Formation of a Basin for heaving the Fury down—Landing of the Fury’s
Stores, and other preparations—The Ships secured within the
Basin—Impediments from the pressure of the Ice—Fury hove down—Securities
of the Basin destroyed by a Gale of Wind—Preparations to tow the Fury
out—Hecla re-equipped, and obliged to put to Sea—Fury again driven on
Shore—Rejoin the Fury; and find it necessary finally to abandon her.
As there was now no longer room for floating the ice out of our proposed
basin, all hands were immediately employed in preparing the intended
securities against the incursions of the ice. These consisted of anchors
carried to the beach, having bower-cables attached to them, passing quite
round the grounded masses, and thus enclosing a small space of just
sufficient size to admit both ships. The cables we proposed floating by
means of the two hand-masts and some empty casks lashed to them as buoys,
with the intention of thus making them receive the pressure of the ice a
foot or two below the surface of the water. By uncommon exertions on the
part of the officers and men, this laborious work was completed before
night as far as was practicable until the loose ice should set out; and
all the tents were set up on the beach for the reception of the _Fury’s_
stores.
The ice remaining quite close on the 6th, every individual in both ships,
with the exception of those at the pumps, was employed in landing
provisions from the _Fury_, together with the spars, boats, and
everything from off her upper deck. The ice coming in, in the afternoon,
with a degree of pressure which usually attended a northerly wind on this
coast, twisted the _Fury’s_ rudder so forcibly against a mass of ice
lying under her stern that it was for some hours in great danger of being
damaged, and was indeed only saved by the efforts of Captain Hoppner and
his officers, who, without breaking off the men from their other
occupations, themselves worked at the ice-saw. On the following day, the
ice remaining as before, the work was continued without intermission, and
a great quantity of things landed. The two carpenters (Messrs. Pulfer
and Fiddis) took the _Fury’s_ boats in hand themselves, their men being
required as part of our physical strength in clearing the ship. The
armourer was also set to work on the beach in forging bolts for the
martingales of the outriggers. In short, every living creature among us
was somehow or other employed, not even excepting our dogs, which were
set to drag up the stores on the beach; so that our little dockyard soon
exhibited the most animated scene imaginable. The quickest method of
landing casks and other things not too weighty, was that adopted by
Captain Hoppner, and consisted of a hawser secured to the ship’s main
mast-head, and set up as tight as possible to the anchor on the beach;
the casks being hooked to a block traversing on this as a jack-stay, were
made to run down it with great velocity. By this means more than two
were got on shore for every one landed by the boats, the latter, however,
being constantly employed in addition. The _Fury_ was thus so much
lightened in the course of the day that two pumps were now nearly
sufficient to keep her free, and this number continued requisite until
she was hove down. Her spirit-room was now entirely clear, and, on
examination, the water was found to be rushing in through two or three
holes that happened to be in the ceiling, and which were immediately
plugged up. Indeed; it was now very evident that nothing but the
tightness of the Fury’s diagonal ceiling had so long kept her afloat, and
that any ship not thus fortified within could not possibly have been kept
free by the pumps.
At night, just as the people were going to rest, the ice began to move to
the southward, and soon after came in towards the shore, again
endangering the _Fury’s_ rudder, and pressing her over on her side to so
alarming a degree, as to warn us that it would not be safe to lighten her
much more in her present insecure situation. One of our bergs also
shifted its position by this pressure, so as to weaken our confidence in
the pier-heads of our intended basin; and a long “tongue” of one of them
forcing itself under the _Hecla’s_ forefoot, while the drift-ice was also
pressing her forcibly from astern, she once more sewed three or four feet
forward at low water, and continued to do so, notwithstanding repeated
endeavours to haul her off, for four successive tides the ice remaining
so close and so much doubled under the ship, as to render it impossible
to move her a single inch. Notwithstanding the state of the ice,
however, we did not remain idle on the 8th, all hands being employed in
unrigging the _Fury_, and landing all her spars, sails, booms, boats, and
other top-weight.
