. Ross and Bird, who had commenced
as Parry’s faithful and loyal midshipmen, had now completed their polar
careers[128].
The country was now thoroughly alarmed when it was too late; the
warmest sympathy was felt throughout the civilised world, and the
Government was forced to take steps on a large scale. The _Enterprise_
and _Investigator_ were re-commissioned and despatched to search by way
of Bering Strait, under the command of Captains Collinson and M’Clure,
while the _Plover_ was stationed near Cape Barrow as a depôt ship.
Two strong bluff-bowed, barque-rigged vessels of 410 and 430 tons,
named the _Resolute_ and _Assistance_, were strengthened and fitted
out in the yards of Green and Wigram respectively, and two sharp-bowed
screw steamers were bought as tenders, and named the _Pioneer_ and
_Intrepid_. These four vessels, under the command of Captain T. H.
Austin, were to search by way of Lancaster Sound. Captain Ommanney was
to have the _Assistance_, with M’Clintock, Mecham, and Vesey Hamilton.
Sherard Osborn was to command the _Pioneer_, J. Bertie Cator the
_Intrepid_. The Admiralty also bought two brigs, which were named the
_Lady Franklin_ and _Sophia_, for another expedition under Captain
Penny, a well-known whaling captain in those days. Old Sir John Ross,
with some aid from Sir Felix Booth and others, managed to fit out a
small schooner called the _Felix_, towing the _Mary_, a decked boat.
Sir John Ross declared that Franklin had promised to leave a record for
him at Cape Hotham. He had with him Lieutenant Philips, who had been in
Ross’s Antarctic expedition on board the _Erebus_, and that old polar
veteran Abernethy. Lady Franklin, with marvellous intuition, felt very
strongly that one important route was being omitted--that by Prince
Regent’s Inlet. She therefore equipped another schooner named the
_Prince Albert_, under Commander Forsyth, to search in that direction.
That warm-hearted and philanthropic American, Mr Grinnell, also fitted
out and despatched two small vessels from New York, the _Advance_ and
_Rescue_. Thus no less than twelve vessels were despatched in 1850 in
search of Franklin’s expedition.
Since the _Enterprise_ was paid off, M’Clintock had been studying
all the details of sledge travelling. He joined the _Assistance_ at
Woolwich directly he was appointed, and was absorbed in the work of
fitting-out. In Captain Austin he found an officer with a genius for
organisation who had been brought up to Arctic work in the splendid
school of Parry. He examined into every detail; if care and forethought
availed anything there would be no scurvy where Austin commanded. He
secured the health and comfort of the men in the winter by fixing the
Sylvester stove on the keelson, and sending warm air from it round the
living decks, while bathing and all washing was done in the holds,
so that the living decks were kept dry and wholesome. Austin was a
short, stout man, of florid complexion, fifty years of age and thus
rather too old for sledge-work, but he was full of vivacity and life,
very kind-hearted, and most sympathetic and thoughtful for those under
his command. If there ever was justification for employing an Arctic
commander at the age of fifty, it was in the case of Austin. The
perfect health of all in the four ships was due to him.
The present writer served on the _Assistance_ under Ommanney. Sir
Edward Parry, now near the close of his well-spent life, visited the
ships at Greenhithe, and bade us God speed with a few earnest words
which went to our hearts. Owing to constant adverse winds in the
Atlantic we did not reach the Whale Fish Islands until the 15th of
June. We filled up with stores from the transport and on the 25th
reached the edge of the Melville Bay ice, where we overtook Penny’s
brigs. Then on to battle with that ice for many arduous days, and to
come out victorious.
Parry had twice attempted the middle pack. The first time he was
successful, but the second time he suffered long detention. It is
better to stick to the land floe in Melville Bay and run no risks.
Forty days of hard work, towing, tracking, blasting, and cutting
docks amidst the fairy scenery of refracted icebergs saw our squadron
through the ice and off Cape York, in company with Penny’s brigs,
the _Felix_ and the _Prince Albert_. We gazed on “the crimson cliffs
of Beverley,” which were a very pale, scarcely perceptible pink, but
dear old Sir John Ross, who was visiting us, staunchly defended the
brilliant crimson as correctly depicting, in his book, the colour the
snow had in 1818. Here too we were visited by a party of Sir John’s
“Arctic Highlanders,” and one of them, a lad of about eighteen named
Kalahierua, who also received the names of Erasmus after Captain
Ommanney and York after the cape, accepted an invitation to cast in
his lot with us, and came on board. Like the Eskimo of Igloolik who
drew the Melville Peninsula with such accuracy for Parry, our friend
Kalahierua had a wonderful eye for topography. When asked to draw a
map of his country he took the pencil and delineated the coast-line
with marvellous accuracy, making marks to indicate islands and
bird-frequented cliffs, leaving a space where glaciers reach the sea,
and marking the places where his people had winter stations, mentioning
the names. The northern part of the map was then unknown, but it was
afterwards proved to be quite correct.
The _Resolute_ and _Pioneer_ went to Pond’s Bay for news, while the
_Assistance_ and _Intrepid_ proceeded direct to Lancaster Sound,
discovering a fine harbour near Cape Warrender, with some interesting
Eskimo remains.
On the 19th of August, before sunset, it was blowing a stiff gale with
thick weather. The _Assistance_, under close-reefed topsails, drifted
rapidly to leeward, rolling her lee boats into the water. The chief
anxiety was whether there was ice to leeward, and whether the gale
would last long enough to drive the ship down upon it, in which case
the heavy sea which was running would effect her destruction in a very
few minutes. Next day the wind moderated, and we passed between Leopold
Island and the mainland of North Somerset. Crossing Lancaster Sound on
the 20th, Captain Ommanney proceeded on board the _Intrepid_ to land
at Cape Riley, which, with Beechey Island, forms a good harbour. This
cape is a cliff rising from the sea, with a talus of fallen rocks and
stones at its base. Strange things were reported on shore. There were
numerous remains of a camping party, and among the relics a long staff
with a cross-piece at the end, secured with spun yarn, and four bent
pieces of cask hoop fastened to it. This had probably been used with a
net for catching specimens. The officers of the _Assistance_ thought
that the winter quarters of Sir John Franklin must be off Beechey
Island, but Captain Ommanney seeing open water before him resolved to
push onwards.
The other ships soon afterwards arrived at Beechey Island, and
discovered Franklin’s winter quarters: first Penny’s brigs, followed by
the _Resolute_ and _Intrepid_, then the _Felix_ and the two American
vessels. The _Prince Albert_ had gone home, nobody knew why. After the
most exhaustive search, no record could be found. The cause of its
disappearance will never be known.
The _Assistance_ was beset for some days in Wellington Channel, and
then rounded Cape Hotham, the south-east point of Cornwallis Island.
Again the ship was stopped by the ice, within 150 yards of a low
gravelly promontory where the ice was piled up to a height of 20 feet.
On the morning of September 6th, the tide setting rapidly to the
eastward, a heavy floe struck the ship, which sustained severe pressure
and was listed over to port, forced astern, and raised 3½ feet out of
the water. The kedge anchor was set in the ice to hold the ship, but
the fluke gave and snapped off and the rest of the anchor was hurled
into the air. The shank was then imbedded in the ice and the chain
secured to it, and this, with four large hawsers, at last held the
ship. Next day a northerly wind drove the ice off shore. The _Intrepid_
discovered a bay suited for winter quarters on the south coast of
Cornwallis Island, which was named Assistance Harbour.
But the cry was still Westward Ho! Pushing onwards, the _Assistance_
and _Intrepid_ were finally stopped by an immense field of ice
extending from Griffith Island to Cape Walker, entirely precluding
further progress. On September 10th the _Resolute_ and _Pioneer_ joined
company, then Mr Grinnell’s schooners, and Penny’s brigs were seen
in the offing. It was then that I made the acquaintance of Dr Kane on
board the _Rescue_. But progress for that year was finally stopped. The
American vessels were unprepared for a winter and parted company to
return home. Like Ross’s ships, however, they were beset in Lancaster
Sound and were forced to winter while being drifted down Baffin’s Bay,
their crews suffering great hardships and privations. Penny’s brigs,
and the little _Phoenix_ with Sir John Ross on board, wintered in
Assistance Harbour.
The squadron of Commodore Austin--a brevet rank universally given to
him by his followers--had to winter in the pack between Cornwallis and
Griffith Islands, but within a short walk of the latter. Never, before
or since, had so large a body of men assembled together in the Arctic
regions, never for a nobler purpose, and never better organised. The
arrangements for keeping the living decks dry and sweet, for bathing
and washing clothes, for ventilation, and for exercise, were admirable,
and perfect health was maintained. All hands were kept fully employed
and amused. The chief work was the preparation for the search by sledge
travelling. There were various classes of instruction for the men,
and a class for navigation. A fine theatre on the upper deck, with a
beautiful proscenium and appropriate scenery, was erected on board
the _Assistance_. There were plays every fortnight, one acted by the
officers and another by the men, winding up with a pantomime and songs
composed for the occasion. For the play-bills, printed on silk, wood
blocks were cut of the Royal arms and other adornments. A monthly
newspaper called the _Aurora_ appeared on board the _Assistance_,
the _Illustrated Arctic News_ in the _Resolute_, and another more
short-lived paper called the _Minavilins_. The Commodore revived the
_bal masqué_ on board the _Resolute_, in memory of those in which he
had taken part in the winter of Parry’s third voyage; and there was
also the “Intrepid Saloon.” Ashore the ravines of Griffith Island were
explored in the winter walks, and collections of fossils made.
Captain Austin had a permanent Sledge Committee of heads of
departments. But he was a good judge of character; he had the great
merit of appreciating M’Clintock, and every detail was practically
left to that officer. He had inaugurated autumn sledge travelling and
depôts had been established for the spring journeys.
The sledges were made of Canada elm, the cross-bars of ash. The upper
and lower pieces were called the bearer and the runner, the uprights
being tenoned through them. A shoeing of ⅛-inch iron, 3 inches wide
and slightly convex on its under surface, was riveted and clinched to
the runner. The length of a ten-man sledge was 13 feet, of a six-man
sledge 9 feet. The cross-bars were lashed on with strips of hide whilst
warm and wet, so that drying would shrink them and make all tight. The
width of the bearer was 2½ inches, and there were six uprights, and six
cross-bars 3 feet long. At each corner there were light iron stanchions
dropped into sockets, forming supports to the sides of a canvas tray
or boat capable of ferrying the sledge crew across water. The weight
of the sledge was 125 lb. The tents were 15 feet long by 8 feet high,
of closely woven duck, the head-rope of horsehair. The four tent-poles
were of ash, pointed at one end with metal, 9 ft. 8 in. in length; the
weight of tent and poles 55 lb. Seven flannel or felt sleeping bags
weighed 42 lb., and a wolf or buffalo robe over all 40 lb., waterproof
floor-cloth 12 lb., and shovel 5½ lb.
The cooking apparatus consisted of a spirit-lamp holding 1½ gills, a
kettle with a short spout and two handles fitted on it, and the stand,
all weighing 17 lb. Then there were knapsacks for spare clothes, and a
sundry bag. The irreducible constant weights amounted to 440 lb.
The scale of diet per man per day was as follows:
Lime-juice ½ oz.
Pemmican[129] 1 lb.
Biscuit 12 oz.
Boiled Pork for luncheon 6 „
Rum ½ gill
Biscuit dust 1 oz.
Tea and Sugar ¾ „
Chocolate and Sugar ½ „
Tobacco ½ „
besides salt, pepper, curry, and onion powder. The fuel for this
ration would be 21½ oz. of spirits of wine, or rather over a pint. The
provisions and fuel for seven men for forty days weighed 876 lb., which
in addition to the constant 440 lb. gave a total of 1316 lb., or 220
lb. per man at starting, the weight being reduced by 22 lb. each day.
M’Clintock’s plan was that each division of sledges should have an
auxiliary sledge to fill them up at a distance of 50 miles from the
ship; and each extended sledge was to have a limited sledge to fill it
up at a hundred miles further. At an average rate of only ten miles a
day this would enable the extended sledges to advance 350 miles from
the ships, picking up depôts as they returned.
The dress consisted of flannel waistcoats and drawers, woollen socks
with a square of blanket folded over them, and duck boots with leather
soles or moccasins in extreme cold. Box-cloth trousers, waistcoat with
chamois leather sleeves, and a box-cloth monkey jacket were worn, and
over all a white duck jumper as a snow repeller, with chamois leather
on the shoulders, and pockets for ammunition, watch, and note-book.
The head covering was a fur cap with ear-flaps. A water-bottle covered
with flannel was carried next the flannel waistcoat, but until June the
water always became ice. The weight of an entire suit was from 16 to 20
lb.
March was the coldest month, the mean being -34° Fahr, and the minimum
-53° Fahr. From March 10th nothing was thought of but making the sledge
equipments complete. The Commodore issued a series of questions in
minutest detail relating to the various requirements.
These details are of the greatest importance, because they constitute
the original basis of sledge travelling, of which Leopold M’Clintock
was the founder. He placed a most comprehensive means of search for
our missing countrymen in the hands of the Commodore. Nothing to be
compared with it, in magnitude and efficiency, has ever been seen in
the Arctic regions before or since. There were, including Penny’s
crews, no less than 220 men ready to start, all full of zeal and
enthusiasm.
Commodore Austin had no clue as to the position of the missing crews,
and at that time little was known of the region to be searched. He
accordingly resolved to explore in every direction to the utmost
extent of the means at his disposal. Penny undertook Wellington
Channel. He had a team of dogs and the best dog driver in Greenland in
the person of a Dane named Carl Petersen, a man of large experience
and full of ancient lore as well as modern knowledge. M’Clintock and
two other parties, led by Aldrich and Bradford, took the direction
of Melville Island. Captain Ommanney led another division to Cape
Walker, and smaller parties were to examine the intermediate coasts and
islands. Altogether, search parties were despatched in eight different
directions.
Each sledge had a name, motto, and flag. They exercised all through
March, and April 4th was the day selected for starting, the
starting-point being at the north-west point of Griffith Island. The
sledges with their crews went in two long columns to the appointed
place with colours flying, a splendid sight, the Commodore delivered
a spirit-stirring address to the assembled travellers, paying a just
tribute to all they owed to the genius of M’Clintock, and the explorers
started in two great divisions, one to the west and the other to the
south.
The ice surface was fairly good, though sometimes interrupted by lines
of hummocks. Sails were set with the wind aft or on the quarter, the
tent poles being used as sheers and as a yard, and the floor-cloths
for a sail. Under favourable circumstances this was a great success.
Large square kites, invented by Mr Leigh Smith’s father, were partially
successful.
We travelled at night and slept in the day-time. As soon as the tent
was pitched, the floor-cloth was put down, sleeping-bags laid out, and
the buffalo robe placed over them. The men took it in turn to be cook
of the mess, supper consisting of pemmican, biscuit, and grog. Boots
were taken off, feet carefully examined for frost-bites, snow blindness
doctored with _vinum opii_ (“open eye” the men called it) and then all
got into their bags.
Songs and stories followed until all were overcome by sleep. “Is the
chronometer wound”? was the form of saying good night. In the evening
the agony of having to force our feet into boots frozen as hard as
iron had to be undergone. Breakfast consisted of cocoa or tea and
biscuit. Everything being packed, the journey began at 6 P.M., the
officer falling in to the drag-ropes except when he was wanted to
guide the sledge or shoot a bear. There was a short halt for luncheon
consisting of hard frozen pork fat, biscuit, and a tot of rum. But it
was difficult to drink out of a pannikin without leaving the skin of
the lips attached to it. The process called for considerable caution,
but I had a piece of blanket on purpose to put over the rim. The time
of marching was from 8 to 10 hours.
The region to the south was quite unknown except Cape Walker, which can
be seen at a great distance. Captain Ommanney, leading the southern
division, reached that lofty cliff. Then Mecham explored the island on
which it is situated; Lieut. Browne was sent down to the east coast
of the newly-discovered land, exactly in the direction of the lost
ships if he had only known it; Vesey Hamilton examined Lowther Island;
while Captain Ommanney and Sherard Osborn made a long journey down
to the west side of the new land which was named after the Prince of
Wales. Osborn observed the tremendous ice in what has since been named
M’Clintock Channel, and it was clear to him that Franklin could never
have passed in that direction. Captain Ommanney travelled round a
very extensive bay. The Cape Walker division of sledges did its work
thoroughly well.
M’Clintock marched to the westward[130], with two other extended
parties, one under Lieut. Aldrich of the _Resolute_ examining the
eastern shores of Bathurst Island, and the other under Dr Bradford
taking the west side of Melville Island. M’Clintock himself went along
the southern coast of Melville Island, reaching and passing Cape
Dundas, the furthest western point of Sir Edward Parry. M’Clintock was
then in high hopes of finding traces of some of Franklin’s parties,
as there was an idea that Sir John might have passed up Wellington
Channel and made his way to the north of Melville Island. It was
thought that a retreating party might have made its way to Bushnan
Cove, as Parry had given such a pleasant description of that ravine.
Thither M’Clintock went, but only to find the wheels of Parry’s cart
and the bleached bones of the ptarmigan his party had eaten. He then
marched overland to Parry’s winter quarters, and encamped at the foot
of Parry’s sandstone rock with the inscription carved by Dr Fisher.
The wayworn sledge travellers started on their return on May 27th.
They had had the advantage of fresh food from musk oxen, hares, and
ptarmigan, and additional fuel from bear’s blubber. But with the summer
the most harassing kind of sledge travelling began. Large pools of
water formed on the ice floes, and the men often got wet through in
ice-cold water. A mixture of ice and snow formed a crust over these
pools of water, but not strong enough to bear, and through these they
had to wade and struggle as best they could. At length M’Clintock and
his gallant band arrived alongside the _Assistance_ on July 4th. Up to
that date it was the greatest Arctic feat on record. M’Clintock’s party
had been 80 days away, 44 outward and 36 home, and had made 770 miles,
reaching a distance of 300 miles from the ship. Their rate was 10½
miles a day, and they were detained 2½ days by gales.
Thus was Captain Austin’s extensive scheme of search ably and
completely carried out by the officers who served under him, with
exemplary fortitude, zeal, and intelligence. There were only three
amputations of toes, and one death from frost-bite. Of all Arctic
expeditions, Captain Austin’s was perhaps the happiest, the healthiest,
the best administered, and the most successful. Its sledge travellers
covered 7025 miles on foot, dragging the sledges themselves, and
discovered 1225 miles of new land.
It was necessary to cut and blast lanes for the ships to reach open
water. Lieut. Mecham ably conducted the blasting operations. The ships
were free on the 11th of August, after having been frozen up for eleven
months. Captain Austin then proceeded to search Jones Sound in the
_Pioneer_ as far as the ice would admit, while the _Assistance_ visited
the Cary Islands in Baffin’s Bay. The _Intrepid_ had an unprecedented
experience. She had been up Jones Sound in company with the _Pioneer_
and was making for the rendezvous on August 27th when the ice closed
round, and she was obliged to make fast to a floe. Soon the floe was
in motion and moving rapidly towards a large grounded iceberg. Before
the vessel could be extricated she was driven with a frightful crash
against the berg at 5 P.M. The vessel rose to the heavy pressure and
two whaleboats and the dinghy were at once got out on the floe. Soon
the vessel’s taffrail was 40 feet and her bow 30 feet up the side of
the berg, the masses of ice rising nearly 10 feet above the bulwark.
The crew prevented huge pieces from falling on board with capstan bars.
Then the pressure ceased, the piled-up masses sank from alongside,
and the ship was left suspended on the side of the berg by two small
wedge-pieces, one at the stern post the other at the bow. It seemed
inevitable that she must fall over on her broadside and be smashed.
At 2 A.M. the pressure began again, the ice piling up in a frightful
manner, and crushing the boats on the floe to atoms. It was blowing
hard from S.E. If the vessel had fallen over, Lieut. Cator knew that
all must perish. But at 2 P.M. the pressure ceased quite suddenly, and
the ship shot down into the water, and was safe. This is probably the
most extraordinary and appalling danger that any ship ever went through
in the Arctic regions.
The squadron returned to England on October 4th. Captain Austin
had conducted the expedition with exceptional ability and success.
M’Clintock had gained more Arctic experience. He had been first
lieutenant of the best-administered and happiest ship that ever crossed
the Arctic Circle, he had made life-long friendships, and his genius
had created Arctic sledge travelling.
Sherard Osborn, enthusiastic, accomplished, and a perfect leader of
men, was the complement of M’Clintock, of whom he was a friend through
life. Mecham possessed the qualities of both, and some which were
specially his own, a very true and perfect gentleman. Vesey Hamilton
was thoroughly to be depended upon to do all that was expected from him
and to do it well. All were genial friends and the best of messmates.
These were the rising Arctic men when Austin’s expedition returned[131].
Disappointed with Captain Forsyth’s return, Lady Franklin sent out
the _Prince Albert_ again with orders to search to the south of North
Somerset. She alone seems to have had an intuition of the right
direction. She gave the command to Mr William Kennedy of the mercantile
marine, who was accompanied by Lieut. Bellot, a distinguished young
French naval officer. The _Prince Albert_ wintered in Batty Bay on the
north-east coast of North Somerset, and a sledge journey was undertaken
in the spring of 1852. Kennedy used flat-bottomed Indian sledges and
dogs. After a long stay at Fury Beach he worked south and discovered a
strait between North Somerset and Boothia, since named Bellot Strait,
and passed through it. If he had then obeyed his instructions and gone
south he would probably have discovered the fate of Franklin. He turned
north, and returned to Batty Bay by the north coast of North Somerset.
The exact route is uncertain, as the narrative is confused, but he was
away 97 days. There seemed a fatality against the right direction being
taken.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE SEARCH FOR FRANKLIN. II.
When Captain Austin’s expedition returned the people of England were as
determined as ever that the search should continue. But the advisers of
the Admiralty in Committee were quite convinced that Franklin’s ships
were not where they had passed two winters and were lost, and that the
region where our lost countrymen had suffered and died need not be
visited. A majority of them held to the fatuous notion that Franklin
had gone up Wellington Channel, and was far to the north. Under these
circumstances it was, they considered, really quite useless to continue
the search. But the father of Lieut. Cresswell pointed out that the
_Enterprise_ and _Investigator_ had not been heard of, that there was
cause for anxiety, and that one or both might need succour.
It will be remembered that the _Enterprise_ and _Investigator_,
accompanied by the _Plover_, had been sent to attack the problem from
the western side. Captain Collinson took the _Enterprise_ through
Bering Strait and made his first winter quarters in Prince Albert Sound
on the west coast of Victoria Island, the _Plover_ being stationed
permanently as a depôt ship near Cape Barrow. In the spring Collinson
himself explored the east coast of the long and narrow Prince of
Wales’s Strait, being absent from the ship for 51 days. Murray Parkes,
a mate of the _Enterprise_, reached the northern mouth of the strait,
crossed the channel, and leaving the sledge owing to heavy ice, arrived
at Melville Island on foot and thus discovered a second North-West
Passage. His remarkable journey had occupied 74 days. Collinson’s
second winter was in Cambridge Bay in Dease Strait. He thence made a
journey of 49 days to Gateshead Island, where he was almost in sight of
the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ off Cape Victory.
The _Investigator_ had parted company. Captain M’Clure, who on October
20th had sighted Melville Island, wintered off the Princess Royal
Isles in Prince of Wales Strait in 1850–51. The following summer the
ship passed round the south of Banks Island, worked her way with great
difficulty up the west coast, and wintered in a harbour on the north
coast which M’Clure named the Bay of God’s Mercy. From this haven she
was destined never to move, the winters of 1851–2, 1852–3, being passed
there. Banks Land had only been sighted by Parry at a great distance.
M’Clure’s discovery of the great island was an achievement of the first
rank. These proceedings of Collinson and M’Clure were of course unknown
in England when it was resolved to despatch the four ships again, the
_Assistance_ and _Pioneer_ to go up Wellington Channel, the _Resolute_
and _Intrepid_ to press onwards to Melville Island. The Franklin search
could in no way be furthered by sending in directions he could never
have taken, but the relief of the _Investigator_ proved to be a service
of the utmost importance.
Common sense pointed to M’Clintock and Sherard Osborn as the proper
leaders for the two divisions. Both possessed unequalled recent Arctic
experience, both were men of tried ability, liked and respected by all
who had served under them. The Admiralty, however, preferred an old
officer with bad health, no Arctic experience, and the reputation of
being the most unpopular man in the navy, Sir Edward Belcher. It would
have been enough that he should bring misery, disaster, and failure
on his own division, but both were under his orders. Sherard Osborn
was with him in command of the _Pioneer_. The officer to command the
second division, Captain Kellett, was also old and inexperienced, but
fortunately very unlike Belcher. He had been a distinguished surveying
officer in his time, and now he wisely left things to his staff.
Hearty, joyous, with a charming manner, Captain Kellett gave pleasure
wherever he went. M’Clintock commanded the _Intrepid_, Mecham was
Kellett’s first lieutenant, Vesey Hamilton was Mecham’s friend and
supporter--the very cream of the rising Arctic generation.
[Illustration: Critical position of _H.M.S. Investigator_ on the North
Coast of Baring Island, Aug. 20th, 1851]
The expedition left the Thames April 15, 1852, and M’Clintock acquired
great skill in handling the _Intrepid_ in the ice of Melville Bay,
where the _Resolute_ received a very severe nip, and was raised 8 feet
out of the water, being for some time in great danger. The squadron
reached Beechey Island August 14th, where the _North Star_ was to
remain as a depôt ship. Next day the two divisions parted company. The
_Assistance_ and _Pioneer_ proceeded up Wellington Channel to winter
in a harbour in 77° 52′ N., while the _Resolute_ and _Intrepid_ went
on to Melville Island with little difficulty, where they found winter
quarters in a bay sheltered by Dealy Isle, so named after a midshipman
of the _Hecla_, in 74° 56′ N.
We must pause here for a moment to record a modest but successful
expedition carried out in the same season of 1852 by Captain
Inglefield, who in the little _Isabel_, piloted by wonderful old
Abernethy, went for a summer cruise up Baffin’s Bay. He reached the
entrance of Smith Sound and saw that it was an important channel
leading to the polar ocean--really Smith Channel. To the land on the
west side, which was discovered by Baffin but not named by him, he gave
the name of Ellesmere Island.
M’Clintock decided upon a system of autumn travelling for laying
out depôts on a much larger scale than in the previous expedition.
This time he was absent 40 days, and went over 260 miles. Four other
autumn travelling parties laid out depôts, Mecham doing 212 miles
in 25 days, Vesey Hamilton 84 miles in 16 days. Mecham made a very
important discovery. He found a record left by Captain M’Clure of
the _Investigator_ on Parry’s sandstone rock, in the spring of 1852.
M’Clure gave the position of the ship in the Bay of Mercy, and added
that if the _Investigator_ was not again heard of, she would probably
have been carried into the polar pack west of Melville Island, in which
case any attempt to succour him would be useless--a very noble thing
for a man in his position to have written.
The plan for sledge travelling in the spring was that M’Clintock was to
explore as far as possible to the north and west, Mecham to the west,
and Vesey Hamilton to the north. On March 10th a sledge was sent to
communicate with the _Investigator_ in the Bay of Mercy, a distance of
160 miles.
M’Clintock’s two large sledges, when loaded, weighed 2000 lb., or
228 lb. per man on starting. Of the sledge crew of 1851 Salmon was
still well and hearty. George Green, ice quartermaster, was captain
of the sledge, an excellent man; Henry Giddy, boatswain’s mate, was
almost equally good. May 4th, 1853, was a day to be remembered, the
beginning of the greatest sledge journey but one on record. The sledges
were drawn up in two lines with their banners displayed, and started.
M’Clintock and his depôt sledge advanced over the land to Cape Nias.
Mecham and Nares went away under sail to the westward, with a fair wind.
M’Clintock and De Bray, a young French naval officer lent to the
expedition, proceeded with the depôt sledge along the north coast to
Cape Fisher, the extreme point seen by Parry. Here De Bray and the
depôt sledge returned, while M’Clintock turned south to make sure of
connecting his work with that of Mecham. He travelled along the west
coast of Melville Island and considered that it presented the most
beautiful Arctic scenery he had ever seen. A great unknown land had
long been in sight to the westward to which he gave the name of Prince
Patrick Island. It was on May 14th, 1853, that M’Clintock landed on
his new discovery at Point Wilkie, named after his old sledge captain,
and geologically a place of great importance, as exhibiting a patch
of has formation with fossils. The north end of Prince Patrick Island
was reached on the 11th June, and M’Clintock went on to some islands
which he named the Polynia Isles. In the offing there was a line of
very heavy pack ice, with hummocks 35 ft. high. The most northern point
reached was 77° 43′, and here, sending back the sledge to the depôt,
the explorer proceeded down the western coast with a satellite sledge
over flat sand-banks, with a continuous line of stupendous hummocks
in the offing. They rejoined the parent sledge on the 25th June.
M’Clintock’s next discovery was named Emerald Isle, most of the usual
Arctic plants and abundant moss being found on it. The return journey
entailed terrible work owing to the water on the floes.
M’Clintock had been away 105 days and the sledge had gone over 1030
geographical miles in 99 marches, at a rate of 10½ miles a day.
The examination of bays and inlets with the satellite sledge amounted
to 62½ miles, making the whole distance 1210 geographical or 1408
statute miles. The lowest temperature was -24° Fahr.; the number of
positions fixed was 22. This journey was by far the greatest Arctic
effort with sledges that has ever been made by men alone.
Mecham did splendid work to the eastward. Nares[132] commanded the
depôt sledge, and Mecham’s sledge captain was James Tullett, a capital
sailor, who was in the _Assistance_. Travelling over the south-west
part of Melville Island Mecham crossed a strait, and discovered an
island which received the name of Eglinton, where Nares left the
depôt and returned. Another journey across a strait brought Mecham to
the south-west point of Prince Patrick Island. He then explored its
southern and western coasts until he reached a point within 16 miles
of M’Clintock’s furthest, coming from the north. Mecham’s principal
discovery was the remains of trees. At Cape Manning, on the south
coast, there were a considerable number of stems of trees with the bark
on, 90 feet above the sea. Returning, Mecham crossed the land during
the three last days of May and found, in a ravine, a tree protruding 8
feet, and several others with a circumference of 4 feet.
The young explorer then connected his work with that of M’Clintock
on the east side of Prince Patrick Island, thus making these vast
discoveries complete. He got plenty of fresh food for his people,
killing four musk oxen, seven reindeer, sixteen hares, forty ptarmigan,
twelve ducks and geese, and two plover. He was absent 91 days, and went
over 1006 geographical or 1173 statute miles, thus averaging 12½ miles
a day. His discoveries amounted to 785 miles of new country.
Vesey Hamilton explored the northern extremity of Melville Island,
called the Sabine Peninsula, starting on the 27th April with a
seven-man sledge and a satellite sledge. The captain of his sledge was
Ice-Quartermaster George Murray, who had served in both the expeditions
of Ross and Austin. He was a seaman of long experience and great
ability, with literary talent of no mean order, as his contributions
to the _Aurora Borealis_ show. Having explored the whole eastern side
of Melville Island, Hamilton crossed the channel with his satellite
and two men to Bathurst Island, where he met Sherard Osborn, who had
explored the northern side of this island with its two deep inlets,
and sighted another large island to the north which was named after Mr
Findlay, the cartographer. Hamilton then returned to his main sledge,
and reaching the extreme northern point of the Sabine Peninsula,
discovered two islands which were named Vesey Hamilton and Markham
after his old messmates in the _Assistance_. He returned to the ship
after an absence of 54 days, having covered 663 statute miles, and made
some interesting discoveries. This completed the extensive explorations
of 1853, comprising 1800 miles of coast line.
The officers and crew of the _Investigator_ had been rescued from the
fate of Franklin and his people by Mecham’s discovery of M’Clure’s
record. On the arrival of the sledge with the good news at the Bay
of Mercy, Captain M’Clure travelled to the _Resolute_ to discuss
arrangements with Captain Kellett. It was determined to abandon the
_Investigator_, officers and crew being housed on board the _Resolute_
and _Intrepid_. Thus was a third North West Passage discovered.
Lieut. Cresswell of the _Investigator_ with 26 officers and men were
despatched to the _North Star_ at Beechey Island to be sent home at the
first opportunity. The Admiralty had sent out the _Phoenix_, commanded
by Captain Inglefield, and the _Breadalbane_ transport, under Mr
Fawckner, Master R.N., to communicate. The _Breadalbane_ was crushed
by the ice off Beechey Island and sank. Captain Inglefield had brought
out with him Lieut. Bellot, the young French officer who had been with
Kennedy. Most unfortunately the ice floe on which he was, with some
men, got adrift. It was never known exactly what happened, but he must
have slipped off the ice and was drowned. Lieut. Cresswell and his
party went home in the _Phoenix_.
Mindful of the possibility that Captain Collinson might reach Melville
Island in the _Enterprise_, Captain Kellett built a large house, 40
feet by 14, of stone with a wooden roof covered with painted canvas, in
which a depôt was placed of seven months’ provisions for sixty men, and
a cairn was built on Dealy Island, 42 tons of stone being used in its
construction.
[Illustration: Lieut Cresswell’s party sledging over hummocky ice]
In August, 1853, the _Resolute_ and _Intrepid_ broke out of winter
quarters, but it was an ice-encumbered season, and by November 11th
the two vessels were again fixed in winter quarters 26 miles S.W. of
Cape Cockburn on Bathurst Island. The _Assistance_ and _Pioneer_ had
also left their winter quarters at the west end of Grinnell Land (a
prolongation of North Devon) and had attempted to come down Wellington
Channel. They too, however, had been stopped by the ice, and had to
winter 52 miles north of Beechey Island.
The winter passed happily enough on board the _Resolute_ and
_Intrepid_, but it was necessary to report to Sir Edward Belcher,
and Hamilton was accordingly despatched with two men and a team of
nine dogs. He brought back an order to abandon the ships. It was not
explicit, however, and it assumed that Captain Kellett was of the
same mind. M’Clintock then returned and tried to persuade Sir Edward
Belcher not to commit what amounted to a crime. He told the intending
perpetrator that there was every reason to expect that the ships would
get clear, but the only result was an explicit order to abandon them!
It was mainly during these journeys that M’Clintock gained his
experience in the use of dogs. He covered the distance from the
_Resolute_ to the _North Star_ in five days, and the 52 miles thence to
the _Assistance_ in 24 hours. The whole distance there and back was 460
miles, occupying 15 days, an average of 31 miles per day. Wrangell, on
the coast of Siberia, made an average of 29 miles a day for 22 days.
M’Clintock had one man with him, and a team of twelve dogs. He found
that two dogs require the same weight of food as one man, and when
properly fed and not overworked, a dog can draw a man’s full load for a
distance about one-fourth greater than a man would. If both man and dog
are lightly laden, a dog will double the distance which the man could
do. The final conclusion was that for a very long period and a very
long distance men are superior to dogs. At their best, dogs should be
well fed and well treated, and should not be overworked. Then they are
invaluable for keeping up communications to distances not exceeding 300
miles.
Belcher’s disgraceful order had to be obeyed. He intended to crowd all
four crews on board the _North Star_, but luckily Captain Inglefield
arrived in the _Phoenix_ with the old frigate _Talbot_, so that there
was little crowding. The court martial was obliged to acquit Belcher
because his instructions gave him such wide discretion, but his sword
was returned in a silence more damning than words. Sherard Osborn, whom
Belcher had placed under arrest, and Lieut. May, against whom he had
reported, were both immediately promoted.
The ships would almost certainly have got free later in the season. The
_Resolute_ actually did drift out, was picked up by an American vessel
in Davis Strait, and courteously restored by the United States to our
Admiralty.
These three search expeditions effected an enormous increase in the
knowledge of the Arctic regions. Thousands of miles of unknown lands
were brought to light, and the diligent collecting and observations of
officers enabled a good general idea to be formed of the geology of the
newly-discovered region and of the tidal phenomena. The discoveries
also opened a new area for exploration to the westward quite distinct
from the region of the Parry Islands. Like all great discoveries
Prince Patrick Island pointed to further research. It is the
complete examination of the area now known as the Beaufort Sea which
M’Clintock’s discoveries indicate. Meanwhile the great sledge journeys
stand alone and unapproached.
Mecham’s final sledge journey was perhaps the most brilliant
achievement. Accompanied by Krabbé, Master of the _Intrepid_, he
started with two good sledge crews on April 3rd, 1854. Advancing to
Cape Providence they entered the first range of heavy hummocks, and
forced their way through it for five miles. As they approached Banks
Island they were constantly entangled during dense fogs among intricate
hummocks and deep snow. On reaching the land Krabbé parted company
for the Bay of Mercy, in order to report on the condition of the
_Investigator_. He found her heeling over and with her orlops full of
ice, and she no doubt sank soon afterwards. He was five days landing
all her stores and provisions. Mecham proceeded down Prince of Wales
Strait, and arrived at Princess Royal Island on May 4th. There he
found a document stating that further information would be found on an
island in 72° 36′ N., and pushing on, found this second document. He
then began his return journey, heard of the abandonment of the vessels,
and went on to Beechey Island. In 70 days Mecham had travelled 1157
geographical, or 1336 statute miles, the average rate outwards being
18½ miles, and homewards 23½ miles a day. M’Clintock wrote--“Mecham’s
journey is a most splendid feat, topping all previous ones in speed as
well as distance.”
Frederick Mecham was promoted to the rank of Commander on the 21st
October, 1854. A thorough seaman and navigator, a good officer, and an
excellent messmate, he was endowed with indomitable pluck and the gift
of communicating his enthusiasm to those who served under him. Musical,
an actor, a good artist, and well informed, he was foremost in the work
of keeping the men amused during the winter. His consideration for
others and his charming manners endeared him alike to officers and men,
and his sledge crews were devoted to him. Mecham was appointed to the
_Vixen_ on the Pacific station, and died at Honolulu on February 16th,
1858, at the early age of twenty-nine, a great loss to the navy and to
his country. His Arctic achievements still remain unapproached.
CHAPTER XXIX
DISCOVERY OF THE FATE OF FRANKLIN
The Crimean War broke out in 1854, and public attention was absorbed
by it. On March 23rd of that year the names of Sir John Franklin and
his officers were removed from the Navy list, but not without a protest
from Lady Franklin. Suddenly, only four months later, some startling
news arrived. Dr Rae of the Hudson’s Bay Company reported on July 19th
that, during a journey to survey the west coast of Boothia, he met
some Eskimos in Pelly Bay who said that, some years before, they had
seen about thirty men dragging a boat southward over the ice, and that
later the bodies of several men were found on an island near the mouth
of a great river. They had several articles belonging to officers of
the Franklin Expedition, including nine pieces of plate and Sir John’s
Guelphic Order.
Public attention being occupied elsewhere, the Admiralty considered it
enough to ask the Hudson’s Bay Company to send someone down the Great
Fish River to Montreal Island, which lies at its mouth. Mr Anderson was
sent, without an Eskimo interpreter, reached Montreal Island, found
some fragments of a boat and various articles, and then returned. The
Admiralty thought that sufficient had been done.
Lady Franklin petitioned the Prime Minister, urging that 135 officers
and men of the British Navy had laid down their lives after sufferings
of unexampled severity in the service of their country, as truly as if
they had fallen in action. “Surely,” she added, “I may plead for such
men that the bones of the dead be sought for, that their records be
unearthed, that their last written words be saved from destruction. It
is a sacred mission, and this final search is all I ask.” The reply
was a cold refusal, and Lady Franklin realised that, if anything was
to be done, she must depend upon her own resources. She did not
hesitate, but at once came forward herself to fulfil the duty, and
M’Clintock entered upon the completion of his long and zealous efforts
by accepting the mission which was to crown his Arctic achievements.
Lady Franklin had unbounded confidence in Captain M’Clintock, and gave
him a perfectly free hand. She set aside £20,000 of her own fortune
for the voyage, and there were subscriptions to the amount of £3000,
with which she purchased the _Fox_, a steam yacht of 177 tons. The
expedition was fitted out at Aberdeen, and the public departments
were allowed to give some help. Lieut. W. R. Hobson, who had served
in the _Plover_, got leave to go as senior executive. Captain Allen
Young of the mercantile marine, young, active, energetic, and full of
zeal, entered as Master and contributed £500. Dr David Walker went as
surgeon, and a very great acquisition was Carl Petersen, the Dane who
was Penny’s dog-driver and who knew Greenland and its seas so well. The
whole number of souls on board the _Fox_ was twenty-four, and fifteen
had served in former search expeditions. William Harvey, the chief
petty officer, was Captain Austin’s boatswain’s mate in the _Resolute_,
and afterwards in the _North Star_, a thorough seaman and a first-rate
sledge traveller. One great advantage to M’Clintock was that Captain
Austin was at Deptford and could give him much assistance.
On July 1st, 1857, the _Fox_ was well on her way to Greenland. Ten dogs
were obtained at Lievely, and two young Eskimos were engaged as seal
hunters and dog-drivers. M’Clintock had already been through Melville
Bay three times, but 1857 was the worst ice year on record. Constant
south-east winds kept the ice closely packed.
The _Fox_ had made 110 out of the 170 miles required to cross the bay,
and there was hope if only a northerly wind would spring up. September
came, however, and M’Clintock soon realised that their fate was
inevitable--a winter in the drifting pack. It was a perilous position.
The vessel drifted southwards for 1194 geographical miles in 242 days,
and was liberated in April, 1858, under appalling circumstances. On the
24th the approach to the edge of the ice became evident from the swell.
The ice fragments dashed against each other and against the ship. Sail
was made and the _Fox_ slowly bored her way through. Next day the swell
had become a heavy sea, the waves thirteen feet high, dashing huge
fragments of ice against the ship. Pieces of iceberg 60 or 70 feet high
were dispersed through the pack, and one blow from any of them would
have been instant destruction. At length, towards night, the brave
little vessel ran through straggling pieces into an open sea.
After eight months of perilous drifting, finished off by two such
days and nights, most people would have sought rest in a port. No one
who knew M’Clintock would doubt what he would do. Without a moment’s
hesitation he turned the ship’s head northward again. The year 1858
was much more favourable, and by August 11th the _Fox_ was off Cape
Riley. M’Clintock ran down Peel Sound for 25 miles, when he was stopped
by unbroken ice extending from shore to shore. He therefore took the
alternative route by Prince Regent’s Inlet, and by the 21st the _Fox_
was half-way through Bellot Strait. A few miles of pack ice barred the
way, but early in September she passed right through the strait, but
again there was a barrier, and finally she was obliged to be placed in
winter quarters in a bay at the eastern entrance of the strait, which
was named Port Kennedy. However, she was well within reach of the
deeply interesting region to be examined.
It was arranged that in the spring there were to be three expeditions,
each with a four-man sledge with weights reduced to 200 lb. at
starting, and one dog sledge with driver and a team of seven, dragging
100 lb. per dog at starting. The small number of men made the dogs
necessary. Hobson was to examine the north coast of King William
Island, cross to Gateshead Island, and connect Collinson’s with
Wynniatt’s furthest, thus completing the outline of Victoria Island.
Allen Young was to discover the southern side of Prince of Wales
Island. M’Clintock himself with Petersen was to search the estuary of
Back’s Fish River and the whole coast of King William Island.
Depôts were laid out during the autumn, and by Allen Young in the depth
of winter. M’Clintock undertook a winter journey with temperature
-33° to -48° Fahr., intending to build snow huts instead of taking a
tent; but it took two hours to build them. His object was to fall in
with Eskimos and obtain information, which he did; nearly all having
some plunder from the _Erebus_ or _Terror_. One of them stated that a
ship had been crushed by the ice out at sea. The journey of 26 days in
the depth of winter embraced 360 miles and completed the discovery of
the coast line of North America. It also revealed the only north-west
passage for ships between Boothia and King William Island.
April 2nd was the appointed day for starting on the long journeys.
Petersen was to drive M’Clintock’s dog sledge. M’Clintock and Hobson
travelled together as far as Cape Victoria, when the latter crossed
to Cape Felix, M’Clintock pressing onwards to the Great Fish River.
On meeting his Eskimo friends again he was told--what was concealed
before---that a second ship had been driven on shore. Many more relics
were seen in their possession.
Hobson landed at Cape Felix on King William Island and found the
remains of an encampment which had been hastily abandoned, for tents
and clothes were left behind. Marching onwards he came to the large
cairn with a quantity of gear strewn round it, and a tin cylinder
containing the famous document written by Fitzjames, which announced
the fate of Franklin and the expedition. Hobson, stricken with scurvy,
felt unable to carry out the rest of his instructions, but two of his
men went on and discovered a large boat. The return journey was then
commenced and the _Fox_ was reached on June 14th after an absence of
74 days. Latterly Hobson had to be carried on the sledge. He left in a
cairn for M’Clintock a report and lists of all the articles seen.
M’Clintock continued his advance to the south, obtaining from the
natives several spoons and articles of plate belonging to officers,
and other relics. They said that many white men had dropped by the
way as they marched, and that some had been buried and others not. On
the 15th May M’Clintock reached Montreal Island. It was thoroughly
searched, but nothing of importance was found. On the 24th M’Clintock
again crossed the frozen sea to King William Island and followed the
shore along which the retreating crews must have marched. On the 25th
a human skeleton, with some fragments of clothing which were those
of an officer’s steward, was found on a gravel ridge. The pockets
had contained a brush, a comb, and a pocket-book. The shroud of snow
no doubt concealed many other skeletons. On reaching Cape Herschel
M’Clintock was full of hope that Simpson’s cairn might contain a
record, but there was nothing. On May 29th he reached the extreme
western point of King William Island (69° 8′ N. and 100° 8′ W.) which
he named Cape Crozier.
M’Clintock had now arrived on Hobson’s tracks. The coast was a series
of limestone ridges, and to seaward there was a rugged surface of
crushed-up pack. On the 30th May the camp was formed alongside the
boat found by Hobson about 50 miles from Point Victory. M’Clintock has
given a most interesting account of it and its contents. It contained
two skeletons and was full of relics of all kinds[133]. On June 2nd
M’Clintock reached the cairn at Point Victory, and realised the whole
sad story. “All the coast-line,” he wrote, “along which the retreating
crews performed their fearful march must be sacred to their names
alone.”
M’Clintock had completed his immortal work. For ten years he had
devoted all his energies and all the powers of his mind, first to the
rescue of the lost explorers, then to ascertain their fate. Success had
now crowned his efforts and the mystery of the sad fate of Franklin’s
expedition was at last made clear to the world. M’Clintock and his
party had marched round King William Island. They returned to the
ship on June 19th after an absence of 76 days, having travelled over
920 miles and discovered 800 miles of new coast line, and the only
navigable North West Passage.
Allen Young commenced his journey on April 7th, with old Harvey as
captain of his sledge, Hobday and Haselton seamen, and Florance, a
stoker, as crew. He also took a dog-sledge. Crossing the Franklin
Channel, so named by M’Clintock, he landed at Cape Eyre on Prince of
Wales Island and proceeded to explore the low and desolate southern
coast. Finding that he had not sufficient provisions to reach Osborn’s
furthest and so complete the exploration of the great island with all
his men, he sent back the rest with the sledge, in charge of Harvey,
to Cape Eyre. He and Hobday went on with the dog-sledge, and on May
7th reached the table-topped hills seen by Sherard Osborn in 1851,
and so completed the discovery. Young then made a gallant attempt to
cross the channel to Victoria Island, but this was impossible, it
being a mass of stupendous hummocks with deep fissures between them,
and a retreat was therefore made to the sledge at Cape Eyre. He then
completed the discovery of the eastern shore of Prince of Wales Island
as far as Browne’s furthest in 1851. Next he crossed the channel to
Ross’s furthest, and completed the discovery of the west side of North
Somerset thence to Bellot Strait, taking frequent observations for
latitude and longitude. He and his men were nearly worn out by the long
period of hardships when they were met by M’Clintock on June 27th. It
was a splendid journey, rich in geographical discovery.
The _Fox_ was now got ready to return. The engines had been taken to
pieces for the winter, the engineer had died, and the stokers knew
nothing about the machinery. So M’Clintock tucked up his sleeves, went
down into the engine room, and got the engines into working order with
his own hands. There was no one else on board who could have done
it. On August 10th, 1859, the _Fox_ was freed from winter quarters,
M’Clintock working the engines himself for several days, until the
vessel was got under sail. She arrived in the Thames and was taken into
the dock at Blackwall on September 23rd.
The whole nation was full of admiration at the way in which this great
and memorable success had been achieved. Lady Franklin was more than
satisfied at the result of the expedition, and felt unable to express
her admiration and gratitude for its Commander. His officers and
men were devoted to him, and presented him with a gold chronometer,
“reminding him of that perfect harmony, that mutual esteem and good
will, which made our ship’s company a happy little community, and
contributed materially to the success of the expedition.”
The Queen conferred upon M’Clintock the honour of knighthood, but
the great explorer could not even then be spared from Arctic work.
The Admiralty undertook to run a line of deep sea soundings from the
Faroes, by Iceland and Greenland, to Labrador. This important duty was
entrusted to Sir Leopold M’Clintock in command of the _Bulldog_, and
was thoroughly well done, during the severe Arctic summer of 1860.
At last Sir Leopold returned to the regular naval service, hoisting
his flag twice, and after his retirement became a very active Elder
Brother of the Trinity House. After serving his country for an unbroken
active period of seventy-seven years, he died in harness on November
17th, 1907, at the age of 89, one of the best and greatest of Arctic
explorers.
CHAPTER XXX
THE EAST COAST OF GREENLAND. SCORESBY--CLAVERING--GRAAH--KOLDEWEY
The east coast of Greenland is difficult of access owing to the great
flow of ice from the polar basin. Until the days of Scoresby it was
only sighted from a distance. Henry Hudson was the first to discover
it, and give it the quaint name of “Hudson’s Hold with Hope” in 73° N.
On the old Dutch maps of Peter Plancius (1666) and Van Keulen (1707)
we find “Land van Lambert” as far north as 78° 20′; “Land van Edam”
in 77° 10′ N., seen in 1655; “Gael Hamke” in 74°, seen in 1654. Cape
Bruer Ruys and Bontekoe Island on the Dutch chart were identified by
Clavering, as well as Gael Hamke Bay. These were merely the sighting of
high land at a distance. In the summer of 1822 the younger Scoresby,
in his Liverpool ship, resolved to combine whaling with geographical
discovery. He forced his way through the ice into open water near the
coast in company with two other whalers, one commanded by his father.
This eminent Arctic navigator completed a careful survey, landing at
several points, from Gael Hamke Bay to as far south as 69° N. He made
botanical and geological collections, and completed a chart of his
discoveries.
In the very next year Scoresby was followed by one of the most
promising of Arctic voyagers who, like Mecham, was cut off in his
prime. Douglas Clavering was the eldest son of General Clavering by
Lady Augusta Campbell, daughter of the fifth Duke of Argyll. Born at
Holyrood House in 1794 he served as a midshipman under Captain Broke
in the famous action between the _Shannon_ and _Chesapeake_. But young
Clavering’s bent was in the direction of the scientific branches of
his profession, and the friendship he formed with Captain Sabine led
that distinguished officer to apply for the _Pheasant_ for his pendulum
observations in the tropical zones because Clavering commanded her.
These were successfully taken and useful observations were also made
with reference to the equatorial currents.
The Board of Admiralty then decided that Sabine should swing the
seconds pendulum in Norway, Spitsbergen, and, if possible, on the
east coast of Greenland. For this service Clavering, then a Fellow of
the Royal Society, received command of the _Griper_, the old gun brig
of Parry’s first voyage. Sabine completed his pendulum observations
in Norway and Spitsbergen, and Captain Clavering proceeded to the
difficult service of forcing the _Griper_ through the heavy ice drift
to the East Greenland coast. First he tried to force the ship through
in Lat. 77° 30′ N. but found an unbroken field 200 miles across.
Then he tried vainly again in 75° 30′, but finally reached the coast
water in 74° 5′ S., and found an island where his friend Sabine could
establish his observatory[134]. While the pendulum was being swung,
Clavering was intent on geographical discovery and on completing a
survey. His furthest northern points were two rocks called Ailsa
and Haystack. The island they had first discovered, and one of its
headlands, recalled memories of the _Chesapeake_ action, and were named
Shannon Island and Cape Philip Broke. A great bay was identified as
Gael Hamke’s, but the most important result of Clavering’s expedition
was the discovery of natives as far north as this bay, in 74° N. This
position is an immense distance from those in the southern part of the
east coast where Eskimos were afterwards found, and no natives have
ever been met with since anywhere near the place where Clavering fell
in with them. It was on the 18th of August, 1823, that he and his small
party came across a seal-skin tent pitched on the beach, on the north
side of Gael Hamke Bay. This tent was 12 feet in circumference and
five feet high, the frame being of wood and whale’s bone. There were
also a small seal-skin canoe, harpoons, and spears tipped with what
appeared to be meteoric iron. The natives fled and hid behind rocks,
but eventually they returned and became friendly. They were clothed in
seal-skin with the hair inwards. Men, women, and children all told,
only numbered twelve.
It is very improbable that this small family of Eskimos had worked
their way northwards over the immense distance from the settlements
near Cape Farewell. The alternative is that they were descendants of
the emigrants who found their way to the upper reaches of Sir Thomas
Smith’s Channel many centuries ago. One branch went south bringing
with it the tradition of the _uminmak_ or musk ox; the other, still
following the _uminmak_, reached the east coast, and slowly took a long
road to extinction. Nearly fifty years passed away between Clavering’s
voyage and the next visit to this part of the east coast, and in the
interval the dwellers in Gael Hamke Bay had become extinct, leaving
many vestiges.
On August 20th Captain Sabine’s tents and instruments were embarked;
the _Griper_ was in sight of Scoresby’s discoveries further south
until the 13th September, when there was a gale which drifted her to
the southward amongst heavy floes and loose ice. They lost three ice
anchors and the kedge, but Clavering bored his way through the ice into
the open sea, where he encountered a series of heavy gales, making
the coast of Norway on the 23rd. Pendulum observations were taken at
Trondhjem, and the _Griper_ reached Deptford on the 19th of December,
1823[135].
The next attempt to explore the east coast of Greenland was from the
extreme south. Captain Graah of the Danish navy organised an expedition
in March, 1829, at Nenortalik, the nearest settlement to Cape Farewell
on the west side[136]. It consisted of four native boats, two being
kayaks and two the larger women’s boats. On reaching the east side the
masses of ice piled on the beach rendered their progress very slow.
Graah went on with one boat, sending the rest back on June 23rd, and
by the 28th he had advanced as far north as 65° 18′ N. where he was
stopped by an insurmountable barrier of ice. He went back to a place
called Nugarlik in 63° 22′ N., where he wintered. On this coast between
60° and 65° N. Graah found 500 to 600 inhabitants. He returned to the
settlements on the west side of Greenland in 1830. His object was to
find the lost colony, for it was not then understood that the East Bygd
was on the west side[137].
The distance from Graah’s furthest to the southern point of Scoresby’s
survey remained undiscovered, and its exploration was reserved for
Danish seamen. Dr Petermann had long been urging his countrymen to
join the noble band of Arctic explorers, and in the spring of 1868 he
fitted out a small vessel at his own risk, with Karl Koldewey, a native
of Hoya in Hanover, in command. Unable to approach the east coast of
Greenland, that able navigator made for the Spitsbergen seas, attaining
a latitude of 81° 5′ N., sailing down Hinlopen Strait, sighting Wiche’s
Land, and returning to Bergen on September 30th, 1868.
Interest in Arctic work was thus aroused in Germany, a committee was
formed, and it was resolved again to despatch an expedition under
Koldewey to the east coast of Greenland. A vessel of 143 tons was
built at Bremershaven, at a cost of £3150, and named the _Germania_.
The schooner _Hansa_, of only 76¾ tons, was bought as a consort, with
Captain Hegeman of Oldenburg in command.
Captain Koldewey’s expedition sailed from Bremershaven on the 15th
June, 1869, and reached the edge of the ice in 74° 47′ N. On September
14th the _Hansa_ was closely beset and drifted south all through the
winter until she was destroyed by the ice. Officers and crew then took
to their three boats and eventually reached the Danish settlement of
Friedrichsthal. Meanwhile the _Germania_ worked her way through the
ice, and reaching land on the 5th August, her winter quarters were
finally fixed in a small bay in one of Clavering’s Pendulum Islands,
in 74° 24′ N. Julius Payer, a Lieutenant in the Austrian army who was
born at Teplitz in 1842, was the moving spirit of the expedition in the
work of sledge-travelling and in the ascent of glaciers and mountains.
He made one journey in September, but the principal work was undertaken
after the winter was over. The details were not thought out with that
close attention and full knowledge of all that has gone before which
alone can secure great results; nevertheless, all being quite new to
the work, the journey was highly creditable, as the ice surface was
very bad. Captain Koldewey and Lieutenant Payer were the leaders, and
starting on the 24th March they reached their furthest point in 77° N.
on the 15th April. A lofty cape in 76° 47′ N. was named Cape Bismarck.
Then, as there were no depôts and provisions were running short, the
return journey was commenced, and they reached the ship on the 27th
April. The distance covered, there and back, was about 300 miles and
took 35 days, during eight of which they were confined to the tent by
gales. Omitting these, their rate was a little over ten miles a day.
Four other short sledge journeys were made. As soon as the vessel was
freed from her winter quarters, exploration was commenced along the
coast and a branching fjord was discovered in 73° 15′ N. extending far
into the interior of Greenland. It received the name “Franz Josef.”
Along its shores two peaks, 7218 and 11,417 feet high respectively,
were named after Petermann and Payer. The scenery was described as
magnificent, exceeding in beauty, says Payer, anything to be seen
in the Alps. After the discovery of this large fjord the _Germania_
returned to Bremen in September, 1870.
Some years before, Messrs Anthony Gibbs & Co. employed Mr T. W. Tayler,
a chemist and an enthusiast who believed in the lost colony, to form
a settlement on the east coast in 63° N. He made two attempts, in
1863 and 1864. The failure to penetrate through the ice in 1863 was
attributed to the vessels being unsuitable. In 1864 Mr Tayler had the
_Erik_ whaler of 412 tons, a well-fortified ship. She forced her way
through the ice for some distance, but eventually had to give up the
attempt and the project was abandoned.
About 1870 and following years eight British whalers frequented the
Spitsbergen seas, and occasionally approached the east coast of
Greenland. The most enterprising whaling captains on this side were
David Gray in the _Eclipse_ of 295 tons, and his brother John Gray in
the _Hope_ of 350 tons; both steamers built by Messrs Hall of Aberdeen.
The _Active_ 380 tons, _Jan Mayen_ 337, _Mazanthien_ 408, and Windward
320 tons, were old sailing vessels converted into screw steamers; while
the _Pole Star_ and _Queen_ were sailing vessels. Captain David Gray
was especially zealous in his efforts to combine geographical work with
his whaling.
CHAPTER XXXI
SPITSBERGEN
EXPEDITIONS BEFORE 1872
We have seen how flourishing the Spitsbergen whale fishery became and
how admirably its history was written, the Dutch by Zorgdrager, and the
English by Scoresby. But when the annual slaughter began to make these
animals scarce there was eagerness to discover new fishing ground.
Theunis Ys was one of the most experienced navigators in the ice to
the eastward, and one of the first who sought for whales in that
direction. Captain Willem de Vlamingh followed him in 1664 and even
rounded the northern point of Novaya Zemlya, reaching a latitude of 82°
10′ N. Along the north coast of Spitsbergen the Dutch whalers never
went east of the Seven Islands, which they discovered, or of Hinlopen
Strait. This is conclusive from the evidence of Martens in 1671, a most
reliable authority as regards the seventeenth century. But early in
the eighteenth century, two Dutch captains, Cornelis Giles and Outger
Rep, went far to the eastward and Giles or Gillis sighted what has
since been called Gillis Land. He also found that what is now known as
Hinlopen Strait was not an inlet as had been supposed but a navigable
strait[138].
The Russians took the lead in Spitsbergen in the eighteenth century,
their plan being to form a depôt in Bell Sound. In 1764 Lieut.
Nemtinoff was sent to build houses and to land stores there, to
form a base whence to push through the ice to the Pacific. In the
following year the expedition under Captain Vassili Tschitschagoff,
of which Nemtinoff’s voyage was the precursor, left Archangel. But
Tschitschagoff had the misfortune to meet with a bad ice year and did
little or nothing. He tried again in 1766 and got as far north as 80°
28′, but he was stopped by the ice, and the project was given up as
hopeless. A party of Russians in charge of stores had twice wintered in
Bell Sound.
For a century the eastern side of Spitsbergen remained almost unknown.
It is to the Norwegian sealing captains, and to Professor Mohn of
Christiania, who watched over and utilised their work, that most of our
knowledge of this side is due. The Norwegian fishery dates from about
1820, but for many years they kept on the west side, only by degrees
working along the north coast to the eastward. In 1863, however,
the adventurous Captain Carlsen completed the circumnavigation of
Spitsbergen for the first time. In the next year Captains Tobiesen,
Aarström, and Mathilas were not so fortunate. They made their way down
the east coast, but, becoming closely beset, were obliged to abandon
their vessels and retreat in boats up Hinlopen Strait, traversing
700 miles before they were picked up. In 1872 Captain Altman sailed
up the east side from the south, and sighted Wyche’s Land, which was
discovered by the English in 1617. It proved to be composed of three
islands. Captain Nils Johnsen succeeded in landing on one of these
islands, and named a lofty cliff Cape Nordenskiöld. In 1872 Captain
Nilsen in the _Freia_ also sighted the Wyche Islands, naming a high
mountain Harfagrehangen, it being the thousandth anniversary of
Norway’s union into one kingdom.
The scientific researches of the Swedes in Spitsbergen were begun
in 1858. They were undertaken to institute a preliminary survey for
measuring an arc of meridian, and also for geological and biological
collections. In 1864 Nordenskiöld and Duner took astronomical
observations at eighty different positions on shore, and fixed the
heights of numerous mountain peaks. In 1868 the Swedes, in the steamer
_Sofia_, reached the latitude of 81° 42′ N. and in 1870 Baron von
Heuglin and Count Zeil, in a vessel commanded by the Norwegian captain
Nils Isaksen, explored Edge and Barentsz Islands, and Freeman strait,
which divides them. They found a vast accumulation of drift-wood on the
southern shore of the strait.
English yachts have also frequented the Spitsbergen seas, since
Mr Lamont set the example in 1858. In 1864 the yachting voyage of
Mr Birkbeck was of interest, because he was accompanied by the
distinguished ornithologist Professor Newton of Cambridge. One of the
greatest of Arctic yachtsmen as a scientific explorer was Mr Benjamin
Leigh Smith, who in 1871 explored the north coast of Spitsbergen, the
Seven Islands, and North-east Land, and attained the high latitude
of 81° 24′ N. in 18° E. He also made voyages to Spitsbergen in
1872 and 1873. In the latter year he was in the _Diana_ yacht with
several friends, while Captain Walker took the _Sampson_ to Cobbe
Bay, to fall back upon in case of accidents. He also took several
deep sea soundings, and did most useful work in relieving the Swedish
expedition. Leigh Smith’s enthusiasm lay deep, and he was not without
inventive talent. The result of his practice as a navigator was the
invention of an instrument to facilitate the computation of time at
sea from the usual sights taken for that purpose, and also to act
as a check on errors when the time has been computed in the usual
manner[139]. Such a man was likely to leave his mark. He did so. By his
observations he corrected the longitudes, and considerably extended the
north coast of North-east Land to the eastward.
The Swedish expedition of 1872, under Professor Nordenskiöld, was
composed of the steamer _Polhem_, the brig _Gladan_, and the steamer
_Onkel Adam_. The _Polhem_ was commanded by Lieut. Palander. He, with
other officers and professors, were to remain through the winter at
Mossel Bay in a dwelling-house of six rooms, taken out in pieces.
Sledges and 40 reindeer were shipped at Tromsö, with 3000 sacks of
reindeer moss. Unluckily the animals all escaped soon after they were
landed, and the two other vessels, detained by the ice, were obliged
to winter with the _Polhem_. Six fishing vessels were also frozen in.
In April Nordenskiöld and Palander started on a sledge journey with
14 men. Rounding Cape Platen on North-east Land, they struck inland,
and marched across the snow-covered hills to Hinlopen Strait which they
crossed, and so got back to Mossel Bay. They were away 60 days. In the
summer Leigh Smith arrived in the _Diana_ and supplied the crews with
fresh provisions. The Swedish expedition returned to Tromsö on August
6th, 1873.
One other Spitsbergen expedition must be mentioned. Lieut. Payer,
who had been the moving spirit in the sledge journeys of Koldewey’s
expedition, was bent on continuing his Arctic explorations. He found a
coadjutor in Lieut. Weyprecht of the Austrian Navy, an officer of very
high scientific attainments. They hired a small vessel of 70 tons, the
_Isbjörn_, at Tromsö with the idea of following the Gulf Stream into
an imaginary polar basin, by keeping to the eastward of Spitsbergen.
Attempting to reach Gillis Land they found the fogs very frequent,
preventing observations, and, on August 31st, 1871, they were in Lat.
78° 41′ N. Then sailing east they sighted Novaya Zemlya and returned to
Tromsö in October.
Meanwhile the Norwegian sealers began to frequent Novaya Zemlya.
Carlsen had reached the mouth of the Obi in 1869. In 1870 about sixty
Norwegian sailing vessels went to the seas round Novaya Zemlya. Captain
Johannesen circumnavigated these islands, and Captain Carlsen did the
same in 1871. The information collected by the Norwegian fishermen
induced Payer and Weyprecht to select this route for an expedition they
had projected.
CHAPTER XXXII
FRANZ JOSEF LAND AND ITS EXPLORERS
The cruise in the _Isbjörn_ was preparatory to a successful effort
on the part of Lieutenants Payer and Weyprecht to raise funds for an
Arctic expedition. Their plan was to round the north end of Novaya
Zemlya and make discoveries to the eastward. Their vessel, the
_Tegethoff_, fitted out at Bremershaven, was a steamer of 200 tons and
100 h.-p., with a crew of 22 men. They left Bremershaven on the 13th
June, 1872, and sighted Novaya Zemlya on the 3rd August. By October the
_Tegethoff_ was closely and hopelessly beset, drifting about at the
mercy of wind and tide, to the north of Novaya Zemlya. In the summer
of 1873 the crew were fully engaged in seal hunting; and on the 30th
August an entirely unknown land was sighted in 79° 43′ N. and 59° 33′
E. In November an island was reached by a party from the ship, and then
the explorers entered upon their second winter of 1873–74.
Weyprecht cared most for his meteorological and magnetic observations,
but Payer was very eager to explore the newly-discovered land, which
received the name of Franz Josef Land. Payer paid a just tribute to
M’Clintock in attributing such success as he attained to following the
great sledge traveller’s advice. He prepared for a month’s journey,
taking four sacks of provisions each containing sufficient for seven
days for seven men, and they succeeded in obtaining some bear meat.
He is clear as to the comfort of hot grog in the intense cold of the
night. The sledging party, with dogs as auxiliaries, started on March
25th, and on April 12th, 1874, the furthest point was reached in 82° 5′
N., 165 miles from the ship. They returned to the _Tegethoff_ on the
25th April, and some shorter excursions were afterwards made.
Payer’s general idea of this great discovery was that Franz Josef
Land consisted of two masses of land, which were named Zichy and
Wilczek after the two chief supporters of the expedition, separated by
a channel which was named Austria Sound. It was afterwards found to
consist of an archipelago of smaller and more numerous islands than
Payer supposed. His furthest point was Cape Fligely, but the land he
thought he saw further north, and called Petermann Land, has since been
found not to exist.
As the ship remained immoveable in the summer of 1874, it was found
necessary to abandon her and retreat in the boats. After a long journey
over the ice, they launched the three boats on the open sea, were
picked up by a Russian schooner, and arrived safely at Tromsö on the
3rd September. Lieut. Payer was an accomplished artist, as well as a
sledge traveller; and in after years he painted several fine pictures
illustrating some of the last and most pathetic scenes connected with
the Franklin expedition.
The next addition to our knowledge of Franz Josef Land was supplied
by that enterprising and persevering yachtsman Leigh Smith. He had
a vessel built, suitable for ice navigation, which he named the
_Eira_. She was a steamer of 360 tons and 50 h.-p., 150 ft. long by
25 ft. beam, manned by 25 men all told. Leigh Smith’s companions were
Lofley the master, the surgeon Dr Neale, and Mr W. G. A. Grant. The
great problem which Leigh Smith had to determine was whether there
was a practicable route across the ice-laden Barentsz Sea, between
Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya, to Franz Josef Land. Leigh Smith forced
his way through the pack and sighted land on the 14th August, 1880--a
new part of Franz Josef Land to the westward.
There were many large icebergs, but they were quite unlike those of
Davis Strait, being flat masses like the Antarctic bergs. Leigh Smith
and Grant landed at several places, making collections of the flora
and of rock specimens. The extent of the new coast line discovered and
explored was 110 miles, and of that seen 150 miles. There was great
abundance of walrus and seals. This was one of the most important
summer cruises ever made in the Arctic regions.
[Illustration: Julius Payer]
The second cruise of the _Eira_ in 1881 was disastrous. No less than
ten days of ice navigation, towards the end of July, were required to
reach the coast, the floes being closely packed together. Gun-cotton
was found to be very useful in blasting the ice. Franz Josef Land was
sighted on the 23rd July, and the _Eira_ reached a point further west
than was possible in the previous year, Cape Lofley being the extreme
western point discovered. Some days were then spent at Cape Flora
dredging and collecting plants and fossils.
On the 21st August the pack ice came in with the tide, and the _Eira_,
caught and crushed between it and the ground floe, at once filled and
went down. Her yards, catching on the ice, held her for a few seconds,
but they soon broke in the slings with a loud crash as she settled.
She sank in 11 fathoms, and looking down from the ice, she could be
seen quite distinctly. All hands had been employed getting provisions
out on the ice and saving everything that could be got at until just
before she sank. Some spars and planking floated up and were secured.
During the rest of August the men were busily engaged in building a hut
of turf and stones, collecting drift-wood, and shooting walrus, bears,
and looms, for their existence depended on obtaining sufficient fresh
animal food. During the autumn 21 walrus, 13 bears, and 1200 looms were
shot. They had saved from the vessel 1500 lb. of flour, 400 lb. of
bread, a barrel of salt meat, 1000 lb. of preserved meat, 800 tins of
soups, besides preserved vegetables, tobacco, some cases of whisky and
brandy, and 7 cwt. of coal. All hands kept in perfect health throughout
the winter, a fact which reflects great credit on Dr Neale.
On the 21st June, 1884, Leigh Smith and his party set out on their
perilous voyage in four boats, and after 42 days the shipwrecked
sailors sighted the coast of Novaya Zemlya on August 2nd. Near the
entrance to the Matyushin Shar they met the _Hope_, under the command
of Sir Allen Young, who had come out to search for the missing crew,
and all returned home in safety.
There was an interval of ten years before the investigation of Franz
Josef Land was resumed. Its next explorer, Frederick G. Jackson, was
destined to do good work there. He began by a preliminary journey in
the country of the Samoyeds and the Lapps in 1893, carefully studying
their dress and equipments, and to some extent adopting them. Mr.
Harmsworth, the newspaper proprietor, having found the funds, the
_Windward_, an old whaler, was bought, and an expedition fitted out.
Jackson was a keen sportsman, and a man of original mind, ready to
adopt the well-tried methods of his predecessors, but quite as ready
to invent new contrivances, or to make improvements as experience
suggested. He had with him Lieut. Armitage, an excellent officer of the
P. and O. service, as surveyor and astronomer, Dr Koettlitz as surgeon
and geologist, and three other men of science. As the _Windward_
was to land the party and return, a log house was taken in pieces,
besides four ponies and sixteen dogs for sledge work, and three years’
provisions.
The house was built on Northbrook Island, where there was likely to
be a supply of walrus and bear, as strong currents prevented the
formation of permanent ice. Unfortunately the _Windward_ was obliged to
winter also, and scurvy broke out, but she returned in the following
summer. After a short preliminary run of a week, the important journey
northwards was commenced on the 16th April, 1895, with three ponies
drawing six sledges, and provisions for 63 days; but the journey
actually only occupied 26 days. The sledges were 9 ft. 6 in. long, with
a width of only 18 in., which is much too narrow. The allowance of food
per man per day was 3 lb.--about the same as M’Clintock’s scale. Their
aluminium cooking apparatus (5½ lb.) was an invention of Jackson’s, and
they provided themselves against an arrest of progress on meeting water
by taking an aluminium boat (150 lb.) and a canvas kayak.
The clothing was an imitation of that worn by the Lapps--_militzas_ or
loose frocks with the fur inside, and _tobacks_ or hay-stuffed boots
for the feet. Jackson wore knee breeches of warm cloth, a loose jumper
of thick woollen stuff, a close-fitting cap covering ears and back of
the neck, a cloth mask, and a light linen covering. The tent was a
low cone, difficult to pitch in a gale. It was pitched for luncheon,
and warm tea was made, with biscuit, cheese, and bacon. They had no
sleeping-bags. The great trouble was the slushy condition of the
snow and the frequent snowstorms. This first journey established the
fact that the western half of Franz Josef Land was not one land but
an archipelago, and that a channel passed up to a wide northern sea.
Two hundred and seventy miles of new coast line were discovered. In
the second season Jackson had the great pleasure of rescuing Nansen
and Johansen from their perilous, indeed almost hopeless position. In
the third season a longer journey was undertaken, part of it over the
glacier of the western island. Only one pony had survived; this died
on the journey, and the deaths of dogs reduced the number to five.
