Part 4

This was on the 29th of July, near what they called the Low Island; of which Dr. Irving, who went on the party to visit it, gives in substance the following account. On the shore were several large fir-trees lying sixteen or eighteen feet above the level of the sea: some of these trees were seventy feet long, and had been torn up by the roots; others cut down by the axe, and notched for twelve feet lengths. This timber was not in the least decayed, nor the strokes of the axe at all defaced. There were, likewise, some pipe-staves, and wood fashioned for use. The bench was formed of old timber, sand, and whale-bones. The island, which is flat, was found to be about seven miles long. It was formed chiefly of stones from eighteen to thirty inches over, many of them hexagons, and commodiously placed for walking on. The middle of the island was covered with moss, scurvy-grass, sorrel, and a few ranunculuses then in flower. Two reindeer were feeding on the moss: one of these they killed, and found the venison to be fat and of high flavour. They saw a light grey fox; and a spotted white and black animal, somewhat larger than the weasel, with short ears, and a long tail. The island abounds with small snipes, similar to the English jack-snipe. The ducks were hatching their eggs, and many wild geese feeding by the water-side.

From this pleasing scene, however, they found themselves, the next day, very differently situated.

On the 30th of July, in the afternoon, they were among what are called the Seven Islands, and in the ice, with no appearance of any opening for the ships. Between eleven and twelve at night, Mr. Crane, master of the Racehorse, was dispatched by Captain Phipps, in the four-oared boat, to try if he could get through, and find an opening for the ship which might afford a prospect of getting farther; with directions, if he could reach the shore, to go up one of the mountains, in order to discover the state of the ice to the eastward and northward. Captain Lutwidge, who had employed a boat, conducted by his young coxswain for the same purpose, joined Mr. Crane on shore, and they proceeded to ascend a high mountain, from whence the prospect extended ten or twelve leagues to the east and north-east, over one continued plain of smooth ice, bounded only by the horizon. They also saw land stretching to the south-east, laid down in the Dutch charts as islands: and now plainly discovered that the main body of ice, which the ships had traced from west to east, actually joined to these islands; and, from them, to what is called the north-east land. In returning to their ships, about seven in the morning, round which the ice had, in their absence, so completely got, that with their ice-anchors out they had moored alongside a field of it, they were frequently obliged to haul the boats, over ice which had closed since they went, to other openings.

At nine o'clock, in the morning, the 31st, having a light breeze to the eastward, they cast off, and endeavoured to force through the ice; but, at noon, finding it too close to proceed, again moored to a field. In the afternoon they filled their casks with fresh water from the ice, which they found very pure and soft. The field of ice, to which both vessels were now moored, was found to be eight yards ten inches thick at one end, and seven yards eleven inches at the other. The ice closed fast, and was all round the ships; no opening to be any where seen, except a hole of about a mile and a half, where the ships lay fast to the ice, with ice-anchors. It being calm the greater part of the day, and the weather very fine, the ships companies amused themselves, almost the whole time, in playing on the ice. The pilots, however, finding themselves much farther than they had ever before penetrated, and reflecting on the advanced state of the season, seemed alarmed with apprehensions of being beset.

On the 1st of August, the ice pressed in so fast, that there was now not the smallest opening. The two ships were within less than two lengths of each other, neither of them having room to turn. The ice, which had been all flat the day before, and almost level with the water's edge, was now in many places forced higher than the main-yard by the pieces squeezing together. Their latitude this day at noon, by the double altitude, was eighty degrees thirty-seven minutes.

On the 2d, it was thick, foggy, wet weather, the wind blowing fresh to the westward; but, though the ice immediately about the ships seemed rather looser than the day before, it hourly set in again so fast, that there appeared no probability of getting the ships out, without a strong east or north-east wind.