The ice still continuing very close on the 9th, all hands were employed
in attempting, by saws and axes, to clear the _Hecla_, which still
grounded on the tongue of ice every tide. After four hours’ labour, they
succeeded in making four or five feet of room astern, when the ship
suddenly slid down off the tongue with considerable force, and became
once more afloat. We then got on shore the _Hecla’s_ cables and hawsers
for the accommodation of the _Fury’s_ men in our tiers during the heaving
down, struck our top-masts which would be required as shores and
outriggers, and, in short, continued to occupy every individual in some
preparation or other. These being entirely completed at an early hour in
the afternoon, we ventured to go on with the landing of the coals and
provisions from the _Fury_, preferring to run the risk which would thus
be incurred, to the loss of even a few hours in the accomplishment of our
present object. As it very opportunely happened, however, the external
ice slackened to the distance of about a hundred yards outside of us on
the morning of the 10th, enabling us, by a most tedious and laborious
operation, to clear the ice out of our basin piece by piece. The
difficulty of this apparently simple process consisted in the heavy
pressure having repeatedly doubled one mass under another—a position in
which it requires great power to move them—and also by the corners
locking in with the sides of the bergs. Our next business was to tighten
the cables sufficiently by means of purchases, and to finish the floating
of them in the manner and for the purpose before described. After this
had been completed, the ships had only a few feet in length, and nothing
in breadth to spare; but we had now great hopes of going on with our work
with increased confidence and security. The _Fury_, which was placed
inside, had something less than eighteen feet at low water; the _Hecla_
lay in four fathoms, the bottom being strewed with large and small
fragments of limestone.
While thus employed in securing the ships, the smoothness of the water
enabled us to see in some degree the nature of the _Fury’s_ damage; and
it may be conceived how much pain it occasioned us plainly to discover
that both the stern-post and forefoot were broken and turned up on one
side with the pressure. We also could perceive as far as we were able to
see along the main-keel, that it was much torn, and we had therefore
reason to conclude that the damage would altogether prove very serious.
We also discovered that several feet of the _Hecla’s_ false keel were
torn away abreast of the fore-chains, in consequence of her grounding
forward so frequently.
The ships being now as well secured as our means permitted from the
immediate danger of ice, the clearing of the _Fury_ went on during the
11th with increased confidence, though greater alacrity was impossible,
for nothing could exceed the spirit and zealous activity of every
individual, and as things had turned out, the ice had not obliged us to
wait a moment, except at the actual times of its pressure. Being
favoured with fine weather, we continued our work very quickly, so that
on the 12th every cask was landed and also the powder; and the spare
sails and clothing put on board the _Hecla_. On the 13th we found that a
mass of heavy ice, which had been aground within the _Fury_, had now
floated off alongside of her at high water, still further contracting our
already narrow basin, and leaving the ship no room for turning round. At
the next high water, therefore, we got a purchase on it and hove it out
of the way, so that at night it drifted off altogether. The coals and
preserved meats were the principal things now remaining on board the
_Fury_, and these we continued landing by every method we could devise as
the most expeditious. The tide rose so considerably at night, new moon
occurring within an hour of high water, that we were much afraid of our
bergs floating: they remained firm, however, even though the ice came in
with so much force as to break one of our hand-masts, a fir spar of
twelve inches diameter. As the high tides and the lightening of the
_Fury_ now gave us sufficient depth of water for unshipping the rudders,
we did so, and laid them upon the small berg astern of us, for fear of
their being damaged by any pressure of the ice.
