Sail on board the Huntress, bound for the Pacific, on a whaling
Expedition. Encounter a heavy Storm. A Man lost. Reach the Falklands.
Description of them. Storm at the Cape. Icebergs. Island of Juan
Fernandez. Arrive at the Sandwich Islands. A Sketch of them.
I shipped myself on board the Huntress, Capt. Post, then fitting for a
cruise to the Pacific. We set sail from New Bedford, 1832, August 3d.
About the middle of the month a violent gale arose from the southeast.
We stowed our top-gallant-sails; reefed our top-sails; furled our main
course, and stood to the eastward. The gale increasing, we were obliged
to furl our fore and mizen top-sails, jib and spankers, and heave our
ship to under close reefed main-top-sail, fore-sail, and fore-top-mast,
main and mizen stay-sail. Thus we ran many hours. The wind subsiding in
a degree, enabled us to run quarterly with the wind, with fore-top-mast
studding-sail set. Most of the hands were below when the ship fetched
a lurch and roll at the same time, with a head sea, carrying the
fore-top-mast in three pieces, and the top-gallant-mast; springing the
main and mizen top-mast; throwing one man who was aloft into the water.
A boat was lowered, but no trace of him found save his hat. By the
blood on the rigging, it was thought he received serious injury before
he reached the water. All hands were called, and the wreck cleared fast
as possible.
Most of our crew were new hands; and out of 30 men only six were found
who could go aloft with any degree of usefulness in rough weather.
Having spare spars, we were soon rigged again. Made the Azores. Took
one whale from which we got 60 barrels of oil. We also replaced our
spars; got potatoes, onions, oranges, &c., from them. We touched at
Cape Verdes; got hogs, goats, &c.; then shaped our course for the
Falkland islands, "so denominated by the English, in 1639, in honor,
it is supposed of Lord Viscount Falkland. The soil is bad, and the
climate is disagreeable, and the shores are beaten with perpetual
storms. Nothing but reeds and moss cover the ground. The sky is
perpetually concealed from view by thick fogs. The extreme cold cannot
be alleviated by fire, as there is neither wood or coal; and even a
ship in port is covered with constant snow. The shores are frequented,
however, by considerable quantities of sea-fowl and fish. The penguins,
called swans by the Spaniards, supply a scanty and miserable food.
Walruses, and others of the seal kind, abound.
"The history of the disputes between Great Britain and Spain,
concerning these miserable islands, furnishes another of the evidences
of the necessity of the study of geography among statesmen, as nothing
but a complete geographical ignorance concerning them, could have
raised such an unnecessary alarm on both sides."
We left the Falklands to double the cape. A few days after, a heavy
wind arose from the north. We shortened sail as the gale increased,
until we come down to close reefed main-top-sail, scudding the ship
for four days. The sea ran most fearfully high, throwing the water in
at one side, and putting it out at the other. While the ship was thus
laboring, we were ordered to lighten her top hamper, by sending down
the fore and mizen top-gallant and main royal yards. While another
and myself were in the act of lowering the main royal yard the ship
rolled very quick and heavy. I missed my hold and falling, struck on
the main-top-sail reef tackle, which was very tight and fast. I struck
on my side, turned a complete somerset, fell again, and thrust my legs
between the shrouds and ratline, and there hung. The mate hearing the
rigging shake, cried out, "who is there?" I answered some way, scarce
knowing how. He, knowing my voice, came running to help me to the
deck, when I fainted and fell. He picked me up, and placed me on the
after hatchway. At that moment a tremendous sea struck the vessel,
carrying the mate and myself into the lee scupper. Assistance being at
hand, we were taken out, and I carried to the cabin. It was sometime
before I came to my senses. Found three of my ribs broken, and bruised
much elsewhere. I was carried into the forecastle, where I remained
suffering most extremely for a long time; and have hardly, I may say,
recovered from the effects to the present day. The gale continued with
unabated fury. The latitude being nearly run out, the ship was hove to
with her head to the west. There we lay drifting four weeks. Fell in
with mountains of ice, commonly known as icebergs, of vast dimensions,
and of almost every form. An estimate was made of the size of one
supposed to be the largest seen. It seemingly was an hundred and fifty
or two hundred feet high; and, as is a fact, the volume of ice is to
that of sea water as 10 to 9, consequently the ice, which rises above
the water, is to that which sinks below as 1 to 9. Then allowing this
mass to have been 150 feet above the water, and of regular shape, it
would sink below the surface about 1350 feet, making a huge mass of
some 1500 feet high. Capt. Cook, in his voyage in 1773, describes one
as being 600 feet high above the water, making, as he estimated, 5,400
feet to be its entire height. "And yet," says Cook, "the sea broke over
them." They exhibited for a few moments a view very pleasing to the
eye; but a sense of danger soon filled the mind with horror; for had
the ship struck against the weather side of one of those islands, when
the sea ran high, she would instantly have been dashed in pieces.