Again the snow was soft and slushy, and the snowstorms so frequent
that during the whole journey of 55 days only thirteen were fine. At
its conclusion they had explored 250 miles in a direct line, probably
travelling nearly 500--a very remarkable journey. The results were
important. The western islands of the group were discovered and
explored, the most western point was ascertained, and its distance from
Spitsbergen found to be 250 miles. After three winters the _Windward_
brought the Jackson expedition safely back to England in September 1887.
We owe our knowledge of the extremely interesting Franz Josef group
chiefly to the labours of Payer, Leigh Smith, and Jackson. Nansen
discovered the furthest portion north, and the group has been used as
a base to attempt journeys to the Pole. Cagni, Wellman, and Captain
Fiala of the Ziegler Expedition (1903–1906) have also added to our
information, the latter by a careful survey and map. We can now take a
general view of the results of these discoveries.
The Franz Josef group of over fifty large and small islands extends
for 270 miles from west to east between the meridians of 42° and 64°
E. and for 140 miles from south to north between 79° 50′ and 82° 5′ N.
The group rises from the same submarine plateau as Spitsbergen, forming
part of the same system, though the land mass is further to the north
than that of Spitsbergen. The northern coast of the North-east Land
of Spitsbergen just crosses the 80th parallel, while only a few small
islets of the Franz Josef group are to the south of it.
The Franz Josef archipelago is divided by the Austria Sound of
Payer and the British Channel of Jackson into three groups, named
respectively the Wilczek, Zichy, and Alexandra groups. East of Austria
Sound there are two large islands, Wilczek and Graham Bell, forming the
eastern limit of the group. The Wullerstorf mountain on Wilczek Island
rises to a height of 2409 ft. To the north of Graham Bell Island are
the small islets discovered by Nansen, who named them Hoitland.
West of Austria Sound are the numerous islands, large and small, which
form the Zichy group; while to the north is Kronprinz Rudolf Island
with its Middendorf glacier. The northern point of Kronprinz Rudolf,
called Cape Fligely, is the northern extremity of the whole group[140].
On the west side of the British Channel are Northbrook, Bruce, Isabel,
and Bell Islands. At the west end of Northbrook Island is Cape Flora,
where was “Elmwood,” Jackson’s winter quarters; and between Mabel and
Bell Islands is Eira Harbour, where Leigh Smith wintered. Westward
are the two large islands of Prince George and Alexandra. The former,
90 miles long by 68, is almost covered with glaciers, and forms the
western shore of the British Channel, with the Armitage, Arthur
Harmsworth, and Albert Edward Islands to the north. On the northern
horizon Jackson reported open water, which he named Queen Victoria Sea.
The westernmost island, believed to be separated from Prince George
Island by Cambridge Bay or Strait, is called Alexandra Island, and is
also nearly covered with glaciers, but with low land along its northern
shore. It is 120 miles long by some 50 miles wide.
Payer describes the lands seen from Austria Sound as covered with
fields of ice, while rows of basaltic columns, rising tier above tier,
stand out as if crystallized, but the natural colour of the rock is
not visible, even the steepest walls of rock being covered with ice.
The mountains are table-shaped and rise to heights of from 2000 to
3000 feet, and the predominating formation resembles the dolerite of
Greenland, though coarser grained and of a dark yellowish-green colour.
Payer also observed terraced beaches covered with débris containing
organic remains. The small snow-covered islets reached by Nansen from
the north are composed of a coarse-grained basalt. The western half
of the Franz Josef group was more thoroughly explored by Jackson and
Armitage, with the aid of their able and accomplished companions,
during four summers and three winter seasons 1894–97.
Dr Koettlitz, the geologist of Mr Jackson’s expedition, from the
results of three years of observation combined with the reports of
Payer and Leigh Smith, has been able to give a fairly good general view
of the past history and present appearance of the Franz Josef group. He
looks upon the numerous islands as the fragments of an old table-land,
doubtless connected with other lands from which it is now separated by
wide seas, and he places the existence of this continental land in the
Jurassic period. But the principal feature of the group, as was also
observed by Payer, is the basalt or the dolerite of which the plateau
formation consists. This basaltic rock formation is from 500 to 600
feet in perpendicular height, and Dr Koettlitz dates it from Jurassic
times; in which case all strata that may have been laid down after this
period have disappeared through denudation, or are buried under the ice
sheets. When the hills were clothed with those plants of the Jurassic
age which have been recognised among the fossils that have been brought
home, the climate must have been mild and genial, and the land was
connected with Spitsbergen.
The present flora of Franz Josef Land is almost confined to terraces
or slopes with a southern aspect, and is poor as compared with that
of Spitsbergen. But it gives some little colouring to the dreary
summer landscape, and in the neighbourhood of loomeries there are many
bright-coloured mosses[141].
There are very few mammals on these desolate islands. Polar bears,
however, frequent the neighbouring floes in considerable numbers, and
wander about all the winter. The Austrians shot over 60, Nansen 19,
and 120 were seen by the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition. The Arctic
hare was not met with, and foxes were very rarely seen at “Elmwood,”
though they made themselves at home at Nansen’s winter quarters. Bones
and antlers of deer were found on the raised beaches, and it is not
easy to account for their presence. They might possibly have come with
drift-wood. White whales, narwhals, and three kinds of seals were seen,
and walruses were abundant[142].
The snowy owl is a frequenter of Franz Josef Land, suggesting the
presence of its favourite food, but lemmings were not met with. Snow
buntings are widely spread over the islands, and remain from April to
October, and the Lapland bunting also comes in smaller numbers in May,
as well as the shore lark. Brent geese arrive in June, but the eider
duck is rare. There are ptarmigan, first seen by members of the Zeigler
expedition. The wading birds comprise turnstones, sanderlings, and two
sandpipers. The very rare Ross’s gull was found by Nansen breeding in
considerable numbers. The glaucous gull, fulmar, kittiwake, and arctic
tern also visit the group, and the ivory gulls breed there abundantly.
The red-throated diver comes, but is rare. Looms and dovekies visit
the southern coast, and the little-auks are numerous. The whole number
of species of birds visiting Franz Josef Land is 23, against 33 in
Spitsbergen, and 43 in Novaya Zemlya.
The Franz Josef group of islands may be considered geologically as part
of Spitsbergen, both being fragments of the same continental land of
Jurassic times[143]. The 143 miles of ice-covered sea between Cape
Mary Harmsworth, the northernmost point of Alexandra Land, and Cape
Leigh Smith on North-east Land has not yet been explored. The sea to
the east of Wilczek and Graham Bell Islands is also unknown.
During the period from August 1872 to the following February the
_Tegethoff_ was drifted in a north-easterly direction from Cape Nassau
of Novaya Zemlya, which is in longitude 62° E., to 71° 38′ E., a
distance of about 125 miles, and from February to the next October, in
latitude 79° N., she drifted westward until she reached the land ice on
the south coast of Franz Josef. These drifts appear to have been due to
the prevailing winds.
The sea to the south of Franz Josef Land, between Spitsbergen and
Novaya Zemlya, has received the name of the Barentsz Sea. Its greatest
depth is 230 fathoms, and over the greater part of the area the depth
is not more than 100 fathoms. The ice is always kept well out of sight
of the European coast by the Atlantic current, and when the line of the
pack is met with in about 74° N., it is found to be sufficiently loose
for navigation northwards during some part of the summer, the general
drift being to the westward, but varying with the winds.
CHAPTER XXXIII
THE ROUTE BY SMITH SOUND.
KANE--HAYES--HALL--NARES--MARKHAM
When my old messmate Admiral Sherard Osborn and I resolved to agitate
until the Government was induced to dispatch another Arctic expedition,
we selected the route of Sir Thomas Smith’s Channel as the one most
likely to afford valuable scientific results. We strongly deprecated a
mere rush for the North Pole, as not only useless in itself, but also
as hindering important geographical work.
The Northern Sound seen by Baffin in 1616 was discovered by Captain
Inglefield in 1852 to be a wide channel leading to the polar ocean,
and the land on its western side, facing Greenland--also discovered,
but not named, by Baffin--received the name of Ellesmere Island from
Inglefield. He found the entrance of Smith Sound to be 36 miles across.
His extreme northern point was 78° 28′ 21″ N.
In 1853 the American, Dr Kane, in the little brig _Advance_ of 120
tons, with a crew of 17 men, started for Smith Sound very poorly
equipped[144]. He had some thought of completing the search for
Franklin in this direction, but his main idea was to push his way as
far north as possible in the brig until he reached the (imaginary) open
polar sea. The _Advance_ was stopped by the ice only nine miles north
of Inglefield’s most northern position, and there Kane was forced to
winter, in a place which he named Rensselaer Harbour, on the east side
of the Sound in 78° 37′ N. The coast consists of precipitous cliffs 800
to 1200 feet high, with a belt of ice about 18 feet thick resting on
the beach[145].
Some short sledge journeys were undertaken in the spring, and Dr Kane
himself went as far as a large discharging glacier, to which he gave
the name of Humboldt. His steward, a man named Morton, with the Eskimo
Hans Hendrik and a team of dogs, crossed the front of the glacier, and
saw some open water caused by a strong current, the extent of which
he exaggerated. Unable to extricate the _Advance_, Dr Kane and his
people had to face a second winter, unprovided either with fuel or with
anything but salt provisions. Scurvy soon attacked them, but they were
saved by the kindly natives, who shared with them the proceeds of their
hunting. Half the brig being burnt for fuel and the provisions nearly
spent, Dr Kane abandoned her on May 17th, 1855, and the whole party
retreated to the Danish settlement of Upernivik, which they reached
on August 6th, 83 days after abandoning the brig. The story of their
hardships and sufferings, as told in the charming narrative of the
accomplished leader, is very interesting. His work contains the best
account of the Arctic Highlanders, from whom they received so much
kindness and hospitality. It is, however, to be regretted that from the
exaggerated story of his steward, Dr Kane should have built up such
an untenable theory as that of an open polar sea, for it misled many
persons for a long time.
Dr Hayes, the surgeon of the _Advance_, obtained funds for an
expedition to follow in the wake of Dr Kane. He sailed from Boston
on July 10th, 1860, in the _United States_, a schooner of 133 tons,
with a crew of 15 men. The little craft was blown out of Smith Sound
three times before she was at last fixed in winter quarters, ten miles
north-east of Cape Alexander, the western portal of the Sound, and
20 miles south of Kane’s winter quarters. Dr Hayes began his sledge
travelling on April 4th in the following year. He started with 12 men,
14 dogs, and a metallic boat on runners; but the latter was sent back,
and the party was reduced to four men and two dog sledges. Crossing
the Sound, they reached the coast of Ellesmere Island on May 10th,
and travelled northwards until the 18th. There was great abundance
of animal life and consequent exemption from scurvy at his winter
quarters, which he called Port Foulke. The schooner was broken out of
the ice on July 10th and returned safely to Boston in October, 1861.
Ten years afterwards an expedition in the same direction was undertaken
by an American named Hall. He was not a seaman, and possessed no
scientific attainments, but he was endowed with undaunted persistence
and enthusiasm and a very interesting personality. He was most deeply
impressed with the sad story of the Franklin expedition, and for five
consecutive years sought for relics along the south coast of King
William Island, living with the Eskimos. In 1870 he began his agitation
for an expedition to reach the North Pole, and the Navy Department
handed over to him a river gunboat called the _Periwinkle_, of 387
tons. Hall changed her name to the _Polaris_[146].
A seaman was necessary to command the vessel, and Captain Buddington
of New London, who had made thirteen whaling voyages, was selected,
Captain Tyson being his chief mate. Dr Emil Bessels, who had been with
the German expedition of 1869, had charge of the scientific work.
Morton and the Eskimo, Hans Hendrik, who were with Dr Kane, joined,
also three other Eskimos, friends of Hall, named Joe, Hannah, and their
daughter Silvie. The outward voyage was fortunate. During August of
1871, Hall sailed up Sir Thomas Smith’s Channel with little difficulty
from the ice until he reached a latitude of 82° 16′ N., on August 30th.
The winter quarters were in a harbour on the Greenland side, named
Thank God Bay, in 81° 38′ N.
Hall, with his dogs, went for a short autumn journey as far as an inlet
which he named Newman Bay, its northern cape, called Brevoort, being
in 82° 2′ N. and 61° 20′ W. He was taken ill on his return, became
partially paralyzed, and died on November 8th. He was buried on shore,
and a monument has been erected to his memory. Captain Buddington
resolved upon returning without attempting anything further. On August
12th, 1872, the ship was again free, but once more became beset, and
drifted out of Smith Sound by the current. On October 15th she was
again beset, and so severely nipped that boats and provisions were got
out on the ice. Suddenly the ice eased off, but Tyson and seventeen
others, including several Eskimos, were left on the floe. This ice
floe continued to drift to the south, but the means of building snow
shelters were found on it, many birds were shot, and the Eskimo, Hans
Hendrik, killed more seals than the whole party could consume. After a
long drift down Baffin’s Bay, the forlorn people were picked up in 53°
35′ N. by the _Tigress_, Captain Bartlett, who took them to St John’s,
Newfoundland, in good health.
Meanwhile the _Polaris_ was driven to the north again by a southerly
gale, and ran on shore at Littleton Island near the entrance of
Smith Sound. Here the fourteen remaining men passed a second winter,
plentifully supplied with fresh provisions by the friendly Arctic
Highlanders. They built two boats, and began a southern voyage in July,
1873, until they were picked up by the English whaler _Ravenscraig_,
whence they were transferred a few days later to the whaler _Arctic_
(on which Capt. A. H. Markham was at the time) and brought to England.
All the journals were in charge of Dr Bessels, himself an accomplished
naturalist and good observer, and his results were afterwards published.
This is all that was then known of the route by Sir Thomas Smith’s
Channel. Inglefield announced the opening to the Polar Sea, and Hall’s
river steamer found her way through the ice to the further end. But
here again many were misled, for the chart that was first produced made
the land on the west side continue to trend due north towards the pole.
Correct information from Dr Bessels, however, prevented Sherard Osborn
and myself from being deceived by the chart, and our conclusion was
that the most valuable Arctic work would be to discover and explore the
coasts facing the polar ocean.
On January 23rd, 1865, Sherard Osborn had read his able paper
advocating the renewal of Arctic research before a very crowded meeting
of the Geographical Society. All the survivors of the old expeditions
who could possibly come were there, and many other men of distinction
in the scientific world. All were impressed by the eloquence of the
gallant sailor, as well known for his great service in the Sea of Azof
as for his Arctic work. All were convinced. The Government must once
more undertake the duty. It was a most encouraging beginning, but in
March Osborn was obliged to leave England, handing over to me the
onerous duty of continuing the fight single-handed.
On the 10th April, 1865, I read a paper at a meeting of the
Geographical Society on the best route for Arctic exploration, but
Sir Roderick Murchison caused a letter from Dr Petermann assailing my
position to be read at the same time, and advocating a route north of
Spitsbergen, long known to be impracticable. This apple of discord
threw back the good cause for several years, but I continued to work
hard at the propaganda, and not without success. Sherard Osborn
returned to England in 1872, and read a paper before the Geographical
Society on April 22nd, pointing out Dr Petermann’s errors and quoting
Nordenskiöld, Payer, and his own man Koldewey against him. The
Spitsbergen route was no more heard of, but great delay had been caused.
We grew more hopeful, and in December, 1872, a deputation waited on
Mr Lowe and Mr Goschen. It met with a very unsatisfactory reception,
but the idea was getting a firm grip of the public mind, which was
shown in several ways. My work, _The Threshold of the Unknown Region_,
which dealt with the subject, went through four editions in two years,
and was translated into French. It was thought desirable that a naval
officer should make a preliminary cruise and observe the change that
steam power had made in ice navigation. Valuable information would thus
be acquired and the published narrative of such a voyage would keep up
the interest of the public in Arctic work. Commander Albert H. Markham
volunteered for this service, and embarking on board the Dundee whaler
_Arctic_, Captain Adams, sailed from that port in May 1873.
[Illustration: Lieut Parr, R.N., _H.M.S. Alert_
Cdr A. H. Markham, R.N., _H.M.S. Alert_
Sir George Nares
Lieut P. Aldrich, R.N., _H.M.S. Alert_
Lieut L. A. Beaumont, _H.M.S. Discovery_]
When the whalers were all sailing vessels there was usually much
detention, and sometimes considerable loss, in passing through Melville
Bay. In 1850 the ice offered such opposition to progress that the
whole fleet gave it up in despair. In 1830 the whole whaling fleet
was nipped against the land floe 40 miles south of Cape York, the
floes overlapping each other. Nineteen ships were destroyed, but a few
escaped by digging deep docks in the land ice. A thousand men were
encamped on the floes, and the loss amounted to £142,000.
Commander Markham found a very different state of things in 1873. The
whaling fleet consisted of ten ships, the largest being the _Arctic_ of
439 tons. She made a very quick passage through Melville Bay, reaching
the north water on June 9th. This enabled Commander Markham to visit
Port Leopold, Fury Beach, and Prince Regent’s Inlet as far as Cape
Garry, as well as to learn all the mysteries of the industry, and take
his share in the pursuit and capture of whales. The _Arctic_ returned
after the capture of twenty-eight whales, yielding nearly 15 tons of
bone and 265 tons of oil, worth £18,925. The publication of Commander
Markham’s most interesting narrative much increased the feeling in
favour of Arctic enterprise. The battle had indeed been a hard and
long-contested one, but victory was in sight. On November 17th, 1874,
the Prime Minister, Lord Beaconsfield, announced that the Government
would despatch an Arctic expedition for the encouragement of maritime
enterprise, and for the exploration of the region round the North Pole.
Nothing could be more satisfactory. We had deprecated a mere rush to
the Pole itself as useless, but we had been constantly urging the
exploration of the region round the Pole for twelve long years. But the
matter passed into the hands of the Admiralty, and all our arguments,
supported by those of the various learned Societies, were totally
disregarded. It was announced that the main object of the expedition
was to attain the highest latitude and, if possible, to reach the North
Pole!
Fortunately, Sir Leopold M’Clintock was the Admiral Superintendent at
Portsmouth dockyard, where the expedition was fitted out, Dr Lyall
and Mr Lewis of the _Assistance_ (1852–54) being responsible for the
provisions. The _Alert_, a 17-gun sloop, was strengthened and prepared
for Arctic service[147]; and by my advice a sealer, built at Dundee
in 1873 and named the _Bloodhound_, was purchased for the second ship.
She was the best possible model for a vessel for Arctic service[148].
Captain Nares, who had served on board the _Resolute_ in 1852–54,
when he was in charge of Mecham’s depôt sledge, was recalled from the
_Challenger_ to take command of the expedition. The Captain of the
second ship was Captain Stephenson, Albert Markham being Commander of
the _Alert_, and Lewis Beaumont first lieutenant of the _Bloodhound_,
whose name was changed to the _Discovery_. The officers Aldrich, May,
Parr, Giffard, Egerton, Archer, Rawson, and Conybeare, nearly all
attained distinction in after life, thanks to an Arctic training.
Captain Feilden was the naturalist of the _Alert_, Mr Hart of the
_Discovery_. The surgeons were Drs Colan and Moss in the _Alert_,
Ninnis and Coppinger with Captain Stephenson.
A volume was printed by the Geographical Society and presented to the
Expedition, containing papers on Arctic geography and ethnology, and
another manual was prepared by the Royal Society on various branches of
science in their connection with the regions proposed to be visited.
The sledge equipments were in the able and efficient hands of Sir
Leopold, and were of course as perfect as it was possible to make
them[149]. The provisions for ships and sledges were the same as for
the search expeditions, or were intended to be the same. The _Valorous_
paddle steamer was in company, to fill up the exploring ships at Disco,
and take a line of deep-sea soundings across the Atlantic during her
return voyage.
The immense crowd, brought by trains from all parts of England, which
was assembled on Southsea Common on the 29th May, 1875, when the Arctic
ships left Portsmouth Harbour, was a proof that a proper spirit had at
length been aroused. Men and officers were the pick of the service, and
the expedition started under most promising conditions. It encountered
terrific gales, however, in crossing the Atlantic, and it was not
until July 6th that the three vessels arrived at Lievely or Godhavn,
on the south coast of Disco Island. The _Alert_ and _Discovery_ were
here filled up with stores and provisions by the _Valorous_, took on
board dogs, and with them a Dane named Petersen (not the great Carl
Petersen) and the Eskimo Frederick. Parting company with the _Valorous_
at Ritenbenk, they sailed down the Waigat fjord north of Disco, and on
July 19th arrived at Proven, where the services of the veteran Hans
Hendrik were secured for the _Discovery_[150].
As the season was late Captain Nares took the middle pack, and reached
the north water of Baffin’s Bay in 34 hours. At the end of July a small
depôt was left at Cape Isabella, the western entrance of Sir Thomas
Smith’s Channel, but soon afterwards the ships were beset near Cape
Sabine, and detained by the ice for five days. At last there was a
lead to the north, but the _Alert_ was for some time in great danger
of being forced up the side of a berg. There were heavy falls of snow
and much danger from the drifting floes, and on August 8th they had to
cut a dock in order to avoid a serious nip. At length Lady Franklin Bay
was reached, and fixed upon as the winter quarters of the _Discovery_.
The _Alert_ pushed on, and fortunately a south-west gale drove the pack
off the shore, and enabled Captain Nares to take a narrow channel along
the coast, and reach “Floe-berg Beach” facing the great polar ocean,
where the vessel was hauled inside some huge masses of ice, which from
their size and formation, received the name of “floe bergs.” Here, in
82° 30′ N., within a hundred yards of a low beach, were her winter
quarters, about 50 miles from those of the _Discovery_. No ship had
ever wintered so far north before. There was some autumn travelling in
spite of soft snow, a depôt being laid out forty miles from the ship. A
most severe winter was cheerfully faced, the men being kept interested
and amused with a school, lectures, and other entertainments, while the
Royal Arctic Theatre was opened again after an interval of twenty-one
years. The chaplain, Mr Pullen, author of _Dame Europa’s School_, was
fortunately endowed both with dramatic and poetic talent, adapting
plays with much literary skill and writing excellent verses; and Dr
Moss was an artist of more than ordinary talent.
In other successful expeditions we have had to deal with the work of
strong and healthy men. Now we have to contemplate the heroic, indeed
almost miraculous efforts of men who attained great results in spite of
the ravages of a terrible and deadly disease. The seeds of scurvy had
taken root throughout the winter, and no one knew it. The travelling
parties had started before the calamity became known, and of 121 men
in the two ships there were 56 cases of scurvy, 42 in the _Alert_, but
only 14 in the _Discovery_, in which ship a larger supply of fresh meat
was obtained from musk oxen.
Captain Nares had now to consider how to carry out his instructions.
He was ordered to reach the highest latitude, and if possible the Pole
itself. Exploration was to be quite secondary. Before him was a frozen
sea consisting of huge ice masses and lines of heavy crushed-up ice,
and he expected the pack to break up and be in movement in the spring.
He did not think that an important advance could be made unless a
coast-line could be found trending north. He accordingly determined
to send out three sledge parties, one westward, another eastward, and
another north over the frozen sea, though he did not expect that the
latter could proceed for any great distance.
[Illustration: Sub-Lieut. George Le Clerc Egerton, R.N.]
[Illustration: Lieut. Wyatt Rawson, R.N.]
A preliminary journey was undertaken to open communication with the
_Discovery_ by the two youngest officers, Egerton and Rawson, with
the Dane, Petersen, and a team of nine dogs. They had hardly gone
two marches when the Dane collapsed, covered with frost bites, and
suffering from cramp. The two young officers did all that was
possible for him, but his condition was so serious that he had to be
put on the sledge and taken back to the ship. It was found necessary to
amputate both feet, but it was in vain, and he died on the 14th May.
Meanwhile, on March 20th, Egerton and Rawson started again, and reached
the _Discovery_[151].
The 3rd of April was the day fixed upon for the start of the main
sledge parties, Markham north over the frozen sea, Aldrich west along
the north coast of Ellesmere Island. Captain Nares, in compliance with
his instructions, decided to send the sledge crews north dragging two
boats as well as their sledge with provisions, which necessitated going
over the same ground four or five times, thus allowing the travellers
only to attain a very short distance from the ship. Sir Leopold
M’Clintock would have put the whole strength of the expedition on the
northern journey, and would easily have achieved the distance with
healthy men. No boats would have been taken, but the sledges would have
been made convertible into boats in the event of lanes of water barring
progress. There could be no depôts, but supporting sledges would have
been used to advance the main sledge to the pole, and to meet it in
returning. The distance to the Pole and back was much shorter than some
of the sledge journeys successfully made during the search expeditions.
But alas! the indispensable condition of healthy men was wanting.
Commander Markham and Lieutenant Parr reached the autumn depôt at Cape
Joseph Henry on the 10th April, 1876, and commenced their journey over
the frozen sea with the thermometer at -33° Fahr. They encountered
small floes surrounded by broad fringes of hummocks, across which roads
had to be made for the sledges. Even then the sledges could only be
got over by standing pulls, while the ground had to be gone over four
times, dragging up the boat sledges. The work was tremendous, and the
officers worked harder than the men, with less rest. Soon scurvy began
to appear, the two first cases on the 16th and 17th April. On the 19th
Commander Markham abandoned one of the boats. On the 24th the sledge
crews were all day cutting a lane through hummocks. On the 11th May
Markham reached the limit of human endurance and their furthest north
in 83° 20′ 26″ N. Soundings were taken in 73 fathoms, showing that they
were still on the continental shelf. On the 13th May the return journey
was begun, on the 17th the second boat was abandoned, and on the 5th
June the land was reached. Next day Lieutenant Parr started alone for
the ship for help, for only three men, including Commander Markham,
could drag the sledge. Two men were unable to walk, and were placed on
the sledge; one died. The heroic resolution of all concerned enabled
them to struggle on to the last in spite of difficulties and hardships,
and the courage displayed while in the grip of this dread disease was
magnificent. The party had gone over 600 miles.
Lieutenant Pelham Aldrich’s western party had meanwhile made important
discoveries along the north coast of Ellesmere Island during an absence
of 84 days from the ship. He travelled over 630 miles, nearly all his
sledge crew being more or less disabled by scurvy. His most northern
point was 83° N., and was named Cape Columbia.
The third principal effort was to be made along the north coast of
Greenland. From April 10th to 18th Egerton and Rawson crossed the
channel between Greenland and Ellesmere Island to pioneer a route,
returning on the latter date. Lieutenant Beaumont of the _Discovery_
was to command the party. On the 16th April he and Dr Coppinger
arrived at the _Alert_ with two 8-man sledges. There Rawson joined
them with another sledge, and on the 20th they all crossed the channel
to Greenland, with a fourth depôt sledge. On May 5th Coppinger parted
company, and on the 11th Rawson followed with a man on his sledge who
had shown symptoms of scurvy.
Beaumont proceeded along the Greenland north coast, a new discovery.
On May 19th he reached his turning point, naming a distant cape to the
north-east Cape Britannia. His furthest point was in 82° 18′ N. and 50°
40′ W.
Soon after the return journey was commenced the whole sledge crew was
attacked with scurvy. Three only, including Beaumont himself, were
able to drag the sledge, the others being carried forward by relays.
A dreadful disaster seemed imminent, but thanks to the foresight and
energy of Rawson, Coppinger, and the Eskimo, Hans Hendrik, it was
averted. They pushed forward to the rescue, and when they reached
Polaris Bay only the officers were able to drag. Here there was a
long rest, while the stricken men were revived on fresh seal meat. On
August 8th Beaumont and Coppinger started to cross the channel to the
_Discovery_ with the now convalescent men, in a 15-ft. ice boat. After
a most arduous and perilous voyage over the drifting ice, the ship was
reached on the 15th. Beaumont had been away 132 days.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Archer had discovered and surveyed a long
and narrow fjord running south from Lady Franklin Bay. This was an
admirable piece of work, but the most important discovery was that of a
deposit of coal of the Miocene period, with many impressions of plants,
near the winter quarters of the _Discovery_.
The outbreak of scurvy led Captain Nares to return to England, and
although the geographical work fell far short of what would have been
achieved had they escaped the disease, it was still of great interest
and value, while the other scientific results were of the highest
importance. The ships reached Portsmouth 2nd November, 1876.
The geographical results were the discovery of 300 miles of coast-line
facing the polar ocean, valuable observations on the structure
of the ice in this region, and, through the tidal observations,
the discovery of the insularity of Greenland[152]. The important
magnetic, meteorological, and tidal observations were under the
immediate superintendence of Captain Nares. The great value of the
other scientific results was mainly due to that very able naturalist,
Captain Feilden. This officer had seen much service in India during
the Mutiny, in China, and during the Civil War in North America on the
Confederate side. His special study was ornithology, but he had a
sound knowledge of other branches of natural history and of geology,
and was indefatigable as an observer and collector.
Great as the scientific value of the collections was found to be, the
conclusions to be derived from the discoveries when combined with
those of former expeditions were of quite equal importance. We are
able to understand the enormous pressure exerted by the ice along the
newly-discovered coasts, and we see exactly the same thing as described
by M’Clintock on Prince Patrick Island, by M’Clure on Banks Island,
and by Collinson, in a less degree, on the coast north of America.
The conclusion was inevitable that a current drives the ice across
the polar ocean from east to west, with a set down the east coast of
Greenland. This discovery threw a new light on the whole polar economy,
and for this reason, combined with the scientific results, the Nares
expedition must occupy a very high place in the annals of Arctic
enterprise. My own conclusion at the time, based on the considerations
above indicated, was that there was a deep ocean north of Franz Josef
Land, and that a great result would be obtained by a vessel drifting
across it with the current from Eastern Siberia towards Greenland.
CHAPTER XXXIV
SIR ALLEN YOUNG AND THE _PANDORA_.
AMUNDSEN AND THE NORTH WEST PASSAGE.
In the same year that the English Arctic expedition was despatched, Sir
Allen Young determined to see whether it was an open year for passing
through the navigable north-west passage discovered by Sir Leopold
M’Clintock. This depends upon the winds. If very strong winds from the
north have been prevalent, the passage down Franklin Channel is choked
with ice and impassable. If this has not been the case, the passage
can be made. Sir Allen Young bought the gunboat _Pandora_ from the
Admiralty, a vessel built at Devonport for speed, and commissioned by
my old friend Ruxton in 1863. She was well strengthened for Arctic work
at Southampton. Allen Young bore the expense with some assistance from
Lady Franklin and Lieutenant Lillingston, R.N., who went as his chief
officer. The second was Navigating Lieutenant Pirie, and an ardent
young Dutch naval officer named Koolemans Beynen joined as a volunteer.
The _Pandora_ was provided with a steam cutter, which proved very
useful, three whaleboats, and four other boats.
Allen Young paid a very interesting visit to the cryolite mine in South
Greenland[153] where he found his old ship, the _Fox_. He took in a
supply of coals at Kudlisit in Disco, and was fortunate in passing
through the ice of Melville Bay. After leaving letters for the _Alert_
and _Discovery_ on one of the Cary Islands, he proceeded up Lancaster
Sound to examine the depôt on Beechey Island. He then went down Peel
Sound in very thick weather. He was entering upon his own ground, his
discoveries during the journey from the _Fox_ in 1859. Then came a
great disappointment. Dense pack ice extended right across the channel
near Levesque Island and there was nothing to the southward but solid
pack, with a strong ice-blink beyond 72° 14′ N. Cape Bird, the northern
portal of Bellot Strait, was distant about 10 miles. Young ascended
Roquette Island (about 200 feet) but there was nothing to be seen but
unbroken pack extending from shore to shore and he inclined to the
belief that the only way was by Bellot Strait. He reluctantly beat to
the northward, and by September 7th was clear of Lancaster Sound. He
landed again at the Cary Islands and fortunately found letters from
the _Alert_ and the _Discovery_. These he brought home, arriving at
Spithead October 16th, 1875.
The cause of the Franklin disaster was that no provision was made
against unavoidable detention or other misfortune, either by stationing
a depôt ship to fall back upon, or by sending a relief ship. I
represented to the Admiralty the importance of taking some such step in
the case of the Nares expedition, and Sir Allen Young agreed with me.
But the Admiralty authorities only awoke to the necessity when it was
too late to send an expedition themselves. They therefore requested Sir
Allen Young to undertake the duty with the _Pandora_, giving up his own
cherished plans for the North West Passage. He felt bound to consent.
This time he took Lieutenant Arbuthnot, R.N., as his second, as well as
Navigating Lieutenant Pirie, Koolemans Beynen, and an Austrian naval
officer, the late Admiral Alois Ritter von Becker. The _Pandora_ was to
take out letters to Littleton Island or Cape Isabella, and if possible
bring back despatches from Captain Nares.
[Illustration: The _Pandora_ (Captain Allen Young) in Peel Strait]
Sailing in May, 1876, the _Pandora_ again obtained coal at Kudlisit,
and proceeded to Melville Bay, where a very different reception awaited
her from the welcome she had found in the previous year. The bad time
began with dense fogs. Then she encountered furious gales, being in
great danger from icebergs crushing through the floes and threatening
instant destruction. At one time she was so severely nipped that every
preparation was made to abandon her, and take to the boats. They had
no sooner got into the North Water of Baffin’s Bay than a gale sprang
up off the Cary Islands, which increased to a frightful storm from the
south-east. No previous voyagers had ever experienced the like in that
part. On the 1st of August it moderated, and a landing was effected on
one of the Cary Islands, but nothing was found. The _Pandora_ arrived
at Littleton Island, within the entrance of Smith Sound, on the 3rd
August.
Allen Young then determined to reach Cape Isabella, on the west side
of Smith Sound, expecting to find despatches from the Nares expedition
there. In this he was successful, and Arbuthnot and von Becker went on
shore to examine the cairn which had been erected the previous year
by Commander A. H. Markham on the summit of the cape. The boat had
to be forced through drifting ice, but reached the shore. A record
was found, dated July 29th, 1875, and signed by Nares. Next day Young
began to think that a cask which Arbuthnot believed to be full of
provisions ought to have been examined for letters, and determined to
return to Cape Isabella to do this. As the Cape was approached, it
blew so hard and the sea was so covered with drifting ice that it was
not safe to send a boat, and for a whole month the vessel fought gales
of wind, drifting floes, and danger in many forms, before a landing
was ultimately effected. The cask was found to be empty! Nothing
remained but to return home, for all possibility of making their way
to the north was prevented by the solid pack. Letters were left at
Cape Isabella and Littleton Island. On the voyage home a very pleasant
visit was paid to the Arctic Highlanders in Whale Sound, “kind and
simple people, robust and healthy, who offered us everything they had.”
On the 11th September the _Pandora_ left Upernivik, and on the 16th
of the following month the _Alert_ and _Discovery_ were sighted in
mid-Atlantic on their voyage home. Portsmouth was reached on November
3rd, 1876.
The two voyages of the _Pandora_, under the command of a great seaman,
a great discoverer, and a most popular commander, are well worthy of
record, and Sir Allen Young’s admirable but modest narrative is a model
of the way in which an Arctic story should be told.
Although Nordenskiöld’s wonderful expedition in the _Vega_ had brought
the protracted struggle for the North East Passage to a successful
conclusion, the North West Passage, though known throughout the
greater part of its extent, still remained unconquered. It fell to a
Norwegian with seven companions in a small fishing boat to accomplish
this remarkable journey. The _Gjoa_, a cutter-rigged herring-boat,
fitted with a 13 h.-p. motor, under command of Roald Amundsen, with
a crew of seven men, sailed from Christiania June 16th, 1903, and
arrived off Godhavn on July 24th. Melville Bay offered fortunate ice
conditions, and they reached Dalrymple Rock, where 105 cases of stores
had been left for them, on August 15th. They now had 4245 gallons
of petrol aboard. Erebus Bay in Beechey I. was reached August 22nd,
and the season being an exceptionally favourable one they made rapid
progress, and passing down the east side of King William Land found
Simpson Strait leading to the westward quite free from ice. But,
though it was tempting to press on, they were on the look-out for a
wintering spot for magnetic observations, and they were fortunate
enough to discover an ideal situation in a small sheltered bay in the
south-east part of King William Land. Here stores were landed and
houses and an observatory built in mid-September. The bay was named
Gjoahavn. Meanwhile Lund the mate and Hansen the astronomer were sent
to an island in the middle of Simpson Strait, known to be the resort
of reindeer in the autumn, and returned with twenty. At Hall Point,
the southern end of King William Land, two skeletons of white men were
found, which were considered to be undoubtedly those of two members of
the Franklin expedition, who, it will be remembered, made their retreat
southward along the western shore of King William Land. Reindeer became
later very numerous even at Gjoahavn itself, as many as 13 being
shot in one day by a single sportsman. Birds too, such as geese and
ptarmigan, were also plentiful. Later, Eskimos appeared; they were very
friendly and some remained all the winter. They were afterwards found
to be very numerous.
Sledging journeys of a modest nature were made in the spring and
surveys taken, etc. The summer and autumn passed and they prepared
for a second winter (1904–5). Constant work was carried on at the
observatories. The lowest temperature recorded this winter was -50°
Fahr., and was thus much milder than the previous one, when -80° had
been registered, while at the end of March the thermometer was +17°
Fahr., instead of -40°. When the weather was sufficiently established
Hansen and Ristvedt started by sledge with 75 days’ provisions to make
a rough survey, if possible, of part of the east side of Victoria Land.
They took two sledges and 12 dogs with their food for 70 days, and
started on April 2nd. On May 26th they reached their furthest point
north on the western shore of M’Clintock Channel, and safely returned
June 25th, having been successful in their object.
On August 13th, 1905, the _Gjoa_ once more got under way on her
westward journey. The observations, magnetic and other, had been kept
continuously for 19 months, and the large number of Nechilli Eskimos
who had been in their neighbourhood, or had come long distances to
see them, had also given them abundant opportunity for ethnological
notes on these people. Fortune still favoured the expedition, the
sea proved sufficiently clear of ice, and though they had an anxious
time navigating through the shoals and islands which lay between
Nordenskiöld I. and the Royal Geographical Society’s group, they had
cleared Dease Strait on the 19th of August, and Union Strait four
days later. Off Baring Land on August 26th they met the first whaler
from the Bering Strait side, and had, as they thought, practically
accomplished their task.
They were still a long way from having done so, however, for a few
days later they encountered heavy pack at King Point, off the mouth
of the Mackenzie River, and here they were reluctantly compelled to
pass a third winter. There were many Eskimos here, and at Herschel I.,
35 miles away, five whalers were wintering. While at King Point the
magnetic observer, Wijk, died of pneumonia. Early in August, 1906, the
_Gjoa_ resumed her voyage, passed through Bering Strait without further
incident, and arrived at Nome August 31st, thus completing a voyage of
extraordinary pluck and endurance, and it must be added, of scarcely
less extraordinary good fortune.
CHAPTER XXXV
WEYPRECHT’S PLAN FOR SYNCHRONOUS OBSERVATIONS.
THE GREELY EXPEDITION
On the 18th September, 1875, Lieutenant Weyprecht, the colleague of
Lieutenant Payer when Franz Josef Land was discovered, delivered an
address to a meeting of German savants at Gratz in which he urged that,
in the greed for discovery, scientific research was often neglected.
The object of Arctic expeditions, he said, should be a nobler one
than mapping and naming ice-bound coasts, or reaching a higher
latitude than a predecessor. The North Pole, he held, had no greater
significance for science than any other point in the higher latitudes.
His contention was that meteorological and magnetic observations, to be
really valuable to science, must be synchronous, and that they must be
taken at selected stations round the Arctic regions, the instruments
identical, the instructions identical, and the observations synchronous
for at least a year.
Lieutenant Weyprecht’s views received respectful attention, and were
adopted by an international polar conference at Hamburg in 1879 and by
another at St Petersburg in 1882. Proposals were then made to all the
countries likely to take part, and finally the following arrangements
were made to carry out Weyprecht’s scheme.
The United States agreed to station Lieutenant Ray at Point Barrow, and
Lieutenant Greely at Lady Franklin Bay, in Smith Sound. The Austrians
sent Captain Wohlgemuth to Jan Mayen Island, and the Germans Dr Giese
to Cumberland Inlet in Davis Strait. England arranged for observations
to be taken at Fort Rae on the Great Slave Lake, Russia established
stations at Novaya Zemlya and at the mouth of the Lena, and the Danes
sent Dr Paulsen to Godthaab in Greenland. The Swedes were represented
by Dr Ekholm at Ice Fjord in Spitsbergen, and the Norwegians observed
at the Alten Fjord. The Dutch intended to establish a station at Port
Dickson in Siberia, but unfortunately the vessel conveying the observer
and his instruments was wrecked. The synchronous observations were
commenced at these stations in the summer of 1882, and continued for a
year, in accordance with the previously arranged plan.
One of these expeditions, the only one which concerns our subject,
combined geographical discovery with the main object--that sent up
Smith Sound by the United States. It was composed entirely of officers
and men of the army, under the command of Lieutenant Greely of the
Signal Corps. Under him the officers were Lieutenants Kislingbury
and Lockwood, and Dr Pavy as surgeon and naturalist. There were five
sergeants belonging to the signal corps, three of infantry, and two of
cavalry, altogether ten sergeants, one corporal, nine privates, and two
Eskimo hunters. The steamer _Proteus_ was hired to land the party at
Lady Franklin Bay, the _Discovery’s_ winter quarters. This was effected
on August 18th, 1881, and as soon as the stores and provisions were
landed and the house erected, the _Proteus_ departed.
It was arranged that the _Proteus_ should return to bring the observers
home in the summer of 1882, but no other precaution was taken. It was
quite possible that a vessel might find it impracticable to reach
Lady Franklin Bay owing to ice conditions, or that she might founder,
as actually happened. The commander of the expedition ought to have
insisted upon a depôt being landed at Cape Sabine, or some other point
in Smith Sound, complete in all respects for 24 men for nine months;
such a depôt as Captain Kellett left at Melville Island. The neglect of
this precaution was disastrous.
The house at Lady Franklin Bay, which was named Conger, was
comfortable, and the various observations, meteorological, magnetic,
pendulum, and tidal were commenced. But unfortunately the personnel of
the expedition did not form a very united family. There was resistance
to the Commander’s instructions for winter routine. Lieutenant
Kislingbury resigned his appointment in the expedition and wished to
return, but was too late. He remained as a volunteer. The surgeon was
frequently insubordinate and was at last put under arrest, and later
there was trouble with one of the sergeants named Cross. Lieutenant
Lockwood was the life and soul of the expedition. He undertook short
journeys in the autumn, laying out depôts, and upwards of a hundred
musk oxen were seen, and many shot, so that fresh meat could be served
out three times a week. During the dark winter months Lieutenant
Lockwood edited a paper entitled _The Arctic Moon_, with illustrations
by himself.
An expedition along the north coast of Greenland had been decided upon,
and during March Lieutenant Lockwood undertook a preliminary journey
across the channel to Thank God Harbour, visiting Hall’s grave. A depôt
was also placed at Cape Sumner.
On the 2nd April Lockwood’s expedition started, consisting of the
dog-sledge _Antoinette_ with a team of eight dogs, and some supporting
sledges. At Cape Britannia on the north coast of Greenland, near
Beaumont’s furthest, all the supporting sledges were sent back, a depôt
was left, and on April 30th Lockwood proceeded with Sergeant Brainard
and the Eskimo Frederick. The sledge was loaded with 25 days’ rations
for three persons weighing 230 lb., 300 lb. of dog pemmican, constant
weights 176 lb., the sledge itself 80 lb., total 786 lb. As they
advanced the snow became soft, and a portion of the load was thrown
off, to be picked up on the return journey. The ice foot further on
was smooth and the dogs went at a trot, the men sitting on the sledge
by turns. On the 14th May they reached their furthest point, which was
called Lockwood Island. On the 15th observations were taken, the result
being Lat. 83° 24′ N., Long. 40° 46′ 30″ W. The return was without
incident, and Conger was reached June 1st. The dogs had done well and
enabled a good journey of two months to be made.
Lockwood’s coast-line extends for 110 miles of longitude, or altogether
150 miles. It consists of a succession of high, rocky, and precipitous
promontories, with intervening inlets, and a mass of snow-clad
mountains inland. Along the shore was what was called a tidal crack,
varying in width, supposed to be caused by the motion of the polar
pack. Lieutenant Greely rightly concluded from the regularity of the
surface in the fjords or inlets, that this was really the north coast
of Greenland, and not a separate land as later alleged by Peary.
Greely himself started on an expedition inland on June 26th, and this
journey, combined with a shorter one in the spring, resulted in the
discovery of an extensive lake, and enabled him to obtain a clear
idea of this part of the great island, his furthest point being 175
miles from Conger. A number of Eskimo bone implements and remains of
sledges, of considerable antiquity, were found and brought back. But
now began the first hint of the misfortunes that were to befall them.
The _Proteus_, the relief vessel which was to bring the expedition
home, was anxiously expected but never arrived, and a second winter had
therefore to be faced.
On April 25th, 1883, Lieutenant Lockwood started for a month’s
exploration westward. He succeeded in crossing the island to a fjord
on the west coast to which he gave the name of Greely, and down this
he and Sergeant Brainard travelled for 25 miles. To the south of the
fjord the country appeared to be covered by an immense ice-cap with an
unbroken series of cliffs from 125 to 200 feet in height.
It was decided to commence a retreat on the 18th August, with a steam
launch, a whale-boat, and two English ice-boats, carrying 50 days’
provisions, to take them to Cape Dobbin, where they expected to find a
ship. All the records of observations as well as the reports of sledge
journeys were placed in tin cases carefully soldered. They picked up
the English depôt at Cape Collinson (240 rations of meat and 120 of
bread) and reached Cape Hawke with 60 days’ provisions. On October 2nd
they landed at Wade Point with 35 days’ food for 25 men. All the boats,
except one ice-boat, had been abandoned. On the 9th Sergeant Rice
arrived at Cape Sabine and obtained news. The _Proteus_ had foundered
on the 23rd July, and her commander Lieutenant Garlington and crew had
escaped to the east coast. The English depôt was found. The members
of the expedition reached Cape Sabine and built a hut with the boat
for a roof. Greely was obliged, on November 1st, to reduce the daily
rations to the smallest amount that would support life--meat 4 oz.
and biscuit 6 oz., altogether a total of only 14¼ oz. There were some
instances of theft of rum and provisions, but not many. In January
Sergeant Cross died. Though some of the party were indefatigable in
searching for game they were not fortunate, the bag consisting only of
one small seal, one bear, twenty-four foxes, fourteen ptarmigan and
sixty dovekies. The last issue of rations was on May 24th, after which
the deaths from starvation began, though during May Sergeant Brainard
had managed to get 475 lb. of shrimps and 81 lb. of sea-weed. That
gallant and loyal soldier, James Lockwood, died on the 9th April, Dr
Pavy on the 16th, and Kislingbury on the 1st June. Greely was left
without an officer. All the non-commissioned officers, except Brainard,
fell victims of starvation, as well as six of the privates and the two
Eskimos. Private Henry had been detected stealing bacon, and afterwards
strips of leather. He was stronger than any of the others, and they
became frightened of him, so Lieutenant Greely ordered him to be shot.
This was done on June 6th, 1884. The six survivors, Greely, Brainard,
Connell, Long, Fredericks, and Biederlich, were reduced to the very
last extremity when on June 22nd a relief vessel arrived, commanded by
Captain Sedley, and saved them.
Greely was in a most difficult position during the expedition owing to
the insubordination of two out of three of his officers, which set a
bad example to the men. There were possibly faults on both sides, and
Greely may have been injudicious, but he conducted an exceptionally
arduous and difficult service with ability and consideration for
others, and to the very last did not fail in his duty to those
dependent upon him.
Lieutenant (now General) Greely succeeded in bringing back the most
valuable part of his work. It is published in two large quarto volumes
which are admirably edited (Washington, 1888). The work opens with
Greely’s lucid and thoroughly honest report, and contains the reports
and diaries of all the sledge travellers, and the meteorological,
tidal, and magnetic observations during the whole sojourn in Lady
Franklin Bay.
Lieutenant P. H. Ray carried out the Weyprecht scheme at Point Barrow
with diligence and ability. His results, contained in a large quarto
volume (Washington, 1885), in addition to the narrative, comprise
the meteorological, magnetic, and tidal observations, together with
ethnographical and linguistic studies of the natives of Point Barrow.
CHAPTER XXXVI
THE NORTH EAST PASSAGE--NORDENSKIÖLD--WIGGINS--DE LONG
Nordenskiöld is a name which not only recalls much and varied Arctic
work, but also most valuable researches connected with historical
geography. Its bearer, the late Nils Adolf Erik, Baron Nordenskiöld,
was born at Helsingfors in 1832, of an ancient and distinguished
Swedish family settled in Finland. His father was a well-known man
of science, and the young Nordenskiöld became a trained chemist and
mineralogist. He settled at Stockholm in 1857 and soon began to turn
his attention to Arctic exploration. In 1858 he was geologist in
Torell’s Spitsbergen expedition; in 1861, with Duner, he was taking
preliminary observations for the Spitsbergen measurement of an arc of
the meridian; in 1868 he reached the highest northern latitude attained
by a ship; in 1870 he made his first journey over the inland ice of
Greenland; and, later, he wintered in Spitsbergen and made the inland
journey across North-East Island. The funds for these expeditions were
to a large extent supplied by Baron Oscar Dickson, the munificent
supporter of Swedish Arctic enterprise.
In 1873 Nordenskiöld turned his attention to the North East Passage
by the Siberian coast, believing that it might become a highway for
commerce. In that year he reached the Yenisei by the Kara Sea, and
discovered an excellent harbour which he named after his generous
supporter, Oscar Dickson. In 1875 he again crossed the Kara Sea in the
_Ymer_. These were pioneer voyages. His great expedition, with the
financial support of King Oscar, of Oscar Dickson, and of the Russian
merchant Sibirikoff, was fitted out in 1878.
A ship named the _Vega_, built at Bremen in 1872, of oak with a skin
of greenheart, was purchased. She was of 300 tons, 150 ft. long, by
29 ft. beam, and 16 ft. depth of hold, barque rigged, with a screw
propeller and engines of 60 horse-power. The leader of the expedition
was Nordenskiöld himself, the captain of the ship Lieutenant Louis
Palander, a distinguished Swedish naval officer who had previously been
in Spitsbergen with Nordenskiöld. The other officers were Lieutenant
Brusewitz of the Swedish navy, Lieutenant Hovgaard of the Danish navy,
Lieutenant Bove of the Italian navy, and Lieutenant Nordqvist of the
Russian army. There were also three scientific men (one being the
surgeon), two engineers, a boatswain, and 15 seamen of the Swedish
navy, besides three Norwegian seal-fishers, 30 all told. The _Vega_
took 300 tons of coal and two years’ provisions, and was accompanied by
two of Sibirikoff’s cargo vessels for the Yenisei, and the _Lena_ for
the river of that name.
The _Vega_ left Tromsö on the 21st July, 1878, with the three other
vessels in company, and anchored in Pet Strait, between Waigats Island
and the mainland of the Samoyeds, on the 30th. The ship stood out into
the Kara Sea, and rounded White Island. There seems to be little or
no risk of running ashore on the coast, for the currents from the Obi
and Yenisei flow northward at a rate of two to five miles. All went
well, and on the 6th August the _Vega_ and _Lena_ were safely anchored
in Dickson Harbour, while Sibirikoff’s two vessels proceeded up the
Yenisei river.
From this point the exploring voyage began, and was well described in
Palander’s letters to me at the time. Cape Taimyr was reached on the
10th of August, and floe ice was encountered with thick fogs. It may
be mentioned that very important corrections of longitude had to be
made all along the Siberian coast, and between Dickson Harbour and Cape
Taimyr several islands previously unknown were discovered.
On the 19th of August the _Vega_ rounded Cape Chelyuskin, the most
northern point of the Old World, which was found to be in 77° 36′
N. and 103° 25′ E. Palander then stood more out to sea in hopes of
finding unknown islands, but the quantity of drift ice by which the
ship was soon surrounded led him to seek the coast again, and he found
a navigable though narrow channel between the land and the pack. On
August 28th the _Vega_ was off the mouth of the Lena, and the little
steamer destined for service on that river parted company.
The strong current from the river Lena sent the _Vega_ 70 miles to the
north. It was observed that in all the islands on the Siberian coast
the northern sides were quite precipitous, while those towards the
coast were low, often sloping into sand-banks. Until September 3rd
there was beautiful weather with little ice, and the Bear Islands,
35 miles from the mouth of the Kolyma, were reached. Here the four
basaltic pillars, 44 feet high, reported by Wrangel, were sighted,
looking exactly like four lighthouses. Here also the explorers had
their first snow-fall, and the ship was stopped by heavy floes cemented
together, so Palander again made for the land, and found a narrow
channel. This eastern part of the voyage was by far the most difficult,
and very slow progress was made in shallow water, with much drift ice
and fog, the steam launch being constantly ahead sounding. From the 8th
to the 11th, when Cape Jakan was passed, the explorers were working
through pack ice with a depth of only four fathoms. But fortune, which
had hitherto been so propitious, now deserted them, and on the 28th
September the _Vega_, when almost within reach of success, was forced
to winter on the coast and remain for nearly ten months. Palander
thought, however, that 1878 was a bad ice year, and that generally a
vessel with steam power could pass from Norway to Japan in one season.
On the 18th of July, 1879, a strong south wind drifted the ice off
the shore, and the _Vega_ was free. On the 20th she passed East Cape,
and Bering Strait was crossed several times for the purpose of taking
soundings. They were at Bering Island on August 14th, and Yokohama
was reached on the 2nd September, 1879. The hearty welcome that
Nordenskiöld received on his return from this famous voyage was worthy
of the great explorer’s well-established position in the world of
science.
The results of Nordenskiöld’s famous voyage were the correction of the
longitudes along the coast of Siberia, the numerous soundings (no less
than 5000 casts of the lead having been taken), the observations and
collections, and not least, the lengthened study of the Tchuktchi race
which they had been able to make during the long detention in winter
quarters. The two divisions of coast and reindeer Tchuktchis numbered
3000. The former daily visited the _Vega_ during the winter, in parties
numbering from ten to twenty, were allowed to go where they liked, and
never attempted to steal anything. Palander found them good-natured,
friendly, hospitable, and honest.
Nordenskiöld’s activities did not cease with this, the greatest of
his achievements. He made a second journey over the inland ice of
Greenland, effected a landing on the east coast, and encouraged the
aspirations of young men such as Björling and Kallstenius, whose
melancholy fate was a cause of sorrow to him[154]. After he was
ennobled Nordenskiöld lived chiefly at his beautiful country seat of
Dalbyo, where I twice visited him. His latest labours, in bringing to
light and publishing medieval maps and charts and portolans in two
splendid volumes, were not the least important. His researches and
discoveries threw much new light on the history of cartography. When he
died a vast amount of knowledge died with him, and there passed away
from among us an illustrious man of science, a great explorer, a great
geographer, and a man of whom his countrymen may well be proud[155].
While Nordenskiöld was engaged in his Siberian labours, there was an
enthusiastic English master mariner who was also filled with the idea
of opening a trade with Russia by the Arctic Sea. Joseph Wiggins was
born in 1832 at Norwich, between which place and London his father
drove the “Nelson” coach three times a week, until railroads superseded
coaches. At fourteen Joseph went to sea, and became master of a ship
trading to the Mediterranean when he was twenty-one. From 1868 to 1874
he was examiner in navigation at Sunderland, and in the latter year his
mind became full of ideas about opening a Russian trade by the north.
He was a practical and very persevering man, with whom thought was
soon followed by action. On June 3rd, 1874, he sailed in the _Diana_
of 103 tons, successfully crossed the ice-bound Kara Sea to the river
Obi, and returned. In 1875 he went to Archangel in a Yarmouth ship,
called the _William_. In 1876, with help from the Russian merchant
Sibirikoff and Mr Gardiner, he sailed in the _Thames_ of 120 tons, and
reached the Yenisei river. Leaving her there with the crew on board,
he returned overland by way of Petrograd. He went out again to his
ship, accompanied by Mr Seebohm, the distinguished ornithologist, who
had long desired to investigate the bird-life of this region. They
arrived at the town of Yeniseisk on April 5th, 1877, and reached the
_Thames_ at the Kureika, lower down the river Yenisei, on the 23rd.
The crew were in good health, but the ship had to be cut out of the
ice. No sooner was the _Thames_ free than she ran on a sand-bank on
her way down the river and was finally abandoned. The _Ibis_, a little
vessel belonging to Seebohm, was uninjured, but all the crew of the
_Thames_ except three refused to go home in her. Mr Seebohm, who made
a valuable ornithological collection, calculated that 50,000 acres of
ice passed down the river in the spring, at the rate of ten to twenty
miles an hour, and his description of the break-up of the ice on these
great Siberian rivers is of extraordinary interest. He returned home
overland, as did Wiggins and the rest of the crew of the _Thames_.
The next venture of Wiggins was very successful. In concert with Mr
Oswald Cattley, who chartered the _Warkworth_ of 650 tons for a voyage
to the Obi, he sailed from Liverpool on August 1st, 1878, reached
the Obi, and was back in the Thames by October 2nd with a cargo of
wheat. In 1879 speculators rushed in and spoiled the business. Nine
large steamers, all quite unfit for ice navigation, were chartered
for the Obi, where 5000 tons of Siberian goods were ready for them.
But the masters of the steamers were frightened of the ice and came
home without cargoes, thus thoroughly discrediting the enterprise.
Wiggins gave it up in disgust, but some years afterwards, encouraged
by Sir Robert Morier, the English Ambassador at Petrograd, he was
induced to take the _Phoenix_ of 273 tons to the Yenisei, and he made
several other voyages until 1896. This fine specimen of an English
master mariner had become a perfect pilot of the Kara Sea, and a most
worthy successor of Burrough, Pet, and Jackman. I had the pleasure of
presenting him with one of the awards of the Royal Geographical Society
for his excellent services in the Kara Sea, and he received other
recognitions. He died, aged 73, on September 13th, 1905[156].
Another expedition, connected more or less with the voyage of
Nordenskiöld and the Siberian Sea, was planned and commanded by
Lieutenant George W. De Long of the United States Navy, and financed
by Mr Gordon Bennett of the _New York Herald_. The expedition had
the great advantage of being under naval discipline, the commander
receiving instructions from the Secretary of the Navy. Mr Gordon
Bennett induced Sir Allen Young to sell him the _Pandora_ as the
vessel for the new expedition. At this time Lieutenant De Long was in
England, and I had the pleasure of making his acquaintance. He was a
good seaman, a scientific officer, and an agreeable companion. Trained
to the management and care of seamen De Long was undoubtedly the best
of all the American arctic commanders, and he well fulfilled the trust
that was placed in him. The _Pandora_ was taken to San Francisco--for
the object of the expedition was to make discoveries by way of
Bering Strait--but, ignoring the vessel’s previous fine record, and
in spite of sailors’ customs and beliefs, her name was changed to the
_Jeannette_.
Captain De Long was accompanied by two naval lieutenants, Danenhower
and Chipp, and a naval engineer, Melville, with Dr Ambler as surgeon,
and the ice pilot Dunbar. The expedition, with 32 men and 40 dogs,
left San Francisco on 8th July, 1879, a few days before Nordenskiöld
got free from his winter quarters among the Tchuktchis. Passing
through Bering Strait and sighting Herald Island, the vessel was soon
afterwards beset and drifted helplessly to the north-west. De Long’s
hope was that she would be freed when she reached a part of the ocean
far from land where the floes might disperse, but this never happened.
Two winters were passed during this wearisome drift, but De Long
knew how to keep up the spirits of his people by his own unfailing
cheerfulness, and by promoting good-fellowship and various amusements.
On March 12th, 1881, they were in 74° 54′ N., having drifted 320 miles
to the north-west since sighting Herald Island, but they were still on
the continental shelf, the depth being only 38 fathoms, increasing,
after a month, to 85 fathoms. The rate of drift seemed to increase.
From April 21st to 25th it was 47 miles, in a direction N. 69° W. On
May 16th, in 76° 47′ N., a small island was sighted, and on the 24th
another in 77° 8′ N. A dog sledge, under Melville, was sent to visit
one of them, returning on June 5th. They were outliers of the Liakhov
group, and were named Jeannette and Henrietta Islands respectively.
On June 11th the depth was only 33 fathoms, and the ice was in a
threatening condition. Suddenly the vessel was subjected to tremendous
pressure. Provisions and everything that could be saved were at once
got out on the ice together with the boats, and on June 12th, 1881,
after long and faithful service on the African coast, in Baffin’s Bay,
Peel Sound, and Smith Sound, and lastly in this long drift, the staunch
old gunboat sank to the bottom of the Siberian Sea.
De Long found himself in command of a whale-boat and two cutters, with
4950 lb. of pemmican and 1120 lb. of biscuit and 32 souls to save from
death. Their position was in 77° 14′ 57″ N. and 154° 58′ E., far away
from land. The boats were mounted and secured on sledges, and held ten
men each, the first with De Long and Ambler, the second with Melville
and Danenhower, and the third with Chipp and Dunbar. There were six
tents.
De Long made for the Liakhov or New Siberian Islands, but with much
soft snow and dangerous openings in the ice their progress was slow.
On July 29th land was discovered in 76° 38′ 17″ N., the most northern
of the New Siberian group, consisting of volcanic rock, with a vein
of bituminous coal. It received the name of Bennett Island. All were
then well, with 23 dogs, and 30 days’ provisions, but De Long himself
was suffering much from the state of his feet. From the New Siberian
Islands the three boats then started for the mouth of the Lena, De Long
intending to lead his people to the first Russian settlement he could
find.
In crossing from the island to the Siberian coast the boats encountered
a furious gale of wind and were separated. Chipp and his boat’s crew
were never heard of again. Melville and Danenhower, however, with their
men, landed on one part of the Lena delta, and De Long on another.
The latter in vain tried to find their way to a Russian settlement.
Provisions failed, and all, save two, perished. Melville and Danenhower
were more fortunate, reaching Yakutsk on the 30th December, 1881, and
Melville at once organised a search for his lost commander.
A relief expedition had meanwhile been fitted out at San Francisco,
and in June 1881 the _Rodgers_ sailed under the command of Lieutenant
Berry, U.S.N. That intelligent officer made a complete survey
and examination of the small Wrangell Island, in sight from Cape
Chelagskoi, about which Dr Petermann and others had written so
inaccurately. He wintered in St Lawrence Bay, and then made his way
to Yakutsk, to join Melville in the search. The bodies of De Long and
Ambler were found close to each other on the island of Boren-Bjelkoi;
they had died nobly, martyrs to science, and devoted to duty to the
last.
De Long was a naval officer of promise, and a noble character. He
impressed me greatly with his thoroughness. In his last letter to his
wife he wrote: “I feel my responsibility, and I hope I appreciate the
delicate position I am placed in, of leading and directing so many
people of my own age. I hope God will aid me in what I have undertaken,
and will bring me through it in safety and with credit.” Mrs De Long
resolved to publish the whole of her husband’s copious journals, and
she acted wisely, for they form one of the most interesting of Arctic
books. She wrote to me--what every reader will endorse--“the journals
show so convincingly the zeal, perseverance, and devotion of the
leader, that I am anxious that they should have as large a circulation
as possible.”
De Long’s expedition, though unfortunate, was not without useful
results. The history of the drift, so carefully and accurately
recorded, is valuable geographically and will always be of assistance
to future explorers.
CHAPTER XXXVII
GREENLAND AND ITS INLAND ICE--NORDENSKIÖLD, NANSEN, PEARY
The inland ice of Greenland was for centuries one of the greatest
Arctic problems--an entirely unknown area of 750,000 square miles. So
little was its formation understood in the first half of the eighteenth
century that Governor Claus Paars, Greenland’s first and only governor,
took out horses with the idea of riding across it to the supposed lost
colony on the east side. He was disabused when he sailed up to the end
of the Amaralikfjord, reached the inland ice and, after a march of two
hours, was stopped by a crevasse.
No one knew what there might be within that vast region. The Eskimos
were often on its edge when hunting the reindeer, but had never
ventured far. They were terrified at the mighty solitude. At last
curiosity overcame fear in the case of a trader named Lars Dalager,
who was at Frederikshaab, one of the most southern Greenland stations.
With a few Eskimos, he went up to the head of a fjord to the south of
the _iisblink_ on September 2nd, 1751, and advanced for a few days
over very rough ice. He noticed the extreme cold of the inland ice and
sighted mountain peaks which he supposed to be on the eastern coast,
but they have since been found to be _nunataks_ or mountain peaks
rising out of the great snowy expanse. He returned to his boat after
five days. The men of science who visited Greenland somewhat later,
Fabricius in the days of Krantz, and the German Geisecke in 1806–13,
only reached the edge of the inland ice, though it engaged much of
their attention. The well-known Alpine traveller Whymper made two
attempts from Disco Bay in 1867 and 1872, but without result. Several
persons, such as Steenstrup, Kornerup, and Holm, made observations
on the rate of movement of the glaciers and it was found to vary in
different localities.
The first really serious expeditions were those of Nordenskiöld in
1870 and 1883. In the former year the accomplished Swedish explorer
selected the northern arm of the Auleitsivik fjord, twenty miles
north of Godthaab, as his point of entrance into the unknown. He was
accompanied by the botanist Dr Berggren. On the 19th July they reached
the ice cap by a cleft, and finding the surface impassable for a sledge
they abandoned it, and went on with a few necessaries on their backs.
Passing the region of broken-up ice and cleft and favoured by good
weather, they came to a perceptible rise, with a smoother surface,
and reached their furthest point 2200 feet above the sea and 30 miles
west of the Auleitsivik fjord, returning after six days. Nordenskiöld
found rivers and streams on the surface. The explorers went along the
bank of one great river until the whole mass of water poured down a
perpendicular cleft into the depths.
In 1883 Nordenskiöld again came out to Greenland in the steamer
_Sophia_, funds being supplied by Baron Oscar Dickson, that munificent
supporter of Arctic research. Nordenskiöld believed that the inland ice
was not an unbroken mass, but that there were islands with bare rocks
and some vegetation, the abode of reindeer and ptarmigan. He started
from the same place as in 1870, with a party of ten, including two
Lapps with _ski_. In 18 days they had advanced 73 miles and attained
a height of 5000 feet. They were stopped by soft sludgy snow, but
Nordenskiöld sent on the Lapps, who returned with a report that they
had been 145 miles further, reaching a height of 5800 feet, and that
there was nothing but an endless unbroken surface of snow. Yet the
sight of two ravens rather confirmed Nordenskiöld in the belief that
the expanse of snow was relieved by oases. The great Swedish savant was
31 days on the inland ice.
[Illustration: Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld]
Meanwhile, Dr Rink, the learned and accomplished Danish Inspector of
Greenland, had warmly advocated further research as far back as 1876.
The Danish savant Steenstrup observed the rate of movement of glaciers
in 1876 and 1877, and in 1878 an expedition was undertaken into the
interior by Lieutenant Jensen. This was a very interesting journey and
revealed the character of the inland ice in the far south. Jensen
entered by the Fredrickshaab _iisblink_, and crossed the expanse of
snow as far as the Nasuasak _nunatak_, which was one of the peaks seen
by Dalager, 4700 feet above the sea. He had three small one-man sledges
with three weeks’ provisions. The ice was very rough and broken, and
the men suffered from snow blindness. But the _nunataks_ were reached,
and Jensen ascended one of them to a height of 5000 feet, obtaining an
extensive view. They are known as the Jensen _nunataks_. The journey on
the inland ice occupied 31 days, from July 3rd to August 3rd.
The next attempt was made in 1886 by Peary in Disco Bay, in the same
place that Whymper had previously selected. Robert Peary was a civil
engineer employed in the American naval dockyard service; a very
resolute and determined man who had conceived the ambition of taking
a share in Arctic discovery. His companion was the Danish lieutenant
Maigaard. Their point of entrance was in 69° 30′. They took thirty
days’ provisions, which were carried on two sledges, 9 feet long and 13
inches wide, weighing 23 lb. each, their shelter for the night being a
tarpaulin between the sledges. They advanced over the inland ice for 24
days, from June 8th to July 2nd, meeting with a “fohn” wind which made
the snow soft and sticky, and they were also delayed by snowstorms. In
returning, the wind was at their backs, so they rigged up the tarpaulin
on some alpenstocks and sailed back at great speed, 22, 27, and even
more miles a day. They returned on July 24th.
The name of Fridtjof Nansen will for ever be coupled with the first
crossing of the inland ice of Greenland. It was here that his genius
in conceiving a great plan for discovery, his ability as a leader,
and his mastery of details first began to develop. From the first he
was something more than an explorer. Born on the 18th of October,
1861, young Nansen was of good lineage on both sides, and in his after
life he proved the truth of Holberg’s saying “Det er min tro noget
i at vaere kommen af godt folk.” He became a naturalist, and as his
character developed its chief points were devoted patriotism, breadth
of view, and love of science, above all of scientific accuracy. He had
reached the age of 27, when, after a study of the labours of Jensen
and Nordenskiöld, he resolved to achieve the crossing of Greenland,
conceiving that science would benefit more especially by discoveries
respecting the meteorology of the inland ice.
Nansen, who had determined on crossing from east to west, had already
been for a cruise on the east coast of Greenland and had made
acquaintance with the character of its difficult navigation. The study
of the necessary equipment was undertaken with his never-failing care
and intelligence. His party was to number six, and he had to consider
the nature of the ground and the climate, while, as in all Arctic
travelling, lightness had to be the main consideration. His sledges, of
which he took five, were of ash, the upper part light and slender. They
weighed 28 lb., and were 9½ feet long by 20 inches wide, the runners
shod with thin steel plates. They were turned up at both ends, with
a chair-back-like bow for pushing and steering, and every joint was
lashed, no metal being used.
The tent was in five pieces of waterproof canvas, with two uprights
and one cross pole of bamboo, the guy-ropes made fast to crampon-like
hooks. The sleeping bags were of reindeer skin, with hood-shaped flaps
to button over the head, each to hold three men.
Nansen rightly decided that woollen clothes were the best, as avoiding
condensation. He paid specially close attention to the foot gear.
Woollen stockings were worn next the skin, then thick goat’s-hair
socks, and over these came the _finneskos_ of the Lapps with the
hair outside, stuffed, as is the Lapp custom, with a grass (_Carex
vesicaria_). Large woollen mitts were used, and fur caps with
ear-flaps. The cooking apparatus consisted of a spirit-lamp with a
copper tin-lined boiler above, tall and cylindrical, with a copper
flue carried through the centre, by which the hot air passed to a
broader and shallower copper vessel over the boiler to melt snow in,
all cased in thick felt. With this apparatus and 12 oz. of spirits a
gallon of chocolate and rather less of water was obtained in an hour.
The provisions consisted of Beauvais dried meat (which contained
insufficient fat), meat biscuits, chocolate with meat powder, pea
soup with fat, and tea. Some luxuries such as condensed milk and
whortleberry jam were taken, but Nansen was very strongly opposed to
the use of spirits and tobacco, as being injurious stimulants. The
instruments consisted of a theodolite and stand, a pocket sextant,
artificial horizon, azimuth compass, four watches, thermometer,
boiling-point thermometer, and aneroids. Four of the sledges when
loaded had a weight of 200 lb. each, the fifth of 400 lb.
Nansen was a master of ski-travel. This method of winter locomotion
has been used by his countrymen from time immemorial, and by himself
from childhood, and truly the speed attained and the feats performed
by Norwegian experts are marvellous. On very soft snow, however, the
Canadian snow-shoe is preferable.
Of his five comrades Otto Sverdrup was the son of a Helgeland farmer
with forest property, and was born on October 31st, 1855. He had been
17 years at sea. Olaf Dietrichsen, a surgeon and a keen sportsman, was
aged 25, and Kristian Trana, aged 24, was a forester. The others were
two Lapps, both young men.
The expedition started in June, 1888, and the _Jason_, a Norwegian
sealer, took them to the edge of the ice on the east coast of Greenland
and some distance into it. The explorers then took to their boats, but
it was long before they could reach the land. Drifted to the south,
they came to an Eskimo encampment at Cape Bille, and having reached the
inner lead of water on the 15th August, boats were at length hauled up
on the beach and the great journey was commenced. From the 17th to the
20th they were detained by storms with heavy rain, but the 22nd saw the
ascent commenced in fine weather. The ice was heavily crevassed and
_nunataks_ were visible here and there.
By the 26th the party had reached a height of 6000 ft., and by the end
of the month the elevation was 7930 ft. Hitherto they had worn Canadian
snow-shoes, but on September 2nd it was found that ski could be used,
even when dragging the sledges, and the national mode of progression
was gladly adopted for the remaining nineteen days. The explorers
were surprised at the great difference between the temperature of day
and night on this lofty plateau in September. The thermometer showed
-4° in the day, and -40° Fahr. at night. Furious gales of wind were
frequent.
The summit was 8250 ft. above the sea, and from September 17th there
was a pronounced fall to the westward. Sail was now set on the sledges,
portions of the tent being used for that purpose. This day a snow
bunting was seen. The crevasses and fissures again began to appear,
and on the 20th the summits of the western Greenland mountains were in
sight. The _sermik suak_ or inland ice thus proved to be a vast extent
of smooth level snow with a margin of broken and fissured ice. The head
of the Ameralik-fjord was at length reached after 40 days on the inland
ice.
The explorers were still sixty miles from the Danish settlement of
Godthaab, and it was decided that while Nansen and Sverdrup constructed
a boat and went down the fjord the rest should proceed by land. The
framework of the boat consisted of two bamboos and a ski staff. The
difficulty was the ribs, which were made of the branches of the dwarf
willows growing on the banks of the fjord, and the canvas covering them
entailed much labour in sewing with a sailmaker’s needle as they were
without a “palm.” The oars were bamboos with forked willow-branches
with canvas stretched across. It was a fairly good boat, and only
required baling every ten minutes. After a great feast on cranberries
the two explorers started and managed to make their way in her to
Godthaab. The others also arrived safely, and all were very hospitably
received for the winter, returning to Norway in the following year.