Early on the morning of the 14th, the ice slackening a little in our
neighbourhood, we took advantage of it, though the people were much
fagged, to tighten the cables, which had stretched and yielded
considerably by the late pressure. It was well that we did so; for in
the course of this day we were several times interrupted in our work by
the ice coming with a tremendous strain on the north cables, the wind
blowing strong from the N.N.W., and the whole “pack” outside of us
setting rapidly to the southward. Indeed, notwithstanding the recent
tightening and readjustment of the cables, the bight was pressed in so
much as to force the _Fury_ against the berg astern of her twice in the
course of the day. Mr. Waller, who was in the hold the second time that
this occurred, reported that the coals about the keelson were moved by
it, imparting the sensation of a part of the ship’s bottom falling down;
and one of the men at work there was so strongly impressed with that
belief that he thought it high time to make a spring for the hatchway.
From this circumstance it seemed more than probable that the main keel
had received some serious damage near the middle of the ship.
From this trial of the efficacy of our means of security, it was plain
that the _Fury_ could not possibly be hove down under circumstances of
such frequent and imminent risk; I therefore directed a fourth anchor,
with two additional cables, to be carried out, with the hope of breaking
some of the force of the ice by its offering a more oblique resistance
than the other, and thus by degrees turning the direction of the pressure
from the ships. We had scarcely completed this new defence, when the
largest floe we had seen since leaving Port Bowen came sweeping along the
shore, having a motion to the southward of not less than a mile and a
half an hour; and a projecting point of it just grazing our outer berg,
threatened to overturn it, and would certainly have dislodged it from its
situation but for the cable recently attached to it. A second similar
occurrence took place with a smaller mass of ice about midnight, and near
the top of an unusually high spring tide, which seemed ready to float
away every security from us. For three hours about the time of this high
water, our situation was a most critical one, for had the bergs, or
indeed any one of them, been carried away or broken, both ships must
inevitably have been driven on shore by the very next mass of ice that
should come in. Happily, however, they did not suffer any further
material disturbance, and the main body keeping at a short distance from
the land until the tide had fallen, the bergs seemed to be once more
firmly resting on the ground. The only mischief, therefore, occasioned
by this disturbance was the slackening of our cables by the alteration in
the positions of the several grounded masses, and the consequent
necessity of employing more time, which nothing but absolute necessity
could induce us to bestow in adjusting and tightening the whole of them
afresh.
The wind veering to the W.N.W. on the morning of the 15th, and still
continuing to blow strong, the ice was forced three or four miles off the
land in the course of a few hours, leaving us a quiet day for continuing
our work, but exciting no very pleasing sensations when we considered
what progress we might have been making had we been at liberty to pursue
our object. The land was, indeed, so clear of ice to the southward that
Dr. Neill, who walked a considerable distance in that direction, could
see nothing but an open channel in-shore to the utmost extent of his
view. We took advantage of this open water to send the launch for the
_Fury’s_ ironwork left at the former station; for though the few men thus
employed could very ill be spared, we were obliged to arrange everything
with reference to the ultimate saving of time; and it would have occupied
both ships’ companies more than a whole day to carry the things round by
land.
