SIR ALLEN YOUNG AND THE _PANDORA_.
AMUNDSEN AND THE NORTH WEST PASSAGE.
In the same year that the English Arctic expedition was despatched, Sir
Allen Young determined to see whether it was an open year for passing
through the navigable north-west passage discovered by Sir Leopold
M’Clintock. This depends upon the winds. If very strong winds from the
north have been prevalent, the passage down Franklin Channel is choked
with ice and impassable. If this has not been the case, the passage
can be made. Sir Allen Young bought the gunboat _Pandora_ from the
Admiralty, a vessel built at Devonport for speed, and commissioned by
my old friend Ruxton in 1863. She was well strengthened for Arctic work
at Southampton. Allen Young bore the expense with some assistance from
Lady Franklin and Lieutenant Lillingston, R.N., who went as his chief
officer. The second was Navigating Lieutenant Pirie, and an ardent
young Dutch naval officer named Koolemans Beynen joined as a volunteer.
The _Pandora_ was provided with a steam cutter, which proved very
useful, three whaleboats, and four other boats.
Allen Young paid a very interesting visit to the cryolite mine in South
Greenland[153] where he found his old ship, the _Fox_. He took in a
supply of coals at Kudlisit in Disco, and was fortunate in passing
through the ice of Melville Bay. After leaving letters for the _Alert_
and _Discovery_ on one of the Cary Islands, he proceeded up Lancaster
Sound to examine the depôt on Beechey Island. He then went down Peel
Sound in very thick weather. He was entering upon his own ground, his
discoveries during the journey from the _Fox_ in 1859. Then came a
great disappointment. Dense pack ice extended right across the channel
near Levesque Island and there was nothing to the southward but solid
pack, with a strong ice-blink beyond 72° 14′ N. Cape Bird, the northern
portal of Bellot Strait, was distant about 10 miles. Young ascended
Roquette Island (about 200 feet) but there was nothing to be seen but
unbroken pack extending from shore to shore and he inclined to the
belief that the only way was by Bellot Strait. He reluctantly beat to
the northward, and by September 7th was clear of Lancaster Sound. He
landed again at the Cary Islands and fortunately found letters from
the _Alert_ and the _Discovery_. These he brought home, arriving at
Spithead October 16th, 1875.
The cause of the Franklin disaster was that no provision was made
against unavoidable detention or other misfortune, either by stationing
a depôt ship to fall back upon, or by sending a relief ship. I
represented to the Admiralty the importance of taking some such step in
the case of the Nares expedition, and Sir Allen Young agreed with me.
But the Admiralty authorities only awoke to the necessity when it was
too late to send an expedition themselves. They therefore requested Sir
Allen Young to undertake the duty with the _Pandora_, giving up his own
cherished plans for the North West Passage. He felt bound to consent.
This time he took Lieutenant Arbuthnot, R.N., as his second, as well as
Navigating Lieutenant Pirie, Koolemans Beynen, and an Austrian naval
officer, the late Admiral Alois Ritter von Becker. The _Pandora_ was to
take out letters to Littleton Island or Cape Isabella, and if possible
bring back despatches from Captain Nares.
[Illustration: The _Pandora_ (Captain Allen Young) in Peel Strait]
Sailing in May, 1876, the _Pandora_ again obtained coal at Kudlisit,
and proceeded to Melville Bay, where a very different reception awaited
her from the welcome she had found in the previous year. The bad time
began with dense fogs. Then she encountered furious gales, being in
great danger from icebergs crushing through the floes and threatening
instant destruction. At one time she was so severely nipped that every
preparation was made to abandon her, and take to the boats. They had
no sooner got into the North Water of Baffin’s Bay than a gale sprang
up off the Cary Islands, which increased to a frightful storm from the
south-east. No previous voyagers had ever experienced the like in that
part. On the 1st of August it moderated, and a landing was effected on
one of the Cary Islands, but nothing was found. The _Pandora_ arrived
at Littleton Island, within the entrance of Smith Sound, on the 3rd
August.
Allen Young then determined to reach Cape Isabella, on the west side
of Smith Sound, expecting to find despatches from the Nares expedition
there. In this he was successful, and Arbuthnot and von Becker went on
shore to examine the cairn which had been erected the previous year
by Commander A. H. Markham on the summit of the cape. The boat had
to be forced through drifting ice, but reached the shore. A record
was found, dated July 29th, 1875, and signed by Nares. Next day Young
began to think that a cask which Arbuthnot believed to be full of
provisions ought to have been examined for letters, and determined to
return to Cape Isabella to do this. As the Cape was approached, it
blew so hard and the sea was so covered with drifting ice that it was
not safe to send a boat, and for a whole month the vessel fought gales
of wind, drifting floes, and danger in many forms, before a landing
was ultimately effected. The cask was found to be empty! Nothing
remained but to return home, for all possibility of making their way
to the north was prevented by the solid pack. Letters were left at
Cape Isabella and Littleton Island. On the voyage home a very pleasant
visit was paid to the Arctic Highlanders in Whale Sound, “kind and
simple people, robust and healthy, who offered us everything they had.”
