FROM HUDSON TO PHIPPS AND NELSON
With the voyages of Weymouth, Knight, and Hall, which occupied the
first few years of the seventeenth century, we need not concern
ourselves at all, for they resulted in no discoveries of any
importance. In the year 1607, however, Henry Hudson started off on
the first of that series of travels by which his name became famous,
and during the course of which he succeeded in carrying the British
flag to places that had never before been trodden by the foot of
civilised man.
As has already been seen, the north-west and north-east passages
to the Indies had been tried and found wanting. British merchants,
however, were by no means disposed to let Spain and Portugal retain
their lucrative monopoly without making a struggle to wrest it from
them, so they determined to send out a fresh expedition which should
attempt to force its way to the land of gems and spices over the
North Pole itself. The command of this expedition was entrusted to
Henry Hudson, a seaman of such daring and skill that he was well able
to accomplish the work if it lay within the power of a human being
to do so. Hudson started off from the Thames on May 1, 1607, in a
small barque which was manned by ten men and a boy, and made direct
for the east coast of Greenland. By June 22 he had reached lat. 72°
38′, where he discovered the land which still bears his name, the
chief promontory of which he named Cape Hold-with-Hope. He then set
his course for Spitzbergen, which, as we have seen, had been first
sighted by Barents eleven years earlier, and there he reached the
high latitude of 80° 23′. His provisions being now nearly exhausted,
he was obliged to return home.
On his second voyage he attempted to discover a north-east passage
round Nova Zembla, but was so hampered by ice that he was unable
to proceed far on his way, while the only geographic result of his
third voyage was the discovery of the Hudson River. These early
expeditions, however, though they achieved little in the way of
discovery, proved of great commercial value, for they gave rise to
the great Spitzbergen whale fishery.
Hudson’s fourth and last voyage, that of 1610, was organised by
Sir John Wolstenholm and Sir Dudley Digges, who were convinced of
the existence of the North-West Passage, and felt that Hudson was
the man to find it. Accordingly, Hudson sailed on April 17 in the
_Discovery_, a ship of 55 tons, which was provisioned for six months.
By June 9 he had reached Frobisher Strait, and here a contrary wind
arose which compelled him to ply westward into Hudson’s Bay. Several
British seamen had already visited the mouth of the strait, and it is
believed that Portuguese fishermen had actually entered the bay; but
the terrible circumstances which attended Hudson’s voyage to it made
it only natural that it should be named after him in commemoration
of his achievements and his fate.
The _Discovery_ had penetrated the bay to a distance of over three
hundred miles further than ever an English ship had penetrated it
before when she was beset by ice, and all chance of retreat was
cut off. As we have already seen, she was only provisioned for six
months, and the unfortunate crew found themselves, in consequence,
with starvation staring them in the face. Hudson, fortunately, was
a man of resource, and he lost no time in organising hunting and
fishing parties which provided his party with sufficient provisions
to tide over the winter. Had his crew remained faithful to him all
might have been well, but disaffection broke out early in the winter,
which, gathering force as the store of provisions grew more and more
scanty, broke out into open mutiny in the spring. The ringleaders
were the former mate and boatswain, whom Hudson had been obliged to
displace for using improper language, and a young man named Greene, a
protégé of Hudson, who repaid his benefactor’s kindness by deserting
him when he most needed friends. These men, seeing that when the ship
broke out of winter quarters in June there were barely fourteen days’
provisions left for the whole crew, determined to place Hudson and
eight other men in a boat, and, leaving them to shift for themselves,
to sail home for England. This heartless plan was promptly carried
into execution. Hudson was seized and bound when he came out of
his cabin, and with five sick men, John Hudson and John King, the
carpenter, who bravely refused to join the mutineers, was thrown
into a boat and deserted. Of the unfortunate castaways nothing more
was ever heard, and the most careful search of Sir Thomas Button,
who examined the whole of the western shore of the bay, failed to
discover any clue to their fate. Of the mutineers, Greene and four
others were killed in a fight with the natives, while the rest only
just succeeded in reaching England.