The _Fury_ being completely cleared at an early hour on the 16th, we were
all busily employed in “winding” the ship, and in preparing the
outriggers, shores, purchases, and additional rigging. Though we
purposely selected the time of high water for turning the ship round, we
had scarcely a foot of space to spare for doing it, and indeed, as it
was, her forefoot touched the ground, and loosened the broken part of the
wood so much as to enable us to pull it up with ropes, when we found the
fragments to consist of the whole of the “gripe” and most of the
“cutwater.” The strong breeze continuing, and the sea rising as the open
water increased in extent, our bergs were sadly washed and wasted; every
hour producing a sensible and serious diminution in their bulk. As,
however, the main body of ice still kept off, we were in hopes, now that
our preparations were so near completed, we should have been enabled in a
few hours to see the extent of the damage, and repair it sufficiently to
allow us to proceed. In the evening we received the _Fury’s_ crew on
board the _Hecla_, every arrangement and regulation having been
previously made for their personal comfort, and for the preservation of
cleanliness, ventilation, and dry warmth throughout the ship. The
officers of the _Fury_, by their own choice, pitched a tent on shore for
messing and sleeping in, as our accommodation for two sets of officers
was necessarily confined. On the 17th, when every preparation was
completed, the cables were found again so slack, by the wasting of the
bergs in consequence of the continued sea, and possibly also in part by
the masses having moved somewhat in-shore, that we were obliged to occupy
several hours in putting them to rights, as we should soon require all
our strength at the purchases. One berg had also, at the last low water,
fallen over on its side in consequence of its substance being undermined
by the sea, and the cable surrounding it was thus forced so low under
water as no longer to afford protection from the ice should it again come
in. In tightening the cables, we found it to have the effect of bringing
the bergs in towards the shore, still further contracting our narrow
basin; but anything was better than suffering them to go adrift. This
work being finished at ten P.M. the people were allowed three hours’ rest
only, it being necessary to heave the ship down at or near high water, as
there was not sufficient depth to allow her to take her distance at any
other time of tide. Every preparation being made, at three A.M. on the
18th, we began to heave her down on the larboard side, but when the
purchases were nearly a-block, we found that the strops under the
_Hecla’a_ bottom, as well as some of the _Fury’s_ shorefasts, had
stretched or yielded so much, that they could not bring the keel out of
water within three or four feet. We immediately eased her up again, and
readjusted everything as requisite, hauling her farther in-shore than
before by keeping a considerable heel upon her, so as to make less depth
of water necessary; and we were then in the act of once more heaving her
down, when a snowstorm came on and blew with such violence off the land,
as to raise a considerable sea. The ships had now so much motion as to
strain the gear very much, and even to make the lower masts of the _Fury_
bend in spite of the shores: we were, therefore, most unwillingly
compelled to desist until the sea should go down, keeping everything
ready to recommence the instant we could possibly do so with safety. The
officers and men were now literally so harassed and fatigued as to be
scarcely capable of further exertion without some rest; and on this and
one or two other occasions, I noticed more than a single instance of
stupor amounting to a certain degree of failure in intellect, rendering
the individual so affected quite unable at first to comprehend the
meaning of an order, though still as willing as ever to obey it. It was
therefore perhaps a fortunate necessity which produced the intermission
of labour which the strength of every individual seemed to require.
The gale rather increasing than otherwise during the whole day and night
of the 18th, had on the following morning, when the wind and sea still
continued unabated, so destroyed the bergs on which our sole dependence
was placed, that they no longer remained aground at low water; the cables
had again become slack about them, and the basin we had taken so much
pains in forming had now lost all its defences, at least during a portion
of every tide. It will be plain, too, if I have succeeded in giving a
distinct description of our situation, that, independently of the
security of the ships, there was now nothing left to seaward by which the
_Hecla_ could be held out in that direction while heaving the _Fury_
down, so that our preparations in this way were no longer available.
After a night of most anxious consideration and consultation with Captain
Hoppner, who was now my messmate in the _Hecla_, it appeared but too
plain, that, should the ice again come in, neither ship could any longer
be secured from driving on shore. It was therefore determined instantly
to prepare the _Hecla_ for sea, making her thoroughly effective in every
respect; so that we might at least push her out into comparative safety
among the ice, when it closed again, taking every person on board her,
securing the _Fury_ in the best manner we could, and returning to her the
instant we were able to do so, to endeavour to get her out, and to carry
her to some place of security for heaving down. If, after the _Hecla_
was ready, time should still be allowed us, it was proposed immediately
to put into the _Fury_ all that was requisite, or at least as much as she
could safely carry, and towing her out into the ice, to try the effect of
“foddering” the leaks by sails under those parts of her keel which we
knew to be damaged, until some more effectual means could be resorted to.
