Memorials of the Sea Part 1

Memorials of the Sea.

by William Scoresby.

CHAPTER I.

EARLY LIFE AND PROGRESS AS A SEAMAN.

SECTION I.-_My Father's early Life._

The name of SCORESBY, it is believed, is entirely unknown, in this country, except in the case of the family, and one or two relations, of the subject of the present records.

My Father's "more immediate ancestors," as a short biographical account of him by a friend, states,[A] "occupied respectable stations in the middle walks of life, supporting, in each case, unblemished character, and possessing, at times, considerable property;" and, in periods rather remote, holding conspicuous stations.

In Drake's History of York, the family name, varying in the spelling in a progress through several centuries, repeatedly occurs. But the single line traceable through my Father's ancestors, now alone appears to exist in Britain. Walter de Scourby was "bayliffe of York," in the year 1312; and in the seventh and ninth years of Edward III., Nicholas de Scoreby, it appears, was Member for York. Subsequently, we find, under the date of 1463, Thomas Scawsby, holding the office of Lord Mayor of that city. Some member of the family, after the name a.s.sumed its present form, must have given the designation of "Scoresby Manor" and "Scoresby Lodge," to places still known in the neighbourhood of York.

At the period, however, of this memoir, the family occupied more humble stations in life, chiefly in the cla.s.s of yeomen,-a cla.s.s once of much importance in this country, but now, unhappily, so diminished in numbers, under the absorbing influence of extensive properties, as to be scarcely recognised as a designation.

William Scoresby, my Father, 'was born on the 3d of May 1760, on a small estate farmed by his parent, called Nutholm, in the township of Cropton, about twenty miles south-west of Whitby, in the county of York. In this place the periods of his childhood and boyhood were spent.'

The memoir, here again quoted, refers to some incidents among his earliest recollections, by which his life was greatly imperilled, marking 'the superintending providence of G.o.d, which, on all occasions, he gratefully acknowledged.'

At an endowed school, in the nearest adjoining village, Cropton, his early, and indeed chief, education was received. But the distance being considerable, and the roads indifferent, his attendance was much interrupted, and, in winter, totally suspended. His progress, therefore, was far from being satisfactory. Nor was this disadvantage compensated by any long continuance of opportunities for obtaining scholastic instruction; for, at the age of nine, he was removed, and from that time forward employed, as his strength and years might qualify him, in occupations among the cattle, and about the farm.

Occasionally, during his advance towards manhood, he was engaged with the neighbouring farmers, when, during such occupation, an incident, of _apparently_ no material importance, occurred, which const.i.tuted, under the ordering of an allwise and gracious Providence, the grand turning-point in his destiny, from a probable ordinary and un.o.bserved occupation, to a stirring, adventurous and conspicuous life. The change was induced by some unpleasant treatment he received from the family with whom he was residing.

He became disgusted with a position which, without satisfying the natural capabilities and enterprise of his mind, exposed him to such indignities.

The idea had, probably, been often in his mind before; but he now first resolved on leaving the occupation for which his father had destined him, and on trying at the nearest sea-port, Whitby, the adventure of a seafaring life.

It is somewhat curious that the course of life, in respect to the adoption of a seafaring profession, of two individuals,-Captain Cook and my Father,-whose names are a.s.sociated with much of interest in the history of Whitby, and who became, in their relative degrees, conspicuous as adventurous seamen,-turned upon apparently trifling incidents; and, as to the exciting of feelings of disgust with their previous occupations, of a similar character.

James Cook, like my Father, was, in early youth, employed along with his father, in agricultural labours.[B] His turn of mind, however, being suited to something requiring more tact than the ordinary toils in which farmers'

boys were wont to be engaged, he was removed from the work of the field to that of the counter, with the view of learning the business of a country shopkeeper. It was at the fishing town of Staiths, about ten miles north-west of Whitby, and at the shop of a Mr. W. Sanderson, haberdasher, where Cook, at the age of sixteen or seventeen, entered on his new employment; and it was whilst there that the incident, which led to his abandonment of domestic trade for sea-life, occurred.

