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].