Having communicated to the assembled officers and ships’ companies my
views and intentions, and moreover given them to understand that I hoped
to see the _Hecla’s_ top-gallant-yards across before we slept, we
commenced our work; and such was the hearty goodwill and indefatigable
energy with which it was carried on, that by midnight the whole was
accomplished, and a bower-anchor and cable carried out in the offing, for
the double purpose of hauling out the _Hecla_ when requisite, and as some
security to the _Fury_, if we were obliged to leave her. The people were
once more quite exhausted by these exertions, especially those belonging
to the _Fury_, who had never thoroughly recovered their first fatigues.
The ice being barely in sight, we were enabled to enjoy seven hours of
undisturbed rest; but the wind becoming light, and afterwards shifting to
the N.N.E., we had reason to expect the ice would soon close the shore,
and were, therefore, most anxious to continue our work.
On the 20th, therefore, the reloading of the _Fury_ commenced with
recruited strength and spirits, such articles being in the first place
selected for putting on board as were essentially requisite for her
re-equipment; for it was my full determination, could we succeed in
completing this, not to wait even for rigging a topmast, or getting a
lower yard up, in the event of the ice coming in, but to tow her out
among the ice, and there put everything sufficiently to rights for
carrying her to some place of security. At the same time, the end of the
sea-cable was taken on board the _Fury_, by way of offering some
resistance to the ice, which was now more plainly seen, though still
about five miles distant, A few hands were also spared, consisting
chiefly of two or three convalescents, and some of the officers, to thrum
a sail for putting under the _Fury’s_ keel; for we were very anxious to
relieve the men at the pumps, which constantly required the labour of
eight to twelve hands to keep her free. In the course of the day,
several heavy masses of ice came drifting by with a breeze from the N.E.,
which is here about two points upon the land, and made a considerable
swell. One mass came in contact with our bergs, which, though only held
by the cables, brought it up in time to prevent mischief. By a long and
hard day’s labour, the people not going to rest till two o’clock on the
morning of the 21st, we got about fifty tons’ weight of coals and
provisions on board the _Fury_, which, in case of necessity, we
considered sufficient to give her stability. While we were thus
employed, the ice, though evidently inclined to come in, did not approach
us much; and it may be conceived with what anxiety we longed to be
allowed one more day’s labour, on which the ultimate saving of the ship
might almost be considered as depending. Having hauled the ships out a
little from the shore and prepared the _Hecla_ for casting by a spring at
a moment’s notice, all the people except those at the pumps were sent to
rest, which, however, they had not enjoyed for two hours, when at four
A.M. on the 21st, another heavy mass coming violently in contact with the
bergs and cables, threatened to sweep away every remaining security. Our
situation, with this additional strain, the mass which had disturbed us
fixing itself upon the weather-cable, and an increasing wind and swell
setting considerably on the shore, became more and more precarious; and
indeed, under circumstances as critical as can well be imagined, nothing
but the urgency and importance of the object we had in view—that of
saving the _Fury_ if she was to be saved—could have prevented my making
sail, and keeping the _Hecla_ under way till matters mended. More
hawsers were run out, however, and enabled us still to hold on; and after
six hours of disturbed rest, all hands were again set to work to get the
_Fury’s_ anchors, cables, rudder, and spars on board, these things being
absolutely necessary for her equipment, should we be able to get her out.
At two P.M. the crews were called on board to dinner, which they had not
finished when several not very large masses of ice drove along the shore
near us at a quick rate, and two or three successively coming in violent
contact either with the _Hecla_ or the bergs to which she was attached,
convinced me that very little additional pressure would tear everything
away, and drive both ships on shore. I saw that the moment had arrived
when the _Hecla_ could no longer be kept in her present situation with
the smallest chance of safety, and therefore immediately got under sail,
dispatching Captain Hoppner with every individual, except a few for
working the ship, to continue getting the things on board the _Fury_,
while the _Hecla_ stood off and on. It was a quarter-past three P.M.
when we cast off, the wind then blowing fresh from the north-east, or
about two points upon the land, which caused some surf on the beach.
