Memorials of the Sea Part 10

In consequence of the delay by this and other causes induced, it was not without very great efforts that the Fame was got ready for the fishery of the ensuing season, 1818. The requisite preparations however, were completed, whilst there was yet time for the adventure, and the ship, for the first attempt, being put under my command, sailed from Liverpool on the 2nd April. Having obtained, for the season, which was not a prosperous one, a good cargo, we returned, August the 18th, (as had been arranged) to Whitby.

In the following spring my Father re-a.s.sumed his habitual occupation in command of the Fame; but the great draught of water and somewhat sharp build of the ship, rendering the tide-harbour, to which, in this first instance, she had resorted, both inconvenient and unsafe, her port was again changed for Hull, to which, with but a moderate cargo, she returned.

The next voyage, that of 1820, was, for the somewhat unfavourable season, a very successful one; that of 1821 was moderately good; that of 1822 returned only an average cargo; and the attempt of 1823 was prematurely arrested by the unfortunate destruction of the ship by fire.

The Fame had been fitted out for this contemplated voyage with unusual care and expense,-considerable alterations and improvements, independent of repairs, having been made; she had proceeded northward as far as the Orkneys, where she had taken up an anchorage for the completion of her crew with boatmen, when the catastrophe, which summarily frustrated the undertaking, brought my Father's Arctic adventures at the same time to a sudden termination; for after so long a pursuance of his arduous enterprises, and the acquisition of a handsome and ample competency, there were much stronger motives for inducing him now to remain on sh.o.r.e, "for the enjoyment of the fruits of his labours," than to stimulate to further efforts in any new undertaking.

The summary of these two latter enterprises, it will naturally have been antic.i.p.ated, does not correspond with that of the three-and-twenty years of all but continuous successes. For though the cargoes obtained in his six last voyages were, on the whole, considerably above the ordinary average, yet they by no means maintained the claim to superiority.

This change, however, in my Father's position as a fisherman, admits of a satisfactory explanation. The circ.u.mstances on which success was now dependent had, in some most essential particulars, changed. Superior knowledge of the Arctic ices, and consummate skill in penetrating and navigating the compact or tortuous interruptions to the usual retreats of the whales, which with _him_ were so characteristic, were now no longer available. So greatly had the whales been reduced in number, apparently, by the enormous slaughter of their species during the last quarter of a century; and so much scattered had the residue been by the perpetual hara.s.s and attacks to which they had been subjected, that the positions, wherein the _opportunity_ for making a successful voyage used to be constantly afforded, were now almost entirely deserted. Hence the enterprise and skill, enabling the fisherman to take the lead in penetrating the ice, which had been wont to be eminently rewarded, had now become of little avail. No one could calculate on the positions in which fish might be found. In places apparently most likely, not a fish, perhaps, was to be seen; whilst in circ.u.mstances least expected success might be met with. And although a few active, enterprising, and clever men, were now and then found taking a lead in respect to proportionate success, yet the fishery altogether had become very precarious; so increasingly precarious, indeed, that within about half-a-dozen years of this time the whale-fishery of the Greenland seas proved so utterly unremunerative, as to be all but abandoned as a distinct commercial enterprise. The port of Hull, for example, which during the whole period of my Father's command of a whaler had, on an average, sent out twenty-two ships annually to the Greenland fishery,-in 1828, only five years after he discontinued the pursuit, had only one Greenlandman, and the year following none.