The voyages of Hall in 1612 and Gibbons in 1614 did not result in
much, but in 1615 William Baffin started out on the first of his two
expeditions which were destined to add so much to the world’s store
of knowledge of the Arctic seas. Baffin, who was described by Sherard
Osborn as “the ablest, the prince of Arctic navigators,” was in 1615
appointed by the Merchants Adventurers pilot and associate to Richard
Bylot, of the _Discovery_, which was now to make her fourth voyage
in search of the North-West Passage. Making first for Hudson Strait,
they soon discovered that they were being led into a blind alley. As
the conditions, however, did not permit them to extend their voyage
much that season, they were obliged to return home. In the following
year, however, they were sent out once more by the Merchants
Adventurers, and on this occasion they determined to push on north
along the coast of Greenland. On May 30 they reached Sanderson’s
Hope, Davis’s farthest point, and there they entered upon an entirely
new field of discovery. With such energy did they apply themselves to
the work that they had crossed Melville Bay by the beginning of June,
and were sailing merrily on their way past Cape York, Cape Dudley
Digges, and Whale Sound. At last, when they had exceeded Davis’s
farthest north by over three hundred miles, their triumphant career
was stopped at the entrance to Smith Sound, within sight of Cape
Alexander. This latitude, 77° 45′, remained unequalled for over two
centuries.
Unable to proceed any further to the north, Baffin and Bylot
determined to sail south-west, and to see if they could not add to
their growing list of discoveries on their homeward journey. Their
hopes were amply fulfilled, for on July 12 they found themselves
off the entrance to Lancaster Sound, which was the gate, as it
afterwards proved, to the North-West Passage. The ice, unfortunately,
did not permit them to enter the Sound, so they made for the coast
of Greenland, where they rested their men prior to their return to
England.
For the next hundred years or so very little was done in the way of
Arctic discovery. A Dane of the name of Jens Munk started out to seek
for the North-West Passage, and succeeded in making a few discoveries
in Hudson’s Bay. In 1631, again, Captain Luke, alias “North-West,”
Fox sallied forth on the same mission, bearing with him an epistle
from the King of England to the Emperor of Japan, which, however,
remained undelivered. The work which he did was not of much value,
but he made up for this deficiency by writing a very humorous account
of his experiences. Captain James, who went exploring in the same
year, seems to have been dogged by ill-luck from the beginning to the
end of his voyage, and Barrow describes his narrative of it as “a
book of lamentation and weeping and great mourning.”
Though, however, very little was done in the way of exploration
during the second half of the seventeenth century, great strides
were made in the development of the country already explored by the
formation of the famous Hudson Bay Company, which for two hundred
years did a tremendous trade in Northern Canada. The inception of
this Company was mostly due to a certain French Canadian of the name
of Grosseliez, who, after an ineffectual attempt to induce the French
Government to consider his schemes for founding a great industry,
came to England, where he obtained the ear of Prince Rupert. The
Prince sailed for Hudson Bay with Grosseliez, saw the possibilities
of the country, and obtained from King Charles a charter, dated 1669,
which conferred on him and his associates, exclusively, all the
trade, land, and territories in Hudson’s Bay. The charter further
ordained that they should use their best endeavours to find a passage
to the South Sea, but the Company soon became so rich from its trade
that it seems to have conveniently forgotten this clause.
Occasionally, it is true, it attempted to do something in the way
of exploration, but these efforts were for the most part only
half-hearted, and resulted in little. In 1719, for example, James
Knight, allured by reports of mines of pure copper by a great river
to the north, gave the Company to understand that he would call upon
the authorities to examine their charter unless they arranged an
expedition and appointed him its leader.
Very reluctantly they consented to do as he wished, and equipped
two ships for the purpose of surveying the northern coast of their
territories. Not a single member of the expedition returned, and
nothing was known of their fate until, forty years later, a quantity
of wreckage was found on Marble Island.
With the exception of Middleton’s expedition of 1741, during
the course of which Wager Inlet, Repulse Bay, and Frozen Strait
were discovered, nothing much more was done in the way of Arctic
exploration for the next fifty years. In 1769, however, the Company
determined to make another effort to find the mines of copper of
which the natives brought so glowing an account, and with this end
in view they sent out an overland expedition under the command of
Samuel Hearne. This expedition, which started out in November, was
a complete failure, because it began its work too late in the year,
while the second expedition, which left in February, failed because
the preparations were inadequate. Warned by these two experiences,
Hearne sallied forth once more in December 1670, and on this occasion
he claimed to have found the mouth of the Coppermine River. His
observations, however, were rather hazy, and it is doubtful whether
he really reached the Polar Sea. The end of his journey was marred
by an unfortunate collision between his Indian guides and a tribe of
Eskimos, during the course of which all the unfortunate natives were
massacred. The effects of this incident were to be felt later on,
when Franklin, visiting those inhospitable shores with his gallant
companions, was regarded with such suspicion by the Eskimos that he
could hardly obtain that assistance which he so sorely needed.
