seen working for a lane of water, a long way in-shore of us. In the
night, a general disruption of the fixed ice was taking place in the
most marvellous manner; and, by the next morning, there was nearly as
much water as there had before been ice. The two steamers, firmly
imbedded in a mass of ice, many miles in circumference, were drifting
rapidly to the southward, whilst the two ships, afloat in a large space
of water and fastened to the floe, awaited our liberation.
The prospect of a separation from the ships, when unavoidable, in no
wise depressed the spirits of my colleague of the "Intrepid," nor
myself. Like the man who lost a scolding wife, we felt if it must be
so, it was for the best, and we were resigned. But it was not to be;
the "Intrepid" with her screw, and the "Pioneer" with gunpowder, which,
for the first time, was now applied, shook the fragments apart in which
we were beset, and again we laid hold of our mentors. A thick fog
immediately enveloped us, and in it we got perfectly puzzled, took a
wrong lead, and, tumbling into a perfect _cul de sac_, made fast, to
await a break in the weather. The 18th of July, from the same cause, a
dense fog, was a lost day, and next day Penny again caught us up. He
reported the whalers to have given up all idea of a Northern fishery
this season. Alas! for the many friends who will be disappointed in not
receiving letters! and alas! for the desponding, who will croak and
sigh at the whalers failing to get across the bay, believing,
therefore, that _we_ shall fail likewise.
Penny had passed a long way inside of the spot the steamers had been
beset and nipped in; and he witnessed a sight which, although
constantly taking place, is seldom seen--the entire dissolution of an
enormous iceberg.
[Headnote: _DISSOLUTION OF AN ICEBERG._]
This iceberg had been observed by our squadron, and remarked for its
huge size and massiveness, giving good promise of resisting a century
of sun and thaw. All on board the "Lady Franklin" described as a most
wonderful spectacle this iceberg, without any warning, falling, as it
were, to pieces; the sea around it resembled a seething caldron, from
the violent plunging of the masses, as they broke and rebroke in a
thousand pieces! The floes, torn up for a distance of ten miles by the
violent action of the rollers, threatened, by the manner the ice was
agitated, to destroy any vessel that had been amongst it; and they
congratulated themselves, on being sufficiently removed from the scene
of danger, to see without incurring any immediate risk.
The fog again lifted for a short time. Penny went in my "crow's nest,"
as well as into the "Resolute's," and soon gave us the disagreeable
intelligence, that the land-floe had broken up, and we were in the
pack, instead of having, as we had fancied, "fast ice" to hold on by;
and, as he remarked, "We can do nothing but push for it;--it's all
broken ice, and push we must, in-shore, or else away we go with the
loose floes!"
With this feeling the six vessels started in the night, in an
indifferent and cross lead, we towing the "Resolute" and "Lady
Franklin,"--the "Intrepid," with "Assistance" and "Sophia," astern.
Breaking through two light barriers of ice, the prospect was improving;
and, as they said from the "crow's nest," that eight miles of water was
beyond a neck of ice ahead, I cast off the vessel in tow to charge the
ice; at first she did well, but the floe was nearly six feet thick,
hard and sound, and a pressure on it besides. The "Pioneer" was again
caught, and the squadron anchored to the floe to await an opening. A
few hours afterwards we were liberated, and, moving the vessel as far
astern as we could, the fact was duly reported to the senior officer;
but, as the road ahead was not open, no change of position could be
made. On the morning of the 20th we were again beset, and a south gale
threatened to increase the pressure; escape was, however, impossible,
and "Fear not, but trust in Providence" is a necessary motto for Arctic
seamen. My faith in this axiom was soon put to the proof. After a short
sleep I was called on deck, as the vessel was suffering from great
pressure. My own senses soon made it evident; every timber and plank
was cracking and groaning, the vessel was thrown considerably over on
her side, and lifted bodily, the bulkheads cracking, and treenails and
bolts breaking with small reports. On reaching the deck, I saw indeed
that the poor "Pioneer" was in sad peril; the deck was arching with the
pressure on her sides, the scupper-pieces were turning up out of the
mortices, and a quiver of agony wrung my craft's frame from stem to
taffrail, whilst the floe, as if impatient to overwhelm its victim, had
piled up as high as the bulwark in many places.