It happened, as the early record goes, that, at a period when the coinage generally in circulation was much defaced and worn, a new and fresh looking shilling was paid in by a customer. Cook, attracted by the comparative beauty of the coin, and thinking with regret of its going forth again in the ordinary progress of business, subst.i.tuted the sterling value, and appropriated the new coin, as "a pocket-piece," to himself. It was ill-advised that he did so without previously asking permission or intimating his purpose; for the shilling had been observed by his master, its abstraction was detected, and Cook was suspected and charged with dishonesty,-a charge which the production of the shilling from his pocket _seemed_ to confirm. His keen sense of right feeling, and of what was due to himself, rendered this incident so painful, that he determined, if he could get permission to do so, to leave his employment, as a shopkeeper, and, indulging a strongly imbibed prepossession, turn to the sea. The unmerited suffering was abundantly compensated by that good and gracious Providence, whose dispensations reach to the humblest, and specially regards the oppressed. The young shopkeeper-turned apparently by this fretful incident from his monotonous pursuits, and stimulated to seek an adventurous profession, and not opposed, but kindly aided, by his master, who had become perfectly satisfied of his integrity-was led into those paths of distinction whereby he became so highly conspicuous, if not chief among the circ.u.mnavigators of the globe!

"It is worthy of remark," says Dr. Young, in his life of Cook, "that the coin which so forcibly attracted his notice was what is called a _South-sea_ shilling, of the coinage of George I., marked on the reverse S.S.C., for _South-sea Company_; as if the name of the piece had been intended to indicate the princ.i.p.al fields of his future discoveries."

If the result of disgust at his experienced indignity turned not to account, with my Father, in so eminent a degree,-it yet was so over-ruled for good as to place him at the head of the adventurers engaged in the whale-fishery of the Greenland seas, and to render his example, perseverance, and talent, highly beneficial to his country in the furtherance of that, then, extremely important branch of national enterprise.

It was in the winter of 1779-80, that my Father proceeded to carry his resolve into effect, by leaving his place and travelling to Whitby. Guided by the suggestions of a relative, to whom he had communicated his intentions, he was recommended to Mr. Chapman,-an opulent and respectable ship-owner, and a member of the Society of Friends,-with whom he engaged himself to serve as an apprentice, for three years, in a ship called the Jane, commanded by a son of the owner.

As his services, however, were not required till the ensuing spring,-because of the practice, as to ships trading to the Baltic and Archangel, "of laying them up" for the winter,-he returned immediately home, informed his father of what he had done, and then, at his suggestion, went back to the farm he had somewhat abruptly left, and there remained until his place could be satisfactorily supplied. This being speedily accomplished, he set himself arduously to work to the studying, by the help of whatever suitable books he could get hold of, of the subjects connected with his new profession.

On the 1st of February 1780, according to previous arrangement, he repaired to Whitby for the ratification of his agreement, and for receiving directions as to when and how his services would be required. His anxiety on this occasion, to proceed with his studies in the manner in which he found himself making gradual and encouraging progress, led him at once into an adventure of much peril, and into circ.u.mstances in which his acquirements in the _principles_ of navigation had their first, yet most successful and important, application.

Finding that his services would not be required until the month of April, he determined, being full of ardour for self-improvement, not to lose a single day; so that, although the afternoon had arrived before he finished his arrangements with Mr. Chapman, he set out on his pedestrian course towards the Moors, intending to sleep at the village of Sleights. Urged, however, by his feelings, and tempted by the fineness of the evening, and the brilliant sunset, by which the distant hills (then covered with snow) were illumined and gilded, he resolved on proceeding to Salter Gate, a position, in the midst of the Moors, eight miles further in advance, and attainable only by a not very well-defined line of road across a heath-clad and totally uninhabited country. It was a region, therefore, of complete desolateness, through which he prepared to pa.s.s, and, on occasions of snow-storms, one of great danger to any travellers who might be unfortunately overtaken by them whilst in the midst of the Moors;-for, at the period of which we now write, there were neither fences to confine, nor poles (as in subsequent years were erected) to mark, the line of road, so that an hour's continuance of thick drifting snow might totally obliterate, in many places, the distinctions betwixt the highway and the general trackless heath. Hence it happened, that scarcely a winter pa.s.sed over without yielding the records of perilous or fatal adventures; and, whenever snow-storms abounded, of travellers, more or less in number, perishing by being overwhelmed in the snow-drifts.

