ROSS’S ADVENTURES IN THE “VICTORY”
The idea of discovering a north-west passage, though temporarily
eclipsed by Parry’s great effort to reach the North Pole, was by no
means set aside, and in 1828, soon after the return of the Polar
Expedition, Captain John Ross approached the Government with a plan
for the long-dreamt-of route through Prince Regent’s Inlet. It will
be remembered that Ross had had some previous experience of Arctic
navigation, for in 1818 he had set out with the _Isabella_ and
_Alexander_ on a voyage through Baffin’s Bay, Parry being his second
in command. On that occasion he distinguished himself by jumping
to the conclusion that Lancaster Sound was a land-locked bay, and
possibly on account of this error the Government did not see fit to
entertain his new proposal.
Thanks, however, to the generosity of his friend Mr Felix Booth, he
was able, in 1829, to buy and fit out a paddle steamer called the
_Victory_, which had previously been used as a steam packet running
between Liverpool and the Isle of Man.
In those days, of course, navigation by steam was in the very
earliest stages of its development, and the experiment of sailing
the Arctic seas in a boat propelled by the new motive power had yet
to be tried. The disadvantages of paddles in the ice were many and
obvious, but they were minimised by an ingenious contrivance whereby
the paddles could be lifted out of the water in a minute; while the
_Victory_ was also so fitted out that she could be used as a sailing
vessel if necessary.
No sooner was the news of the preparation of the expedition made
known, than Ross received offers of service from many experienced
Arctic navigators, among them being Lieutenant Hoppner, Parry’s
former colleague, and Captain Back, Franklin’s friend and companion.
He had, however, already selected his nephew, Lieutenant James Clark
Ross, as his second in command, and he could not, in consequence,
accept their proposals.
The _Victory_ set sail on May 23, 1829, and it was soon found to
be fortunate that she had her sails to fall back upon, for the
machinery, which was of the crudest description, was constantly
getting out of working order, and, bit by bit, was ultimately
rejected and thrown away.
Lancaster Sound was reached without any serious misadventure, and
on August 10 the _Victory_ rounded Cape York and entered Prince
Regent’s Inlet. Ross then headed for the western shore, and he was
soon off the place where the _Fury_ had been lost on Parry’s previous
expedition. The weather was bad, but he eventually succeeded in
effecting a landing within a quarter of a mile of that ill-fated
spot. Of the _Fury_ herself no trace was to be seen, but the shore
was strewn with coal, while in the officers’ mess-hut, which Parry
had erected before leaving, were quantities of stores which proved
of inestimable value to the present party of explorers. The bears
had evidently been bestowing their attentions upon the contents of
the store-house, but they had been unable to make anything of the
preserved meats and vegetables which, in spite of their four years’
exposure to the weather, were in an excellent state of preservation.
The _Victory_ had been originally provisioned for a thousand days,
and as he had already drawn pretty freely upon his stores, Ross
decided to make up the deficit from the hoard left by the _Fury_.
They consequently took on board enough stores and provisions to
complete their equipment for two years and three months, and set sail
for the south.
On August 15 they passed Cape Garry, the furthest point of the coast
yet discovered. From this point onwards, of course, they devoted
themselves to mapping out and naming the principal features of the
seaboard along which they sailed; and in due course they reached what
appeared to them to be a continuous stretch of land, which they named
Boothia, in honour of Mr Felix Booth, who had equipped the expedition.
Whether it was ill luck, or whether it was a lack of perspicacity,
it is difficult to say, but certain it is that Ross seemed always to
be foredoomed just to miss the prize for which he was seeking. On
his former voyage he mistook Lancaster Sound for an inlet, and, in
consequence, the kudos which he might have gained from its discovery
went to Parry instead. But on this occasion he was even more
unfortunate, for, just before he reached Boothia, he passed Bellot
Strait, which, as Kennedy subsequently discovered, leads directly
into the Arctic Sea, the very North-West Passage, in fact, for which
he was looking. He again missed his chance, however, and, failing to
recognise it as a strait, he named it Hazard Inlet and went on his
way without the remotest idea of the discovery which he might have
made had he taken the trouble to examine the inlet a little more
closely.
Soon after this the _Victory_ fell in with the ice and her voyage
became one of the most hazardous description. Over and over again she
seemed in imminent danger of being sunk, but she always managed to
pull through, and eventually, on October 1, Ross found himself in a
bay which seemed to be designed by nature for his winter quarters.
Here, accordingly, he decided to stay and his vessel was soon put
ship-shape and in order for what ultimately proved to be the longest
sojourn ever made by an explorer in the Arctic regions till then. It
was not, indeed, until four winters had passed that the party was
able to leave this dreary quarter of the world, and even then they
were obliged to abandon their ship and take to the boats.
Very little that is worthy of note occurred during the first winter.
The monotony of the excessively dull season was, however, relieved
by the appearance of a party of Eskimos, who proved to be thoroughly
friendly, except on one occasion when they nearly assassinated half
the party because they imagined that they had caused the death of
one of the members of their tribe by witchcraft. The white men, by
the way, won their sinister reputation in a rather curious way.
One of the Eskimos had had the misfortune to lose a leg during an
altercation with a bear. The ship’s carpenter, seeing how severely
handicapped the man was, thoughtfully provided him with a wooden
leg, to the amazement and delight of himself and his fellows, who
imagined that their new friends must be possessed of some very
extraordinary powers to be able to provide the legless with fresh
means of locomotion. One of them was so fascinated by the carpenter’s
ingenuity that, having done some slight damage to one of his own
legs, he suggested that it would not be amiss if he were provided
with a new one. On being informed, however, that it would be
necessary to cut the other off first, he regarded the scheme with
less enthusiasm.