The men who, whaler-fashion, had, without orders I afterwards learnt,
brought their clothes on deck, ready to save their little property,
stood in knots, waiting for directions from the officers, who, with
anxious eye, watched the floe-edge as its ground passed the side, to
see whether the strain was easing; suddenly it did so, and we were
safe! But a deep dent in the "Pioneer's" side, extending for some forty
feet, and the fact, as we afterwards learnt, of twenty-one timbers
being broken upon one side, proved that her trial had been a severe
one.
Again had the ice come in upon us from the S.W., and nothing but a
steady, watchful progress through the pack was left to our squadron, as
well as Penny's. But I shall not weary the reader with the dry detail
of our every-day labours,--their success or futility. Keenly and
anxiously did we take advantage of every move in the ice, between the
20th and 31st July, yet, not seven miles in the right direction was
made good; the first of August found us doubting, considerably, the
prospect of reaching Lancaster Sound by a northern passage; and Capt.
Penny decided, if the water approached him from the south, to strike to
the westward in a lower latitude.
[Headnote: _"PIONEER" NIPPED._]
The ships--generally the "Resolute"--kept the lead in our heaving and
warping operation through the pack; and, leaving a small portion of the
crews to keep the other vessels close up under her stern, the majority
of the officers and men laboured at the headmost ship, to move her
through the ice. Heaving ahead with stout hawsers, blasting with
gunpowder, cutting with ice-saws, and clipping with ice-chisels, was
perseveringly carried on; but the progress fell far short of the labour
expended, and the bluff bow slipped away from the nip instead of
wedging it open. Warping the "Resolute" through a barrier of ice by
lines out of her hawse-holes, put me in mind of trying to do the same
with a cask, by a line through the bung-hole: she slid and swerved
every way but the right one, ahead; I often saw her bring dead up, as
if a wall had stopped her. After a search, some one would exclaim,
"Here is the piece that jams her!" and a knock with a two-pound chisel
would bring up a piece of ice two or three inches thick! In short, all,
or nearly all, of us soon learnt to see, that the fine bow was the one
to get ahead in these regions; and the daily increasing advantage which
Penny had over us, was a proof which the most obstinate could not
dispute.
I often thought how proud our countrymen would be of their seamen,
could they have looked on the scene of busy energy and activity
displayed in the solitude of Melville Bay:--the hearty song, the merry
laugh, and zealous labours of the crew; day after day the same
difficulties to contend with, yet day after day met with fresh
resolution and new resources; a wide horizon of ice, no sea in sight,
yet every foot gained to the northward was talked of with satisfaction
and delight; men and officers vieing with one another in laborious
duties, the latter especially, finding amongst a body of seamen,
actuated by such noble and enthusiastic feelings, no necessity to fear
an infringement of their dignity. The etiquette of the quarter-deck was
thrown on one side for the good of the common cause; and on every side,
whether at the capstan, at the track-line, hauling, heaving, or
cutting, the officer worked as hard as the seamen,--each was proud of
the other, and discipline suffered nought, indeed improved: for here
Jack had both precept and example.
If we had our labours, it is not to be wondered at that we had also our
leisure and amusements, usually at night,--a polar night robed in
light,--then, indeed, boys fresh from school never tossed care more to
the winds than did the majority of us. Games, which men in any other
class of society would vote childish, were entered into with a zest
which neither gray hairs nor stout bodies in any degree had damped.
Shouts of laughter! roars of "Not fair, not fair! run again!" "Well
done, well done!" from individuals leaping and clapping their hands
with excitement, arose from many a merry ring, in which "rounders,"
with a cruelly hard ball, was being played. In other directions the
fiddle and clarionet were hard at work, keeping pace with heels which
seemed likely never to cease dancing, evincing more activity than
grace. Here a sober few were heaving quoits, there a knot of Solomons
talked of the past, and argued as to the future, whilst in the distance
the sentimental ones strolled about, thinking no doubt of some one's
goodness and beauty, in honour of whom, like true knights, they had
come thus far to win bright honour from the "Giant of the North."
Sometimes a bear would come in sight, and then his risk of being shot
was not small, for twenty keen hands were out after the skin: it had
been promised as a _gage d'amour_ by one to his betrothed; to a sister
by another; a third intended to open the purse-strings of a
hard-hearted parent by such a proof of regard; and not a few were to go
to the First Lord with it, in exchange for a piece of parchment, if he
would not object to the arrangement.