It was not long before our traveller, advancing rapidly with vigorous and elastic step within the region of lonesome moorland, became aware that he had entered upon a critical adventure; for having arrived near the sixth milestone on the high-moors over Whitby, he became unexpectedly encircled by a dense and gloomy cloud, attended with a sudden and furious storm of wind and fleecy snow, the snow descending so thick as to envelope him in such dark obscurity, that, for some little time, he could neither see his way to advance nor to return.

Recovering somewhat from his first embarra.s.sment, and considering what might be well to be done, he determined, adventurous as the attempt might be, to go forward toward Salter Gate, yet six miles distant, and not a house on the road. He had made but little progress, however, in advance, before he found he had gone off the turnpike-road; nor did his first attempt, as by a nautical traverse, seem to improve his situation. When brought to a stand in this perplexing condition, it was, that his naturally reflective mind suggested an use of his humble geometrical acquirements, which afforded him essential service. He had observed how the wind first a.s.sailed him, with reference to the direction of the line of road, which, fortunately for him, like the roads of ancient construction, generally, followed a steeple-chase directness, regardless of hill or dale, for the point aimed at; and by adjusting his progress on the same angle, in respect to the course of the wind, he hoped to be guided in his now perilous undertaking. "Taking his departure" from this incidental starting-point, he set forward with as much speed as the nature of the ground and the resistance of the storm could well admit, and, proceeding in a straight direction, over hill and dale, through moor and bog, he accomplished another mile, and that so successfully as to reach its termination, to his great satisfaction, scarcely twenty yards from the seventh milestone.

Encouraged by this success, he now advanced, in spite of storm and blinding snow-drift, and under painfully reduced strength, approaching at the last very near to exhaustion, until his enterprise and tact were happily rewarded by arriving at Salter Gate, where, in the house for which he originally aimed, he was enabled to obtain both shelter and refreshment.

The rest of the enterprise, after encountering various difficulties, from the continuance of the snow on the ground, was in like manner accomplished, so that with no great loss of time he was welcomed in safety at his father's house.

During this arduous and hazardous journey, as his biographer remarks, "he proved the value and accuracy of his geometry whilst traversing the high-moors, the importance of perseverance, and the gracious care of Divine Providence."

SECTION II.-_His first year's Apprenticeship._

In the quiet of a country home, my Father now resumed those studies which bore more immediately upon the profession he had chosen, and perseveringly continued them till the time appointed, the middle of March, for his joining his ship. His preparations towards the supplying of his maritime costume and equipment being already made, he repaired to Whitby, and was duly set to work, with others of the destined crew, to rig and fit out the ship. Towards the end of the month the arrangements were so far advanced, that she was hauled down the harbour into a berth convenient for putting to sea. But whilst here a hard gale set in from the north, which brought so heavy a sea into the harbour that the Jane was in danger of breaking adrift. This circ.u.mstance called for the prompt and active exertions of the crew to get out cables and hawsers for additional security, an occasion on which my Father received his first lesson on mooring a ship,-a lesson which could not be lost upon one who a.s.sociated with great physical strength and energy so observant and reflective a mind.

Early in the month of April, the weather proving favourable whilst the spring-tides prevailed, the Jane put to sea, and for a time made pleasant progress. Nearing the Naze of Norway, however, they were overtaken at night, and that suddenly, by a heavy gale of wind, which in its effect was in no small degree alarming, and from the quality of the crew, indeed, twelve out of about twenty hands being apprentices, some mere lads, and several quite inexperienced, eminently perilous,-for the ship being lightly ballasted, was quickly thrown upon her "beam-ends," the water rising over the lee gunwale till it reached the "combings of the hatches,"

whilst the requisite measures, demanding instantaneous promptness, were seriously delayed by the general inapt.i.tude of the crew. They were enabled, however, in time to save them from the threatened foundering, to get the sails clewed up, whereon the ship righted, though the sails were left fluttering, the sport and prey of the storm, until the morning. The gale then happily abating, and veering to a favourable quarter, the canvas, as far as preserved to them, which so recently had threatened their destruction, became available for the furtherance of their voyage, and enabled them without further adventure to reach Memel, the port of their destination.

