because he had steam-engines and screws, every precaution was taken to
secure the "Pioneer" and "Intrepid" in such a way that screw, rudder,
and sternpost might be torn off by the much-talked-of _bogie_!--the
ice,--and the vessels still be left fit to swim. In the internal
arrangements for meeting an arctic climate, we were on somewhat a
similar plan to the ships,--some difficulties being presented by the
large mass of cold iron machinery, which, of course, acted as a rapid
refrigerator. For the voyage out, the men were confined to a little
place in the bows of the vessel, and from thence to the cabins of the
officers, all was coal: a dead weight of 260 tons being originally
carried from England, which we increased to 300 tons at the Whale
Islands. This, at an average consumption of seven tons _per diem_,
would enable us _to tow the ships 3000 miles_, or, _steam alone, full
5000 miles_, carrying twelve or eighteen months' provision. The crew
consisted of thirty souls, all told, of which five were officers,--namely,
a lieutenant in command and a second master, as executive officers; an
assistant surgeon, who zealously undertook the superintendence of the
commissariat, both public and private, and two engineers, to look after
the steam department. These occupied the smallest conceivable space in
the after-end of the steamers; and, with separate cabins, had a common
mess-place.
Such were the arctic screws: it only remains for me to say, that they
were very handsome, smart-sailing vessels, and those embarked in them
partook of none of the anxieties and croakings, which declared
opponents and doubtful allies entertained as to their success in what
was styled a great experiment. They had but one wish ungratified, which
was, that they had been sent alone and fully provisioned, instead of
carrying an inadequate proportion of food, so that, in the event of
being separated from the ships by accident, they might have wintered
without suffering and hardship.
All the crews had been carefully chosen for health and efficiency; and
they, as well as the officers, were actuated by the loftiest feelings
of enterprise and humanity; and that feeling was fostered and
strengthened by the knowledge they had, of the high confidence placed
in the squadron by their country, speaking through the press. In fact,
we were called heroes long before we had earned our laurels. Lastly,
the Admiralty put into the hands of the officers the orders they had
given the leader of this noble squadron; and there was but one opinion
as to these orders, that more liberal, discretionary ones never were
penned!--and with such power to act as circumstances might render
necessary, we felt confident of deserving, if we could not demand,
success.
_June 24th, Baffin's Bay._--The squadron was flying north, in an open
sea, over which bergs of every size and shape floated in wild
magnificence. The excitement, as we dashed through the storm, in
steering clear of them, was delightful from its novelty. Hard a
starboard! Steady! Port! Port! you may!--and we flew past some huge
mass, over which the green seas were fruitlessly trying to dash
themselves. Coleridge describes the scene around us too well for me to
degrade it with my prose. I will give his version:--
"And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold,
And ice, mast high, came floating by
As green as emerald.
Through the drifts, the snowy clifts
Did send a dismal sheen;
Nor shapes of men, or beasts we ken,
The ice was all between.
With sloping masts, and dipping prow,
As who pursued with yell and blow,
Still treads the shadow of his foe,
And forward bends his head.
The ship drove fast--loud roared the blast,
And _northward_ aye we fled"--
Until we all suddenly hauled-in for the land of Greenland, in order to
visit the settlement of Uppernavik. Passing into a channel, some four
miles in width, we found ourselves running past the remarkable and
lofty cliffs of "Sanderson his Hope," a quaint name given to this point
by the "righte worthie Master Davis," in honour of his patron, a
merchant of Bristol. Well worthy was it of one whose liberality had
tended to increase our geographical knowledge; and the Hope's lofty
crest pierced through the clouds which drove athwart its breast, and
looked afar to see "whether the Lord of the Earth came not."
Under its lee, the water was a sheet of foam and spray, from the fierce
gusts which swept down ravine and over headland; and against the base
of the rocks, flights of wild fowl marked a spot famous amongst arctic
voyagers as abounding in fresh food,--a charming variety to salt horse
and Hambro' pork.
[Headnote: _UPPERNAVIK._]
On rounding an inner islet of the Women's Group, as it is called, a
straggling assemblage of Esquimaux huts, with a black and red
storehouse or two, as at Disco, denoted the northernmost of the present
Danish settlements, as well as the site of an ancient Scandinavian
port,--a fact assured by the recent discovery of a stone pillar on one
of the adjacent islands bearing the following inscription:--
"Elling Sigvatson, Bjame Thordason, and Endride Oddson, erected
these memorial stones and cleared this place on Saturday before
Gagndag (25th April), in the year 1135."