Captain Hoppner had scarcely been an hour on board the _Fury_, and was
busily engaged in getting the anchors and cables on board, when we
observed some large pieces of not very heavy ice closing in with the land
near her; and at twenty minutes past four P.M., being an hour and five
minutes after the _Hecla_ had cast off, I was informed by signal that the
_Fury_ was on shore. Making a tack in-shore, but not being able, even
under a press of canvas, to get very near her, owing to a strong
southerly current which prevailed within a mile or two of the land, I
perceived that she had been apparently driven up the beach by two or
three of the grounded masses forcing her onwards before them, and these,
as well as the ship, seemed now so firmly aground as entirely to block
her in on the seaward side. As the navigating of the _Hecla_ with only
ten men on board required constant attention and care, I could not at
this time with propriety leave the ship to go on board the _Fury_. This,
however, I the less regretted as Captain Hoppner was thoroughly
acquainted with all my views and intentions, and I felt confident that,
under his direction, nothing would be left undone to endeavour to save
the ship. I, therefore, directed him by telegraph, “if he thought
nothing could be done at present, to return on board with all hands until
the wind changed;” for this alone, as far as I could see the state of the
_Fury_, seemed to offer the smallest chance of clearing the shore, so as
to enable us to proceed with our work, or to attempt hauling the ship off
the ground. About seven P.M. Captain Hoppner returned to the _Hecla_,
accompanied by all hands, except an officer with a party at the pumps,
reporting to me that the _Fury_ had been forced aground by the ice
pressing on the masses lying near her, and bringing home, if not
breaking, the seaward anchor, so that the ship was soon found to have
sewed from two to three feet fore and aft.
With the ship thus situated, and masses of heavy ice constantly coming
in, it was Captain Hoppner’s decided opinion, as well as that of
Lieutenants Austin and Ross, that to have laid out another anchor to
seaward would have only been to expose it to the same damage as there was
reason to suppose had been incurred with the other, without the most
distant hope of doing any service; especially as the ship had been driven
on shore, by a most unfortunate coincidence, just as the tide was
beginning to fall. Indeed, in the present state of the _Fury_, nothing
short of chopping and sawing up a part of the ice under her stern could
by any possibility have effected her release, even if she had been
already afloat. Under such circumstances, hopeless as for the time every
seaman will admit them to have been, Captain Hoppner judiciously
determined to return for the present, as directed by my telegraphic
communication; but being anxious to keep the ship free from water as long
as possible, he left an officer and a small party of men to continue
working at the pumps so long as a communication could be kept up between
the _Hecla_ and the shore. Every moment, however, decreased the
practicability of doing this; and finding, soon after Captain Hoppner’s
return, that the current swept the _Hecla_ a long way to the southward
while hoisting up the boats, and that more ice was drifting in towards
the shore, I was under the painful necessity of recalling the party at
the pumps, rather than incur the risk, now an inevitable one, of parting
company with them altogether. Accordingly Mr. Bird, with the last of the
people, came on board at eight o’clock in the evening, having left
eighteen inches of water in the well, and four pumps being requisite to
keep her free. In three hours after Mr. Bird’s return, more than half a
mile of closely-packed ice intervened between the _Fury_ and the open
water in which we were beating, and before the morning this barrier had
increased to four or five miles in breadth.