[Headnote: _LIEUT. HALKETT'S BOAT._]
Every day our sportsmen brought home a fair proportion of loons and
little auks, the latter bird flying in immense flocks to all the
neighbouring pools of water, and to kill ten or twelve of them at a
shot when settled to feed, was not considered as derogatory to the
character of a Nimrod, where the question was a purely gastronomic one.
I found in my shooting excursions an India-rubber boat, constructed
upon a plan of my dear friend Peter Halkett, to be extremely
convenient; in it I floated down the cracks of water, landed on
floe-pieces, crossed them dragging my boat, and again launched into
water in search of my feathered friends. At the Whale-Fish Islands,
much to the delight of my Esquimaux friends, I had paddled about in the
inflated boat, and its portability seemed fully to be appreciated by
them, though they found fault with the want of speed, in which it fell
far short of their own fairy craft.
The separation of the squadron, occasioned by either mistake or
accident, detained us for a few days in the beginning of August, in
order that junction might again take place. Penny, by dint of hard
tracking and heaving, gained seven miles upon us. For several days a
schooner, a ketch, and a single-masted craft, had been seen far to the
southward; they were now rapidly closing, and we made them out to be
the "Felix," Sir J. Ross, with his boat towing astern, and the "Prince
Albert," belonging to Lady Franklin, in charge of Commander Forsyth.
_August 5th._--Plenty of water. The "Assistance" received orders to
proceed (when her consort the "Intrepid" joined her) to the north shore
of Lancaster Sound, examine it and Wellington Channel, and having
assured themselves that Franklin had not gone up by that route to the
N.W., to meet us between Cape Hotham and Cape Walker. I regretted that
the shore upon which the first traces would undoubtedly be found,
should have fallen to another's share: however, as there seemed a
prospect of separation, and by doing so, progress, I was too rejoiced
to give it a second thought; and that the "Assistance" would do her
work well, was apparent to all who witnessed the zeal and skill
displayed by her people in the most ordinary duty.
Taking in our ice-anchors, and getting hold of the "Resolute," I bid my
friends of the "Assistance" good-bye, thinking that advance was now
likely: this hope soon failed me, for again we made fast, and again we
all waited for one another.
Amongst many notes of the superiority of steam over manual labour in
the ice, I will extract two made to-day.
The "Assistance" was towed by the "Intrepid" in fifteen minutes, a
distance which it took the "Resolute," followed by the "Pioneer," from
10 A.M. to 3 P.M. to track and warp.
The "Intrepid" steamed to a berg in ten minutes, and got past it. The
rest of the squadron, by manual labour, succeeded in accomplishing the
same distance in three hours and a half, namely, from 7 P.M. to 10 30
P.M., by which time the ice had closed ahead, and we had to make fast.
_August 6th and 7th._--Very little progress: and a squadron of
blank faces showed that there were many taking a deep and anxious
interest in the state of affairs. The remark that Sir James Ross's
expedition was by this time, in 1848, in a better position than
ourselves, and only found time to secure winter quarters at Leopold
Island, was constantly heard: there was, in fact, but one hope
left,--we had steam, and there was yet thirty days of open navigation.
[Headnote: _CHARGING THE ICE._]
Friday the 9th of August at last arrived. Captain Penny's squadron was
gone out of sight in a lane of water towards Cape York. The schooner
and ketch were passing us: caution yielded to the grim necessity of a
push for our very honour's sake: the ship was dropped out of the nip,
the "Pioneer" again allowed to put her wedge-bow, aided by steam, to
the crack. In one hour we were past a barrier which had checked our
advance for three long weary days. All was joy and excitement: the
steamers themselves seemed to feel and know their work, and exceeded
even our sanguine expectations; and, to every one's delight, we were
this evening allowed to carry on a system of ice-breaking which will
doubtless, in future Arctic voyages, be carried out with great success.
For instance, a piece of a floe, two or three hundred yards broad, and
three feet thick, prevented our progress: the weakest and narrowest
part being ascertained, the ships were secured as close as possible
without obstructing the steam vessels, the major part of the crews
being despatched to the line where the cut was to be made, with tools
and gunpowder for blasting, and plenty of short hand-lines and claws.