On the 11th September the _Pandora_ left Upernivik, and on the 16th
of the following month the _Alert_ and _Discovery_ were sighted in
mid-Atlantic on their voyage home. Portsmouth was reached on November
3rd, 1876.
The two voyages of the _Pandora_, under the command of a great seaman,
a great discoverer, and a most popular commander, are well worthy of
record, and Sir Allen Young’s admirable but modest narrative is a model
of the way in which an Arctic story should be told.
Although Nordenskiöld’s wonderful expedition in the _Vega_ had brought
the protracted struggle for the North East Passage to a successful
conclusion, the North West Passage, though known throughout the
greater part of its extent, still remained unconquered. It fell to a
Norwegian with seven companions in a small fishing boat to accomplish
this remarkable journey. The _Gjoa_, a cutter-rigged herring-boat,
fitted with a 13 h.-p. motor, under command of Roald Amundsen, with
a crew of seven men, sailed from Christiania June 16th, 1903, and
arrived off Godhavn on July 24th. Melville Bay offered fortunate ice
conditions, and they reached Dalrymple Rock, where 105 cases of stores
had been left for them, on August 15th. They now had 4245 gallons
of petrol aboard. Erebus Bay in Beechey I. was reached August 22nd,
and the season being an exceptionally favourable one they made rapid
progress, and passing down the east side of King William Land found
Simpson Strait leading to the westward quite free from ice. But,
though it was tempting to press on, they were on the look-out for a
wintering spot for magnetic observations, and they were fortunate
enough to discover an ideal situation in a small sheltered bay in the
south-east part of King William Land. Here stores were landed and
houses and an observatory built in mid-September. The bay was named
Gjoahavn. Meanwhile Lund the mate and Hansen the astronomer were sent
to an island in the middle of Simpson Strait, known to be the resort
of reindeer in the autumn, and returned with twenty. At Hall Point,
the southern end of King William Land, two skeletons of white men were
found, which were considered to be undoubtedly those of two members of
the Franklin expedition, who, it will be remembered, made their retreat
southward along the western shore of King William Land. Reindeer became
later very numerous even at Gjoahavn itself, as many as 13 being
shot in one day by a single sportsman. Birds too, such as geese and
ptarmigan, were also plentiful. Later, Eskimos appeared; they were very
friendly and some remained all the winter. They were afterwards found
to be very numerous.
Sledging journeys of a modest nature were made in the spring and
surveys taken, etc. The summer and autumn passed and they prepared
for a second winter (1904–5). Constant work was carried on at the
observatories. The lowest temperature recorded this winter was -50°
Fahr., and was thus much milder than the previous one, when -80° had
been registered, while at the end of March the thermometer was +17°
Fahr., instead of -40°. When the weather was sufficiently established
Hansen and Ristvedt started by sledge with 75 days’ provisions to make
a rough survey, if possible, of part of the east side of Victoria Land.
They took two sledges and 12 dogs with their food for 70 days, and
started on April 2nd. On May 26th they reached their furthest point
north on the western shore of M’Clintock Channel, and safely returned
June 25th, having been successful in their object.
On August 13th, 1905, the _Gjoa_ once more got under way on her
westward journey. The observations, magnetic and other, had been kept
continuously for 19 months, and the large number of Nechilli Eskimos
who had been in their neighbourhood, or had come long distances to
see them, had also given them abundant opportunity for ethnological
notes on these people. Fortune still favoured the expedition, the
sea proved sufficiently clear of ice, and though they had an anxious
time navigating through the shoals and islands which lay between
Nordenskiöld I. and the Royal Geographical Society’s group, they had
cleared Dease Strait on the 19th of August, and Union Strait four
days later. Off Baring Land on August 26th they met the first whaler
from the Bering Strait side, and had, as they thought, practically
accomplished their task.
They were still a long way from having done so, however, for a few
days later they encountered heavy pack at King Point, off the mouth
of the Mackenzie River, and here they were reluctantly compelled to
pass a third winter. There were many Eskimos here, and at Herschel I.,
35 miles away, five whalers were wintering. While at King Point the
magnetic observer, Wijk, died of pneumonia. Early in August, 1906, the
_Gjoa_ resumed her voyage, passed through Bering Strait without further
incident, and arrived at Nome August 31st, thus completing a voyage of
extraordinary pluck and endurance, and it must be added, of scarcely
less extraordinary good fortune.