It was a splendid achievement. The central water-parting was found to
be 125 miles from the east, and 226 from the west side, the greatest
elevation measured being 8970 ft. Supposing the average land surface
under the ice to rise to 2000 ft., the thickness of the ice-cap would
be nearly 7000 ft. The excavating power of the glaciers is enormous,
and the pressure causing the melting of the snow and the discharge of
an enormous quantity of water into the sea, counteracts any increase
above caused by the excessive precipitation occurring from the warm
winds blowing from the sea. Nansen found the moisture to be so great as
to be near saturation. Out of 40 days on the inland ice there were 16
days of snow and 4 of rain. The meteorological results were the most
important outcome of the expedition, because the deductions from them
apply to regions far beyond the limits of Greenland. It was a fine
piece of exploring work, and the name of Nansen will for all time be
coupled with the first crossing of Greenland.
Peary, who, as already mentioned, had made an attempt at crossing with
Maigaard in 1886, succeeded in raising funds for another expedition
in 1891. His design was to traverse the inland ice from Whale Sound
in the north of Baffin’s Bay, where he would find the tribe of Arctic
Highlanders. Here a steamer landed him, accompanied by Mrs Peary, Dr
Frederick Cook, aged 26, a hunter named Gibson, a young Norwegian aged
20 named Eivind Astrup, a meteorologist named Vershoef, and Henson, a
coloured man from Virginia, aged 23. Some short sledge and boat trips
were made; the house, taken out in pieces, was built; and the winter
was passed in preparations for the journey over the inland ice.
Peary, a man of great energy and indomitable resolution, claimed to
have inaugurated a new departure in Arctic exploration. He held that
only small parties can do effective work; that fur clothing is better
than woollen, and indeed absolutely essential; that tents and sleeping
bags are unnecessary luxuries; and finally that all traction should
be by dogs, and that by killing a portion of the dogs for dogs’ food
the original load will last longer. But, at all events as regards the
latter, few humane Englishmen will agree with him. Dogs are invaluable
for keeping open communications, and for depôt work; but they ought to
be well fed, well treated, and not overworked. There is a fine passage
in Captain Scott’s _Voyage of the Discovery_ on this subject:--
“To pretend that dogs can be made greatly to increase the radius of
action without pain, suffering, and death, is futile, and this sordid
necessity robs sledge-travelling of much of its glory. In my mind
no journey ever made with dogs can approach the height of that fine
conception which is realised when a party of men go forth to face
hardships, dangers, and difficulties by their own unaided efforts,
and by days and weeks of hard physical labour succeed in solving some
problem of the great journey.”
Peary started with Astrup, Cook, and Gibson in April, 1892. By May
24th the true inland ice had been reached, and the supporting party
with Cook and Gibson returned. Already the number of dogs had been
reduced to 13. Peary and Astrup continued over the inland ice, reaching
an elevation of 6000 ft. On June 26th they came in sight of the sea,
and from July 1st they were travelling over mountainous crests and
ridges until they reached a summit whence they had a view of a great
bay. Musk oxen were seen and one was secured. By July 7th they were
back on the inland ice, and returned on August 6th. Only five dogs had
survived. Peary claims to have travelled a distance of 1400 miles in 80
days--about 17 miles a day.
Dr Cook had been getting through some useful anthropological work
in the meantime, making a census of the Arctic Highlanders, taking
measurements of both sexes at different ages, and recording their
habits and customs.
In 1893 Peary undertook another expedition. Accompanied by Mrs Peary,
with Captain Bartlett in command of his steamer _Falcon_, he made, as
before, for Whale Sound. Fourteen persons were landed and the _Falcon_
returned. A winter house was built and on September 12th Mrs Peary gave
birth to a daughter. On March 8th, 1894, the start was made for the
inland ice journey. On the 13th eight dogs were killed as food for the
others. Astrup and another man broke down, and had to be sent back on
sledges. The rest went on, but were stopped by a gale on March 22nd,
and when it subsided two dogs were found dead, and two more men were
obliged to return. In this journey tents and sleeping bags were taken,
in spite of their being previously held to be “unnecessary luxuries,”
The party got 128 miles from Whale Sound, where a large depôt was left,
at 5500 ft. above the sea, a smaller one having been deposited earlier.
Here they were forced to return.
Later, Astrup made a reconnaissance of Melville Bay, and the recesses
of Whale Sound were explored.
Another winter was passed at the house, and preparations were made for
a second attempt at the inland ice. On April 1st, 1895, Peary started
with a man named Lee, the coloured man Henson, four natives, six
sledges, and sixty dogs. The first depôt could not be found, being
buried under the snow, and--a far more serious blow--they also failed
to find the second depôt with all their pemmican, 1400 lb. On entering
the fourth week the party began the eastward slope with only 17 dogs
left out of 42. The survivors had to be fed with dogs and soon only
11 were left. One cannot help feeling glad when Peary and his two
comrades had to get into the drag-ropes themselves. At last they left
the ice and pushed on to the land in the hope of finding musk oxen, and
reaching the valley succeeded in shooting two of these animals and a
hare.
When the return journey was begun on June 3rd Peary had nine dogs and
fourteen days’ rations for them, and thirty days’ half rations of
biscuits and oil, and seventeen of frozen meat for the men. On the 10th
there were only six dogs, and on the 22nd one alone survived. The men
had four biscuits left when they reached the house at Whale Sound.
The results which Peary claimed were the discovery of Independence Bay,
of the northern end of Greenland, of a channel dividing that great mass
of land from large islands to the north, and of Greenland’s insularity,
and for many years these features have been shown on the maps. It
has now been found that he did not discover the actual north end of
Greenland, and that his channel does not exist. Peary nevertheless
did real good in improving the condition of the Arctic Highlanders by
supplying them with canvas and improved weapons. With better means of
obtaining sustenance the death rate is said to have decreased and there
are signs of an increase in the population of this most interesting
northern tribe. Dr Cook’s census gave the number at 233. Peary
discovered near Cape York, and brought home, the three great meteoric
stones from which the Arctic Highlanders used to obtain the iron for
their knives.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
THE TRANS-POLAR DRIFT.
NANSEN AND THE VOYAGE OF THE _FRAM_
Fridtjof Nansen, our foremost living Arctic worthy, a devoted
scientific enquirer and a profound student of Arctic history, had
always taken a broad view of the Arctic problem, mainly with reference
to currents and ocean depths. But the discovery of articles on the
coast of Greenland which had drifted westward from the wreck of the
_Jeanette_ off the Liakhov Islands, first gave him the idea of his
great enterprise[157]. Nansen conceived the project of forcing a vessel
into the pack on the Siberian side, and being drifted across the polar
ocean. From most Arctic experts the idea received no encouragement
whatsoever, but I had a full belief, based on careful study, in the
successful issue of such an expedition[158].
Every article of equipment down to the minutest detail was Nansen’s
own conception. Originality has always been a marked feature of his
character. The matter of first importance then, in his projected
enterprise, was the building of a special vessel to come out uninjured
after the long Arctic drift. In Mr Colin Archer of Laurvik Nansen
found a constructor, careful and resourceful as himself, with long
experience in boat and ship-building. The son of a Scotch boat-builder
who had settled in Norway early in the last century, Colin Archer was
brought up to the craft, and he was the very man to turn Nansen’s ideas
into realities. The result was the _Fram_. The main points were great
strength, and sides constructed in such a manner that the ship would
readily rise during ice pressure. She was also to have large carrying
capacity, her beam being nearly a third of her length[159]. She was
provided with a triple-expansion engine, and her rig was that of a
three-masted fore-and-aft schooner. But the main object of Nansen and
Colin Archer was that “she should slip like an eel out of the embraces
of the ice.”
Nansen’s friend, Baron von Toll, went to the New Siberia Islands in
May 1893, and established a depôt of a month’s provisions at the house
he built in 1886 on the coast of Kotelnoi Island. Dogs were to be
stationed at Khabarova in Pett Strait.
The crew of the _Fram_ numbered 13 including the commander. Sverdrup,
the companion of Nansen on the inland ice of Greenland, was the master;
Sigurd Scott Hansen, a first lieutenant in the navy, went as navigator
and scientific observer; Dr Blessing was surgeon.
In July 1893, the _Fram_ sailed from Norway on this great and novel
enterprise, and on the 29th of that month the dogs were taken on board
at Khabarova. Nansen crossed the Kara Sea, and proceeded along the
coast of Siberia, discovering several small islands. On September 8th,
Cape Chelyuskin was rounded. On the 16th a northern course was shaped,
a little to the west of the new Siberian Islands, and for some days
good progress was made. It was not until the 25th of September that the
_Fram_ was finally frozen in and the famous drift began. Scott Hansen
took astronomical observations every second day, and a snow house was
built on the floe for magnetic observations. Deep sea soundings, with
temperatures at various depths, were periodically taken.
In October 1893 the first great pressure was experienced. The ice was
piling up around the _Fram_, tossing itself into lofty ridges, and
breaking against her sides. In January 1894 matters looked so serious
that preparations were made to abandon the ship, but she withstood and
rose to any pressure, thus fully confirming the correctness of Colin
Archer’s structural plan.
The drift during the first year, from September 1893 to September 1894,
was 189 miles in a northerly direction, from 78° N. to 82° N. In the
second winter Nansen resolved to leave the ship with one companion,
make an attempt to reach the Pole, and return by Franz Josef Land and
Spitsbergen. Sverdrup was to complete the voyage. Nansen selected
Frederik Hjalmar Johansen, a native of Skien, then aged 28, as his
companion. He took 28 dogs, intending to feed them on each other.
His sledges--which were too narrow--were the same pattern as on the
Greenland journey, the runners 3⅙ in. wide and slightly convex,
covered with a thin plate of German silver, and with loose well-tarred
guard-runners of maple underneath the metal ones[160]. Two kayaks
were carried on the sledges, as open lanes of water were sure to be
encountered. His clothing was woollen, his shoes made of the skin of
the hind leg of a reindeer filled with “senegraes” or sedge (_Carex
arenaria_). Leather Lapp boots were used for warmer weather. The tent
was square at the base, ending in a point with a central pole, and had
a canvas floor. The double sleeping-bags were of reindeer skin.
Nansen’s cooking apparatus was rather complicated. Petroleum was found
to generate more heat than spirit in comparison with the weight, 4
gallons lasting 100 days with two hot meals a day. The lamp, called
a “Primus,” was of German silver with lid and cap of aluminium, and
heated two boilers and a vessel for melting snow. For food there was a
sort of pemmican, fish flour, dried boiled potatoes, pea soup, butter,
chocolate, and biscuit. This was no improvement on M’Clintock’s scale
of diet.
Starting on the 14th March, 1895, the ship being in 84° N., there was
good travelling for the first week. But on the 29th ridges of hummocks
commenced, and there was trouble with the sledges, which capsized, and
holes were torn in the kayaks. The travelling got worse and worse,
with ridge after ridge of hummocks, and occasional lanes of water
only covered with thin ice. After 26 days Nansen, who had reached a
latitude of 86° 28′ N., had to turn south and make for the land. It
was very hard work, the dogs were much reduced both in numbers and in
strength, and in May the travellers came to soft snow up to the knees.
In June there was water on the floes, the lanes were opening, and the
five surviving dogs were nearly starving. On the 5th June they halted
for the very necessary business of repairing the kayaks. The open water
stopped all progress with sledges and they were now obliged to launch
the kayaks with the sledges on them. Two dogs only were left.
Land was at length sighted on the 24th July, the Hoidtenland group,
as Nansen named it, consisting of Eva, Liv, and Adelaide Isles, all
covered with glaciers. These little islets are specially interesting,
because Ross’s roseate gull (_Rhodostethia rosea_) was here found to be
numerous, and the group appeared to be their breeding place.
Proceeding on their perilous voyage, Nansen and Johansen found that
they could make safer and quicker progress by securing the kayaks
together. On August 28th they reached an island in the Franz Josef
group, where they resolved to winter. They built a hut, and having
managed to shoot some walrus, they made lamps in which to burn the
oil. But they were in a very precarious position, and suffered great
hardships, remaining in these wretched winter quarters from August 1895
to May 1896.
On May 17th, 1896, the voyage was continued with kayaks lashed and a
sail set. They were stopped twice by gales of wind. Then there was
very nearly a fatal disaster. The two men were busy on shore, when
Johansen suddenly cried out that the kayaks were adrift. It was too
true, and their loss would be certain death. They were lashed together
and drifting along. Nansen plunged into the ice-cold water with his
clothes on. He swam to them but was nearly exhausted before he could
get a hold. At last he tumbled on to them, stiff and half-frozen, and
in paddling them back to the shore he coolly took his gun and shot two
little auks. He was, however, more dead than alive and it was long
before Johansen, using all possible means, could recover him. In the
end of June they again patched the kayaks, and were starting on the
perilous voyage to Spitsbergen, when they had the extraordinary good
fortune to be found by Jackson. They received most cordial hospitality,
and embarked in Jackson’s relief ship for Norway, which they reached
safely in August 1896.
Meanwhile the drift of the _Fram_ had been ably continued by Captain
Sverdrup, with deep-sea soundings and temperatures. On the 17th August
1895 the vessel sustained another severe nip, but rose to it easily.
One more winter, that of 1895–96, was passed, and on May 7th 1896
Sverdrup found that the _Fram_ was in 83° 45′ N., and 12° 50′ E.,
with Spitsbergen to the south. He determined to force his way into
open water, and in 28 days he had worked the ship through 180 miles
of closely-packed ice, reaching the navigable sea to the north of
Spitsbergen and sighting land after 1041 days.
The _Fram_ arrived off Danes Island, where my friend Arnold Pike,
who has all the makings, with opportunities, of a first-rate Arctic
explorer, had built a house, wintering there in 1888–89. In 1897 he
cruised east of Spitsbergen and landed on the Wiche Islands. His house
in Danes Gat was used by the ill-fated Andrée when he was preparing to
start in his balloon, and Sverdrup and his companions found the latter
there with the steamer _Virgo_. But the season was not favourable, and
Andrée returned to Sweden. In 1897 he was again at Pike’s house, and
on July 11th ascended with two companions in the balloon _Eagle_. They
were never more heard of.
The _Fram_ arrived in Norway a few days after Nansen, and the whole
party were once more united, and were welcomed with unbounded
enthusiasm by their countrymen at Christiania.
The drift of the _Fram_, with its continuous scientific observations,
worked out exactly as Nansen hoped and expected. The results threw new
light on the whole Arctic problem. Nansen lifted the veil, and his
expedition was the most important in modern times. It was discovered
that there was a deep ocean to the north of Spitsbergen and Franz Josef
Land, extending beyond the Pole, and the whole of the vast annual
harvest of ice which drifts south between Spitsbergen and Greenland
comes from the north of the _Fram’s_ track. Nansen fixed the position
of the Siberian continental shelf and found that beyond it there was an
ocean with a depth of 2000 fathoms, which is covered with a continual
breaking and shifting expanse of drift ice. The most striking result of
the deep-sea soundings was that while the surface water was very cold,
there was warmer water in the depths.
The results of the expedition were published in six folio volumes,
containing reports on the biology by Professors Collett and Sars, the
geology of Franz Josef Land, and the bathymetrical, astronomical,
meteorological, and magnetic observations. The most valuable and
interesting papers are those by Nansen himself on the bathymetrical
features of the polar seas, and on the continental shelves.
At the great meeting in February 1897 in the Albert Hall Nansen
received a memorable welcome from his English friends. The late King
Edward, then Prince of Wales, who was present, suggested to me that,
though the popular reception had been a great success, he thought that
there should also be a meeting to discuss the scientific results of
Nansen’s expedition. Acting on this advice I called such a meeting and
the result was the best discussion I have ever heard at any meeting
of the Geographical Society. It appeared to me, as I stated at the
time, that the light thrown upon the Arctic problem by Nansen not
only extended our knowledge positively, but had the effect of piecing
together what appeared before to be fragmentary, and of making detached
pieces fit into their proper places and form a consistent whole.
Nansen continued the work in which he took the deepest interest--the
bathymetrical features of the Norwegian Sea, his chief aim being the
greatest attainable accuracy in the construction of instruments and
the working out of results[161]. In 1914 he accompanied a Russian
expedition through the Kara Sea to the Yenisei, and went by land across
Siberia as far as Vladivostok. The result was a most interesting
narrative, but it is the appendix which will prove most valuable
to polar students and navigators. He here gives a list of all the
Kara Sea expeditions from Stephen Burrough in 1556 to the date at
which he wrote, with the results of their voyages; and then, with the
information derived both from books and from his own experience, he
explains the causes of the prevalence of obstructive ice and of its
absence. His conclusion is that steamers should very rarely fail to get
through the ice of the Kara Sea[162].
The great literary achievement of Fridtjof Nansen was the publication
of the valuable work entitled _In Northern Mists--Arctic Exploration in
Early Times_ (1911). It is a monumental work, entailing an incredible
amount of careful research, and the materials are put together and
presented with the skill and judgment of a master hand. In his deeply
interesting introduction, Nansen answers the question “What were
they seeking in the ice and cold,” by a quotation from the old Norse
chronicle, the _King’s Mirror_:--
If you wish to know what men seek in this land, or why men journey
thither in so great danger of their lives, then it is the threefold
nature of man that draws him thither. One part of him is emulation
and desire of fame, for it is a man’s nature to go where there is
likelihood of great danger, and to make himself famous thereby.
Another part is the desire of knowledge, for it is man’s nature
to wish to know and see those parts of which he has heard, and to
find out whether they are as it was told him or not. The third part
is the desire of gain, seeing that men seek after riches in every
place where they learn that profit is to be had, even though there
is great danger in it.
Nansen himself puts it more tersely yet scarcely less impressively.
“From first to last the history of polar exploration is a single mighty
manifestation of the power of the unknown over the mind of man.”
CHAPTER XXXIX
THE PARRY ARCHIPELAGO--SVERDRUP
The very important voyage of Captain Sverdrup may be looked upon as a
sequel to the voyage of Nansen. The same generous patrons of Arctic
enterprise, Axel Heiberg and the brothers Ringnes, resolved to equip
another Arctic expedition and, by the advice of Nansen, the command
was offered to Sverdrup, the selection of the route being left to the
commander.
Sverdrup accepted; the _Fram_ was lent by the Government, and a crew
of sixteen selected. Victor Braumann, a first lieutenant in the Royal
Norwegian Navy, aged 28, was Sverdrup’s second. The cartographer was a
lieutenant of cavalry named Gunnerius Ingvald Isachsen, and the mate
Olaf Roanes of the Lofoten Islands. A Swede named Simmons went as
botanist, Edward Buy as biologist, and Schei as geologist.
The _Fram_ sailed from Laurvik (where Colin Archer had made some
repairs) on the 25th June 1898, obtained dogs at Lievely, and proceeded
to Smith Channel, where she was stopped by impenetrable ice just
north of Cape Sabine. On August 18th she anchored in Rice Strait,
which became her winter quarters. A visit was received from an Arctic
Highlander named Kolotangva. Excellent exploring work was done during
the spring of 1899. Sverdrup himself crossed an isthmus rich in musk
oxen and other game, and discovered the western shore of Ellesmere
Island. Isachsen was on the inland ice, and Schei did some excellent
geological work.
In the summer Sverdrup found the ice in Sir Thomas Smith’s Channel
closely packed, and therefore resolved to attempt discoveries up the
channel named by Baffin after Sir Francis Jones, taking with him an
abundant supply of walrus meat. Jones Sound had previously been visited
by whalers, and in August 1851 Captain Austin had entered it with the
_Pioneer_ and _Intrepid_ and proceeded up it until he was stopped by
ice extending from shore to shore. Captain Inglefield had the same
experience in 1852. Sverdrup was more fortunate, and on September 3rd
found winter quarters on the northern shore, at a place which was named
Havnfjord.
The autumn travelling during October was devoted to laying out depôts.
Sverdrup had two-man tents, double-lined, 6 ft. by 5 ft. and 5 ft.
high in the middle, the lower part of the sides being vertical for
a foot. There was just room for two men and the cooking apparatus.
They had a capital smith and metal-worker on board, named Olsen, who
made odometers for the sledges. The diet for travelling was unusually
varied. Besides pemmican, biscuit, cocoa, and sugar, which are
necessaries, there were coffee, butter, pea-soup, vegetables, dried
fruit, egg powder, groats, potatoes, meat fat, golden syrup, and fish
flour.
The main depôt was at a place which was named Björnberg. The spring
travelling parties, with 55 dogs in splendid condition, started in
March, limited parties accompanying them to Björnberg and beyond.
There were three extended parties, Sverdrup and Fosheim; Isachsen and
Hassel; and the geologist Schei and Hendricksen, who had been in the
_Fram_ with Nansen. Very interesting discoveries were made. The west
coast of Ellesmere Island was found to be indented with deep winding
fjords, afterwards explored by the scientific staff. The great island
named after Consul Axel Heiberg was discovered, and as islands were
seen to the westward, the two extended parties separated, Sverdrup
going north and Isachsen west. Axel Heiberg Island consists of high
precipitous cliffs, and there were pressed-up hummocks off the coast of
extraordinary height. The two islands discovered by Isachsen and named
after the brothers Ringnes were of low altitude. The extended parties
made very fine journeys, resulting in important discoveries. Sverdrup
was 76 days away, Isachsen 92 days, and the scientific party 78 days.
When the _Fram_ got out of her winter quarters Sverdrup proceeded
westward up Jones Sound. Its western end is blocked by land with two
narrow channels leading to the Polar Sea. Some of the names are those
of Sir Edward Belcher, who made a journey in 1853 along the north coast
of Grinnell Peninsula, from the winter quarters of the _Assistance_ in
Northumberland Inlet. The coast of North Devon turns north, forming the
Colin Archer Peninsula, followed by North Kent Island with Cardigan
Strait on the North Devon side, and what Sverdrup called Hell Gate on
the Ellesmere Island side. Both these straits lead north and south.
The _Fram_ entered Cardigan Strait and reached the north end against
a strong current. She was ultimately drifted out of the strait, and
excellent winter quarters were found near Hell Gate on the north
side of Jones Sound, a long narrow inlet free of ice which was named
Gaasefjord. Around it there were grassy stretches with small tarns and
a lake three miles long, and the country abounded in game. The third
winter passed with all in good health. As many as 20 walrus and 18 musk
oxen had been obtained.
The travellers started on the 1st April to continue their very
important discoveries. This time Sverdrup had Schei the geologist
with him as a companion, while Isachsen again took Hassel. Sverdrup
discovered the whole west coast of Ellesmere Island to within a
short distance of Aldrich’s furthest on the north coast, naming the
north-west point Lands Lowk. He also discovered the whole east coast of
Axel Heiberg Island, and the northern point facing the Polar Sea was
named Svartevæg. The channel between these two points was named after
Fridtjof Nansen. Isachsen explored Ellef Ringnes and Asmund Ringnes
Islands, as well as the west coast of Axel Heiberg Island.
The travelling parties returned in June, but the ice blocked up the
Gaasefjord and the _Fram_ was far up. A few months hard work blasting
and cutting enabled them to get the ship several miles nearer the
water, but six miles still remained when they realised that their work
was in vain. The boats were accordingly sent away for walrus meat, and
a fourth winter had to be faced.
When the spring once more returned, Captain Sverdrup decided upon
sending a party down Wellington Channel to examine the state of the
depôts at Beechey Island. They found the house in ruins, old Sir John
Ross’s boat wantonly injured, and the depôt robbed. Isachsen and Buy
meanwhile explored the south coast of Jones Sound, and all the parties
had returned to the ship by July.
This year the ice cleared out of the fjord and the _Fram_ was soon
beyond Gaasefjord on her return home, after four winters. The explorers
arrived in Christiania in September 1902. Captain Sverdrup had very
ably conducted a most successful expedition, Lieut. Isachsen had
specially distinguished himself as a sledge traveller. Meteorological,
magnetic, and tidal observations were regularly taken throughout the
long period, and the biological and geological collections were of
quite exceptional interest.
The discoveries of Sverdrup and Isachsen complete the delineation of
the great Parry Archipelago, for Axel Heiberg and the Ringnes Islands
must be included in it, especially from a geological point of view.
Ellesmere Island, North Devon, and Baffin Island stand apart as more
allied to Greenland in character. The Parry Archipelago presents quite
a different aspect, both geologically and physiographically, and is
fairly uniform in structure, with similar strata representing different
geological periods, when wanting in one place supplemented in another.
Thus the indications of the has formations discovered by M’Clintock
on Prince Patrick Island, and by Sherard Osborn on the north point
of Bathurst Island, were repeated in the discoveries of Sverdrup’s
expedition. On the other hand in Baumann Sound, on the west coast of
Ellesmere Island, there was a coal field and impressions of tertiary
plants such as are found on Disco Island and the Noursoak Peninsula in
Greenland.
On the whole it may be said that the Sverdrup expedition made the
largest addition to our Arctic knowledge of any other since the return
of the Franklin search expeditions.
Captain Gunnar Isachsen continued his affection for Arctic work, and
took special interest in bathymetrical researches. He made further
valuable oceanographical investigations during his Spitsbergen
expedition in 1910.
CHAPTER XL
ATTEMPTS TO REACH THE NORTH POLE. CAGNI--COOK--PEARY
The present writer, throughout the sixty years and more of his
connection with polar research, has always deprecated the diverting of
exploring energy to dashes for the Pole, if this be the sole object.
In former days the enterprise of reaching the Pole was looked upon as
including important discoveries, and the opening of a route to the
east. It was for these objects that John Davis made his attempt; that
the Government in the eighteenth century offered a reward for reaching
89° N.; that Phipps, Buchan, and Scoresby tried how far north it was
possible to go in a ship, and Parry with boats and sledges. Sir George
Nares was ordered to attempt an approach to the Pole in the erroneous
belief, inspired by Hall’s map, that the land trended north, in which
case such a journey would have useful results. But since Nansen’s
discovery that the Pole is in an ice-covered sea there was no longer
any special object to be attained in going there, except for magnetic
observations.
Nansen made an interesting journey northwards which showed the
character of the ice to be crossed. As the floes are in motion during
a great part of the year, and there is danger from the lanes of water
that form and much obstruction from the lines of hummocks thrown up by
ice pressure, progress is difficult and uncertain. Nansen wisely took
kayaks with him, capable of carrying the sledges across lanes of water.
The Duke of the Abruzzi was bitten with the idea of reaching the Pole
by way of Franz Josef Land, following Nansen’s route and adopting his
plans for sledge, tent, and other travelling equipage. He bought a
Norwegian sealer and was fortunate in reaching the northern part of
Franz Josef Land (near Cape Fligely) for winter quarters. But a severe
frost-bite, necessitating the amputation of a finger, prevented him
from leading the main journey. His place was ably filled by his second
in command, Captain Cagni of the Italian Navy.
Captain Cagni arranged his scheme for travelling with great care.
His sledges and tents were on Nansen’s pattern, but he altered the
reindeer-skin sleeping bags so as to have room for three persons.
Three limited parties of four sledges each were to enable the fourth
extended party to start full after the 45th day. The sledges constantly
required repairs, and were in worse condition every day. Captain Cagni
encountered the same difficulties as Nansen from lines of pressed-up
hummocks and lanes of water. He succeeded in getting a few miles beyond
Nansen’s furthest to 86° 33′ N.
Detentions by gales of wind and other misfortunes threw out the
original scheme, but the most important lesson taught by Cagni’s
journey is the danger of steering in a wrong direction, and the
absolute necessity for frequent observations to obtain true bearings.
As he approached the land again he found that he was fifty miles out in
longitude. This shows the necessity for taking amplitude observations
of the sun whenever it is possible. In going _towards_ the Pole it
is still more essential, for to attempt to reach a point like the
Pole without a true course constantly verified must inevitably lead
to error. Cagni and his party suffered great hardships before they
succeeded in reaching the ship again.
Peary commenced the first of his three attempts to reach the North
Pole in 1896, when he reported having been to 85° N., travelling from
the north coast of Ellesmere Island. His plan was to hire the sledges
and dogs of the Arctic Highlanders and to get the natives to drive, so
that the white man merely has to walk alongside. The Danes have always
travelled in this way; indeed it is a necessity when the white man
has no companion or only one or two, and nothing could be better for
journeys along the Greenland coast or over the inland ice. Peary, who
holds that the fewer white men in an expedition the greater its chance
of success, also thinks that the Eskimo dress of furs is the best, but
there is much difference of opinion on this point.
The Arctic Highlanders, whose sledges and dogs and skill as drivers
enabled Peary to make his journeys, deserve the greatest credit. All
explorers speak warmly of their generosity, their hospitality and
trustworthiness, as well as of their prowess in hunting. Such praise is
well deserved[163]. Kane, who has given the best account of the Arctic
Highlanders, was indebted to them for much kind assistance, and Allen
Young bore similar testimony.
Peary, who was a man of exceptional perseverance and indomitable
energy, was well backed financially, and was able to proceed to his
third attempt on the Pole in a well-found steamer. The most northern
accessible coast--the north coast of Ellesmere Island--is of course the
best point of departure. Great ranges of pressed-up hummocks and open
lanes of water were to be expected, with the danger of being drifted
with the pack. Both Nansen and Cagni provided themselves with kayaks,
and M’Clintock was always prepared for the necessity of having to cross
water. Peary, however, appears to have made no such provision. He
reported having reached 87° N. in 1906, but he was in great danger from
inability to cross the open lanes of water, and from miscalculations.
He returned with the intention of making another attempt.
He was preceded by a similar attempt, made with much smaller means, by
his former colleague Dr Cook. In July 1907 a schooner yacht belonging
to a Mr Bradley arrived at Etah, near the entrance to Smith Sound.
Stores were landed at Anoatok, 25 miles from Etah, and Mr Bradley
departed, leaving Dr Cook and Mr Rudolf Francke at Anoatok, where
they built a house of packing-cases with a roof of shingles. Dr Cook
had been ethnologist in Peary’s first expedition and had acquired the
Eskimo language as spoken by the Arctic Highlanders. He had also served
in the Belgian Antarctic expedition.
Anoatok, which lies in lat. 78° 20′ N., is the most northern settlement
of the Arctic Highlanders, and here 250 Eskimos were established with
their dogs. During the winter Cook was busy making sledges. These were
of hickory, 12 ft. in length and only 2½ ft. wide, the width of runner
1⅛ in. The dress adopted was much the same as that of the Eskimos. The
principal food was to be pemmican made by Armour of Chicago. A 10 ft.
collapsible canvas boat with wooden frame was considered essential.
The party which started from Anoatok on February 19th, 1908, consisted
of Cook, Francke, nine Arctic Highlanders, and 103 dogs in prime
condition, with 11 sledges carrying 4000 lbs. of supplies.
The party crossed Smith Sound to Cape Sabine, and then took the
route discovered by Sverdrup across Ellesmere Island and proceeded
up the west coast of that island. Abundance of game was met with,
and Svartevæg, the most northern point of Axel Heiberg Island, was
reached. This was to be Cook’s point of departure for the Pole. He
took leave of his Arctic Highlanders, only retaining two lads of about
20, named Etukishuk and Ahwilak, as his companions, and proceeded with
two sledges, 26 dogs, and the collapsible boat. Francke had already
returned. The provisions were almost untouched, as the party had been
able to live on the game its members had shot during the journey of 400
miles from Anoatok. An important depôt was left at Svartevæg.
The final start was made on March 18th, 1908, the travelling being
difficult owing to the lines of hummocks caused by ice pressure and
the lanes of water. On March 30th Cook sighted land to the westward
in 84° 50′ N. which he named Bradley Land, but he did not alter his
course to examine it. On April 21st he reports having taken a sun’s
meridian altitude which gave a latitude of 89° 57′, but he must have
been mistaken, both overrating his distances and failing to make sure
of his direction by observations. He doubtless did make a long journey
over the ice, in a more or less northerly direction; but without
observations to obtain true bearings, no reliance can be placed upon
his positions.
Cook’s instruments were a sextant and a glass artificial horizon
adjusted by screws and spirit levels. He also relied on shadow
observations, and on an odometer fitted to his sledge. But there is
no mention of any observations for true bearing of the sun and that he
made none is conclusively proved by the fact that in returning he was
unable to follow his outward tracks and his route was consequently far
to the west of Svartevæg, until at length he found himself in Hassel
Strait between the two Ringnes Islands, unable to reach his depôt.
Cook was in great difficulties, but eventually he found his way to
Jones Sound, thanks to the collapsible boat and to the efficiency
and resourcefulness of the two Eskimo lads. The party wintered at
Cape Sparbo in Jones Sound on the north-west coast of North Devon.
Cartridges had run out and they had no native weapons. It was due to
the wonderful skill and energy of the two young Arctic Highlanders that
weapons were contrived out of unpromising materials, and sufficient
game obtained to enable them to live through the winter. In the spring
they had to make the long journey from Jones Sound to Anoatok, a great
part of the route being over new ground. Eventually Cook returned by
a Danish ship, having gone from Smith Sound across Melville Bay to
Upernivik. He left his instruments and some notes behind to be taken
back in the next ship, considering that there was danger of losing them
if he had taken them with him on his long journey.
Peary, with strong financial support, fitted out a well-found steamer,
the _Roosevelt_, in the following year, with Captain Bartlett, a native
of Newfoundland, as Master. With him went his secretary, Ross Marvin,
Dr Goodsell as surgeon, two volunteers named Macmillan and Borup, and
his negro servant Henson. There were 22 men all told when the steamer
started in July 1908, and at Etah 22 Eskimo men, 17 women, and 246 dogs
were taken on board. On August 18th the voyage was resumed, and on
September 4th the neighbourhood of the _Alert’s_ winter quarters was
reached, and autumn parties were sent forward to Cape Colombia to form
a depôt, this being Peary’s starting-point for the Pole.
In order that the expedition might be of some use, the American
Coast and Geodetic Survey officials arranged that there should be
tidal observations, and that soundings to fix the position of the
continental shelf should be taken. Tidal observations had already been
taken and discussed by the _Alert_ and the _Discovery_. The _Roosevelt_
observations also included 29 days at Cape Aldrich. The continental
shelf with a depth of 100 fathoms extends for about 46 miles from the
land. In latitude 85° 23′ N. the sounding was only 310 fathoms.
The distance from Cape Colombia to the Pole and back is 826 miles, a
distance which had been greatly exceeded in the sledge journeys of the
British officers of the Franklin search expeditions. M’Clintock made a
journey of 1210 miles in 99 days without the help of dogs, and Lieut.
Mecham travelled over 1336 miles, the average rate outwards being 18½
miles, and on the return journey 23½ miles per diem; a feat that has
never been beaten by dog-sledging. The peculiar difficulty of Peary’s
undertaking was caused by the drift and by the open lanes of water.
Against the latter formidable obstacle he again appears to have taken
no precautions.
In February 1909 the sledging parties proceeded to Cape Colombia,
Bartlett starting on the 15th, and Peary with two Arctic Highlanders,
two sledges, and 16 dogs on the 22nd. On the last day of February
Bartlett started for the north, as a pioneer party to cut leads through
the ridges of hummocks, and thus make the route easier for the sledges
that were to follow. On March 1st Peary started with his own sledges
and the limited sledges--24 men, 19 sledges, and 133 dogs. Iglus were
used instead of tents, which was a mistake, and the scale of diet was
practically much the same as M’Clintock’s, the great master of Arctic
sledge travelling.
On the 5th March they came to a lane of open water, which detained
them for several days owing to lack of means for crossing it. “During
five days Peary paced up and down deploring his luck.” Afterwards they
crossed seven lanes of water on young ice. Bartlett was the last to
return, after taking an observation with the resulting latitude of 87°
46′ 49″ N. Thus 280 miles had been traversed in a month and they were
133 miles from the Pole. The speed had been calculated at under 15
miles a day.
From this spot Peary went on for the Pole with only his negro servant
and four Eskimos, five sledges and 40 dogs. It was a great mistake to
enter upon what he considered the most important part of his journey
without any white companion, more especially as bearings and distances
do not appear to have been ascertained by observations. For help in
making these rough estimates, and for such observations as were taken,
a colleague was imperatively necessary.
Directly Peary parted from Bartlett his estimated distances were more
than doubled, and the course was assumed to be due north. Peary refers
to the meridian of Cape Colombia as if he had never deviated from
that meridian during the whole journey. Yet there is no record of the
latitude and longitude of Cape Colombia having been fixed[164], and no
mention of any observations for amplitude during the whole journey.
Without such observations it would not be possible to keep on the same
meridian. Yet, after journeys during four days estimated at from 25 to
30 miles a day, a meridian altitude of the sun was taken which gave a
latitude of 89° 25′ N. or 97 miles due north from the position where
Bartlett observed. Without amplitude observations this would not be
possible, so that there must be mistakes in the observations for this
and subsequent meridian altitudes. The sun was very near the horizon at
noon at that time of the year. The distances were, perhaps naturally,
over-estimated. Peary was very fortunate in being able to follow his
tracks during his return journey, in spite of a furious gale which
might have obliterated them.
It is to be hoped, in the interests of geographical discovery and
of science, that there will now be an end of the North Pole except
as a necessary point on maps of the world, and that the energies of
explorers will hereafter be turned to more useful work. A complete
series of magnetic observations at the 90th degree of north latitude
would, however, be important in the opinion of those who believe that
terrestrial magnetism is connected with the earth’s axis.
CHAPTER XLI
KOOLEMANS BEYNEN AND THE VOYAGES OF THE _WILLEM BARENTSZ_. SIR MARTIN
CONWAY AND SPITSBERGEN. CAPTAIN BERNIER AND CANADIAN ARCTIC LANDS
The voyages of Sir Allen Young in the _Pandora_ had as one result the
training of the character of an enthusiastic young Arctic navigator
whose brief career was so brilliant and impressive that no Arctic
history would be complete without some account of it.
Laurens Rijnhart Koolemans Beynen was born at the Hague on the 11th
March 1852, and became a midshipman in the Royal Dutch Navy in 1871. He
saw service in the North Sea, on the coast of Guinea, and in Sumatra,
returning home and obtaining his Lieutenant’s commission in 1874.
Beynen had read much of the former glories of the Dutch navy, and had
thought over the possibility of restoring them. He felt that, owing
to exclusive steamer service in well-known seas, and to enervating
work in the Indian Archipelago, Dutch seamen had lost much of their
skill and spirit. He therefore desired to see new fields of enterprise
occupied by his seafaring countrymen, to serve as a counterpoise to the
less instructive service in the Dutch Indies. Above all, he considered
voyages of discovery in the Arctic seas to be the most fitted to call
forth a new spirit among Dutch seamen. Full of these ideas young
Beynen called upon Commodore Jansen, with whom he was not previously
acquainted, as the officer who was most likely to sympathise with
them[165]. It so happened that Jansen had just received a letter from
Captain Allen Young, and another from myself, asking whether a young
Dutch naval officer could not be appointed to serve in the _Pandora_.
Jansen warmly sympathised with the aspirations of the young officer,
and he received permission to join the vessel.
Beynen could not fail to learn much under such a splendid seaman as
Allen Young, and he became acquainted with ice navigation in its
many phases during the season of 1875, returning with much knowledge
and increased enthusiasm. In the winter of 1876, at my request, he
undertook to edit a second edition of the voyages of Barentsz for the
Hakluyt Society. The work entailed much research, and he accomplished
it with diligence and considerable literary ability. It is a standard
work which is frequently referred to. Beynen then served under Allen
Young in the second voyage of the _Pandora_ and proved himself to be
very useful in peculiarly trying circumstances[166].
Beynen was for a short time in the training ship for boys, cruising
in the North Sea, and he then devoted himself heart and soul to the
Arctic propaganda, delivering lectures all over the country. His bright
enthusiasm was infectious, and an influential Arctic Committee was
formed[167]. Sufficient funds were collected to enable the committee
to build a small schooner at Amsterdam, specially strengthened for ice
navigation. She was launched on April 6th, 1878, and named the _Willem
Barentsz_. Lieut. A. de Bruyne received the command and Koolemans
Beynen went as his second, with Lieut. Speilman for the magnetic
observations, and an adventurous young Englishman W. J. A. Grant--an
Oxford undergraduate, who had also served with Leigh Smith--as
photographer. Commodore Jansen drew up the instructions. He considered
that the Barentsz Sea would make an excellent training ground for Dutch
seamen, but that the first voyage should be confined within the limits
of what is easily attainable. He thought that, by yearly increasing
knowledge and experience, his countrymen might in time be in a position
to undertake more hazardous and difficult voyages.
The _Willem Barentsz_ went direct to Amsterdam Island, near the
north-west point of Spitsbergen, and the Dutch explorers visited the
site of Smeerenburg, repairing some of the tombstones. They then
dredged and sounded over the Barentsz Sea. In Beynen’s words they
made “a scientific examination of the sea that bears the name of the
greatest of our mariners.” Beynen in his letters, describes with a
graphic pen the incidents of the voyage, and the various encounters
with the ice.
On the little schooner’s return the young officer who had been the
mainstay of the expedition was ordered to the East Indies and died of
fever at Macassar. His loss was deeply felt by many friends, for there
was a charm about the young enthusiast which endeared him to all.
But none mourned for the youth so full of promise, cut off before he
reached his prime, more deeply than Admiral Jansen, who looked upon him
almost as a son.
In 1879 Sir Henry Gore-Booth and Captain A. H. Markham, R.N.,
chartered the little Norwegian cutter _Isbjörn_, and made an extensive
exploration of the shores of Novaya Zemlya, and the Kara Sea, with the
object of reporting on the state of the ice and other important matters
of a similar nature in those waters. They were in company with the
_Willem Barentsz_ for some days in the Matyushin Strait.
The Arctic voyages of the _Willem Barentsz_ were continued for six more
years. In 1879 Lieut. A. de Bruyne again commanded, with Lieut. H. van
Brockhuyzen as his second. In this voyage Franz Josef Land was sighted
and large and valuable collections were made. The voyages of 1880
and 1881 were commanded by van Brockhuyzen, but in 1880 the _Willem
Barentsz_ was driven on shore and the work of the season lost. She was
re-floated and thoroughly repaired, and Lieut. Hoffmann conducted the
voyage of 1882. The two last voyages in 1883 and 1884 were commanded
by Lieut. Dalen. The impetus that Koolemans Beynen had given to Dutch
Arctic enterprise must have been great, seeing that these voyages were
continued for six years after his death[168]. Useful scientific work
was done during all the voyages, and it is much to be regretted that
the good work was not continued and its scope extended by the people of
the Netherlands.
* * * * *
Although the scientific exploration of a country such as Spitsbergen
after its discovery and the delineation of its coasts, mountain ranges,
and islands, hardly comes within the scope of the present work, mention
of some important work in this group cannot be omitted. In 1898 the
Swedish and Russian expeditions began the measurement of an arc of
meridian in Spitsbergen, which was completed in 1890. In 1890 also, Dr
Nathorst made an important circumnavigation of the Spitsbergen group,
thoroughly exploring Giles Land, and the Wiche Islands. There have been
numerous visits of yachts, as well as vessels coming with scientific
objects; even a company has been formed to work the veins of coal
discovered. But the most important recent Spitsbergen work has been the
expedition in 1896 to cross the main island for the first time. Up to
that time the interior of Spitsbergen was practically unknown.
Sir Martin Conway undertook this achievement with four companions--Mr.
Garwood, a mountaineer and geologist; Dr Gregory, the author of _The
Great Rift Valley of Africa_; Mr. Trevor Battye, who had previously
made a very thorough survey of Kolguev Island in 1894[169], as
geologist; and Sir Martin’s cousin, Mr. H. E. Conway, as the artist.
The expedition was quite successful and a valuable and very interesting
narrative describing the interior of Spitsbergen was the result. The
route was from Advent Bay to Agadh Bay on the east coast. The party
also visited the north coast and Walden Island, and passed down
Hinlopen Strait. In the following year Sir Martin Conway and Mr.
Garwood explored the interior between Klaas Bille and Wijde Bays,
and made an ascent of the Horn-sands-tind. This is not all, however,
that Arctic students owe to Sir Martin Conway. Besides his _First
Crossing of Spitsbergen_ he has published a History of Spitsbergen from
its discovery to the beginning of the scientific exploration of the
country, with a complete discussion of the nomenclature--a most useful
feature, as the English and Dutch were discovering and naming at the
same time, and overlapping each other[170]. Sir Martin has also edited
some early Spitsbergen voyages for the Hakluyt Society.
* * * * *
One of the most recent Arctic events is the transfer to the Dominion
Government of all the islands north of America previously forming
part of the territories of the British Crown. These islands consist
of Baffin Island, North Devon, Ellesmere Island, and the whole of the
Parry Archipelago.
The Dominion Government resolved to fit out and send a steamer to take
formal possession. The _Gauss_ was bought, which had been specially
built at Kiel for Antarctic service in 1900, a vessel of 436 tons net,
with a length of 165 and a width of 37 ft. The command was given to
Captain Bernier, who in 1902 had endeavoured to obtain funds for a
vessel to drift across the Pole, taking deep sea soundings,--an able
and efficient commander who had made a preliminary voyage up Barrow
Strait in 1907.
Commander Bernier had three executive officers, two engineers, a
purser, surgeon, historiographer, meteorologist, geologist, naturalist,
and 31 men; 43 all told. Leaving Quebec in July 1908, the _Gauss_
proceeded up Davis Strait and Baffin Bay to Etah in Smith Sound.
Bernier then entered Lancaster Sound, and went up Barrow Strait,
Melville Sound, and M’Clure Strait, examining the _Resolute’s_ large
depôt at Dealy Island. He wintered in Parry’s Winter Harbour, sending
two parties across to annex Banks Island and Victoria Island. Leaving
Winter Harbour on August 12th, 1909, he proceeded to sound Byam Martin
and Austin Channels, and sailed down Barrow Strait to Navy Board Inlet,
which he entered, passing down the channels and coming out at Pond’s
Bay. He returned to Canada after completing a well planned and most
successful voyage.
The geographic board of Canada have done excellent service to Arctic
geography by taking in hand the question of nomenclature, making a
complete list of place names, and giving single names to islands which
had previously been covered with names like an advertisement hoarding,
without reference to geographical features.
CHAPTER XLII
EAST COAST OF GREENLAND--DANISH EXPEDITIONS
The discovery of the east coast of Greenland by the Danes should take
an important place in the history of Arctic enterprise. Their objects
were most praiseworthy, the work was done with thoroughness, dangers
and difficulties were faced with dauntless courage, and the history was
told with ability, and above all with modesty. Finally success crowned
their efforts. There is a dramatic unity in the whole story which is
fascinating.
We have seen that some pioneer work had been done by Scoresby,
Clavering, and Koldewey on part of this coast, and the Danish Captain
Graah had made an important voyage in 1828–30. Otherwise the whole of
the eastern coast, from Cape Farewell to 82° 30′ N. where the northern
coast begins, remained to be discovered and explored. The Danes
undertook this great work with splendid resolution and zeal, and went
steadily on until it was completed[171].
The great work was commenced in 1879 with the despatch of the schooner
_Ingulf_ of the Royal Danish Navy, with Commander Mourier and Lieut.
Wandel on board, to make a careful examination of the edge of the
ice on the east Greenland coast from latitudes 65° to 69°. After
this preliminary expedition another was despatched in 1883 under
Lieut. Gustav Holm, with Lieut. Garde as second, both of the Royal
Danish Navy, who were to follow in the track of their distinguished
predecessor, Captain Graah, and penetrate beyond the furthest point
reached by him. The expedition left Copenhagen on the 3rd May 1883,
and arrived on the 18th July at Nanortalik, where head-quarters were
to be established, a short distance west of Cape Farewell. Lieut.
Holm arranged to use the Eskimo _umiaks_ or women’s boats, which are
made of a light wooden frame with seal-skin covering, flat-bottomed,
easy to haul up on the ice, to carry, or to repair, and at the same
time capable of taking a fairly good load. While the huts for winter
quarters were being constructed at Nanortalik, Lieut. Holm was forming
a large depôt, exploring the most southern fjords, and establishing
pleasant relations with the east coast natives. He returned on the 16th
of September, and found the winter quarters ready.
The main expedition, consisting of four _umiaks_ with five women
rowers, and seven kayaks, started from Nanortalik on the 5th May
1884; but found progress very slow through the ice, and there was
much detention. On the 27th June a gale of wind scattered the floes
near the shore and some progress was made. Towards the end of July it
was arranged that Garde, with a young scientific student named Peter
Eberlin, should return to Nanortalik, making collections by the way,
while Holm, with Hans Knudsen (another scientific assistant) and the
very intelligent interpreter Johan Petersen, pushed onwards to the
north with two _umiaks_, six Eskimo men and two women, and a year’s
provisions.
The furthest point attained by Captain Graah--the Dannebrog Islands
in 65° 18′ N.--was reached on the 25th August, the entrance to the
Sermilik Fjord was next passed, and Tasuisarsik reached in 65° 37′ N.,
where Holm determined to pass the winter.
This proved to be an important base whence the explorers could examine
the intricate fjords and islands of a district known to the natives
by the name of Angmagsalik, and all the winter they had constant
communication with a hitherto unknown tribe of Eskimo. Lieut. Holm
explored the chief part of the great Sermilik Fjord, and during the
winter, with the aid of the interpreter Petersen, he was able to
study the traditions and folk-lore of the natives and to make a large
and important ethnographic collection. He also investigated the ice
movements, and came to the conclusion that Angmagsalik was the most
accessible position along the east Greenland coast. The reason for this
appears to be that the numerous islands, obstructing and dividing the
current, cause it to increase its force, so that here the ice floes
are dispersed in July and August. Lieut. Holm began his return journey
in July, was met by Lieut. Garde, who had made many excursions up the
numerous fjords, and finally arrived at Copenhagen on October 3rd, 1885.
The most important result of Holm’s admirable exploring work was the
discovery of the district of Angmagsalik, whence there could be annual
communication with Denmark. Baron Nordenskiöld, in the _Sofia_, had
penetrated the ice belt in 1883, and landed on September 4th in 65° 36′
N., remaining until the next day, thus confirming the conclusions of
Lieut. Holm. In 1894 Holm, who had now attained the rank of Captain,
had the great satisfaction of selecting a site, and founding the
settlement of Angmagsalik in 65° 30′ N. It is situated on the slope
of a hill, on the east side of a large island in the Tasuisarsik
Fjord. The first colonial manager was Captain Holm’s old comrade Johan
Petersen, who has conducted the combined civilising and commercial
undertaking with eminent ability for twenty years, in co-operation with
two missionaries. The natives have concentrated their stations round
the Danish settlement and have received help during periods of want and
hunger. Nearly the whole East Greenland population, numbering 550, have
now been baptized, and the people have adapted themselves to the use of
the articles the Danish store contains. South of Angmagsalik the whole
of this coast is depopulated, the last Eskimo in the extreme south
having moved in 1900 to the west coast.
The botanist H. C. Kruuse, with his wife, wintered at Angmagsalik
in 1901–2, and has since published an exhaustive work on the flora
of East Greenland[172]: and Hr W. Thalbitzer, also with his wife,
passed the winter of 1905–6 at the same settlement, devoting himself
to ethnological and linguistic researches and the study of Eskimo
folk-lore[173]. In co-operation with Hr Thuren, he has also given an
account of the melodies of the Eskimos of the east coast.
[Illustration: East Coast of Greenland]
The next important work was the discovery of the coast between Holm’s
furthest and the part surveyed by Scoresby. In 1891 the _Hecla_, a
sealing vessel of Tronsberg, was hired, and an expedition commanded by
Lieut. C. Ryder of the Royal Danish Navy left Copenhagen on the 7th
June. Two months later she steamed into Scoresby Sound and anchored
about a hundred miles beyond the entrance; whence several excursions
were made in boats. Ryder wintered in Scoresby Sound, and the whole of
that complicated system of long branching fjords was discovered and
explored. In the next season all progress southward near the coast
was stopped by masses of floe ice along the shore. Ryder was obliged
to work his way out to sea and, after touching at the point where
Nordenskiöld had landed, he returned to Denmark, the portion of coast
south of Scoresby Sound alone remaining to be discovered. Excellent
scientific work was done by his expedition.
The next Danish work of exploration, by which at length the discovery
of East Greenland from Cape Farewell to Cape Bismarck was completed,
is known as the Carlsbergfondet Expedition[174]. It was commanded by
Lieut. G. Amdrup of the Royal Danish Navy. On a previous occasion, in
1884, Amdrup had reached Angmagsalik, where he wintered and did some
good exploring work to the north in the following spring, examining
the great Ikersuak glacier. On the 19th July, 1885, having mapped
a considerable length of coast-line, and made large geological and
ethnological collections, he had reached Agga Island in 67° 32′, so
that it would be between this point and Scoresby Sound that he had to
extend his survey.
Lieut. Amdrup, in addition to the advantages of experience, had a very
talented and efficient staff. Hartz, who had been botanist with Ryder,
was to take command when Amdrup was away on the boat voyage. The rest
of the scientific staff consisted of Kruuse, another botanist, with
Deichmann and Jensen as zoologists, Lieut. Koch of the Danish Army as
surveyor and draughtsman, and Otto Nordenskiöld, nephew of the great
Arctic explorer, as geologist. The instructions for the expedition were
signed by Admiral Wandel and Captain Holm.
On the 14th June, 1900, the _Antarctic_ sailed from Copenhagen with
Amdrup and his scientific staff[175]. Amdrup was to complete the survey
from Scoresby Sound to Angmagsalik in a boat, while Hartz continued the
researches connected with the region round Scoresby Sound. On arriving
off Cape Dalton in 69° 25′ N., Lieut. Amdrup left the ship, and set out
on his boat voyage on July 21st accompanied by young Mikkelsen and two
seamen. The voyage occupied 44 days, and on September 2nd Angmagsalik
was reached. Meanwhile Hartz, in the ship, explored the coast from Cape
Dalton to Scoresby Sound, thence proceeding to Angmagsalik to pick
up Amdrup and his party. Large and valuable collections were made,
excellent series of observations were taken, and the work was brought
to a most successful conclusion. The Amdrup expedition marks a period
in Arctic history. It completed the discovery and mapping of the whole
of the east coast of Greenland from Cape Farewell to Cape Bismarck.
A far more dangerous and difficult enterprise now faced the gallant
Danish explorers, namely the discovery of the unknown region from Cape
Bismarck to the furthest north, a distance, of 400 miles[176].
The American explorer Peary, using Eskimos and their dogs, had been
working to reach the north coast of Greenland from 1898 to 1902. His
first winter was at Cape Dobbin on the west coast of Ellesmere Island,
another was passed at Etah, whence, starting on the 4th March, 1900,
he made his way to the _Discovery’s_ winter quarters in Lady Franklin
Bay. Setting out from that position on April 15th, he travelled along
the north coast of Greenland, passing the discoveries of Beaumont and
Lockwood. From Lockwood Island in 83° 34′ N., which he reached on
May 8th, he went onwards to a latitude of 83° 39′ N., which appears
to be the most northern point of Greenland. On the 19th he passed a
promontory which he named Cape Bridgman, and his furthest point was
called Cape Clarence Wycloff in Lat. 82° 57′ 7″ N. and Long. 23° 9′
W., where a cairn was built. He had his man Henson and an Eskimo with
him, and a team of dogs. During the last two days he was enveloped
in a dense fog. He began his return on May 22nd and reached the
_Discovery’s_ winter quarters on June 10th. The cairn in 82° 57′ N.
would, therefore, be the point the Danes would have to reach in order
to complete the discovery of the east coast.
The great work was undertaken by a young Dane named Mylius Erichsen,
who was born at Viborg in Jutland in 1872. He had visited the Danish
settlements on the west coast of Greenland, had crossed Melville Bay,
and wintered at Cape York; and he was now filled with the patriotic
desire to place the crown on the edifice of Danish discovery. The task
had become a sacred one for him, and with such an impulse he thought
the goal must be reached if human power could attain it.
The Duc d’Orléans had shown how far north a ship might go, and the
advice of experienced Arctic explorers was that Erichsen should
winter on board ship, in a position to the north of Cape Bismarck,
if possible. The necessary funds were raised, with help from the
Government and the Carlsberg Fund, and a Norwegian sealer of 450 tons
was bought and named the _Danmark_. She was built at Peterhead in 1885,
was well fortified against the ice, and had been fitted with a screw
propeller in 1892. A spacious laboratory was built before the main
hatchway; and besides four others, she took two motor boats. Most of
the sledges, which were fitted with odometers, were made on board from
Eskimo models, and 100 dogs were brought from West Greenland. A motor
carriage was also taken.
Erichsen was chief of the expedition, and Lieut. Trolle of the Royal
Danish Navy second in command and captain of the ship. The cartographer
was Lieut. Höeg Hagen of the Danish Army, and Lieut. Johan Peter
Koch of the General Staff of the Danish Army, who had done excellent
surveying and cartographic work in the Amdrup expedition as well as in
Iceland, and who had experience as a seaman, having qualified as master
of small ships, was the surveyor. The geologist was Jarner, Johansen
marine zoologist, Lindhard surgeon, Lundager botanist, Manniche
ornithologist, Wegener meteorologist and physicist. The first mate was
Lieut. Bistrup of the Royal Danish Navy, the second and third mates
Christian and Gustav Trostrup, two artists Bertelsen and Frus went as
engineers, and such was the enthusiasm felt for the expedition that two
university students, Freuchen[177] aged 20 and Hagerup a Norwegian,
volunteered as stokers, as well as Knudsen who was carpenter of the
ship. An ice pilot, Karl Ring, a steward, and four seamen completed
the complement. In addition there were the three Eskimo dog drivers
Brönlund (who had been a curate at Jacobhavn), Tobias Gabrielsen, and
Olsen from Ritenbenk--27 all told.
The expedition, which was known as the Danmark Expedition, left
Copenhagen on the 24th June, 1906, and after a long struggle with
the ice the _Danmark_ was off Koldewey Island on the 13th August.
Proceeding northwards a large depôt was landed at Cape Marie Valdemar.
Winter quarters were established near Cape Bismarck in Lat. 76° 46′ N.,
Long. 18° 37′ W., in a sheltered bay which was named Danmark Havn. The
explorers were thus on the very threshold of an undiscovered region.
During the following two years constant journeys were made for various
scientific purposes, for laying out depôts, surveying, collecting
specimens, etc. The neighbourhood of Cape Bismarck was thus most
thoroughly explored and surveyed.
Meanwhile there were diligent preparations during the winter for the
great northern journeys. There were two extended sledge parties and two
depôt sledge parties, each with a team of 8 or 9 dogs and a load of 810
lb. This was to give two months’ provisions for men, and one for dogs.
The first sledge had Erichsen, Hagen, and the dog driver Brönlund;
the second, Koch, the artist Bertelsen, and the dog driver Tobias
Gabrielsen. The auxiliary sledges were under Wegener and Trostrup. The
departure took place on the 28th March, Trostrup going back on the 22nd
April and Wegener on the 26th. The explorers adopted an excellent plan
of placing strips of walrus hide on the runners of the sledges with the
hair outwards. Water was then poured along the hide, which becoming
ice, was held in place by the hair. This was found to be an immense
help to the dogs in dragging.
Erichsen and Koch went on in company until the 1st May, when they
separated. Koch was to go north to Peary’s furthest, and Erichsen to
explore the channel, which Peary stated to exist, separating Greenland
from the so-called Peary Land. The travelling had been bad, with many
snow-covered fissures dangerous for the dogs, and lines of heavy
pressed-up ice. A depôt sufficient to bring both sledges back safely
had been left in what was called Lambert Land, from that name occurring
on some old Dutch charts in 78° N. The land projected much further
east than was shown on the map, which increased the distance by 180
miles[178].
When Erichsen and Koch parted they each had 15 days’ provisions for
men, the same for dogs and 25 of petroleum for fuel. Koch’s way was
difficult, over hummocks and soft snow very ill suited for dogs. Land
was not in sight. A course was shaped for the land, and it was reached
on the 7th May, six musk oxen being obtained on the same day. On the
12th Peary’s cairn was found in 82° 57′ N., and the discovery of the
east coast of Greenland was completed. Koch continued to advance as
far as Cape Bridgman, which was reached on May 21st. He was much
hindered by dense fogs, but was able to carry out the exploration of
Hyde Fjord. On the 21st, in spite of strict economy, the fuel ran out,
but the supply left at the depôt was afterwards found. Both Koch and
his companion, the artist Bertelsen, suffered seriously from living on
musk ox meat. On the 27th of May they quite unexpectedly met Erichsen
and Hagen. Erichsen’s party had shot 21 musk oxen, which had caused
a good deal of delay. They had explored Danmark’s Fjord, and Hagen
had made excellent sketches of this inlet. The inland ice was bounded
by cliffs of great height, and apparently inaccessible. On the 28th
Erichsen drove west into what was called Independence Sound, while
Koch began the return journey, seeing that the depôts were in order
for Erichsen as he passed them. On June 23rd Koch’s party reached the
ship after an absence of 88 days, the distance covered being 1200 miles
measured by odometer. This approaches the achievements of M’Clintock
and Mecham, but with the difference that while the English did all the
work themselves, the Danes had the work done for them by dogs and dog
drivers. Tobias, the Eskimo, however, had made the finest dog-sledge
journey on record.
But tragedy was at hand; Erichsen, Hagen, and Brönlund did not return.
Relief expeditions were sent out in the autumn but found no signs of
them. The second winter passed in sorrow and anxiety: it was felt that
they must have perished.
Several sledge journeys were undertaken during the winter to lay out
depôts, and also with geographical and other scientific objects.
The most important, consisting of four men, Bertelsen (in command),
Wegener, Weinschank, and Lindhard, was conducted in the good old
British way by men dragging their own sledge. They started on the 1st
March with a load of 180 lb. per man. On the 9th they commenced the
ascent of the inland ice, which they found rough, with a surface like
that of an undulating sea. On the 13th they determined to take the tent
and sledge no further, and Wegener and Weinschank went on to the great
“nunatak” or snow-free land seen in the distance. They found that the
inland ice ended in a vertical wall 90 feet high, but they succeeded
in finding a place to descend, and thus landed on this extensive
“nunatak,” an important discovery. It received the name of “Dronning
Luisa Land.” The distance across the inland ice to the “nunatak” was
24 miles. The party returned on the 3rd of April with collections of
plants, rocks, and fossils.
The expedition in search of their lost leader and his comrades started
March 10th. It consisted of Captain Koch and Tobias, each with a
sledge and team of ten dogs, and on March 19th they reached the depôt
on Lambert Land with great difficulty owing to fog, a head wind, and
drifting snow. They found the snow-covered entrance to a small cave,
and when some snow had been removed they could distinguish the outlines
of a human being in a reindeer coat. It was Brönlund. At his feet was a
bottle with his diary, and the chart sketches drawn by Hagen. The diary
was in Eskimo and a single page was written in Danish. It announced
that the two others perished in November in Seventy-nine Fjord after
an attempt to return by the inland ice. “I arrived here,” it ran, “by
waning moon, and can go no further owing to frost-bites on feet and
the darkness. Hagen died on the 15th of November, and Mylius about ten
(two?) days later.” Koch returned to the ship on March 26th.
Brönlund’s diary was translated by Dr Christian Rasmussen, lecturer
in Greenlandic at Copenhagen, and, with the two records found by
Mikkelsen, the story of the fatal but fruitful journey of the heroic
Danes can be pretty clearly made out. They had been misled by Peary’s
erroneous map. On parting with Koch they drove away to the land in
about 82° N. and first discovered a long fjord turning S.W. for nearly
150 miles which they named Danmark Fjord. They then entered another
narrow fjord of about the same length running west and ending near the
position where Peary placed his “Navy Cliff[179].” As there was no
Independence Bay, Erichsen called this fjord “Independence Sound.” He
discovered that it ended, and that the channel across Greenland was
imaginary. The Danish explorers arrived at the head of this fjord on
June 8th and remained there, mapping and exploring, for several days.
Two branch fjords were discovered, one to the south named after Hagen,
and one to the north after Brönlund.
In the Arctic regions the summer has not the extreme cold of the
Antarctic summer, but it brings greater suffering to the explorer.
Water forms on the floes, often more than knee deep, open water
suddenly appears cutting off communications, and long delays are caused
before young ice will bear. To these obstacles the gallant Danish
explorers were exposed, though they were fortunately able to obtain a
certain amount of game. The summer was the cause of their destruction.
It was passed near the entrance of Danmark Fjord from June to August.
The snow was soft and deep, and water-making, and at last there was
no ice across the fjord. They had to travel over the hills to reach
a fresh hunting ground at Sjellands Sletten. Here musk oxen, hares,
brent geese, and ptarmigan were obtained. But the dogs were failing,
and much reduced in number. Foot-gear was wearing out, and Hagen,
with Brönlund’s help, tried to make boots out of the leather bag for
the sextant. Fuel was all used, but there was some driftwood, and one
of the sledges was broken up. At length, in October, the ice bore,
and the return journey was commenced along the coast to Lambert Land
depôt. But their troubles continued. They were stopped by open water
at Antarctic Bay, and had no alternative but to take to the inland
ice. Nearly exhausted, with few dogs left, it took them four days
to drag the sledge up to the ice cap. They continued to work their
way south, dying men, but unconquered and resolute to the last. They
were not perishing from want of food, but from frost-bites, illness,
misery, and exhaustion. They descended into Seventy-nine Fjord on their
way to the Lambert Land depôt, and then the end came. It had been a
terrible journey. Hagen died on the 15th of November, Erichsen two days
afterwards. Taking his diary and Hagen’s maps and drawings, Brönlund
staggered on to the depôt, where as we have seen, his body was found
by Koch. The bodies of the two noble explorers rest in the midst of
their vast discoveries.
Erichsen had organised and conducted the expedition with great energy
and quite exceptional ability. His last great journey was splendid in
its conception, in its scientific results, and in its heroic end. He
was an ideal leader and beloved by his companions. Hagen, too, was no
less a loss to science, an observer of the first rank and a dauntless
enthusiast.
Lieut. Trolle succeeded to the command of the expedition. The energy
and unceasing activity of its members was marvellous, and a mere list
even of the various expeditions would need more space than can be given
here. One of the most important, led by the geologist Jarner, was the
complete survey and exploration of Clavering’s Ardencaple Inlet, which
was examined and mapped up to the two upper branches during 42 days in
the spring, large collections of plants and fossils being made, and men
and dogs returning in excellent condition.
For the extent of discoveries made, and for the continuous activity
of all its members during two winters and three working seasons the
Danmark Expedition has few equals. Its members did much scientific
work, and did it thoroughly, bringing home valuable observations and
large collections. The winter quarters were left on July 21st, and the
ship finally arrived at Copenhagen on the 23rd August, 1908.
CHAPTER XLIII
LATER GREENLAND EXPLORATIONS--MIKKELSEN, RASMUSSEN--KOCH
MIKKELSEN
The quest of any further information respecting the Erichsen expedition
was a worthy object, and it called forth the zealous enthusiasm of
Einar Mikkelsen, the gallant young explorer who had already served
in the expedition of Captain Amdrup, and had later won fame from his
fine effort in the Beaufort Sea. He received the warm encouragement of
his former chief Amdrup, of Captain Holm, and others; a Committee was
formed, a fund was raised, half contributed by the Danish Government,
and the _Alabama_ of Stavanger (only 40 tons) was bought, strengthened,
equipped, and supplied with 18 months’ provisions. Dogs were obtained
in Greenland. Mikkelsen had with him Lieut. Laub of the Danish Navy,
Lieut. Jorgensen of the Danish army, Iver Iversen, a naval engineer,
Olsen and Paulsen, mates, and the carpenter, Carl Unger.
The _Alabama_ sailed from Copenhagen on the 20th of June, 1909, and
after many difficulties and much danger from the ice arrived safely off
Shannon Island. An autumn journey was made to the place where Brönlund
died, which proved a most dangerous undertaking. It was indeed a race
for life against water, thin ice, and darkness. The body was found,
a grave was built over it, and memorials were deposited. The party
returned on December 18th, 1909, after an absence of 95 days, one of
the most remarkable autumn Arctic journeys on record.
During the first winter, in the hope of finding documents, Mikkelsen
resolved to undertake a journey to Danmark Sound by crossing the
glacial land, a novel and hazardous undertaking. He made direct for the
head of the fjord, and for part of the way was accompanied by Lieut.
Laub with another dog sledge. Mikkelsen had only one companion, the
engineer Iver Iversen, a good cook, an expert dog driver, and a man of
many accomplishments. The two sledges carried respectively 600 and 650
lb. of provisions and were drawn one by nine and the other by eleven
dogs.
[Illustration: Greenland]
On April 1st Mikkelsen and Laub found that they were by observation
no less than 15 miles south of their dead reckoning, much to their
surprise and dismay--only another proof of the uselessness of dead
reckoning unless checked by astronomical observations. It was intended
that Laub should travel round the west side of the large nunatak called
Dronning Luisa’s Land and then return round the south end. At the north
end of the land there was a little moss here and there, but no sign
of any living thing. Bad weather, excessively difficult marching, and
shortage of provisions obliged Laub and his two companions to return by
the way they came, and on reaching the winter quarters they found that
the _Alabama_ had filled and sunk, and their shipmates were in a tent.
Eventually, however, they were able to build a house with some of the
ship’s timbers.
Meanwhile Captain Mikkelsen and his companion Iversen continued their
march, making a very remarkable and difficult journey across the
inland ice direct to the head of the Danmark Fjord which, it will be
remembered, had been discovered by Erichsen. On May 18th they reached
the head of the fjord. Several remains of Erichsen’s party were found,
then a record, and ultimately a second record. Erichsen recorded this
discovery of the long fjord, at the head of which was Peary’s furthest
point, with two fjords branching from it. He had also found that
Peary’s strait across Greenland had no existence. This information was
important, as Mikkelsen had intended to return by the imaginary channel
and the west coast of Greenland, in which case he and his companion
would probably have perished. As it was, the return by the coast with
the dogs worn out, deep soft snow, and much surface water, was a
sufficiently dangerous undertaking. Mikkelsen was for some time unable
to walk, and the explorers went through great hardships.
At length, after terrible sufferings, the two men returned to the
winter quarters, only to find that their ship had sunk and that all
their companions had gone home in a vessel that arrived in the summer.
A house, needing much repair and full of snow, had been built out
of timber from the wreck, and there were provisions. In view of the
paucity of game, their companions considered that they would serve the
absent men best by returning when there was a chance, thus avoiding
the consumption of the remaining provisions. “They were all persuaded
that Captain Mikkelsen would succeed in fighting his way through, armed
as he was with iron energy and great Arctic knowledge, and with a
companion who would stick to him through thick and thin.”
At last a vessel arrived to rescue them, after three winters, and
the two heroic explorers were brought safely back to Copenhagen.
This expedition, with its aspirations accomplished and its valuable
results, stands high in the polar record. Mikkelsen’s reward was
the appreciation of his work by the scientific geographers of all
countries. His interesting narrative is contained in the _Story of the
Alabama Expedition, 1909–1912_.
RASMUSSEN
The expedition across Greenland led by Knud Rasmussen, a Dane born in
Greenland, is of very special interest because it inaugurates what is
intended to be a permanent system of exploring work, which at the same
time undertakes the protection of the Arctic Highlanders, that most
interesting tribe, quite uncontaminated by contact with civilisation
when first discovered by Sir John Ross in 1818 and visited by the
writer in 1850. Under modern conditions the protection of the Danish
Government is much needed by these well-intentioned but simple and
isolated people.
With this most laudable object Rasmussen in July 1910 formed a
settlement among these people in Wolstenholme Sound, which he called
“Thule.” In the following year, becoming anxious for the safety of
Mikkelsen and his companion, he organised an expedition to cross
Greenland with the hope of relieving them. This was the main object,
discovery being secondary.
Rasmussen’s expedition was a thoroughly efficient one. He was
accompanied by two Eskimos and by young Freuchen who had served with
Erichsen, a joyous comrade, a cartographer, and possessed of hardihood
and great endurance. With four sledges and 54 dogs they started from
the Clements Markham glacier, a little to the north of Whale Sound, on
the 19th of April, 1912. They soon found that tents were much better
than snow huts, and the walrus meat they took with them kept the dogs
in good condition. The highest part of Greenland on this meridian
was found to be 7300 feet. In descending into the Danmark Fjord of
Erichsen some dogs fell over precipices, but otherwise all were in good
condition. Their rate of travelling was fast, 17 journeys bringing them
to Danmark Fjord, 504 miles. Rasmussen travelled down Danmark Fjord for
72 miles, until he reached the sea, and then proceeded up another fjord
of great length, running nearly east and west. This was all Erichsen’s
ground. It was found that the coasts of the fjord were more frequented
by game and had more vegetation on the north than on the south side.
On June 17th the head of the long fjord was reached, some extensive
ice-free land was discovered, and a glacier leading to the inland ice.
Peary’s record was found by Freuchen, on a height quite at the end of
the fjord. His incomplete observations, as already stated, caused the
recording of a non-existent channel from the east to the west coast of
Greenland, and the publication of quite erroneous maps for many years.
At the end of the long fjord discovered by Erichsen, which he called
Independence Fjord, Rasmussen found a steep glacier, and on the north
side a valley full of flowers, which he named Valmuedalen, or the
valley of poppies. Here the party rested for a few days and shot
several musk oxen. The return was commenced on August 8th by ascending
the glacier with great difficulty. They still had 27 dogs; and Thule
was safely reached on September 15th, 1912. The return journey alone
covered 621 miles, the double journey 1200 miles--the finest ever
performed by dogs.
By this remarkable and well-conducted journey Rasmussen corrected the
errors on our maps and made important discoveries. It is his intention,
while guarding the interests and looking after the welfare of the
Arctic Highlanders from his station at Thule in Wolstenholme Sound, to
undertake further exploring expeditions.