The "Pioneer" and "Intrepid," then, in turn rushed at the floe,
breaking their way through it until the impetus gained in the open
water was lost by the resistance of the ice. The word "Stop her! Back
turn, easy!" was then given, and the screw went astern, carrying with
her tons of ice, by means of numerous lines which the blue-jackets, who
attended on the forecastle, and others on broken pieces of the floe,
held on by. As the one vessel went astern, the other flew ahead to her
work. The operation was, moreover, aided by the explosions of powder;
and altogether the scene was a highly interesting and instructive one:
it was a fresh laurel in the screw's wreath; and the gallant "Intrepid"
gave a _coup-de-grace_ to the mass, which sent it coach-wheeling
round, as it is termed; and the whole of the squadron taking the nip,
as Arctic ships should do, we were next morning in the true lead, and
our troubles in Melville Bay were at an end.
It was now the 10th of August. By heavens! I shall never forget the
light-heartedness of that day. Forty days had we been beset in the ice,
and one day of fair application of steam, powder, and men, and the
much-talked-of bay was mastered. There was, however, no time to be
lost. The air was calm, the water was smooth; the land-floe (for we had
again reached it) lay on the one hand--on the other the pack, from
whose grip we had just escaped, still threatened us. Penny had been out
of sight some time, and the "Felix" and "Prince Albert" were nearly ten
miles ahead!
Gentle Reader, I'll bore you no longer! We had calm water and
steam,--the ships in tow,--our progress rapid,--the "Albert" and
"Felix" were caught,--their news joyfully received,--and they taken in
tow likewise. The dates from England were a month later than our own:
all our friends were well,--all hopeful; and, putting those last dear
letters away, to be read and re-read during the coming winter, we
pushed on, and there was no time to be lost. Several nights before we
escaped from the pack the frost had been intense, and good sliding was
to be had on the pools formed by summer heat on the floes. The
bay-ice[2] was forming fast, and did not all melt during the day. The
birds had finished breeding; and, with the fresh millions that had been
added to their numbers, were feeding up preparatory to their departure
south. The sun was sweeping, _nightly_, nearer and nearer to the
northern horizon. Night once set in, we knew full well the winter would
come with giant strides. "Push on, good screw!" was on every one's lip;
and anxiety was seen on every brow, if by accident, or for any purpose,
the propeller ceased to move. "What's the matter? All right, I hope!"
Then a chuckle of satisfaction at being told that "nothing was amiss!"
[2] First winter ice, or young ice, is called bay-ice, from an
old Yorkshire word _bay_, to bend.--_Author._
[Headnote: _DETENTION OFF CAPE YORK._]
Time did not allow us, or I verily believe we might have killed tons of
birds between Cape Walker and Cape York, principally little auks (_Alca
alle_);--they actually blackened the edge of the floe for miles. I had
seen, on the coast of Peru, near the great Guano mines, what I thought
was an inconceivable number of birds congregated together; but they
were as nothing compared with the myriads that we disturbed in our
passage, and their stupid tameness would have enabled us to kill as
many as we pleased.
On August 13th, Cape York being well in sight, Penny's brigs were again
in view; and whilst the "Intrepid" and "Assistance," with the "Prince
Albert," communicated with the natives of Cape York, the "Pioneer"
pushed on, and soon passed the brigs, who, although they knew full well
that the late arrivals from England had letters for them, were to be
seen pushing tooth and nail, to get to the westward.
Slow--as slow as possible--we steamed all day along the "Crimson Cliffs
of Beverley." The interview with the natives of Cape York, alas! was to
cost us much. My frame of mind at the time was far from heavenly; for
"Large Water" was ahead, our squadron many a long mile from its work;
and I was neither interested, at the time, in Arctic Highlanders or
"Crimson Snow!" In the evening the "Assistance" joined us; and I was
told that "important information had been gained." We were to turn
back; and the "Intrepid" went in chase of Penny, to get the aid of his
interpreter, Mr. Petersen.
I remember being awoke at six o'clock on the morning of the 14th of
August, and being told a hobgoblin story, which made me rub my eyes,
and doubt my own hearing. What I thought of it is neither here nor
there. Suffice it that Adam Beck--may he be branded for a
liar!--succeeded, this day, in misleading a large number of Her
Majesty's officers (as his attested document proves), and in detaining,
for two days, the squadrons in search of Franklin. No one with common
perception, who witnessed the interview on our deck between Mr.