His retirement from so active and enterprising a pursuit as had engaged the subject of these records during a period, altogether, of six-and-thirty years of his life, was by no means an event of unmixed benefit. It was far otherwise. For the effect of wear and tear on the const.i.tution, whilst for this long period subjected to circ.u.mstances of peculiar anxiety and excitement of adventure, soon became apparent under the trial of absolute leisure and the deprivation of ordinary stimulus. It is, indeed, a well-ascertained characteristic of the human system, strikingly indicative of the wisdom and goodness of the Creator, to derive temporary energy from the very stimulus of the demands for energy. Thus strength, beyond all previous imagination, is often yielded for special occasions, whilst the capability of action is wonderfully maintained for the period of protracted necessity or duty. But the trial comes when the tension of the mysterious fabric of the human system has to be relaxed. The strength, for the occasion, being beyond the ordinary powers of renovation, is maintained by the nervous stimulant at the expense of a wear and tear which not only becomes apparent on the cessation of the undue exercise, but in aggravated proportion by reason of the natural reaction.

How far these operations in a too long continued stretch of the natural powers might have induced the inferior state of my Father's health, during the six years of his life succeeding the time of his retirement from the sea, it is impossible to say; though the fact of this deterioration of health, in the interval of leisure, was abundantly apparent.

SECTION IV.-_General Results of his entire Whale-fishing Adventures._

In conclusion of these records of my Father's Arctic enterprises, commercially, there remain yet to be given the _general_ comparisons and results, in which we shall again find them to be great and pre-eminent. The materials for these comparisons, on my Father's part, are compendiously exhibited in the following summary of his various voyages:-

TABULAR VIEW OF THE SUCCESSES OF THE LATE W. SCORESBY, ESQ., IN HIS ADVENTURES IN THE GREENLAND WHALE-FISHERY.

--------------------------------------------------------- Cargo obtained.

No. of +----------------------- Voyage. Year. Ship commanded. Whales. Tuns of Oil.

--------+------+-----------------+---------+------------- 1 1791 Henrietta. clean. nil.

2 1792 " 18 112 3 1793 " 6 90 4 1794 " 6 120 5 1795 " 25 143 6 1796 " 9 112 7 1797 " 16 152 8 1798 Dundee. 36 198 9 1799 " 12 144 10 1800 " 3 45 11 1801 " 23 225 12 1802 " 20 200 13 1803 Resolution. 13 164 14 1804 " 33 188 15 1805 " 30 196 16 1806 " 24 216 17 1807 " 13 213 18 1808 " 27 210 19 1809 " 26 216 20 1810 " 28 214 21 1811 John. 16 200 22 1812 " 25 198 23 1813 " 28 190 24 1814 " 35 249 - 1815 [on sh.o.r.e.] - - 25 1816 Mars. 20 170 26 1817 " 6 82 - 1818 [on sh.o.r.e.] - - 27 1819 Fame. 10 120 28 1820 " 10 184 29 1821 " 9 143 30 1822 " 6 70 ---------------------------------------------------------

The total number of voyages in which he held the command in the fishery, from first to last, was just thirty. The entire cargoes obtained, under this personal guidance, comprised the produce of 533 whales,-"a greater number," says his friend Mr. Drew, "than has fallen to the share of any other individual in Europe,"-with that of many thousands of seals, some hundreds of walruses, very many narwals, and probably not less than sixty bears. The quant.i.ty of oil yielded by this produce was 4664 tuns, of whalebone about 240 tons weight, besides the skins of the seals, bears, and walruses taken.

From hence we derive a general average, during the thirty voyages, of eighteen whales, yielding 1555 tuns of oil per voyage; or, omitting the first voyage, which, for reasons stated in Chapter II., ought fairly to be excluded, the average would be 184 whales, yielding 160 tuns of oil for each voyage.

In comparison of the general average of the British whale-fishery, this, no doubt, stands singularly high. But not having the materials for the exact determination of this general comparison, we may take the Hull whale-fishery for our guidance, which, from the large number of ships regularly engaged therein, will, it is believed, afford a fair estimate.

And this section of the fishery, we find, comprised, betwixt the years 1791 and 1822 inclusive, an average of twenty-two ships annually, the cargoes of which, during that period, averaged 845 tuns of oil a voyage per ship.

Compared with this, it is seen, that my Father's yearly average was almost double the quant.i.ty!