In the same year Dr de Quervain, a Swiss, made a journey over the
inland ice of Greenland, much further south, from Jacobshavn in Disco
Bay, on a S.E. course to Angmagssalik on the east coast. His highest
point was 8200 feet.
KOCH
The latest journey across Greenland from the east to the west coast was
specially interesting because ponies were used instead of dogs. Captain
Koch, the accomplished companion of Mylius Erichsen, when he decided
upon undertaking a much more northern crossing, resolved to attempt the
difficult enterprise with ponies. Sixteen of these were landed, but
unfortunately there was a stampede and only ten ponies were recaptured.
The companions of Captain Koch were three Danes named Larsen, Wegener,
and Vigfus. The intention was to winter at the interesting Dronning
Luisa nunatak, but after two months of hard work it was found that the
complete ascent could not be made before winter set in, and it became
necessary to establish winter quarters on the icy ascent. To add to
their misfortune Captain Koch fell down a crevasse and broke his leg.
They had brought the materials for a house, which was duly erected,
and served its purpose well during the winter, though--72° Fahr. was
registered. Several ponies died and others were used for food.
By the spring Captain Koch had recovered from his very serious
accident and the march across Greenland, a distance of 700 miles
on this meridian, was commenced on April 20th with five ponies and
five sledges. Violent storms had to be faced and the ponies suffered
severely from exhaustion and snow blindness. No land was seen from May
6th until July 2nd. A height of nearly 9800 ft. was attained in 43° W.
and 74° 30′ N. On July 4th the margin of the ice on the west side was
reached, and the last remaining pony was killed. The descent was made,
and a fjord called Lax (salmon) Fjord was crossed on a raft constructed
of the sledge and poles. They were then weather-bound without food for
35 hours. The party was ultimately rescued by a sailing boat, which
took them to the Danish settlement of Proven.
The difficulties encountered, the dangers faced and overcome, the
sufferings bravely endured, the scientific work throwing light on the
climatic conditions and physiography of the Greenland interior, place
all these Danish enterprises very high in the glorious record of polar
discovery.
CHAPTER XLIV
CONCLUSION
The long and glorious story of Arctic discovery is drawing to a close.
Two unknown areas of unequal importance remain. One is the extensive
region now known as Baffin Island, which needs thorough exploration,
and will doubtless receive it from the Dominion Government in due time.
The other is the part known as the Beaufort Sea, a much more extensive
unknown area from Prince Patrick and Baring or Banks Islands westwards
to the Liakhov Island between the 70th and 80th parallels of North
Latitude, and indeed much further to the north. Future explorers have
still before them the problem of the distribution of land and water
over this unknown region. Ever since I collected vestiges of Eskimo
encampments along the shores of the Parry Islands and became convinced
that the wanderers came from the west, I have been inclined to expect
the discovery of land in this area. The description of the ice off the
west coast of Banks Island confirmed me in the belief of a land-locked
sea. Deductions from the additional knowledge furnished by the Nares
Expedition rather shook my belief on some grounds, but the apparent
impossibility, if there is no land, of all the ice over so vast an
ocean escaping between Spitsbergen and Greenland was an argument on
the other side. Professor Spencer and Dr Harris support the view that
there is undiscovered land northward over the Beaufort Sea on grounds
connected with tidal phenomena. Dr Harris’s view is that this land is
of great extent, stretching away far to the north. The existence of
an archipelago, of continental land, or of a continuous ocean is the
problem to be solved--the remaining Arctic achievement of the future.
Impressed with this conviction I read a paper at a meeting of the
Royal Geographical Society on November 13th, 1905, on “The Next Great
Arctic Discovery,” and subsequently Einar Mikkelsen very gallantly
undertook the enterprise, but with inadequate means. He was only able
to show his pluck, energy, and resourcefulness. He made a fine journey
over the ice to the northward of the Alaska coast, and ascertained the
position of the edge of the continental shelf. He encountered a wide
lane of water stopping his return, but at once set to work to contrive
a means of crossing, and succeeded. The difficulties Mikkelsen overcame
by his resourcefulness and the way in which he met disasters proved
that, with funds at his command, he was fitted for the leadership of
a large expedition. At the same time that the gallant young Dane was
struggling with adversity, including the loss of his little vessel,
Mr. Harrison was doing excellent geographical work in the delta of
the Mackenzie River and making himself thoroughly acquainted with the
Eskimo inhabitants. The discovery of this region was later undertaken
by the Government of Canada, but the expedition ended in failure.
We may now look back on all the expeditions, extending over more than
a thousand years, that we have passed in review, and sum up the result
as regards Arctic lands. The islands on the continental shelves and
the bordering continental lands must be regarded as comprising the
whole of the terrestrial Arctic Regions, and geographers should look
upon problems connected with those regions from that point of view. On
the Siberian side the shelf is described to us from careful personal
observation by Nansen. We see the group of New Siberian Islands rising
from it, with their mammoth ivory and cliffs of fossil wood. We then
contemplate the land masses of Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land, and
Spitsbergen rising from the Barentsz and Kara Seas, with the marvellous
tale they tell of the former condition of the region in recent
geological times. Next, on the further side of the great southerly
ice-stream, is the continental mass of Greenland, with its glaciation
only surpassed in grandeur and extent by the Antarctic ice-cap. Then
come the somewhat analogous land masses of Baffin and Ellesmere
Islands, with the separating straits and channels, and finally the
intricate Parry Archipelago to the north of the American continent.
These lands bordering on or rising from the continental shelf form the
Arctic Regions as we know them. But between the Parry Archipelago and
the Siberian shelf there is the vast area in and to the north of the
Beaufort Sea, to which I have just referred and of which we know almost
nothing. Our knowledge of the Arctic regions will remain incomplete
until this area has been discovered and explored.
When we now look back on the history of Arctic enterprise from the
earliest times it is impossible not to be struck with the high
qualities it brought so frequently to light, and the fine record of
courage and endurance it presents for our admiration. The objects have
differed, but there has throughout been the same splendid contempt for
danger and hardship, and the same resourcefulness and habit of quick
decision brought out by the nature of the work on which the explorers
were engaged.
The Norsemen, and afterwards the Danes, have been the colonisers,
undertaking the hardest and most difficult work of all, and they
furnish a record of commercial success and civilising influence on the
natives which places them in the first rank among Arctic labourers in
a hard but fruitful field. Next come the English adventurers seeking
for a shorter route to India by the north-west, the north-east or the
north; and thereafter the period of fishers and trappers, when it was
shown of what immense value were the products of the Arctic regions.
First the Dutch established whale-fisheries in Spitsbergen and Davis
Strait, and then the English who, in the person of Scoresby, combined
commercial profit with scientific research. The labours of these daring
whale-fishers enriched and gave prosperity to numerous communities,
while beginning later, but working contemporaneously, we see the
Hudson’s Bay Company opening up the wilderness, accumulating wealth,
and largely influencing Europeans and natives for good.
The Russians, too, achieved a great work in delineating the whole
northern coast of Siberia. Then came the great era of Ross, Parry, and
Franklin; a time of heroic effort, of vast discoveries, and above all
of the ceaseless training of men in ice-work, the training of men, that
is, alike for science and for war. In this Arctic work we see the
nursery of a Nelson, a Riou, a Nias, a Sherard Osborn, and such men as
Sabine, Beechey, and Foster.
The expeditions in search of Sir John Franklin and his gallant
companions raised Arctic work to the highest plane it has yet attained.
The motive was the highest that has ever actuated polar or any other
discovery, the cause of humanity. Very extensive discoveries were
made and the art of sledge travelling with men was brought nearly to
perfection.
After the completion of the Franklin search and the return of the
Nares expedition, Americans, Norwegians, Swedes, and Austro-Hungarians
stepped in. The best of the American Arctic leaders were Greeley and
De Long, although their expeditions ended in misfortune, for they were
instructed officers, with a strong feeling of responsibility and of the
obligations of duty. The work they did was well done and reliable. The
expeditions of Nordenskiöld and Nansen stand by themselves owing to the
personality of those leaders. The Swede was a man of high scientific
and literary attainments, the Norwegian alike a man of action and a
profound student, an unusual combination. He is endowed with rare
gifts. His ideas almost amounted to prescience, and he was equally
sagacious in working them out to practical conclusions. He drew back
the veil which had concealed the Arctic secret. Although the English
occupy the first place in Arctic discovery, yet it was begun and was
completed by Scandinavians--by Erik the Red and Fridtjof Nansen.
In the history of mankind since the Christian era, the annals of Arctic
discovery occupy a very glorious place. They run like a bright silver
thread through the darker tales of war and crime, for the most part
showing the nobler side of the qualities of our race.
PART II
THE ANTARCTIC REGIONS
CHAPTER XLV
THE GREAT SOUTHERN CONTINENT
The Far South waited much longer for the attention of mankind than the
Arctic regions. Antarctica has had no dwellers on the threshold, no
demigod clearing its circle on Sleipner or any other fabled horse, no
Norsemen daring its icy solitudes, scarcely even a tradition; although
the anonymous Franciscan, in the fourteenth century, when he was in
Prester John’s country, heard that the four rivers of Paradise flowed
from an inaccessible mountain of great height at the south pole[180].
The Antarctic regions were first approached by Europeans by following
the coast line of the continent which stretches furthest south.
Magellan, with that indomitable perseverance which characterised him,
continued, in spite of all difficulties, to force his way south until
he discovered the strait which led him into the Pacific Ocean. After
that it was the contrary winds, driving ships to the south, which led
to further discoveries in an Antarctic direction. The next Spanish
fleet which passed through the Strait after Magellan was under the
command of Garcia Jofre de Loaysa, with Sebastian del Cano as second in
command. Seven vessels sailed from Coruña in 1525, one of the smallest
being the _St Lesmes_, with Francisco de Hozes as captain. This little
craft of 80 tons was blown out of the strait, and driven down as far
south as 55°, sighting land, the eastern end of Staten Island. Adverse
gales also drove Sir Francis Drake to new discoveries. In October,
1578, he thus unintentionally fell in with “the uttermost part of
lands towards the South Pole.” The latitude was 56° S. and “there was
no maine nor iland to be seen to the southwards; the Atlantic Ocean
and the South Sea meeting in a most large and free scope.” Drake
named this southern cape of the island after the great Queen, Cape
Elizabeth, the Cape Horn of the Dutch. Twenty years afterwards another
discovery-causing gale produced results. An expedition of four vessels
and a small pinnace left Holland in June, 1598, under the command of
Jacob Mahu, whose death placed it under Simon de Cordes. The object
was to visit the coasts of Chile and Peru for plunder, and then cross
the Pacific. After leaving the Strait of Magellan all the ships were
scattered. The flag-ship _Hope_ reached Japan in April, 1600, where
the pilot, an Englishman named William Adams, was detained until his
death, though he was able to send home very interesting letters. The
little pinnace of 18 tons named _Blijde Boodschap_ (_Good News_) was
driven down to 64° S., where her Captain, Dirk Gerritsz, saw “high
land with mountains covered with snow, like the land of Norway[181].”
M. Gerlache has named the islands which he discovered, and which, with
Graham Land form the Gerlache channel--“Dirk Gerritsz Archipelago,”
for his latitude shows that this was possibly the land he sighted.
Returning northwards in search of his consorts, Dirk Gerritsz put
into Valparaiso, where his ship was taken by the Spaniards and he was
wounded. He was sent a prisoner to Lima, but news of his proceedings
reached Holland, though not of his fate.
On June 14th, 1615, an expedition left Holland apparently with the
object of finding a way to the Pacific to the south of Magellan’s
Strait. Willem Cornelisz Schouten of Hoorn commanded the _Eendracht_
of 220 tons, with Jacob le Maire, a son of the owner, as principal
merchant. In January, 1616, Schouten discovered the strait between
Tierra del Fuego and an island which he named Staaten Island. The
strait was named after Le Maire. He thought the island was part of
the Antarctic Continent. On the 29th the most southern land was
sighted--the Cape Elizabeth of Drake--and named Cape Horn. When
the Spanish Government heard of these proceedings they fitted out
an expedition to verify the Dutch discoveries. It consisted of two
caravels commanded by two brothers named Nodal. They carried out their
instructions with ability and success from September, 1618 to July,
1620, passing through the Strait of Le Maire, rounding Cape Horn, and
being the first to circumnavigate Tierra del Fuego. They gave the name
of San Ildefonso to Cape Horn. Moreover they got still nearer to the
Antarctic regions, discovering rocks in 56° 31′ 8″, fifty-seven miles
S.W. of Cape Horn, which they named Diego Ramirez after their pilot.
[Illustration: Ortelius’ Map of the World]
While the explorers, by the action of adverse gales, were thus
painfully making discoveries in the far south, the map-makers were
presenting geographical students with a vast southern continent. In the
map of the world by Ortelius (Antwerp, 1570) the outline of this “Terra
Australis” is carried round the world as far north, in some places, as
the tropic of Capricorn. Australia is included in it, but New Guinea is
an island. There is the mysterious gold-yielding province called Beach,
on a peninsula near Java Minor. In the G. de Jode’s map of 1578, New
Guinea is made part of Terra Australis. Mercator, in his Duisburg map
of 1587, has the Beach province and Java Minor, following Ortelius. The
map of 1589 makes New Guinea an island again. The southern continent
is shown in the same way on the Molyneux globe. The Mercator Atlas,
published by Hondius at Amsterdam in 1623, represents the Terra
Australis in the same way as Ortelius, as does the Hexham Atlas, even
after the return of Schouten and Le Maire. All these maps treat Tierra
del Fuego as a promontory of the great Terra Australis. This vast
continent of the map-makers originated in some idea that the amount of
land in the two hemispheres should balance each other. Its effect was,
on the whole, useful, for it led to a desire among men of action to
look for and discover the unknown land, and it is always a good thing
when anyone undertakes to look for anything.
It was while serving with Mendaña, in his second voyage, that Pedro
Fernandez de Quiros conceived his grand project, after studying
and pondering over the maps of the world with their great southern
continent. He thought that here might be a discovery as famous as
that achieved by Columbus or Da Gama. After long waiting he at length
obtained an order from Philip III to the Viceroy of Peru, to fit
out an expedition with himself in command, for the discovery of the
Antarctic continent. Quiros proceeded to Lima in 1603, but it was two
years before the two small vessels were equipped and ready for sea.
The plan of Quiros was to steer E.S.E. from Callao until he reached
the latitude of 30° S., when he fully expected to have arrived at the
southern continent shown on the maps. He continued on this course from
December 21st to January 22nd, when he was in 26° S. There was a great
swell from the south, and the men became alarmed. Quiros then came to
the unlucky resolution of altering course to E.N.E. His excuse was that
the crew were mutinous and that he was ill in bed. If he had gone on he
would have discovered New Zealand. Thus ended, rather ignominiously,
the first intended Antarctic voyage. Quiros discovered the New
Hebrides, and his second in command finally separated Australia from
New Guinea by discovering Torres Strait, but the Antarctic project came
to an end.
About this time there was a Memorial written by a Chilean lawyer named
Juan Luis Arias, on the discovery of an antarctic continent and the
conversion of its inhabitants. This Memorial contains the statement
that Juan Fernandez, the navigator who discovered the quickest route
from Callao to Valparaiso, led an expedition from Chile which
discovered the coast of the southern continent, landed on it, and had
communication with the natives. But the story is not authentic[182].
More than a century passed without any further thought of the reputed
continent round the antarctic pole. In 1675 an English merchant named
Anthony La Roche, returning from the South Pacific, discovered the land
to which Captain Cook afterwards gave the name of South Georgia. In
1738, the French East India Company sent two vessels under the command
of Captain Lozier Bouvet to discover a peninsula in the South Atlantic
said to form part of the southern continent. Bouvet sighted land in 54°
S. and 11° E., but did not ascertain whether it was a peninsula or an
island. He called it Cap Circoncision[183].
Hitherto the discoveries in the far south had for the most part been
accidental, and there had only been one real antarctic expedition, that
of Quiros, which too soon altered course from south, hesitating near
the threshold, and met with failure in consequence.
CHAPTER XLVI
CAPTAIN COOK--BELLINGSHAUSEN
It was a bright page in English history when our Government awoke to
its duties in taking a lead in discovery. In the instructions, dated
June 17th, 1764, to Commodore Byron, who was despatched to the Pacific
in that year, that duty is recognised in a very noble passage:--
Whereas nothing can redound more to the honour of this nation as
a maritime power, to the dignity of the crown of Great Britain,
and to the advancement of the trade and navigation thereof than
to make discoveries of countries hitherto unknown; and whereas
there is reason to believe that lands and islands of great extent,
hitherto unvisited by any European Power may be found, His Majesty,
conceiving no conjuncture so proper for an enterprise of this
nature as a time of profound peace, which his kingdoms at present
happily enjoy, has thought fit that it should now be undertaken.
In this spirit our Government resolved to despatch an expedition
with the object of deciding the question of the existence of a great
southern continent such as had long been delineated on maps of the
world. Two vessels built at Whitby, the _Resolution_ (462 tons) and
_Adventure_ (336 tons) were selected, and carefully fitted out at
Woolwich and Deptford with great store of antiscorbutics. Captain Cook
received his appointment on November 28th, 1771, with Captain Furneaux
as his second, on board the _Adventure_. Cook had with him two of the
Lieutenants who were in his first voyage, Clerke and Pickersgill.
Another Lieutenant, James Burney, was the future Admiral and author of
_Voyages to the South Sea_[184]. One of the midshipmen, Vancouver, was
the future explorer and surveyor of the north-west coast of America.
Johann Reinhold Forster and his son were appointed as naturalists, and
the Board of Longitude sent Mr Wales to make astronomical observations.
The Board also supplied four chronometers, three by Arnold, and one
by Kendall on Harrison’s principle[185]. This was the first British
Antarctic Expedition.
On November 22nd, 1772, the expedition left the Cape with the object
of examining the edge of the ice between that meridian and that of New
Zealand. The course was south, the two vessels keeping company, and
after some very severe weather the first iceberg was sighted on the
10th December in Lat. 50° 20′ 3″ and 2° east of the Cape. On the 14th,
after passing many icebergs, the edge of the pack ice was reached.
The 17th January, 1773, was a memorable day, for in the forenoon the
Antarctic Circle was crossed for the first time in the history of
civilised man, in 39° 35′ E. The latitude at noon was 66° 36′ 30″ S.,
and in the evening 30 icebergs were in sight, and much sailing ice.
Captain Cook perseveringly continued to examine the edge of the ice for
many days, until on March 26th, 1773, after being 122 days at sea and
sailing over 3660 leagues, but never once sighting land, Dusky Bay in
New Zealand was reached.
Tahiti and other islands were then visited, and on November 26th,
1773, the _Resolution_ left New Zealand to resume her Antarctic work.
On December 14th she was among icebergs and loose ice in 64° 55′ S.
and 163° 20′ W. Captain Cook continued his course to the south and on
the 20th December crossed the Antarctic Circle for the second time,
surrounded by icebergs and loose pack, with very thick weather. On the
26th the sea was dotted with more than 300 bergs. A closely-packed mass
of ice, extending east and west as far as could be seen, was reached on
the 30th January, 1774. Captain Cook counted 97 ice hills within the
pack, many of them very large, and looking like a ridge of mountains
rising one above another until they were lost in the clouds. Cook adds
that a mile within the pack there was solid ice in one continuous
compact body, rather low and flat, but seeming to increase in height as
it was traced to the south, in which direction it extended beyond their
sight. The latitude was 71° 10′ S., longitude 106° 54′ W.
Cook did not believe that it would have been impossible to force a way
through this pack, but he thought that it would not be justifiable to
take a ship like the _Resolution_ into such danger. He therefore shaped
a northern course from this point, arriving at Easter Island on the
11th March, 1774.
After making numerous important discoveries during the rest of the year
1774, the great navigator left New Zealand on November 10th and the
_Resolution_ sailed across the South Pacific, making for Cape Horn. On
the 19th of December they anchored in a bay on the south-west coast
of Tierra del Fuego, called Christmas Sound. On the 28th they resumed
their voyage, rounded Cape Horn, passed through the Strait of Le Maire,
and sailed along the north coast of Staten Island, of which Cook wrote
an interesting account. On the 15th January, 1775, land was sighted in
latitude 54°, consisting of some small islands to which the name of
South Georgia was given. On the 31st another discovery was made, which
received the name of Sandwich Land. The Cape was reached on March 21st.
The expedition arrived at Portsmouth in July, 1775.
Captain Cook had made the circuit of the southern ocean in a high
latitude, and had entirely swept away the vast and imaginary Terra
Australis of the map-makers. He was, however, of opinion that there
was continental land of great extent nearer the pole, and that he had
seen part of it when he was at his extreme south. He was thus the
first to see land within the Antarctic Circle. It was also his belief
that the antarctic continent extended furthest to the north opposite
the southern Atlantic and Indian Oceans owing, for one reason, to the
greater degree of cold. In this he was quite correct.
* * * * *
Many years passed before any further attempts at geographical
discovery were made in this region. At length, however, the Russian
Government, in July, 1819, sent an expedition to the southern seas,
consisting of two vessels, the _Vostak_ under Captain Bellingshausen,
commander of the expedition, and the _Mirnyi_ under Captain Lazareff.
Bellingshausen, like Cook, made the circuit of the southern ocean in
high latitudes. He reached the edge of the pack in 69° 30′, and in
March, 1820, arrived at Van Diemen’s Land. In October of the same year
he again sailed and kept to a high latitude, between 60° and 67°,
in the South Pacific. In January 1821 he reached 70°, his furthest
south, in Long. 92° 10′ W. a short distance to the eastward of Cook’s
furthest, but not so far south. On the 11th of this month he discovered
an island in 69° S. and 91° W., nine miles long and apparently of very
considerable altitude, but he was a long way off. He named it Peter
Island. The discovery is important as indicating the extension of the
continental shelf to that point. Alexander Land was sighted further
east, in the same high latitude, but at a distance of 40 miles. In
July, 1821, Bellingshausen’s expedition returned to Cronstadt.
CHAPTER XLVII
THE SOUTH SHETLANDS. FOSTER--WEDDELL
Discovery south from Patagonia made very slow progress. After three
hundred years knowledge had only reached Cape Horn, the rocks of Diego
Ramirez, and the distant view of land in 64° seen by Dirk Gerritsz. His
discovery, granting the latitude, must have been the string of islands
near the north-west coast of Graham Land. At last a vessel on her
way from Monte Video to Valparaiso was, like the _Good News_ of Dirk
Gerritsz, driven far to the south. This was a brig called the _Williams
of Blythe_, commanded by Captain William Smith. She was in 61° S. when
land was sighted in February, 1819, and in a subsequent voyage, in
October, Captain Smith entered a bay, named by him George’s Bay, in one
of the largest of a group of islands. The group lay between 61° and 63°
S. and 54° and 63° W. A chart was drawn by William H. Goddard, no doubt
one of Captain Smith’s officers, and the group was named the South
Shetlands. There were twelve islands reported and innumerable rocks.
A channel over 300 miles in width separates the South Shetlands from
Tierra del Fuego.
When Captain Smith arrived at Valparaiso in November 1819, he
found there the senior officer, Captain Shirreff, R.N., of H.M.S.
_Andromache_. Captain Shirreff took a great interest in the discovery
of the South Shetlands, and it was agreed that the discoverer should
take Mr Bransfield, the Master of the _Andromache_, with three other
officers[186] and some bluejackets to carry out an extensive survey.
The agreement was dated December 16th, 1819; and Mr Bransfield received
full instructions for his guidance in making a survey of the newly
discovered land. The _Williams of Blythe_, with the naval surveyors,
arrived at George’s Bay on the 16th of January, 1820. The season was
late, but Mr Bransfield surveyed the islands discovered by Smith and
got as far south as 63°. He returned to Valparaiso May 27th[187].
[Illustration: Graham Land and South Shetlands]
The South Shetlands were the breeding grounds of immense numbers of fur
seals, and the news of this wealth spread with incredible rapidity,
so that in the very next year there were from 30 to 50 American
sealing vessels among the islands, altering Captain Smith’s names, and
committing ruthless destruction. The pitiless slaughter could have but
one result and in two or three years the fell work was done--the seals
were practically exterminated. Fanning[188], the historian of these
voyages, tells us that the objects were sealing and discovery, but
there can be little doubt which was the preponderating motive. It is
much to be regretted that there was no authority to keep within some
bounds the cupidity of the sealers. In two years 320,000 fur seals had
been destroyed, besides at least 100,000 young, owing to the loss of
their mothers.
In 1821, the American Captains Pendleton, Williams, Dunbar, and Palmer
were at work. The volcano on Deception Island was found to be active,
and some islands to the S.W. were discovered, not including Trinity
Island of the Admiralty Charts, which has been called Palmer Island,
in 63° 25′ S. and 57° 55′ W. Trinity Land is on Bransfield’s chart.
Captain Palmer continued to make sealing voyages until 1829. The South
Orkney Islands were discovered by the English sealing captain Powell in
1820.
In 1829 Captain Foster came to the South Shetlands in the course of his
scientific voyage, with the object of taking pendulum observations,
which occupied him for two months[189]. He also explored the volcano on
Deception Island. This very distinguished scientific Arctic officer,
born in 1796, began his career in the _Conway_ under Captain Basil
Hall. He was with Clavering on the east coast of Greenland, with Parry
in his third voyage, and also surveying in Spitsbergen in 1827, and
his observations were so meritorious that he was elected F.R.S.,
and received the Copley Medal. He commissioned the _Chanticleer_ in
1827 for pendulum observations and other scientific work, and made
an excellent survey of Staten Island, and some of the South Shetland
Islands. He was accidentally drowned in the river Chagres in 1831,
and a monument was erected to his memory in the church of his native
village, Woodplumpton. Some officers were serving on board the
_Chanticleer_ with Captain Foster who were afterwards well known in the
service, Austin the Commodore of the chief Franklin search expedition,
Collinson, leader of another search expedition and Deputy Master of the
Trinity House, and Kendall the eminent surveyor[190]. Dr Webster, the
surgeon, wrote the narrative of the voyage of the _Chanticleer_.
Thus was discovery in the direction of the Antarctic regions, on the
South American meridians, slowly prosecuted, and the South Shetland
Islands were an important step in advance. But they are north of the
Antarctic Circle, and thus do not strictly speaking come within the
range of this book, belonging rather to the geography of South America.
The first Antarctic voyage after the return of Bellingshausen
penetrated much further to the south, under a very able leader. James
Weddell was born in London (or Ostend?) August 24th, 1787, and his
father, who was a working upholsterer, died soon after James was born.
The boy was bound apprentice in a Newcastle collier, and afterwards
made several voyages in a West Indiaman until 1808, when having got
into trouble owing to a disagreement with his captain, which resulted
in his knocking the latter down, he was sent on board H.M.S. _Rainbow_.
Here he was rated a midshipman. He read much, carefully studied
navigation, and in 1810 was appointed Master of the _Firefly_, and
later of the _Thalia_. In 1812 he was appointed to the brig _Avon_
under Commander George (afterwards Sir George) Sartorius. After 1814 he
was for three years on half pay. Sir George Sartorius spoke of Weddell
as one of the most efficient and trustworthy officers he had met with
in the course of his professional life.
In 1822 Mr Strachan of Leith engaged Captain Weddell to conduct a
sealing adventure in the Antarctic seas in the brig _Jane_ of Leith,
160 tons, with a crew of 22 officers and men. The cutter _Beaufoy_ of
London, 65 tons, 13 officers and men, was to be her consort, commanded
by Matthew Brisbane.
Sailing from the Downs on the 17th September, 1822, Weddell proceeded
direct for the Antarctic ice, and on January 12th, 1823, he was in
sight of the east end of the South Orkneys. He landed there on the 15th
and secured 116 sea leopard skins. Still sailing south, Weddell found
himself on the 7th February among many icebergs, one of them two miles
long and 250 feet high. He crossed the Antarctic Circle, and on the
14th, in Long. 68° 28′ W., there were 66 icebergs in sight. The current
was flowing N. 58° E., 27 miles in four days. But on February 16th, in
70° 26′ S. the sea was smooth and the bergs had nearly disappeared.
In 72° 33′ S. there was not a particle of ice to be seen. Weddell’s
furthest south was attained on the 20th February 1823, in 74° 15′ S.
and 34° 16′ W. There were three icebergs in sight, many whales, and
innumerable birds, and it was very clear weather. The sea received the
name of “King George IV his Sea.” In returning, Weddell met with less
ice in 65° S. in the end of February than he did in the end of January.
On the 12th March he sighted South Georgia (54° 2′) and anchored in
Adventure Bay.
It should be remembered that Weddell was only incidentally a
discoverer, and that his business was sealing. His age was 35 when he
reached his furthest south. He continued to command merchant vessels,
and in May, 1831, in the _Eliza_, he gave assistance to Biscoe in
Tasmania. He died unmarried on September 9th, 1834, in Norfolk Street,
Strand, in very straitened circumstances. In 1839 Weddell’s portrait
was presented to the Royal Geographical Society by Mr John Brown, the
author of a work on the search for Sir John Franklin. Captain Weddell
was a fine specimen of a courageous and thoroughly efficient British
seaman.
CHAPTER XLVIII
ENDERBY AND HIS CAPTAINS: BISCOE--KEMPE--BALLENY
Charles Enderby is a name which should ever receive honour from
geographers. Though engaged in the Antarctic sealing trade, his
captains always had orders to pay as close attention to geographical
research and discovery as their work permitted them, and he was well
served in this respect by the able navigators in his employment. Mr
Enderby was for ten years on the Council of the Royal Geographical
Society, and was an old and respected friend of the present writer.
The most important Enderby voyages of discovery were under the command
of Captain John Biscoe, who, like Weddell, was a naval officer. He
left the Falkland Islands in 1830 in a brig named the _Tula_, with the
cutter _Lively_, Captain Avery, in company, steering south, and before
the end of December he was amongst pack ice and bergs. On December
29th he was off the Sandwich Land of Cook, which he was instructed to
visit; but no vestige of seal or sea elephant could be found. Biscoe,
therefore, continued his voyage. On the 21st of January, 1831, he
crossed the Antarctic Circle. By the 25th February the _Tula_ was in
66° 8′ S. and 43° 54′ W. In the morning there was appearance of land,
in the intervals of snow squalls, with many bergs and ice fields round
the ship. The icebergs became innumerable, and there was a strong N.E.
swell. Captain Biscoe considered that he could proceed no further with
safety. The land appeared to be like the North Foreland, the cliffs
being about the same height, probably ice cliffs resting on land. From
the fore top Captain Biscoe, with a good glass, could trace the coast
for 30 or 40 miles. He made an effort to reach the land in a boat, but
the ice was too closely packed. On February 28th, the latitude being
66° 7′ S., longitude 49° 6′ E., high land was again sighted, with
black peaks rising above the snow. For two days an attempt was made
to reach it. Biscoe named a clearly seen point Cape Ann, in 65° 25′ S.
and 49° 18′ E. Next day a furious gale was encountered, lasting without
intermission until the 8th of March. These gales were frequent, and
scurvy broke out among the crew. In April only one man, one boy, the
two mates, and Biscoe himself were able to stand, so it was thought
advisable to shape a course for New Zealand. The newly discovered land
received the name of Enderby Land.
The _Tula_ reached the Derwent river in Tasmania, and luckily found the
_Eliza_, Captain Weddell, at anchor. The veteran Antarctic navigator
at once sent a boat’s crew to moor the _Tula_ and the sufferers from
scurvy were all sent to the hospital.
On October 10th, 1831, the _Tula_ and her consort sailed from Tasmania,
and continued their voyage of discovery. Biscoe’s plan, in crossing the
South Pacific, was to pass over Captain Cook’s track, and seek for land
W.S.W. of the South Shetlands. On the 15th February, 1832, in Lat. 67°
15′ S., Long. 69° 29′ W., land was sighted at a distance of about three
miles. Biscoe named the island after Queen Adelaide. He wrote:--
It has a most imposing and beautiful appearance, having one very
high peak running up into the clouds., occasionally appearing both
above and below them. One third of the mountains, which are about 4
miles in extent from north to south, have only a thin scattering of
snow over their summits. Towards the base the other two thirds are
buried in a field of snow and ice of the most dazzling whiteness.
This bed of snow and ice is about four miles in extent, and slopes
gradually down to cliffs 10 or 12 feet high; it is split in every
direction, for at least 2 or 300 yards from its edge inwards, and
appears to form icebergs, only waiting for some severe gales or
other cause to break them adrift and put them in motion.
During the following days distant high mountains were in sight, and
the _Tula_ passed several islands. On the 19th February a small island
in 65° 20′ S. and 66° 38′ W. was more closely examined, and named Pitt
Island. On the 21st Biscoe went away in a boat, and explored a deep
inlet of the mainland. He named the highest mountain after the king,
Mount William, in 64° 45′ S., and the second highest Mount Moberly,
after one of his old captains. On the 3rd March the _Tula_ and her
cutter were safely anchored in New Plymouth, South Shetland.
The new discovery received the name of Graham Land after the First
Lord of the Admiralty. It was an island or long promontory with a
lofty mountain range occupying its interior, extending from an unknown
distance in the Antarctic regions across the circle, and far into the
south temperate zone.
Very severe weather was encountered at the South Shetlands, and the
_Tula_ was in great danger, but she arrived safely at Berkeley Sound in
the Falkland Islands on April 29th, 1832, with a cargo of sea-elephant
skins.
Another of Enderby’s captains named Kempe, on board the _Magpie_ in
1832, sighted land to the eastward of Enderby Land, which has been
named Kempe Land, but no journal or report has been preserved.
Enderby was not discouraged by some losses, and in 1838 he determined,
in conjunction with some other merchants, to send another expedition
to the south. The captain had special instructions to push as far
south as possible in hopes of discovering land in a high southern
latitude. There were two vessels, the schooner _Eliza Scott_ of 154
tons, commanded by John Balleny, and the cutter _Sabrina_, H. Freeman,
Master. We have the narratives of Captain Balleny, and of John McNab,
second mate of the _Eliza Scott_. On the 3rd December the two little
vessels anchored in Chalky Bay, at the S.W. extremity of the middle
island of New Zealand; and on the 7th January, 1839, they proceeded
on their Antarctic voyage. Running southwards through pack ice and
amongst bergs, they had reached 68° S. by the 2nd February. On the 9th
land was sighted in 66° 37′ S. and the captain soon made out three
islands. Next day Balleny stood towards the land, and made out high
perpendicular cliffs, but was prevented from a nearer approach by the
ice. The observed latitude was 66° 22′ S. In the evening of the 12th
Captains Balleny and Freeman approached the shore in the cutter’s boat.
The cliffs were perpendicular, the gullies filled with ice, and smoke
was seen to be rising from the mountain peaks. Freeman jumped out
and picked up a few stones, but there was no beach and he was up to
his waist in water. The group consisted of five islands, three large
and two small, the highest, called Young Island, rising to a peak to
which the name of Freeman was given, this being the island on which
he landed. The five islands were given the names of the five merchants
who co-operated with Enderby in the venture--Young, Borradaile, Buckle,
Sturge, and Row. The whole group was named the Balleny Islands.
Captain Balleny then steered westward near the Antarctic Circle,
encountering severe weather and much ice. In the night of March 4th the
two little vessels were in a hazardous position, surrounded by icebergs
in thick weather, with severe snow squalls which compelled them to
heave to. On March 2nd in 64° 58′ S. and 121° 8′ E. they sighted land
to the southward, the vessels being surrounded by drift ice. The land
was seen both by Balleny and by McNab the second mate, who thought
it was not more than one mile to windward. It received the name of
Sabrina Land. The appearance of land was again seen on March 3rd. The
fixed character of the ice to the south showed the proximity of land of
considerable extent.
This voyage of the _Eliza Scott_ and _Sabrina_ is very remarkable.
That such tiny little vessels should have passed along that dangerous
coast, amidst fogs and snow squalls, in imminent danger of collision
with bergs and heavy drift ice on all sides, speaks volumes for the
seamanlike skill, watchfulness, and nerve of the navigators. They must
be credited with the discovery of a third part of the coast of the
southern continent.
Great credit is also due to Mr Enderby, the patriotic promoter of
the expeditions which carried out this hazardous work. The discovery
of Graham Land, of three points of the north coast of the Antarctic
continent--Enderby Land, Kempe Land, and Sabrina Land, and of the
Balleny Islands, is due to the enterprise and perseverance of one who
may justly take rank with the merchant adventurers of the days of the
great Queen.
CHAPTER XLIX
DUMONT D’URVILLE AND WILKES
In the year 1840 there were two exploring expeditions in the Pacific,
a French and an American, and the commissions of both were drawing to
a close. Both, however, intended to make runs towards the Antarctic
Circle before returning home. Captain Dumont D’Urville had two ships,
the _Astrolabe_ and the _Zélée_, Com. Jacquinot, under his command.
When he sailed southward from Hobart Town on January 1st, 1840, his
intention was only to make a new exploration along the edge of the pack
ice. Icebergs were first encountered on the 16th January, and on the
19th as many as 59 were counted round the ships. Their perpendicular
walls towered over the masts, and the spectacle was at once grand and
terrifying. D’Urville imagined himself in the narrow streets of a city
of giants. Having threaded his way among the icebergs, he found the
newly-discovered land only a few miles distant, covered with snow, and
rising to a height of 6000 feet. D’Urville sailed along the coast to
the westward, noticing some projecting headlands and shallow bays, but
always faced by an ice wall which rendered all landing impossible. Some
bare islets were seen, and each ship sent a boat towards them with two
officers, MM. Duroch and Dubourget. After two hours’ hard pulling the
boats reached one of the islets and the observers landed, collected
rock specimens, and hoisted the French flag. The islet was one of a
group of eight or ten, separated from the nearest coast by rather less
than a mile.
Dumont D’Urville gave the name of Adélie to the newly-discovered land,
and Cape Découverte to a promontory sighted in the morning.
For some days the French corvettes encountered a furious gale while
surrounded by icebergs, and were in considerable danger, but the wind
moderated and on January 30th they came in sight of an ice cliff,
varying in height from 100 to 150 feet, and forming a long line
westwards. D’Urville gave it the name of the Côte Clarie.
The French expedition bade a final farewell to the polar regions on
February 1st, 1840, and returned to Hobart Town. Important discoveries
had been made, officers and men all vieing with each other in zeal and
loyalty. It was a well conducted and successful voyage.
Dumont D’Urville had also previously surveyed part of the South
Shetlands in 1838. He passed Clarence and Elephant Islands and, sailing
down Bransfield Strait, discovered the north end of Graham Land without
knowing it, which he named after Louis Philippe. An island to the east
was named after the Prince de Joinville. He also saw a channel with the
coast of Graham Land on one side, and Trinity with other islands on the
other. To this he gave the name Orleans Channel.
* * * * *
The American expedition was commanded by Captain Wilkes, its object
being chiefly to explore the Pacific, in a voyage of circumnavigation.
Captain Wilkes concluded it with a visit to the edge of the ice south
of Australia, following in the wake of Captain Balleny and also of
Captain Dumont D’Urville.
The American squadron consisted of the _Vincennes_, Captain Wilkes,
the _Porpoise_, _Peacock_, and _Flying Fish_ tender. The tender parted
company in 48° S. and went back. The _Peacock_ also returned owing to
severe injuries received from the ice. The _Vincennes_ and _Porpoise_
continued the voyage and on the 16th January they were at the edge of
the ice, nearly on the Antarctic Circle and in 154° 30′ E. Here land
was reported by the _Porpoise_ “mountains seen”; “two peaks distinctly
seen, very clear, few clouds.” Wilkes saw some land himself, and called
it Ringgold’s Knoll. Land was also visible from the _Vincennes_, “every
appearance of land, believed to be such by all on board.” All this was
nevertheless a mistake, due to the deceptive appearance of ice and
clouds.
In 1850 Captain Tapsell, in a sealer called the _Brisk_, sighted the
Balleny Islands and then sailed west to Long. 143° E., finding no land.
It is now known that the coast trends S.E. from Adélie Land, and could
not possibly have been sighted from Wilkes’s position. Wilkes reported
having sighted land or appearance of land 3000 feet high several times,
seen over the fast ice, and he was within a few miles of a coast beyond
Sabrina Land, which he called Knox Land. He then stood to the north and
reported land ahead trending north in 64°, which he called Termination
Land, but we now know that this does not exist.
Captain Wilkes’s theory has been proved to be quite correct--that there
is a continuous land forming a coast-line of 2000 miles and more,
and he certainly made out the distant land on several occasions, as
Balleny and Dumont D’Urville had done before him, but his subsequent
controversies are to be deplored.
CHAPTER L
FIRST ANTARCTIC VOYAGE OF SIR JAMES ROSS
The great Antarctic expedition commanded by Sir James Ross had magnetic
research and not geography for its immediate object. It originated
with Colonel Sabine, who read a paper on terrestrial magnetism at the
meeting of the British Association at Newcastle in August, 1838, which
led to a deputation being nominated to approach the Government. The
deficiency in our knowledge of terrestrial magnetism in the southern
hemisphere, it was considered, should be supplied by observations of
magnetic direction and intensity in high southern latitudes between
the meridians of New Holland[191] and Cape Horn, and Her Majesty’s
Government was urged to appoint a naval expedition expressly directed
to that object.
Lord Melbourne acceded to the request, and Sir James Ross received
his commission to command the expedition on the 8th April, 1839.
The _Erebus_, a bomb vessel of 370 tons, strongly built and with a
capacious hold, was selected for Sir James Ross, and the _Terror_, of
340 tons, a similar vessel which had been thoroughly repaired after her
disastrous voyage with Sir George Back, was chosen for Ross’s second in
command, Commander Crozier. The complement of each ship amounted to 64
persons.
The officers were not only thoroughly efficient; there were among them
men who were distinguished in their profession and whose record is
worthy of remembrance. Sir James Ross was by far the most experienced
Arctic officer then living. He had passed through no less than nine
Arctic winters and seventeen navigable seasons, was the most eminent
magnetic observer next to Sabine, an admirable collector, and an
unequalled navigator. Crozier was his old friend and messmate in the
Arctic regions, and was also a practised magnetic observer.
The first Lieutenants were worthy to serve under such men. Lieutenant
Bird of the _Erebus_, son of the Rev. Godfrey Bird, Rector of Little
Witham, was a distinguished Arctic officer, highly thought of by
Parry as well as by Ross. Knowing his work thoroughly he was steady,
reliable, and calm in moments of danger. As a midshipman he had seen
service at the blockade of Brest and the battle of Algiers. Archibald
M’Murdo of the _Terror_, grandson of Major M’Murdo, the friend of the
poet Burns, was an officer of more than ordinary ability, whose brother
Sir Herbert was equally distinguished as a soldier, and as the right
hand of Sir Charles Napier in Sind. Archibald served in the _Blonde_
with Sir Edmund Lyons in the operations against the Turks in the Morea,
and later in the _Alligator_ under Captain Lambert in the East Indies
and New Zealand. He was promoted in 1836 for his intrepidity and skill
in recovering a crew of wrecked whalers from the clutches of the
Maoris. He served in the disastrous voyage of the _Terror_ with Sir
George Back, who had a very high opinion of his capacity, and he was
first Lieutenant of that ship until ill health obliged him to return
home. He afterwards commanded the _Contest_ on the coast of Africa,
became a Rear-Admiral, and died in December, 1875.
Of the other Lieutenants John Sibbald was a steady, capable officer,
and Wood a good surveyor. Phillips of the _Terror_, a very active
enthusiastic officer, was a good seaman, and a man of ability and sound
sense. He afterwards showed those qualities in the Arctic regions under
Sir John Ross, when I knew him well.
Of the Mates, Oakley was a good observer and a useful young officer,
and Alexander Smith was well known to Sir James Ross, having served
under him in Davis Strait, on board the _Cove_. Moore was a young
officer endowed with no ordinary ability, energy, and tact. He
commanded the _Pagoda_ afterwards, when she was sent south to complete
some of Ross’s magnetic work. In command of the _Plover_ he made a boat
voyage to Cape Barrow; he became a Rear Admiral, Fellow of the Royal
Society, and Governor of the Falkland Islands 1855–62. He died in 1870.
Dr M^cCormick and Dr Robertson undertook the geology and zoology.
M^cCormick, enthusiastic, energetic, and tireless, had been
Assistant-Surgeon in the _Hecla_ with Sir Edward Parry. Afterwards he
commanded a boat to examine the western side of Wellington Channel in
1852 during the Franklin search. In his old age Dr M^cCormick published
an interesting narrative of his three polar voyages, and was quite
indefatigable in helping and advising us when we were fitting out for
the search expedition in 1850. Dr Robertson of the _Terror_ was equally
hard working, but not so excitable and sensitive. He was afterwards
Surgeon of the _Enterprise_ with Sir James Ross in the first Franklin
search expedition.
Of the Assistant-Surgeons, Sir Joseph Hooker, though then a very young
man, was already a skilled botanist. He was a most valuable member
of the expedition, and his future eminence had some of its roots
within the Antarctic circle. His colleague Dr Lyall of the _Terror_, a
zealous botanist, was a scientific student of rare ability and had a
distinguished career. He was afterwards naturalist of the _Acheron_,
New Zealand surveying ship from 1847 to 1852, then surgeon of the
_Pembroke_ during the Russian war, and afterwards of the _Plumper_,
surveying ship in the North Pacific. He was surgeon of the _Assistance_
in the Arctic expedition of 1852–54, and made a valuable collection of
plants in Wellington Channel. Dr Lyall, after a very useful career,
died as a Deputy Inspector, on the 25th February, 1895.
Mr Tucker, Master of the _Erebus_, was a very capable and efficient
officer, afterwards Staff Commander and a useful member of the Thames
Conservancy Board. Mr Cotter was Master of the _Terror_. Henry Yule,
the second Master of the _Erebus_, was a good surveyor and continued
his service in that capacity on the Home Survey. John Davis, second
Master of the _Terror_, was an officer of much ability, a good
surveyor, and an excellent artist. He had previously served under
Captain FitzRoy on board the _Beagle_ in Magellan’s Strait. He executed
the charts and drawings for Sir James Ross, for which he received the
special thanks of the Hydrographer. Afterwards he was employed as a
surveyor in the _Fox_ with Sir Allen Young in 1862, and Naval Assistant
to the Hydrographer from 1863 to 1876. His most interesting letter to
his sister in 1843 was printed in 1891. Retired as Staff Captain in
1876, he was the author, jointly with his son, of the Azimuth Tables.
Captain Davis died on the 30th January, 1877.
Mr Hallett, Purser of the _Erebus_, had previously been with Sir
James Ross in the _Cove_ in 1836. He afterwards served on the coast
of Africa, where he died. George Moubray, the clerk in charge
of the _Terror_, was thought so highly of that he received the
very responsible appointment of Naval Agent and Storekeeper at
Constantinople during the Crimean war, and was afterwards Storekeeper
at Malta for some time, retiring as a Paymaster-in-Chief with the
Greenwich pension. The gunner of the _Erebus_ must not be left out,
as he was a very exceptional character and had very wide Arctic
experience. Thomas Abernethy, born at Peterhead in 1802, was an
experienced seaman when he joined the _Fury_ in Parry’s third Arctic
expedition in 1824, and was very active and useful in all the work at
Fury Beach. He was with Parry again in 1827, and second mate of the
_Victory_ with the Rosses during the Boothian expedition 1829–33. When
the boatswain of the _Erebus_ fell overboard in a heavy sea on the
voyage out and was drowned, Abernethy and Oakley commanded the two
boats that were lowered for his rescue. Oakley’s boat was struck by a
sea which knocked four of the crew out of her. Abernethy, whose boat
was again alongside ready to be hoisted up, immediately pushed off
and succeeded in saving the crew of Oakley’s boat from their perilous
position. Abernethy was a splendid seaman. He served again with Sir
James Ross in the _Enterprise_, and finally with old Sir John Ross in
the _Felix_. He died at Peterhead on April 13th, 1860[192].
With this exceptionally distinguished staff and two well-equipped
and strongly built ships, Sir James Ross sailed from the Thames on
his great enterprise on the 30th September, 1839. After visiting and
exploring Kerguelen Island, the expedition arrived at Tasmania on
August 16th, 1840. Sir John Franklin was then Governor, and gave
every assistance in his power. The chief thing was the erection of an
observatory for synchronous observations. Sir John selected the site
and, with convict labour, the building, with its pillars carried down
to the bed rock, was erected in nine days. Sir John named it Rossbank.
Lieutenant Kay, R.N., was placed in charge, with two Mates named
Dayman and Scott as assistants. Kay, who was a Fellow of the Royal
Society, had served in the _Chanticleer_ with Captain Foster, and in
the _Rainbow_ with Sir John Franklin. The magnetic observations of
the expedition were under the immediate superintendence of Commander
Crozier, and were continued uninterruptedly every hour throughout the
day and night[193].
Sir James Ross heard of the voyages of Dumont D’Urville and Wilkes, and
received advice from the latter about the best places he had seen for
entering the ice. But Sir James had no intention of shaping a course
in their direction. Captain Balleny had been much further south than
either of them, having attained a latitude of 69° S., finding an open
sea. Sir James, therefore, resolved to proceed on Balleny’s meridian,
about 170° E.
On November 13th, 1840, the expedition sailed, Sir John Franklin
remaining on board the _Erebus_ until she reached the mouth of the
Derwent, when he returned in his tender. Sir James Ross touched at
Auckland Island and Campbell Island, and on January 1st the Antarctic
Circle was crossed, and the warm clothing supplied by the Admiralty was
served out. Passing a great many icebergs with a strong breeze from
the N.W., the main pack was reached on the 5th, and Sir James resolved
to put the bows of the two old sailing ships straight on to it and
force his way through. The pack is always closest and most difficult to
penetrate at the edge, and more open inside. After about an hour’s hard
bumping, and receiving several heavy blows, the outer edge was forced,
and the inside ice was found to be much lighter and more scattered than
it appeared to be when viewed from a distance. During the following
days the ships were bored through the pack, steering south for the
supposed position of the magnetic pole.
They had been six days in the pack when, on January 10th, in the middle
watch, Lieutenant Wood reported that land was distinctly visible right
ahead. It rose in lofty peaks, but was still very distant. They were in
71° 15′ S. Next day they were fairly close to the land, the northern
point of which was named Cape Adare. Soundings were obtained in 160
fathoms. The mountains, crowned with snowy peaks, attained a height of
from 7000 to 10,000 ft. They were named the Admiralty Range, and the
peaks were called after the then Lords of the Admiralty. The principal
peak, nearly 10,000 feet high, was, however, named after Sir Edward
Sabine, who was with Ross in two Arctic voyages.
Here the variation was 44° and the dip 86°, which according to Sir
James Ross’s calculation placed the magnetic pole in 76° S. and 1450
26′ E., or about 500 miles inland[194].
With some difficulty Ross, Crozier, and several officers landed on a
small island near the coast, covered with penguins, in 71° 56′ S. and
171° 7′ E., giving it the name of Possession Island. In very bad and
stormy weather a further range of lofty mountains came in sight whose
peaks were named after friends of the Royal Society and the British
Association, while an island received the name of Coulman, and its
northern point Cape Anne, the name of Sir James’s _fiancée_.
On the 27th January the ships were in sight of another island which was
named after Sir John Franklin. The two captains with several officers
went on shore in two boats. There was a heavy surf beating on the rocks
but Ross and a few others effected a landing. Hooker, however, fell
into the sea, and was nearly drowned before he could be hauled into the
boat, more dead than alive from the intense cold. His condition made
it necessary to return to the ship as soon as possible, Ross having
collected several specimens of rock. The island is in 76° 8′ S., and is
12 miles long by 6 broad.
On the same day the ships sighted a mountain 12,400 ft. high, emitting
flame and smoke in great profusion. Sir James Ross named it Mount
Erebus, and an extinct volcano to the eastward 10,900 ft. high, Mount
Terror. A small round island, which had been in sight all the morning,
was called Beaufort Island.
Ross and his officers were astonished at the sight of a mighty ice
cliff 100 feet high, with a uniform level summit, stretching away to
the eastward from the peninsula or island of the volcanoes. It was a
bitter disappointment, as they hoped to have gone much further south.
As the ships approached the volcanoes two capes were recognised and
named after Crozier and Bird, Sir James Ross taking the opportunity of
expressing his affectionate regard for his two old Arctic messmates,
who were giving him such invaluable help. The bay formed by the island
of volcanoes was called after M’Murdo, the first Lieutenant of the
_Terror_, “a compliment that his zeal and skill well merited.” The ice
cliffs were higher than the masthead, so that little could be seen, but
some peaks were made out, rising above the line of cliffs, and looking
more distant than they really were owing to the haze. These Ross named
the Parry mountains, after his revered old commander with whom he had
served in all but one of his Arctic voyages. The peaks were really
the tops of islands at the back of the volcanoes, but the mistake was
natural, indeed inevitable under the circumstances.
When within three or four miles of the great ice barrier, Sir James
Ross altered course to the eastward to ascertain its extent. Mount
Erebus was then emitting smoke and flames in great volume, affording
a grand spectacle. Good progress was made in sailing along the ice
barrier but no rent or fissure could be seen throughout its whole
extent. On the 29th, after sailing along the barrier for a hundred
miles, the ships being in 77° 47′ S., it was still seen stretching
away to the east. The soundings showed that the outer edge of the ice
was not resting on the ground. Bad weather came on with much snow, and
the barrier was only seen at intervals as they continued their course
to the east. Ross wrote of the barrier as a “mighty and wonderful
object, far beyond anything we could have thought of or conceived.” The
furthest south of the two ships was in 78° 5′ S.
[Illustration: Mt Erebus from the South]
On the 13th February Ross gave up any attempt to go further along the
barrier and resolved to steer for the magnetic pole and seek for a
harbour in which to winter. The course was set for Franklin Island.
On the 16th Mount Erebus was again sighted, and there was a splendid
view of the whole line of coast. A great number of whales of two kinds
were visible. Upon the cape ahead of the ships was conferred the name
of Professor Gauss of Göttingen “who has done more than any other
philosopher of the present day to advance the science of terrestrial
magnetism.” The range of mountains which Ross considered to be the seat
of the magnetic pole was called after Prince Albert.
The course was now northward along the coast. Two capes named after
Captain Washington, the Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society,
and Captain Johnson, R.N., were seen to enclose a bay which was called
after Lieutenant Wood of the _Erebus_[195]. On February 20th the breeze
freshened to a gale and next day they were off Cape Adare. Rounding
this, the northern coast was reached, the furthest point seen being
Cape North. The line of coast presented perpendicular ice cliffs, and
no landing was possible. The course was therefore set to the N.W., and
on the 2nd March land was seen ahead appearing like two islands, but
really peaks of one of the Balleny Islands. On the 6th April, 1841, the
_Erebus_ and _Terror_ arrived in the Derwent river, Tasmania.
CHAPTER LI
SECOND ANTARCTIC VOYAGE OF SIR JAMES ROSS
The _Erebus_ and _Terror_ were refitting at Hobart Town from April
to July, 1841, when they proceeded to Port Jackson. The chief object
of Captain Ross was to obtain a series of magnetic observations
for comparison with those made at Hobart Town. From Port Jackson
the expedition went to the Bay of Islands in New Zealand. During
these visits Dr Hooker had opportunities of making collections
and observations which are embodied in his great work, the _Flora
Antarctica_.
On November 23rd, 1841, the expedition sailed from New Zealand, and Sir
James Ross shaped a course for Chatham Island, chiefly for magnetic
purposes. After a short visit he steered south for the main pack and
pushed boldly into the ice on the 18th December. Christmas Day was
passed closely beset in the pack, near a chain of eleven icebergs, and
in a thick fog.
On New Year’s eve they were in the same place. This would be called an
impenetrable pack. But there is no such thing as an impenetrable pack
for men like Sir James Ross, and he had resolved to force the ships
through it. On the 9th January they were still at the same place as on
Christmas Day, with no apparent prospect of moving. But Sir James still
persevered. On the 20th it blew a gale of wind, and they were in the
midst of large masses of ice with a very heavy swell. No ordinary ship
would have stood the hammering from the masses of ice for half-an-hour.
The rudder of the _Terror_ was broken and rendered useless. When the
weather moderated it took a whole day to ship the spare rudder owing
to the gudgeons being bent. Both ships had been in imminent danger,
and for the first time Sir James Ross looked anxious and careworn.
They had been 40 days going a hundred miles. On the 20th February they
encountered a frightful gale, the spray dashing over the ships and
becoming ice as it touched the deck. Sir James would not turn back, and
on the 28th they reached a latitude of 78° 10′ S. The great ice barrier
was in sight; not so high as the part they had seen the previous year,
but more irregular.
The season was advanced and it became necessary to give up further
exploration and turn the ships’ heads in a northerly direction. On the
1st March a magnificent range of icebergs was in sight, extending in an
unbroken chain as far as the eye could discern from the masthead. On
the 4th a furious gale was encountered and on the 12th several bergs
were again seen during thick weather. There were constant squalls of
snow concealing the bergs from view. Suddenly a large berg was seen
ahead, and quite close. The _Erebus_ was hauled to the wind on the
port tack with the expectation of being able to weather it. At that
moment the _Terror_ came in sight running down upon her consort. It was
impossible for her to clear both the berg and the _Erebus_, so that
collision was inevitable. The _Erebus_ hove all aback to diminish the
violence of the shock, but the concussion was terrific nevertheless.
Bowsprit and fore-topmast were carried away and the ships, hanging
together, dashed against each other with fearful violence. The
_Terror’s_ anchor and cat-head were carried away, the yard-arms came
in contact at every roll, smashing the booms and boom irons. All this
time there was a heavy sea, and both ships were drifting on the berg.
The men behaved splendidly when ordered up to loose the main topsail.
Sir James resolved to brace the yards bye, and haul the main tack on
board, sharp aback, an expedient that had never before been resorted
to in such weather. It was three quarters of an hour before this could
be done. The ship gathered stern way, plunging her stern into the sea
and washing away the gig and quarter boats, while her lower yard arms
actually scraped the rugged face of the berg. In a few minutes the ship
reached the iceberg’s western end, the under-tow alone preventing her
from being dashed to pieces against it. No sooner had the ship cleared
it than another iceberg was seen astern, against which the ship was
running. The space between the bergs did not exceed three times the
breadth of the ship. The only chance was to pass between the bergs.
This was happily accomplished. She dashed through the narrow channel
between two perpendicular walls of ice, and the next moment she was
safe in smooth water under their lee. As Sir James said, “the necessity
of constant and energetic action to meet the momentarily varying
circumstances of our situation left us no time to reflect on our
imminent danger.”
Sir James Ross then shaped a direct course round Cape Horn to the
Falkland Islands before strong westerly gales, and on April 6th the two
ships sailed up Berkeley Sound and anchored in Port Louis. Commander
Crozier and Lieutenant Bird had been promoted, and Smith the Mate had
also received his Lieutenancy. Lieutenant M’Murdo was invalided, and
Lieutenant Sibbald took his place on board the _Terror_. On the 22nd
June the _Carysfort_, Captain Lord George Paulet, arrived, with a
large supply of provisions sent by Commodore Purvis, as well as a new
bowsprit.
The refitting of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ proceeded steadily, and
by the end of July both ships were in good order and ready for sea.
During the stay of the Antarctic Expedition at the Falkland Islands the
Governor, Captain Moody, supported by the opinion of Sir James Ross,
removed the settlement from Port Louis to Port William, Lieutenant
Sibbald was left at Port William to carry on a system of magnetic
observations upon such a plan as to secure a satisfactory record, while
the ships proceeded to Cape Horn for synchronous observations.
On the 8th September, 1842, the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ sailed from
Port William, and encountered very severe weather during their voyage
towards Cape Horn. But the day was fine when they sighted the famous
promontory on the 18th, passing it at a distance of a mile and a half
and anchoring off St Martin’s Cove in 55° 51′ 20″ S., 67° 32′ 10″ W.
An observatory was set up on Hermit Island. While the magnetic work
was proceeding, Dr Hooker made a specially interesting botanical
collection. On November 13th the expedition returned to the Falkland
Islands, meeting the _Philomel_, Captain Sulivan, who was engaged in
surveying the group. The Falkland Islands were left again on the 17th
December for a third visit to the Antarctic. All hands on board had
been diligently at work; careful magnetic, meteorological, and tidal
observations being taken wherever they were.
The first iceberg was met with on December 24th in 61° S., soon
afterwards the main pack came into view, and on the 28th land was
sighted which appeared to be the northern cape of Dumont d’Urville’s
Joinville Island. An examination of part of the South Shetland Islands
was then begun.
CHAPTER LII
THIRD ANTARCTIC VOYAGE OF SIR JAMES ROSS
Sir James Ross began his survey of part of the South Shetland Islands
when he reached the north-west coast of Joinville Island of Dumont
d’Urville. On December 28th, 1842, he sighted the conical islet to
which he gave the name of Etna, then passed an enormous glacier
descending from an elevation of 1200 feet into the ocean, where it
presented a vertical cliff 100 feet high. Near it, and evidently broken
away from its face, was the greatest aggregation of icebergs that
Sir James ever remembered to have seen collected together. Shaping
a southerly course, numerous rocky islets appeared amongst heavy
fragments of ice which completely concealed them until the ships were
quite close. They were named Danger Isles, and the southernmost islet
received the name of Charles Darwin. A great number of the largest
sized black whales were seen here, and Sir James thought that a
valuable whale fishery might be established in these localities.
A point of land supposed to be the southern point of Joinville Island,
but since found to be on a separate island, was given the name of
Commodore Purvis, commanding the _Alfred_ on the Brazilian station; a
remarkable peak was called Mount Percy after the Admiral at the Cape,
and an island off Cape Purvis after Lord George Paulet. There appeared
to be a passage between Joinville Island and Louis Philippe Land (the
northern end of Graham Land) into Bransfield Strait. The most striking
feature in these discoveries was considered to be Mount Haddington
(7050 ft.), named after the First Lord of the Admiralty. It is on
the large island to the south, since known as James Ross Island. The
great gulf between Graham Land and Joinville Island was called Erebus
and Terror Bay. A very small brown islet to the south, a quarter of
a mile across, with a crater-like peak of 760 ft. was given the name
of Admiral Sir George Cockburn. On January 6th, 1843, Captains Ross
and Crozier landed on this volcanic islet, and Dr Hooker, who was with
them, found that the flora consisted of nineteen species, all mosses,
lichens, and algae. Two out of the five mosses were new. Cockburn
Island is in 64° 12′ S. and 59° 49′ W. The inlet between James Ross
Island and Seymour and Snow Hill Islands--afterwards found to be a
channel--was named after the Admiralty; and what was thought to be a
promontory and called after Admiral Sir George Seymour, has since been
found to be an island (Seymour Island), rendered famous in after years
for its yield of fossils.
From Seymour Island a course was shaped to the S.S.W. on January 7th,
passing along Snow Hill Island. Upon the southern point of James Ross
Island the name of Captain Foster of the _Chanticleer_, Ross’s lamented
old Arctic messmate, was conferred.
On the 8th there was a dense fog, and icebergs with much loose ice
surrounded the ships, which were secured to the land ice until the
12th, when Sir James resolved to endeavour to trace this land ice to
the S.E. But the ships were quite enclosed, and it was accordingly
determined to force them through the pack, a long and arduous as well
as a hazardous struggle, for they were sustaining severe pressure. On
the 4th February however, in latitude 64° S., the vessels were clear
of the ice with which they had been battling for nearly six weeks.
The hope was that on reaching the meridian of 40°, where Weddell had
penetrated so far to the southward, Ross and Crozier would also find
the sea so clear as to admit of their reaching a high southern latitude.
On the 14th February Weddell’s track was crossed in 65° 13′ S., but
there was a dense pack. Dumont d’Urville found the same conditions and
not so far south. In the following days there were snow-falls, and a
heavy sea, yet on March 1st the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ once more crossed
the Circle and entered the Antarctic regions, accompanied by several
whales, a sooty albatross, blue and white petrels, and Cape pigeons.
On the 4th they passed the highest latitude attained by Bellingshausen
and crossed the 70th parallel. Next day they were in 71° 10′ S. and
ran into the pack for thirty miles, but the young ice was so strong
and the season so late that it became necessary to work out again,
after reaching 71° 30′ S. A gale sprang up with a heavy snow-fall,
the sea was running very high, and the thick weather caused continual
apprehension of collision with one of the numerous bergs. It was a
fearful night, and next day there was not the least mitigation of the
force of the gale. Sir James expressed his admiration at the seamanlike
manner in which Captain Crozier and the officers of the _Terror_ kept
their station in the face of such difficulties, and at the vigilance,
activity, and cool courage of Commander Bird.
The third Antarctic voyage of Sir James Ross was now drawing to a
close, and he resolved to shape his course for the Cape of Good Hope.
On the 4th April, 1843, the two ships anchored in Simon’s Bay, close to
the _Winchester_, flag-ship of Admiral Percy. There was not a single
individual in either ship on the sick list. Refitting, refreshing the
crew, and comparing instruments occupied the time until the end of
the month, and on April 30th the voyage home was commenced. The ships
arrived at Woolwich and were paid off in September, 1843.
In the conduct of these Antarctic voyages by Sir James Ross the first
thing that strikes one is his extraordinary skill in ice navigation,
his fearlessness and resolution. Very few captains would have
persevered, in the face of such imminent dangers, in the long struggle
with the pack for forty days; but Sir James was determined to examine
the further end of the great ice barrier, and nothing could stop
him. In the collision close to the icebergs, under circumstances of
appalling danger, this great commander showed a seamanlike skill, a
presence of mind, and a quickness of decision such as has never been
surpassed. These rare gifts and his unfailing nerve saved the ship.
His next great quality was his perseverance in conducting the magnetic
observations, his unceasing care in taking every opportunity to secure
advantageous positions for observing, and in obtaining accuracy. He
took the same care as regards meteorological observations, deep sea
soundings, and tidal observations[196]. He was most attentive in
promoting the welfare and health of his officers and men, and in all
his work he certainly was assisted by an exceptionally diligent and
accomplished staff.
Referring to the uninterrupted observations that were taken during the
course of the expedition he himself said “they will elucidate several
points of importance and interest in science, while they present others
for elucidation and afford a basis of comparison, should a sound mode
of prosecuting inquiry be adopted.”
Ross’s geographical discoveries were of the utmost importance and
interest. They threw a completely new light on the economy of the
southern continent, and pointed the way to future discoveries in the
far south[197].
At the request of Sir James Ross Admiral Percy, Commander in Chief on
the Cape Station, chartered a merchant vessel called the _Pagoda_ with
the object of taking a series of magnetic observations in the direction
of Enderby Land. The command was given to Mr Moore, who had served in
the _Terror_. He was accompanied by Captain Henry Clerk of the Royal
Artillery, a scientific officer, son of Sir George Clerk, Bart., M.P.,
of Penicuick, and by Dr Dickson, Assistant-Surgeon of the _Winchester_,
flag-ship at the Cape. The duty was satisfactorily performed during
1844–45, and an account of the voyage was afterwards written by Dr
Dickson in the _United Service Magazine_ for June and July 1850.
CHAPTER LIII
ANTARCTIC OCEANOGRAPHY
After the days of Sir James Ross various causes led to the development
of what was almost a new science, that of Oceanography. It included not
only measurement of depths, but also of the temperatures at different
depths, the study of _plankton_ or surface ocean life, and of life in
the depths. I remember what a revolution it caused in one’s ideas.
When I went to sea we were taught that there was enormous pressure
at great depths, sufficient to prevent the existence of life, for in
descending the sea water got heavier and heavier under pressure. It was
held that at 2000 fathoms a man would bear on his body a weight equal
to 20 locomotive engines each with a goods train loaded with pig iron.
The answer to this is that water is almost incompressible, so that the
density of sea water at 2000 fathoms is scarcely appreciably increased.
Facts send theories to the four winds.
Sir James Ross was himself much impressed with the importance of
deep sea sounding with serial temperatures, and he was the first to
adopt the method of sounding by time with weight and marked line, the
principal conditions to ensure accuracy being rapidity of descent
and regularity. The advance of the science depended on the invention
of improved apparatus and instruments until they were brought to
perfection.
The project of laying cables across the Atlantic gave the first impetus
to these improvements. Brooke’s[198] sounding-apparatus was on the
principle of disengaging weights. In 1856 the American Captain Derryman
took twenty-four deep sea soundings with Brooke’s apparatus on a great
circle from St John’s to Valentia. In July, 1857, Lieutenant Dayman on
board H.M.S. _Cyclops_ was ordered to carry a line of soundings from
Valentia to Trinity Bay, using an apparatus which was a modification
of that invented by Brooke. Thirty-four soundings were taken. They
were singularly uniform, 1700 to 2400 fathoms, and showed a light
brown muddy sediment, and minute hard particles, animal organisms
(_Foraminifera_) with skeletons composed of carbonate of lime. In the
autumn of 1858 Lieutenant Dayman, in H.M.S. _Gorgon_, took another line
of soundings from the S.E. angle of Newfoundland to Fayal, and from
Fayal to the Channel. In the following year, in H.M.S. _Firebrand_, he
took another series across the Bay of Biscay and along the coast of
Portugal to Malta. Later, Captain Shortland, in H.M.S. _Hydra_, took
deep sea soundings from Malta to Bombay.
Great energy continued to be shown, and in 1860 the _Bulldog_ was
commissioned by Sir Leopold M’Clintock, to take a line of soundings
from the Faroes by Greenland to Labrador. The sounding machine was
an adaptation of Ross’s deep-sea clam with Brooke’s principle of
disengaging weights. The _Bulldog_ brought up specimens from 600 to
2000 fathoms.
Hitherto oceanographic operations had been chiefly directed to the
practical purpose of preparing for the laying of cables on the bed
of the ocean, but the obtaining of specimens at great depths caused
science to step in. Dr Carpenter and Dr Wyville Thomson were anxious to
go into the whole question of the physical and biological conditions
of the sea bottom, and in the autumn of 1868 the Admiralty lent the
_Lightning_ gunboat, in which the two savants worked for two stormy
months between Scotland and the Faroes. They found that there was
abundance of animal life at the bottom of the sea, and that the
fauna was in many respects peculiar. The results were considered so
interesting that the Admiralty placed the _Porcupine_ gunboat at the
disposal of Dr Carpenter, Dr Wyville Thomson, and Mr Gwyn Jeffreys for
two successive seasons. They then succeeded in dredging to a depth of
2435 fathoms and found that even at that depth the invertebrates were
fairly represented. An invention to protect the thermometer bulbs from
being irregularly compressed under great pressure made the deep sea
temperature determinations fairly trustworthy. Dr Wyville Thomson
found that “public interest was now fairly aroused in the new field of
research.”
A circumnavigating expedition was then suggested to traverse the
great ocean basins, and prepare sections showing their physical
and biological conditions. Mr Lowe, who was then Chancellor of the
Exchequer, approved the plan, and the _Challenger_, a corvette of
2306 tons and 1234 h.-p., was selected for the service. All but two
of her guns were taken out and she was fitted out entirely for deep
sea sounding and dredging operations. The _Challenger_ sailed in
January, 1873, under the command of Captain Nares, with Dr Wyville
Thomson as head of the scientific staff. There were four Lieutenants,
Maclear, Aldrich, Bromley, and Bethell, and five scientific assistants
to Dr Wyville Thomson, Buchanan (Physicist) Moseley, John Murray,
Willemoes-Sühn, and Wild. The ship was fitted with all the latest
inventions that twenty years of study and experience had produced.
After having thrown much light on the depths and the fauna of tropical
oceans, the _Challenger_ approached the Antarctic regions early in
1873. She met with dense fogs in 65° 42′ S. on February 19th, but
Captain Nares continued a southward course and the vessel crossed
the Antarctic Circle in 78° 22′ E. She then followed the edge of the
pack for 150 miles eastward to within 15 miles of Wilkes’s supposed
Termination Land. The soundings gave depths of from 1250 to 1975
fathoms. Westward of 80° E. very few icebergs were met with, but
eastward of 92° E. they were very numerous. It was thought that there
was no land for a considerable distance between 70° and 80° E. The
depths showed that the continental shelf had not been reached on those
meridians. This particular region to the east of Kempe Land has not
since been visited and it offers a very interesting, and possibly a
successful route for future explorers.
The science of oceanography has progressed considerably since the days
of the _Challenger_; great improvements have been made in the varied
apparatus connected with it, and the work has become at once more easy
and more accurate. Steam power is indispensable, rendering reliable
deep sea soundings possible and ice navigation much easier.
Some years after the return of the _Challenger_, the Germans despatched
the _Valdivia_ on a deep sea sounding expedition. She left the Cape
in November, 1898, and reached the drift ice in 56° 45′ S. Further
progress was stopped in 64° 15′ S. and 54° 20′ E. A depth of 3000
fathoms was obtained, and specimens of gneiss, granite, and schist, as
well as a mass of red sandstone, were brought up, probably dropped by
icebergs. The ocean floor between Kerguelen Island and Enderby Land
was strongly folded, a depth of 1300 fathoms alternating with great
abysses of 2000 and 3000 fathoms. Many lines of soundings are still
needed from the known areas near the southern extremities of America,
Africa, Australia, and New Zealand to the southern continental shelves,
as well as along the edges of the shelves themselves. Great progress,
however, has been made in this respect within the last fifteen years,
large collections have been obtained, and the Antarctic ocean depths
have been sounded in several directions with important physical and
biological results.