Exactly four hundred and fifty-two years before the place was
rediscovered by our countryman, Davis.
The "Intrepid" having the honour of carrying-in the two post-captains,
we box-hauled about in the offing until she returned with the
disagreeable intelligence that all the English whalers were blocked up
by ice, some thirty miles to the northward. Capt. Penny had been unable
to advance, and the season was far from a promising one! Squaring our
yards, we again bore up for the northward. In a few hours, a strong
reflected light to the westward and northward showed we were fast
approaching the ice-fields or floes of Baffin's Bay. A whaler, cruising
about, shortly showed herself.
_June 26th, 1850._--My rough notes are as follows:--A.M. Standing in
for the land, northward of "Women's Isles," saw several whalers fast to
the ice, inshore. Observe one of them standing out. H.M.S. "Assistance"
is ordered to communicate. We haul to the wind. I visit the "Resolute."
Learn that we altered course last night because the floes were seen
extending across ahead. The whaler turns out to be the "Abram," Captain
Gravill. He reports:--"Fourteen whalers stopped by the ice; Captain
Penny, with his ships, after incurring great risk, and going through
much severe labour, was watching the floes with the hope of slipping
past them into the north water."
Mr. Gravill had lately ranged along the Pack edge as far south as
Disco, and found not a single opening except the bight, up which we had
been steering last night. He said, furthermore, "that there would be no
passage across the bay, this year, for the whalers, because the water
would not make sufficiently early to enable them to reach the
fishing-ground in Pond's Bay by the first week in August; after which
date, the whales travel southward towards Labrador." The report wound
up with the discouraging statement that the whale-men agreed that the
floes, this season, were unusually extensive, that the leads or cracks
of water were few, and icebergs more numerous than they had been for
some years.
It appears that a northerly gale has been blowing, with but slight
intermission, for the last month; and that, in consequence, there is a
large body of water to the north, the ice from which has been forced
into the throat of Davis' Straits. All we have to pray for is, a
continuation of the same breeze, for otherwise southerly winds will jam
the whole body of it up in Melville Bay, and make what is called a
"closed season."
[Headnote: _A CHECK._]
Mr. G---- (though not a friend of Penny's) told us that Penny was
working day and night to get ahead, and had already run no small risk,
and undergone extraordinary labour. Poor Penny! I felt that fate had
been against him! He deserved better than to be overtaken by us, after
the energy displayed in the equipment of his squadron.
In the first watch the brigs "Lady Franklin" and "Sophia" were seen by
us, fast between loose floe pieces, to seaward of which we continued to
flirt. The "Intrepid" and "Pioneer" were now to be seen slyly trying
their bows upon every bit of ice we could get near, without getting
into a scrape with the commodore; and, from the ease with which they
cut through the rotten stuff around our position, I already foresaw a
fresh era in arctic history, and that the fine bows would soon beat the
antediluvian "bluffs" out of the field.
_Thursday, 27th June, 1850_, found us still cruising about under
canvas; northward and westward a body of dirty ice, fast decaying under
a fierce sunlight, bergs in hundreds in every direction; and, dotted
along the Greenland shore, a number of whalers fast in what is called
"Land water," ready to take the first opening. The barometer falling,
we were ordered to make fast to icebergs, every one choosing his own.
This operation is a very useful one in arctic regions, and saves much
unnecessary wear and tear of men and vessel, when progress in the
required direction is no longer possible.
The bergs, from their enormous depth, are usually aground, except at
spring-tides, and the seaman thus succeeds in anchoring his vessel in
200 fm. water, without any other trouble than digging a hole in the
iceberg, placing an anchor in it called an ice-anchor, which one man
can lift, and, with a whale-line, his ship rides out under the lee of
this natural breakwater, in severe gales, and often escapes being beset
in a lee pack.