On the 3d, the weather being very fine, clear, and calm, they perceived that the ships had been driven far to the eastward. The ice, however, was much closer than before; and the passage by which they had come in from the westward quite closed up, with no open water any where in sight. At five in the morning, the pilots having expressed a wish to get, if possible, farther out, the ships companies were set to work, that they might cut away the ice, and warp through the small openings to the westward. They found the ice so very deep, that they were often obliged to saw through pieces twelve feet thick; and, after toiling in this manner the whole day, with all their utmost efforts, had not been able to move the ship above three hundred yards to the westward, through the ice. They had, in the mean time, been driven, with the ice field itself to which they were fast, to the north-east and eastward, by the current; which had also forced the loose ice from the westward between the islands, where it became what the Greenlandmen call packed, or one piece thrown up above another to a considerable height, and as firm as the main body.

On the 4th, it was quite calm, till the evening; when they were flattered with a light air to the eastward, which produced no favourable effect.

On the 5th, the probability of getting the ships out appearing every hour less, and the season being already far advanced, some speedy resolution became necessary for the preservation of the people. As the situation of the ships prevented them from seeing the state of the ice to the westward, by which, their future proceedings must be in a great measure determined, Captain Phipps sent Mr. Walden, one of his midshipmen, with two pilots, to an island twelve miles off, since distinguished, in the charts, by the name of Walden's Island, to see where the open water lay.

On the 6th, in the morning, Mr. Walden and the two pilots returned; with an account that the ice, though close all about the ships, was open to the westward, round the point by which they had got in. They also remarked that, on the island, they had the wind very fresh to the eastward, though it had been almost calm the whole time where the ships lay. This circumstance considerably lessened the hopes, hitherto entertained, of the immediate effect of an easterly wind in clearing the bay. Having now only one alternative; either patiently to wait the event of the weather on the ships, in hopes of getting them out, or to betake themselves to the boats. The ships had at this time driven into shoal water, having only fourteen fathom; and, should either the ships, or the ice to which they were fast, take the ground, they must be inevitably lost, and probably overset. The hopes of getting the ships out, however, were not hastily to be relinquished; nor, on the other hand, obstinately persisted in, till all other means of retreat were cut off. After a due consideration of the various difficulties which presented themselves in this perilous state, Captain Phipps thought it proper to send for the officers of both ships, and to inform them of his intention to prepare the boats for going away. They were, accordingly, hoisted out, and every precaution taken to make them secure and comfortable; which, however, would necessarily occupy some days. In the mean time, the water shoaling, and the ships driving fast towards the north-east rocks, a man was sent, with a lead and lines, from the Racehorse, to the northward, and another, from the Carcass, to the eastward, to sound, wherever they found cracks in the ice, that notice might be obtained before either the ships, or the ice to which they were fast, took the ground; as, in that case, they must, as before observed, instantly have been crushed or overset.

On the 7th, in the morning, Captain Phipps set off in the launch, which hauled much easier than was expected. After getting it about two miles, he returned with the people for their dinner; and, finding the ice rather more open near the ships, he was encouraged to attempt moving them. The wind, though little, being easterly, they set the sails, and got both ships about a mile to the westward. They moved, indeed, very slowly; but were not, now, by a great deal, so far to the westward as where they were beset. In the mean time, all the sail was kept on them, that they might force through whenever the ice in the smallest degree slacked. Though the people behaved very well in hauling the launches, and seemed reconciled to the idea of quitting the ships, having the fullest confidence in their officers; yet, as the boats could not, with the greatest diligence, be got to the water-side in less than a week, it was judiciously resolved to carry on both attempts together: moving the boats constantly, but without omitting any opportunity of getting the ships through.

On the 8th, Captain Phipps got his launch above three miles; but the weather being foggy, and the people having worked hard, he returned on board in the evening, and found the ships had moved something through the ice, while the ice itself had drifted still more to the westward.

On the 9th, in a thick morning fog, they moved the ships a little through some very small openings; and, in the afternoon, on it's clearing up, were agreeably surprised to find the ships had driven much more to the westward than they could have expected. Thus encouraged, they laboured hard all day; but got very little to the westward, through the ice, in comparison to what the ice itself had drifted. Having passed the launches, a number of men were sent to get them on board. Though the people were much fatigued, the progress which the ships had made through the ice was a most favourable event; and, notwithstanding the drift of the ice was an advantage which might be as suddenly lost as it had been unexpectedly gained, by a change in the current, they began again to indulge hopes that a brisk gale of easterly wind might soon effectually clear them.