One other early attempt to reach the Polar Sea by the land
route deserves to be recorded: that of Alexander—afterwards Sir
Alexander—Mackenzie, the discoverer of the river which bears his
name. Having been led to believe by the accounts of Indians that
the sea could be reached by a large river issuing from the Great
Slave Lake, he determined to test the story himself, and set out on
June 3, 1789. The difficulties in his way were innumerable, for not
only was the river broken up by dangerous rapids, but it was only
after infinite trouble that he could induce any guides to accompany
him, for the natives believed the river to be peopled by monsters,
who were ready to devour the unwary traveller without the least
provocation. However, he succeeded in reaching the sea near Whale
Island, and had the satisfaction of knowing that the tales of the
Indians were true, though he was unable to use his knowledge for any
practical purpose.
Meanwhile, Russia was busily opening up the north-east coast of
Siberia, partly with a view to getting some control over the
unmanageable Chukches, the only Siberian tribe who succeeded in
resisting their somewhat rough and ready methods, and partly with
a view to developing trade in that direction and to discovering
whether or not the Asiatic and American continents were united. Many
expeditions set out with these ends in view, among them being those
of Ignatieff, Deshneff, Alexieff, and Ankudinoff, but of these it is
impossible to give a detailed account here, and we need not take up
the story of exploration in these regions until 1725, when the Great
Northern Expedition, conceived by Peter the Great and carried into
execution by the Empress Anne, set forth under the command of Vitus
Bering, a Dane in the Russian service.
Immense difficulties had to be overcome before the expedition
could start at all. Long overland journeys had to be made across
Siberia, supplies had to be accumulated at Okhotsk and a vessel
had to be built there, with the result that it was not until the
end of June, 1727, that Spanberg, Bering’s assistant, was able to
sail for Bolsheretsk in the _Fortuna_. Here more supplies had to
be accumulated and a second ship built, which involved a delay of
yet another year. At last, however, on July 24, 1728, Bering sailed
gaily down the Kamchatka River, in the _Gabriel_, on his voyage of
exploration. The preparations had extended over more than three
years, and the voyage occupied about seven weeks, during which no
discoveries whatever were made, so that the game seems to have been
hardly worth the rather expensive candle. During the following summer
he sallied out of his harbour once more, but he does not seem to have
prosecuted his work with very much ardour, for he returned at the end
of three days, during which he had sailed about a hundred miles. He
then made his way to St Petersburg.
The Empress Anne seems to have been easily pleased, for although
Bering had been away for five years and had accomplished nothing
whatever, she gave orders that a second and even larger expedition
should be placed under his command. The preparations for this voyage
occupied some seven years, but at last, in September 1740, Bering was
ready to start, and before winter closed in upon him he succeeded in
rounding Kamchatka and reaching Avatcha, now known as Petropaulovsk;
not a very remarkable voyage, perhaps, but a step in the right
direction. There he spent the winter, and in June of the following
year he started out in the _St Peter_, accompanied by the _St Paul_,
under the command of Tschirikoff. Even now, however, he could not
succeed in overcoming his passion for dawdling, and much valuable
time was wasted in searching for the land of Gama, which, in point of
fact, did not exist. At last, however, the two ships set their course
north-east, and a few days later they parted company during a heavy
fog. Both of them succeeded in making America, a feat, however, which
had already been accomplished by Gwosdef during Bering’s absence at
St Petersburg. Tschirikoff made the American coast on July 26, and
after some exciting experiences, during which two parties who were
sent ashore to explore were completely lost, he returned in safety
to Petropaulovsk. Bering, who reached America three days later than
his companion, was less fortunate. Caught by contrary winds and heavy
gales, his vessel was ultimately stranded on Bering Island, where
she broke up. Her commander, utterly disheartened, refused to eat or
drink or to take shelter in the hut which had been constructed of
driftwood, with the result that he died on December 19. The command
of the party now devolved on Lieutenant Waxell, who, ably assisted by
a brilliant young naturalist, named Steller, succeeded in bringing
the party safely out of its quandary. Their stay on the island,
though it was miserable in the extreme, had its compensations, for
they found that the place abounded in the rare blue fox and the
no less valuable sea-otter, of the skins of which the men secured
such quantities that they took twenty thousand pounds’ worth home to
Russia.