CHAPTER LIV
REVIVAL OF ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION
After the return of Sir James Ross a quarter of a century elapsed and
the Antarctic regions remained neglected. While Sherard Osborn and I
were working for the despatch of an Arctic expedition, we were equally
resolved to use every effort for the revival of Antarctic research and
to see Sir James Ross’s splendid discoveries continued by a worthy
successor. From 1872 Osborn was collecting data for an Antarctic
expedition, but my accomplished and energetic old messmate died in
1875. Still I had others to help, Sir Vesey Hamilton, Sir Joseph
Hooker, who was always encouraging, and above all Captain Davis, who
served with distinction under Sir James Ross as surveyor and artist. On
February 26th, 1869, Captain Davis read a paper on antarctic discovery,
proposing Sabrina Land, discovered by Balleny, as a station for the
transit of Venus. He also presented the Geographical Society with a
large map of the Antarctic regions, showing the tracks of explorers.
Then on March 19th, 1870, Sir Vesey Hamilton read a critical paper on
a book purporting to be the voyages of an American, Captain Morrell,
showing that the statements were impossible, and the whole story
apocryphal and of no use to us for reference or in any other way. These
papers aroused some interest, and in September, 1885, the British
Association appointed an Antarctic Committee which in 1887 reported in
favour of further exploration.
Sir Graham Berry, the representative of the Colony of Victoria in
London, took a great interest in our efforts, and induced the colonial
authorities to promise a vote of £5000 if Her Majesty’s Government
would give another £5000. I saw Sir Graham on November 30th, 1887,
and arranged to have private representations made to the Ministers
concerned. But on January 3rd, 1888, Her Majesty’s Government refused
to join the Colony of Victoria in granting £5000, enclosing a
characteristic report from the Board of Trade to the effect that there
were no trade returns from the Antarctic regions. Then Oscar Dickson,
the munificent Swedish promoter of polar voyages, offered to give the
£5000 to the Victoria Government which our Government had refused, but
then the Colony drew back. During this time we were warmly supported by
Baron Müller of the Botanical Gardens at Melbourne, by Captain Pascoe,
R.N., and by other geographers in that colony. From Baron Müller
especially I received most enthusiastic letters, Sir Erasmus Ommanney
actively supported and raised the Antarctic question at the Berne
Congress, while Captain Davis continued to work steadily in the good
cause until his death.
In 1892 I heard from Captain David Gray that it was intended to send
three Scotch whalers to the south, in consequence of the numbers of
whales mentioned in the narrative of Sir James Ross. Accordingly the
_Active_, _Balaena_, and _Diana_ were despatched, but the result was
disappointing. They never even crossed the Antarctic Circle. The
_Active_, in South Shetland waters, found that what was supposed to be
Joinville Island really consisted of two islands, one much larger than
the other; the smaller one, which the _Active_ sailed round, was named
Dundee Island. That was all: the voyage was not pecuniarily successful
and was not repeated.
The Norwegian, Captain Larsen of the _Jason_, was much more
enterprising. He landed on Sir George Seymour’s Island in 1892, and
found several pieces of fossil wood and some fossil bivalves, a most
important discovery. His voyage was considered so promising in Norway
that in the following year he was sent again in the _Jason_ with two
other vessels in company, the _Hertha_ and _Castor_. On the 18th
November, 1893, Larsen again landed on Sir George Seymour’s Island to
make collections, and then proceeded down the east coast of Graham
Land, the best side for an advance south. In 65° 44′ S. he named a
lofty peak Mount Jason. He observed several deep fjords, and the ice
terraces resting on the slope of the mountains with their bases on
the sea bottom. They are similar to the ice-foot up Smith Sound, but
on a gigantic scale. On the 6th December Larsen had reached 68° 10′
S. and could have gone further, had he not remembered that his chief
business was sealing. On the 9th December he discovered an island
quite snow-covered, which he named Veiro. In 65° 20′ S. Robertson
Island was discovered, and two other islands--one of them the cone
of a volcano--were named Christensen (after the well-known builder
at Sandefjord who fitted out the _Jason_) and Lindenberg Sukkertop.
Captain Larsen went over the ice on ski to Christensen Island, and
from it he saw five volcanic islets which were named Oceana, Castor,
_Hertha_, Jason, and Larsen. Captain Eversen of the Hertha made his
way to the west side of Graham Land and sighted Adelaide Island, in
November, 1893. He went as far south as 69° 10′ S.
When Captain Larsen returned to Sandefjord he came to see me at
Laurvik on July 23rd, 1894, and presented me with some of the fossil
wood found on Sir George Seymour’s Island. Sir Archibald Geikie,
to whom I afterwards gave them, was inclined to think that it was
drift-wood, because it showed perforations. Larsen’s two voyages, in
their way so important, were certainly a great help to our efforts by
interesting geographers, and it was with no small degree of pleasure
that I presented Captain Larsen with one of the Geographical Society’s
awards--that bequeathed by Sir George Back.
When I was elected President of the Royal Geographical Society in 1893,
I resolved that no efforts should be spared to secure the despatch of a
properly equipped Antarctic expedition: the main object being to make
further discoveries in connection with the great Antarctic continent
which had received the name of Antarctica. No sooner was this known
than enterprises sprang up in all directions--Norwegian, Belgian,
Scottish, German, Swedish, and French. Without any concerted action,
except as regards the Germans, none of these touched Antarctica, but
roved as free lances, so that it will be quite convenient to deal with
them separately before treating of the preparations for the Antarctic
expedition of the Royal and Royal Geographical Societies.
CHAPTER LV
PRIVATE EXPEDITIONS--BORCHGREVINK--GERLACHE--NORDENSKIÖLD--BRUCE--
DRYGALSKI--CHARCOT--FILCHNER
BORCHGREVINK
It was in 1894 that Mr Svend Foyn, the great Norwegian shipowner, sent
a vessel southwards to determine whether the despatch of whaling ships
to Antarctic seas would be remunerative. She was commanded by Captain
Christensen, and he reached Cape Adare and Robertson Bay of Sir James
Ross. The voyage was not repeated, but there was a volunteer on board
named Carstens Borchgrevink who, in 1898, induced Sir George Newnes
to supply the funds for an expedition under his command. Borchgrevink
bought a Norwegian sealer named the _Pollux_, of 521 tons, built in
Arendal, Captain Jensen being master. Re-named the _Southern Cross_
she left Hobart 19th December, 1898, and arrived at Cape Adare 17th
February, 1899, and the landing party was put on shore in Robertson
Bay, with a house taken out in pieces. Here the party wintered, it
being arranged that the ship should return for them next summer.
Nothing of any importance was possible in the way of sledge travelling
from Robertson Bay. But there was a very able staff--Mr Colbeck,
R.N.R., the magnetic observer and surveyor, Mr Bernacchi the physicist,
Hanson (who died during the winter and was buried at Cape Adare) and
Hugh Evans the biologists. All the staff did their work admirably, and
the results were published by the authorities of the British Museum in
1902. When the ship returned she followed the track of Sir James Ross’s
ships. Borchgrevink landed on the barrier and then returned to New
Zealand.
DE GERLACHE
The Belgian Expedition was well supported by patriotic subscribers.
Captain de Gerlache was chosen to command it, and in February, 1896,
there were sufficient funds to enable him to buy a suitable ship in
Norway--the _Patria_ of 241 tons, built at Svelvig near Drammen in
1884. She was very thoroughly refitted and strengthened at Sandefjord,
and on June 19th I spent the day there and was very favourably
impressed by the efficiency and ability of the Belgian Commander
and above all by his modesty. Lieutenant Lecointe was his second in
command, Arçtowski went as geologist, Racovitza as naturalist, Danco as
magnetic observer, and Dr Cook, who had been with Peary in Whale Sound,
as surgeon. Roald Amundsen was 2nd Lieutenant. The _Patria_ was renamed
the _Belgica_.
The expedition of de Gerlache approached the South Shetlands at the
western end of the group by Smith and Low Islands to the Gulf of
Hughes, which is an expansion of the Orleans Channel discovered by
Dumont d’Urville. The _Belgica_ then proceeded down a channel with the
north-west coast of Graham Land on one side, and four large islands on
the other which de Gerlache named Liège, Brabant, Gand, and Anvers. The
channel, which was named after de Gerlache, led into the Pacific Ocean.
The scenery on both sides was magnificent.
Captain de Gerlache gave as many opportunities of landing as possible,
and M. Arçtowski, the geologist, was specially eager to examine the
rocks and the glaciation. At his first landing he found eruptive rocks
of great density, of a deep green colour. He next landed on Trinity or
Palmer Island. The rocks were erratic, from a moraine, and consisted
of granite, and also of numerous ancient eruptive rocks. The latitude
was 63° 57′ S. The landings of Arçtowski and his messmates were, in
fact, very numerous as the _Belgica_ steamed down Gerlache Channel,
with interesting glacial and geological results; the officers meanwhile
making surveys of the coast. Arçtowski thought that the channel and the
islands were once covered with a vast glacier. He found some evidence
that the glaciers were now receding.
On leaving the channel the _Belgica_ ran south along the western coast
of Graham Land, passing many flat-topped icebergs. The Circle was
crossed and the Antarctic regions entered on the 14th February, 1898.
De Gerlache tried to approach the Alexander Island of Bellingshausen,
but was stopped by the pack. It was, however, sighted. The coast beyond
seemed to turn to the east. The Alexander Island glaciers were found
not to reach the sea, coalescing in a gigantic ice-foot or terrace.
De Gerlache then left the coast of Graham Land and the _Belgica_ was
steered westward into the Pacific on February 24th, being in 69° 30′ S.
Working through the closely-packed ice the ship had reached a latitude
of 71° 31′ S. on the 20th March, in longitude 85° 16′ W. The young ice
was forming fast, and it became evident that they would have to winter
in the pack. During that dreary winter the ship drifted from 85° to
90° W., the Peter Island of Bellingshausen being in 92°. As summer
approached it was necessary to cut a canal to the open water, but at
length the _Belgica_ was clear of the ice on March 14th, 1899.
Over the area that the vessel drifted during the winter the depth
averaged about 270 fathoms. This was a continental shelf, showing that
the land was at no great distance to the south. At the edge of the
shelf to the north there was an abrupt descent to 800 fathoms.
This discovery of the edge of the continental shelf in the Pacific
Ocean is important, combined with the discoveries of Bellingshausen.
But all the work done by this expedition was well done and has
increased our knowledge of the geology and glaciation of Graham Land.
Captain de Gerlache conducted the expedition with ability and success.
He has since done very useful Arctic work in the same ship, with the
Duc d’Orléans. M. Arçtowski’s excellent paper on the exploration of
Antarctic lands during the voyage of the _Belgica_ was included in the
Royal Geographical Society’s _Antarctic Manual_[199].
NORDENSKIÖLD
The Swedish expedition, which was equipped at Gothenburg in 1901, was
intended to investigate the geology of the south-west part of the South
Shetlands, where fossils were first made known by Captain Larsen, and
to complete and rectify the topography. The command was given to Dr
Otto Nordenskiöld, an eminent Swedish geologist with Arctic experience,
and a nephew of Baron Nordenskiöld. With him was associated another
distinguished geologist, Gunnar Andersson, who was to join after the
first year. The ship, named the _Antarctic_, was commanded by Anton
Larsen, who as already stated had done splendid work on the east coast
of Graham Land. With him was Lieutenant Duse of the Norwegian army as
cartographer, and Lieutenant Sobral of the Argentine Navy joined at
Buenos Aires as magnetic and meteorological observer.
Leaving Gothenburg in October, 1901, the _Antarctic_, after putting
into Falmouth, reached the Falkland Islands on the 1st January,
1902. Proceeding to the South Shetland Islands it was decided that
Nordenskiöld should winter as near the fossil-bearing island of Sir
George Seymour as possible. A sheltered position was selected on
the neighbouring Snow Hill Island, where the house was set up and
provisions, instruments, and other necessaries landed. The party
consisted of Nordenskiöld, Ekelof the surgeon, the Argentine Lieutenant
Sobral, a very useful person named Bodman, and two seamen. May and June
were months of storm, but the rest of the winter was safely passed, and
in October Nordenskiöld, who had obtained some dogs at the Falkland
Islands, started on an expedition to the south. He was just a month
away, but did not get as far south as the Antarctic Circle. Later in
November he made two journeys to Seymour Island to collect fossils,
with very important results.
The _Antarctic_ returned to the Falkland Islands, whither Dr Gunnar
Andersson had arrived. Taking him on board, Captain Larsen spent
some time in exploring South Georgia, and then proceeded to Tierra
del Fuego, entering the Beagle Channel. The needs of the _Antarctic_
were supplied at the Argentine settlement of Ushuaia while Andersson
explored the interior. The course was then south, passing Deception
and Trinity Islands, and surveying the Orleans Channel. The ultimate
destination was Nordenskiöld’s winter quarters, to take all on board
and return. But Dr Andersson wanted to undertake some exploring, and
was landed at Hope Bay, at the extreme north-west end of Graham Land,
in order to reach Nordenskiöld by land. His companions were Lieutenant
Duse and a seaman. Insuperable obstacles intervened to prevent the
completion of their journey, and they returned to Hope Bay, where
they built a stone hut. The abundance of penguins and seals prevented
any danger from starvation or scurvy, and Dr Andersson found that the
locality was rich in fossils.
The _Antarctic_ had left in order to embark the party with
Nordenskiöld, but she was beset off Joinville Island, drifted away, and
underwent great pressure in the pack. This continued, her ribs were
broken and she began to sink, but there was fortunately time to get
all the boats out and fill them with provisions and stores before the
ship foundered off Paulet Island. The shipwrecked crew pulled to the
shore and Captain Larsen established winter quarters and built a stone
house. In the spring Dr Andersson and his party succeeded in reaching
Nordenskiöld’s winter quarters, and a little later Captain Larsen
manned a boat and went to Hope Bay only to find Andersson and his
comrades gone. He then went on to Nordenskiöld’s winter quarters, where
he found both parties all well.
When the Nordenskiöld expedition did not return after the first
winter, grave anxiety was felt. The Argentine Government ordered
their naval attaché in London, a young officer named Julio Irizar,
to obtain all the necessary equipment, and then to proceed to Buenos
Aires and take command of a relief ship. He came to me for advice,
and the able Antarctic Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society,
Mr Cyril Longhurst, gave him all possible assistance with regard to
equipment. After visiting Norway for furs and other gear, he sailed
for Buenos Aires and took command of the _Uruguay_ relief ship. On the
8th November, 1903, he arrived off Snow Hill Island, and took all the
Swedes on board with their valuable collections. Thence proceeding to
Paulet Island he ultimately found the shipwrecked crew, and all were
taken safely home. Captain Irizar conducted his relief expedition with
remarkable skill and ability from start to finish.
The geographical results of the Nordenskiöld expedition were the
surveys which completed our knowledge of the intricate topography
of the south-western part of the South Shetlands, correcting former
work of Ross and d’Urville, and discovering much that was new. The
geological results were of great importance, for they point to the
connection of Graham Land with South America at a recent geological
period. Graham Land and most of the islands belong to the region of
folding and of Andine eruptives. The rocks are plutonic and, according
to Nordenskiöld, belong or are closely related to a peculiar type of
eruptives characteristic of the American cordilleras throughout their
length. Ross Island and Vega Island are volcanic, composed of basalt
and lava flows. Paulet Island also contains cones of eruption.
In the fossils of Hope Bay, Dr Andersson discovered a very rich
Jurassic flora, consisting of conifers, mare’s tails, and ferns in
profusion. In abundance of species Hope Bay far surpasses all Jurassic
floras hitherto known in South America. They are fresh-water deposits.
The Seymour and Snow Hill formations are Cretaceous. There are many
ammonites, cephalopods, bivalves, and trunks of fossil wood in the
sandstone; there are also birds, and a mammal belonging to the Tertiary
period. On Cockburn Island there was a curious conglomerate of pecten
shells, formed on basaltic tuff in Pliocene times.
In Jurassic times the land must have been covered with rich vegetation
in a mild and uniform climate. At Hope Bay the fresh-water lake flora
has close affinity with the contemporaneous floras of India and
Europe. After the Cretaceous surface was lifted above the sea level,
mountain ranges were formed. The South Shetland Islands were once a
clearly-marked mountain range parallel to that of Graham Land, and the
Gerlache channel was a longitudinal valley.
During the Miocene period there were violent eruptions causing a great
accumulation of volcanic tuff. The fauna of this period was closely
allied to the Miocene fauna of Patagonia. On Seymour Island five new
genera of fossil penguins and the large cetacean, _Zeuglodon_, were
found in the Tertiary beds; also the impressions of large and very
distinct leaves of an Araucaria, a beech tree, and ferns.
Patagonia was connected by land with Graham Land, and spread out to a
great width. At that time the warm coast current from Brazil would have
flowed down to the coasts of Antarctica, causing that region to be much
warmer than it is now. These geological facts give rise to alluring and
not altogether impossible conjectures.
The results of the Nordenskiöld expedition were of great value, serving
to connect, as they do, the Andes with the Antarctic mountain range
of Graham Land, and perhaps with a continuous range further south.
The expedition was without comparison the most important of all the
private enterprises which have undertaken discoveries in the far south
in recent years, except of course the great expeditions of Captain
Scott[200].
BRUCE
The expedition under Mr Bruce was for a very short time south of the
Antarctic circle, most of its two years and a half duration being
devoted to scientific investigations in two islands of the South
Orkneys.
Mr Bruce was a natural history student. In that capacity, in 1893,
he made a voyage to the south in one of the whalers, the _Balaena_,
Captain Robertson. From 1894–96 he was at the meteorological station on
the summit of Ben Nevis, and in 1896–97 he served under Jackson during
his last winter in Franz Josef Land. Having received a promise of
support from Mr James and Major Andrew Coats, wealthy manufacturers at
Paisley, he went to Norway and bought an old vessel of 400 tons called
the _Hecla_, which required much repair. Captain Robertson was master
of the ship, which was renamed the Scotia, and there was a scientific
staff. The main object appears to have been deep sea sounding. The
Scotia sailed on the 2nd November 1902, and in the first year she
crossed the Antarctic Circle, went south as far as 70° 25′, and then
returned to winter at the South Orkneys.
The two islands of the South Orkneys, called Laurie and Coronation,
were discovered by a sealing captain named Powell in the _Dove_ in
1821. They had been visited by Weddell, who named them, by Dumont
d’Urville in 1838, and by Larsen in 1893. Bruce and his staff took
meteorological, magnetic, and tidal observations, and made biological
and geological researches and collections. Silurian fossils were found,
and some evidence was obtained to show that the Patagonian coast once
extended to these islands and beyond them.
In the second season the _Scotia_ crossed the Antarctic Circle in 32°
W. on February 27th, 1904, finding a depth of 2630 fathoms. The ship
was now in King George’s Sea of Weddell. Icebergs of immense size were
met with, far too large to have come off the mountain slopes. They
pointed to a vast glacial formation analogous to Ross’s ice barrier.
On the 3rd March, when in 72° 18′ S. and 17° 59′ W. with a depth of
1131 fathoms, a line of ice cliffs 100 to 180 feet high was sighted,
but could not be approached nearer than two miles. These cliffs were
probably resting on land which is a continuation of the coast of
Antarctica from Enderby Land. The line of cliffs was traced for 150
miles, and a sounding on the continental shelf gave 159 fathoms. Mr
Bruce named the ice cliffs Coats Land. On the 9th March, the _Scotia_
was in 74° 1′ S. and 22° W. and on the 14th she was headed north. The
soundings obtained were from 2000 to 2600 fathoms. On the 27th the
Antarctic Circle was again crossed, the _Scotia_ having been 28 days
south of it. After a second winter at the South Orkneys the expedition
returned.
DRYGALSKI
German scientific students had long taken a great interest in Antarctic
research, and Dr Neumeyer, a native of Frankenthal near Worms, did more
than anyone else out of England to arouse an interest in the subject.
He had been in charge of the observatory at Melbourne from 1858 to
1862, and afterwards became chief of the Seewarte at Hamburg. When the
German Antarctic expedition was decided upon and funds were raised, it
was wisely resolved to build a vessel specially for the service, to be
named the _Gauss_ after the great magnetician of Göttingen. She was
built at Kiel of the best dry oak and pitch pine. Her gross tonnage
was 650, her length 165 ft., breadth 37 ft., depth 22 ft., speed when
laden 5 knots. She could carry 600 tons of coal, and was well adapted
for Antarctic work.
Professor Neumeyer was of opinion that, to secure adequate results,
the command should be given to a naval officer. But eventually Dr Erik
von Drygalski was selected, a physicist who had studied glacial action
in Greenland and was the author of a work on the subject[201]. An
accomplished scientific staff accompanied him, and Captain Hans Ruser
was Captain of the ship and navigator.
The _Gauss_ left Kerguelen Island on the 31st January, 1902, entering
the ice in February, and working for the Termination Land of Wilkes,
which was not found. Land was sighted, but the _Gauss_ wintered in the
pack outside the Antarctic Circle in 66° 13′ S. All the scientific
staff were diligently at work, and valuable series of meteorological
and magnetic observations were taken by Dr Friedrich Bidlingmaier
of Potsdam. The other members of the scientific staff were Dr Ernst
Van Hoffen, Dr Hans Gazert, and Dr Emil Philippi. In the summer a
travelling party reached the land, distant about 50 miles. A conical
mountain consisting of volcanic rock was discovered and named
Gaussberg, and collections were made. A line of ice cliffs was seen,
extending from 89° to 94° E., which was named König Wilhelm II Land.
The place where the _Gauss_ wintered was over a comparatively shallow
bank, within the continental shelf. The ship was freed on February 8th,
1903, and reached Cape Town on June 9th.
It is to be regretted that Dr Drygalski did not go south on a meridian
nearer to Kempe Land, when it is probable that he would have been
more successful from a geographical point of view. Antarctic work was
given up by the Germans, and the _Gauss_ was sold to the Canadian
Government[202].
CHARCOT
Dr Charcot, son of the celebrated physician, an energetic and gifted
Frenchman, endowed with a peculiar charm of manner, undertook to
continue the work on the coast of Graham Land. He sailed for the south
in a little vessel called the _Français_ in 1903 and passed a winter at
Wandel Island, afterwards cruising for some distance along the coast
of Graham Land. Returning to France he resolved to construct and equip
a small steamer specially for Antarctic work. She was built at St Malo
in 1908 and named the _Pourquoi Pas_ (450 h.-p., length 131 ft., beam
30 ft.), and Charcot sailed in her from Havre August 15th, 1908. From
Punta Arenas he sailed south, and examined the coasts of Adelaide
Island of Biscoe, landing on one of a group of small islets on the
15th January, 1909. The winter was passed at Petermann Island. In the
summer of 1909–1910 he followed the edge of the pack as far as 125° W.,
sighting Bellingshausen’s Peter Island on January 16th, 1910. He had
previously sighted the Alexander I Land of Bellingshausen on board the
_Français_ at a distance of 60 miles, on January 11th-13th, 1905. After
again sighting it, he shaped a course into the South Pacific, when
south of 70°, calling a distant appearance of land Charcot Land after
his father. He returned to Rouen June 5th, 1910.
These two voyages comprise a useful piece of polar work. Dr Charcot has
won the admiration of all who know him, and all true Britons feel a
regard for the gallant Frenchman when they remember his _camaraderie_
and affection for Captain Scott.
FILCHNER
In 1911 Filchner, an officer in the Prussian army, came forward to
raise funds for an Antarctic expedition, announcing that there was much
talk of theories, but that he was going to cut the Gordian knot by
going to see. Having raised the necessary funds, Filchner’s plan was to
explore the Weddell Quadrant to its apex. He bought a Norwegian whaler
built at Arendal and named the _Njord_, and took with him a scientific
staff, Dr Koenig of Vienna being the naturalist, and Dr Heinrich
Seelheim the geographer. The master of the ship was Captain Jorgensen.
The expedition left Hamburg in May, 1911, with all the equipment for
long inland journeys, including three motors.
Filchner went the right way to work. There was no impenetrable
pack for him. He put the ship’s stem straight at it, somewhere near
Weddell’s furthest, and forced her through. After battling with the
pack over 120 miles the ship came out into open water, and land was
sighted in 76° 35′ extending to 79°. There was an ice barrier to
the westward. Unfortunately the ship was carried away to the north
before she could be properly secured, and she drifted about in the
ice-cumbered sea during the winter. The new land was named after the
late venerable Regent of Bavaria. Captain Jorgensen died before the
ship returned to Buenos Aires.
CHAPTER LVI
PREPARATIONS FOR THE SOCIETIES’ ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION
In May 1893 I was elected President of the Royal Geographical Society,
and resolved that an Antarctic expedition should be despatched,
preferably by Government, as the encouragement of maritime enterprise,
especially in a school so favourable to the acquisition of valuable
experience as the polar regions, has always been my special aim. I
found that Dr Murray of the _Challenger_ agreed with me that the
expedition should be under naval control, and he consented to open the
campaign by reading a paper at a meeting of the Royal Geographical
Society on November 27th, 1893.
It was a great meeting, reminiscent of the splendid opening of the
Arctic campaign by Sherard Osborn, and Sir John Murray’s address was
eloquent and convincing. Apart from the main object, the duties of an
expedition, as outlined by Dr Murray, would be:--
1. To determine the nature and extent of the Antarctic Continent.
2. To penetrate into the interior.
3. To ascertain the depth and nature of the ice-cap.
4. To observe the character of the underlying rocks and their
fossils.
5. To obtain as complete a series as possible of magnetic and
meteorological observations.
6. To observe the depths and temperatures of the ocean.
7. To take pendulum observations.
8. To sound, trawl, and dredge.
He added that observations such as the above were especially desirable
“for the more definite determination of the distribution of the land
and water of our planet, for the solution of many problems concerning
the ice age, for the better determination of the internal constitution
and superficial form of the earth, and for a more complete knowledge of
the laws which govern the motions of the atmosphere and hydrosphere.”
The approval of the great meeting was unanimous Sir Joseph Hooker, the
Duke of Argyll, and other eminent men of science and naval officers
expressing themselves strongly in favour of the project. A dash to the
Pole was not advocated, but rather a steady, continuous, and systematic
exploration of the antarctic region.
Our efforts to induce the Government to undertake an expedition failed,
and need not be dwelt upon here. The Admiralty, however, offered to
lend instruments, and later, thanks to the exertions of Admiral Sir
Anthony Hoskins, there was liberality in giving leave, on full pay, to
officers and men.
Articles in magazines had to be published, lectures to be delivered,
circulars to be sent out, and the desperately uphill work of raising
funds for a private expedition undertaken. In December, 1895, I
proposed that the expedition should be undertaken by the Royal
Geographical Society. There was some opposition and delay, but at
length, on April 12th, 1897, the R.G.S. Council agreed to subscribe
and raise funds. As the Royal Society is the scientific adviser of
the Government, that eminent body was asked to unite with the Royal
Geographical Society, and its President and Council consented on
February 24th, 1898. The Council of the Geographical Society consented
to a grant of £5000 for the expedition, on June 20th of that year.
By that time I had collected only £14,000 when on March 24th, 1899, Mr
Longstaff asked me if £25,000 would enable the expedition to start.
I assured him that it would, on a small scale, and he at once sent a
cheque. This was an example of princely munificence which entitles
its generous donor to take rank with the merchant adventurers of the
days of Elizabeth. For similar patriotic munificence Sir Felix Booth
received a baronetcy; Oscar Dickson received a barony. Longstaff
received the admiration and gratitude of his countrymen, and a very
honourable niche in polar history. On June 22nd, 1899, the First Lord
of the Treasury promised a grant, and the Treasury afterwards announced
that this would amount to £40,000 on condition that an equal sum was
raised privately. We then had only £37,000, but the R.G.S. Council at
once granted an additional £3000 to make up the required sum.
I considered it necessary, as did Sir William White, that a wooden ship
should be specially built for the service. In consultation with Captain
Creak, R.N., C.B., Superintendent of compasses at the Admiralty, I
found that he also thought it necessary from the point of view of
magnetic observations. Sir William White advised me to secure the
services of Mr W. C. Smith, C.B., of the Controller’s Department at the
Admiralty, to prepare the designs and specifications. Mr Smith very
kindly undertook the duty, with the permission of Admiral Sir Arthur
Wilson, the Controller. A Ship Committee was appointed on April 10th,
1899, meeting first on the 26th[203].
It was decided that the ship should be of wood, and that the lines
of the old _Discovery_ of the 1876 expedition should be followed as
closely as possible. It was then considered whether the new ship should
have a midship section, like the _Fram_, of a peg-top character to
facilitate her rising to ice pressure, but as there is not the same
likelihood of severe nips in the south, it was thought better to have
an ordinary section, with a view to the probability of heavy weather
conditions. A complement of 43 souls was to be arranged for, with
accommodation equal in all respects to a man-of-war of the same size,
and there was to be stowage for two years’ provisions and 335 tons of
coal. The ship was to be of 400 I.H.P. and fitted with a two-bladed
lifting screw. Mr Smith adopted a special plan for shipping and
unshipping the rudder.
That the ship should be absolutely free from magnetic qualities was
impossible, owing to the engine and boilers. But in order that there
should be as little as possible, steel and iron were excluded from a
space having a radius of 30 feet from where the magnetic observatory
was placed.
Instead of the usual square stern, a round form of stern was adopted,
which gave better protection to the rudder and screw and was much more
satisfactory in heavy seas. It gave the helmsman nearly dry quarters.
The length of the ship on the water line was finally fixed at 179
ft., the breadth 34 ft., the depth amidships 18 ft. She was to be
barque-rigged and of 735 gross and 483 registered tonnage. The framing
throughout was of oak, the keel of elm. The boats were a sailing cutter
(which was not taken south), four 26-foot whalers, and two Norwegian
prams.
The Dundee Shipbuilders Company undertook her construction for £34,050
and £10,322 for the engines, and on March 16th, 1900, the keel was
laid. On March 21st, 1901, Lady Markham launched the ship at Dundee,
and gave her the name of the _Discovery_. She left Dundee on the 3rd
June, was in the East India Docks for 55 days loading, and on August
1st she arrived at Stokes Bay[204].
I had selected the fittest commander in my own mind in 1887, when I
was on board the _Active_ in the West Indies, the guest of my cousin
Commodore Markham, then in command of the training squadron, the other
ships being the _Rover_, _Volage_, and _Calypso_. When we were at St
Kitts, March 1st, 1887, the lieutenants got up a service cutter race.
The boats were to be at anchor with awnings spread. They were to get
under way and make sail, beat up to windward for a mile, round a buoy,
down mast and sail, pull down to the starting point, anchor and spread
awning again. The race tried several qualities. For a long time it was
a close thing between two midshipmen, Robert Falcon Scott and Hyde
Parker. However, Scott won the race and on the 5th he dined with us. He
was then 18, and I was much struck by his intelligence, information,
and the charm of his manner. My experience taught me that it would be
years before an expedition would be ready, and I believed that Scott
was the destined man to command it. At Vigo we were thrown together
again, when my young friend was torpedo lieutenant of the _Empress of
India_, and I was more than ever impressed by his evident vocation
for such a command. When the time came for the selection I consulted
Captain (now Admiral Sir George) Egerton, an Arctic officer with a wide
knowledge of men and much experience in the service. He sent me several
names, but Scott’s was first, and he had excellent testimonials. As a
torpedo lieutenant he had gone through a special course of training
in surveying, and he wrote the whole section on mining survey in the
_Torpedo Manual_, and suggested all the instruments to be used. He had
a thorough knowledge of the principles of surveying and of surveying
instruments, as well as of electricity and magnetism. Seven of the
ships in which he had served were masted, and frequently under sail.
Scott was now just the right age for a leader of a polar expedition,
and admirably adapted for such a responsible post from every point
of view. He was recommended very strongly by Captain Egerton, by
his Admiral, and also by the First Lord and the First Sea Lord of
the Admiralty. Yet there was long and tedious opposition from Joint
Committees, Special Committees, Sub-Committees and all the complicated
apparatus which our junction with the Royal Society involved, harder to
force a way through than the most impenetrable of ice-packs. But we got
through and I had the pleasure of signing Scott’s appointment on the
9th June, 1900. On the 30th he was promoted to the rank of Commander,
the numerous committees were gradually got rid of, and Scott took
command.
Albert Armitage, a _Worcester_ boy and a very efficient P. and O.
officer, who had served throughout Jackson’s expedition and was with
Jackson on his long sledge journey round Alexandra Land, was selected
by me as Navigator and in charge of magnetic observations at sea, and
was approved by Captain Scott.
Some years before, on June 14th, 1892, I was in a river steamer going
down to Greenhithe to see the boat-race between the _Conway_ and
_Worcester_ cadets. I saw on board a young _Conway_ cadet who bore a
remarkable resemblance to Wyatt Rawson, the gallant Arctic officer in
the expedition of 1875–76. The boy, Charles Royds, was his nephew, and
I found that he was most anxious to get into the navy. He succeeded in
July, 1892. His career was meritorious and he won golden opinions from
his captains. He was the first to volunteer, and no better man could
be found as First Lieutenant. He also took charge of the meteorology.
He was a good musician, both vocal and instrumental, a thorough seaman,
and a good all round man. Scott wrote of him that he was a first-rate
worker, an excellent officer, popular with the men, and the right man
in the right place as First Lieutenant.
Michael Barne was Scott’s special choice. The younger son of Colonel
and Lady Constance Barne of Sotterley in Suffolk, and great-grandson of
Admiral Sir George Seymour, he was born in 1877. He was always ready to
help any one, full of good humour, the most unselfish of mortals, and
entirely to be trusted in any position of responsibility. He had charge
of all the deep sea apparatus and performed the duty right well.
The Engineer Lieutenant, Reginald Skelton, was an officer of great
ability. In addition to his very arduous work in the engine room, he
had charge of the dark room, stored all the negatives of interest,
assisted with the pendulum observations, and, with Dr Wilson, did all
the bird-skinning.
No more Lieutenants could be obtained from the Admiralty, so Captain
Scott had to turn elsewhere and accepted Ernest Shackleton as the
junior executive. He had been in the merchant service since 1890, and
was very energetic and zealous. I got him made a Sub-Lieutenant in the
Naval Reserve.
Dr Koettlitz, the surgeon, had served in Jackson’s expedition., Dr
Edward Wilson, of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, also surgeon,
was the vertebrate zoologist. He had quite the keenest intellect of any
one on board, and possessed great artistic talent, with a marvellous
capacity for work. The special scientific staff consisted of Mr
Hodgson, the invertebrate zoologist, Curator of the Plymouth Museum;
Mr Ferrar, a very able young geologist, a graduate of Sidney Sussex
College, Cambridge; and Mr Bernacchi the physicist, who had previously
been in the _Southern Cross_ Antarctic expedition.
The Admiralty was liberal as regards volunteers, allowing 22 petty
officers, able seamen, and stokers to join, and two marines, all
excellent men. Indeed the whole ship’s company exclusive of the
officers was naval except Clark, the cook’s mate and laboratory
attendant, and Weller, who was in charge of the dogs.
A colossal amount of work and responsibility fell upon the shoulders of
Captain Scott. Fortunately we had, in the person of Mr Cyril Longhurst,
an admirable hard working and conscientious secretary, though he was
then very young. Close attention was given to the supply of provisions,
as one of the most important considerations. The food for the sledge
travellers was mainly pemmican. It used to be made at Clarence Yard
of the very best quality, but the art was lost. Scott had to fall
back upon the very inferior article made at Chicago, and a better
kind manufactured by Beauvais at Copenhagen. He himself visited the
Beauvais factory, and ultimately took 500 lb. of American and 1500 lb.
of Beauvais’ pemmican. Extreme care was taken in the examination of
the preserved meats, soups, vegetables, and fruits. Dr Collingridge,
medical officer for the city of London, appointed Mr Spadaccini for
this duty, and 10,250 lb. in 1542 packages of other provisions were
accepted, and 231 lb. rejected. But Captain Scott was deeply impressed
with the urgency of supplying fresh meat to his people whenever it was
possible.
Our dockyards had also lost the tradition of the clothing, sledge
equipments, and sledges, which had been brought almost to perfection
as supplied to the Franklin search expeditions. Scott had to turn to
Norway for these things, and he was a good deal guided by Armitage,
whose experience was the most recent, though he saw to the matter
himself in Norway. The peltry, reindeer sleeping-bags, 4 bales of
Lapland grass, and 70 pairs of ski (7 ft. h in.) were supplied from
this source, as well as nine 9 ft. sledges of Nansen’s pattern with
broad ski runners, five of 7½ ft., and five iron shod and fastened to
be used for work in winter quarters[205].
Scott thought that it might be useful to have a captive balloon,
whence to reconnoitre and obtain more extensive views, and the idea
was strongly supported by Sir Joseph Hooker. Accordingly the necessary
gear was provided, and an officer and two men went to Aldershot for
instruction. The balloon was of the army pattern, and the gas was
taken in sixty heavy tubes which were stowed on deck. There were also
dynamos, for electric lighting. When the steam-driven dynamos were not
at work, an iron-sailed windmill could be fitted, driving the dynamo at
its base and thus supplying the accumulators with electric current.
Most of the instruments were lent by the Admiralty--astronomical,
magnetic, meteorological, pendulum, and seismograph, as well as
sounding gear with all the newest inventions, and dredging nets.
Baron Richthofen suggested to me that there should be synchronous
observations at as many other observatories as possible. Captain Creak
fully concurred and, in concert with him, I wrote to the observatories
at Kew, Falmouth, Potsdam, Bombay, Mauritius, Melbourne, and Christ
Church (N.Z.), also making arrangements with the Argentine Government
for Staten Island, and for observations at Kerguelen Island, and with
the _Gauss_. The object was to obtain a series of synoptic charts
which would allow of the variations in the magnetic conditions of
the whole earth being traced in detail during a definite period,
and so provide the necessary basis from which alone the fundamental
principles of terrestrial magnetism can be more closely approached. The
observing stations to take part in this international co-operation were
distributed over the globe with a uniformity never before attained.
The observations were of two classes: (1) of the three elements at
intervals of an hour on certain terminal days, so as to obtain a
comprehensive view of the diurnal variations of terrestrial magnetism,
(2) of the three elements during one specified hour on each term day,
to trace the course of individual disturbances. The _Discovery_, the
_Gauss_, and all the observatories were supplied with identical forms
for term days and term hours; declination, horizontal force, vertical
force. The magnetic observations were the most carefully planned and
completely thought out of all the branches of scientific work carried
on by the expedition.
There was a complete supply of meteorological instruments under the
able management of Lieutenant Royds, a most careful and accurate
observer and recorder, and the observations were two-hourly, taken by
the officers of the watch. Special instruments were taken out for use
on shore including spirit thermometers graduated as low as -90° Fahr.,
and a Dines pressure anemometer. A photographic spectrometer was to be
used for observing the auroras.
The most important question to be decided was the direction the
expedition should take. To consider it with care and understanding
we divided the regions within the Antarctic Circle into four
quadrants--the Victoria Quadrant from 90° E. to 180°, the Ross Quadrant
from 180° E. to 90° W., the Weddell Quadrant from 90° W. to 0°, and
the Enderby Quadrant from 0° to 90° E. We knew from Captain Cook’s
conclusion, and he was always right, that there was an extensive
continent round the south pole, and that the coast line came furthest
north to the south of Australia and the Cape, and receded furthest
south in the King George IV Sea of Weddell and the Pacific. The
correctness of Captain Cook’s view as regards the northern extension
was proved by the discoveries of Balleny, Biscoe, and Kempe and
confirmed, as regards Balleny’s discoveries, by Dumont d’Urville and
Wilkes. Apparently, in most parts of this coast, access would be
impossible owing to the lofty ice cliffs. Moreover, merely sighting ice
cliffs at a distance is of no use. The great discoveries of Sir James
Ross offered far better opportunities of landing. I felt that the chief
point should be the finding of the _land_ of Antarctica, not the ice
cap which conceals everything. The land would be found on coasts facing
east, the east coast of Victoria Land, and east coast of Graham Land;
the ice cliffs occur mainly on northern and western-facing coasts.
The main object of the expedition, then, would be to explore this
Antarctic continent by land, to ascertain its physical features, and
above all to discover the character of its rocks, and to find fossils
throwing light on its geological history. We therefore decided that the
_Discovery_ should follow in the wake of Sir James Ross, and winter on
the Victorian coast. I was anxious that everything else should be left
to the discretion of Captain Scott.
The instructions were drafted in January 1901. The first paragraph
stated the objects to be discovery and exploration. Importance was also
attached to a magnetic survey and to meteorological, oceanographic,
geological, biological, and physical investigations and researches.
After paragraphs dealing with the relations with a chief of the
scientific staff--who, perhaps fortunately, did not go out, for
there could have been no fitter chief of the scientific staff than
Scott himself--particular attention was called to the discovery of
new coast lines, of the depth and nature of the ice cap, of the
nature of the mountain ranges, and of the underlying fossiliferous
rocks. Co-operation with the German expedition was enjoined whenever
possible. Attention was drawn to the region to the east of the Great
Barrier, which was entirely unknown, and an effort was to be made to
discover land in the Ross Quadrant. Equal importance was attached to
an examination of the Barrier, of the volcanic region, and to journeys
to the west and south. Discretion to winter with the ship was left
to Captain Scott. All mention of the south pole as an objective was
carefully avoided.
I planned an Antarctic Manual on the lines of the Arctic Manuals
prepared for the expedition of 1875–76, securing the services of Mr
G. Murray as editor. It proved very useful, the first part containing
instructions and information by leading men of science, and the second
part being the narratives of Biscoe, Balleny, Dumont d’Urville, and
Wilkes, with papers on polar travelling by Sir Leopold M’Clintock and
on the exploration of Antarctic lands by Arçtowski.
In July 1901 the great work of fitting out the expedition was fast
approaching completion. The Geographical Club gave the officers a
farewell dinner at Greenwich on the 3rd. There were many toasts, and
Captain Scott did a very graceful thing in proposing the health of
our Secretary, Mr Longhurst, “with whom,” he said, “he had worked so
pleasantly for nearly a year, and whose services had been so valuable
to the expedition.” On the 16th the Bishop of London visited the
_Discovery_, held service and delivered a very impressive address to
officers and men[206]. He presented the books for divine service, and
a prayer which he had written for daily use.
On August 5th, 1901, when the _Discovery_ was at Cowes, the King and
Queen went on board, and his Majesty made a charming speech to the men.
Then the good ship started on her mission. No finer set of men ever
left these shores, nor were men ever led by a finer captain.
CHAPTER LVII
THE SOCIETIES’ ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION
_First Year._
Lyttelton, New Zealand, was selected for the head-quarters of the
expedition in the southern hemisphere. It was a long voyage thither and
there was natural anxiety respecting the behaviour of the new ship. As
time went on, however, Captain Scott became more and more satisfied
with her seaworthy qualities. She proved wonderfully stiff and, as her
sail area was small, it was rarely necessary to shorten sail, even in
the most violent gales. She was wonderfully free of water on the upper
deck, and the peculiar rounded shape of her stern gave additional
buoyancy to the after part and caused her to rise more quickly to the
seas. One day, driving before a very heavy gale, the ship made 223
knots in the 24 hours.
In 51° S. and 131° E. a very interesting magnetic area was reached,
where there appeared to be a curious inconsistency in the distribution
of magnetic force to the north of the magnetic pole. Captain Scott,
therefore, resolved to proceed south for some distance to explore this
area more effectively. On November 15th the 60th parallel was crossed,
and next day the first ice was seen. Soon loose pack ice was all round
the ship. They were within 200 miles of Adélie Land in 62° 50′ S.
when the ship’s head was reluctantly turned again to the north. The
soundings at the furthest south were 1750, then 2300 and 2500 fathoms.
Scott noticed and was much interested in the abundance and variety of
bird life, most of the birds being familiar to those who have rounded
the Horn. On the 22nd Macquarie Island was reached, and the first
penguin rookery was visited. On the 30th November they arrived at
Lyttelton and the ship was docked.
After a thorough refit, the receipt of more and supplementary
provisions, and the enjoyment of much genuine hospitality, the
_Discovery_ was again ready for sea on the 21st December. Besides the
dogs, there were 45 sheep on deck. A short service of farewell was held
by the Bishop of Christchurch on the mess deck, and the voyage was
continued.
The first iceberg was sighted in 65° 30′ S. on the 2nd January, 1902,
and by evening as many as seventeen could be counted. On the 3rd the
Antarctic Circle was crossed. Soundings were taken in 2040 fathoms.
Soon afterwards the pack was entered, and they forced their way through
grinding floes, taking advantage of every favourable lead when the ice
loosened. Seals and penguins were plentiful on the pack, and very tame,
for the only dangers they knew were in the sea. On the 8th a strong
water sky was reported, and soon they were in a clear open sea, after
only five days in the pack. There was a well-defined edge to the pack,
which indicated the presence of southerly winds at this season. There
must have been heavier obstruction than was met with by Sir James Ross,
for he got through, in bluff-bowed sailing ships, in four days. Far
to the south the high mountain peaks of Victoria Land were visible.
Scott anchored in Robertson Bay, which is formed by the long peninsula
of Cape Adare, but next day the anchor was weighed and the southward
course continued.
It is very difficult to write an abstract of this voyage, for the
perils of ice navigation, the lovely scenery in fine weather, and the
gallant struggles against the ice helped by gales of wind and tides,
are so delightfully described by Captain Scott that condensation seems
impossible. A visit to the land, south of Cape Washington, satisfied
Scott that there were possible winter quarters in a bay which he named
Granite Harbour from the huge granite boulders on the beach. By 8 a.m.
on January 21st the _Discovery_ was in the middle of M’Murdo Sound,
with fine views of the lofty mountains and of Mounts Erebus and Terror.
A landing was effected on the north side of Cape Crozier, and Scott,
with Dr Wilson and Royds, climbed to a height of 1350 ft., whence they
obtained a glorious view of Ross’s great ice barrier. For the first
time this extraordinary formation was seen from above.
[Illustration: Adélie Penguins]
[Illustration: Emperor Penguin with chick]
Captain Scott then proceeded to make a closer examination and
survey, with soundings, of the barrier ice-cliffs. Sir James Ross, with
sailing ships and with bad weather, was unable to do this thoroughly.
The work was done with great care, the height of the cliffs, which
attained 280 ft. in the highest part, was measured at intervals,
photographs were taken, and frequent soundings, the depth varying from
350 to 400 fathoms. It was found that their course throughout had been
south of the position of the barrier in Ross’s time, and that they had
sailed continuously over sea which in his day had been covered with
a solid ice sheet. On January 29th they were eastward of the extreme
position reached by Sir James in 1842. Passing a deep bay in the
barrier Scott pushed still further to the eastward; and on the 30th
new land was sighted. Soundings varied from 88 to 265 fathoms. Most of
the surrounding icebergs were aground, young ice was formed, and Scott
resolved to shape a westward course on February 1st. The coast-line was
now clearly seen for many miles, with sharp peaks rising to 2000 and
3000 feet, the bare rock appearing in a few places. The new discovery
was a country of considerable altitude and extent, and of great
importance as fixing the limit of the great ice barrier.
Captain Scott then steered for the inlet he had seen when standing to
the east, and found that the ice cliffs were only 20 feet high, and in
one place not higher than the ship’s bulwarks. Here he anchored and
made fast. There were great numbers of seals on the sea-ice. Armitage
and Bernacchi, with a light sledge equipment, marched up the ice valley
to the south.
On February 4th preparations were commenced for a balloon ascent, in
one of the army captive balloons for lifting a single observer. Scott
himself ascended to 800 feet, from which height the nature of the
barrier surface could be well seen as a series of long undulations
running east and west, each wave occupying a space of two or three
miles. Shackleton made the next ascent with a camera, and took some
photographs, and in the evening Armitage returned, after having crossed
and examined several of the undulations. At this place a quantity of
seal meat was obtained.
The _Discovery_ was then taken under sail along the barrier cliffs
and was in M’Murdo Sound again on February 8th, where an excellent
position for winter quarters was selected, with a view to a good
starting-point for travelling parties. On one side was Mount Erebus
and the lower hills ending in an abrupt point--Cape Armitage--on the
other the lofty mountains of the Victoria range. The ship was to be the
home, and the large hut was erected on shore, with two small huts for
magnetic instruments, consisting of a wooden framework covered with
sheets of asbestos. The kennels for the dogs were arranged on the hill
side, below the huts. The selected place was at the southern extreme of
a long tongue of land jutting out from the slopes of Mount Erebus. The
hills on it formed a semicircle, the hut being on its western extreme
which was called Hut Point. Behind, the hills rose to 500 ft., and to
the north was a fine mass called Castle Rock.
There were ski races and football, and also limited sledge journeys,
which discovered that the land of the volcanoes was, as Ross suspected,
an island; that there were three small volcanic islets further south
(named Black, Brown, and White), that the ice barrier came up to the
foot of the mountains, and that the great Victoria range extended far
to the south.
A journey was planned to Cape Crozier to be led by the Captain himself,
but an accident to his knee while on ski prevented him from going, and
Royds took command, with Skelton, Koettlitz, Barne, and eight men,
divided into two teams, and each assisted by four dogs. Experience in
sledge travelling was of course wholly wanting and had to be acquired.
They started on March 4th.
Eight (Wild, Weller, Heald, Plumley, Quartley, Evans, Hare, and Vince)
were sent back on the 9th under Lieut. Barne. On the 11th they left
their tent and walked onward, thinking they were close to the ship. A
blizzard came on and they found themselves on a steep slope, could see
nothing, but tried to keep close together. Suddenly Hare disappeared,
then Evans went. Barne and Quartley left the rest to search for Evans.
Then they suddenly found themselves on the edge of a precipice. Vince
shot past Wild, and went over the edge. With the greatest difficulty
Wild, Weller, Heald, and Plumley climbed back, reached some rocks, and
ultimately groped their way to the ship.
Armitage was at once despatched with a relief party and a sledge laden
with warm clothing and medical comforts, and fortunately not in vain.
They came upon Lieut. Barne with two men, and learnt that when Barne
left the rest in search of Evans, he found himself flying down an icy
slope at a furious pace until he was stopped by soft snow. Within a few
feet of him was Evans, then Quartley came hurtling down. The soft snow
saved all three, for they were on the brink of the precipice over which
poor Vince had been hurled.
All hope of finding young Hare, a lad of 18 who had been shipped at
Lyttelton, had been given up. But on March 13th, a solitary figure
was seen staggering towards the ship. It was Hare, exhausted and
famished, but free from frost bites. He had been buried in the snow for
thirty-six hours without food. His preservation was little short of
miraculous. Of Vince’s fate, however, there could be no doubt, though
his body was never found. He was a fine young seaman, very popular,
always obliging and cheerful. A cross, firmly fixed, was erected to his
memory. Royds and his companions returned some days afterwards.
The explorers now entered upon a very severe Antarctic winter in 77°
52′ S. All the scientific observers were soon steadily at work, and
occupations were found for officers and men alike. Every Tuesday, after
dinner, there was a debate in the ward-room on a given subject. The
_South Polar Times_ came out periodically, edited by Shackleton, and
most beautifully illustrated by Dr Wilson. Some of the men, as well as
officers, contributed. The men acted the drama of the “Ticket-of-Leave
Man” in the large hut, with Barne as stage manager.
Captain Scott, throughout the winter, was diligently studying the
problems connected with sledge travelling. In many respects Arctic
sledging conditions differ from those of the Antarctic regions. The
cold in the spring and summer is very much more severe in the south,
where the thermometer often falls below -60° Fahr. On the other hand
the southern traveller escapes the misery of water on the floes, which
renders travelling in an Arctic summer so very arduous. Another
striking difference is that while the Arctic traveller usually travels
over sea ice, often hindered by ranges of hummocks, the Antarctic
explorer does most of his work over land ice. The land ice is the most
formidable, not only from the deep furrows ploughed by the wind, but
also from the dangerous chasms and crevasses. Scott was impressed with
the necessity of attention to the minutest details in studying the art
of Antarctic sledge travelling.
The sledges were built at Christiania. Their great fault was in being
too narrow, causing them to capsize more readily, it being necessary
to pile the load much higher. They had five pairs of uprights and
cross bars. The width of the sledges was only 17 inches, the runners
3¾ inches wide; two sledges were 12 ft. long, six 11 ft., and three 7
ft.[207] The best width of runner-surface depends on the nature of the
snow, and can only be decided after sufficient experience. The Danes
have an excellent plan of attaching a ski-runner of walrus-hide in
dealing with soft snow.
Scott conceived the idea, having to deal with fewer men, of dividing
the sledging crews into units of three, each unit having its own tent
and equipment complete. The great advantage of this plan is that,
when advisable, a party can be split up into threes, or three can
be detached from it. Each article was, therefore, designed for the
requirements of three men. The tents were bell-shaped and made of the
lightest green Willesden canvas, spread on five bamboo poles 7 ft.
long and united at the top. They were thus 5 ft. 6 in. high, and 6 ft.
in diameter on the floor, with a skirting edge on which to pile snow;
their weight with the floor cloth was 30 lb. Scott considered the
sleeping bags of the greatest importance. They were made on board of
reindeer skin, some for one man, but most of them to contain three men,
which is a great advantage as regards weight. The fur was inside, and
there was a flap to be drawn over the occupants and made fast. Their
weight was 40 lb. Seven of M’Clintock’s sleeping bags only weighed 42
lb. but there was also a wolf or buffalo robe weighing 40 lb.
Scott’s arrangements for diet while travelling were adopted after
careful study and much thought. Experts place our ordinary food under
three headings--the nitrogenous food supplied by meats, the fats, and
the carbohydrates or farinaceous foods. Supposing all to be water-free,
the allowance he adopted was 29 ounces per man, 25 being the allowance
in the army on war footing. For polar travelling a much larger
allowance is necessary. Water cannot be entirely excluded, though it
is a dead and useless addition to the weights. Ordinary cooked meat
contains 54 per cent. of moisture. This moisture in food was reduced to
a minimum, yet it increased the 29 ounces of actual food to about 35
ounces[208]. Our ration in the Arctic Regions was 42 ounces per man per
day. We could not do without 1 lb. of pemmican, and we also included
lime-juice ½ ounce, tobacco ½ ounce, and 3¾ ounces (¾ of a gill) of
rum. Fanaticism has deprived Antarctic travellers of the latter most
comforting and useful part of the ration. On the whole the pemmican
allowance might well have been increased, by omitting plasmon and
cheese.
The manufacture of the best pemmican is a lost art. Scott obtained
most of his from Beauvais of Copenhagen. It contained 20 per cent. of
water, but that I sent out in the _Morning_ made by the Bovril Company
was better. But the substantial dish with the _Discovery_ travelling
parties was a mixture of pemmican, bacon, and other ingredients,
forming a thick soup which they called “hoosh.”
Scott adopted the cooking apparatus invented and used by Nansen, made
of aluminium for lightness. It takes as long to reduce ice to a liquid
state at very low temperatures as it does to boil the water, so that
double the quantity of fuel is needed. Boiling water was made from
snow in twelve minutes. The “Primus” lamp of Nansen’s pattern was also
adopted. Paraffin oil was used for fuel. Each tin contained a gallon,
weighed 10 lb., and was the allowance for three men for ten days.
The constant weights for two sledges were 568½ lb. and 630 lb. could
be devoted to provisions, a total of 1200 lb., _i.e._ about 200 lb. per
man at starting. Our constant weights in the Arctic regions were 440
lb., provisions 840 lb., making a total of 1280 lb.
Ski were given a fair trial, but all were novices, and it was found
that a party on foot invariably beat a party on ski.
For clothing, furs were eschewed, thick cloth was used, and over
all a suit of thin and loose gaberdine, consisting of a blouse and
breeches, fitting closely, however, about the neck, wrists, and ankles.
“Balaclava” helmets were the head-gear, with special protection for
the ears and back of the neck. In summer, when the glare was great,
broad-brimmed felt hats were preferred. For the hands, fur or felt
mitts were worn over long woollen half-mitts. For the feet finneskos
were used. These are Lapp reindeer-fur boots, the soles being of the
hard skin of reindeer legs. Two pairs of socks were worn and the boots
were stuffed with fine hay before they were put on. There were three
kinds of goggles in use, one wire gauze with smoked glass, another a
piece of leather with a slit in place of the glass, the third made out
of a piece of wood with cross slits cut for the eyes. The latter, used
also by the Eskimos, were the best, but attacks of snow blindness could
not be altogether prevented.
Scott adopted a quite different kind of hauling gear from any hitherto
used. Instead of working from the shoulder, a broad band of webbing was
worn round the waist with braces for supports. The two ends of the band
were fastened by an iron ring to which a rope was attached, secured to
the trace. The men were thus upright when pulling, and Scott believed
that the weight was thus distributed evenly over the upper part of
the body, which made the pulling easier, and gave greater freedom for
breathing.
With regard to the use of dogs there were two ways of treating them.
There was the idea of bringing them all back safe and well, which was
M’Clintock’s way, and there was the way of getting the greatest amount
of work possible out of them, regardless of everything else, and using
them as food, which was Nansen’s and Peary’s way. If dogs are treated
with humanity, they are in the writer’s opinion not so good as men
in a long journey, and Scott had an unconquerable aversion to the
employment of them in the second way. The dogs, twenty in number, had
been obtained from Siberia, but five were lost in various ways before
the travelling season arrived.
[Illustration: Chasm separating Ice and Land in Lat. 82° S.]
Having thus settled every part of the equipment down to the minutest
detail Scott then proceeded to plan the work for the coming season. He
himself was to lead the journey to the south: Armitage was to attempt
the main ridge of mountains, provided with ice axes, crampons, and
ropes. Several shorter journeys were to precede them. Royds and Skelton
made their way to Cape Crozier to see to the record post, as a signal
to a relief ship, and returned on October 24th, having discovered the
breeding-place of the Emperor penguins. On the 30th the supporting
party, under Lieut. Barne, left for Depôt A, where Scott had already
established provisions.
On November 2nd the southern party started under the command of Captain
Scott, with Dr Wilson, Sub-Lieut. Shackleton, R.N.R., and the dogs.
Barne was caught up just as he was rounding White Island. Odometers
had been manufactured on board, the wheel being attached to the
sterns of the sledges, so that a rough dead-reckoning could be kept,
provided that the route was straight and the course observed and known.
Stockfish had been brought for the diet of the dogs, and though it had
been taken by the advice of an experienced authority on dog-driving
it soon became apparent that it was having a permanently bad effect
on them. The food must have deteriorated on the passage through the
tropics. Advances could only be made by relays, going over 15 miles to
make 5 miles good.
On November 25th the latitude was 80° S. On December 2nd they were
passing a magnificent range of mountains running S.E. and N.W., with
peaks 10,000 feet above the sea, and long rounded snow capes merging
into the barrier. A deep chasm cut them off from any nearer approach to
the land. For 31 days they had been at the wearisome relay work, as it
was impossible to drag the whole load, but at length a suitable place
for a depôt was found, called Depôt B. Throughout the journey Dr Wilson
was indefatigable, spending two or three hours at the end of each
fatiguing day, sitting at the door of the tent, sketching the splendid
mountainous coast to the west. Scott wrote:--
The beauty of the scene before us is much enhanced when the sun
circles low to the south, we then get the most delicate blue
shadows, and purest tones of pink and violet on the hill slopes.
There is rarely any intensity of shade--the charm lies in the
subtlety and delicacy of the colouring and in the clear softness of
the distant outline.
Their furthest point was reached in 82° 17′ S. December 30, 1902. The
views of the land were here extremely interesting. The cliffs rose
to a height of 1800 feet, ending in the snow expanse which rose into
ridges and peaks. In colour the cliffs were a rich deep red, further
on nearly black. The most distant peak to the south, far beyond the
83rd parallel, was christened Mount Longstaff. To the S.W. “there was
a splendid twin-peaked mountain which, even in such a lofty country,
seemed as a giant among pigmies.” Captain Scott named it Mount Markham.
One more unsuccessful attempt was made to reach the land, but it was
impossible owing to an intervening chasm.
On the return journey the few surviving dogs were useless, and the men
had to drag the sledge, deriving occasional help from the sail. On
the 14th January, Shackleton broke down altogether. The only hope was
to keep him on his legs, doing nothing, for the other two could not
possibly have dragged him all the way on the sledge. On the 15th the
two last of the dog team died, but on the 28th the depôt was reached
and they again had plenty of food. Shackleton struggled along on ski,
in a deplorable state, Scott and Wilson dragging the sledge, and on
the 30th they put Shackleton on it and dragged him also. Next day he
managed to walk again; his two gallant companions being nearly worn
out. The ship was finally reached on February 3rd, 1903. In 94 days
they had gone over 800 miles, or counting relays 960 miles. The return
with their disabled comrade was nothing less than heroic.
The western party started on December 2nd, Armitage and Skelton with
ten men forming the extended party; Koettlitz, Ferrar, and Dellbridge
(Assistant Engineer) with six others the limited party. Armitage’s
plan was to attempt the ascent of the mountains near a vast pile of
moraine material which he had seen on a reconnoitring journey. The
party ascended a steep snow-slope which divides two masses of bare
rocky foot-hills, and rises to a plateau separating them from the
higher mountains beyond. Armitage reached an elevation of 5000 ft., and
obtained a view of a glacier, afterwards called the Ferrar Glacier,
winding inland between high rocky cliffs. Here the supporting party
returned, while Armitage and Skelton with the rest of the extended
party continued to ascend the steep snow slopes, most arduous and
toilsome work. At 6000 ft. they were stopped by an outcrop of rock, and
Armitage then resolved to attempt the descent into the Ferrar Glacier,
a fall of 1800 feet. In this his party succeeded. On December 18th they
commenced the ascent of the glacier, and by January 1st, 1903, were
7500 feet above the sea. One of the men broke down and was left in a
tent with half the party, while Armitage pushed on with the rest until
his elevation was over 8900 feet. In returning Armitage fell down a
crevasse, and was saved with great difficulty. They returned to the
ship on the 19th, after having discovered a practicable route to the
interior. It was a piece of excellent pioneer work.
Many shorter but useful sledge journeys were made by Koettlitz, Ferrar,
Hodgson, and Bernacchi which threw much light on the volcanic region,
where the numerous craters show the result of a very remarkable
volcanic outburst. Thus Koettlitz proved the insularity of Black
Island, examined the northern side of Minna Bluff, and ascended to the
summit of Brown Island, 2750 ft. in height.
As the summer advanced the anxious work of freeing the boats, which
had sunk deep in the snow, was undertaken; equally laborious work was
entailed in getting the ship ready for sea, and well-founded hopes were
entertained that a relief ship would arrive.
CHAPTER LVIII
THE SOCIETIES’ ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION
The _Morning_
The dreadful disaster to the Franklin Expedition was entirely due
to the absence both of a relief ship and a depôt ship; and the
necessity of providing one has ever since been recognised. We had
promised Captain Scott that such a ship should be provided to take out
provisions and letters, bring back any invalids, and afford relief
and the means of return if anything had happened to the _Discovery_.
Captain Scott had furnished full information respecting places where
records would be found, and other directions for finding his ship.
There was no time to be lost. I first carefully considered what ships
suitable for arctic work were available in Scotland, but the only one
was the _Terra Nova_ and her price was beyond our means. This ship was
built in 1884 and had been employed in Newfoundland; she would have
suited admirably had sufficient funds been forthcoming. I therefore
turned to Norway in August, 1900, where I had an excellent adviser and
friend in Captain Bonnevie of Laurvik, who had been surveyor for the
Veritas, the Norwegian Lloyds, since 1874, a good seaman who had had
immense experience. There were a dozen ships. Of these four were too
small, though strongly built, others had dry rot. The only one that
would suit was the _Morgen_, but her price was £6000, and I then had no
money in hand.
[Illustration: The _Morning_]
It became necessary to raise funds and bring down the price of the
_Morgen_. The Council of the Royal Geographical Society subscribed
nothing, but the Royal Society generously sent me £500. With his usual
munificence Mr Longstaff subscribed £5000, and later Sir Edgar Speyer
gave another £5000. With these exceptions very rich people refused to
help. But hundreds of our countrymen with small means sympathized and
sent all they could afford. Money came from officers in South Africa
and on the Gold Coast, in the Sudan and Uganda, from a Gurkha regiment
at Chitral, from 24 Admirals and Captains, from several men-of-war, and
a large and most generous subscription from the acting Sub-Lieutenants
at Greenwich. One schoolboy, who was saving up his money to buy a
bicycle, sent 5_s._, a real act of sympathy and self-sacrifice. Mr
Cyril Longhurst was untiring and indefatigable in seconding my efforts.
I also appealed to the Government, as there were 32 naval officers and
men on board the _Discovery_, who ought not to be abandoned to their
fate. The reply was that the Government denied any responsibility and
expressed surprise at being asked. On the other hand the New Zealand
Government granted £1000. From Norwich, due to the exertions of Mr and
Mrs Colman, nearly £200 was received. The Duke of Westminster kindly
gave the use of Grosvenor House for a concert, which yielded £483.
On February 14th the Prince of Wales sent for me to enquire about my
progress and subscribed £50, while His Majesty the King gave £100. By
July 2nd, 1902, the receipts amounted to £22,000.
I then went to Norway again and met Captain Bonnevie at Tönsberg to
inspect the _Morgen_. Mr William Colbeck, R.N.R., then Chief Officer
of the _Montebello_ (Wilson line) accompanied me, as I had decided
upon offering him the command, and ultimately I succeeded in getting
the price of the vessel reduced to £3,880. The _Morgen_ was built
specially for strength by Mr Svend Foyn of Tönsberg. The engines were
old-fashioned but strong, the boilers strong and serviceable. I bought
the vessel on October 23rd, 1901, and became the managing owner, and on
the 30th she was delivered over to Bonnevie as our agent. Her length
was 140 ft., breadth 31 ft., depth 16½ ft., tonnage 452. I had her
painted black, with a white ribbon like the dear old _Assistance_,
with _Morning_ on her stern in white. On arrival in England she was
handed over to Messrs Green of Blackwall for considerable repairs and
alterations, which were effected under the superintendence of Lieut.
Colbeck.
William Colbeck, born at Hull in 1871, was educated at Hull grammar
school, and went through a six months’ course of navigation before
going to sea as an apprentice, at the age of 15. He passed for first
Mate in July 1892, and got a Master’s extra-certificate in 1897. Since
1900 he had served as chief officer of the _Montebello_ under Captain
Pepper. After going through a course of magnetism at Kew, he joined the
Newnes Antarctic Expedition as navigator, cartographer, and one of the
magnetic and meteorological observers. He proved himself to be an acute
and intelligent observer and his descriptions of parts of the coast of
Victoria Land are excellent. He had acquired experience in Antarctic
ice navigation. There could not be a better man to command our relief
ship, and he was appointed on February 10th, 1902. After some delay, he
received his commission as a Lieutenant R.N.R. and I had the pleasure
of conferring upon him Sir George Back’s geographical award for his
former services in the Antarctic regions.
Captain Colbeck chose for his chief officer Mr Rupert England, who
held the same position on board the _Angelo_ of Wilson’s line. He was
a steady attentive officer who knew his work, and saw that the men
did theirs. Mr Morrison, the engineer, was an excellent and zealous
officer, always making the best of everything. Dr Davidson, the
surgeon, a distinguished student and medallist of Edinburgh University,
was an excellent doctor and very popular. Two friends, formerly cadets
of the _Worcester_, came to volunteer, Evans a naval Sub-Lieutenant,
and Doorly a P. and O. officer, and they were very anxious to be
taken as junior executive officers. Evans had excellent certificates,
was keen, able, and full of zeal. Gerald Doorly was a musician, an
athlete, and a student, in the racing boat’s crew of the _Worcester_,
and Queen’s Gold Medallist on board that ship. He proved to be very
popular and clever, always bright and cheerful, and a hard worker. Then
came Mulock, a naval Sub-Lieutenant who was very pressing and said he
must go; so I got leave from the Admiralty for him also. He was an
acquisition, for he had served in the _Triton_ surveying ship under
Captain Cust, who had the highest opinion of him. He was a surveyor
and an excellent draughtsman. There were two midshipmen, Maitland
Somerville and a son of Captain Pepper.
For the crew, as a nucleus, Captain Colbeck got several volunteers from
his old ship the _Montebello_, and the rest appeared satisfactory.
Cheetham, the boatswain from the _Montebello_, was a very smart
respectable man who could be trusted to take charge of a watch. He
continued in the service and now has a long record of Antarctic work.
The officers were entertained at dinner by the Geographical Club,
when a glee was sung specially composed for the occasion. Afterwards
the Bishop of Stepney kindly came on board and conducted a farewell
service. The ship was loaded with letters and papers, and supplies of
all kinds for the _Discovery_. I had been rather anxious about the
pemmican, and I sent out a fresh supply which I believed to be very
good, manufactured by the Bovril Company.
During the long voyage to Lyttelton all went well; and the ship was
received in New Zealand with cordial hospitality. On the 6th December,
1902, they sailed for the Antarctic. The _Morning_ met with adverse
winds and frequent gales at first, until she reached 60° S. in
longitude 170° 30′ E., when Captain Colbeck was able to stand away to
the south with a W.S.W. wind and fine clear weather. He decided to work
south between longitudes 178° and 180° E., well to the eastward of the
Balleny Islands. The Antarctic Circle was crossed on Christmas Day in
179° 30′ E., when icebergs became numerous. At 2 p.m. two small islands
were sighted, and later the _Morning_ steamed round them. The largest
was about 1¼ miles long and three-quarters of a mile broad, rising
to about 250 ft. The other islet or rock was only about 200 ft. in
diameter and 250 ft. high. Captain Colbeck, accompanied by Mulock and
two others, effected a landing with some difficulty on a beach on the
southern side of the larger island, and collected some rock specimens.
Thousands of birds were on both islands. Mulock made a careful survey
and the position was fixed. It received the name of Scott Island and is
a discovery of special interest, from its isolated position.
Making her way through much heavy pack ice, the _Morning_ came in
sight of the lofty mountains of Victoria Land on the 3rd January,
1903, when a very heavy gale was encountered. On the 8th Captain
Colbeck landed at Cape Adare and then proceeded to the south, guided
in his search by the information in Captain Scott’s letter. Reaching
Franklin Island, England landed and searched the beach, but could find
no record. Captain Colbeck and Mulock then landed at Cape Crozier and
found the record announcing the position of the winter quarters of the
_Discovery_ in M’Murdo Sound. The _Morning_ then proceeded to Cape Bird
and announced her arrival to the _Discovery_ by signal. The mails,
stores, and provisions were transferred to the _Discovery_ with all
possible speed. The distance between the ships was six miles of ice,
and 14 tons of stores were transported, officers and men carrying out
the work with admirable zeal and determination. The Mornings dragged
the loads to a half-way flag, and the Discoveries took them on--a heavy
job completed with alacrity and despatch.
Some invalids and others, including Shackleton, were sent home in the
_Morning_; and Mulock, an acquisition as a draughtsman, surveyor, and
good messmate, was transferred to the _Discovery_.
On the 2nd March the _Morning_ began her return voyage, arriving
at Lyttelton on the 25th, ready to return again for the relief of
the _Discovery_ in the ensuing year. England had proved himself
to be an indefatigable worker and an excellent seaman. Evans had
been of great assistance in the navigation of the ship, and in the
work of transporting the stores over the ice. Doorly had kept the
meteorological records. All had done well. Above all Captain Colbeck
had proved that there could be no better man to perform the very
important duties which the command of the _Morning_ entailed.
CHAPTER LIX
THE SOCIETIES’ ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION
_Second Year._
The arrival of the _Morning_ with letters and fresh supplies of stores
and provisions was a very welcome incident for the explorers, though
the precaution had been taken to collect the largest possible supply of
seal and other fresh meat. The need for constant exercise had been kept
in view; there was a good deal of hockey on the ice, dancing, and other
amusements. The second winter thus passed without sickness and in the
pleasantest fashion.
When the travelling season approached Captain Scott decided that there
should be a journey over the mountains to the west, led by himself, one
to the south under Barne and Mulock, and one to the south-east over the
barrier ice under Royds and Bernacchi, besides several shorter journeys
for specific purposes.
Captain Scott started on September 9th, 1903, with Mr Skelton, Evans,
Lashly, Mr Dailey, and Handsley. The first object was to find a new
road to the Ferrar Glacier, and to lay out a depôt. The discovery
of a route by New Harbour was made, and the glacier was entered. It
lay between massive cliffs like a ribbon of blue, down the middle of
which ran a dark streak caused by a double line of boulders--a median
moraine. The depôt was placed on this moraine, 2000 ft. above the
sea. Scott observed that where Antarctic glaciers run east and west
the south side is much broken up and decayed, while the north side is
comparatively smooth and even. The reason is that the most direct and
warmest rays of the sun fall on the south side of a valley, and here
the greatest amount of summer melting takes place.
Scott’s party returned, and found that Barne had laid out a depôt
S.E. of White Island, the temperature being as low as -70°. Royds had
reached Cape Crozier and found that the Emperor penguins had hatched
out their young.
Barne and Mulock began their extended journey on October 6th to Barne
Inlet. Scott’s party started on their very difficult enterprise of
discovering the ice cap on the 12th. His party was a combination
of three separate parties. The first consisted of Captain Scott,
Mr Skelton, Mr Feather the boatswain, Evans, Lashly, and Handsley.
Secondly there was the geological party, consisting of Mr Ferrar with
Kennar and Weller. The third, the auxiliary supporting party, consisted
of Dailey the carpenter, and two other men, Williamson and Plumley.
An absence of nine weeks was calculated for the extended party, and
six weeks were allowed to Mr Ferrar for his geological studies. They
started with four 11-ft. sledges, and no animal traction, dragging 200
lb. each at starting.
One of the noblest passages in Scott’s great work compares the use of
dogs with that of men for traction. Admitting that dogs, ruthlessly
used, increase the distances that may be reached he adds:--
“To pretend that they can be worked to this end without pain,
suffering, and death is futile. The introduction of such sordid
necessity must and does rob sledge-travelling of much of its glory.