[Illustration]
Fastening to a berg has its risks and dangers; sometimes the first
stroke of the man setting the ice-anchor, by its concussion causes the
iceberg to break up, and the people so employed run great risk of being
injured; at another time, vessels obliged to make fast under the steep
side of a berg, have had pieces detach themselves from overhead, and
injure materially the vessel and spars; and, again, the projecting
masses, called tongues (which form under water the base of the berg),
have been known to break off, and strike a vessel so severely as to
sink her: all these risks are duly detailed by every arctic navigator,
and the object always is, in fastening to an iceberg, to look for a
side which is low and sloping, without any tongues under water. To such
an one the Intrepid and Pioneer made fast, although the boat's crew
that first reached it, in making a hole, were wetted by a projecting
mass detaching itself with the first blow of the seaman's crowbar. A
gale sprang up almost immediately, and during the night the Assistance
blew adrift. Next day it abated, and the ice to the northward looked
open.
In the evening one of Penny's vessels, the Sophia, joined us, and from
her commander we soon heard of their hopes and disappointment. Directly
after leaving Disco they fell in with the ice, and had fought their way
the whole distance to their present position. The season was not
promising, but forty-eight hours of a N.E. wind would do wonders, and I
cordially partook of his opinion, that "keeping the vessel's nose to
the crack" was the only way to get ahead in the arctic regions. The
crews of the brigs were in rattling health and spirits. Having
delivered him some letters and a number of parcels which, by great good
luck, had not been landed at Uppernavik, Capt. Stewart returned to his
chief, some eight miles northward of us, and we remained to watch
progress.
[Headnote: _TOWING THE SHIPS._]
_Saturday, June 29th, 1850._--
_Monday, July 1st, 1850._--At last the hoped-for signal, "take ships in
tow," was made; and, with a leaping heart, we entered the lead, having
the "Resolute" fast by the nose with a six-inch hawser. What looked
impassable at ten miles' distance was an open lead when close to.
Difficulties vanish when they are faced; and the very calm which
rendered the whalers unable to take advantage of a loose pack, was just
the thing for steamers. Away we went! past berg, past floe, winding in
and out quietly, yet steadily!--and the whalers were soon astern.
Penny, indefatigable, was seen struggling along the shore, with his
boats ahead, towing, and every stitch of sail set to catch the lightest
cat's paw: him too, however, we soon passed. The water ahead increased
as we advanced, and we found, as is well known to be the case, that the
pack-edge is always the tightest part of it.
Several whale-boats from the vessels astern were busy taking ducks'
eggs from the islands, which seem to abound along the coast. When
passing one of these islands that appeared remarkably steep, I was
disagreeably surprised to feel the "Pioneer" strike against a sunken
rock with some violence; she slipped off it, and then the "Resolute"
gave herself a blow, which seemed to make every thing quiver again.
Capt. Penny had a signal up warning us of the danger; but we were too
busy to see it until afterwards, and then the want of wind prevented
our ascertaining what was meant. After this accident we went very
cautiously until the evening hour, when, having neared Cape Shackleton,
and some thin ice showing itself, through which, at reduced speed, we
could not tow the broad-bowed "Resolute," she was cast off, and made
fast to some land ice, and I proceeded on alone in the "Pioneer" to see
what the prospect was further on.
Cutting through some rotten ice of about six inches in thickness, we
reached water beyond it, and saw a belt of water, of no great width,
extending along shore as far as the next headland, called Horse's-head.
Picking up a boat belonging to the "Chieftain" whaler, which had been
shooting and egging, I returned towards the "Resolute" with my
intelligence, giving Cape Shackleton a close shave to avoid the ice
which was setting against it from the westward, the whalemen whom I had
on board expressing no small astonishment and delight at the way in
which we screwed through the broken ice of nine-inch thickness. On
reaching the squadron, I found it made fast for the night, and parties
of officers preparing to start in different directions to shoot, and
see what was to be seen, for, of course, our night was as light as the
day of any other region.
To the "Chieftain's" doctor I, with others of the "Pioneer," consigned
what we flattered ourselves were our last letters, thinking that, now
the steamers had got ahead, it was not likely the whalers would again
be given an opportunity of communicating or overtaking us.
There is something in last letters painful and choking; and I remember
that I hardly knew which feeling most predominated in my
breast,--sorrow and regret for those friends I had left behind me, or
hope and joyful anticipation of meeting those before us in the "Erebus
and Terror."