It is not possible, because of the lack of accounts as to several of my Father's ships, to ascertain, except proximately, the actual value of the produce now determined; but, from the variety of information now before me, as to the marketable value of Greenland produce during a considerable majority of the years corresponding with these voyages, I have been enabled to calculate the gross proceeds of the whole thirty years adventures, in money, at 196,591_l._, or possibly a full 200,000_l._!

The proportion of expenses due to these enterprises and results may, in like manner, be proximately calculated. For, if the Hull fishery, with little more than half of my Father's success, were fairly remunerative,-as it obviously must have been to induce perseverance therein,-then, the residue of his catch above that average may, mainly, be considered as clear profit; for, in such estimate, we set off the _additional_ expenses incurred where there is superior success against the actual remunerating profits in the inferior success. On this estimate we should have the value of, say, seventy-five tuns of oil and four tons of whalebone for the clear profit; or, out of a gross annual produce of the value of 6600_l._, a residue calculated to yield about 3000_l._ a voyage profit.[N]

This estimate would give the sum of 90,000_l._, or, omitting the first voyage, 87,000_l._ for the amount of this individual skill and enterprise, divided, in the shape of profits, among the owners embarked in the general enterprise! On another ground of calculation, guided by the proportion of expenses in certain known cases, the expenses were taken at two-fifths the produce, which would reduce the profits (probably too low) to about 80,000_l._

In setting forth this result as very remarkable, it is with reference, it should be observed, to the instrumentality and _capital_ employed. It is no uncommon thing for a sum like this, or much greater than this, to be realized in commercial enterprises; but, in such cases, there are generally many instruments and a large capital employed in the business. But here, under the one individual direction, there was but one ship employed, involving an investment of capital of from 6000_l._ to 12,700_l._, or, on an average, not exceeding 9000_l._, and this small investment yielding, through a series of about thirty years, no less a sum than 3000_l._ a year, being at the rate of 33? per cent per annum on the capital employed.

SECTION V.-_Unusual Capture of Walruses._

This incident, which belongs to the period of the Fame's voyages, is here introduced, in conclusion of the general series of my Father's Northern adventures, as presenting something of novelty in the modern whale-fishery.

The _walrus_ or _sea-horse_, as the whalers designate it, is one of those extraordinary animals so prevalent in the Arctic regions, in which, like the whale, are comprised the mixed characteristics of the inhabitants of sea and land. The body, generally, from its extensive conformity, might be supposed to be that of a huge seal; but the head is peculiar, approaching the nearest, but only in rude and diminutive resemblance, to that of the elephant, as being somewhat square-faced, with a hard and ma.s.sive skull, scarcely pervious to a musket-ball, and with two large external tusks pointing downward. The fore paws may be compared to webbed hands; the hind feet, in their ordinary position when at rest, form an expansive tail. The skin, covered with short hair, is of remarkable substance, so as to produce a strong, but rather porous leather, of about an inch in thickness. A thin layer of fat lies beneath the skin.

As met with on the coast of Spitzbergen, this animal is found of the length, ordinarily, of twelve to fifteen feet, and eight to ten feet in circ.u.mference. But specimens elsewhere found on the coasts of some Arctic countries, are represented as extending to twenty feet in length. The Spitzbergen animal, full grown, is about the bulk of an ox; its weight, as I have estimated it, being from fifteen to twenty-four hundredweight. But a twenty-feet walrus could hardly weigh less than three tons.

Though the tusks, the fat, and the skins, have a fair commercial value, the animal is never sought after as a special object of enterprise by the whalers, except incidentally, and very few are taken. Large captures, indeed, were occasionally made of sea-horses, in the early periods of adventure after the discovery of Spitzbergen; but these animals have seldom been met with by our modern whalers in any considerable number together, and their capture, consequently, has very rarely exceeded half-a-dozen in a voyage. No summary mode of killing them, indeed, had been prevalent or understood by which due advantage might be taken of any extraordinary opportunity. If met with in the water, where they might be attacked with muskets or lances, the chance of capture was but small, as the wounded animal would generally dive and escape. Formerly, I remember, harpoons of a _small_ kind were provided expressly for the sea-horse; but with the whale harpoon, now only used, the tough skin of the creature is hard to be penetrated. If met with on sh.o.r.e or on ice, lances and muskets were more available, and in such positions the princ.i.p.al, though scanty, captures of modern times were wont to be made.