On the 10th, the wind springing up, in the morning, to north north-east, they set all the sail they could, and forced through a great deal of very heavy ice. The ships, it is true, often struck excessively hard; and the Racehorse, with one stroke, broke the shank of the best bower anchor; but, about noon, they had the unspeakable happiness to get through all the ice, and were safely out at sea.

Accordingly, on the 11th, they came to an anchor in the harbour of Smeerenberg, where they were comfortably refreshed after their dreadful fatigues. The island where they lay is called Amsterdam Island, the westernmost point of which is Hacluyt's Headland. Here the Dutch once attempted to make an establishment, by leaving some people to winter, who all perished. The Dutch, however, still resort thither for the latter season of the whale-fishery; and it afforded a very excellent retreat to our adventurers, who remained there till the 20th.

After this, they made a few feeble attempts, but they were without hope of being able to penetrate farther. The summer had proved uncommonly favourable for the purpose; and, having enjoyed the fullest opportunity of repeatedly ascertaining the situation of that wall of ice which extends for more than twenty degrees, between the latitudes of eighty and eighty-one, without the smallest appearance of any opening, they were sufficiently satisfied of the impracticability of effecting any passage to the Pacific Ocean, and agreed on immediately returning to England.

In steering to the southward, they soon found the weather grow more mild; or, rather, as Captain Phipps expresses it, to their feelings, warm.

On the 24th of August, they perceived Jupiter; and the sight of a star was now become almost as extraordinary a phenomenon to them, as the sun at midnight had appeared on their first getting within the Arctic circle. For some part of their voyage back, the weather was very fine; but, from the 7th of September, when they were off Shetland, till the 24th, when they made Orfordness, they had hard gales of wind, with little intermission. In one of these violent gales, accompanied by a heavy sea, they lost three of their boats, and were obliged to throw two guns overboard.

Thus ended this famous voyage; happily, without the loss of a single person: and which was so far successful, at least, in accomplishing it's object, that it seems to have satisfactorily negatived the long-agitated question concerning the practicability of a north-east passage into the Pacific Ocean. Perhaps, however, the increasing civilization of nations who are nearer neighbours, may awaken the spirit of enterprise in some hardy bosom, and conduct a new adventurer farther over the vast plains of ice descried from the mountains on this occasion, by means of sledges, &c. as well as boats, both properly prepared and furnished, than it has ever yet been penetrated, or is ever likely to be penetrated, by ships and their customary boats alone. Not that any nearer approach to the pole, or even the discovery that it might be passed on solid ice, could ever facilitate, or render possible, the attainment of a way for navigating vessels through such insurmountable barriers of ice as nature has provided, at each pole, to sustain what may, perhaps, be denominated the two extremities of our globe. Still it would be desirable, not only as an object of curiosity, but of science. Those are much mistaken, who think there is nothing left for our posterity to discover.

"Whatever might be the decree of general satisfaction obtained from this voyage; which was so liberally fitted out by his majesty's command, and so ably conducted by those skilful and intrepid commanders, Lord Mulgrave and Admiral Lutwidge: to such individuals as had undertaken it for the attainment of nautical knowledge, scientific experience, or even the gratification of laudable curiosity, it had afforded a very considerable degree of profit and delight, to compensate the difficulties and perils so successfully surmounted; and, to the youthful Nelson, whose aspiring mind was desirous of embracing the whole of these interesting objects, it proved a continued scene of pleasure.

At the dreadful period when they were so long fast in the ice, he had earnestly solicited, and at length obtained, the command of a four-oared cutter, with twelve men, ingeniously constructed for the purpose of exploring channels, and breaking the ice: yet, while in this perilous situation, such was the irresistible force of the large bodies of floating ice, that several acres square were often seen lifted up between two much larger pieces, and becoming, as it were, one with them; and, afterwards, the piece, so formed, acting in the same manner on a second and third; which would probably have continued to be the effect, till the whole bay had been so filled with ice that the different pieces could have had no possible motion, had not the stream taken an unexpected turn, and providentially set the ice out of the bay.