[Headnote: _CAPE SHACKLETON._]
At any rate, I gave vent to them by climbing the rocky summit of Cape
Shackleton, and throwing off my jacket, let the cold breeze allay the
excitement of my mind.
Nothing strikes the traveller in the north more strongly than the
perceptible repose of Nature, although the sun is still illumining the
heavens, during those hours termed night. We, of course, who were
unaccustomed to the constant light, were restless and unable to sleep;
but the inhabitants of these regions, as well as the animals, retire to
rest with as much regularity as is done in more southern climes; and
the subdued tints of the heavens, as well as the heavy banking of
clouds in the neighbourhood of the sun, gives to the arctic summer
night a quietude as marked as it is pleasant. Across Baffin's Bay there
was ice! ice! ice! on every side, small faint streaks of water here and
there in the distance, with one cheering strip of it winding snake-like
along the coast as far as eye could reach. "To-morrow!" I exclaimed,
"we will be there." "Yes!" replied a friend, "but if the breeze
freshens, Penny will reach it to-night!" And there, sure enough, were
Penny's brigs sailing past our squadron, which showed no sign of
vitality beyond that of the officer of the watch visiting the
ice-anchors to see all was right. "That fellow, Penny, is no sluggard!"
we muttered, "and will yet give the screws a hard tussle to beat him."
A couple of hours rest, and having taken the ship in tow, we again
proceeded, and at about seven o'clock on the morning of the 2d of July
passed the "Sophia," and shortly afterwards, the "Lady Franklin." Alas!
poor Penny, he had a light contrary wind to work against.
I do not think my memory can recall in the course of my wanderings any
thing more novel or striking than the scenes through which we steamed
this forenoon. The land of Greenland, so bold, so steep, and in places
so grim, with the long fields of white glittering ice floating about on
the cold blue sea, and our little vessels (for we looked pigmies beside
the huge objects around us, whether cliff, berg, or glacier) stealing
on so silently and quickly; the leadsman's song or the flap of wild
fowl the only sounds to break the general stillness. One of the cliffs
we skirted along was actually teeming with birds called "loons:" they
might have been shot in tens of hundreds had we required them or time
not pressed: they are considered remarkably good eating, and about the
size and weight of an ordinary duck: to naturalists they are known by
the name of guillemot, and were christened "loons" by the early Dutch
navigators, in consequence of their stupidity. Numerous seals lay on
the ice in the offing, and their great size astonished us.
As we advanced, a peculiarly conical island, in a broad and
ice-encumbered bay, showed itself: it was "the Sugar-Loaf Island" of
the whalers; and told us that, on rounding the farther headland, we
should see the far-famed Devil's Thumb, the boundary of Melville Bay.
A block of ice brought us up after a tow of some twenty-five or thirty
miles, and, each vessel picking up a convenient iceberg, we made fast
to await an opening.
I landed to obtain a view from a small islet close to the "Pioneer,"
and was rewarded by observing that the Duck Islands, a group some
fifteen miles to seaward of us, had evidently a large space of open
water around them, and broad _lanes_ extended from these in divers
directions towards us, although, without retracing our steps, there was
at present no direct road for us into this water.
Captain Penny, however, being astern, had struck to seaward, and was
fast passing our position.
On the islands there were recent traces of both reindeer and bears; and
I amused myself picking some pretty arctic flowers, such as anemones,
poppies, and saxifrage, which grew in sheltered nooks amongst the
rocks.
[Headnote: _A BEAR HUNT._]
Before leaving the vessel, a boat had been despatched to the headland
where so many "loons" had been seen, to shoot for the ship's company's
use: the other ships did likewise: they returned at about four o'clock
next morning, and I was annoyed at being informed, without any birds,
although all the powder and shot had been expended.
I sent for the captain of the forecastle, who had been away in charge
of the sportsmen, and, with astonishment, asked how he had contrived to
fire away one pound of powder and four of small shot, without bringing
home some loons? Hanging his head, and looking uncommonly bashful, he
answered, "If you please, sir, we fired it all into a bear!" "Into a
bear?" I exclaimed, "what! shoot a bear with No. 4 shot?" "Yes, sir,"
replied Abbot; "and if it hadn't have been for two or three who were
afeard of him, we would have brought him aboard, too." Sending my
bear-hunting friend about his business for neglecting my orders to
obtain fresh food for the crew, I afterward found out that on passing a
small island between the "Pioneer" and the Loon Head, as the cliff was
called, my boat's crew had observed a bear watching some seals, and it
was voted immediately, that to be the first to bring a bear home, would
immortalize the "Pioneer."