My Father's enterprise, therefore, in the case now referred to, was the more remarkable, not only because of the unusual number captured, but because of the novelty adopted in the mode of attack, by which mainly the success was gained.

Being on the coast of Spitzbergen, in the Fame, in the summer of 1819, when no inc.u.mbrance was met with from ice, my Father was induced to stretch into one of the fine picturesque inlets with which this remarkable region abounds, Magdalena Bay, where an extraordinary sight on the beach attracted his attention. Hundreds, if not thousands, of animals, which on their near approach proved to be sea-horses, were seen congregated on the sloping sh.o.r.e, thickly huddled together, basking in the bright sunshine and genial warmth of the sheltered position.

No one on board having ever seen anything of the kind before, all were in a state of excitement, which soon became naturally diverted into ardour for conflict and capture. Measures were speedily concerted by which a due harvest might, if possible, be reaped out of this wonderfully stocked field. Muskets, evidently, could do little, as the vast herd, on being alarmed, would doubtless hurry into the sea, before the discharged arms could be reloaded, and harpoons could be of no avail. Lances and whale-knives, however, promised a better instrumentality, and especially one kind of the latter, the _tail-knife_, which in reality proved the most effective of all. This instrument, designed for making perforations in the tail and fins of the captured whale, when preparing to be towed to the ship, const.i.tutes a portion of the furniture of every whale-boat, and consists of a nearly three-feet straight sharp-pointed blade, with a wooden handle of like measure. It resembles the blade of a cutla.s.s, out of which weapon, indeed, this kind of knife is frequently constructed.

From accounts which at different times I have received from individuals partic.i.p.ating in the affair, I am enabled to offer such description of the plan and proceedings as may serve, I hope, to give a tolerably correct notion of this curious and novel kind of exploit.

Well furnished with what appeared to be the best weapons for the attack, the boats set out on the adventure, spreading themselves, whilst at a distance, so as to make a simultaneous and warlike descent upon the beach.

As this animal is but imperfectly adapted for locomotion on land, and its progress, usually, sluggish and slow, there was a chance with the individuals which had adventured highest up the slope of doing some considerable execution among them. Though the walrus, ordinarily, appears singularly fearless,-it might be said, stupidly fearless,-yet the whole herd, in this case, was soon put into a state of commotion and alarm. The princ.i.p.al attack on the flanks having arrested several of the number, the general ma.s.s began a scrambling retreat, a.s.suming a strangely formidable, yet otherwise grotesque appearance, whilst, in their haste, the huge carca.s.ses were seen, in their mutual interferences, rolling one over another down the beach.

Two or three of the leaders of the attacking party,-the foremost among whom was, I believe, Mr. William Jackson, afterwards a successful commander,-perceiving the risk of the vast herd escaping before they should have time for any considerable success in captures, boldly threw themselves betwixt the affrighted walruses and the sea, so as, to the extent their means of destruction might enable them, to cut off their retreat. And now it was that the _tail-knife_ was found to be a most admirable weapon for the occasion, its sharpness of point, and length of blade, yielding mortal results at almost every stroke, and its length of handle enabling its wielder to avoid the formidable tusks of the creature whilst attacking it close to hand.

The result exceeded the most sanguine expectations of the a.s.sailants. Many wounded ones, I believe, escaped into the sea, but a famous slaughter and advantageous spoil rewarded the adventure. One hundred and thirty of these animals remained as trophies of the sailors' victory, yielding, besides the corresponding quant.i.ty of hides, a large weight of tusks and teeth, adapted for dental purposes, and a quant.i.ty of oil, which, perhaps, we may roughly estimate at 1500 to 2000 gallons.