With a view to obtaining from the Eskimos such geographical
information as they might possess, Ross would frequently invite
parties of them to dinner in his cabin. They did not, however,
look upon English food with much favour. Salt meat, pudding, rice,
or sweets they regarded with abhorrence, and the only articles of
English diet that they would touch were soup and salmon, which they
would wash down with beakers of oil, wine proving not at all to their
tastes.
It was not until September 17 that the _Victory_ was floating in open
water again, but her release was destined to be short-lived, for
after drifting about for a fortnight, the explorers found themselves
frozen in again on September 30, only a few miles from the spot at
which they had spent the previous winter.
For some months it had been pretty evident, from the variations of
the compass and the dip of the magnetic needle, that they were very
near that mysterious centre of terrestrial magnetism, the North
Magnetic Pole, and Ross came to the conclusion that his present
enforced sojourn among the ice might be profitably employed in
determining the point exactly. Accordingly, at the end of May 1831,
the younger Ross set out with a party, armed with the instruments
necessary for making the discovery which had occupied the thoughts
of Parry on his earlier journey. They travelled westwards over the
Boothia wilderness, and at eight o’clock on the morning of June 1
they realised that they had discovered the object of their search.
There was nothing in the place itself to distinguish it from the
surrounding country, but the horizontal needles, which were suspended
in the most delicate manner possible, remained absolutely inactive,
while the amount of dip recorded by the dipping needle was 89° 59′,
or within one minute of the vertical.
Having come definitely to the conclusion that he was actually
standing on the Magnetic Pole, Ross hoisted the British flag and took
possession of it and of its adjoining territory in the name of Great
Britain and King William IV. He then raised a cairn of stones, in
which he buried a canister containing a record of the discovery, and
having determined the latitude to be 70° 5′ N., and the longitude
96° 43′ W., he set out on the return journey, which was accomplished
without misadventure.
It had been hoped that the _Victory_ would be able to sail for
the open sea at the end of August, and by the 27th the bay was
practically free of ice. But the travellers were once more doomed
to disappointment, for adverse winds sprang up, and before she had
travelled many miles she was driven into a small bay into which she
was promptly frozen.
By the middle of January 1832 it became perfectly obvious that if the
members of the party were ever to return to England alive they must
make a push for it; for scurvy broke out, and the health of his men
became so enfeebled that they were faced by the unpleasant prospect
of dying, one by one, in those inclement regions. Accordingly Ross
determined to abandon the _Victory_ and to take to the boats.
Experience, however, had taught him that it would be madness to
hope to make any substantial progress in the very short time during
which the sea in that neighbourhood appeared to be free from ice. So
sledges were prepared, and the winter months were spent in dragging
the boats over the ice in the direction of Fury Beach. The men
were terribly reduced in strength by illness, and the hardships of
their journey were appalling. However, it was their only chance of
surviving, and they plodded steadily on. They left the _Victory_ on
May 29, and it was not until July 2 that they found themselves on
Fury Beach, after an incredibly laborious journey which, in a direct
line, was over three hundred miles, but which, in their case, was
vastly lengthened by the fact that the combined strength of the whole
party was often only sufficient to drag one boat at a time, and they
were constantly obliged to cover each stretch of their journey two or
three times.
On arriving at Fury Beach they built themselves a house, which they
named Somerset House, and settled down to wait for the breaking up
of the ice. Once more, however, they were doomed to disappointment.
At the beginning of August they set sail for the north, and the open
sea, but they were almost immediately driven ashore again by the ice,
and though they made one subsequent attempt to escape, they met with
no better success.
There was nothing for it, therefore, but to make the best of a bad
business, and to return to Somerset House for the winter. Mercifully
there was still an abundance of the _Fury’s_ stores left, and they
were, in consequence, in no danger of starving, but it may well be
imagined that the disappointment was extreme, and that the prospect
of being obliged to spend an Arctic winter in a cabin, that was but
ill protected against the weather, was not enticing.
Their troubles, however, were approaching an end, for in the
following summer the ice cleared away from the inlet, and the
explorers were able to quit the country in which they had spent
four tedious winters. Sailing on July 14 they were picked up on the
26th by a whaler which, curiously enough, Ross himself had once
commanded—the _Isabella_, of Hull. It was only with some difficulty
that they succeeded in persuading the mate of the boat which put out
to meet them that they were not their own ghosts, for the party had
long since been given up as lost. However, this difficulty having
been satisfactorily overcome, they were taken on board, and they
eventually arrived home in the middle of October.
Ross failed in the object of his voyage, partly, perhaps, through his
own stupidity, for as we have already pointed out, he was at one time
within an ace of finding the North-West Passage. But his expedition
had most valuable results, for not only did his nephew, James Clark
Ross, locate the Magnetic Pole, but he also mapped out some six or
seven hundred miles of coast line on either shore of Boothia and he
made some exceedingly serviceable notes on the climatic conditions of
North-Eastern America.
If he has never received full credit for his work, it is, perhaps,
his own fault, for he made himself a most unpopular commander, and,
if we may judge from the persistent pessimism of his diaries, he
must have been a most depressing companion in the Arctic regions.
Consequently most of the _kudos_ has been given to his nephew, who
was, no doubt, personally responsible for the discovery of the
Magnetic Pole, but who, after all, was only a member of his uncle’s
expedition, and was acting entirely under his uncle’s orders and
directions.