But when outward danger had been safely pa.s.sed, and nothing but a feeling of perfect security could naturally be realized, the object of this memorial became sensibly alive to the impressiveness of the solemn sentiment of our Church's funeral service-"In the midst of life we are in death!" The ballast had been taken out, and the hold and 'tween-decks cleared to make way for the cargo, when my Father, being below, near a "raft-port,"-an opening at the bow or stern by which a timber cargo is received into the hold,-heard the voice of the Captain calling for a boat's crew to put him on sh.o.r.e. There being no _deck_ now laid upon the hold-beams, but only a series of "carlings" from beam to beam, the summons was attempted to be answered by running along these very narrow supports.

Ill directed, however, by the very deceptive light admitted by the raft-port, my Father's head came in contact with an un.o.bserved break in the upper deck, by which he was precipitated into the hold, a depth of about twelve feet, and was taken up by his comrades in a state of insensibility.

In this alarming condition he remained for several hours, being meanwhile carried for surgical a.s.sistance on sh.o.r.e.

He was but barely pa.s.sed out of the immediate hands of the surgeon, who contemplated his case hopefully, when the carpenter of the Jane was borne to the same place, having also fallen into the hold in a similar way, with an adze in his hand, a fearful cut from which in his forehead added to the severe effects of so considerable a fall.

Under careful and skilful a.s.sistance, however, both the endangered sufferers were soon restored, being enabled to return to the ship in about eight days' time,-the carpenter, indeed, with his wound but imperfectly healed, and with a long and conspicuous scar which might have been admonitory for the rest of his days. The lesson to my Father had not been forgotten when, near half a century after, on recurring to the adventure, he remarked, "This was another kind interposition of Providence which has a claim on my grateful homage."

Their cargo of timber being completed, they immediately sailed from Memel, and joining convoy at Elsinore, safely reached the Thames, whither their cargo was destined.

Whilst the ship was lying at Limehouse, my Father and another of the apprentices obtained leave, on a Sunday, to go on sh.o.r.e and visit the great Metropolis, where they met with another, and to them a previously unknown, species of adventure. On reaching the city they were accosted by a man dressed in regimentals (apparently a serjeant), who, pretending that he was a Yorkshireman and knew them, contrived to insinuate himself into their confidence, and offered to guide them in their object of sight-seeing, remarking particularly that they had a fine opportunity of seeing the King, who was about to attend a general review in Hyde Park. Catching at a suggestion so naturally pleasant, they, without an idea of mistrust, put themselves under his, apparently, friendly guidance, and proceeded in the direction of the Park. On reaching Temple Bar he invited them to accompany him into an eating-house, where he ordered refreshments.

But the landlady, on making her appearance-a respectable and benevolent person, as they subsequently had good reason to know-observed and surveyed the little party with a very unusual kind of scrutiny, first looking the soldier sternly in the face, and then, with an expression relaxed into compa.s.sion, turned her gaze on his youthful and obviously too confiding a.s.sociates. Repeating her scrutiny of their pretended friend till a.s.sured of his ident.i.ty, she addressed him with an air of stern authority, and commanded him to leave the house. The man affecting surprise, and 'presuming that she must have mistaken him,' endeavoured, by a well-practised self-possession, to avoid the threatened defeat of his insidious purpose. But she, persisting in her knowledge and accusation of him, and threatening to call in a constable to her aid, succeeded in causing him to feel that it might be for his safety to take himself off.