To my mind no journey ever made with dogs can approach the height
of the fine conception which is realised when a party of men go
forth to face hardships, dangers, and difficulties with their own
unaided efforts and by days and weeks of hard physical labour
succeed in solving some problem of the great unknown. Surely in
this case the conquest is more nobly and splendidly won.”
On October 18th the condition of the sledges obliged them to return.
Only one remained sound. On the others the German silver on the runners
was split to ribbons and the wood deeply scored. Leaving the sound
sledge and a large depôt they hurried back to the ship, the last march
covering 36 miles. The sledges were repaired, and Ferrar now took
a smaller 7 ft. sledge. The final start was made on October 26th;
and they crossed the sea ice at a rate of 25 miles a day. There was
continual trouble with the runners, and Mr Skelton with the stokers of
the party were kept at work with pliers, files, and hammers, stripping
off the torn metal and lapping fresh pieces over the weak places.
On November 3rd they had reached a height of 7000 ft. The majestic
cliffs were below them and they gazed over the summits of mountains to
the eastward. Next day it was blowing a full gale, and there was only
just time to get the tents up when it burst upon them. It was a week
before they were able to move again, and throughout the whole time the
gale raged incessantly.
The delight of being able to start again may be imagined, and on the
13th they had reached the summit at a height of 8900 ft. with five
weeks’ provisions in hand. They found themselves on a great snow plain
with a level horizon all round, but above it to the east rose the tops
of mountains. Captain Scott had discovered the great Antarctic ice-cap.
The gale had blown away the nautical tables so that the observations
could not be worked out until their return. Scott’s inventive talent
came into play. He could calculate the declination for certain fixed
days, and having ruled a sheet of his note-paper in squares, he plotted
these points on the squares, and joined them with a curve. It was
afterwards found that the curve was nowhere more than 4′ in error. It
gave him the latitude with as much accuracy as was needed at the time.
The cold on the ice-cap was intense, -44° Fahr. But they had reached
the lofty plateau, leaving the mountain peaks behind, and before them
lay the unknown. Scott resolved to press onwards. On November 22nd he
went on with Evans and Lashly, the rest returning.
From a magnetic point of view this was a very interesting region. The
travellers were directly south of the magnetic pole, and the north end
of the compass pointed south, or a variation of 180°!
Of Scott’s two companions, Evans, who had been a gymnastic instructor
in the navy, was a man of herculean strength. Lashly had been a
non-smoker and a teetotaller all his life, and had the largest chest
measurement in the ship. The progress made was rapid, though they had
to struggle over a sea of broken and distorted snow-waves, causing
frequent capsizes of the far-too-narrow sledge. The night temperature
continued as low as -40°, and, judging from the _sastrugi_, the wind
blows from west to east across the ice-cap, often with great violence,
and as the summer temperature is -40° the cold of the winter may
be imagined. The little party of three resolutely pushed on to the
westward until November 30th. They had gone for 200 miles over the
ice-cap, and could see nothing beyond but a further expanse of the
terrible plateau. Yet, “After all,” writes Scott,
“it is not what we see that inspires awe, but the knowledge of
what lies beyond our view. We see only a few miles of ruffled snow
bounded by a vague wavy horizon, but we know that beyond that
horizon are hundreds and even thousands of miles which offer no
change to the weary eye ... nothing but this terrible limitless
expanse of snow. It has been so for countless ages and it will be
so for countless more.... Could anything be more terrible than this
silent wind-swept immensity?”
On December 1st the little party turned their steps homewards. Day by
day they struggled on over rough snow ridges in thick weather. On the
15th all were precipitated down a steep slope for 200 ft., finding
themselves sore and bruised at the bottom, and near the upper entrance
of the glacier. It was a month since Scott had seen any known landmark.
They started again, Scott in the middle and a little in front, Lashly
on his right, and Evans on his left. They had been going for a quarter
of an hour when Scott and Evans suddenly disappeared down a crevasse.
Almost by a miracle Lashly saved himself from following, and sprang
back with his whole weight on the trace. The sledge rushed past him and
jumped the crevasse down which Scott and Evans had gone. The two who
had fallen were dangling at the ends of their traces with blue walls
of ice on each side and a fathomless abyss below. Scott struggled on
to a thin shaft of ice wedged between the walls of the chasm, guiding
Evans’s feet to the same support. The great danger was that the intense
cold would soon render them powerless. There was no time to lose, and
Scott by a desperate effort managed to swarm up the trace and flung
himself on the snow. With the united efforts of Scott and Lashly Evans
was also landed on the surface. Both were terribly frost-bitten. On the
same evening they reached their nunatak depôt and next day, by a long
march, arrived at the main depôt. There were no further troubles, and
the three reached the ship on the 23rd December.
In his absence of fifty-nine days Scott and his companions had
travelled over 725 miles, but for nine days they had been confined to
the tent by gales of wind. The distance, therefore, was accomplished
in fifty marching days, a daily average of 14½ miles. Taking the
whole eighty-one days of absence they had covered 1098 miles at a
little under 15½ miles a day. They had reached the limit of possible
performance, under the hardest conditions.
This is, in some respects, the greatest polar journey on record without
dogs. The only comparison can be with the journeys of M’Clintock and
Mecham. But they had not the intense cold, the danger from crevasses,
and the great height to climb. Nor can any one journey be compared with
it as regards the value and importance of its results. Scott discovered
the vast Antarctic ice-cap and explored it for 200 miles, and his
observations enabled Captain Chetwynd to fix the position of the south
magnetic pole.
Barne and Mulock marched to the south, but, after leaving Minna Bluff,
they were much hampered by southerly gales which confined them to the
tent for ten days. They had barely reached the mouth of the inlet
which they were to explore when they were obliged to return. The
ground was scarcely passable, and they had to cross wide crevasses,
and clamber over steep ridges. Mulock was indefatigable in the use
of the theodolite, so that this stretch of coast-line has been very
accurately plotted. But the most important result of Barne’s journey
was the discovery that the ice on the barrier moved. Depôt A lay on
an alignment with a small peak on Minna Bluff and Mount Discovery in
1902. Barne found the depôt was no longer on with this small peak and
Mount Discovery and, therefore, that it must have moved. Thirteen and
a half months after the establishment of Depôt A Barne measured the
displacement, and found that it had moved 608 yards. Barne and his
party were absent 68 days.
The journey of Royds and Bernacchi over the ice of the barrier to the
S.E. occupied thirty days. Scott wrote, “It deserves to rank very high
in our sledging efforts, for every detail was carried out in the most
thoroughly efficient manner.” A very interesting series of magnetic
observations were taken by Bernacchi, who carried with him the Barrow
dip circle, a specially delicate instrument. The party returned on the
10th December, having accomplished an exceedingly fine journey. There
were several shorter journeys. Dr Wilson was at Cape Crozier again
to study the habits of the Emperor penguins during twelve days, and
Armitage explored the Koettlitz glacier, previously only seen from
Brown Island, and obtained some excellent photographs.
Captain Scott ordered all the parties, when they returned from sledging
and had rested, to join the sawing camp about ten miles to the north,
where work was being proceeded with for cutting the ship out of the
ice. But it was soon found that the task was an impossible one, and it
was accordingly relinquished.
The _Morning_ was got ready for her second voyage, with arrangements
complete for taking all the _Discovery’s_ officers and men on board
if necessary, which was very unlikely. But the Government began to
interfere. The _Terra Nova_, Captain MacKay, was bought and sent out as
well as the _Morning_, which was quite unnecessary and a great waste of
public money, for all that was required could have been perfectly done
by the _Morning_. The two ships arrived at the edge of the ice on the
5th January, 1904. The _Discovery_ was freed from the ice on the 16th
February. A large wooden cross, with an inscription, had been made in
memory of Vince, and this was erected on the summit of Hut Point before
their departure.
On the 17th a furious gale of wind sprang up. A heavy anchor was down.
Steam was got up, but the wind was more powerful and the ship was
driven upon a shoal near Hut Point at 11 a.m. The gale kept increasing
in force, the seas broke over the _Discovery’s_ starboard quarter and
she listed heavily to port, the keel constantly pounding and grinding
on the stones. Late in the afternoon the wind abated and the ship began
working astern. The engines were put full speed astern, and she slid
gently into deep water. There was no leakage, an eloquent testimony to
the solid structure of the ship, and what showed every sign of becoming
a great disaster was happily averted.
The _Discovery_ then received her coal from the relief ships, Colbeck
reducing himself to the very narrowest limits, keeping just enough
to take him back to New Zealand. Scott intended to explore westward
from Cape North. In the voyage northward the rudder was damaged, and
the _Discovery_, after rounding Cape Adare, anchored in Robertson Bay,
where the rudder was shifted. As soon as the spare rudder was in place
the vessel put to sea again, February 25th, and was soon in the thick
of the icebergs. There was a great mass of closely-packed ice towards
Cape North. Captain Scott, therefore, altered course and sighted
the Balleny Islands on the 2nd March, afterwards proceeding west to
beyond 159°E., where the ship was actually behind Wilkes’s alleged
land. On March 4th she was in 67° 23′ S. and 155° 30′ E., and it was
quite clear that Eld’s Peak and Ringgold’s Knoll did not exist. Cape
Hudson is also imaginary, and there is no case for any land near that
latitude eastward of Adélie Land. The coast turns S.E. to Cape North.
On April 1st the _Discovery_ arrived at Lyttelton, where a most cordial
reception awaited her.
The _Discovery_ sailed again June 8th, completing her magnetic survey
across the South Pacific. Passing through Magellan Strait, Port Stanley
was visited for coal, and on the 10th September the good ship was
anchored at Spithead. Never has any polar expedition returned with so
great a harvest of results. The discoveries alone were remarkable--the
entirely new land of King Edward VII, the nature of the ice on the
barrier, the great Victorian range of mountains, the volcanic region
of Ross and the smaller islands, the glaciers and the remarkable
phenomenon of their recession, the great Antarctic ice-cap over which
Captain Scott and two companions travelled for 200 miles, the discovery
of the position of the south magnetic pole, and the lines of deep sea
soundings with serial temperatures and dredgings. Yet these are only
the skeleton which is provided with flesh and blood by the scientific
results and observations which are contained in the twelve large
volumes published on the voyage.
Captain Scott’s own narrative, in two volumes, beautifully illustrated
by Dr Wilson, was worthy of the expedition. It was his first literary
effort, but the great explorer had a natural gift, and there are few
polar stories to be compared with the _Voyage of the Discovery_ either
in literary merit or in scientific interest.
CHAPTER LX
SHACKLETON’S ATTEMPT TO REACH THE POLE
Shackleton’s expedition to reach the South Pole differed from any
previous one in that ponies were employed. Great care was exercised in
the equipment, the sledges were built in Christiania, and ten 12 ft.,
eighteen 11 ft., and two 7 ft. were taken. Woollen garments were almost
exclusively used, with an outer suit of wind-proof gaberdine; fur
being restricted to the sleeping bags, and to foot and hand coverings.
“Finnesko” boots filled with sennegrass were, however, largely used.
A hut, 33 ft. by 19 ft., was taken out in pieces ready for erection,
lighted with acetylene gas and heated by anthracite. There were 15
Manchurian ponies, nine Siberian dogs, and a motor car, but much was
not expected of either of the two latter modes of traction.
The intention was to land a shore-party, which was to winter, and
though the scientific work of the expedition was not to be sacrificed,
one of the main objects was to reach the South Pole. The ship’s staff
consisted of 14 officers and crew under the command of Lieut. R. N.
England, R.N.R., who had been first officer in the _Morning_; the
shore party were also 14, with Shackleton as commander. Professor
T. W. E. David was Director of the scientific staff, Dr Douglas Mawson
physicist, Mr J. Murray biologist, Mr Raymond Priestley and Sir Philip
Brocklehurst geologists, and Lieut. J. B. Adams meteorologist. The
vessel purchased for the expedition was the _Nimrod_, a not very
suitable craft, being small and not able to make more than six knots
under steam. She proved, however, to be better than was anticipated.
On July 30th, 1907, the _Nimrod_ left the East India Docks for New
Zealand, King Edward and Queen Alexandra and others of the Royal party
paying a visit to the ship at Cowes. She reached Lyttelton and sailed
on New Year’s Day, 1908, for the south, being towed to the edge of
the pack, a distance of over 1500 miles, and meeting with very heavy
weather. After trying along the Barrier for a place for winter quarters
a landing was ultimately made close to Cape Royds at Ross I. under
great difficulties, and on February 22nd the _Nimrod_ left on her
return voyage to New Zealand.
On March 5th an expedition with a supporting party was arranged to
ascend Mt Erebus, and in this they were successful; the summit, which
was estimated at 13,370 ft., being reached on March 10th. A striking
feature was found to be the vast quantity of large and perfect felspar
crystals on the snow around the crater.
Preliminary sledge journeys were made from August to get all hands
into practice, and visits were made to Hut Point of the _Discovery_
expedition, whither ultimately everything needed for the journey to
the South Pole was brought, in order that the start might be made from
the most southern point possible. Depôts were also laid out. Ill luck
befell them with the ponies, only four being left at the start. It
was resolved that the sledge loads should be limited to 650 lb., the
sledge itself weighing 60 lb. The daily rations for the polar journey
per man were as follows:--Pemmican 7½ oz., biscuit 16 oz., cheese or
chocolate and cocoa 2·7 oz., plasmon and quaker oats each 1 oz., sugar
4·3 oz., emergency ration 1·5 oz., total 34 oz. This was doubtless an
insufficient quantity, the pemmican allowance especially being much too
small.
On October 29th the southern party, consisting of Adams, Marshall, and
Wild, under Shackleton, started, accompanied by a supporting party who
returned on November 7th. The ponies did well, but crevasses rendered
the going very dangerous and narrow escapes more than once occurred.
Later the surface became soft, and on November 21st the first pony had
to be shot, and a week later two others, the conditions being very bad.
On December 1st the latitude of 83° 16′ was reached and they were left
with one pony, which pulled one of the sledges while the other was
dragged by themselves. Misfortune, however, was soon to overtake them,
for on December 7th the last pony fell down a crevasse, and complete
disaster was only just avoided.
The sledges had now to be dragged by the explorers unaided, but by
December 16th they had crossed over 100 miles of dangerously crevassed
glacier and were at an altitude of some 6000 ft. The ground steadily
rose, and on December 28th an altitude of 10,199 ft. was attained. The
party suffered from a kind of mountain sickness, and the lessening
food, combined with failing strength, made it evident that success
was beyond their powers. They persevered for a few days longer, until
January 9th, 1909, when the flag was hoisted in what was calculated
to be Lat. 88° 23′ S., and the return march was begun. This was a
desperate struggle against starvation, failing strength, and disease,
for a form of dysentery attacked all of the party, and it was only
by providential fortune that Shackleton and Wild were able to reach
the _Nimrod_ (which by this time had arrived) on March 1st, and the
others three days later. The explorers had done all that was humanly
possible on a somewhat inadequate supply of food, due mainly to an
insufficiently-considered scheme of depôt-laying. A noteworthy fact was
that both on the outward and the return journey the wind had been very
greatly in their favour.
During the absence of Shackleton and his companions on their southward
march, the Western Party, consisting of Armitage, Priestley, and
Brocklehurst, did some work in the western mountains and obtained a
valuable series of geological specimens. On their way back, while
encamped on the sea ice, it broke up, and they were carried out to sea.
Their position seemed desperate, for some miles of open water separated
them from the shore, and the day passed without relief, but by the
greatest good fortune the floe was at length swept back into contact
with the shore ice for a few seconds and they were just able to get
across.
A third expedition was meanwhile being undertaken by the Northern
Party, which was also composed of three men--Professor David, Mawson,
and Mackay. The main object was accurately to determine the position
of the South Magnetic Pole, and to reach it, while if possible a rough
geological survey of the coast of Victoria Land was to be made if time
and opportunity permitted.
[Illustration: Typical Loose Pack--Mt Melbourne in distance]
The start was made on October 5th, and twelve days later, after landing
at Cape Bernacchi, the Union Jack was hoisted and Victoria Land
taken possession of for the British Empire. Progress was very slow,
only about four miles a day being covered by relay work. The Drygalski
Glacier, however, was reached in the beginning of December, whence
the party turned inland, and on January 16th the mean position for
the magnetic pole, as calculated by Mawson, was reached in Lat. 72°
25′ S., Long. 155° 16′ E. The return was made to the depôt left by
them on the Drygalski Glacier, and this was attained on February 3rd
after desperately hard work and many narrow escapes from falling into
crevasses. Next day they were picked up by the _Nimrod_, having brought
their work to a successful termination. The remaining parties were then
picked up and the _Nimrod_ arrived safely in Lyttelton on March 25th.
CHAPTER LXI
AMUNDSEN’S JOURNEY TO THE SOUTH POLE
Shackleton’s attempt to reach the South Pole was soon followed by
another and more successful one. The Norwegian, Amundsen, whose
conquest of the North-west Passage had fascinated him with Arctic
work, had formed a project of drifting across the North Pole after the
manner of Nansen. Funds for such an expensive expedition, however, were
difficult to obtain, and it was while awaiting events that the idea
occurred to him of making a bid for fame and the South Pole together,
the latter goal requiring less time and hence less expense. But the
affair was kept secret, and when on August 9th, 1910, the _Fram_ left
Norway under Roald Amundsen with 110 dogs and 18 men, she left for an
unknown destination. Reaching Madeira on the 5th September this was
announced to be the South Pole.
There were several points of difference between the Norwegian
expedition and those led by Scott and Shackleton. The first, and
perhaps the most important, was that dogs were to form the motive
power, instead of men as in Scott’s, or men plus ponies as in
Shackleton’s journey. All the Norwegians had been practised ski-runners
from childhood, but the English were very indifferent performers in
this respect. The English always used woollen clothing, the Norwegians
only wore it in moderate temperatures, invariably using fur for the
extreme cold. It was not a teetotal expedition, though alcohol was
apparently only served out about twice a week. The aim was to make seal
meat as much as possible the basis of their rations, and whether owing
to this or not the fact remains that there was not a single case of
scurvy throughout.
On January 2nd, 1911, the Antarctic Circle was crossed, and a few
hours later the pack was sighted. Fortune favoured them and they got
through it with great rapidity--“a four days’ pleasure-trip,” Amundsen
called it. They were no less favoured in finding Ross Sea free from
icebergs, and on January 11th they reached the Great Barrier and
altered course due east for the Bay of Whales, their destination, which
they reached on the following day. Their hut was in 78° 40′ S. and
164° W., three miles from the edge of the Barrier, and 150 ft. above
the sea. Great herds of seals were found here--Weddell’s seals and
“crab-eaters”--but at that time not many penguins. The crew were now
divided into two parties. It had been decided to despatch the _Fram_ on
an oceanographical cruise while the Polar journey was attempted, and
with her went ten men under Capt. Nilsen. The party to be left on shore
consisted of eight. Without loss of time the hut, “Framheim,” which had
been brought out in pieces, was erected, and the party set to work to
shoot and store seals, of which they soon had a pile of 100 or more. On
February 4th Capt. Scott’s ship, the _Terra Nova_, entered the bay on
its way from M’Murdo Sound.
On February 10th the first expedition for the placing of depôts
started; it consisted of four men and three sledges, each drawn by six
dogs, and left a depôt in Lat. 80° S., a distance of 93 miles, which
took them 4½ days. They drove back in two days, running no less than 62
miles in one day. On February 22nd the second depôt expedition started,
consisting of eight men, seven sledges, and 42 dogs. They passed the
depôt in 80° S., and reached 81° S. on March 3rd, where they left a
depôt of 1234 lb. of dogs’ pemmican, and three men returned. They
flagged their depôts for a distance of 5½ miles at right angles on each
side, the flags being about 1000 yards apart, so that they should be
sure of not missing them. The weather was very cold for the season,
-49° Fahr. Five days later, March 8th, Lat. 82° S. was attained, and
1370 lb. of pemmican placed in depôt. But the dogs had suffered greatly
and they could not get farther. They got back to the base March 21st,
having lost 8 dogs altogether. On March 31st the third depôt party left
for Lat. 82° S., returning April 11th, and by the time winter arrived
they had a total of 3 tons of supplies in their depôts.
Anxious to lose no time, they started for their attempt on the Pole on
September 8th, but it was soon evident that it was far too early, the
temperature being -60° Fahr. or thereabouts, and the party returned
after reaching the first depôt in 80° S. and leaving further stores
there.
At length, on October 19th, 1911, the final start was made--five men,
Amundsen, Bjaaland, Wisting, Hassel, and Hanssen, with four sledges,
each with 13 dogs. Under favourable conditions the pace attained was
very fast, and 4½ miles per hour was covered with the greatest ease.
They now began the system of putting up beacons of snow, 6 ft. high,
each of which was numbered and gave the distance and direction of
the next one to the north. They were put up about every 13th or 15th
kilometre, and 150 of them were erected. After 81° S. they were put
up every 9 kilometres. The final depôt at 82° S. was reached and left
on November 6th, and the latitude of 83° on November 8th, and here
provisions for 5 men and 12 dogs for four days were left.
On November 10th they approached the great mountain chain, the mighty
peaks of which rose to heights of 15,000 ft., and on the 12th made
their depôt in Lat. 84° S. leaving provisions for 5 men and 12 dogs for
five days, as well as matches and about 4 gallons of paraffin. Three
days later they were in 85° S. It was from here that they decided to
make their dash for the Pole--a distance there and back of 683 English
miles--and it was resolved to take 60 days’ provisions on the sledges,
leaving the remainder, 30 days, in depôt. The weather was very fine,
and in this respect they were peculiarly fortunate. On the 17th they
began their passage through the mountain range and found it easier than
they had expected. The dogs were in admirable condition, and nearing
86° S. they found the heat positively disagreeable, and “sweated as if
they were running races in the tropics.” Twenty-four dogs were killed
for food on reaching the divide, and a rest of five days taken, partly
owing to a blizzard. Great difficulties now beset them on the glacier
on the farther side, and one day only 2½ miles were covered. In Lat.
87°, however, things improved, and December 4th and following days
they progressed at the rate of some 25 miles a day. On the 6th they
passed Lat. 88° S., and were at an altitude of a little over 11,000 ft.
A meridian altitude was obtained in 88° 16′ S. on December 7th, and
a little later Shackleton’s record of 88° 23′ was beaten. Two miles
farther they camped and left 220 lb. of stores. They were suffering
greatly from frost sores on the face and shortness of breath. On the
14th December, 1911, the Pole was reached without further adventure.
After a series of observations the return journey was begun on the
17th. On January 6th they reached the Barrier and met with much snow
and a temperature of 17° Fahr. The remaining dogs were in very good
condition, and 34 miles were made one day. On January 25th, 1912,
they were all safely back at “Framheim” with eleven dogs. The journey
of 1860 miles had taken 99 days. It was a miracle of forethought and
organisation, the success of which was greatly aided by remarkably
favourable weather conditions, and no doubt also by the fact that the
explorers were all practised ski-runners. All returned in perfect
health.
CHAPTER LXII
MAWSON’S EXPEDITION
It had always been desired that that portion of the coast of Antarctica
which faces Australia, along which Balleny, and afterwards Wilkes and
Dumont d’Urville, had sailed more than sixty years ago, should be
landed upon and explored. The coast is not one that faces eastward, and
much accessible land could not be expected. It was assumed that there
would probably be ice cliffs for the most part, and the ice-cap inland.
Still, exploration of this locality was very desirable.
Mr. Mawson[209] undertook the difficult enterprise. He had made a very
fine journey to the South Magnetic Pole during Shackleton’s Expedition,
and was deeply interested in Antarctic problems. Born in Australia
he wished his expedition to be mainly an Australian undertaking. The
_Aurora_, a fine steamer, was purchased and Captain Davis received
the command. There could be no better man, both as a sailor and an
enthusiast in the work of deep-sea sounding. Frank Wild, who had been
both on the _Discovery_ and the _Nimrod_, was appointed to command a
second landing party. Dr Mertz was the naturalist. Ninnis, a 2nd Lieut.
of the Royal Fusiliers, son of my old friend Dr Belgrave Ninnis of the
_Discovery_ in the Arctic expedition of 1875–6, first wrote to me from
Pietermaritzburg, full of Antarctic enthusiasm, in September 1909, and
his excellent qualifications obtained for him a place on the scientific
staff of the _Aurora_.
The _Aurora_ left Hobart December 2nd, 1911, arriving at Macquarie
Island on the 11th to land five men, who were to install and manage
the wireless telegraph. On Christmas Day the voyage to the south was
resumed. On January 3rd, 1912, the ice cliffs were sighted, 50 to 80
ft. high, and the _Aurora_ sailed along them all day. On the 6th she
crossed the Antarctic Circle and sighted Adélie Land, with small rocky
islets off the coast. On the 8th a landing was effected, and winter
quarters were established in 66° 48′ S. and 143° 5′ E. Mawson landed
with Dr Mertz, Lieut. Ninnis, and 15 men, all hands working hard at
landing the hut, stores, and provisions. Their quarters were at the
western end of Adélie Land, in a bay with ice cliffs on both sides. It
received the name of Commonwealth Bay.
On January 19th, 1912, the _Aurora_ sailed eastward to land another
party of eight men under Frank Wild. They met with many icebergs and
heavy pack, but the Côte Clarie of Dumont d’Urville had disappeared.
From the 24th to the 27th the _Aurora_ encountered gales and heavy
seas. It was not until February 19th in Lat. 66° 18′ 28″ S. and Long.
94° 58′ E. that Captain Davis found a place on the ice cliffs to land
Wild’s party and their provisions, and it was only with the greatest
difficulty that Wild got his stores on shore and managed to haul them
up to the top of the ice cliff. The two stations were 1200 miles apart.
Having passed the winter on this ice, Wild and his companions made two
important journeys. One was nearly to Sabrina Land, the other connected
Wild’s base with Kaiser Wilhelm II Land. The _Aurora_ returned to
Hobart on March 11th, 1912.
In the spring Dr Mawson, with Dr Mertz and Ninnis, undertook a journey
with dogs over the ice cap to the S.E. While travelling over the ice,
many days after leaving the winter station, the sledge, dogs, and
Ninnis suddenly disappeared down a crevasse and were seen no more.
Mawson and Mertz were left with scarcely any food and only six dogs,
and began to make their way back, undergoing terrible privations
from which Dr Mertz died. Mawson, now the sole survivor, succeeded
in reaching the winter quarters after 31 days of untold hardship and
danger.
The loss of Lieut. Ninnis was deeply felt by his friends. He was full
of life and energy, and deeply interested in his work. He had the
makings of a very good officer, in whatever branch of the service he
might have been employed.
The _Aurora_ had arrived off the winter quarters in January, 1913,
but was unable to wait for the return of Mawson himself, so that he
and sixteen men were left to face a second winter. On February 23rd,
however, Captain Davis reached Wild’s station, taking him and his party
on board, and bringing them back to Hobart. The _Aurora_ returned
again the next summer, picking up Mawson on December 13th, 1913. After
carrying out some important oceanographical work she reached Adelaide
on February 26th, 1914.
The result of this expedition was the final connecting up of the
northern coast of Antarctica from Lieut. Pennell’s discovery to Kaiser
Wilhelm II Land, which was found, as I anticipated, to be the edge or
northern boundary of the ice cap, with scarcely any visible land. It is
from coasts with eastern aspects that interesting discoveries will be
made. A further valuable result were the lines of deep sea soundings
taken by Captain Davis.
CHAPTER LXIII
CAPTAIN SCOTT’S LAST EXPEDITION
I.
The ideal of Captain Scott was completeness, and he put it into
practice in his second expedition. This is the reason that the areas
discovered from his chosen M’Murdo base are far more exhaustively
explored, as regards every branch of science, than any other area
within either the Arctic or Antarctic Circles.
After four years of naval service Scott entered upon the organisation
of his final expedition. In September 1908 he was happily married
to Miss Kathleen Bruce, who gave signal encouragement and help to
her husband in all his work connected with the expedition. With such
help the labour of preparation was much lightened, and the work of
collecting the funds, a tedious and wearisome business, was fairly
successful. Sir Edgar Speyer consented to act as treasurer, Mr.
George Wyatt was business manager, and Mr. Drake, R.N., secretary. In
September, 1909, the _Terra Nova_, the largest of the Dundee whalers,
was purchased from Messrs Bowring of Liverpool, and handed over in
the West India Docks on November 8th. She was barque-rigged, built
in 1884, was of 744 tons gross and 450 net register; with a length
of 187 ft., beam 31 ft., depth 19 ft. Scott had been elected to the
Royal Yacht Squadron, so the _Terra Nova_ flew the white ensign. Most
of the interior re-fitting was entrusted to Lieut. Evans, who was to
be captain on the way out, but to land when the station for wintering
was reached. The provisions were most carefully selected and packed.
Special 4-inch theodolites were constructed for sledge travelling, and
there were 8 chronometers and 12 deck watches. Ponies and good teams of
dogs were obtained from Siberia by Mr. Meares, Commander Wilfred Bruce
meeting him at Vladivostock. They were brought to New Zealand with two
Russian drivers.
The expedition had two 12-ft. and thirty ordinary sledges, ordered
at Christiania. Captain Scott was very anxious that his experiments
with motor sledges should be successful, for he disliked the use of
dogs or ponies, and hoped that motor traction would be the remedy. He
made trials, both in the Alps and in Norway, which gave every hope
of success, and three motor sledges were taken out. One was lost in
landing; the other two went well on the surface of the barrier, and
the system of propulsion was quite satisfactory, but their use had to
be abandoned owing to the over-heating of the air-cooled engines, a
defect which could undoubtedly be remedied. Captain Scott was quite on
the right tack, and with more experience, his idea of polar motors will
hereafter be made feasible, a consummation which was very dear to his
heart.
The financial position made a relief ship impossible, and it was
arranged that the _Terra Nova_ should land the exploring party with
their provisions and a suitable house ready for erection, going back to
New Zealand for the winter and returning in the next navigable season.
The Admiralty were fairly liberal in their permission for naval
officers and men to join the _Terra Nova_. There were four
Lieutenants--Evans, Pennell, Campbell, and Rennick. A young Lieutenant
of the Indian Marine, named Bowers, was also allowed to go, but in
his case the Indian Government was the reverse of liberal. Captain
Oates of the Inniskilling Dragoons was a volunteer, and an invaluable
acquisition. Two naval surgeons were allowed to join, Dr Atkinson and
Dr Levick. Dr Wilson of the _Discovery_ was chief of the scientific
staff and a host in himself. Besides the two Russians there were twelve
men to land, all naval. Of these, five were old Discoveries. Lashly and
Edgar Evans were Scott’s companions during his great journey over the
ice-cap. Crean and Williamson were also thoroughly reliable men, the
former having been Captain Scott’s coxswain in the _Victorious_.
With the most complete collection of scientific instruments and
appliances Captain Scott resolved to have the largest and most
efficient scientific staff that ever left these shores. Instead of the
two biologists of the _Discovery_ he took four, Dr Wilson, Mr. Nelson,
Mr. Cherry Garrard, and Mr. Lillie; instead of one geologist he took
three, Mr. Griffith Taylor, Mr. Debenham, and Mr Priestley, one of them
a specialist in physiography; instead of one physicist he took two, Dr
Simpson and Mr Wright; besides a photographer of great ability, Mr.
Ponting. A young Sub-Lieutenant of the Norwegian navy, named Tryggve
Gron, came as a ski expert, Mr. Day as motor engineer, and Mr. Meares
in charge of the dogs.
The _Terra Nova_ left the docks on June 1st, and arrived at Stokes
Bay on June 3rd, 1910. They were all cordially received by the
Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth and at Cardiff there was another
enthusiastic reception. During the voyage out the _Terra Nova_ touched
at Simon’s Bay, Melbourne, and Lyttelton; large and very generous
subscriptions to the expedition being received from Cape Colony,
Australia, and New Zealand.
After a stay of a month at Lyttelton, where the ponies and dogs were
taken on board, and a valuable addition was made to the executive
officers in the person of Scott’s brother-in-law, Wilfred Bruce, the
_Terra Nova_ finally sailed for the Antarctic regions on November
29th, 1910. Three days had not passed before the explorers encountered
a furious storm from the S.W., lasting from December 1st to 3rd. The
ship, hove to under a main lower topsail, laboured heavily and big
seas began to come on board. The ponies suffered greatly, and Captain
Oates and Dr Atkinson worked incessantly throughout the gale, dragging
the poor beasts on to their legs again. The solid water which came on
board lifted the coal bags and flung them against the rest of the deck
cargo, acting like battering rams and gradually loosening the lashings
of the petrol cases and forage bales. Soon the whole of the deck cargo
was in danger, and there was nothing for it but to heave the coal bags
overboard and re-lash the petrol cases. But the seas were continually
breaking over the crew, and now and again they were completely
submerged.
Worse was to come. It was reported that the pumps were choked and that
the water, steadily gaining, was now over the stokehold plates. Every
effort was being made to keep the fires fed, but a considerable part of
the water on the upper deck found its way below. Then it was discovered
that the main engine pump was also choked. The water gained to the
lower level of the boilers, and the order had to be given to draw
fires. The ship was very deeply laden, and it did not need the addition
of much water to get her water-logged. As the water was gaining and
there were no pumps available, the only resource left was an attempt
at baling, yet the idea of baling a ship out by hand seemed ludicrous.
Nevertheless all the officers and scientific staff fell to, working two
hours’ spells all day and night, passing up buckets of water from hand
to hand.
Captain Scott felt that, at all hazards, they must get at the hand pump
suctions, and ordered a hole to be made in the steel bulkhead behind
the boiler. All this time the gale was raging as furiously as ever.
About midnight the hole through the bulkhead was completed, and Evans
and Bowers crawled through to the pump suctions and found them choked
with coal. This was got out, and the pump on being tried again gave a
good stream once more. By morning the level of the water was brought
under the stokehold plates again. Very slowly the wind and sea had
been moderating and in the afternoon of December 3rd they were able to
continue the voyage. Two ponies had dropped never to rise again, with
the minor losses of 10 tons of coal, 65 gallons of petrol, and a case
of the biologists’ spirits. The ship had been in great danger. This
terrible experience in its absorbing interest stands side by side with
Ross’s story of the collision among the icebergs.
On December 9th the _Terra Nova_ entered the pack in 65° 5′ S. and
178° E. There was a long detention, unlike the fortunate voyage of
the _Discovery_, and it was not until December 30th that the ship was
extricated in 71° 30′ S., having had to force her way through 370
miles of ice. On January 3rd, 1911, Cape Crozier was sighted, the ship
entered M’Murdo Sound, and on the 4th she was off the winter quarters
at Cape Evans, 14 miles north of the _Discovery’s_ winter quarters.
The landing was at once commenced. In a week the house, stores, coals,
animals, and equipments were all on shore. In a fortnight the house was
built and habitable, and in three weeks everything was ready for the
depôt journey.
[Illustration: A Tilted Berg, showing the old surface inclined to the
left]
[Illustration: Typical Bergs. _Terra Nova_ in distance]
One part of Captain Scott’s plan was that Lieut. Campbell should
explore King Edward VII Land with Dr Levick, Mr. Priestley the
geologist, three men, and two ponies. The _Terra Nova_, now commanded
by Lieut. Pennell, accordingly took the party with their house and
stores, leaving M’Murdo Sound on January 26th, but unfortunately no
landing could be found at King Edward VII Land. Lieut. Pennell then
took them to Balloon Bay, where there is a landing on the barrier,
but the place was found to be already occupied by Amundsen’s party.
Campbell, in consequence, gave up the plan of landing there, and
returned to Cape Evans and left the ponies. He then went on in the
_Terra Nova_, intending to land at Smith Inlet, or as near Cape North
as possible. But once more fortune was against him, the ice prevented
the ship from approaching the land, and the whole coast back to Cape
Adare was found to consist of inaccessible ice cliffs. Ultimately the
party were landed in Robertson Bay, where they wintered. Sledging
was attempted, but the ice near the coast proved too rotten to be
trustworthy, and no exploring could be done in the direction of Cape
North. On January 8th, 1912, the _Terra Nova_ arrived and took the
party on board, landing them again near Mt Melbourne with six weeks’
sledging rations only. But grave misfortune was in store for them.
The ship was prevented by dense pack from picking them up again and
they were forced to winter, living in an ice cave with little besides
penguins and seals for their food. These great privations were met with
the greatest fortitude and cheerfulness, and in October they started
with their sledge, reaching Cape Evans safely November 7th, 1912.
After landing Campbell’s party, Lieut. Pennell again shaped a course
to the westward, and discovered a long line of new coast beyond Cape
North, from 68° 30′ S. and 158° 15′ E. to 69° 50′ S. and 163° 29′ E.
On March 8th the _Terra Nova_ was beset, and from March 20th a S.W.
gale took her to Stewart Island. After being thoroughly overhauled
and repaired the ship was chartered by the New Zealand Government to
survey the channel between the north point of the North Island and the
Three Kings Islands, 38 miles to the N.W. The survey occupied three
months, and Lieut. Rennick drew the resulting chart, since published
by the Admiralty. In the next winter Lieut. Pennell conducted another
survey for the New Zealand Government, this time of Admiralty Bay,
the chart being drawn by Lieut. Rennick. “It was a great thing,”
Pennell thought, “to have such long and continuous work for all hands
during the winter.” Lieut. Wilfred Bruce was a most valuable addition
to the executive staff on board, and Mr. Lillie was indefatigable as
a collector. Very valuable lines of deep sea soundings were taken
southwards from New Zealand, and a large biological collection was
made. Indeed the _Terra Nova_ made no unimportant addition to the
results of the expedition.
Captain Scott was meanwhile preparing for one of the greatest feats in
man-drawn sledge travelling that has ever been achieved, comparable
with the splendid journeys of M’Clintock and Mecham. There was much to
be done and no time to lose. A great depôt had to be laid out during
the autumn, a hundred and thirty miles to the south. Scott started on
January 25th from Cape Evans with 12 men, 8 ponies, and 26 dogs, with
14 weeks’ food and fuel (5385 lb.), 3680 lb. of compressed fodder, 1400
lb. of dog biscuit and 15 sacks of oats.
The journey was along the coast of Ross Island, passing the
well-remembered places and the great hut at the _Discovery’s_ winter
quarters. The first depôt was formed in 77° 55′, to the S.E. of Cape
Armitage, called the home depôt. This was “Corner Camp.” On the 12th
February the party passed Minna Bluff, and rested at Bluff Camp; on the
15th the place for the final depôt was reached in 79° 28′ S., where
2181 lb. of provisions were deposited. This was the “One-ton Depôt.”
In returning, a short cut was attempted by Scott with the dog teams
nearer the coast, where the ice turned out to be heavily crevassed. On
the 20th February they covered 35 miles. Next day they were about 12
miles inshore from Corner Camp. The men were running by the sledges.
Suddenly Dr Wilson shouted “Hold on to the sledge,” and as he spoke
the whole team of dogs sank through the snow down a crevasse, and hung
by their harness far down the abyss. Scott hauled the sledge clear and
anchored it. The dogs were howling dismally. Two had dropped out of
their harness and landed on a snow bridge far below. Cherry Garrard
brought the Alpine rope they had with them; the sledge was unloaded,
and run across the gap. The dogs were then hauled up two by two until
eleven of the thirteen were recovered, the other two loose ones being
on the snow bridge 65 ft. down the chasm. Scott made a bowline in the
Alpine rope and was lowered down. He reached the bridge, fastened the
first dog to the rope, which was hauled up, and then the second. Lastly
he himself, with some effort, was hauled to the surface. It was all the
other three could do, the cold being intense and their fingers badly
frost-bitten. Scott of course was in great danger, but he had insisted
upon going down. It was characteristic of him that “he wanted to take
such a good opportunity of examining the sides of a crevasse.”
A greater disaster overtook the ponies in the return journey, coming
from the Barrier on to the sea ice. It suddenly broke up, forming lanes
of water, and notwithstanding every exertion to save them, two were
lost on the ice and others succumbed to the furious icy gales. The year
had been quite exceptional in this respect. There had already been four
furious southerly gales. It was not until April 13th that Captain Scott
returned to Cape Evans.
The abode for the winter had been carefully planned. The walls and
roof had a double thickness of boarding, with sea-weed on both sides
of the frames. On the south side Bowers built a long annex to contain
spare clothing and provisions for immediate use. On the north was the
stable, and a short distance away was a solid block of ice in which two
caverns were dug, one for a larder, the other for differential magnetic
instruments. Near this cavern there was a hut for absolute magnetic
observations, and on a small hill above, on which was a flag-staff,
were the meteorological instruments.
The house, below the hill, was on a long stretch of bleak sand, with
many tons of provision cases ranged in neat blocks in front of it. The
interior was divided into two rooms. Two-thirds of the area was for
the 16 officers and members of the scientific staff, the other third
for the 9 men[210]. In the officers’ quarters there was a dark room,
a space for the physicist and his instruments, a space for charts,
instruments, and chronometers, and on the sides the 16 bed-places.
Arrangements for light, warmth, and cooking were very satisfactory.
The ten surviving ponies were made comfortable in their stables by the
Russian lads.
The last day of the sun was April 23rd. Throughout the winter there
was much to be done and many calculations to be made respecting the
great journey. Everyone was always busy and the daily exercising of
the horses was no simple task. Every Sunday divine service was held.
There were frequent lectures, generally on subjects connected with
Antarctic travelling or scientific work, often illustrated, and always
followed by a discussion. So the winter passed, with the most perfect
good fellowship. The _South Polar Times_ was again started under the
editorship of Cherry Garrard, well aided by Dr Wilson’s admirable
illustrations.
Dr Wilson was anxious to visit the emperor penguin rookery in order
to secure eggs of the bird at such a stage as would furnish a series
of early embryos by which alone the particular points of interest in
the development of the bird could be worked out--this penguin being
supposed to be the nearest approach to the primitive form. The journey
entailed the risk of travelling in the winter and in darkness, for the
birds nest in the coldest season of the year, early in July.
The party consisted of Dr Wilson, Lieut. Bowers, and Cherry Garrard,
with two sledges and provisions for five weeks. They started on June
27th, 1911, and next day passed round Cape Armitage, and turned in the
direction of Cape Crozier. At night the temperature was -56° Fahr.
On July 11th, off Mount Terror, the wind from S.S.W. blowing a gale,
brought the temperature up in a most extraordinary way to +7° Fahr.,
with heavy snow-fall. On the 15th they got to a height overlooking the
barrier cliffs, with a magnificent view, the whole range of pressure
ridges at their feet, looking “as if giants had been ploughing with
ploughs that made furrows fifty or sixty feet deep.” The Ross Sea was
completely frozen over, except an open lead along the coast. On this
height at about 800 ft. they built a stone hut. On the 19th they
made an unsuccessful attempt to descend to the rookery and next day
the hut was finished. Then at last they effected a descent. Six eggs
were collected and three birds were killed and skinned. Returning, the
ascent was extremely difficult and hazardous. A heavy gale was blowing
on the 22nd from S.S.W. and the tent was blown clean away. They took
refuge in the hut, but next day the force of wind had risen to a storm,
and the roof of the hut was blown away. At last the wind went down and
they all started in search of the tent, which Bowers found a quarter
of a mile from the place where it had been pitched, but fortunately
undamaged. Without the tent it is doubtful whether any of them would
have survived. The return journey in darkness and intense cold was
terrible, the bags were saturated and hard frozen. Hut Point was
reached on the last day of July, and the home at Cape Evans on August
1st.
[Illustration: Emperor Penguin Rookery, Cape Crozier]
Scott wrote:--
“The Cape Crozier party returned after enduring for five weeks the
hardest conditions on record. It forms one of the most gallant
stories in polar history. That man should wander forth in the depth
of a polar winter to face the most dismal cold and the fiercest
gales in darkness is something new; that they should have persisted
in their efforts in spite of every adversity for five full weeks,
is heroic. It makes a tale for our generation which I hope will not
be lost in the telling.”
From that time all was preparation and calculation for the great
journey. The ponies were to take them to the foot of the glacier, where
they would be killed for fresh food; the dog teams were also to go thus
far, as far as they could be taken without cruelty. The hope that the
motor sledges would be useful auxiliaries was vain. Scott had looked
forward to their revolutionizing polar traction, but was doomed to
disappointment.
From the foot of the glacier to the Pole, a distance of 450 miles, the
extended party would be able to reach their goal by the help of two
limited parties, making three parties of four men each to start. Six
depôts were to be placed at intervals. The most careful calculations
were made about the quantity in each depôt and the quantity to be taken
by each returning party, and it was found in practice that every detail
of equipment was right.
Before starting, Captain Scott, with Dr Simpson, Bowers, and Edgar
Evans went for a fortnight on what he called a remarkably pleasant and
instructive spring journey. The party went a long way up the Ferrar
Glacier, and Scott was able to measure the movement of the glacier,
finding it to be at the rate of 24 to 32 feet in 7½ months.
On the 1st November, 1911, Captain Scott started on his last great
journey. The ponies were in fine form, due to the care of Captain Oates
through the winter. They drew 450 lb. each. On the 15th “One-ton Depôt”
was reached, 130 miles from Cape Evans. On arriving at the entrance to
the Beardmore Glacier the ponies were shot for fresh food. They had
done their work well. Meares and the dog teams returned home.
From December 5th to the 9th a furious gale was blowing with heavy
snow-fall. This most unfortunate storm not only caused serious delay,
but also filled the lower part of the glacier ravine with soft snow,
retarding progress and causing awful toil.
The three final units of four were:--
Scott Commander Evans Atkinson
Wilson Bowers Wright
Oates Crean Cherry Garrard
E. Evans Lashly Keohane
The ascent was hard work, and falls down crevasses to the length of
the harness were quite common, but on the 22nd December the summit was
reached at 7100 ft. in 85° 13′ S., 161° 55′ E. and here the “Upper
Glacier Depôt” was formed. At this point Atkinson, Wright, Cherry
Garrard, and Keohane bade farewell--alas! a long farewell--to their
beloved chief, and returned.
Pushing steadily on, the two remaining parties reached 86° 55′ 47″ S.
and formed another depôt, consisting of a week’s provisions for both
units. It was named “Three-Degree Depôt.” On January 2nd, 1912, the
camp was in 87° 32′ S. Long. 160° 40′ E., and 9600 ft. above the sea.
Here Bowers joined the extended party, raising the number to five. The
last limited party, consisting of Commander Evans, Crean, and Lashly,
bade farewell and set out on the return journey. Evans was attacked
by scurvy, became rapidly worse, and near Corner Camp was unable to
go further. Lashly remained to nurse him, while Crean went off alone
for help. Fortunately Dr Atkinson was at Hut Point and came at once to
the rescue. Evans was brought safely down, and got on board the _Terra
Nova_[211].
Scott, with his four gallant companions, was left within 140 miles
of the South Pole, with provisions for a month, and depôts at proper
intervals in their rear.
CHAPTER LXIV
CAPTAIN SCOTT’S LAST EXPEDITION
_The End_
Scott and his companions could now easily reach their goal. On the 4th
January they were 10,280 ft. above the sea, the soft snow giving them
very heavy work. They were still ascending slightly, reaching 10,320
ft. on the 5th, on the 6th 10,470 ft., and on the 7th 10,570 ft.
“It is quite impossible,” wrote Scott, “to speak too highly of my
companions. Wilson ever on the look-out to alleviate the small
pains and troubles incidental to the work, ever thinking of some
fresh expedient to help the camp life, tough as steel on the
traces, never wavering from start to finish. Evans a giant worker
with a really remarkable head-piece. It is only now I realize how
much has been due to him. Little Bowers remains a marvel--he is
thoroughly enjoying himself. He has not made a single mistake in
making up the dépôts, and at all times knows exactly how we stand.
Nothing comes amiss to him, and no work is too hard. Oates goes
hard the whole time, and does his share of camp work.”
The highest point had now been passed and they were descending again.
On the 15th at 89° 26′ 57″ S. the height was only 9920 ft. On the 16th,
still descending, they were in 89° 42′ S. Scott had been for some time
apprehensive of the possibility of the Norwegian expedition under
Amundsen having forestalled them. The doubt was now to resolve itself
into certainty. In the afternoon march Bowers’ keen eyes detected an
unusual object in the distance, which proved to be a black flag tied
to a sledge-bearer. Around were the remains of a camp and tracks of
men and dogs, and it was only too evident that the Norwegians had
succeeded in their endeavour. Two days later Scott’s party arrived at
the tent left by Amundsen, and found his record dated December 16th,
just a month previously. It was a terrible disappointment and no doubt
was not without its depressing effect on their spirits on the homeward
journey. The weather, moreover, was of an unusually trying character, a
strong wind blowing with the thermometer at -22° Fahr. and a curious
damp cold feeling in the air. “This is an awful place,” writes Scott,
“and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward
of priority.”
A cairn was built on the South Pole, and the Union Jack was hoisted.
The altitude was 9500 ft. a descent of 1000 ft. from 88° S.
On the 19th January the return march was commenced, and they had a
very hard time before them. Oates was feeling the cold more than the
others, and Evans was never the same man after leaving the Pole. These
were danger signals; both got frost-bitten so easily. There seems to
be nothing in the Arctic regions to be compared with the wonderful
storm-tossed _sastrugi_ which here so perplexed and delayed them. On
January 31 the Three-Degree Depôt was reached. The 9th February was
a grand day. They steered for a moraine under Mount Buckley, which
proved so interesting that Scott determined to spend the day there
geologising. Above them rose a perpendicular cliff of sandstone,
weathering rapidly and carrying veritable coal seams. Wilson found
several plant impressions, one a piece of coal with beautifully-traced
leaves in layers. There were some excellently preserved impressions of
thick stems, showing cellular structure. Altogether they had a most
interesting afternoon, “and the relief of being out of the wind and in
a warmer temperature is inexpressible.” Some 35 lb. weight of fossils
were taken on the sledge. This discovery throws most important light on
the geological history of Antarctica.
The return journey was continued. On February 16th poor Evans had quite
collapsed in mind and body. He caused much delay and the rest felt
that they were in a desperate position with a sick man on their hands
at such a distance from home. Here was the risk which could not be
foreseen, and which seemed so unlikely to arise. All that the very best
arrangement can possibly do is to leave a margin for detentions. That
margin had been overpassed, and there was danger. The arrangements were
admirable, the depôts fairly easily found, but their contents were not
calculated for such a long detention.
Evans died in the tent on February 17th, a sad and unexpected end for
such a fine and useful hand, and one supposed to be the strongest of
the party. On February 18th they had reached the Lower Glacier Depôt
and were entering upon the march over the barrier ice. They began to
use the horse meat.
The survivors encountered most extraordinary, indeed for the time
of year quite abnormal, degrees of cold, and they were retarded by
unusually bad surface. They reached the Middle Barrier Depôt on
the 2nd March but found a shortage of oil, due to a leak, leaving
hardly sufficient to take them to the next depôt. The temperature
was -40°. Captain Oates disclosed the state of his feet, which were
most seriously frost-bitten. Every circumstance was against them, and
the danger was rapidly increasing. The surface continued terrible
and retarded them fatally. “Amongst ourselves,” wrote Scott, “we are
unendingly cheerful, but what each man feels in his heart I can only
guess.” By the 6th Oates was unable to pull, and suffering great
pain. He got worse and worse; but was always cheery, and never made a
complaint. On the 17th the end came. It was blowing a gale. He said
“I am just going outside and may be some time.” He knew they would
never leave him and that he was increasing their danger. He nobly
resolved to sacrifice himself. “It was the act of a brave man and an
English gentleman. We all hope to meet the end in a similar spirit, and
assuredly the end is not far.” Hope was departing. On Sunday March 21st
they were only eleven miles from One-ton Depôt, getting more and more
unequal to the work. Yet they had brought the great extra weight of 35
lb. of fossils all the way, a monument to the heroism of the gallant
discoverers. Scott was now in as bad case as Oates had been. The tent
was pitched, Wilson and Bowers intending to go to the depôt and back
for fuel. But a furious gale, rendering the journey impossible, blew
for several days from S.W. This was the final blow. Scott wrote letters
to relations and friends until death caused his pencil to drop from
his hand. Every sentence was intended to give them consolation and
comfort. He also left a touching appeal to his countrymen. He died as
he had lived, one of the most beautiful characters in our generation.
When found by the search party Wilson and Bowers lay with their
sleeping-bags closed over their heads, in the attitude of sleep. Scott
had died later. The flaps of his sleeping-bag were thrown back. The
little wallet containing his note-books was under his shoulder, and one
arm was flung across Wilson’s body.
The search party, led by Dr Atkinson, started on the 30th of October,
1912. The excellent mules had arrived on board the _Terra Nova_ in the
spring. Seven mules and eight men set out from Hut Point, with Wright
in command, two dog teams following with Dr Atkinson, Cherry Garrard,
and Demetri[212].
On the morning of the 12th November, 1912, they found the tent. It was
pitched well and had withstood the furious gales. Each man recognised
the bodies. All their gear was recovered, and the sledge was dug out
with their belongings and the precious fossils. Then the bodies were
covered with the outer tent and the burial service was read. A mighty
cairn was built above them, and it was surmounted by a cross made out
of two _skis_. On either side two sledges were up-ended and fixed
firmly in the snow. Between the eastern sledge and the cairn a bamboo
was placed containing a metal cylinder and the following inscription:--
This cross and cairn were erected over the bodies of Captain Scott,
R.N., Dr Wilson, M.B., and Lieut. Bowers, R.I.M. a slight token to
perpetuate their successful and gallant attempt to reach the Pole.
This they did on January 17th, 1912. Inclement weather with lack of
fuel was the cause of their death. Also to commemorate their two
gallant comrades, Captain Oates of the Inniskilling Dragoons, who
walked to his death to save his comrades about eighteen miles south
of this position; and Seaman Edgar Evans, who died at the foot of
the glacier.
“The Lord gave and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the
Lord.”
It was signed by all the members of the party. They then marched south
to search for the body of Captain Oates; but “the kindly snow had
covered the body, giving it a fitting burial.” Here, as near the site
as they could judge, they built another cairn to his memory, placing on
it a small cross and the following record:--
Hereabouts died a very gallant gentleman, Captain Oates of the
Inniskilling Dragoons. In March 1912, returning from the Pole, he
walked willingly to his death to try and save his comrades, beset
by hardships. This note is left by the Relief Expedition of 1912.
It was signed by Dr Atkinson and Mr. Cherry Garrard. Returning they
bade a final farewell to their lost friends. Dr Atkinson wrote:--
There, alone in their greatness, they will lie without change or
bodily decay, with the most fitting tomb in the world above them.
The results of Captain Scott’s expedition are of great importance. He
arranged that the geologists should make a thorough geological survey
of the region from Granite Harbour to Koettlitz Glacier, extending
thirty miles inland where possible. This was done, and they also made
a very interesting ascent to the crater of Mount Erebus, an account of
which was written by Mr. Priestley. The results in the other branches
of science were of no less importance, and furnish a splendid and
convincing answer to those who question the use of polar expeditions.
But of far greater service are the examples set to their countrymen by
the lost heroes, and the experience gained by the young naval officers
of the expedition.
The dying appeal of Captain Scott met with a prompt response. Seldom
has the nation, both at home and beyond seas, been so deeply touched.
On February 14th, 1913, there was a memorial service at St Paul’s at
which the King and the Queen Mother were present. Scott’s widow was
given the rank to which her heroic husband would have been raised.
An appeal for funds to meet all demands received a most generous and
ample response. The widows and orphans were suitably provided for, all
the liabilities of the expedition were met, a bounty was given to the
members of the expedition, provision was made for the publication of
results, and a large sum was left for memorials.
In the whole range of polar history there is no greater name than
that of Robert Falcon Scott. A life of devotion to duty, latterly of
devotion to scientific discovery, was closed by a heroic and glorious
death. A man with rare gifts both of head and heart, those gifts were
nobly used through life, and were never more prominent than in his last
fatal march and in the hour of death.
CHAPTER LXV
REMAINING ANTARCTIC WORK
The great object of Antarctic exploration is to discover the outline
of the Antarctic continent, and to study its physiography so far as
the great ice-cap will admit of such researches. Among those who
took an intelligent interest in this important question was the late
Duke of Argyll’s father, who had the firmest grasp of the subject
and the deepest insight. His view was that our efforts should be
directed to discovering the physiography of this continental land
previous to its being almost entirely concealed by the ice-cap. In
that way alone--combined with series of deep sea soundings radiating
from the shores of Antarctica to lands to the north--could its
geological history, and possible former connection with other lands, be
ascertained. Impressed with these views, we saw that those coasts must
be sought where the mountains are more or less clear of the assumed
ice-cap. The northern coasts forming the eastern half of the Victoria
and all the Enderby Quadrant appeared to be ice cliffs only, and
therefore unsuited. It was evident that coasts and mountains with an
eastern aspect would alone enable us to obtain the desired knowledge.
There are two such eastern coasts. These are the western side of the
Ross Sea facing east, and the western side of the Weddell Sea, the
coast of Graham Land facing east.
Victoria Land was selected for the first attempt, and a grand result
was achieved by Captain Scott in his two expeditions. The great
Victorian chain of mountains was traced from the Antarctic Circle
to the apex of the quadrant, a distance of 1200 miles. The volcanic
region of Ross Island was thoroughly explored. The basaltic irruptions
were observed, together with the primitive rocks; the great unaltered
formation now known as the “Beacon Sandstone” was discovered, the
movements and character of its glaciers were noted, a complete
geological survey was made from Granite Harbour to Koettlitz Glacier,
and the peaks were measured. To crown all, Captain Scott and Dr Wilson
made a large collection of the fossil flora which established the
geological period of the rock formation. These fossils weighed 35
lb., but though worn out, and with strength failing fast, the gallant
explorers would not leave them, but dragged these records, until they
died. There is no more glorious and more touching event in the whole
range of polar history.
Captain Scott observed that the Victorian mountains turned in the
direction of Graham Land, and this conclusion now has to be proved. A
branch seems to run down to the coast and to terminate in the heights
of King Edward VII Land, thus enclosing the vast bay filled with
Mr Ferrar’s “Ross piedmont.” It would not be surprising to find a
minor range branching off to Enderby Land, which Biscoe described as
mountainous.
The land and islands with an eastern aspect on the other side of
Antarctica were partly explored by Captain Larsen, who made an
important voyage down the east coast of Graham Land, and the fossil
remains have been collected and described by Nordenskiöld and Gunnar
Andersson. Next to Captain Scott’s great discoveries, the work of the
Swedes has thrown most light on the former history of Antarctica.
There is something very fascinating in considering the analogy between
the Ross and Weddell Seas and their shores on opposite sides of
Antarctica. The Victorian Mountains on one side match the Graham Land
mountains on the other. The interest is increased by the probability
that they form one chain, and by the discovery that there are volcanic
rocks peculiar to the Andes which have been found in Graham Land. Then
there are the enormous icebergs in both seas pointing to the need for
the further study of the wonderful ice-cap which conceals so much of
Antarctica from our knowledge.
The Antarctic ice-cap was discovered and explored by Captain Scott, who
penetrated into its solitudes for two hundred miles from the mountain
range. Dr Mawson has also examined it from another direction. There
is little or no interest in travelling over its monotonous surface,
but numerous borings would reveal its depth and solid contents, as
suggested by the late Sir John Murray. The greatest interest connected
with the Antarctic ice-cap is to be found in the study of its glaciers,
and of its edges, possibly mighty cliffs like the Ross piedmont, whence
the vast icebergs are discharged.
[Illustration: Barrier Berg Aground off King Edward VII Land]
The most important geographical discoveries which remain to be revealed
in the Antarctic regions are the coasts and interiors of the Weddell
and Ross Quadrants. A great part of the eastern side of Graham Land
is still undiscovered, and it is not known whether it is a peninsula
or an island. A plan for the exploration of this important area was
ably sketched out by Lieut. Barne, but nothing has yet been done. The
continuation of the Victorian chain of mountains possibly to Graham
Land, 800 miles in length, likewise calls for investigation as a part
entirely unknown. An ancient connection between Antarctica and South
America may be revealed, when the warm current flowing south down the
east side of the latter continent was not diverted but flowed directly
into the far south. But these are but a tithe of the problems which
Antarctica still offers. There is the enterprise of crossing the
mountains to ascertain the character of the much smaller section of the
continent in the Ross Quadrant; there is the survey of the southern
part of Graham Land; the exploration of the coast to the eastward; the
problem of the origins of the great icebergs. The Weddell Quadrant
calls for an immense amount of geographical and other scientific work,
which would give full occupation for more than one expedition.
In the Ross Quadrant there is a coast line of 1100 miles in extent to
be discovered. Captain Scott’s work on King Edward VII Land on one
side, Alexander and Charcot Lands on the other, are the boundary posts
to this undiscovered Edwardian coast. All we know is that Captain Cook
saw land in 71° S., that Bellingshausen sighted Peter Island a little
further to the east, and that the Belgian expedition wintered over the
continental shelf in about 71° S. The land is probably not a hundred
miles further south. The ice-pack floats north from the coast during
the navigable season, and in that case a ship might navigate along the
Edwardian coast. It is possible that there may be one or more deep
indentations, like the Ross Sea, when there would be a coast or coasts
facing east whose exploration would throw further important light on
the history of Antarctica.
Finally, in the Enderby Quadrant there is the “Challenger Gap” to be
explored, so as to complete an examination of the region from Gaussberg
to Kempe Land.
Fixed stations for meteorological, magnetic, and tidal observations
ought to be established to carry out this excellent and useful work
within the Antarctic Circle during a course of years, similar to that
which Captain Scott achieved in M’Murdo Sound during four years. In no
other part of the Arctic or Antarctic regions have observations been
taken in one place for so long a time. But they are needed on other
spots all round Antarctica.
There are many true lovers of geographical exploration for its own sake
in the present generation, who look upon achievement as its own reward.
We may, therefore, hope that the great work initiated by the Societies
with such splendid results will be renewed by successors to Scott and
Wilson, and that they will again and again raise the standard of duty
and useful, if perilous, achievement. For such men there is a note of
encouragement and sympathy deep down in the hearts of all true Britons.
CHRONOLOGY OF POLAR VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS
I. _Arctic_
YEAR | EXPLORER | SHIP |NATIONALITY| LOCALITY[213]
| | | |
1553 | Willoughby | Bona | British |Sea N. of Europe
|and Chancellor| Esperanza | |
| | and others | |
| | | |
1556 | Stephen |Searchthrift | „ | Kara Strait
| Burrough | | |
| | | |
1576–78 | Frobisher | Gabriel and | „ | _Baffin Land_
(3 voyages)| | others | |
| | | |
1580 | Pett and | George and | „ | Novaya Zemlya
| Jackman | William | |
| | | |
1584 | Brunel | | Dutch | „
| | | |
1585–87 | Davis | Sunshine, | British |_Davis Straits_
(3 voyages)| | Moonshine, | |
| | etc. | |
| | | |
1594–95 | Nai, | (1) Swan, | Dutch | Novaya Zemlya
(2 voyages)| Tetgales, |Mercury; (2) | |
| Barents | Griffin, | |
| | Hope, | |
1596–97 | Heemskerck, | Greyhound | „ | _Spitsbergen_
|Rijp, Barents | | | and Novaya
| | | | Zemlya
| | | |
1606 | Knight | Hopewell | British | Greenland
| | | |
1607–08 | Hudson | „ | „ | Greenland,
| | | | Spitsbergen,
| | | | _Jan Mayen_
| | | |
1609 | „ | Half-moon | Dutch | Novaya Zemlya,
| | | | _Hudson River_
| | | |
1610 | „ | Discovery | British | _Hudson Bay_
| | | |
1610–14 | Poole, Edge, | Various | „ | Spitsbergen
(various | Joseph, | | |
voyages) | Marmaduke, | | |
| Baffin | | |
| | | |
1612 | Button | Resolution | „ | Hudson Bay
| |and Discovery| |
| | | |
1615–16 | Bylot and | Discovery | „ | _Baffin Bay_,
(2 voyages)| Baffin | | | etc
| | | |
1617 | Edge | | „ | Spitsbergen
| | | |
1619–20 | Munk | | Danish | Hudson Bay
| | | |
1631–32 |Foxe and James| Charles and | British | „
| | Maria | |
| | | |
1644–48 | Stadukhin, | | |
| Alexeief, | | Russian | N. Siberian
| Deshnef, | | | coast
| Ankudinof | | |
| | | |
1664 | Vlamingh | | Dutch | Novaya Zemlya
| | | |
1676–77 | Wood | Speedwell | British | „
| | and | |
| | Prosperous | |
1707 | Gillis | | Dutch |N.E. Spitsbergen
| | | |
1710 | Permakof | | Russian | N. Siberian
| | | | coast
| | | |
1734–42 | Paulof, | | „ | „
| Mlyagin, | | |
|Owzin, Minin, | | |
| Sterlegof, | | |
| Laptef, | | |
| Chelyuskin | | |
| | | |
1742 | Middleton | Furnace and | British | Hudson Bay
| | Discovery | |
| | | |
1746–47 | Moore and | Dobbs and | „ | „
| Smith | California | |
| | | |
1770 | Liakhof | | Russian | New Siberia
| | | | Islands
| | | |
1773 | Phipps | Racehorse | British | Greenland Sea
| | and Carcass | |
| | | |
1776–7 | Pickersgill, | Lion | „ | Baffin Bay
| Young | | |
| | | |
1805–10 | Hedenström, | | Russian | New Siberia
|Sannikof, etc.| | | Islands
| | | |
1815–18 | Kotzebue | Rurik | „ | Bering Sea
| | | |
1818 | Ross (John) |Isabella and | British | N.W. Passage
| | Alexander | |
| | | |
1818 | Buchan and |Dorothea and | „ | Greenland Sea
| Franklin | Trent | |
| | | |
1819–20 | Parry | Hecla and | „ |Melville Island
| | Griper | |
| | | |
1819–22 | Franklin and | (land) | „ | Arctic Canada
| others | | |
| | | |
1820–23 | Wrangel and | | Russian | Siberian Polar
| Anjou | | | Sea
| | | |
1821–23 | Parry | Fury and | British | American
| | Hecla | | Archipelago
| | | |
1821–24 | Lütke Novaya | | Russian | Novaya Zemlya
| Zemlya | | |
| | | |
1822 | Scoresby | Baffin | British | E. Greenland
| | | |
1824–25 | Parry | Hecla and | „ | American
| | Fury | | Archipelago
| | | |
1825–28 | Beechey | Blossom | „ | Point Barrow,
| | | | etc.
| | | |
1827 | Parry | Hecla | „ | Sea N. of
| | | | Spitsbergen
| | | |
1829–33 | Ross (John | Victory | „ | N.W. Passage
|and James C.) | | | and Magnetic
| | | | Pole
| | | |
1833–34 | Back | (land) | „ |Great Fish River
| | | |
1837–38 | Dease and | „ | |Baffin Bay, etc.
| Simpson | | |
| | | |
1845–51 | Franklin | Erebus and | „ | N.W. Passage
| | Terror | |
| | | |
1848–51 | Kellett | Herald and | „ |Franklin Search
| | Plover | |
| | | |
1848–49 | Ross (James | Enterprise | „ | „
| C.) with | and | |
| M’Clure and |Investigator | |
| M’Clintock | | |
| | | |
1850–51 | De Haven | Advance and | American | „
| (Grinnell | Rescue | |
| Exp.), | | |
| | | |
1850–51 | Austin, | | |
| Osborn, | Assistance, | British | „
|Ommanney etc. | Intrepid, | |
| | Pioneer, | |
| | Resolute | |
| | | |
1850–54 | M’Clure and |Investigator | |
| Collinson | and | „ | „
| | Enterprise | |
| | | |
1852–53 | Inglefield | Phoenix | „ | Beechey Island
| | | |
1852–54 | Belcher, | Resolute, | |
| Osborn, | Pioneer, | „ |Franklin Search
| M’Clintock, | Intrepid, | |
| Richards, | Assistance, | |
| Pullen | North Star | |
| | | |
1853–54 | Rae | | „ | „
| | | |
1853–55 | Kane (2nd | Advance | American | Smith Sound
|Grinnell Exp.)| | |
| | | |
1857–59 | M’Clintock | Fox | British |Franklin Search
| | | |
1858–62 | Torell, | Various | Swedish |Spitsbergen and
|Nordenskiöld, | | | Greenland
| etc. | | |
| | | |
1860–61 | Hayes |United States| American | Grinnell Land
| | | |and N. Greenland
| | | |
1864–69 | Hall | Monticello | „ | American
| | | | Archipelago
| | | |
1868 | Nordenskiöld | Sofia | Swedish |Bear Island and
| (A. E.) | | | Spitsbergen
| | | |
1868 | Koldewey | Germania | German | E. Greenland
| | | |
1869 | Palliser | Laurel | Anglo- | Kara Sea
| | | Norwegian |
| | | |
1869–70 | Koldewey and |Germania and | German E. | Greenland
| Hegemann | Hansa | |
| | | |
1871–73 | Hall | Polaris | American |Smith Sound and
| | | |Robeson Channel
| | | |
1872–74 |Weyprecht and | Tegetthoff | Austrian | _Franz Josef
| Payer | | | Land_
| | | |
1874–95 | Wiggins | Various | British | Sea route to
| | | | Siberia
| | | |
1875–77 | Nares and | Alert and | „ | Grant Land and
| others | Discovery | | N. Greenland
| | | |
1875–76 | Allen Young | Pandora | „ | Lancaster and
| | | | Smith Sounds
| | | |
1878–80 | Nordenskiöld | Vega | Swedish | _N.E. Passage_
| (A. E.) | | |
| | | |
1879–82 | De Long | Jeannette | American | New Siberia
| | | | Islands, etc.
| | | |
1880–82 | Leigh Smith | Eira | British |Franz Josef Land
| | | |
1881–84 | Greely | Proteus | American | Lady Franklin
| | | | Bay, etc.
| | | |
1885–86 |Bunge and Toll| | Russian | New Siberia
| | | | Islands
| | | |
1888 | Nansen | (land) | Norwegian | S. Greenland
| | | |
1891–92 | Peary | Kite | American | N. Greenland
| | | |
1893 | Toll | | Russian | New Siberia
| | | | Islands, etc.
| | | |
1893–95 | Peary | Falcon | American | N. Greenland
| | | |
1893–96 | Nansen | Fram | Norwegian | _Across Polar
| | | | Basin_
| | | |
1894–97 | Jackson | Windward | British |Franz Josef Land
| | | |
1896–97 | Conway | Express | „ | Spitsbergen
| | | |
1897 | Peary | Hope | American | Cape York
| | | | Meteorite
| | | |
1898–99 | Amdrup | | Danish | E. Greenland
| | | |
1898–1902 | Peary | Windward | American | Sea N. of
| | | | Greenland
| | | |
1898–1902 | Sverdrup | Fram | Norwegian | American
| | | | Archipelago
| | | |
1899 | Makarof | Yermak | Russian | Kara Sea, etc.
| | | |
1899 | Nathorst | Antarctic | Swedish | Jan Mayen and
| | | | E. Greenland
| | | |
1899–1900 | Duke of |Stella Polare| Italian | Franz Josef
| Abruzzi | | |Land and Sea to
| | | | North
| | | |
1900 | Amdrup | Antarctic | Danish | E. Greenland
| | | |
1900–1901 | Baldwin (1st | America | American |Franz Josef Land
|Ziegler Exp.) | | |
| | | |
1900–1902 | Toll | Sarya | Russian | New Siberia
| | | | Islands
| | | |
1903–1905 | Amundsen | Gjöa | Norwegian | N. Magnetic
| | | | Pole and N.W.
| | | | Passage
| | | |
1903–1905 | Fiala (2nd | America | American |Franz Josef Land
|Ziegler Exp.) | | |
| | | |
1905–1906 | Peary | Roosevelt | „ | Ocean N. of
| | | | Greenland
| | | |
1906–1907 | Bernier | Arctic | Canadian | American
| | | | Archipelago
| | | |
1906–1908 | Mikkelsen | Duchess of | Anglo- | Beaufort Sea
| | Bedford | American- |
| | | Danish |
| | | |
1906–1908 | Mylius | Danmark | Danish | N.E. Greenland
| Erichsen | | |
| | | |
1908–1909 | Peary | Roosevelt | American | N. Pole
| | | |
1908–12 | Stefansson | (land) | Icelandic | Arctic Canada
| and Anderson | | Canadian |
| | | |
1909–12 | Mikkelsen | Alabama | Danish | N.E. Greenland
| | | |
1912 | Rasmussen | (land) | „ | N. Greenland
| | | |
1912 | De Quervain | „ | Swiss | S. Greenland
| | | |
1913 | Koch | „ | Danish | Central
| | | | Greenland
| | | |
1913 | Vilkitski | Taimuir and | Russian |Siberian Arctic
| | Vaigach | | Ocean
| | | |
1913–17 | Macmillan | Erik | American | Greenland,
| | | | Ellesmere
| | | | Island and Sea
| | | | to north
| | | |
1913–17 | Stefansson, |Karluk, Mary | Canadian | American
|Anderson, and |Sachs, Polar | |Archipelago and
| Bartlett | Bear, etc. | | Beaufort Sea
| | | |
1914–15 | Vilkitski | Taimuir and | Russian | N.E. Passage
| | Vaigach | | (E. to W.)
| | | |
1917 | Rasmussen | (land) | Danish | N. Greenland
| | | |
1918 | Storkersen | (ice) | Canadian | Beaufort Sea
II. _Antarctic (including near approaches to Antarctic Circle)_
YEAR | EXPLORER | SHIP |NATIONALITY| LOCALITY[214]
| | | |
1772–75 | Cook | Resolution | British | Southern Ocean
| |and Adventure| |
| | | |
1819–21 |Bellingshausen| Vostok and | Russian | „
| | Mirnyi | |
| | | |
1819–20 | Smith | Williams | British |South Shetlands
| | | |
1820 | Bransfield | Andromache | „ | „
| | | |
1820–22 | Pendleton, | Frederick, | American | South
(2 voyages)| Palmer, etc. | Hero, etc. | | Shetlands,
| | | | Palmer Land,
| | | | Powell Islands
| | | |
1821–22 | Powell | Dove | British | South Orkneys
| | | |
1822–23 | Weddell | Jane and | „ | Weddell Sea,
| | Beaufoy | | etc.
| | | |
1822–23 | Morrell | Wasp | American | Southern Ocean
| | | |
1837–40 | D’Urville | Astrolabe | French | Southern Ocean
| | and Zelée | | and lands to
| | | | South
| | | |
1838–39 | Balleny | Eliza Scott | British | _Balleny
| | | | Islands_, etc.
| | | |
1839–40 | Wilkes | Vincennes | American | _Wilkes Land_,
| | and others | | etc.
| | | |
1839–43 | Ross (James | Erebus and | British | Ross Sea and
| C.) | Terror | |_Victoria Land_
| | | |
1873–74 | Dallmann | Grönland | German | Graham Land,
| | | | etc.
| | | |
1874 | Nares | Challenger | British | Southern Ocean
| | | |
1892–93 | Fairweather, | Balaena, | „ | Graham Land,
| Bruce, etc. | Active and | | etc.
| | others | |
| | | |
1893–94 | Larsen and | Jason, etc. | Norwegian | „
| others | | -German |
| | | |
1894–95 | Kristensen | Antarctic | Norwegian | Victoria Land
| and Bull | | |
| | | |
1897–99 | Gerlache and | Belgica | Belgian | Graham and
| others | | | _Alexander_
| | | | Lands
| | | |
1898–1900 | Borchgrevink | Southern | British | Victoria Land
| | Cross | |
| | | |
1901–03 | Drygalski | Gauss | German | _William II
| | | | Land_
| | | |
1901–03 | Nordenskjöld | Antarctic | Swedish | Graham Land,
| | | | etc.
| | | |
1901–04 | Scott | Discovery | British | Victoria Land
| | | |
1902–04 | Bruce | Scotia | „ |Weddell Sea and
| | | | _Coats Land_
| | | |
1902–04 | Charcot | Français | French | Graham Land,
| | | | etc.
| | | |
1907–09 | Shackleton | Nimrod | British | Towards South
| | | | Pole
| | | |
1908–10 | Charcot |Pourquoi-pas?| French | Graham Land,
| | | | etc.
| | | |
1910–12 | Amundsen | Fram | Norwegian | _South Pole_
| | | |
1910–13 | Scott | Terra Nova | British | South Pole
| | | |
1911–12 | Filchner | Deutschland | German |Weddell Sea and
| | | |_Luitpold Land_
| | | |
1911–13 | Mawson and | Aurora |Australian | Lands south of
| Davis | | | Indian Ocean
| | | |
1914–16 | Shackleton | Endurance | British | Weddell Sea
| | and Aurora | |
BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY OF POLAR VOYAGES AND TRAVELS
[_Limited to narratives of general interest, no attempt being made to
include special reports and memoirs on scientific results._]
ABRUZZI, DUKE OF THE. Farther North than Nansen; being the voyage of
the _Polar Star_. _Illustrations._ La. 8^o. 1901.