A determined onslaught was therefore made on Bruin: No. 4 shot being
poured into him most ruthlessly, he growled and snapped his teeth,
trotted round the island, and was still followed and fired at, until,
finding the fun all on one side, the brute plunged into the water, and
swam for some broken-up ice; my heroes followed, and, for lack of ball,
fired at him a waistcoat button and the blade of a knife, which, by
great ingenuity, they had contrived to cram down one of their muskets;
this very naturally, as they described it, "made the beast jump again!"
he reached the ice, however, bleeding all over, but not severely
injured; and whilst the bear was endeavouring to get on the floe, a
spirited contest ensued between him and Old Abbot, the latter trying to
become possessor of a skin, which the former gallantly defended.
Ammunition expended, and nothing but boat-hooks and stretchers left as
defensive weapons, there seemed some chance of the tables being
reversed, and the boat's crew very properly obliged the captain of the
forecastle to beat a retreat; the bear, equally well pleased to be rid
of such visitors, made off. "Old Abbot," as he was styled, always,
however, asserted, that if he had had his way, the bear would have been
brought on board the "Pioneer," and tamed to do a good deal of the
dragging work of the sledges; and whenever he heard, in the winter, any
of the young hands growling at the labour of sledging away snow or ice,
he created a roar of laughter, by muttering, "Ah! if you had taken my
advice, we'd have had that 'ere bear to do this work for us!"
_July 3d, 1850._--Penny, by taking another route, gave us the "go
by," and in the afternoon we started, taking an in-shore lane of water.
The wind, however, had freshened up from the westward, and as we
advanced, the ice was rapidly closing, the points of the floe-pieces
forming "bars," with holes of water between them. With the "Pioneer's"
sharp bow, we broke through the first of these barriers, and carried
the "Resolute" into "a hole of water," as it is called. The next bar
being broader, I attempted to force it by charging with the steamer,
and after breaking up a portion of it, backed astern to allow the
broken pieces to be removed; this being the first time this operation
was performed, and much having to be learnt upon the feasibility of the
different modes of applying steam-power against ice.
[Headnote: _ARCTIC SPORTING._]
We soon found ourselves surrounded with broken masses, which, owing to
the want of men to remove it away into the open water astern, rendered
advance or retreat, without injury to the propeller, almost impossible.
Here, the paucity of men on board the steam vessels was severely felt:
for until the "Resolute" was properly secured I could expect no
assistance from her; and the "Pioneer," therefore, had to do her best
with half the number of men, although she was fifty feet longer than
the ship. Unable to move, the closing floes fast beset the steamer, and
then the large parties of men that joined from the squadron to assist
were useless, beyond some practice, which all seemed willing to
undertake, in the use of ice-tools, consisting of chisels, poles with
iron points, claws, lines, &c.
In a short time, the prospect of liberating the "Pioneer" was seen to
be farcical, and all the officers and men from the "Resolute" returned
to their ship, although parties of novices would walk down constantly
to see the first vessel beset in the ice.
A few birds playing about induced myself and some others to go out
shooting, a foggy night promising to be favourable to our larders. The
ice, however, was full of holes, and very decayed; in addition to which
it was in rapid motion in many places, from the action of wind and
tide. The risk of such sporting was well evinced in my gallant friend
M----'s case. He was on one side of a lane of water, and I on the
other: a bird called a "Burgomaster" flew over his head to seaward, and
he started in the direction it had gone. I and another shouted to warn
him of the ice being in rapid motion and very thin; he halted for a
moment, and then ran on, leaping from piece to piece. The fog at this
moment lifted a little, and most providentially so, for suddenly I saw
M---- make a leap and disappear--the ice had given way!--he soon rose,
but without his gun, and I then saw him scramble upon a piece of ice,
and on watching it, observed with a shudder that both he and it were
drifting to the northward, and away from us. Leaving my remaining
companion to keep sight of M----, and thus to point out the way on my
return, I retraced my steps to the "Pioneer," and with a couple of men,
a long hand-line, and boarding-pikes, started off in the direction
M---- was in.