Bering did not succeed in discovering either the sea or the strait
which have been named after him, but he mapped out a large tract of
the Asiatic coast with some accuracy and opened up a trade which
proved to be of immense value.
Up to the middle of the second half of the eighteenth century the
efforts of navigators had, for the most part, been directed to
finding a passage to the Indies either by the north-western or by the
north-eastern route. Robert Thorne, it is true, had come forward with
a bold plan for attempting to sail across the North Pole, but he had
not succeeded in getting very far on his way, and the idea had been
allowed to lapse. In 1773, however, the Earl of Sandwich, then First
Lord of the Admiralty, having been approached upon the subject by the
Royal Society, suggested to George III. that an expedition should be
sent out to discover how far it was possible to sail in the direction
of the Pole. The King was pleased with the idea, and preparations
for the venture were at once set on foot. The _Racehorse_ and the
_Carcase_, two of the strongest ships of the day, were selected
as being best suited for the purpose, and were fitted out as the
ideas of the time dictated. The command was entrusted to Captain
Constantine John Phipps, afterwards the second Lord Mulgrave, Captain
Skiffington Lutwidge was appointed second in command, two masters of
Greenland ships were attached to the expedition as pilots, and an
astronomer, with all the latest instruments, was recommended by the
Board of Longitude.
So far as actual achievements were concerned, there is nothing
much to be recorded. Phipps was unfortunate in his year, and north
of Spitzbergen he found a solid wall of ice which it was quite
impossible for him to penetrate. He had the satisfaction, however, of
reaching lat. 80° 48 N., a higher point than any of his predecessors.
One episode deserves to be noticed as it came near causing the death
of Nelson, who was serving in the humble capacity of captain’s
coxswain. “One night,” says Southey, “during the mid-watch, he stole
from the ship with one of his comrades, taking advantage of a rising
fog, and set out over the ice in pursuit of a bear. It was not long
before they were missed. The fog thickened, and Captain Lutwidge and
his officers became exceedingly alarmed for his safety. Between three
and four in the morning the weather cleared, and the two adventurers
were seen, at a considerable distance from the ship, attacking a huge
bear. The signal for them to return was immediately made; Nelson’s
comrade called upon him to obey it, but in vain. His musket had
flashed in the pan, their ammunition was expended, and a chasm in the
ice, which divided him from the bear, probably preserved his life.
‘Never mind,’ he cried, ‘do but let me get a blow at the devil with
the butt-end of my musket, and we shall have him.’ Captain Lutwidge,
however, seeing his danger, fired a gun, which had the desired effect
of frightening the beast; and the boy then returned, somewhat afraid
of the consequences of his trespass. The captain reprimanded him
sternly for conduct so unworthy of the office which he filled, and
desired to know what motive he could have for hunting a bear. ‘Sir,’
said he, pouting his lip, as he was wont to do when agitated, ‘I
wished to kill the bear that I might carry the skin to my father.’”
[Illustration: THE “RACEHORSE” AND THE “CARCASE” IN THE ICE
FROM A PICTURE BY J. CLIVELY]
It was three years after the return of the _Racehorse_ and _Carcase_
that Captain Cook made his only expedition into the Arctic seas. His
success in the Antarctic had led his friends in England to hope great
things of his voyage through the Bering Strait, but, unfortunately,
his two ships, the _Resolution_ and the _Discovery_, proved but
ill-adapted for service in the Arctic, and though he succeeded in
charting a good deal of the unknown American coast, he made no
approach to finding that North-West Passage for the discovery of
which he had been set out. He had intended to return to the Arctic
again with a view to prosecuting his discoveries there, but his death
at Hawaii in 1779 prevented him from fulfilling his purpose, and his
second in command, Captain Clerke, on whom the leadership of the
expedition devolved, died of consumption at Petropaulovsk.