Exposure._
The Resolution was moored to a flat sheet of ice, surrounded by streams and
open drift ice, on the 30th of April, 1808. It blew fresh, and the weather
was cold. In the evening a whale was harpooned, which ran out about the
length of a mile and a half of line from the fast-boat. Other harpoons, and
several lances, were then struck, and no doubt remained with the pursuers
but that it would speedily become their prize. But this expectation
signally failed. A tremendous and convulsive throe of the whale produced an
extraordinary effect: one of the lines, and also a harpoon were broken, and
the other two harpoons drawn out simultaneously, when, to the astonishment
of the beholders, the imagined capture was found, in one moment, to have
become free. It dived and escaped!
A storm meanwhile had commenced. Five boats, with their crews, remained for
the getting in of the long length of line run out from the first fast-boat,
whilst two, myself in one of them, returned to the ship, in aid of the
inadequate residue of men--for any nautical operation--left on board.
Thick snow set in, the storm increased, and the ship, being fast to a
_light_ piece of ice, drifted rapidly to leeward, and away from the boats.
We became distressfully anxious about the safety of the absent men. At one
the next morning the mooring was cut, and the ship being got under way, was
worked on short tacks to windward, in the supposed direction of the boats.
At three we were rejoiced by the appearance of three of the boats, which,
with crews unharmed, we got safely on board. The remainder, they reported,
might be expected by the same track in half an hour.
Cheered by this hope, we continued making every effort to get the ship to
windward. But, long after the time of their expected return, no other boat
appeared. Hour after hour of anxiety and distress passed over whilst we
navigated, off and on, among troublesome and dangerous ices. Guns were
fired occasionally, and at every unoccupied interval all hands were engaged
in the one object which sympathy urged--the straining of their eyes in the
hope of discerning the boats of their comrades through the obscurity of the
snow. The obscurity was not attenuated; the storm raged, and the sea
increased, whilst a foreboding gloom appeared in every countenance,
darkening and keeping pace with the dismalness of the night. The loss of
one-half of the Ipswich's crew on a similar occasion was yet fresh on our
minds, and low whisperings of expressions of fear, and shuddering
responses, indicated a prevailing dread of a similar fate to their
comrades.
At length, happy moment! a little after eight in the morning, a sudden
shout of joy announced the discovery of the boats, and in a few minutes we
had the undescribable satisfaction of seeing them alongside. Aided by those
on board with ropes and hands, they were all, twelve to fourteen in number,
received safe on board, and welcomed with the most heartfelt greeting by
their truly exulting shipmates.
The natural desire and effort to get below, into a place of genial warmth,
both with the shivering sailors and the sympathising people on board, was,
with most judicious consideration on the part of my Father, restrained. The
men had been suffering from more than a twelve hours' exposure, without
food or adequate extra clothing, to cold and storm,--the thermometer, which
had been as low as 13 degrees, being still 8 or 10 degrees below
freezing,--and many were partially frost-bitten, and some stiff and
half-paralyzed with the severity of the weather. In this case, he wisely
considered, that sudden transition to the warm galley, and proximity to the
blazing fire of the cabouse below, might be productive of dangerous,
possibly of fatal, effects. He felt it was needful for their safety that
means should be _previously_ adopted for restoring, in some measure, the
arrested or retarded circulation.
Stimulants, in a case of this kind, moderately administered, were
considered advantageous; but friction, and muscular exercise, much more
essential to safety. Those, therefore, whose hands or feet, or faces or
ears, had become _white_ (like the appearance of a tallow candle) by the
utter abstraction of the blood, had their frost-bitten parts actively and
perseveringly rubbed with the open hands of others, and the worst cases
with snow, until the endurance of the severe, or even agonizing pain
usually attending the recovery, when the repelled circulation begins to be
restored in the affected parts, had removed the risk of _mortification_
taking place. Others were variously _exercised_, as they were able to make
muscular efforts of themselves, or with the assistance of others. Those who
were capable of the exertion were made to run about the deck, chasing, or
being chased, one by another. And soon apprehending, as most of them did,
the wisdom of the measures adopted, they not only entered into them
heartily, but those who had been the most affected, as soon as their limbs
obtained power for the exertion, were ready to join, or to attempt to join,
in the exercise and race, until some glow of warmth, and consciousness of
restored sensation, had taken place of the pre-existing chilliness or
insensibility. They were then, under strict cautions against approaching at
first too near the fire, suffered to go below; and, happily, under this
wise and effective treatment, all escaped without any permanent injury.
A stout Shetland boy had well nigh fallen a sacrifice to the severity of
the exposure. He expressed a great desire, whilst abroad in one of the
boats, for sleep, and earnestly entreated the men, who objected to the
indulgence of the inclination, to allow him to compose himself for half an
hour, "for he was sure," he said, "that he should dream of the situation of
the ship." After a few minutes' repose, which they were induced to permit,
he was awoke, but with difficulty, and it required considerable attention
on the part of his companions to keep him from a sleep which, under such
circumstances, they well knew must be the harbinger of death.
* * * * *
Other instances of the happy exercise of good judgment in the treatment of
men who had suffered long exposure to cold and hunger, might have been
adduced had I particularly noted them. One other case, though of no real
danger, (occurring May 29th, 1809,) may be briefly mentioned, in which I
was personally a participator.
It was blowing a fresh gale from the north-east, with strong frost,
thermometer 20°, but the sea was not very considerable because of the
sheltering influence of surrounding ice. Two whales were captured; but one
of them dying at a great depth under water, had to be hauled up by the
united crews of two or three boats, which proved a tedious and severe
labour. We were absent from the ship from fourteen to sixteen hours,
without food or shelter from the inclement gale, sometimes lying inertly on
our oars waiting for the rising of the harpooned whales, or for the hauling
up of the sunken one to the surface; and sometimes we were engaged in
pulling about, hauling in lines, or in "towing" the dead fish to the ship.
By the time we got on board we were mostly in a state of considerable
exhaustion, and all were painfully suffering from cold and hunger.
My Father had considerately provided for our return. Instead of the
distribution of ardent spirits,--the measure universally resorted to at
this period, with the view of cheering and restoring the depressed energies
of any long-exposed party of adventurers in the boats,--a far better and
more effective provision had been made. A huge kettle of coffee was boiling
on the fire, which, with the usual supplies of bread and beef, was
distributed in ample quantity among the half-starved party now returning;
and a more grateful or more salutary instance of administered refreshment I
do not remember ever to have enjoyed. The heat of this beverage, supplied
as it was so liberally to all, had the most happy effect in aiding the
restoration of the animal heat, and of exhilarating without unduly
stimulating the depressed physical condition of the men. The case afforded
an admirable practical example of the correctness of the principles
generally asserted, in favour of simple drinks over spirituous or fermented
stimulants, by the advocates of "Temperance."