We carried a press of canvas all night, with a fresh breeze from the
north, to enable us to keep abreast of the _Fury_, which, on account of
the strong southerly current, we could only do by beating at some
distance from the land. The breadth of the ice in-shore continued
increasing during the day, but we could see no end to the water in which
we were beating, either to the southward or eastward. Advantage was
taken of the little leisure now allowed us, to let the people mend and
wash their clothes, which they had scarcely had a moment to do for the
last three weeks. We also completed the thrumming of a second sail for
putting under the _Fury’s_ keel whenever we should be enabled to haul her
off the shore. It fell quite calm in the evening, when the breadth of
the ice in-shore had increased to six or seven miles. We did not during
the day perceive any current setting to the southward, but in the course
of the night we were drifted four or five leagues to the south-westward,
in which situation we had a distinct view of a large extent of land,
which had before been seen for the first time by some of our gentlemen
who walked from where the _Fury_ lay. This land trends very much to the
westward, a little beyond the Fury Point, the name by which I have
distinguished that headland near which we had attempted to heave the
_Fury_ down, and which is very near the southern part of this coast, seen
in the year 1819. It then sweeps round into a large bay, formed by a
long, low beach several miles in extent, afterwards joining higher land,
and running in a south-easterly direction to a point which terminated our
view of it in that quarter, and which bore from us S. 58° W. distant six
or seven leagues. This headland I named Cape Garry, after my worthy
friend Nicholas Garry, Esq., one of the most active members of the
Hudson’s Bay Company, and a gentleman most warmly interested in
everything connected with northern discovery. The whole of the bay
(which I named after my much esteemed friend, Francis Cresswell, Esq.),
as well as the land to the southward, was free from ice for several
miles, and to the southward and eastward scarcely any was to be seen,
while a dark water-sky indicated a perfectly navigable sea in that
direction; but between us and the Fury there was a compact body of ice
eight or nine miles in breadth. Had we now been at liberty to take
advantage of the favourable prospect before us, I have little doubt we
should without much difficulty have made considerable progress.
A southerly breeze enabling us to regain our northing, we ran along the
margin of the ice, but were led so much to the eastward by it, that we
could approach the ship no nearer than before during the whole day. She
appeared to us at this distance to have a much greater heel than when the
people left her, which made us still more anxious to get near her. A
south-west wind gave us hopes of the ice setting off from the land, but
it produced no good effect during the whole of the 24th. We, therefore,
beat again to the southward to see if we could manage to get in with the
land anywhere about the shores of the bay; but this was now
impracticable, the ice being once more closely packed there. We could
only wait, therefore, in patience, for some alteration in our favour.
The latitude at noon was 72° 34′ 57″, making our distance from the _Fury_
twelve miles, which by the morning of the 25th had increased to at least
five leagues, the ice continuing to “pack” between us and the shore. The
wind, however, now gradually drew round to the westward, giving us hopes
of a change, and we continued to ply about the margin of the ice, in
constant readiness for taking advantage of any opening that might occur.
It favoured us so much by streaming off in the course of the day, that by
seven P.M. we had nearly reached a channel of clear water, which kept
open for seven or eight miles from the land. Being impatient to obtain a
sight of the _Fury_, and the wind becoming light, Captain Hoppner and
myself left the _Hecla_ in two boats, and reached the ship at half-past
nine, or about three-quarters of an hour before high water, being the
most favourable time of tide for arriving to examine her condition.
We found her heeling so much outward, that her main channels were within
a foot of the water; and the large floe-piece, which was still alongside
of her, seemed alone to support her below water, and to prevent her
falling over still more considerably. The ship had been forced much
further up the beach than before, and she had now in her bilge above nine
feet of water, which reached higher than the lower-deck beams. On
looking down the stern-post, which, seen against the light-coloured
ground, and in shoal water, was now very distinctly visible, we found
that she had pushed the stones at the bottom up before her, and that the
broken keel, stern-post, and deadwood had, by the recent pressure, been
more damaged and turned up than before. She appeared principally to hang
upon the ground abreast of the gangway, where, at high water, the depth
was eleven feet alongside her keel; forward and aft from thirteen to
sixteen feet; so that at low tide, allowing the usual fall of five or six
feet, she would be lying in a depth of from five to ten feet only. The
first hour’s inspection of the _Fury’s_ condition too plainly assured me
that exposed as she was, and forcibly pressed up upon an open and stony
beach, her holds full of water, and the damage of her hull to all
appearance and in all probability more considerable than before, without
any adequate means of hauling her off to seaward, or securing her from
the further incursions of the ice, every endeavour of ours to get her
off, or if got off, to float her to any known place of safety, would be
at once utterly hopeless in itself, and productive of extreme risk to our
remaining ship.