On his departure she turned to the wondering young sailors, and to this effect addressed them:-"I perceive, young men, you are from the country, and are strangers in London. I am from the country myself, but I know that man to be a villain. Not long since he stole some articles from this very house, and I am fully a.s.sured he will wait for you to get you trepanned; you shall therefore not leave my house this night."

They accordingly remained her guests till the morning, when she allowed them to depart for their ship; but on offering her compensation for her kindness, she refused to take anything more than was barely sufficient to pay for their moderate refreshments.

"This act of generous friendship," remarks the writer of the Memoir, "deserves to be recorded on three accounts: first, for the honour of our common nature; secondly, to be contrasted with the villany of the pretended soldier; and thirdly, to ill.u.s.trate the watchful Providence of G.o.d."

Having delivered their cargo at Limehouse, and taken in ballast, they sailed on their second voyage, to St. Petersburgh, for a cargo of hemp and iron. Here they were unfortunately caught in the formation of ice, with but little expectation of escaping during the winter. But on the 4th of November, a gale from the eastward having broken up the impeding ice, they immediately sailed, and in four days reached Elsinore, where they expected to join convoy for England. All the men-of-war from home, however, having sailed, they joined a fleet of similarly unprotected ships, numbering altogether six-and-twenty sail, and together proceeded for England. About half-way across the German ocean, they proved the advantage of their mutual a.s.sociation for defence, a large cutter privateer having hove in sight, and attacked the rear of the fleet. For a considerable time the enemy's fire was directed from a respectful distance against the nearest ships, which they, according to their proportion of armament, as actively returned,-so actively, indeed, that, in their ill-provided warlike stores, they soon expended the greater part of their ammunition. The enemy, however, ignorant of this circ.u.mstance, and unable to detach any single vessel, kept aloof, probably for the chance of the night; but the night proved dark, and afforded them a screen from the prowler, and they all escaped unscathed into port.

They reached Portsmouth, their new destination, about the middle of December, and delivered their cargo among the naval stores of the King's Yard.

During the discharging of the cargo, my Father received vexatious abuse, without any provocation on his part, from the chief-mate of the ship, which so annoyed him that, under the impulse of a strongly excited feeling, he had resolved to quit the Jane, and enter on board His Majesty's ship the Royal George, just then pa.s.sing them from the graving-dock, where she had been undergoing repairs. But reflecting on something which, in the bustle and confusion amongst her crew as she hauled away, he had observed incongruous with his feelings, he happily paused in his hasty resolve, and ultimately decided on submitting himself to a continuance, though under the constant exposure to like arbitrary annoyance, of the duties of his humble station, with a view to the fulfilment of the engagement he had entered into with the owner of the Jane. And, as estimated by the probability of his being involved in the disaster of that ill-fated ship, had he entered on board of her, the decision appeared to be Providentially guided; for at no long interval after this time it was that the Royal George came to her end so strangely, as to place the catastrophe alone and without parallel, amid the varied and marvellous records of our naval history. The story is well known. She was "careening," for the purpose of having some caulking of her seams effected, or damage of her copper sheathing repaired, whilst anch.o.r.ed at Spithead, with her lower-deck ports open in all imaginable safety. A sudden squall, whilst the ship swung across the tide, laid her on her beam-ends; the water poured in by the open ports in such force and quant.i.ty, that she sunk in less than eight minutes, involving officers, men, and visitors, so generally in the common catastrophe, that out of about 1200 souls, or upward, on board, only 331 escaped alive! The brave Admiral Kempenfelt, an experienced and accomplished navigator, who, through many perils of war and tempest had pa.s.sed unscathed, suffered among the rest, a fate which, very probably, had been that of my Father, had he carried out his impetuously-formed design. But, with the good hand of G.o.d upon him, he escaped the then unimagined peril.

On the laying up of the Jane for the winter, the seamen, as usual, were discharged, and the apprentices sent by a coasting vessel pa.s.sengers to Whitby. My Father repaired to his country home for the interval of service, until summoned again to London, in the early spring of 1781, to join his ship on her being chartered for a voyage to Riga, for a cargo of deals for the Government.

SECTION III.-_His Progress as a Seaman, with Incidents of Sea-Life._