An anecdote is related, as a proof of that cool intrepidity which this young mariner possessed, even among scenes of such stupendous horror, which seems well worthy of being also exhibited as a fine picture of filial affection. During one of the clear nights common to these high northern latitudes, young Nelson, notwithstanding the extreme severity of the cold, was missing from the ship. Diligent search being immediately made after him in vain, he was given up for lost. As the rays of the rising sun, however, began to open the horizon, the adventurous youth was discovered, with astonishment, on the ice, at a considerable distance, anxiously pursuing a huge polar bear. He carried a musket in his hand; but, the lock being injured, the piece would not go off: he was, therefore, endeavouring to weary the animal, that he might be able to effect his purpose with the butt-end. Captain Lutwidge, who had been extremely uneasy during his absence, reprimanded him, on his return, for quitting the ship without leave; and asked, in a severe tone, what motive could possibly induce him to commit so rash an action? All the manliness of the hero now subsiding into the simplicity of the child--"I wished, Sir," replied the ingenuous youth, "to get the skin for my father!" An answer which, doubtless, not only obtained him the pardon, but the praise, of Captain Lutwidge; and confirmed that ardent friendship which ever after subsisted between them.

Captain Phipps, too, had seen enough of the young adventurer, during this voyage, to form a high opinion of his character; but he had, under his own more particular care, another youth of much promise, the present Rear-Admiral Philip D'Auvergne, Prince of Bouillon, who made several of the original drawings which were afterwards engraved and published in his celebrated Journal of the Voyage. Though this young gentleman, who had been placed under Captain Phipps's protection by his noble patron, Lord Howe, possessed the advantage of having received instructions in the arts and sciences to which Horatio was, at that time, almost a stranger, the latter had liberality enough not only to admire, but to applaud, the ingenuity which he witnessed in a youth four years older than himself. He was present when some of these sketches were taken, and viewed the process with delight and attention; particularly, that pleasing and accurate delineation of the celebrated iceberg in Amsterdam Island, opposite where the ships lay; which measured three hundred feet high, and out of which a cascade of water was then flowing.

It may not be improper to mention, that these icebergs are large bodies of ice which fill the vallies between the lofty mountains; and present, towards the sea, an almost perpendicular face of a very lively light green colour. In these regions, it will readily be conceived, the numerous black mountains, white snow, and beautiful green of the ice, must form a very romantic and peculiar picture. Large pieces frequently break off from these icebergs on the Coast; and fall, with great noise, into the water: one such piece, which was observed to have floated out into the bay, grounded in fourteen fathom; yet was still fifty feet above the surface of the water, and preserved all the lustre of it's enchanting original colour. Thus, amidst the dreariest scenes, has nature bounteously provided that there shall still be something to delight the eye; amidst the most imminent dangers, something to animate the heart.

The pleasures and the perils of this voyage, however, were now equally at an end; but it's beneficial effects, and it's agreeable recollections, were never to be eradicated or effaced.

In October 1773, the Racehorse and Carcass were both paid off; and these friends and companions, fully sensible of each other's worth, separated with sentiments of a sincere mutual esteem.

Captain Suckling, as usual, welcomed the young hero on his return; and had the satisfaction to learn, from Captain Lutwidge, as well as from Captain Phipps, that his nephew was in all respects worthy of every encouragement that could be bestowed on him. There wanted not, however, this stimulus, in the bosom of that worthy man, to excite his affectionate regards for the promising son of his deceased sister. With the honest and feeling heart of a true British naval commander, he ever acted as a parent to all her children.

A squadron was, at this time, fitting out for the East Indies, under the command of Admiral Sir Edward Hughes. Horatio, delighted with the prospect of visiting regions so different from those which he had just quitted, and anxious to enjoy all the professional advantages derivable from so distant and interesting a voyage, earnestly solicited his esteemed uncle to obtain him a situation in one of the ships intended for this expedition. Captain Suckling, accordingly, procured him a birth under that gallant and able officer, Captain Farmer: who, since, in the year 1779, so nobly but unfortunately perished in the flames of the Quebec of thirty-two guns, which had accidentally taken fire, during it's engagement with La Surveillante of forty guns, off Ushant; which he refused to quit, though severely wounded, and was blown up with his ship, colours flying.