At length these islands became as familiar to those on board as the
clouds and the sea. Whenever a strong reflection of white was seen
on the skirts of the sky, near the horizon, then ice was sure to be
encountered. Notwithstanding which, the substance was not entirely
white, but often tinged, especially near the surface of the sea, with a
most beautiful sapphirine, or rather beryline blue, evidently reflected
from the water. This blue color sometimes appeared twenty or thirty
feet above the surface, and was probably produced by particles of sea
water, which had been dashed against the mass in tempestuous weather,
and had penetrated into its interstices. In the evening, the sun
setting just behind one of these masses, tinged its edges with gold,
and reflected on the entire mass a beautiful suffusion of purple. In
the larger masses were frequently observed shades or casts of white,
lying above each other in strata, sometimes of six inches, and at
other times of a foot in height.
This appearance seemed to confirm the opinion entertained relative to
the increase and accumulation of such huge masses of ice, by heavy
falls of snow at different intervals; for snow being of various kinds,
small grained, and large grained, in light feathery locks, &c., the
various degrees of compactness may account for the various colors
of strata. The approximation of several fields of ice, of different
magnitudes produces a very singular phenomenon.
The smaller of these masses are forced out of the water, and thrown on
the larger ones, until at length an aggregate is formed of a tremendous
height. These accumulated bodies of ice float in the sea like so many
rugged mountains, and are continually increased in height by the
freezing of the spray of the sea, and the melting of the snow which
falls on them.
The collision of great fields of ice, in high latitudes is attended by
a noise, which for a time, takes away the sense of hearing any thing
beside; and that of the smaller fields, with a grinding of unspeakable
horror.
The water which dashes against the mountainous ice, freezes into an
infinite variety of forms, and presents to the admiring view of the
voyager, ideal towns, streets, churches, steeples, and almost every
form which imagination can picture to itself.
Our course was very much impeded by immense fields of low ice, the
extent of which could scarcely be seen; these low fields, called the
meadows, are the sporting grounds of seals, and often hundreds are seen
at a time frolicking on them. After passing six weeks in dodging the
ice, the wind favored us, and we shaped our course for the island of
Juan Fernandez, which lies off the coast of Chili, about 350 miles, is
inhabited by a few Spaniards, and is famous as having been the solitary
residence of Alexander Selkirk, a Scotchman, whose singular adventure
gave rise to a novel known as the adventures of Robinson Crusoe. We
spent a few days on shore getting goats, potatoes, fruit, &c., for the
ship; from thence we stood for the Sandwich Islands, and came to anchor
at Hawaii about the first of April.
Stewart in his Geographical sketch of them, says:--"The Sandwich
Islands are situated in the Pacific ocean, between 18° 50' and 22° 20'
north latitude, and between 154° 53' and 160° 15', west longitude from
Greenwich. They are about 2800 miles distant from the coast of Mexico,
on the east; about 5000 from the shores of China, on the west; and 2700
from the Society Islands on the south.
"The Islands are ten in number, stretching, as may be seen from a
chart, in a flattened curve, E. S. E., and W. N. W. in the following
order: Hawaii, Maui, Molokini, Kahulawe, Lanai, Molokai, Oahu, Kauai,
Nihan, and Kaula.