AMUNDSEN, ROALD. The North-West Passage; being the record of a voyage
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illustrations._ 8^o. 1908.
BACK, SIR G. Narrative of the Arctic Land Expedition to the mouth of
the Great Fish River ... in 1833–35. _Map and illustrations._
8^o. 1836.
BAFFIN, WILLIAM. The Voyages of W. B., 1612–22. Ed. by Sir Clements
R. Markham. (Hakluyt Society Publication, No. 63.) _Maps and
illustrations._ 8^o. 1881.
BARENTS, WILLEM. The Three Voyages of W. B. to the Arctic Regions
in 1594–96. By Gerrit de Veer. Ed. by Lieut. Koolemans Beynen.
(Hakluyt Society Publication, No. 54.) 2nd ed. _Maps and
illustrations._ 8^o. 1876.
---- Reizen van W. B., Jacob van Heemskerck, Jan Corneliz Rijp, en
Anderen ... verhaald door Gerrit de Veer, uitgeg. door S.P.
L’Honoré Naber. (Werken uitgeg. door De Linschoten Vereeniging,
XIV, XV.) 2 vols. _Maps and illustrations._ La. 8^o. The Hague,
1917.
BARROW, SIR JOHN. Chronological History of Voyages into the Arctic
Regions.... _Map._ 8^o. 1818.
---- Voyages of Discovery and Research within the Arctic Regions,
from the year 1818 to the Present Time.... _Maps and portraits._
8^o. 1846.
BEECHEY, CAPT. F. W. Voyage of Discovery towards the North Pole,
performed in H.M.SS. _Dorothea_ and _Trent_, 1818. _Map and
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BELCHER, SIR EDWARD. The Last of the Arctic Voyages; being a
narrative of the Expedition in H.M.S. _Assistance_ ... 1852–54. 2
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BERNIER, CAPT. J. E. Report on the Dominion Government Expedition to
Arctic Lands ... on board the C.G.S. _Arctic_, 1906–1907. _Map
and illustrations._ La. 8^o, Ottawa, 1909.
CHRISTY, MILLER. _See_ FOXE, LUKE.
COLLINSON, SIR RICHARD. Journal of H.M.S. _Enterprise_, on the
Expedition in search of Sir John Franklin’s Ships by Behring
Strait, 1850–55.... _Maps and illustrations._ 8^o. 1889.
CONWAY, SIR W. M. and others. The First Crossing of Spitsbergen.
_Maps and illustrations._ La. 8^o. 1897.
---- No Man’s Land: a History of Spitsbergen.... _Maps and
illustrations._ La. 8^o. Cambridge, 1906.
DAVIS, JOHN. The Voyages and Works of J. D. the Navigator. Ed. by Sir
A. H. Markham. (Hakluyt Society Publication, No. 59.) _Maps and
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DE LONG, GEORGE W. The Voyage of the _Jeannette_.... Ed. by Emma De
Long. 2 vols. _Maps and illustrations._ 1883.
ELLIS, HENRY. Voyage to Hudson’s Bay ... in 1746–47. _Maps and
illustrations._ 8^o. 1748.
FIALA, A. Fighting the Polar Ice. _Map and illustrations._ La. 8^o.
1907.
FOX, CAPT. LUKE. North-west Fox; or, Fox from the North-west
Passage.... _Maps and diagram_, sm. 4^o. 1635.
---- The Voyages of Capt. Luke Fox and Capt. Thomas James in search
of a N.W. Passage. With narratives of the earlier North-west
voyages of Frobisher, Davis, Weymouth, Hall, Knight, Hudson,
Button, Gibbons, Bylot, Baffin, Hawkridge, and others. Ed. by
Miller Christy. (Hakluyt Society Publications, Nos. 88, 89.) 2
vols. _Maps and illustrations._ 8^o. 1894.
FRANKLIN, SIR JOHN. Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar
Sea, in 1819–22. _Maps and illustrations._ 4^o. 1823.
---- Narrative of a Second Expedition ... 1825, 1826 and 1827. _Maps
and illustrations._ 4^o. 1828.
FROBISHER, SIR MARTIN. The Three Voyages of Sir M. F.... By George
Best. Ed. by Sir R. Collinson. (Hakluyt Society Publication, No.
38.) _Maps and illustrations._ 8^o. 1867.
GREELY, GEN. ADOLPHUS W. Three Years of Arctic Service; an account of
the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition of 1881–84. 2 vols. _Maps and
illustrations._ La. 8^o. 1886.
---- Handbook of Polar Discoveries. 4th ed. _Maps._ 8^o. 1910.
HAKLUYT, RICHARD. The Principal Navigations ... of the English
Nation.... 3 vols. Sm. Folio. 1599–1600.
[Also reprint in 12 vols. 8^o. Glasgow, 1903–1905.]
HALL, CHARLES, F. Narrative of the Second Arctic Expedition ... to
Repulse Bay, etc., etc., 1864–69. Ed. by J. E. Nourse. _Maps and
illustrations._ 4^o. Washington, 1879.
---- Narrative of the North Polar Expedition, U.S. Ship _Polaris_....
Ed. by Rear-Adm. C. F. Davis. _Maps and illustrations._ 4^o.
Washington, 1876.
HAYES, ISAAC I. The Open Polar Sea:... Voyage of Discovery towards
the North Pole in the Schooner _United States_. _Maps and
illustrations._ 8^o. 1867.
HEEMSKERCK. _See_ BARENTS.
HUDSON, HENRY. H. H. the Navigator. Original Documents.... Collected
... by G. M. Aster. (Hakluyt Society Publication, No. 27.)
_Maps._ 8^o. 1860.
JACKSON, FREDERICK GEORGE. A Thousand Days in the Arctic. 2 vols.
_Maps._ La. 8^o. 1899.
JAMES, CAPT. THOMAS. The Strange and dangerous Voyage of, in his
intended discovery of the North-west Passage into the South
Sea.... _Map._ Sm. 4^o. 1633.
---- _See_ FOX, LUKE.
JOHNSON, HENRY. The Life and Voyages of Joseph Wiggins. _Maps and
illustrations._ 8^o. 1907.
KANE, ELISHA KENT. The U.S. Grinnell Expedition in search of Sir John
Franklin. _Map and illustrations._ New York, 1853.
---- Arctic Explorations: The Second Grinnell Expedition ... 1853–55.
2 vols. _Maps and illustrations._ 8^o. Philadelphia, 1856.
KOLDEWEY, KARL. The German Arctic Expedition of 1869–70. [Translated
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KOTZEBUE, OTTO VON. A Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea and
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---- Farthest North.... Voyage of Exploration of the Ship _Fram_,
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---- Journal of a Third Voyage ... in 1824–25. _Maps and
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---- Narrative of an Attempt to reach the North Pole ... in 1827.
_Maps and illustrations._ 4^o. 1828.
PAYER, JULIUS VON. New Lands within the Arctic Circle.... Discoveries
of the _Tegetthoff_, 1872–74. 2 vols. _Maps and illustrations._
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II. ANTARCTIC
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FOOTNOTES
[1] _Névé_ is the upper portion of a glacier, the top layers of which
are more nearly in the condition of snow, and in the whole of which
much air is mingled with the ice. It is rather frozen snow than ice.
[2] Dr Rink gives a list of 25 discharging glaciers. Of these,
beginning from the south, the principal ones are:
(1) Sermilik (near Cape Farewell).
(2) Narsalik.
(3) Godthaab.
(4) Jacobshavn.
(5) Jasiusak (into the Waigat).
(6) Omenak Fjord.
(7) Stor Kangerdlugsuatsiak.
(8) Upernivik.
[3] It takes a very long time for lichens to form. The bones of the
ptarmigan which Sir Edward Barry and his party had eaten on Melville
Island in 1820 were clean and free from any growth when found 30 years
afterwards.
[4] I paid very special attention to the vestiges of these wanderers
when I served in those regions. All the articles mentioned were found
by myself in 1851.
[5] By Colonel Feilden in 1877.
[6] Found by Dr O. Stolberg. _Nansen_, 11, 72.
[7] _Studies on the Material Culture of the Eskimo in West Greenland_
(Kjøbenhavn, 1915), Morten P. Porsild.
[8] The work of Pytheas was known to Dicaearchus, a pupil of Aristotle,
and the date of the voyage was, therefore, probably not later than the
time of Aristotle.
[9] The word Thule, in its forms _Thyle_, _Thull_, _Tell_, means ‘a
limit’ in ancient Saxon; and we thus have Telemarken in Norway.
[10] Pliny and Diodorus Siculus.
[11] The name of Viking is derived from _Vik_, a bay or creek, and the
patronymic _Ing_, i.e. “Children of the bays,” whence they sallied
forth as sea rovers.
[12] The _mausar_, which was highly prized, may have been some kind of
maple or birch.
[13] According to the Flatey book, Bjarni, the son of Herjulf, was in
Norway when his father left Iceland to settle in Greenland. Hearing
this when he came to Iceland, he continued his voyage to join his
father. He is said to have discovered a new land before reaching his
father’s homestead in Herjulfsfjord. This led to the voyage of Leif to
visit the newly-discovered land. The two stories in the Hauk book and
the Flatey book are so different that they cannot be fitted together,
and it is necessary to adopt one and reject the other. That in the Hauk
book is the older, the more coherent, and probably nearer to the truth.
[14] Professor Rafn, and those who have followed him, thought
_Dagmalastad_ and _Eyktarstad_ denoted hours of the day, and that the
former was 8 a.m. and the latter 4 p.m. This gave nine hours for the
duration of the shortest day, which would be in latitude 42° 21′ N.
But _Dagmal_ and _Eykt_ were points of the horizon, not hours of the
day. The Norsemen had no means of knowing the hours. In 1885 Professor
Gustav Storm gave the correct interpretation of the passage, and showed
that the position must have been south of 49° N., but not far to the
south of that latitude. The inhabitants met with by the Norsemen in
Markland and called by them Skrællings are held by Tholbitzer to have
been Eskimos. In Vinland the natives appear to have been Algonquin
Indians.
[15] The different events which, according to the Hauk book, occurred
in Karlsefni’s voyage, are scattered over several voyages in the Flatey
book, the companions of Karlsefni being made the leaders of separate
expeditions at different times. There is a voyage of Thorstein which
failed, a voyage of Thorwald who was killed by Skrællings, a voyage of
Karlsefni, and a voyage of Fredis in company with two brothers whom he
murdered. The two accounts are contradictory as regards some of the
details.
[16] The Kakortak ruin was discovered by Hans Egede in 1723. It was
visited by Lieut. Graah in 1827 who first described it, with careful
measurements. It was again visited by Sir Leopold M’Clintock in 1860.
[17] These are recorded in the Icelandic annals, which commence in
1260. Another series is appended to the Flatey book and dates from 1395.
[18] A Norse festival which falls on April 28th.
[19] In 1246.
[20] July 25th.
[21] _Antiq. Amer._ XXXIX.
[22] The sailing directions of Ivar Bardsen were published in English
by Purchas, from a copy which had belonged to Henry Hudson. Rafn, in
the _Antiquitates Americanae_, gave the text of an early copy found in
the Faroes, with a Latin translation. Mr Major, in his _Voyages of the
Zeni_, gives an English translation of the Latin version.
[23] We learn this from a parchment MS., known as the Skalholt Annals,
believed to have been written in 1347.
[24] The drawings by Christianised Eskimos of Godthaab which have been
printed, and are supposed to represent traditions about their conquest
of the Norsemen, merely represent what the Danes told them.
[25] Vigdis M.d. hvilir her glede gud sal hennar.
[26] _Voyages of the Brothers Zeni_, by F. W. Lucas (Stevens, 1897).
[27] There are several astrolabes in the British Museum, one of
1280, another of 1342; one at King’s College, Cambridge (1540); two
at Gonville and Caius College, one of early 14th century date, the
other, rather later, formerly belonged to Caius himself; one at
South Kensington (1374); one at Oriel College, Oxford, in rather bad
condition; three at Merton College, one of 1350, another 1571, and
a third very heavy one. At Merton there is also a very old quadrant
of 12-inch radius, and a small disc of brass with pointers. At the
Bodleian there is a Persian astrolabe. Mr Hyett’s astrolabe at
Painswick House has 21 stars marked and one ring at the back; 36
festivals are marked. The number of English Saints shows it to be
English. The interesting astrolabe which belonged to Sir Francis
Drake is at Greenwich, its date is 1572. It belonged to the Earl of
Chesterfield, who gave it to the Rev. T. Bigsby in 1783. Mr Bigsby gave
it to King William IV, who presented it to Greenwich in 1833.
[28] Father of Sir Philip Sidney, and of Robert, 1st Earl of Leicester
of that family.
[29] The first wife of Sir Henry Willoughby, Sir Hugh’s father, was
Margaret, daughter of Sir Robert Markham of Cotham. His third wife was
Ellen, daughter of John Egerton of Winehill in Cheshire. Sir Henry had
four wives. His effigy on the monument at Wollaton has two small wives
on each side.
[30] Besides Willoughby there were a master and his mate, six
merchants, a master gunner, a boatswain and his mate, a carpenter, a
purser, two surgeons, and 20 men.
[31] Moxon (1676) places Willoughby Land near the south-east corner
of Spitsbergen. On the map in Harris’s voyage (1748) it is an island
half-way between Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya.
[32] I believe this is now in Lord Salisbury’s collection at Hatfield.
[33] Reproduced by kind permission of the publisher, from Dr A. D. de
Vries’s _Oud-Holland_ (Binger, 1882).
[34] Found by Purchas among the papers of Hakluyt, v. ante, p. 51.
[35] An excellent English edition of the voyage of Linschoten to the
East Indies in two vols. was printed for the Hakluyt Society in 1885;
edited by Mr Arthur C. Burnell and Mr Tiele of Utrecht.
[36] Linschoten wrote a very interesting account of this voyage with
Tetgales in 1594.
[37] Linschoten’s narrative of this second voyage was published in
1601, the 3rd edition in 1638. On his return Linschoten settled at
Enkhuizen and became Treasurer of the town. Here he was the friend of
Lucas Waghenaer, author of the best sailing directions of that time.
Linschoten published a translation of the _History of the West Indies_,
by Acosta. He died in 1611, aged 48. De Veer wrote an account of the
proceedings of Barentsz’s ship during the second voyage.
[38] In 1603 Stephen Bennet came to the same island and named it
Cherrie Island, after his patron Sir Francis Cherrie, an Adventurer of
the Russia Company.
[39] The _schuit_ was a larger boat.
[40] The narrative of Gerrit de Veer was translated and edited for the
Hakluyt Society by Dr Beke in 1852. A new edition was edited, at my
request, by that gallant young Dutch Arctic officer Koolemans Beynen in
1876.
[41] Another Norwegian Captain named Gundersen reached the Ice Haven of
Barentsz in August 1875.
[42] These relics were deposited in the model room of the Naval
Department at the Hague.
[43] State Paper Office, _Holland_, lxxvii.
[44] Maldonado, a Spaniard, published an account of a navigable strait,
called the Strait of Anian, from the east side of America to the
Pacific, coming out north of Cape Mendocino in California.
[45] Chancellor had used the cross-staff. Frobisher had been supplied
with a similar instrument called a “ballestilla,” which he used in
preference to the astrolabe, both being among the instruments and
charts bought at a cost of £47. 0_s._ 8_d._ of Humphrey Cole and
others. The cross-staff was described by Gemma Frisius, and Gunter’s
was a yard long, with a cross-piece of 26½ inches. The staff, which was
of wood, was graduated, and the cross-piece was moved along it until,
looking through the sight near the eye, the two objects were covered of
which the angle was to be measured. In observing for the latitude the
two objects were the sun and the horizon, the angle giving the altitude.
[46] The authorities for the Arctic voyages of Frobisher are first the
interesting narrative of George Best (Hakluyt, III) and the narrative
of Dionise Settle (Hakluyt, III); Christopher Hall’s account in the
Harl. MSS. 167, fol. 165; the Journal of the _Judith_, Harl. MSS. 167,
fol 41; Edward Sellman, _Narrative of Thomas Ellis_ (Hakluyt, III);
State Papers (Dom., Eliz.). Admiral Sir Richard Collinson edited the
_Voyages of Frobisher_ for the Hakluyt Society. There is a well written
and painstaking life of Sir Martin Frobisher by the Rev. Frank Jones
(Longman, 1878).
[47] Mr Miller Christy very thoroughly investigated the question of the
Land of Busse, and wrote an exhaustive monograph on the subject. See
Hakluyt Society’s No. XCVI, Appendix B.
[48] The following names were given by Frobisher to places discovered
on his voyages:--
1. Beare’s Sound.
2. Best’s Bulwock.
3. Best’s Cape.
4. Best’s Blessing.
5. Dyer’s Sound.
6. Hall Island.
7. Hall Sound.
8. Jackman’s Sound.
9. Fenton’s Fortune.
10. Five Men’s Sound.
11. Jonas Mount.
12. Frobisher Strait.
13. Gabriel Islands.
14. Haidon’s Nests.
15. Hatton Island.
16. Leicester Island.
17. Lok Island.
18. Meta Incognita (name given by the Queen).
19. Mistaken Strait (Hudson’s Strait).
20. Oxford Mount.
21. Queen Elizabeth’s Foreland.
22. Queen’s Cape.
23. Sussex (Countess of) Mine.
24. Sussex (Earl of) Island.
25. Trumpet’s Island.
26. Walsingham Cape.
27. Warwick Mount.
28. Warwick (Countess of) Sound and Island.
29. Winter’s Furnace.
30. Yorke Sound (_in Greenland_).
[49] It must be remembered that Davis was entirely ignorant of the
Norse colony and of the Icelandic Sagas, which were only brought to
light by Professor Rafn in our own day.
[50] The narratives of the first and third voyages were written by Mr
Janes, those of the second by Davis himself. They are all in Hakluyt,
and, with the other writings of Davis, have been edited for the Hakluyt
Society by Admiral Sir Albert Markham. The present writer’s life of
Davis, which records his great services in much more detail than is
here possible, was published in 1889.
[51] An account of the contents of _The Seaman’s Secrets_ is given in
the present writer’s life of Davis, and it is printed _in extenso_ in
Admiral Sir Albert Markham’s _Voyages of John Davis_.
[52] This is now in the Museum at Greenwich.
[53] The following names were given by John Davis in the Arctic regions.
1. Chidley (or Chudleigh) Cape, S. entrance to Hudson Strait.
2. Cumberland (Earl of) Gulf.
3. Darcy Island, Labrador.
4. Desolation Land and Cape, S. Greenland.
5. Dyer Cape, North point of Exeter Sound.
6. Exeter Sound, Baffin Land.
7. Farewell Cape, S. point of Greenland.
8. Furious Overfall, Hudson Strait.
9. Gilbert Sound, Greenland 64° 15′ (Godthaab).
10. God’s Mercy Cape, N. entrance of Cumberland Gulf.
11. London Coast, West Coast of Greenland.
12. Raleigh Mount, Baffin Land.
13. Sanderson His Hope, 72° 12′ N., Baffin Bay.
14. Totnes Road, 66° 40′ N., Baffin Land.
15. Walsingham Cape, Baffin Land.
16. Warwick (Earl of) Foreland, Baffin Land.
[54] A portrait of Sir Thomas Smith was engraved by Simon de Passe,
dated 1617. The engraving is bound up in T. Grenville’s copy of the
Embassy to Russia and in a book called the _Surgeon’s Mate_, which is
dedicated to Sir Thomas. By his wife Sarah, daughter of William Blunt,
who married secondly Robert Sidney Earl of Leicester, Sir Thomas had
a son, Sir John Smith, who married a daughter of Sir Philip Sidney’s
“Stella” and his son Robert married Waller’s “Sacharissa.”
[55] The works of Leonard Digges were edited and published by his son:
_Tectonicum_, a book on land-surveying (4to, 1556), _Pantometria_, a
geometrical treatise (folio, 1591).
[56] Thomas Digges wrote _Alæ sive Scalæ Mathematicæ_ (4to, 1573),
_Arithmetical Military Treatise_ (4to, 1579), _Stvatioticos_, a
geometrical treatise necessary for the practice of soldiers (4to,
1590), with an account of the proceedings of the Earl of Leicester for
the relief of Sluys, also _Description of the Celestial Orbs_ (1599),
and _England’s Defence_ (folio, 1686).
[57] The eldest son, Thomas Digges, succeeded to Chilham and died in
1687. His son Leonard died in 1718 leaving a son Thomas, whose second
son West Digges was a celebrated comedian. Chilham was finished in 1616
and the names of Sir Dudley Digges and his wife Mary Kempe are carved
over the door.
[58] See the writer’s volume _The Voyages of Sir James Lancaster to the
East Indies_, edited for the Hakluyt Society in 1877.
[59] Purchas calls her the _Frost_.
[60] Mount Kakatsiak.
[61] Cape Sophia is Proestefjeld (1170 ft.), just north of Holsteinborg.
[62] Amerdluk Fjord, or Itivdlek, in the opinion of Steenstrup.
[63] In 1881 I first drew attention to a manuscript Report to the King
of Denmark in the British Museum, with 4 maps (21 leaves, small 4to).
It was printed for the first time in the Hakluyt Society’s volumes on
Danish Expeditions. Probably when Hall left Denmark he did not send it
in, but took it with him and presented it to James I.
[64] This search was undertaken by the kindness of the late Colonel
Chester. In the Parish Register of St Margaret’s, Westminster,
Richard, son of John Baffin, was baptised on Sept. 30th, 1603, Joseph,
Elizabeth, and William Baffin died of the plague in 1609, and Margaret
Baffin, a child, was buried on June 8th, 1612. In the Register of the
church of St Thomas Apostle, in the City, there is one entry of the
name: Susan, daughter of William Baffin, was baptised on 15th Oct.
1609. This church was burnt in the great fire, and was not rebuilt.
[65] John Gatonby may have been a native of Winestead, for he dedicated
his narrative (in _Churchill’s Voyages_) to Sir Christopher Hildyard of
that place. Gatonby was a well-known Hull name. I have failed to find
any further trace of young Huntriss, the Scarborough lad, though the
name still exists in that town.
[66] Incorrectly called Cocken Sound on old maps.
[67] Navigation Instructor and for many years Map Curator to the Royal
Geographical Society.
[68] Andrew Barker was an experienced seaman. He was admitted a younger
brother of the Hull Trinity House in 1594, and was three times Warden.
He presented one of the lights of the stained glass in the East
window of the Chapel of the old Trinity House at Hull, a figure of St
James the Less. There still hangs in the hall of the House the kayak
presented by Barker.
[69] The names given in Greenland by Hall are as follows; those while
with the Danish Expedition are marked (D). The persons after whom the
places were named are given in brackets.
_Anne Cape_ (D). (_Queen of Denmark_), in sight from Cape Sophia.
_Bell’s River._ (_One of the Venturers_), branch of Godthaab Fjord
corrupted to _Baal_.
_Brunei Cape_ (D). (_Dutch Venturer_), _Burnitt_ on Admiralty Chart
is wrong. Oliver Brunei (see p. 130) was for some time in the
Danish service.
_Christian’s Fjord_ (D). (_King Christian IV_), 66° 25′ N., close to
Cape Anne; is called by Gatonby _King’s Fjord_.
_Cockayne Sound._ (_Sir W. Cockayne_), incorrectly spelt _Cocken_ on
maps, 65° 25′ The modern Sukkertoppen.
_Comfort Cape._ (_Named by Gatonby._)
_Cunningham Mount_ (D). (_Leader of first Danish Voyage_), Itivdlek.
_Cunningham Fjord_ (D). (_Leader of first Danish Voyage_), Itivdlek
Fjord or Amerdluk, 67° 25′ N.
_Gabriel Mount._
_Hope Harbour._ Gilbert Sound of Davis. Modern Godthaab, 64° 15′ N.
_Huntcliff Mount._ (_After Huntcliff Foot near Redcar_), in Godthaab
Fjord.
_King’s Fjord._ (See Christian’s Fjord.)
_Knight Islands._ (_Captain John Knight_, see pp. 129, 130).
_Lancaster River._ (_Sir James Lancaster_), a branch of Godthaab
Fjord.
_Sophia Cape_ (D). (_Queen of Denmark_), Proestefjeld, 1770 ft., just
N. of Holsteinborg.
_Rommel’s Fjord_ (D). (_Hendrik Rommel_), 66.54 N., now Holsteinborg.
_Thoroughgood Island._
_Wilkinson Isles._ (_Merchant sent with Hall by the Adventurers._)
[70] See _An Historical Enquiry concerning Henry Hudson_, by John
Meredith Read (Albany, 1856).
[71] See my _Life of John Davis_, p. 29.
[72] Engroneland.
[73] _Purchas_, III, p. 464, reprinted by Asher in his _Hudson’s
Voyages_, p. 146. Among some protests of the Muscovy Company against
Dutch encroachments, in the State Paper Office, there is one by a
Captain Millworth in which _Hudson’s Touches_ is mentioned.
[74] The following were the names of the crew: Henry Hudson (Master),
and his son John Hudson, Robert Juet (Master’s Mate), Arnold Ladley
(Mate), John Cooke (Boatswain), Philip Stacey (Carpenter), John Braunch
(Cook), John Barnes, John Adrey, James Scrutton, Michael Pearce (or
Pierce), Thomas Hilles, Richard Tonson, Robert Rayne, and Humphrey
Gilby.
[75] “We were against Fair Foreland in 79° N.” [north end of Prince
Charles Island]. “The night was very clear with fair weather, also
calm, by which I had a very good opportunity to find the sun’s
refraction. For beholding it about a north-north-east sun, by a common
compass, at which time the sun was at the lowest, it was but one-fifth
of his body above the horizon, having about four-fifth parts below, so
near as I could guess. His declination for that instant was 10° 35′ N.,
being at noon in the 2° 7′ of Virgo, his daily motion was 58′ whose
half being twenty-nine, to be added to the former, because it was at
twelve hours after noon. I say his place at the instant was 2° 26′ of
Virgo, whose declination was as before 10° 35′; the latitude of the
place was 78° 47′ whose complement was 11° 13′ the declination being
subtracted from the complement of the pole’s elevation, leaveth 38′,
four-five part of which 12′, which being subtracted from 38 leaveth 26′
for refraction. But I suppose the refraction is more or less according
as the air is thick or clear, which I leave for better scholars to
discuss; but this I thought good to note for the better help of those
who do profess this study.”
[76] In December 1615, Captain Joseph was appointed to command the
fleet of the East India Company, consisting of the _Charles_ and
_Unicorn_ (the Journal is in the India Office, No. 20). In 1617 he
was slain in a fight with a Portuguese carrack. His widow received a
pension.
[77] The family of Fotherby was from Grimsby. Martin Fotherby of
Grimsby had two sons, Charles, Dean of Canterbury, who died in 1619,
and Martin, Bishop of Salisbury. There is an elaborate tomb of the Dean
in Canterbury Cathedral. Robert Fotherby was of the same family. His
narratives of his three Spitsbergen voyages show that he had received a
classical education, was observant, intelligent, and a thorough seaman.
He afterwards entered the service of the East India Company, probably
made one voyage to India, and was agent to the company at Deptford and
in 1621 at Blackwall. He probably died in that employment.
[78] In 1617 Captain Marmaduke proposed to the King that he should be
employed to make the north-east passage, but I have failed to discover
anything more of his history.
[79] Since found to be three islands; the proper name of the group
being Wyche Islands.
[80] For instance Wyche’s Sound, discovered by Baffin and Fotherby in
1614, if not by Marmaduke in 1612, is now called Wijde Bay, a name, as
Sir Martin Conway has pointed out, that was never heard of before 1670.
[81] This reverend but mutinous gentleman had previously been in Persia
with the Shirleys.
[82] These islands are off Cape Sophia on the Greenland coast, a fact
that the writer has good cause to remember, as he was once aground on
them, and in some danger.
[83] I found Knight’s Journal among some other papers thrown aside in
a very damp place in the tower of the India Office, and printed it
at the end of my volume of Sir James Lancaster’s voyages, edited for
the Hakluyt Society. A version of it is given by Purchas, but much is
omitted.
[84] Brunel was a Dutchman. He had proposed to Christian IV to discover
the lost colony of Greenland, and was probably in Hall’s first voyage.
A Cape on the Greenland coast was named after him. The story of Oliver
Brunel was brought to light by S. Müller and Koolemans Beynen, the very
able young editor of the 2nd edition of the Barentsz voyages.
[85] The names and rank of the crew were as follows:
1. Henry Hudson (Captain).
2. John Hudson (Captain’s son).
3. Robert Juet (Mate).
4. Robert Bylot (Mate).
5. John King (Mate).
6. Edward Wilson (Surgeon).
7. Francis Clements (Boatswain).
8. William Wilson (Boatswain).
9. John Williams (Gunner).
10. Philip Staffe (Carpenter)
11. Sylvanus Bond (Cooper).
12. Bennet Mathews (Cook).
13. Henry Green (Clerk).
14. Habakuk Prickett (servant of Sir D. Digges).
15. Thomas Woodhouse (mathematical student).
16. Arnold Ladley (or Ludlow), A.B.
17. Michael Pierce, A.B.
18. John Thomas , A.B.
19. Adrian Moter , A.B.
20. Syriack Fanner, A.B.
21. Adam Moore , A.B.
22. Michael Butt , A.B.
23. Nicholas Sims (Boy).
[86] Prince Henry died November 6th, 1613, aged 18 years and a half.
[87] This distance would be greatly in error, unless the declinations
of both heavenly bodies were the same.
[88] John Searle, a licensed surgeon, published his ephemeris in 1609.
It was from 1609 to 1617, and the book also contained a correction of
time in respect of several meridians, a list of places with latitude
and longitude in time, and a table for converting degrees and minutes
into time. David Origanus was the author of an ephemeris for the years
from 1595 to 1650. His meridian was Wittenberg.
[89] I have not been successful in my attempts to discover who Master
Herbert was. He was probably a gentleman volunteer.
[90] This map is excessively rare. It is only to be found in one or two
copies of Foxe’s book. The British Museum copy has not got it, but a
facsimile has been inserted.
[91] The Portuguese Admiral, Ruy Freire de Andrada, and 17 guns were
captured when the Kishm fort was taken. Ormuz then surrendered and was
handed over to Shah Abbas.
[92] La Peyrère’s account in his _Relation du Groenland_ is unreliable
and inaccurate.
Munk’s narrative, _Navigatio Septentrionalis_ (Copenhagen, 1621), has
been edited for the Hakluyt Society (1897) by Mr Gosch.
[93] This is the first place in which I have found the use of log and
line mentioned, although it had been known for at least 60 years;
indeed an obscure passage in Pigafetta seems to suggest its use by
Magellan. Bourne, in his _Regiment of the Sea_, published in 1573,
describes the log-ship as so made that it remains where it falls into
the water, while the line runs out during a fixed interval by a minute
glass. The intervals between the knots on the log line are to a minute
as a mile is to an hour. In Bourne’s _Inventions or Devices_, No. 21,
published in 1578, the inventor of the log and line is said to be
Humphrey Cole of the Mint in the Tower; the maker of the instruments
for Frobisher’s first and second voyages bought in 1576.
[94] It is interesting to note the equipment necessary to enable a
mathematical captain to observe efficiently in 1631. Captain James
had:--
A quadrant of pear-wood of 4 ft. semidiameter.
Equilateral triangle of 5 ft. radius.
Quadrant of 2 ft. semidiameter.
Staff of 7 ft., another of 6 ft.
Gunter’s cross-staff.
3 Jacob’s staves.
2 Davis’s back-staves.
6 Meridian compasses.
4 Needles in square boxes.
6 Needles of 3 inches.
4 Special 6-inch needles.
A loadstone to refresh needles.
A watch-clock 6 inches in diameter.
A lesser watch.
Small sand-glasses.
Log-line.
Hakluyt.
Purchas.
The best mathematical books available.
[95] See p. 40.
[96] Hans Egede made out half a dozen words to be common to Eskimos and
Norsemen. _Quan_, the word for angelica, is nearly the same in both
languages. In Eskimo _Kona_ is a woman, in Norse _Kone_; in Eskimo
_Nerriok_ to eat, in Norse _Naere_; _Nise_, the word for porpoise,
is the same in both languages. Ashes is _Asket_ in Eskimo, in Norse
_Aske_. In Eskimo a lamp is _Kollek_, in Norse _Kolle_.
[97] Count Zinzendorf was the founder of the congregation from Moravia,
formed to promote the conversion of the heathen. He built a station
on one of his estates in 1728, which was called Herrnhut. From hence
missionaries went forth--chiefly to the West Indies, Greenland, and
Labrador--known as Moravian missionaries. “Herrnhut” means “the Lord’s
keeping.”
[98] Egede was the author of two books, one on the history of the
Greenland Mission, the other a description of Greenland.
[99] Paul Egede was afterwards a Professor at Copenhagen, and Provost
of the Royal Danish Mission.
[100] “A cruel attack on the reputation of a skilful and intrepid
navigator.” _John Barrow._
[101] Ledyard was one of those remarkable men that Arctic service
so often produces. He had been befriended by Sir Joseph Banks, who
encouraged him in his enthusiasm for travel. Having been to Kamschatka
by sea, Ledyard resolved to find his way there by land. He crossed
to Ostend with no more than ten guineas in his pocket, made his
way to Stockholm, and walked thence, round the Gulf of Bothnia, to
St Petersburg. There he obtained permission to accompany a party
with stores to Yakutsk and thence to Okhotsk. But, for some unknown
reason, he was arrested, hurried back across Siberia, and put across
the frontier near Königsberg. Quite destitute, he ventured to draw a
small cheque on Sir Joseph Banks which enabled him to reach England.
The African Association had just been formed, and Sir Joseph selected
this resolute and fearless traveller as the best man to execute the
instructions of the Association. Ledyard was to make his way from
Senaar to the Niger. He set out in June 1788, but his career was
brought to a premature close by fever at Cairo.
[102] _Philosophical Transactions_, LXVIII, p. 1057.
[103] Second edition 1818. Daines Barrington was also the author of
_Observations on the Statutes_, 1766; _Naturalist’s Calendar_, 1767;
_Miscellanies_, 1781; and of contributions to the _Archaeologia_ and
_Philosophical Transactions_. He died at the Temple on March 11th,
1800, aged 73.
[104] _A Voyage towards the North Pole_, 1773 (4to, pp. 76 and 177),
Bowyer and Nichols, 1774. Sir Albert Markham also published the
narrative of a midshipman named Floyd, who was serving on board the
_Racehorse_, in a book entitled _Northward Ho_ (Macmillan, 1879). Sir
Albert obtained a correct list of the officers from the Admiralty.
[105] A Corresponding Member of the Royal Geographical Society, 1843.
He died in 1876.
[106] F. Martens. _Voyage to Spitzbergen._ Translation edited for the
Hakluyt Society by Adam White (1855).
[107] C. G. Zorgdrager. _Bloeyende Opkomst der Aloude en Hedendaagsche
Groenlandsche Visscherij_ (Amsterdam, 1720).
[108] A bentick boom is a long straight spar to which the clews of the
foresail are secured.
[109] _Spek_ is the Dutch for blubber.
[110] From the Dutch _afmaaken_, to finish or adjust.
[111] The Swedish steamer _Sophia_ reached 81° 42′ in 1868.
[112] His life was written by his nephew, Scoresby Jackson.
[113] Commander Buchan again served on the Newfoundland coast in the
_Grasshopper_ from 1820 to 1823. Fifteen years afterwards he was lost
in the _Upton Castle_ coming home from India, that Indiaman being heard
of for the last time on December 8th, 1838.
[114] Sir John Ross was much hurt at the doubting remarks and
criticisms respecting the brilliant crimson on his plate of the
crimson snow. They still rankled 32 years afterwards when the present
writer served with him, and he wrote an article on the subject in our
Arctic periodical, the _Aurora Borealis_. Mr Bauer, of Kew Gardens, it
appears, pronounced the crimson snow to be of the genus _Uredo_, allied
to “smut” in wheat, and he grew some in snow. It was first green, then
as bright a crimson as in Ross’s plate. Ross called it _Uredo nivalis_
of Bauer in his 2nd edition.
[115] Much attention was given to the provisioning. There were the
preserved meats and soups of Donkin and Gamble; Burkitt’s essence of
malt, hops, and spruce; lemon juice, vinegar, sauerkraut, pickles, and
herbs as antiscorbutics. Coal was used for ballast, 70 chaldrons in the
_Hecla_, 34 in the _Griper_. The Admiralty supplied warm clothing and
wolf-skin blankets for the men without any charge.
[116] Cyrus Wakeman, in the _Dorothea_ with Buchan, and the _Griper_,
1819–20, was afterwards at the battle of Navarino, where his splendid
gallantry is recorded by Lady Bourchier in her _Memoirs of Sir
Edward Codrington_, II, p. 102 (Longman, 1873). He died in the Niger
expedition.
Sir Joseph Nias, K.C.B., was in the _Alexander_, _Hecla_, and _Fury_
with Parry, 1818–23. He distinguished himself in the _Herald_ during
the first China war, at the capture of the forts of the Bocca Tigris
and in all the operations in the Canton river, becoming Rear-Admiral in
1857. In 1855 he married Isabella, only child of John Laing of Montagu
Square, where he died December 16th 1879.
[117] Bushnan, on his return, was appointed to Franklin’s land journey,
but died before starting, in 1825.
[118] All three were with Parry again in his third voyage.
[119] Mr Hooper was with Parry in his third voyage. Afterwards he for
some time held the post of Secretary to Greenwich Hospital. He died in
1833.
[120] The Rev. G. Fisher was afterwards Head Master of Greenwich School
from 1834 to 1863. He died in 1873.
[121] The instructions for Parry’s second expedition were signed by Sir
George Cockburn, Sir Henry Hotham, and Sir George Clerk.
[122] Captain Lyon served on board the _Albion_ at the battle of
Algiers. He made an important journey from Tripoli to Mouzourk and
wrote an excellent account of a very little known country. In 1825 he
married Lucy, daughter of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, who died in 1826. In
1828 he published a journal of travels in Mexico. This accomplished and
much beloved officer died in 1832.
[123] Henry Foster, son of the Rev. Henry Foster of Woodplumpton near
Preston, was born in 1796. He was a midshipman in the _Conway_ with
Captain Basil Hall on the Pacific Station, an excellent school for
young officers; then in the _Griper_ with Clavering, Assistant Surveyor
in Parry’s third voyage, and in the voyage of 1827, when he explored
Hinlopen Strait. His magnetic work was published in the Philosophical
Transactions of 1826, for which he received the Copley Medal of the
Royal Society. In 1827 he became a Commander, and the Duke of Clarence
gave him the command of a discovery ship owing to his exceptionally
high scientific attainments. He commissioned the _Chanticleer_ in 1827
with Horatio T. Austin as his first Lieutenant. Foster was chiefly
engaged in pendulum observations, going as far south as the South
Shetlands and surveying Staten Island. He was drowned in the Chagres
river, when engaged in determining the meridian distance between
Chagres and Panama on February 5th, 1833. The polar story would be
incomplete without a notice of one of the most distinguished of Arctic
scientific officers.
[124] Or rather connection. The step-mother of Flinders was Franklin’s
aunt on the mother’s side.
[125] The Civil Lord of the Admiralty who signed Parry’s instructions.
[126] This is manifestly an error for 1845–46.
[127] Under the title _Versus Tennysoniani_ no less than 165 renderings
of “Not here ...” etc., in Greek, Latin, Sanscrit, Arabic, German,
Italian, and French, etc. were published by Canon Wright in 1882 at the
Cambridge Press, written by Archbp. Benson, Canon Ainger, Dean Bradley,
Prof. Butcher, Dr Haig-Brown, Dr Butler, Master of Trinity, Calverley,
Prof. Cowell, Farrar, Gladstone, Jebb, Lord Lyttelton, Dean Merivale,
Max Müller, Prof. Palmer, Lord Selborne, Bp. Wordsworth, and others.
(Ed.)
[128] Ross died on April 3rd, 1861, after seventeen polar navigable
seasons, and nine Arctic winters; Captain Bird retired an Admiral and
died in his 83rd year on December 3rd, 1881.
[129] Pemmican is a preparation of beef from which all that is fluid
has been evaporated over a wood fire. The fibre is then pounded, and
mixed with an equal weight of pounded beef fat.
[130] M’Clintock’s sledge crew in his first great journey deserve
a niche in the Arctic temple of fame. James Wilkie, captain of the
sledge, aged 33, was a splendid seaman, zealous, cheerful, and
humorous. James Hoile, a fine, tall man of 25, excellent in all
respects, a sailmaker. James Dawson, aged 23, was a good-looking
foretopman. John Salmon, a small, wiry man, who was with M’Clintock in
the _Enterprise_, was really the strongest of all. Hood and Jim Heels
were Marines, the former a shoemaker, aged 31, the latter, aged 24,
sang a good song.
[131] Captain Austin was afterwards Superintendent of Deptford Dockyard
during the Crimean War, a post of great importance at that time,
Admiral, K.C.B., and Admiral Superintendent of Malta Dockyard in 1863;
he died in 1865. Captain Ommanney, in the _Eurydice_, commanded the
squadron in the White Sea. In 1853 he had the _Hawke_ in the Baltic;
and the _Brunswick_ in the West Indies until 1860. He was Captain
Superintendent at Gibraltar in 1864, retiring a K.C.B. in 1874. He died
in December 1904, aged 91.
[132] Mate in the _Resolute_, then aged 22, afterwards Sir George
Nares, K.C.B., died January, 1915.
[133] Among these was a devotional book which Sir George Back had given
to his old shipmate Gore. It was restored to Sir George, who to the day
of his death always kept it on his drawing-room table under a glass
case.
[134] The Observatory on Pendulum Island was in 74° 32′ 19″ N. and 18°
50′ W.
[135] Clavering’s fate was a sad one. He sailed in command of the
_Redwing_ from Sierra Leone in the summer of 1827, and was never heard
of again, though some wreckage was found on the coast.
[136] There had been two early attempts to explore the east coast
before Graah’s expedition. In 1752 Walloe got as far as 60° 28′, and
Giesecke, a German, got to 60° 9′ in 1806.
[137] Captain Graah’s narrative was translated by Gordon Macdougall,
and published by the Royal Geographical Society in 1837.
[138] At my request the late Commodore Jansen searched the Dutch
archives, and wrote an admirable memoir on the ice years in the Novaya
Zemlya and Spitsbergen Seas, with notices of the chief Dutch voyages
and discoveries. The same accomplished officer was the author of the
chapter on Land and Sea Breezes in Maury’s _Physical Geography of the
Sea_.
[139] The instrument consists of four arcs graduated so as to read to
30 with the verniers. Two of these arcs, representing the altitude and
latitude, are moveable. The two others, which represent the declination
and hour circle, are fixed. In using it the verniers of the proper
arcs are set to the declination, the altitude, and the latitude
respectively. The readings on the hour circle will then show the hour
angle.
[140] The northern lands which Payer thought he saw from Cape
Fligely, and which he named Oscar and Petermann Lands, as well as the
north-easterly extension of Kronprinz Rudolf Island from Cape Fligely
to Cape Sherard Osborn, have since been found by Captain Cagni to have
no existence.
[141] The Franz Josef flora includes the ubiquitous _Saxifraga
oppositifolia_, _Cardamine bellidifolia_, _Arenaria sulcata_, _Draba
alpina_, _Cerastium alpinum_, _Papaver nudicaule_, and _Cochlearia
fenestrata_. A rare and beautiful grass, _Pleuropogon sabinii_, was
also found, only previously known at Melville Island, at one or two
places up Prince Regent’s Inlet, and in Novaya Zemlya, where it is
abundant. Only 27 flowering plants have been collected in Franz Josef
Land, and 25 mosses.
[142] The price of walrus hides has risen since they have been found
to be the best material for burnishing parts of bicycles. The steamer
_Balaena_ was, therefore, sent to Franz Josef Land in 1897, and
obtained 500 hides, while about 1500 were lost owing to the animals
sinking when dead, so that this monstrous slaughter amounted to 2000,
not counting the number of young that must also have perished.
[143] The great depth found by the _Sophia_ to the north of Spitsbergen
pointed to a deep ocean as existing north of the whole Spitsbergen
and Franz Josef system. I formed this deduction in 1876, and Nansen’s
discovery afterwards proved it to be correct.
[144] I knew Dr Kane when he served in Grinnell’s relief expedition, of
which he wrote the history. His was certainly a charming personality,
talented, cheerful, and enthusiastic.
[145] Kane adopted the Danish name of ice-foot (_Iis-fod_) for this
permanent frozen ridge or terrace.
[146] It is a singular fact that the changing of names of Arctic
vessels has frequently coincided with misfortune. The names of all the
ships but one in the Franklin search were changed, and all were lost
except the _Fox_, and her name was not changed.
[147] Length 160 ft., extreme breadth 33·4 ft., depth of hold 17 ft.,
tonnage 751, nominal h.-p. 60.
[148] Length 166 ft., extreme breadth 30 ft., depth of hold 18 ft.,
tonnage 668, nominal h.-p. 43.
[149] Each sledge had its flag, which, at my suggestion, was designed
on proper heraldic rules. The cross of St George at the hoist,
the fly swallow-tailed, party per fess with the colours of the
sledge-commander’s arms, and his crest or principal charge over all,
a border or fringe of the colours of the arms. The same pattern was
adopted for the sledge flags of Captain Scott’s Antarctic expeditions.
[150] Hans Hendrik was born at the German missionary station of
Fiskernäs in Greenland, and had become a good kayaker and hunter
when he agreed to join Dr Kane’s expedition, where he was under the
protection of Carl Petersen. He was with Morton when he reported having
seen the open polar sea. After Kane’s second winter Hans joined the
Arctic Highlanders and married a girl named Markut. Hans and his wife
later joined Hayes’s expedition, and afterwards settled at Upernivik.
In August, 1871, they joined Hall’s expedition, and were left on the
floe which drifted down Baffin’s Bay, where, as we have seen, Hans
saved the rest of the party by his skill as a huntsman. He was most
useful in some of the sledge journeys from the _Discovery_. In 1877 he
wrote his memoirs in Eskimo, which were translated into English by Dr
Rink (_Trübner_, 1878). He afterwards lived at Upernivik.
[151] Rawson was mortally wounded at the battle of Tel-el-Kebir, while
serving as naval aide-de-camp to Sir Garnet Wolseley. Admiral Sir
George Egerton, K.C.B., became Commander-in-Chief at Devonport.
[152] Tidal observations, under the direction of Lieutenant Archer,
were taken in 81° 45′ N., during 7 months; and in 82° 25′ N., for two
months. They were reported upon by Professor Houghton (Nares, II, p.
356).
[153] _Ivigtut_, the cryolite mine, is about 16 miles up the Arsak
fjord. Cryolite is a white mineral found on the gneiss of S.W.
Greenland and nowhere else--a double hydro-fluorate of soda and
alumina. In 1857 a licence was given to a company to work the mine to
the amount of about 26 ship-loads yearly.
[154] In 1892 these two young Swedish enthusiasts started with the
object of exploring the part of Ellesmere Island between Jones and
Smith Sounds. They bought a small cutter of 37 tons at St John’s,
Newfoundland, and went up Baffin’s Bay to the Cary Islands. In 1893 a
whaler found her driven on shore at one of the Cary Islands and full
of ice. There was a record written by Björling asking that, if nothing
was heard of them in 1893, relief might be sent to Clarence Point on
Ellesmere Island. They went away in an open boat. I appealed for funds
and collected £100 as a help to Nordenskiöld’s fund for sending a
steamer. She went, but nothing more was ever found or heard of these
gallant youths.
[155] Both his sons inherited much of the ability of their father. The
eldest died young, but not before he had done valuable ethnographic
work. The younger, Erland, now Baron Nordenskiöld, has made two
journeys among the Amazonian Indians, with excellent ethnographic and
linguistic results.
[156] Sir Fridtjof Nansen, in an Appendix to his _Through Siberia_, has
lately made a record of all voyages across the Kara Sea from the voyage
of Burrough in 1556 to the present day, with notes on the state of
the ice in each year. His conclusion is that in the great majority of
years it is possible to reach the Siberian rivers through the Kara Sea,
though there are great variations in the quantity of ice in different
years. He thinks it very improbable that these differences are caused
by winds and sea currents from the north. His conclusion is that the
ice that is met with is formed in the Kara Sea itself, and that the
differences of ice conditions are caused by differences in the winters.
In a cold winter, with little precipitation, more ice will be formed,
and little ice will melt in a cold spring and summer. When there is a
warm winter and heavy snow-fall succeeded by a warm spring and summer,
the melting of the ice will proceed rapidly, and there will be a fairly
ice-free Kara Sea. Nansen’s remarks on the navigation of the Kara Sea
are extremely valuable, based on the most complete information and long
experience of ice conditions.
[157] Announced in the _Morgenblad_ by Professor Mohn in 1884.
[158] Quite unknown to Nansen I had come to a similar conviction in
contemplating the results of the Nares expedition. In my Report on
the origin, proceedings, and results of this expedition (_R. G. S.
Proceedings_, 1877), I pointed out that a current flowed across the
polar sea from the eastern to the western hemisphere, that Franz Josef
Land was part of the Spitsbergen group, rising from the same plateau
with a deeper sea to the north, and that to overstep the boundary of
the known polar sea, though attended by great difficulties, would
reward with important discoveries the future explorer who boldly forced
his way north in this direction. My Report came to Nansen’s knowledge
after his return home.
[159] Length of keel 102 feet, length of deck 128 feet, beam 36 feet,
depth 17 feet, thickness of ship’s side 24 to 28 inches. In the stern
the oak beams were 4 feet thick.
[160] The British sledges 1850–9 were 3 feet wide, the runners of
metal, 3 inches wide, and slightly convex.
[161] See Nansen’s “Oceanography of the North Polar Basin” in Vol. III
of the results of the expedition, the “Bathymetrical Features” in Vol.
IV, also _The Sea West of Spitsbergen_ (Christiania, 1912) and the
oceanographic observations of the Isachsen Spitsbergen expedition, by
Bjørn Helland Hansen and Fridtjof Nansen.
[162] _Through Siberia_ (Heinemann, 1914). Appendix on the navigation
of the Kara Sea.
[163] The writer was shipmate with one of them for more than a year,
and there could not be a better disposed lad or a more reliable comrade
when travelling.
[164] He may have adopted the position fixed by the observations of
Lieut. Aldrich. The sun was below the horizon when Peary started.
[165] Commodore Jansen was one of the most active and accomplished of
the honorary corresponding members of our Royal Geographical Society
of his time and the chief promoter of the revival of Arctic voyages
in Holland. He saw much service in the Royal Dutch Navy, joining its
surveying branch, and was for several years engaged on a survey in the
Riouw Archipelago, the Straits of Sunda, and elsewhere. As a Lieutenant
on board the frigate _Prins van Oranje_ he served in the West Indies,
and during a visit to Washington in 1851 formed a life-long friendship
for Maury, the great American hydrographer. He contributed the chapter
on land and sea breezes to Maury’s _Physical Geography of the Sea_
and in 1864 published an important work _The Latest Discoveries in
Maritime Affairs_. In the following year he became a Commodore in the
Royal Dutch Navy, and was appointed to superintend the building of the
ironclad _Prins Hendrik_, which he afterwards commanded. In 1868 he
retired from active service, after a distinguished naval career of 35
years. At my request Jansen examined the Dutch archives with a view to
a study of ice navigation in the Spitsbergen and Barentsz seas, and the
results of his researches were published in the _R. G. S. Proceedings_
(Old Series, IX. 9, 163). In 1873 he was appointed a Councillor of
State, and attained the rank of Rear Admiral. He died in September
1894, aged 77.
[166] Beynen published _De Reis van de Pandora in den Zomer van 1876_.
[167] The Committee consisted of the Baron van Wassenaer van Catwyck,
Councillor of State Commodore Jansen, Franzen van de Putte, Professor
Buys Ballot, Professor Veth, Jonkheer J. K. J. de Jonge (_Treasurer_).
[168] Lady Markham’s translation of the _Life of L. R. Koolemans
Beynen_ by Charles Boissevain was published by Sampson Low in 1885.
[169] Author of _Ice-bound on Kolguev_.
[170] _No Man’s Land_, Camb. Univ. Press, 1906.
[171] The Danish Committee for the geographical and geological
investigation of Greenland was formed in 1876, and a valuable
periodical, the _Meddelelser on Grönland_, containing the narratives of
the explorers and the scientific results of the expeditions, has ever
since been published at Copenhagen.
[172] “Botanical Exploration of the East Coast of Greenland between 65°
35′ and 74°30′ N.” by Chr. Kruuse (1904), _Meddelelser on Grönland_
(Heft. 30, Afd. I), Kjöbenhavn, 1907.
[173] Thalbitzer has published papers on the poetry and music of the
East Greenlanders, on their _angekoks_ or priests, and on their dialect.
[174] So called after a patriotic brewer named Carlsberg, who left his
brewery to a Trust, the profits to be expended on scientific work. As
the brewery is a lucrative business, the help to exploration from this
source has been very important.
[175] A Swedish expedition under Professor Nathorst in the _Antarctic_
had reached Scoresby Sound in July 1899, and afterwards explored and
mapped the previously unknown and complicated system of fjords forming
the inner branches of Davy Sound, proving that they were connected
with Franz Josef Fjord. In September 1899 Nathorst left the coast,
and his ship the _Antarctic_ was used in the following year for the
Carlsbergfondet Expedition.
[176] His Royal Highness Philippe Duc D’Orléans made a voyage to that
part of the coast on board the _Belgica_ with M. Gerlache as his
master in 1905. He stood northwards along the land ice, and succeeded
in effecting a landing to the north of Cape Bismarck in 77° 36′ N. On
July 31st he was in 78° 16′, the furthest north ever attained by a ship
on this coast, and he could see as far as 78° 30′. In August he again
landed in 77° 36′, the place receiving the name of Cape Philippe.
[177] Freuchen, who came from Nykjøbing on the island of Falster,
went on a voyage to West Greenland as a stoker in order to obtain
preliminary training.
[178] The easternmost point is in 81° 24′ N. and 12° W.
[179] Peary’s point at the place he calls “Navy Cliff,” where he says
he saw the sea and called it “Independence Bay,” is over a hundred
miles from the sea or any bay. He may have seen the end of the long
narrow fjord which Erichsen discovered. But his channel across
Greenland does not exist, and there is continuous land between the
position Peary gives to his Navy Cliff and his Heilprin Land to the
north.
[180] _Book of the Knowledge of all the Kingdoms_, p. 35 (Hakluyt
Society, Series II, vol. XXIX, 1912.)
[181] Burney II, 198.
[182] Dalrymple and Burney take it seriously. I included it among the
documents in my _Voyages of Quiros_, but I now quite agree with my old
friend Benjamin Vicuña Mackenna that it is a fabrication. (See Vicuña
Mackenna’s _Historia de Juan Fernandez_.)
[183] Cook and Ross searched for this small island in vain, but several
of Mr Enderby’s sealing vessels found and visited Bouvet Island.
[184] Elder brother of Madame D’Arblay.
[185] This chronometer is now in the museum of the United Service
Institution.
[186] Mr Poynter, Master’s Mate, Mr Blake and Mr Bone, Midshipmen.
Blake was eventually Admiral Patrick Blake, who did excellent service
in the first China war, and was afterwards Captain of the _Juno_ in the
Pacific 1845–49.
[187] The writer’s uncle, John Markham, was an acting Lieutenant on
board the _Andromache_, and he made a copy of Mr Bransfield’s first
chart. There are 21 names on it.
[188] Mr Fanning wrote _Voyages round the World_, containing reports of
the voyages of Pendleton and Palmer.
[189] At Pendulum Cove in King George’s Island.
[190] Kendall wrote an account of Deception Island in the first volume
of the _Journal of the Royal Geographical Society_.
[191] The name Australia had not then come into use.
[192] The present writer was personally acquainted with Admiral Bird,
Lieutenant Phillips, Mr Tucker, Dr M^cCormick, Sir Joseph Hooker, Dr
Lyall, Admiral Moore, Captain Davis, and Mr Abernethy.
[193] Rossbank Observatory was in latitude 42° 52′ 27″ S. and longitude
147° 27′ 30″ E., 205 feet above the sea.
[194] Gauss’s position was 66° S. and 146° E. Scott’s observations gave
72° 51′ S. and 156° 25′ E.
[195] On January 31st there was “an unaccountable decrease of variation
from 96° E. to 77° E., and then an increase of 16°. Ross formed the
opinion that they had passed one of those extraordinary magnetic points
first observed during Sir Edward Parry’s second voyage, near the
eastern entrance of Hecla and Fury Strait.” Sir James Ross, _Voyage to
the Southern Seas_, 1, 229.
[196] Sir Joseph Hooker told me that Sir James was not only an accurate
observer, but also a good collector, taking the deepest interest in the
geological and biological researches.
[197] The following treat of Ross’s Third Antarctic Voyage:--
(_a_) _A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic
Regions_ 1839–43 (2 vols. 8vo.), by Sir James Clark Ross.
(_b_) _Voyages of Discovery in the Arctic and Antarctic Seas_ (2 vols.,
large 8vo.), by R. M^cCormick.
(_c_) Captain J. E. Davis: Letter to his sister describing events of
Sir James Ross’s voyage, and especially the iceberg collision. Printed
for the Royal Societies Antarctic Expedition.
(_d_) MS letter from C. J. Sullivan, armourer of H.M.S. _Erebus_,
describing Antarctic scenery, the iceberg collision, and other events.
[198] A pupil of Captain Maury, the great American hydrographer.
[199] _Quinze Mois dans l’Antarctique, par le Commandant de Gerlache_
(Hachette, 1902), 106 illustrations and chart, pp. 284.
“Exploration of Antarctic Lands,” by Henryk Arçtowski, in the
_Antarctic Manual_.
[200] _Antarctica, or Two Years amongst the Ice of the South Pole_, by
Dr Otto Nordenskiöld and Dr Gunnar Andersson, 1905.
_On the Geology of Graham Land_, by Dr Gunnar Andersson. (Uppsala,
1906.)
[201] _Die gevidde Formation der Eisgeit_ (Berlin, 1887), and
_Grönlands Gletscher und Inlandeis_.
[202] _Zum Kontinent des eisigen südens_, von Erik von Drygalski
(Berlin, 1904).
[203] The Committee consisted of the following persons:--
Sir Clements Markham, Pres.
Admiral Sir Leopold M’Clintock.
Vice-Admiral Pelham Aldrich.
Captain Ettrick Creak, R.N.
Admiral Sir R. Vesey Hamilton.
Admiral Sir Anthony Hoskins.
Rear-Admiral Sir George Egerton.
Sir John Murray.
Admiral Sir George Nares.
Admiral Sir Albert Markham.
Rear-Admiral Sir William Wharton.
Captain Field (Hydrographer).
[204] The house flag of the _Discovery_ was made at Dundee:--the cross
of St George at the hoist, the fly swallow-tailed, party per fesse,
argent and azure (for ice and sea), and bearing the globe of the Royal
Geographical Society. Bordure argent and azure.
[205] The sledge flags were of the same pattern as in the Arctic
expedition of 1875–6. The cross of St George at the hoist to denote
that, whatever family the bearer may belong to, he is first and
foremost an Englishman. The fly is divided per fess with colours of
the arms of the officer, undivided if one colour, with the crest or
principal charge in the arms, swallow-tailed, with a border or fringe
of the colours of the arms.
[206] The text of the Bishop’s address was “Behold how good and how
pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity” (Psalm cxxxiii.
1).
[207] M’Clintock’s sledges were 9 ft. and 11 ft. long, 3 ft. 2 in.
wide, 11½ inches high, with 6 uprights and 6 cross bars, the runners
were of ½-inch iron, 3 inches wide and slightly convex. All were lashed
with strips of hide, put on warm and wet, so that they shrank and made
all tight.
[208] The ration adopted by Scott was as follows in ounces per
day:--Biscuit 12·0, oatmeal 1·5, pemmican 7·6, bacon and pea-flour
2·6, plasmon 2·0, cheese 2·0, chocolate 1·1, cocoa O·7, sugar 3·8. In
addition, ¾ lb. of tea, ½ lb. of onion powder, ¼ lb. of pepper and ⅖
lb. of salt was allowed per week to each unit of three men.
[209] Sir Douglas Mawson was born in 1882, the son of Mr. R. E. Mawson,
of Otley, in Yorkshire. He was educated at Sydney University and
graduated as Bachelor of Mining Engineering 1901, Bachelor of Science
1904, Doctor of Science 1909. He was Lecturer in Mineralogy at Adelaide
University in 1905.
[210] These were Anton and Demetri, the two Russian dog-drivers, and
seven men of the Royal Navy:--Edgar Evans, Lashly, and Crean, who had
all been on the _Discovery_, and Keohane, Forde, Hooper, and Clissold,
the two latter respectively steward and cook.
[211] For their courageous services in this affair Lashly and Crean
received the Albert Medal.
[212] Atkinson, Wright, Cherry Garrard, Gran, Lashly, Crean,
Williamson, Nelson, Archer, Hooper, Keohane, and Demetri, formed the
search party.
[213] Names in italics represent first discoveries.
[214] Names in italics represent first discoveries.