Petersen, Adam Beck, and our new shipmate, the Esquimaux from Cape
York, could fail to perceive that Mr. P. and the Cape York native
understood one another much better than the latter could the vile Adam
Beck; and had I had any doubts upon the subject, they would have been
removed when I learnt that Petersen had seen and communicated with
these very natives before our squadron came up, and that no such bloody
tale had been told him; in fact, it was the pure coinage of Adam Beck's
brain, cunningly devised to keep, at any rate, his own ship on a coast
whither he could escape to the neighbourhood of his home in South
Greenland.
The fact of the "North Star" having wintered last year in Wolstenholme
Sound, or "Petowack," was elicited, and that the natives had been on
board of her. The "Assistance" and "Intrepid," therefore, remained to
visit that neighbourhood, whilst we proceeded to the south shore of
Lancaster Sound, touching, as had been pre-arranged, at Pond's Bay and
Cape Possession.
Steaming along the Crimson Cliffs for a second time, we left the "Lady
Franklin" and "Sophia," in a stark calm, to do their best. Fewer ships,
the faster progress; and heartily did all cheer when, at midnight, we
turned to the N.W., leaving the second division to do their work in
Wolstenholme Sound. So ended the memorable 14th of August: it will be,
doubtless, remembered by many with far from pleasant feelings; and some
who have been "gulled" in England may thank Mr. Petersen that a
carrier-pigeon freighted with a cock-and-bull story of blood, fire,
wreck, and murder, was not despatched on that memorable day.
[Headnote: _THE WEST WATER._]
The 15th we struck westward, that is, the "Pioneer," with "Resolute"
and "Prince Albert" in tow. After four hours of very intricate
navigation, called "reeving through the pack," we reached the West
Water,--a wide ocean of water without one piece of floe-ice, and very
few icebergs. The change was wonderful--incredible. Here was nothing
but water; and we were almost within sight, as we steered to the S.W.,
of the spot where, for forty-seven days, we had had nothing but ice!
ice! ice! Let us hurry on. The West Water (as usual with the water at
this season of the year) was covered with fog: in it we steered. The
"Resolute," as a capital joke, in return for the long weary miles we
had towed her, set, on one occasion, all studsails, and gave us a tow
for four hours. When off the mouth of Lancaster Sound, the "Prince
Albert" was cast off; and she departed to carry out, as I then thought,
a part of the grand scheme of land travelling next year, into which it
became almost daily apparent the search for Franklin would resolve
itself. Already had night commenced; next came winter.
Touching at Pond's Bay was made a longer proceeding than was ever
calculated upon, for a succession of thick fogs and strong gales
prevented the "Pioneer" running into the bay, or ascertaining whether
cairns or other marks had been erected on the coast.
The 21st of August came before we had a change of weather: happily it
then took place; and the "Pioneer" (having some days before left the
"Resolute," to cruise off Possession Bay) entered Pond's Bay, running
up the northern shore towards a place called Button Point.
The "West Land," as this side of Baffin's Bay is called, strikes all
seamen, after struggling through the icy region of Melville Bay, as
being verdant and comparatively genial. We all thought so, and feasted
our eyes on valleys, which, in our now humbled taste, were voted
beautiful,--at any rate there were signs and symptoms of verdure; and
as we steered close along the coast, green and russet colours were
detected and pointed out with delight. The bay was calm and glassy, and
the sun to the west, sweeping along a water horizon, showed pretty
plainly that Pond's Bay, like a good many more miscalled bays of this
region, was nothing more than the bell-shaped mouth to some long fiord
or strait.
One of my ice-quartermasters, a highly intelligent seaman, assured me
he had been in a whale-boat up this very inlet, until they conjectured
themselves to be fast approaching Admiralty Inlet; the country there
improved much in appearance, and in one place they found abundance of
natives, deer, and grass as high as his knees. I landed with a boat's
crew on Button Point. The natives had retired into the interior to kill
deer and salmon: this they are in the habit of doing every season when
the land ice breaks up. Numerous unroofed winter habitations and
carefully secured _cachés_ of seal-blubber proved that they had been
here in some numbers, and would return to winter after the ice had
again formed in the bay, and the seals began to appear, upon which the
existence of the Esquimaux depends.