"Hawaii, the most southern and eastern island, is the largest of
the group. It is about ninety-seven miles long, and seventy-eight
broad, covering a surface of 4000 square miles, and containing 85,000
inhabitants.
"Maui lies northwest from Hawaii, and is separated from it by a
channel twenty-four miles wide. This island formed by two mountainous
peninsulas, connected by a narrow neck of low land, is forty-eight
miles long, and at its greatest width twenty-nine miles wide. It
covers about 600 square miles, and is supposed to have a population of
20,000 people.
"Molokini is a barren rock, rising only fifteen or twenty feet above
the level of the ocean, at a distance of four or five miles from the
western shore of the southern peninsular of Maui. Kahulawe lies in the
same direction from Maui, six or eight miles beyond Molokini. It is
only eleven miles long, and eight broad, and has but few inhabitants.
"Lanai is situated twenty miles northwest from Kahulawe, and ten or
twelve miles directly west from the northern peninsula of Maui. It is
seventeen miles long and nine broad, covering about 110 square miles,
with a population of 2000 or 3000.
"Molokai lies west-north-west from Maui, and is separated from it by
a channel ten miles wide. A passage of about the same width divides
it on the south from Lanai. Molokai is forty miles long and seven
broad, covering 170 square miles, and containing three or four thousand
inhabitants.
"Oahu lies twenty-seven miles northwest from Molokai; is forty-six
miles in length, and twenty-three in breadth, with a surface of 520
square miles, and a population of 20,000. It affords the best harbor in
the group, and is the most fertile and beautiful of the islands.
"Kauai is seventy-five miles northwest from Oahu. It is thirty-three
miles long, and twenty-eight broad, covering 520 square miles, and has
about 10,000 inhabitants.
"Nihan lies southwest from Kauai fifteen miles, and is twenty miles
long and seven broad. The number of its inhabitants is small. Kaula,
situated seventeen miles southwest of Nihan, like Molokini, is an
uninhabited rock, visited only for the eggs of sea fowl which frequent
it in great numbers, and there hatch their young.
"These islands were discovered in the year 1778, by Captain James
Cook, of the British Navy, and from him in honor of Earl Sandwich, the
first lord of the admiralty, received the name by which they are at
present designated. The tragical and lamented death of this celebrated
navigator at Hawaii, in the succeeding year, caused their existence to
be made known to the civilized world, with an excitement of feeling
that deeply stamped the event on the public mind. No foreign ship
visited the group again until the year 1786, when the ill-fated La
Perouse touched at Maui; and about the same time two vessels, engaged
in the trade of the North-west Coast, procured refreshments at the
island of Oahu. These were early succeeded by several others; and in
1792 and 1794, by the expedition under the command of Vancouver."
After having secured a sufficient quantity of provision, we were
allowed liberty on shore; this liberty to one who had been shut up
within the confines of a ship, was indeed exhilarating.
In one of our rambles we fell in with a native, with whom we bargained
for a dinner. He immediately sat himself about it. When cooked, it was
served up in a calabash, or gourd; we seated ourselves upon the ground,
around the dishes, and commenced operation; all were particularly
fond of the meat which he had furnished, yet knew not what it was;
on inquiry, we were told in broken English, "poy-poy," at the same
time he gave a most knowing kind of a laugh. We then half suspected
foul play, and again sternly interrogating him as to the kind of meat,
received in reply, "cow, cow," which signified dog. Each looked at the
other, scarce knowing what to do. Some began vomiting; as for myself, I
relished it, while supposing it something else; and at that late hour
thought it folly to make much ado about it. The joke was often referred
to quite to the discomfiture of those upon whom it was forced.
We were next allowed liberty of forty-eight hours on shore, which we
improved by visiting the volcano of Kilauea.
As this volcano was visited in the year 1825, by Lord Byron, S. C.
Stewart, and other distinguished and scientific gentlemen, accompanied
by the officers and crew of his majesty's ship Blonde, with an escort
of one hundred natives, I would refer my readers to a description given
by Stewart, believing it to be the most graphic ever given, which will
be found in the following chapter.
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