Being anxious, however, in a case of so much importance, to avail myself
of the judgment and experience of others, I directed Captain Hoppner, in
conjunction with Lieutenants Austin and Sherer, and Mr. Pulfer,
carpenter, being the officers who accompanied me to the _Fury_, to hold a
survey upon her, and to report their opinions to me. And to prevent the
possibility of the officers receiving any bias from my own opinion, the
order was given to them the moment we arrived on board the _Fury_.
Captain Hoppner and the other officers, after spending several hours in
attentively examining every part of the ship, both within and without,
and maturely weighing all the circumstances of her situation, gave it as
their opinion that it would be quite impracticable to make her seaworthy,
even if she could be hauled off, which would first require the water to
be got out of the ship, and the holds to be once more entirely cleared.
Mr. Pulfer, the carpenter of the _Fury_, considered that it would occupy
five days to clear the ship of water; that if she were got off, all the
pumps would not be sufficient to keep her free, in consequence of the
additional damage she seemed to have sustained; and that, if even hove
down, twenty days’ work, with the means we possessed, would be required
for making her seaworthy. Captain Hoppner and the other officers were,
therefore, of opinion that an absolute necessity existed for abandoning
the _Fury_. My own opinion being thus confirmed as to the utter
hopelessness of saving her, and feeling more strongly than ever the
responsibility which attached to me of preserving the _Hecla_ unhurt, it
was with extreme pain and regret that I made the signal for the _Fury’s_
officers and men to be sent for their clothes, most of which had been put
on shore with the stores.
The _Hecla’s_ bower-anchor, which had been placed on the beach, was sent
on board as soon as the people came on shore; but her remaining cable was
too much entangled with the grounded ice to be disengaged without great
loss of time. Having allowed the officers and men an hour for packing up
their clothes, and what else belonging to them the water in the ship had
not covered, the _Fury’s_ boats were hauled up on the beach, and at two
A.M. I left her, and was followed by Captain Hoppner, Lieutenant Austin,
and the last of the people in half an hour after.
The whole of the _Fury’s_ stores were of necessity left either on board
her or on shore, every spare corner that we could find in the _Hecla_
being now absolutely required for the accommodation of our double
complement of officers and men, whose cleanliness and health could only
be maintained by keeping the decks as clear and well ventilated as our
limited space would permit. The spot where the _Fury_ was left is in
latitude 72° 42′ 30″, the longitude by chronometers is 91° 50′ 05″, the
dip of the magnetic needle 88° 19′ 22″, and the variation 129° 25′
westerly.
When the accident first happened to the _Fury_, I confidently expected to
have been able to repair her damages in good time to take advantage of a
large remaining part of the navigable season in the prosecution of the
voyage; and while the clearing of the ship was going on with so much
alacrity, and the repairs seemed to be within the reach of our means and
resources, I still flattered myself with the same hope. But as soon as
the gales began to destroy, with a rapidity of which we had before no
conception, our sole defence from the incursions of the ice, as well as
the only trustworthy means we before possessed of holding the _Hecla_ out
for heaving the _Fury_ down, I confess that the prospect of the necessity
then likely to arise for removing her to some other station, was
sufficient to shake every reasonable expectation I had hitherto cherished
of the ultimate accomplishment of our object. Those expectations were
now at an end. With a twelvemonth’s provisions for both ships’
companies, extending our resources only to the autumn of the following
year, it would have been folly to hope for final success, considering the
small progress we had already made, the uncertain nature of this
navigation, and the advanced period of the present season. I was,
therefore, reduced to the only remaining conclusion that it was my duty,
under all the circumstances of the case, to return to England, in
compliance with the plain tenor of my instructions. As soon as the boats
were hoisted up, therefore, and the anchor stowed, the ship’s head was
put to the north-eastward, with a light air off the land, in order to
gain an offing before the ice should again set in-shore.