INDEX
Abernethy, Thomas, 233, 251, 265, 413
Abruzzi, Duke of, attempts to reach the Pole, 351
_Active_, 431
Adam of Bremen, chronicles visit of Norsemen to Greenland, 38
Adams, Lieut. J. B., 478, 479
-- William, 390
Adelaide Island, 432, 442
Adélie Land, 407, 409, 477, 487
Admiralty Range, 415
_Advance_, 252, 298 _et seq._
_Adventure_, 394
_Aid_, 86
_Akbar_, 223
Akuli Gulf, 230 _et seq._, 235
_Alabama_, 376;
loss of, 378
Aldrich, Admiral Pelham, 258 _et seq._, 304, 307, 428, 446
_Alert_, 303 _et seq._, 312, 313
Aleutian Islands discovered, 178
_Alexander_, 198, 201, 202
Alexander Island, 434
-- Land, 397, 442
Alfland, 33
Alfred, King, translates _Orosius_, 33
Alten Fjord, 317
Altitudes, Antarctic, 473, 480, 484, 485, 500, 501
-- in Greenland, 332, 333, 335, 336, 338, 381
Ambassador, Russian, visits England, 62
Amdrup, Lieut. G., 367, 368
Ameralik Fjord, 336
America, North, coast line of, surveyed by Franklin, 222;
by Back, 228;
by Dease and Simpson, 228
American Antarctic expeditions, 400, 408
-- Arctic Coast, 18;
birds of, 18;
fauna and flora of, 18
Amsterdam Island, 360
Amundsen, Roald, undertakes N.W. Passage, 314 _et seq._;
winters in King William Land, 314;
serves in the Belgian Expedition, 434;
his Antarctic expedition, 482 _et seq._;
meets Scott’s party, 493;
reaches the South Pole, 485
Andersson, Gunnar, 436, 439
Andrée, 344
_Andromache_, 398, 400
_Angekoks_, 23;
Greenland, 366
Angmagsalik, 365 _et seq._, 381
_Angrim_ stones, 53
Anian, Strait of, 82
Anjou, Admiral, surveys Liakhovs, 180
_Ann Frances_, 86
_Anne Royal_, 146
_Annula_, 124
Anoatok, 353, 355
_Antarctic_, 368, 436;
founders, 437
Antarctic Circle first crossed, 395
-- exploration, story of, 430 _et seq._
-- explorations, Amundsen’s, 482 _et seq._;
Balleny’s, 405, 414; Belgian, 433 _et seq._;
Bellingshausen’s, 396, 397;
Biscoe’s, 403 _et seq._;
Borchgrevink’s, 433;
Bruce’s, 439, 440;
Charcot’s, 441;
Capt. Cook’s, 394 _et seq._;
D’Urville’s, 407, 408;
Drygalski’s, 440;
Filchner’s, 442;
Foster’s, 400 _et seq._;
French, 407, 441;
Gerlache’s, 433 _et seq._;
German, 440, 442;
Kempe’s, 405;
Mawson’s, 486 _et seq._;
Nordenskiöld’s, 435 _et seq._;
Norwegian, 433, 482 _et seq._;
Ross’s, 410, 418, 422 _et seq._;
Russian, 396;
Scott’s first expedition, 447 _et seq._;
Scott’s last expedition, 489 _et seq._;
Shackleton’s, 478 _et seq._;
Swedish, 435 _et seq._, 506;
The Societies’, 444 _et seq._, 455 _et seq._, 466 _et seq._, 471
_et seq._;
Weddell’s, 401, 402;
Wilkes’s, 408, 409
-- ice, 11;
icebergs, 11;
regions, 389 _et seq._
_Antarctic Manual_, 453
Araucaria, 438
Archer, 503
-- Colin, 347;
constructs the _Fram_, 340
_Arctic_, 302, 303
Arctic currents, 23
-- discoveries, by Norsemen, 32 _et seq._, 38 _et seq._, 49 _et
seq._;
under Elizabeth, 157
“Arctic Highlanders,” 24, 203, 253, 299, 301, 313, 338, 339, 352 _et
seq._, 379;
dress of, 24;
physical characteristics of, 24
Arctic quadrants, 4, 6, 13
Arctic regions, geology of, 384 _et seq._
Arçtowski, Henryk, 434, 435, 453
Ardencaple Inlet surveyed, 375
Area of Greenland, 9
Areas, Polar, 3
_Arenaria sulcata_, 295
_Arethusa_, 223
Arias, Juan Luis, his memorial, 392
Armitage, Lieut. Albert, 292, 448, 463 _et seq._, 480
Arnold, Bishop, 48
Art, Tchuktche, 17
_Arte de Navegar_, 151;
translated by Eden, 65
_Assistance_, 251 _et seq._, 261, 264 _et seq._, 349
_Astrolabe_, 407
Astrolabe, 53;
description of, 56, 57;
Drake’s, 57
Astrup, Eivind, 337, 338
Atalayas, 125
Atkinson, Dr, 490, 491, 498, 499, 503, 504
Atlantic current, 30
Auks, Little, 199
_Aurora_, 486 _et seq._
Austin, Capt. H. T., 216, 252, 255, 273, 401;
death of, 262
Axel Heiberg Island, 348, 349, 354
Back, Sir George, 223 _et seq._, 276;
serves with Buchan, 199;
reaches Repulse Bay, 230
_Baffin_, 196
Baffin, William, 124, 125, 138;
patronised by Wolstenholme, 108;
sails with Hall, 113;
magnetic observations by, 115;
visits Spitsbergen, 116;
enters service of the East India Co., 146;
his Arctic voyages, 146;
his letter to Wolstenholme, 145;
his magnetic observations, 126;
explores Spitsbergen, 127;
his map of Hudson Strait, 139;
lunar observations of, 140;
visits Eskimo settlement, 140;
his third voyage, 142;
map of his discoveries, 144;
surveys Persian coast, 147;
captain of the _London_, 147;
death of, 147;
qualities of, 148
Baffin’s Bay, 145, 305;
birds of, 99;
currents of, 6;
entered by the Norsemen, 50;
its existence doubted, 145;
lost, 146;
existence reestablished, 201
Baffin Island, 141
_Baidor_, 171
Balaclava helmets, 462
_Balaena_, 296, 431, 439
-- _Biscayensis_, 125
Balleny, Capt. John, his Antarctic expedition, 405, 414
-- Islands, 406, 408, 417, 477
Ballestilla, 89
Balloon, captive, 450, 457
Bardsen, Ivar, report on Greenland, 51;
his sailing directions translated by Barentsz, 70
Barentsz, Willem, 69;
his voyage to Novaya Zemlya, 70;
discovers Spitsbergen, 74;
crews attacked by scurvy, 75;
winters in Novaya Zemlya, 75;
dies, 76;
discoveries of, 77;
character of, 78;
winter quarters revisited, 78;
hut of, 79;
relics of, 79
-- Sea, 297, 360
Barker, Andrew, 114, 115, 116
Barne, Michael, 449, 463, 471, 475
“Barren lands,” 18
Barrier, The Great, 11, 416, 419, 433, 453, 456;
altered limit of, 457, 475;
height of, 457
Barrington, Hon. Daines, 172
Basaltic pillars, 324;
rocks, 295
Basques, the first whalers, 125
Bathurst Island explored, 268
Battye, A. Trevor, 361
Bay ice, 7
-- of Whales, 483
Beach Province, 391
Beagle Channel, 436
_Bear_, 86
Bear, Nelson’s adventure with, 173;
Bears, 296
Bear Island (or Cherrie Island), 73, 121
-- Islands, 324
Beardmore Glacier, 498
Beaufort Island, 416
-- Sea unexplored, 383
Beaufoy, 402
Beaumont, Lieut., 308
Bedford, 223
Beechey, Capt. F. W., 226 _et seq._;
serves with Buchan, 198;
sails with Parry, 206
-- Island, 241, 265, 311, 314, 349
Behaim, Martin, figures polar islands, 54
Belcher, Sir Edward, 264, 269, 349
Belgian Antarctic expedition, 433 _et seq._
_Belgica_, 368, 434
Bertelsen, 370 _et seq._
Bell, Richard, 108, 113
-- Sound, 119, 187, 188, 285 _et seq._
_Bellerophon_, 223
Bellingshausen, Capt., his Antarctic expedition, 396, 397
Bellot, Lieut., 262;
death of, 268
-- Strait, 262
Bennet, Stephen, visits Bear Island, 73
Bennett, Gordon, 327
-- Island, 179, 180, 329
Bering, Vitus, his voyages, 177;
death of, 178
-- Island, 324
-- Strait, 170
Bernacchi, Louis C., 433, 449, 475
Bernier, Capt., 362
Berry, Lieut., 329
Best, George, writes narrative of Frobisher’s second expedition, 90
Bethell, Lieut., 428
Beynen, Koolemans, 311, 358;
death of, 360
Bird, Capt., 213, 216, 218, 411, 420, 424;
death of, 251
Birds, 314;
Antarctic, 423, 437, 455;
of American Arctic coast, 18;
of Baffin’s Bay, 99;
of Cape Digges, 141;
of Cape York, 24;
of Davis Strait, 97;
of Franz Josef Land, 296;
of Fury Beach, 236;
of Novaya Zemlya, 185;
of Spitsbergen, 121;
of Waigatz Island, 64
Biscoe, Capt. John, his Antarctic expedition, 403 _et seq._
Bishop Arnold, 48
-- Eric, 48
-- Olaf, 49
Bishops of Greenland, 47 _et seq._, 51
Bjaaland, 484
Björling, 325
_Black Dog_, 101
Blake, Admiral, 398
Blessing, Dr, 341
_Blijde Boodschap_, 390
Blink Ice, 163
_Blossom_, 216, 226, 227, 234
Blubber, 193
Boats of Chukchis, 17;
of Eskimos, 20, 115
-- used on Franklin’s land expedition, 222;
used by Back on Great Fish River, 228;
used by Dease on the Mackenzie, 229;
of Franklin’s retreat, 245
_Bona Confidentia_, 60
-- _Esperanza_, 60
_Book of the Knowledge of all the Kingdoms_, 389
Booth, Sir Felix, 233, 237, 251
Boothia Felix, 234
Borchgrevink, Carstens, his Antarctic expedition, 433
Bourne’s _Inventions or Devices_, 152
Bouvet, Capt. L., 393
-- Island, 393
Bowers, Lieut., 490, 492, 495 _et seq._, 500, 502;
death of, 503
Bransfield, Mr, 398, 400
Brattahlid, 41, 44
_Breadalbane_, 268
_Briefe and True Relation_, Purchas’s, 145
Briggs, Henry, 151
“Briggs-his-Mathematics,” 154
_Briseis_, 201
Britain, discovery of, by Pytheas, 27
British expeditions to Spitsbergen, 287
Brocklehurst, Sir Philip, 478, 480
Bromley, Lieut., 428
Brönlund, 370;
death of, 373, 374;
diary of, 373
Brooke Place, 105
Brooke’s sounding apparatus, 426
Bruce, Mr, his Antarctic expedition, 439, 440
-- Commander Wilfrid, 489, 491, 494
-- Miss Kathleen, 489
Brunel, Oliver, 130;
reaches the Obi, 68
Buchan, 198;
death of, 200
Buchanan, J. Y., 428
_Bulldog_, 427
Burney, Capt. James, 169, 394
Burrough, Stephen, 63, 83;
dies, 65
-- William, 63;
commands fleet, 65;
his _Discourse of the Compass and Magnetic Needle_, 65, 100;
dies, 65
Burrough’s Strait, 64, 184
Bushnan, J., 201, 212
-- Cove, 260
-- Island, Meteoric boulders at, 24
Button, Sir Thomas, 136;
reaches Hudson’s Bay, 136;
winters, 136, 137;
dies, 137
Bygd, East, _v._ East Bygd;
West, _v._ West Bygd
Bylot, Robert, 131, 134, 138, 142
Byron, Commodore, 394
Cagni, Capt., 293;
attempts to reach Pole, 352
“Calving” of icebergs, 10
_California_, 166
Campbell, Lieut., 490, 492;
his party winters in ice cave, 49
Canada, Arctic lands transferred to, 362
Canadian Arctic expeditions, 362 _et seq._
Canynge, William, sends ships to the Arctic, 58
Capes
Adare, 415, 417, 433, 456, 470, 477
Armitage, 458, 496
Bernacchi, 480
Bird, 470
Bismarck, 370
Bridgman, 371
Chelagskoi, 182, 183
Chelyuskin, 15, 323, 341
Chidley, 100
Colombia, 355 _et seq._
Crozier, 456, 470, 471, 476, 492, 496
Elizabeth, 390
Evans, 492 _et seq._
Farewell, named by Davis, 96;
sighted by Baffin, 114;
sighted by Munk, 150
Fligely, 290, 294
Horn, 390, 420
Jakan, 183, 324
North, 417, 477, 493
Riley, relics at, 253, 254
Royds, 479
Sparbo, 355
Taimyr, 323
York, 202;
birds of, 24
_Carcass_, 172 _et seq._
_Cardamine bellidifolia_, 295
Cardigan Strait, 349
_Carex arenaria_, 342
-- _vesicaria_, 334
Carlsbergfondet expedition, 367
Carlsen, Capt., circumnavigates Spitsbergen, 286
Carpenter, Dr, 427
Cary, Allwyn, 138, 142, 144
-- Islands, 144, 261, 312, 313, 325
_Castor_, 431 _et seq._
Cathay, passage to, 105, 106, 118
-- Company, 85
Cavendish expedition, 101
_Cerastium alpinum_, 295
_Challenger_, 428
Challenger Expedition, 428
“Challenger Gap,” 508
Chancellor, Nicholas, sails with Pet, 66
-- Richard, sails with Willoughby, 60;
visits Moscow, 62;
narrative of his voyage, 63
_Chanticleer_, 401, 423
Charcot, his Antarctic expedition, 441
-- Land, 442
_Charles_, 152 _et seq._
Charles Darwin Island, 422
Chatham Island, 418
Chelyuskin, 176, 177
-- Cape, 15, 323, 341
Cherrie Island _v._ Cherry Island
Cherry Island (Bear Island), 73, 121
Chesterfield Inlet, 166
Chidley Cape, 100
Chilham, 107, 108
Christian IV sends expedition to Greenland, 112;
claims Spitsbergen, 124
Christianity reaches Iceland, 42;
introduced into Greenland, 43
Christianshaab, 162, 164
Chukchis, _v._ Tchuktches
Churches, at East Bygd, 47, 48;
in Greenland, 51;
ruins of Greenland, 52
_Churchill_, 167
Churchward, John, 98, 99
Circum-polar coast, 18;
trees, 13;
tribes, 13
Clavering, Douglas, 279;
death of, 281
Clavus, Claudius, maps of, 54
Clements Markham Glacier, 380
Clerke, Capt., 171, 394
_Clio_, 238, 240
Clothing, Arctic, 292, 352;
M’Clintock’s, 257;
Nansen’s, 334, 342;
Peary’s, 337
-- Antarctic, Amundsen’s, 482;
Scott’s, 462;
Shackleton’s, 478
Coal at Kudlisit, 312;
in Ellesmere Island, 350;
in Finmarken, 73;
in Spitsbergen, 361;
near Lady Franklin Bay, 309
Coats Land, 440
_Cochlearia fenestrata_, 295
Cockayne, Sir William, 106, 108, 113, 135
Cockburn Island, 423
Cod, 98
Codex Flateyensis, 38
Colbeck, Capt. William, 433, 467 _et seq._, 476
Cole, Humphrey, inventor of the Log, 152
Collins, Grenville, 156
Collinson, Capt., 263
Collision of _Erebus_ and _Terror_, 419
Commonwealth Bay, 487
Continental shelf, 340, 356;
Antarctic, 397, 435
Conway, Sir Martin, crosses Spitsbergen, 361 _et seq._;
his books on Spitsbergen, 362
Cook, Capt. James, 169 _et seq._;
explores neighbourhood of Bering Strait, 170;
his Antarctic expedition, 394 _et seq._
-- Dr Frederick, 337, 338, 434;
attempts to reach Pole, 353 _et seq._;
winters in Jones Sound, 355
Copper, 167, 169
Coppermine River, 168, 169, 229
_Cornwallis_, 238, 240
Côte Clarie, 408, 487
_Cove_, 237
Crab-eating seal, 483
Creak, Capt. Ettrick, 446, 451
Crean, 490, 495, 498, 499, 503
Cresswell, Lieut., 263, 268
Crevasse, Scott falls into, 474
Crevasses, Antarctic, 474, 475, 479, 480, 481, 494, 498
Cross-staff, 56, 89, 102
Crow’s nest, 189
Crozier, Commander, 213, 216, 239, 410, 414, 420, 424
Crozon, Frobisher besieges, 92
Cryolite, 164, 311
Cumberland Gulf, 95, 96, 98, 100
Cunningham, John, 112
Currents, Atlantic, 30;
Arctic, 23;
Baffin’s Bay, 6;
Greenland, 5, 41;
Oceanic, in arctic, 5
Dailey, Mr, 471
Dalager, Lars, 331
Dalbyo, 325
_Dame Europa’s School_, author of, 306
Dance, Commodore, 222
Danes Island, 344
Danish Arctic expeditions, 364 _et seq._, 376 _et seq._
_Danmark_, 369
Danmark Fjord, 372, 378;
Havn, 370
Dannebrog Islands, 365
David, Professor T. W. E., 478
Davidson, Dr, 468
Davis, John, 93;
sails on his first voyage, 94;
his provisions, 96;
his second expedition, 96;
names Cape Farewell, 96;
re-enters his strait, 96;
meets Eskimos, 95, 96, 97;
compiles Eskimo vocabulary, 97;
map of voyages of, 97;
his third expedition, 98;
magnetic observations of, 99;
commands _Black Dog_, 101;
commands _Desire_, 101;
commands _Drake_, 101;
joins Cavendish expedition, 101;
visits the Azores, 101;
death of, 102;
life of, 100, 102;
character of, 101;
narrative of his voyages, 100;
his quadrant, 102;
his _Seaman’s Secrets_, 102;
his _World’s Hydrographical Description_, 102;
place-names given by, 103
Davis, Capt. J. E. (Master of the _Terror_), 412, 425, 430
Davis Strait, 97
Day, Mr, 491
Dayman, Lieut., 426, 427
Dease, Peter Warren, 228
Debenham, F., 491
de Bruyne, Lieut. A., 359 _et seq._
Deception Island, 400, 401
Dee, Dr, 83, 94
De Hozes, Francisco, 389
Del Cano, Sebastian, 389
Dellbridge, J. H., 464 _et seq._
De Long, Lieut., his expedition, 327 _et seq._;
retreat of, 329;
fate of, 329;
character of, 329, 330
Demetri, 495, 503
_Dennis_, 86;
founders, 88
_Den Röd Löve_, 112
d’Orléans, Duc, 368, 435
Deshneff, Simon, 175
_Desire_, 101
Des Voeux, 240
D’Urville, Dumont, 440;
his Antarctic expedition, 407, 408
_Diana_, 287, 288, 326, 431
Diary of Brönland, 373
Dickson, Baron Oscar, 322, 332, 431
-- Dr, 425
Digges, Sir Dudley, 106, 107, 108, 135, 142
-- Leonard, 106, 107
-- Thomas, 107
Dinner to Scott’s expedition, 453
Dirk Gerritsz Archipelago, 390
“Discharging glaciers,” 9
Disco Bay, 48, 161, 162, 163, 164, 333
Disco Island, fossils in, 350
_Discourse of the Compass and Magnetic Needle_, 100
_Discovery_, Baffin’s, 138 _et seq._, 142 _et seq._
-- Button’s, 236
-- Clerke’s, 169 _et seq._
-- Hudson’s, 129, 131
-- Moore’s, 165
-- Nares’s, 304, 312
-- Scott’s, 451 _et seq._;
plans of, 446, 447;
flag of, 447;
relieved by _Morning_, 470;
freed from the ice, 476;
ashore, 476;
damage to rudder, 477;
returns home, 477
_Divers Voyages_ (Hakluyt), 110
_Dobbs_, 166
Dogs, 17, 337, 338, 354, 355;
in Antarctic, 462, 472, 482, 483;
Greenland, 23
_Dorothea_, 198 _et seq._
_Draba alpina_, 295
_Drake_, 101
Drake, Sir Thomas, 389;
his astrolabe, 57
-- R. N., Mr, 489
Dress of Arctic Highlanders, 24;
of Eskimos, 19
Drift, Antarctic, 435
-- westerly polar, 5, 297, 310, 340, 342, 343;
_Jeannette’s_, 328
Driftwood, 23
Dronning Luisa Land, 373, 378, 381
Drygalski, Erik von, his Antarctic expedition, 440
-- Glacier, 481
Duse, Lieut., 436
Dutch, the, open trade with Russia, 68;
renew voyages to the North, 72, 73;
first visit to Spitsbergen by, 124;
despatch second fleet to Spitsbergen, 126
Dutch Arctic explorations, 358 _et seq._
Dysentery attacks Shackleton’s party, 480
_Earl Camden_, 222
East Bygd, 51, 159, 160;
settlement of, 40;
Augustinian monastery at, 47;
churches at, 47;
fate of, 51
East India Company, founded, 105;
undertake North-West Passage, 129;
Baffin enters service of, 146
Easter Island, visited by Cook, 396
Edward VI encourages Frobisher, 81;
patronises Arctic exploration, 59, 60
_Edward Bonaventure_, 60
_Eendracht_, 390
_Eenhiörningen_, 150
Egede, Hans, 158 _et seq._;
discovers Kakortak ruins, 47;
history of his mission, 160 _et seq._;
on Eskimo words, 160;
his family, 162;
dies, 163;
his books, 163
-- Paul, 161 _et seq._
Egedesminde, 163
Egerton, Admiral Sir George, 304, 306 _et seq._, 446, 448
_Eira_, 290;
founders, 291
Eira Harbour, 294
Eis blink, 163
_Eliza Scott_, 405, 406
_Elizabeth_, 98, 99, 100
Elizabeth, Queen, encourages Arctic discovery, 79;
supports Frobisher, 82, 85;
decorates Frobisher, 86
Elizabethan Arctic discoveries, 157
_Ellen_, 98, 99, 100
Ellesmere Island, 265, 298, 299, 308, 325, 347 _et seq._, 354, 362;
coal in, 350
_Emanuel_, 86
-- (busse), 86, 91
Emperor penguins, 472, 476, 496, 497
_Empetrum nigrum_, 116
Enderby, Charles, 403 _et seq._
-- Land, 404
-- Quadrant, 505
England, Lieut., R.N. 478
Engroneland, 118
_Enterprise_, 248, 250 _et seq._, 263
Epitaph, Franklin’s, 243
Equipment, sledging, Hearne’s, 168;
Nansen’s, 334;
Ross’s, 256;
Scott’s, 450, 460;
Sverdrup’s, 348;
Wrangell’s, 182
_Erebus_ (under Ross), 410 _et seq._, 418 _et seq._;
collision of, 419
-- (under Franklin), 237 _et seq._, 240 _et seq._, 246 _et seq._,
251;
sinks, 247
Erebus and Terror Bay, 422
Erichsen, Mylius, 369 _et seq._;
death of, 374, 375
Erik, Bishop, 48
-- the Red, 39;
Saga of, 38;
voyage of, 41
Eriksfjord, 113
_Esk_, 195
Eskimos, 17, 18, 84, 112, 113, 115, 142, 143, 229, 234;
boats of, 20, 115;
dress of, 19;
East Greenland, 365, 366;
harpoons of, 23;
iglus, 234;
physical characteristics of, 19, 20, 22;
priests of, 23;
snow-huts of, 20;
their folk-lore, 366;
vocabulary of, compiled by Davis, 97;
vocabulary of, Egede’s, 160;
at Igloolik, 214;
of Boothia, 235;
in Greenland, 22, 335;
massacred by Indians, 168;
met by Amundsen, 314, 315;
met by Baffin, 140;
met by Davis, 95, 96, 97;
met by Egede, 159;
met by Hudson’s mutineers, 134;
met by M’Clintock, 275;
met by Sabine, 280 _et seq._;
visit Parry’s vessels, 214
Evans, Commander, 489, 490, 492, 498, 499
-- Edgar, 471 _et seq._, 490, 495, 498, 500 _et seq._;
death of, 502
_Excellent_, 238, 240
Faddiev, 179
Falkland Islands, 405, 420, 436
Farewell, Cape, sighted by Baffin, 114
Faroes, 121
Fauna, of American Arctic Coast, 18;
of Cape Sabine, 320;
of Franz
Josef Land, 296;
of Greenland, 96;
of Melville Island, 209;
of Spitsbergen, 119, 121, 128
Feather, T. A., 472
Feilden, Capt., 304
_Felix_, 251, 253, 254
Felspar crystals, 479
Fenton, Edward, 90
Ferrar, Hartley T., 449, 464 _et seq._, 472
Ferrar Glacier, 465, 471
Fiala, Capt., 293
Field, Capt., 446
“Field ice,” 7
Filchner, his Antarctic expedition, 442
Finmarken, 73;
coast explored by Ohthere, 34;
geology of, 73
_Finneskos_, 334, 342, 462, 478
Fish, abundance of, 98
Fisher, Dr, 209 _et seq._
-- Rev. George, 213
Fitzjames, James, 238 _et seq._;
death of, 247
Fjords, Greenland, 9, 41
Flag of the _Discovery_, 447
Flags, sledge, Nares’s expedition, 304;
Scott’s, 450
Flatey Book, 38, 47;
account of voyage of Leif Erik, 43
_Flensing_, 192
Flinders, Capt., 222
Floe, Tyson’s party adrift on, 301
“Floe-bergs,” 7
_Flora Antarctica_, 418
Flora of American Arctic Coast, 18;
of Baffin’s Bay, 116;
of Cockburn Island, 423;
of Franz Josef Land, 295;
of Greenland, 41, 96;
of Melville Island, 211;
of Novaya Zemlya, 185, 186;
of Waigatz, 64
Forster, Johann Reinhold, 394
Fort Enterprise, 224;
Providence, 224 _et seq._
Fortune, 177
Fossils, Antarctic, 423, 431, 432, 436, 437, 440, 501, 506;
penguins, 438;
tertiary, 350
Foster, Capt. Henry, 216, 423;
his Antarctic expedition, 400 _et seq._;
death of, 401
Fotherby family, 124, 126
_Fox_, 273, 311;
winters in Bellot’s Strait, 274
Fox Channel, 154
Fox, Luke, 137, 151;
sails north, 152;
discovers relics of Button and Munk, 154;
meets Capt. James, 154;
his Narrative, 156;
map of, 145, 146, 155
Foyn, Svend, 433, 467
_Fram_ (Nansen’s), 340 _et seq._;
dimensions of, 340;
drift of, 344;
arrives home, 344;
under Sverdrup, 347;
winters in Smith Channel, 347;
winters in Havnfjord, 348;
winters in Jones Sound, 349
-- (Amundsen’s), 482 _et seq._
_Français_, 442
_Francis_, 86
Francke, Rudolf, 353 _et seq._
Franklin, Lady, 251
-- Sir John, 222, 238 _et seq._, 413, 414;
serves with Buchan, 198;
at Trafalgar, 223;
his land journey, 223 _et seq._;
marries Miss Porden, 226;
his second land journey, 226;
marries Miss Griffin, 227;
last expedition sails, 241;
death of, 243;
Tennyson’s epitaph on, 243;
his record, 243, 244;
retreat of his party, 245 _et seq._;
search for, 248 _et seq._;
his winter quarters discovered, 254;
his relics found, 272, 275, 276, 314
Franklin Island, 415
Franz Josef Land, 289 _et seq._, 345, 360;
explorers of, 293;
described, 293, 294;
flora of, 295;
fauna of, 296;
birds of, 296;
part of Spitsbergen, 340;
Nansen reaches, 343
Frederikshaab, 163, 331
Freeman, Ralph, 106
French Antarctic expeditions, 407, 441
Freuchen, Herr, 370, 380
Friesland (or Frieslanda), 55, 56, 83, 85, 88, 95, 160
Frisland _v._ Friesland
Frobisher, Martin, 81;
starts his Arctic voyage, 83;
meets Eskimos, 84;
supposed discovery of gold by, 85;
his second expedition, 85;
his provisions, 90;
authorities for his voyage, 91;
life of, 91;
character of, 91;
dies, 92;
place-names given by, 92
Frobisher Strait, 152, 159
Frozen soil, depth of, 16
Fulford, Faith, 93
Furious Overfall, The, 100, 123, 131
_Furnace_, 165
Furs, 482
_Fury_, 212, 216;
wrecked, 234
Fury Beach, 234, 236, 249, 303
Fury and Hecla Strait, 214, 216
_Gabriel_, 83, 86
-- (Bering’s), 177
Gabrielsen, Tobias, 370 _et seq._
Gael Hamke Bay, 279 _et seq._
_Gamaliel_, 124
_Ganges_, 240
Garrard, Mr Cherry, 491, 494, 496, 498, 503, 504
Garwood, Mr, 361
Gatonby, John, 114
Gauss, 362, 440, 441, 451
Gauss, Prof., 417
Gaussberg, 508
Geology, of Antarctic regions, 429, 434, 435, 438, 480, 501, 505;
of Arctic regions, 384 _et seq._;
of Finmarken, 73
_George_, 65
Gerlache, M. de, 368, 390; his Antarctic expedition, 433 _et seq._
Gerlache Channel, 434
German Antarctic expeditions, 440, 442
_Germania_, 282
Gerritsz, Dirk, 390
Giffard, 304
Gilbert, Adrian, 94, 96, 98
-- Sir Humphrey, his _Discourse on a North-west Passage to
Cathay_, 82, 94
Gilbert Sound, 95, 109, 114;
Egede reaches, 159
_Gilliflower_, 113
_Gjoa_, 314, 315
Glaciers, Antarctic, 471;
Greenland, 9;
discharging, 9;
in Novaya Zemlya, 186;
movement of, 331, 332
Globes, Molyneux, 55, 104
Godenoff, Boris, 105
_Godspeed_, 129
Godthaab, 95, 114, 116, 160, 316, 336
Goggles, 462
Gold, supposed discovery by Frobisher of, 85
Goodsir, Dr, 240
Goose Land, 185
Gore, Graham, 240, 243, 245
Gore-Booth, Sir Henry, 360
Graah, Capt., 217;
explores East Greenland, 281
Graham Land, 405, 406, 431, 432, 434, 442, 506
Granite, 456
Grant, W. J. A., 359
Gray, Capt., 283
Great Bear Lake, 226
Great Fish River, 228, 275
Great Slave Lake, 224, 228, 316
Greely, Lieut., 316; work of, 320
Greely expedition, 317 _et seq._
Greenland, altitudes in, 332, 333, 335, 336, 338, 381;
area of, 9;
attempt to re-discover Norse colony in, 112;
Bardsen’s report on, 51;
Bishop Arnold of, 48;
Bishop Erik of, visits Vinland, 48;
bishops of, 47 _et seq._, 51;
churches of, 51;
first bishop of, consecrated, 47;
Christian IV sends expedition to, 112;
Christianity introduced into, 43;
coast explored by Nares’s expedition, 308;
current of East coast of, 41;
Danish expeditions to, 364 _et seq._, 376 _et seq._;
devastated by smallpox, 162;
East coast mapped, 368;
Egede’s map of, 161;
explorations in, 279 _et seq._;
later explorations in, 376 _et seq._;
fauna of, 96;
first attempt to approach East coast of, 98;
first governor of, 160;
fjords of, 9, 41;
flora of, 41, 96;
glaciers of, 9;
ice-cap of, 9;
inland ice of, 9, 331, 332, 336;
map of, 377;
Moravian missions to, 162, 163, 164;
crossed by Nansen, 334;
by Rasmussen, 379;
by Quervain, 381;
by Koch, 381;
Nordenskiöld attempts crossing, 325;
Norsemen in, 38;
name of, applied to Spitsbergen, 118, 124;
Peary’s journeys in, 338, 368, 369;
products of, 163, 164;
ruins of churches in, 52;
runic inscriptions, 52;
stations of, 163;
ship visits Iceland, 51;
sighted by Davis, 95;
colonies, population of, 51;
colonies, their fate, 51;
Current, 5;
Eskimos, physical characteristics of, 22
_Greyhound_, 72
_Griffin_, 72
Grinnell, 252
Grinnell Land, 269
_Griper_, 206 _et seq._, 212, 215, 233, 280
Gron, Tryggve, 491, 503
Groneland, 118
Guillemard, Jeanne, 227
Gull, Ivory, 296;
Ross’s, 296, 343;
Sabine’s, 203
Haarfager, Harold, 35, 36
Hadley’s Quadrant, 102
Hagen, Lieut. H., 370 _et seq._;
death of, 374
Hakluyt, Richard, 109 _et seq._, 135;
his _Divers Voyages touching the Discoveries of America_, 110;
his _Principall Navigations_, 110
Halgoland, 61
Hall, 300
-- Christopher, 88, 90;
master of _Gabriel_, 83;
island named after, 84;
quarrels with Frobisher, 89
-- James, 112, 113, 114, 116;
is killed, 115;
place-names given by, 112, 114, 116
Hamilton, Admiral Sir R. Vesey, 446
Handsley, 471, 472
_Hansa_, 282
Hansen, B. H., 345
-- S. Scott, 341
Hanson, 433
Hanssen, 484
Hare (boy), accident to, 459
Harpoon, 190;
Eskimo, 23
Hartz, Herr, 367, 368
Hassel, 484
Hauksbok, 38, 39, 47;
account of voyage of Leif Erik, 43;
author of, 46
Hayes, Dr, 299
Hearne, Samuel, his first journey, 167;
explores the Coppermine River, 168;
taken prisoner by the French, 169
_Heartsease_ (Greenland voyage), 113 _et seq._
-- Marmaduke’s, 126
_Hecla_, 206 _et seq._, 212;
under Parry, 216 _et seq._, 233
-- Ryder’s, 367
Hedenström surveys the Liakhovs, 180
Heemskerk, Jacob van, 72
Heiberg, Axel, 347
Hendrik, Hans, 305
_Henrietta_, 192
_Henrietta Maria_, 154
Henson, 337, 357
Herald Island, 183, 328
_Hertha_, 431, 432
Highlanders, Arctic, 24;
Ross’s, 202, 253, 299, 301, 313, 338, 352 _et seq._, 379;
dress, 24;
physical characteristics of, 24
Hinlopen Strait, 127, 285, 288
Hodgson, Thomas V., 449
Hoidtenland Islands, 343
Hold-with-Hope, 118
Holm, Lieut. G., 364 _et seq._
Holsteinborg, 112, 115, 163
Hondius’s map of 1611, 77
Hood, Robert, murder of, 225
-- Dr, 106
Hooker, Sir Joseph, 412, 415, 418, 420, 423, 445
Hooper, 503
“Hoosh,” 461
_Hope_, 72
-- Adams’s, 390
-- Egede’s, 158 _et seq._
-- Young’s, 291
Hope Bay, 436, 437
_Hopewell_, 86
-- Knight’s, 117 _et seq._, 130
Hoskins, Admiral Sir Anthony, 446
Hudson, Henry, 117;
his first voyage, 118;
his second voyage, 122;
names of crew of his second voyage, 122;
visits Novaya Zemlya, 122;
results of his voyages, 123;
his last voyage, 131;
names of crew of his last voyage, 131;
sights Iceland, 131;
winters in his Bay, 132;
mutiny of his crew, 132 _et seq._;
his character, 135
-- Thomas, 117
Hudson’s Bay, first so-called, 131;
map of, 167;
voyages to, 129
Hudson’s Bay Company, 228;
founding of, 165;
early voyages of, 165
Hudson Strait, 152;
discovery of, 89
Hudson’s Touches, 121
Hull Trinity House, 116
Huntriss, William, 113
_Ibis_, 326
Ice, Antarctic, 11;
thickness of drift, 5
“Ice blink,” 8, 163
Ice-cap, Antarctic, 473, 474, 477, 506, 507
“Ice-foot,” 8, 298
Ice, nomenclature, 7;
phenomena, 326;
thickness of, in Arctic, 5
Icebergs, 9, 10;
Antarctic, 11, 12;
colour of, 10
Iceland, Christianity introduced into, 42;
physical features of, 36;
reached by the Vikings, 36;
settlement of, 37;
sighted by Hudson, 131;
visit of Greenland ship to, 51;
voyages to, 58
Icy Cape, 170, 171
Igloolik, Parry winters at, 214
Iglus, 21, 22
-- Eskimo, 234
Independence Bay, 339, 373
Independence Sound, 372, 373
Inglefield, Admiral, 265, 268, 270, 298, 348
_Ingulf_, 364
“Inland Ice” of Greenland, 9, 331, 332, 336
_In Northern Mists_, Nansen’s, 346
Instruments nautical etc., 56, 89, 102, 110, 115;
Cook’s, 354, 355, 394;
invented by Leigh-Smith, 287;
Nansen’s, for crossing Greenland, 335;
James’s, 154;
Scott’s, 452, 489
_Intrepid_, 251, 253, 254, 261, 264 _et seq._, 347
_Inventions or Devices_, Bourne’s, 152
_Investigator_, 222, 248, 251, 263 _et seq._;
loss of, 270
Irizar, Capt. Julio, 437
Iron, meteoric, 202
-- (meteoric) weapons, 24
_Isabella_, 198 _et seq._, 233, 237
Isachsen, G. I., 347 _et seq._
_Isbjörn_, 289, 360
Iversen, Iver, 376 _et seq._
Ivory Gull, 296
Jackson, F. G., 291;
rescues Nansen, 293
Jacobshavn, 381
James, Thomas, 152;
portrait of, 153;
instruments taken by, 154;
meets Foxe, 154;
winters in Hudson’s Bay, 154
_Jane_, 402
Janes, John, 94, 95, 98, 100
Jansen, Commodore, 285, 358
Jáshak, naval battle of, 147
_Jason_, 431
_Jeannette_, 328;
drift of relics of, 340
Jeffreys, Gwyn, 427
Jenkinson, Antony, on N.E. Passage, 82
Jensen, Lieut., explores Greenland, 333
Johansen, 370 _et seq._
-- F. H., 342 _et seq._
_John and Francis_, 124
Joinville Island, 421, 431
_Jonah in the Whale_, 188
Jones, Sir Francis, 106, 108, 135, 124
Jones Sound, 347, 348, 355;
_Fram_ winters in, 349
Jorgensen, Capt., 376 _et seq._, 442, 443
Joseph, Benjamin, 124 _et seq._
Juan Fernandez, 392
_Judith_, 86
Julianshaab, 164
Jurassic flora in Antarctic, 438
-- life, first in Arctic, 4
Kaiser Wilhelm II Land, 487, 488
Kakortak, ruins of, 47, 52, 160
Kallstenius, 325
Kamschatka, 171
Kane, Dr, 255, 298, 353
Kara Sea, 72, 327, 360;
expeditions, 346
Karlsefni, Thorfin, descendants of, 46;
reaches Labrador, 45;
Saga of, 39
_Katten_, 112, 129
Kayaks, 20, 22, 95, 113, 115, 342 _et seq._, 353, 365
Kellett, Capt., 264, 268
Kempe, Capt., his Antarctic expedition, 405
Kempe Land, 405, 508
Kendall, 401
Kennedy, William, 262
Keohane, 495, 498, 503
Khabarova, 15, 341
King Edward VII visits the _Discovery_, 454
King Edward VII Land, 477, 492, 506
King George IV Sea, 402
King William Island, 230, 274 _et seq._
King William Land, 235, 242, 314
Kingiktorsuak, 49
Kingoa-dal, ruins in, 48
Kishim, 147
Kites in sledge travel, 258
Knight, John, 112;
his expedition and death, 129, 130
Koch, Johan Peter, 370 _et seq._, 381 _et seq._
Koettlitz, Dr, 292, 295, 449, 464 _et seq._
Koettlitz Glacier, 476
Kola Peninsula, 13
Koldewey, Karl, visits Greenland, 282;
visits Spitsbergen, 282
Koldewey Island, 370
Kolguev Island, 14, 361;
discovered, 64;
visited by Munk, 150
Kolyma River, 324
Kostin Shar, 185
Kotelnoi Island, 179, 341
Kroksfjord, 49
Kruuse, H. C., his Greenland botanical work, 366, 367
Labrador, 98;
discovered by Karlsefni, 45
_Lady Franklin_, 251
Lady Franklin Bay, 317
Lambert Land, 371, 373
Lamont, Mr, 287
_Lamprenen_ v. _Lamprey_
_Lamprey_, 150, 151
Lamps, cooking, 342, 461
Lancaster, Sir James, 106, 108, 113, 135, 142
Lancaster Sound, 144, 207, 234, 241, 253, 311, 312
“Land of Busse,” 91
“Land of Desolation,” 95
Landnamabók, 37
Lane, Henry, 104
Lapps, 13;
in Greenland, 332, 335
Laptef, Cheriton, 177
La Roche, Anthony, 393
Larsen, Capt., 431, 432, 440
Lashly, 471 _et seq._, 490, 495, 498, 499, 503
Laub, Lieut., 376 _et seq._
Ledyard, John, 171
Leif Erik, Flatey book account of voyage to Vinland (Newfoundland),
43;
marries Thorgunna, 42;
reaches Vinland, 42
Leigh-Smith, Benjamin, 287, 288;
visits Franz Josef Land, 290;
revisits it, 291;
winters in it, 291, 294
Le Maire, Jacob, 390
_Lena_, 323
Lena River, 316, 324, 329;
discovered, 175;
descended, 177
Levick, Dr, 490, 493
Liakhov Islands (New Siberian Islands), 177, 179, 328, 329, 341, 384
Lichtenfels, 163
Lievely, 217, 347
_Lightning_, 427
Lillie, Mr, 491, 494
Lindenow, Goolske, 113
Linschoten, J. H. van, 70 _et seq._;
dies, 72;
his narrative, 72
_Lion_, 91
-- Pickersgill’s, 171
_Lively_, 403 _et seq._
Loads for sledges, 23, 176, 265, 472, 479
Loaysa, Garcia Jofre de, 389
Lock, Michael, 82 _et seq._
Lock’s Island, 88
Lockwood, Lieut. James, 317 _et seq._;
death of, 320
_Lodias_, 63
Log, use of the, 152
Logarithms, introduced by Briggs, 151
_London_, 147
London Coast, 99
Londonderry, founded by Cockayne, 108
Longhurst, Cyril, 450, 453, 467
Longstaff, Mr, 466;
supports The Societies’ Expedition, 445
Lowther Island, 259
Lumley, Lord, 152
Lutke Land, 186
Lyall, Dr, 412
Lyon, Capt. G. F., 212 _et seq._;
voyage of, 215;
death of, 216
Lyons, Israel, 173
Lyttelton, New Zealand, 455, 469, 470, 477, 478, 491
M’Clintock, Admiral Sir Leopold, 249 _et seq._, 264 _et seq._, 303,
427, 446, 453;
his sledges, 256;
his sledge crew, 259;
his sledge journey, 356;
commissions the _Fox_, 273;
knighted, 278;
death of, 278
M’Clure, Capt., 248;
winters in Prince of Wales Strait, 264;
his record found by Mecham, 265
McCormick, Dr R., 412, 425
Mackenzie, Alexander, explores Mackenzie River, 169
Mackenzie River, 169, 226;
exploration of, 169, 384
Maclear, Lieut., 428
M’Murdo, Archibald, 411, 420
M’Murdo Bay, 416
-- Sound, 456, 457, 492, 493
Macquarie Island, 455, 486
Magallanica, 391
Magellan, 389
Magnetic force, irregular, 455
-- observations, 99, 115;
Antarctic, 475, 476
-- Pole, Sir James Ross discovers, 236;
South, 417, 475, 480, 481;
position of, 415
-- storms, 417
_Magpie_, 405
Mahu, Jacob, 390
Maigaard, Lieut., 333
Maldonado on Strait of Anian, 82
Mammoth ivory, 179, 180, 184
Maps, Baffin’s discoveries, 144;
Barentsz’s discoveries, by Hondius, 77;
Claudius Clavus’s, 54;
Davis’s voyages, 97;
Egede’s, of Greenland, 161;
Foxe’s, 155;
Frobisher’s discoveries, 87;
Graham Land, 399;
Greenland, 377;
Hudson Bay, 167;
Hudson Strait, by Baffin, 139;
medieval, 55;
by Mercator, 55, 95, 391;
North-eastern Siberia, 181;
North-western Siberia, 181;
Olaus Magnus and Zamoiski, 55;
Ortelius’s (1570), 55, 391;
Parry Islands, 210;
Settlement of East Bygd, 40;
South Shetlands, 399;
Spitsbergen, 120;
Zeni, 54
Markham, Admiral Sir A. H., 301, 313, 360, 446, 447;
sails on whaler, 302
-- Sir Clements, 446;
serves on the _Assistance_, 252;
his _Threshold of the Unknown Region_, 302
-- Lady (Clements), 447
-- Lieut. John, 400
Markland (Labrador), discovered by Karlsefni, 45
Marmaduke, Capt., 124;
his explorations in Spitsbergen, 127
Marshall, 479
-- Captain, 197
_Maryner’s Book_, 151
Massacre of Eskimos, 168
Matonabi, 167 _et seq._
_Matthew_, 124
Matyushin Strait, 184, 185, 360
Maury, 358
Mawson, Sir Douglas, 478, 480;
his Antarctic expedition, 486 _et seq._
May, Lieut., 304
Meares, Mr, 489, 491, 498
Mecham, Frederick, 259, 261, 264 _et seq._;
finds M’Clure’s record, 265;
his great sledge journey, 270, 356;
character of, 271;
death of, 271
_Meddelelser om Grönland_, 364, 366
_Melampyrum sylvaticum_, 64
Melville Bay, 143, 202, 273, 303, 314, 338
Melville Island, 208 _et seq._, 259, 260, 265 _et seq._;
fauna of, 209;
flora of, 211;
interior explored, 209
Melville Peninsula, 214;
explored by Rae, 231
Mercator, his maps, 55, 95, 391;
Atlas, 391
Merchant Adventurers, 104, 113;
Company, 59
“Merchants of London, Governor and Company of,” 135
_Mercury_, 69
_Mermaid_, 96, 97
Mertz, Dr, 486;
death of, 487
Meteoric iron, 202, 339;
weapons, 24
_Michael_, 83, 86
Micmac Indians, 98
Middendorf, 184
Middle Pack, 100, 142
Middleton, Capt. Christopher, winters in Hudson’s Bay, 166
Mikkelsen, Einar, 368, 376 _et seq._, 384
Milton, history of Muscovia, 62
Miocene, Antarctic, 438
Molyneux globes, 55, 104
Monastery (Augustinian) in East Bygd, 47
Montreal Island, 272, 275
Monument to Vince, 476
_Moon_, 86
_Moonshine_, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98
Moore, Admiral, 411, 425
Moravian missions, 162, 163, 164;
in Greenland, 162, 163
_Morning_, 466 _et seq._, 476
Moseley, 428
Mosquitos, 15
Motor-car, Shackleton’s, 478
Motor Sledges, 490, 497
Mount Erebus, 416, 458;
ascended, 479, 504
-- Haddington, 422
-- Jason, 431
-- Longstaff, 464
-- Markham, 464
-- Melbourne, 493
-- Moberly, 404
-- Sabine, 415
-- St Elias discovered, 178
-- Terror, 416
-- William, 404
Mountain sickness, 480
Mourier, Commander, 364
Müller, Baron, 431
Mulock, Lieut. G. F. A., 470 _et seq._
Munk, Jens Eriksen, 149;
visits Iceland, 150;
visits Kolguev, 150;
his narrative, 151;
death of, 151
Murman Coast, 13, 63
Murray, Mr J., 478
-- Sir John, 428, 446;
on Antarctic exploration, 444
Muscovy Company, 105, 123, 124;
receives charter, 62;
discourages Frobisher, 82;
protests against Dutch encroachments, 121;
despatches fleet to Spitsbergen, 124;
despatches N.W. expedition, 130
Musk ox, 22, 267, 281, 318, 338, 339, 347, 349, 371, 372, 374, 380
Mutineers, Hudson’s, sail with Button, 136
Nai, Cornelis, 69, 70
Nanortalik, 364, 365
Nansen, Fridtjof, 340 _et seq._, 386;
rescued by Jackson, 293;
crosses Greenland, 334 _et seq._;
his instruments for crossing Greenland, 335;
scientific papers of, 345;
his _In Northern Mists_, 346
Nares, Admiral Sir George, 267, 304 _et seq._, 446;
his expedition sails, 304;
arrives at Lievely, 305;
his winter quarters, 305;
results of his expedition, 309;
commands the _Challenger_, 428
Narwhals, 143
Nathorst, Professor, 368
Natives, Polar, 13
Nelson, Horatio, 173
-- Mr, 490, 503
Nemtinoff, Lieut., 285
Neumeyer, Prof., 440, 441
_New Attractive_, 100
New Guinea, 391
New Siberian Islands, _v._ Liakhov Islands
Newfoundland, 98;
(Vinland), discovered by Leif Erik, 42;
re-discovered, 58
Newland, 118, 119
Newton, Professor Alfred, 287
Nias, Sir Joseph, 201, 212
Nicholas of Lynn, 53
_Nimrod_, 478 _et seq._
Ninnis, Lieut., 486;
death of, 487
Nodal, the brothers, 390
_Nonsuch_, 165
Nordenskiöld, Erland, 325
-- Nils Adolf Erik, Baron, 322 _et seq._, 386;
on Omoki, 16;
visits Spitsbergen, 286 _et seq._;
explores Greenland, 325;
results of his voyage, 324;
character of, 325;
his explorations in Greenland, 322
-- Otto, 368;
his Antarctic expedition, 435 _et seq._;
results, 438, 439
Nordsetur, 49
Norman, Robert, his _New Attractive_, 100
Norse colony in Greenland, attempt to re-discover, 112
-- methods of reckoning time, 45
-- Settlement of East Bygd founded, 41
Norsemen, the, 30, 32;
Arctic discoveries by, 32 _et seq._, 38 _et seq._, 49 _et seq._;
in Greenland, 38
North Cape, rounded by Ohthere, 34;
named by Burrough, 63
North East Passage, 322;
attempted by Wood, 156
_North Georgian Gazette_, 208
North Pole, attempts to reach, 351 _et seq._
North Somerset, 251
_North Star_, Davis’s, 96;
Saunders’s, 250, 265
North West Passage, 155, 268, 275, 314;
attempted by Frobisher, 81;
attempted by Ross, 233;
rewards for discovery of, 172
Norwegian expeditions, Antarctic, 433, 482 _et seq._;
Novaya Zemlya, 288;
Spitsbergen, 286
Novaya Zemlya, 157, 289, 316, 360;
description of, 184 _et seq._;
discovered by Willoughby, 61;
visited by Hudson, 122
_Nunataks_, 331, 333, 335, 372, 373, 378, 381
Oates, Capt., 490, 491, 498, 500 _et seq._;
death of, 502;
cairn to his memory, 503
Obi River, 323, 326
Observations, lunar, by Baffin, 140;
magnetic, 99, 115;
magnetic, Antarctic, 475, 476;
Peary’s, 357;
pendulum, Antarctic, 400;
stations for synchronous, 316, 414;
synchronous, Antarctic, 420, 451
Observatory, Rossbank, 414
Ocean, depth of, 296, 297, 344, 345
Oceanic currents in Arctic, 5
Oceanography, Antarctic, 426 _et seq._
Odin’s horse (Sleipner), 31
Odometer, 372
Officers of Nares’s expedition, 304
Ohthere, 33;
voyage of, 34
Olaf, Bishop, 49
Olaf Tryggvason, Saga of, 38
Ommanney, Erasmus, 237, 251, 252;
death of, 262
Omoki, 16, 20
“One-ton Depôt,” 494, 498
Onkilon, 16, 20;
relics of the, 21
Origanus, David, 141
Orleans Channel, 434, 436
Ormuz, siege of, 147
_Ornen_, 113
Orosius, 33
Ortelius, map of world (1570), 55, 391
Osborn, Sherard, 251, 261, 264 _et seq._, 268, 301, 302
Ostiaks, 16
Otter, Sea, 178
Ox, Musk, 22
Paar, Major, first governor of Greenland, 160
Pack ice, 8;
Antarctic, 12
_Pagoda_, 425
Palander, Lieut. Louis, 287, 323
Pancake ice, 7
_Pandora_, 311 _et seq._, 327, 359;
name changed to _Jeannette_, 328
_Papaver alpinum_, 96
-- _nudicaule_, 295
Parr, Lieut., 304
Parry, Sir Edward, 201, 205, 206;
discoveries by, 207;
winters in Melville Island, 208 _et seq._;
his second voyage, 212;
winters on Melville Peninsula, 214;
winters at Igloolik, 214;
results of his second voyage, 215;
winters in Port Bowen, 217;
marries, 218;
his fourth voyage, 218;
his later work and death, 220
Parry Archipelago, 347 _et seq._, 362;
currents of, 5
_Patience_, 113, 114, 116
Paulet Island, 437
Payer, Julius, 288, 289, 316;
visits Greenland, 282
Peary, Robert, his explorations in Greenland, 333;
his second expedition to Greenland, 337;
his third expedition to Greenland, 338;
attempts to reach the Pole, 352 _et seq._;
further attempt on Pole, 355;
his sledge journey, 356;
his observations, 357;
Greenland journeys, 368, 369;
his record found, 380
Pemmican, 256, 450, 461, 469, 479, 483
Pendulum Island, 280, 282
Pendulum observations, Antarctic, 400
Penguins, Emperor, 472, 476, 496, 497;
fossil, 438
Pennell, Lieut., 490, 493, 494
Penny, Capt., 251 _et seq._
Pepys, Samuel, approves Wood’s voyage, 156
Pet, Arthur, 63;
commands Arctic voyage, 65;
discovers Waigatz, 66
Pet Strait, 72, 323
Petchora River, 14
Peter Island, 397, 442
Petermann Island, 442
Petersen, Carl, 258, 273
-- Johan, 365, 366
_Philip and Mary_, 62
_Philomel_, 420
Phipps, Hon. Constantine, 173;
narrative of his voyage, 174;
death of, 174
_Phoenix_, 255, 268
Physical characteristics of Arctic Highlanders, 24;
of Eskimos, 19;
of Greenland Eskimos, 22
-- features of Iceland, 36
Pickersgill, Lieut., 171, 394
Pike, Arnold, 344
Pillars, basaltic, 324
_Pioneer_, 251, 253, 254, 261, 264 _et seq._, 347
Place-names given by John Davis, 103;
by Frobisher, 92;
by Hall, 112, 114, 116
Plankton, 426
Playse, John, his journal, 118
_Pleuropogon Sabinii_, 186, 295
_Plover_, 251, 263
Point Victory, 235
Polar areas, 3
-- conference, 316
_Polaris_, 300, 301
Pole, South magnetic, 417
_Polyphemus_, 222
Ponies, in Arctic travel, 292, 293;
in Greenland travel, 381;
in Antarctic travel, 478, 490, 494 _et seq._, 497, 498
Ponting, Mr, 491
Poole, Jonas, visits Spitsbergen, 105;
completes Hudson’s survey, 123;
death of, 123
Population (Norse) in Greenland, 51
_Porcupine_, 427
_Porpoise_, 222
Possession Island, 415
_Pourquoi Pas_, 442
Priestley, Raymond, 478, 480, 491, 493, 504
Priests of the Eskimos, 23
“Primus” lamp, 342, 461
_Prince Albert_, 252 _et seq._, 262
Prince Albert Mountains, 417
_Prince of Wales_, 241
Prince of Wales Island, 274, 277
-- Land, 259
-- Strait, M’Clure explores and winters in, 264
Prince Patrick Island, 266, 267
Prince Regent Inlet, 207, 217
_Principall Navigations_ (Hakluyt), 110
Prontchishcheff, 176
_Prosperous_, 156
_Proteus_, 317 _et seq._;
founders, 319
Provisions, Davis’s, 94, 96;
Dease and Simpson’s, 229;
Frobisher’s, 90;
Lockwood’s, 318;
Nansen’s, 334, 342;
Parry’s, first voyage, 207;
Parry’s, second voyage, 213;
Parry’s, land journey, 209;
Parry’s, Spitsbergen boat voyage, 219;
Rae’s, 231;
Scott’s first expedition, 450, 461;
Shackleton’s, 479;
Sverdrup’s, 348;
for sledge journeys, M’Clintock’s party, 256, 257, 259;
Ross’s, 249;
Scott’s, 462, 494
Pullen, Mr, 306
Purchas, Samuel, 111
_Purchas hys Pilgrimes_, 111
Purchas’s _Briefe and True Relation_, 145
Pyrites found by Frobisher, 85, 90
Pytheas, voyage of, 26, 27
Quadrant, Davis’s, 102;
Hadley’s, 102;
Weddell’s, 442;
Ross’s, 507
Quadrants, Arctic, 4, 6, 13, 57
Queen Adelaide Island, 404
Quervain, Dr de, 381
Quiros, Pedro Fernandez de, 392
_Racehorse_, 172 _et seq._
Rae, Dr John, winters in Repulse Bay, 231;
reports news of Franklin’s expedition, 272
_Rainbow_, 227, 230
Raised terraces, 186
Raleigh, Sir Walter, supports Davis’s projects, 94;
drafts instructions for Arctic voyage, 135
_Ranunculus glacialis_, 96
Rasmussen, Knud, 379 _et seq._
Rate of sledge travel, 23, 356;
Aldrich’s, 308;
Amundsen’s, 484, 485;
Hamilton’s, 265;
M’Clintock’s, 260, 266, 269;
Mecham’s, 265;
Payer’s, 283;
Peary’s, 338;
Rasmussen’s, 380;
Scott’s first expedition, 464, 472, 475
Ravens, 332
_Ravenscraig_, 301
Rawson, Lieut., 304, 306, 307;
death of, 307
Record, Peary’s, found, 380
Records of _Alert_ and _Discovery_, 312, 313
_Regiment of Medina_, 57
Reindeer, 14, 267;
introduced into Spitsbergen, 287
_Reliance_, 227
Relics, of the Onkilon, 21;
of Erichsens’ party, 378;
of Franklin found, 272, 275, 276, 314;
of Parry’s expedition, 260
Rennick, Lieut., 490, 493, 494
Repulse Bay, 166, 213, 230, 231
_Rescue_, 252, 255
_Resolute_, 251, 253 _et seq._, 264 _et seq._
_Resolution_, Button’s, 136
-- Cook’s, 169 _et seq._, 394 _et seq._
-- Scoresby’s, 192, 194, 195
_Revenge_, the, action described by Linschoten, 71
_Rhodostethia rosea_, 343
_Rhytina Stelleri_, 179
_Richard and Barnard_, 124
Richardson, Dr, 223 _et seq._, 226;
shoots Michel, 225
Rijp, Jan Cornelis, 72, 73, 78
Ringnes, Herrn, 347
Ringnes Islands, 348, 349, 355
Rink, Dr, 332
Rivers of Siberia, 15
Robertson, Dr, 412
Robertson Bay, 433, 456, 493
_Rodgers_, 329
Roe, Sir Thomas, 152
_Roosevelt_, 355, 356
Ross, Sir James, 201, 212, 216, 218, 233 _et seq._, 410;
character of, 424;
his first Antarctic voyage, 410;
second Antarctic voyage, 418;
third Antarctic voyage, 422 _et seq._;
bibliography of third Antarctic voyage, 425;
discovers magnetic pole, 236;
winters at Fury Beach, 236;
goes in search of Franklin, 248;
death of, 251
-- Sir John, 201, 233, 349;
discovers Arctic Highlanders, 24, 203;
his first voyage, 202;
knighted, 237
Ross Island, 494;
Quadrant, 507;
Sea, 12
Ross’s Barrier, _v._ Barrier, Great
Ross’s Gull, 296, 343
Rossbank Observatory, 414
_Royal George_, 102
Royds, Lieut. Charles, 448, 452, 475
Ruins of Greenland churches, 52;
of Kakortak, 47, 52, 160;
in Kingoa-dal, 48
Runic inscriptions in Greenland, 49, 52
Rupert, Prince, founds Hudson’s Bay Company, 165
Russia, Dutch open trade with, 68
Russian Ambassador, first, visits England, 62
-- expeditions, Antarctic, 396;
Arctic, 175;
Spitsbergen, 187, 285
Russians with Scott, 489, 490, 495
Ryder, Lieut. C., 367
Sabine, Colonel, 201;
sails with Parry, 206;
visits Greenland, 280;
on terrestrial magnetism, 410
Sabine Peninsula, 267
Sabine’s Gull, 203
_Sabrina_, 405, 406
Sabrina Land, 406, 430
Saga, of Erik the Red, 38;
of Olaf Tryggvason, 38;
of Thorfin Karlsefni, 39
_St Lesmes_, 389
_St Paul_, 177
_St Peter_, 177, 178
“Sallying,” 8, 195
_Salomon_, 86, 88
Samoyeds, 14, 16, 184, 185;
described by Digges, 107
Sanderson, William, 94, 96, 98, 104;
supports Davis’s expeditions, 104
“Sanderson his Hope,” 99, 142, 202, 207
Sandridge, Davis’s birthplace, 93
Sandwich Land, 403
Sartorius, Sir George, 401
_Sastrugi_, 182, 501
_Saxifraga oppositifolia_, 295
Schouten, Willem Cornelisz, 390
-- William, Junior, 191, 194 _et seq._;
takes holy orders, 196;
his life, 197;
visits Greenland, 279
-- William, Senior, 188, 191, 194, 195;
describes Spitsbergen, 119, 121
Scoresby Sound, 367
_Scotia_, 439
Scott, Capt. Robert Falcon, his first expedition, 447 _et seq._;
made Commander, 448;
his staff on _Discovery_, 449;
objects of, 452;
crosses Antarctic Circle, 456;
falls down crevasse, 474;
his last expedition, 489 _et seq._;
marries, 489;
his staff on last expedition, 490 _et seq._;
meets with heavy gale, 491, 492;
meets Amundsen’s party, 493;
his winter quarters at Cape Evans, 495;
starts for the S. Pole, 498;
finds Amundsen’s record at the S. Pole, 500;
reaches S. Pole, 501;
death of, 502;
discovery of bodies of his party, 503;
results of his work, 504;
memorial service to, 504;
character of, 504
Scott Island, 469
Scurvy attacks Baffin’s crew, 145;
Barentsz’s crew, 75, 76;
Bering’s crew, 178;
Biscoe’s crew, 404;
Egede’s colony, 159, 160;
Evans’s party, 498;
Middleton’s expedition, 166;
Munk’s expedition, 150;
Nares’s expedition, 306, 308, 309;
Ross’s expedition, 250
Sea-cow, 179
Sea-elephant, 405
Sea-leopard, 402
Sea-otter, 178
Seal-meat, 482
Seals, Southern fur, 400
-- Weddell’s, 483
_Searchthrift_, 63
Searle, John, his ephemeris, 141
Seebohm, Henry, 326
“Senegraes,” 342, 478
Sermilik Fjord, 365
Seymour Island, 423, 431, 436
Shackleton, Sir Ernest, 449, 463 _et seq._, 470;
breaks down, 464;
his Antarctic expedition, 478 _et seq._
Sherer, Lieut., 213, 216
Shilling, Capt., 147
Ships, Viking, 35
Sibbald, Lieut. John, 411, 420
Siberian rivers, 15;
trade on, 326
Sibirikoff, 322, 323, 326
Sidney, Sir Henry, 81
Simpson, Dr, 491, 498
--Thomas, 228
Sir George Seymour Island, _v._ Seymour Island
Sir Thomas Smith Channel, 347
Sir Thomas Smith Sound, 143
Skelton, Reginald, 449, 471, 472
Ski, 335, 450, 462, 482
Skrællings (natives of America), 45, 46 _n._, 49, 50
Sledge dogs, 17, 337, 338, 354, 355;
in Antarctic, 462, 472, 482, 483;
Greenland, 23
-- flags, Nares’s expedition, 304;
Scott’s, 450
-- journeys, Arctic contrasted with Antarctic, 459, 460;
Aldrich’s, 307, 308;
Amundsen’s, 483;
Amundsen’s party, 315;
Beaumont’s, 308, 309;
Danish, 371 _et seq._;
Hamilton’s, 268;
Hayes’s, 299;
Lockwood’s, 318;
M’Clintock’s, 249, 250, 266, 274 _et seq._, 356;
Markham’s, 307;
Mecham’s, 267, 356;
Mecham’s great, 270;
Payer’s, 283, 289;
Peary’s, 356;
Rae’s, 231;
Ross’s, 235, 237;
Scott’s first expedition, 458, 463, 465, 471, 472;
Scott’s last expedition, 494, 498;
Sverdrup’s, 348;
Allen Young’s, 276
-- -- provisions for, M’Clintock’s, 256, 258, 259;
Ross’s, 249;
Scott’s, 462, 494
-- travel, rate of, 23, 356;
Aldrich’s, 308;
Amundsen’s, 484, 485;
Hamilton’s, 265;
M’Clintock’s, 260, 266, 269;
Mecham’s, 265;
Payer’s, 283;
Peary’s, 338;
Rasmussen’s, 380;
Scott’s first expedition, 464, 472, 475
Sledges, Tchuktches, 17;
Eskimo, 234;
Greenland, 23;
M’Clintock’s, 256;
Russian, 176;
Samoyed, 14;
Wrangell’s, 181
-- dimensions of, 292;
Cook’s, 354;
Nansen’s, 334, 342;
Peary’s, 333;
Scott’s, 450, 460, 472;
Shackleton’s, 478
-- hauling-gear, 462
-- loads for, 23, 176;
M’Clintock’s, 265;
Scott’s, 472;
Shackleton’s, 479
-- motor, 490, 497
-- of Franklin’s retreat, 245;
of Hearne’s expedition, 168
Sledging equipment, Hearne’s, 168;
Nansen’s, 334;
Ross’s, 256;
Sverdrup’s, 348;
Wrangell’s, 182;
Scott’s, 450
Sleeping bags, 460, 478
Sleipner (Odin’s horse), 31
Smallpox devastates Greenland, 162
Smeerenburg, 127, 128, 174, 360;
abandoned, 188
Smith, Sir Thomas, 105, 106, 113, 129, 142
Smith Channel, 265, 347
Smith Sound, 317;
route by, 298 _et seq._;
U.S. expedition to, 317 _et seq._
Snow, crimson, 202, 253
Snow Hill Island, 436
Snow huts of Eskimos, 20
Snow-shoes, 168, 335;
of Tchuktches, 17
Sobral, Lieut., 436
Societies’ Antarctic Expedition, The, 444 _et seq._, 455 _et seq._,
466 _et seq._, 471 _et seq._;
Committee of, 446
_Sofia_, 366
_Sophia_, 251, 296, 332
Sounding apparatus, deep sea, 426
Soundings, deep sea, 427 _et seq._, 440
South Georgia, 393, 396, 402, 436
South Magnetic Pole, 417, 475, 480, 481
South Orkneys, 400, 439, 440
South Shetlands, 398, 401, 422 _et seq._, 434, 436, 438
_South Polar Times_, 459, 496
Southampton Island, 166
_Southern Cross_, 433
_Speedwell_, Scoresby’s, 191
-- Wood’s, 156;
wrecked, 157
“Speksioneer,” 190
Speyer, Sir Edgar, 489
Spitsbergen, 105, 117, 188, 317, 361;
birds of, 121;
called “Greenland,” 118, 124;
coal in, 350;
Conway’s books on, 362;
described by Scoresby, 119, 121;
description of, 128;
discovered, 74;
explorations in, 285 _et seq._;
fauna of, 119, 121, 128;
icebergs, 9;
map of, 120;
scenery of, 119, 121;
visited by Baffin, 116;
first visited by Dutch, 124;
claimed by Christian IV, 124;
Dutch despatch second fleet to, 126;
English first winter in, 128;
Muscovy Company despatch fleet to, 124;
Russian expeditions to, 187
Stanmore church, 108
Staten Island, 389, 396, 401
Stations for synchronous observations, 316
Steller, Georg Wilhelm, 178
Stone, William, 106
Stone huts, 21
Storms, magnetic, 417
_Story of the Alabama Expedition_, 379
Sukkertoppen (the modern), 115, 116, 163;
Old, 97
Sulphur brought from Iceland, 150
_Sunshine_, 94, 96, 98, 99, 100
_Superb_, 240
Svartevæg, 349, 354
Sverdrup, Otto, 335, 341 _et seq._, 347
_Swan_, 69, 72
Swedish expeditions, to Antarctic, 435 _et seq._, 506;
to Spitsbergen, 286 _et seq._
_Sweepstakes_, 156
Synchronous observations, Antarctic, 420, 451;
plan for, 316;
Ross’s, 414
Tahiti, visited by Cook, 395
Taimyr, Cape, 323
Taimyr Peninsula discovered, 177
Taylor, Mr Griffith, 491
Tchuktches, 16, 17, 170, 175, 325
_Tegethoff_, 289, 297
Temperatures, 315;
Antarctic, 471, 473, 474, 496, 501, 502;
deep sea, 427;
lowest registered, 16
Tennyson’s epitaph on Sir John Franklin, 243
Tents of Tchuktches, 17
“Terra Australis,” 391, 396
_Terra Nova_, 476, 483, 489 _et seq._;
surveys New Zealand waters, 493, 494
Terraces, raised, 186
_Terror_ (under Ross), 410 _et seq._, 418 _et seq._;
collision of, 419
-- (under Franklin), 230, 231, 238 _et seq._, 240 _et seq._, 246
_et seq._;
founders, 247
Tertiary fossils, 350
Tetgales, Brant, 69
Thalbitzer, W., 366
_Thames_, 326
_Thomas_, 86
_Thomas Allin_, 86
_Thomasine_, 126, 127
Thomson, Sir Charles Wyville, 427, 428
Thorne, Robert, counsels Arctic voyages, 59
“Three-Degree Depôt,” 498
_Threshold of the Unknown Region_, 302
Tierra del Fuego, circumnavigated, 391;
part of Terra Australis, 392
_Tiger_, 124
Time, Norse method of reckoning, 45
_Trade’s Increase_, 105
Trees, circumpolar, 13;
discovered at Cape Manning, 267
_Trent_, 198 _et seq._
-- (Franklin’s), 222, 223
Tribes, circumpolar, 13
Trinity House (Hull), 116
Tripe de Roche, 224 _et seq._
_Trost_, 112
Trostrup, C. and G., 370 _et seq._
Tryggvason, Olaf, Saga of, 38
Tschitschagoff, Capt., 285
Tucker, Mr, 412, 413
_Tula_, 403 _et seq._
Tundra, 14, 15
Tunguses, 16, 177
Udröst, 33
_Umiaks_, 20, 22, 115, 365
_United States_, 299
United States expedition to Smith Sound, 317 _et seq._
Upernavik, 142
_Uredo nivalis_, 202
Ushuaia, 436
_Valdivia_, 429
_Valorous_, 304
Veer, Gerrit de, 76;
narrative of, 78
_Vega_, 322 _et seq._;
winters, 324
Vessels employed in Polar discovery:
_Active_, 431
_Advance_, 252, 298 _et seq._
_Adventure_, 394
_Aid_, 85, 86
_Akbar_, 223
_Alabama_, 376;
loss of, 378
_Antarctic_, 368
_Alert_, 303 _et seq._, 312, 313
_Alexander_, 198, 201, 202
_Andromache_, 398, 400
_Ann Frances_, 86
_Anne Royal_, 146
_Annula_, 124
_Antarctic_, 436;
founders, 437
_Arctic_, 302, 303
_Arethusa_, 223
_Assistance_, 251 _et seq._, 261, 264 _et seq._, 349
_Astrolabe_, 407
_Aurora_, 486 _et seq._
_Baffin_, 196
_Balaena_, 296, 431, 439
_Bear_, 86
_Beaufoy_, 402
_Bedford_, 223
_Belgica_, 368, 434
_Bellerophon_, 223
_Black Dog_, 101
_Blijde Boodschap_, 390
_Blossom_, 216, 226, 227, 234
_Bona Confidentia_, 60
_Bona Esperanza_, 60
_Breadalbane_, 268
_Briseis_, 201
_Bulldog_, 427
_California_, 166
_Carcass_, 172 _et seq._
_Castor_, 431 _et seq._
_Challenger_, 428
_Chanticleer_, 401, 423
_Charles_, 152 _et seq._
_Churchill_, 167
_Clio_, 238, 240
_Cornwallis_, 238, 240
_Cove_, 237
_Danmark_, 369
_Den Röd Löve_, 112
_Dennis_, 86;
founders, 88
_Desire_, 101
_Diana_, 287, 288, 326, 431
_Discovery_ (Baffin’s), 138 _et seq._, 142 _et seq._
-- (Button’s), 136
-- (Clerke’s), 169 _et seq._
-- (Hudson’s), 129, 131
-- (Moore’s), 165
-- (Nares’s), 304, 312
-- (Scott’s), 451 _et seq._;
plans of, 446, 447;
flag of, 447;
relieved by _Morning_, 470;
freed from the ice, 476;
ashore, 476;
damage to rudder, 477;
returns home, 477
_Dobbs_, 166
_Dorothea_, 198 _et seq._
_Drake_, 101
_Earl Camden_, 222
_Edward Bonaventure_, 60
_Eendracht_, 390
_Eenhiörningen_, 150
_Eira_, 290;
founders, 291
_Eliza Scott_, 405, 406
_Elizabeth_, 98, 99, 100
_Ellen_, 98, 99, 100
_Emanuel_, 86
-- (busse), 91
_Enterprise_, 248, 250 _et seq._, 263
_Erebus_ (under Ross), 410 _et seq._, 418 _et seq._;
collision of, 419
-- (under Franklin), 237 _et seq._, 240 _et seq._, 246 _et seq._,
251;
sinks, 247
_Esk_, 195
_Excellent_, 238, 240
_Felix_, 251, 253, 254
_Fortune_, 177
_Fox_, 273, 311;
winters in Bellot’s Strait, 274
_Fram_ (Nansen’s), 340 _et seq._;
dimensions of, 340;
drift of, 344;
arrives home, 344;
under Sverdrup, 347;
winters in Smith Channel, 347;
winters in Havnfjord, 348;
winters in Jones Sound, 349
-- (Amundsen’s), 482 _et seq._
_Français_, 442
_Francis_, 86
_Furnace_, 165
_Fury_, 212, 216, 234
_Gabriel_, 83, 86
-- (Bering’s), 177
_Gamaliel_, 124
_Ganges_, 240
_Gauss_, 362, 440, 441, 451
_George_, 65
_Germania_, 282
_Gilliflower_, 113
_Gjoa_, 314, 315
_Godspeed_, 129
_Greyhound_, 72
_Griffin_, 72
_Griper_, 206 _et seq._, 212, 215, 233, 280
_Hansa_, 282
_Heartsease_ (Greenland voyage), 113 _et seq._
-- (Marmaduke’s), 126
_Hecla_, 206 _et seq._, 212;
(Parry’s), 216 _et seq._, 233
-- (Ryder’s), 367
_Henrietta_, 192
_Henrietta Maria_, 154
_Hertha_, 431, 432
_Hope_, 72
-- (Adams’s), 390
-- (Egede’s), 158 _et seq._
-- (Young’s), 291
_Hopewell_, 86
-- (Knight’s), 117 _et seq._, 130
_Ibis_, 326
_Ingulf_, 364
_Intrepid_, 251, 253, 254, 261, 264 _et seq._, 347
_Investigator_, 222, 248, 251, 263 _et seq._;
loss of, 270
_Isabella_, 198 _et seq._, 233, 237
_Isbjörn_, 289, 360
_Jane_, 402
_Jason_, 431
_Jeannette_ (formerly _Pandora_), 328;
drift of relics of, 340
_John and Francis_, 124
_Jonah in the Whale_, 188
_Judith_, 86
_Katten_, 112, 129
_Lady Franklin_, 251
_Lamprenen_ v. _Lamprey_
_Lamprey_, 150, 151
_Lena_, 323
_Lightning_, 427
_Lion_, 91
-- (Pickersgill’s), 171
_Lively_, 403 _et seq._
_London_, 147
_Magpie_, 405
_Matthew_, 124
_Mercury_, 69
_Mermaid_, 96, 97
_Michael_, 83, 86
_Moon_, 86
_Moonshine_, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98
_Morning_, 466 _et seq._, 476
_Nimrod_, 478 _et seq._
_Nonsuch_, 165
_North Star_ (Davis’s), 96
-- (Saunders’s), 250, 265
_Ornen_, 113
_Pagoda_, 425
_Pandora_, 311 _et seq._, 327, 359;
name changed to _Jeannette_, 328
_Patience_, 113, 114, 116
_Philip and Mary_, 62
_Philomel_, 420
_Phoenix_, 255, 268
_Pioneer_, 251, 253, 254, 261, 264 _et seq._, 347
_Plover_, 251, 263
_Polaris_, 300, 301
_Polyphemus_, 222
_Porcupine_, 427
_Porpoise_, 222
_Pourquoi Pas_, 442
_Prince Albert_, 252 _et seq._, 262
_Prince of Wales_, 241
_Prosperous_, 156
_Proteus_, 317 _et seq._;
founders, 319
_Racehorse_, 172 _et seq._
_Rainbow_, 227, 230
_Ravenscraig_, 301
_Reliance_, 227
_Rescue_, 252, 255
_Resolute_, 251, 253 _et seq._, 264 _et seq._
_Resolution_ (Button’s), 136
-- (Cook’s), 169 _et seq._, 394 _et seq._
-- (Scoresby’s), 192, 194, 195
_Richard and Barnard_, 124
_Rodgers_, 329
_Roosevelt_, 355, 356
_Royal George_, 102
_Sabrina_, 405, 406
_St Lesmes_, 389
_St Paul_, 177
_St Peter_, 177, 178
_Salomon_, 86, 88
_Scotia_, 439
_Searchthrift_, 63
_Sofia_, 366
_Sophia_, 251, 296, 332
_Southern Cross_, 433
_Speedwell_ (Scoresby’s), 191
-- (Wood’s), 156;
wrecked, 157
_Sunshine_, 94, 96, 98, 99, 100
_Superb_, 240
_Swan_, 69, 72
_Sweepstakes_, 156
_Tegethoff_, 289, 297
_Terra Nova_, 476, 483, 489 _et seq._;
surveys N.Z. waters, 493, 494
_Terror_ (under Ross), 410 _et seq._, 418 _et seq._;
collision of, 419
-- (under Franklin), 230, 231, 238 _et seq._, 240 _et seq._, 246
_et seq._;
founders, 247
_Thames_, 326
_Thomas_, 86
_Thomas Allin_, 86
_Thomasine_, 126, 127
_Tiger_, 124
_Trade’s Increase_, 105
_Trent_, 198 _et seq._
-- (Franklin’s), 222, 223
_Trost_, 112
_Tula_, 403 _et seq._
_United States_, 299
_Valdivia_, 429
_Valorous_, 304
_Vega_, 322 _et seq._, 324
_Victory_, 233 _et seq._
_Warkworth_, 326
_Willem Barentsz_, 359 _et seq._
_William_, 65;
founders, 66
_Williams of Blythe_, 398
_Windward_, 292
_Ymer_, 322
_Zélée_, 407
Victoria Island, 227, 230
-- Land, 456, 469, 481;
surveyed, 315
-- Range, 458, 505, 507
_Victory_, 233 _et seq._
Vigdis, tomb of, 52
Viking ships, 35
Vikings, 35, 36;
reach Iceland, 36
Vince, T., death of, 459;
monument to, 476
Vinland, 42, 45
Vocabulary, Eskimo, compiled by Davis, 97
Vogel Hoek, 118
Volcanic action, in Arctic, 4;
in Antarctic, 400, 415, 416, 432, 465
von Toll, Baron, 341
_Voyage of the “Discovery,”_ 477
Voyages, of Thylde, 58;
of Willoughby, 59
Waigatz Island, 15, 64;
birds of, 64;
flora of, 64
Wakeman, Cyrus, 212
Walrus, 122, 144, 170, 173, 296, 343, 349;
attacks Trent’s boats, 199
Walsingham, Sir Francis, 94, 96, 98
_Warkworth_, 326
“Water sky,” 8
Weapons, 24
Weddell, Capt. James, 404, 440;
his Antarctic expedition, 401, 402
Weddell Quadrant, 442, 507
Weddell’s Seal, 483
Wellman, 293
West Bygd, settlement formed, 47
Wetheringsett, Hakluyt rector of, 110
Weyprecht, Lieut., 288, 289, 316
Whale, breaking up of, 192 _et seq._;
captured by Ross, 217;
jaw-bones of, 193;
killed by ship, 88;
fishery, 128, 150, 188 _et seq._;
initiation of, 123;
in Baffin’s Bay, 204;
boats, 190;
lines, 190, 192
-- fishing, 125
Whale Fish Islands, 241
Whale Sound, 145, 338
Whalebone, 193
Whalers, 189, 283, 284, 431;
Scotch, in Antarctic, 431;
disaster to, 302
Whales, 143, 422;
_Balaena Biscayensis_, 125
Whaling, 190, 192
Wharton, Admiral Sir William, 446
Whymper, Edward, visits Greenland, 331
Wiggins, Joseph, 325 _et seq._;
his scheme for Siberian trade, 326;
death of, 327
Wild, Frank, 428, 479, 486
Wilkes, Capt., his Antarctic expedition, 408, 409
_Willem Barentsz_, 359 _et seq._
Willemoes-Sühn, 428
_William_, 65;
founders, 66
_Williams of Blythe_, 398
Williamson, 490, 503
Willoughby, Gabriel, 60
-- Sir Hugh, 59;
his first Arctic voyage, 60 _et seq._;
sights Halgoland, 61;
discovers Novaya Zemlya, 61;
winters in Lapland, 61;
death of, 62
Willoughby Land, 61, 123
Wilson, Edward, surgeon with Hudson, 131, 134
-- Dr Edward, 449, 463 _et seq._, 490, 494, 496, 498, 500 _et
seq._;
death of, 503
_Windward_, 292
Wisting, 484
Wolfall, Frobisher’s chaplain, 90
Wollaton, tombs in church at, 60
Wolstenholme, Sir John, 106, 108, 135, 138, 142;
sends Hawkridge on polar voyage, 149
Wolstenholme Sound, 143, 145, 203
Wood, John, attempts North East Passage, 156
Wrangell, Baron, his sledge journeys, 181 _et seq._
Wrangell Island, 184, 329
Wright, Edward, 106
-- Mr, 491, 498, 503
Wyatt, Mr George, 489
Wyche, Richard, 106, 135
Wyche Islands, 286
_Xema sabinii_, 203
Yakutsk, 16
Yenisei River, 15, 175, 323, 326, 345
_Ymer_, 322
York, Cape, 202;
birds of, 24
Yorke, Gilbert, 85, 90
-- Sir John, 81
Young, Sir Allen, 273, 274, 276, 291, 311 _et seq._, 327, 359
-- James, 117, 118, 121
Young Island, 405
Yuraks, 16
_Zélée_, 407
Zeni map, 54
Zeno, Niccolo, 55;
errors of his map, 160
_Zeuglodon_, 438
Ziegler expedition, 293
Zinzendorf, Count, founds Moravian mission, 162
Zorgdrager, C. G., 188
CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY J. B. PEACE, M.A., AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
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