FOOTNOTES:

[M] This fact having been differently reported and understood, the reader who feels any interest in the subject may satisfy himself, I believe, of the reality by reference to an article in the "Edinburgh Philosophical Journal," vol. xx. 1835-6, "On some Circ.u.mstances connected with the Original Suggestion of the Modern Arctic Expeditions."

[N] This estimate of profits, though exceeding those of the Resolution, already given, may be still maintained, on the ground of the price of provisions and the high rates of seamen's wages and insurance, pertaining to a period, except as to one year, of continuous war.

CHAPTER VI.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS AND MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES.

SECTION I.-_Superiority as an Arctic Navigator._

My Father's superiority as a fisherman, as exhibited in the foregoing pages, had an essential relation to his talents as a seaman and a navigator. The former, indeed, was in no inconsiderable degree a fruit of the latter; for it was his superiority as a navigator of ice-enc.u.mbered seas particularly, which, for a considerable series of years, enabled him generally to obtain a position in advance of his compet.i.tors, and thus yielded to him the best opportunities, whilst the ground was undisturbed, for making his fishery.

Not only, indeed, was he thus unrivalled among his a.s.sociates in Arctic enterprise, but to him was due the introduction of a truly scientific system of arrangements, which, with their masterly application in practice, enabled him at all times, when "beating to windward" among crowded ices, or contending under the greatest obstructions and difficulties for a pa.s.sage "to the northward," to take the lead.

The penetration of the Greenland ices, whilst in search of whales, being very prevalently pursued by beating to windward, or by sailing "on a wind,"-so prevalently, indeed, that, during a quarter of a century from my Father's commencement in command, nine days out of ten, or more, were spent in this description of navigation,-it became a matter of grand importance to have the ship, as "to trim," "cut of the sails," ballasting, etc., specially prepared for sailing "close-hauled."

For this style of navigation, the arrangements prevalent in the merchant service, at the time, were most ill adapted. When without cargo, the ships usually went in light "ballast-trim," and had their sails cut so as to "bag" into a deep concave on the side acted on by the wind,-conditions most unfavourable for "holding a good wind" or "working close."

The whalers were thus universally circ.u.mstanced at my Father's commencement. They went ordinarily ballasted, or, sometimes, "flying-light," not only because of this being accordant with the general practice with merchantmen, but with the view of lessening the concussions against the ice when coming into violent contact with it. My Father, on the contrary, adopted a totally different system. He caused such a large quant.i.ty of the lower and second tiers of casks to be filled with water (to which he subsequently added ballast of shingle or iron in the interstices of the casks of the "ground tier"), that the ship became as deep as with the third part of a cargo; his sails he had made to stand as flat, under the force of the wind, as possible; he had his ship denuded of all useless spars aloft, as well as of sails of little adaptation for sailing on a wind; and, finally, the braces of the yards, and other running geer, he had so adapted as to run free, and as light as consistent with safety.

His ship thus presenting the least possible quant.i.ty of surface to the leeward-tending action of the wind, being so fully ballasted, and having her sails, so far as he had the adjusting of them, adapted for standing flat and "near the wind," he was enabled to make a progress, in "windward sailing" among ice, which, during a long period of years, defied all compet.i.tion.

But the adaptation of the ship, it was apparent, was not all. For the ships which he had himself prepared for sailing on this effective system, retained their advantage but very partially when they came under other management. The Henrietta, which for several years had taken the undisputed lead, was, after my Father left her, beaten by the Dundee, and the Dundee, in like manner, by the Resolution; and not by the ship, only, which he now commanded, was his former ship beaten, but by many compet.i.tors besides. The loss of character in the ship he had retired from, indeed, became a matter of much observation and remark both at sea and on sh.o.r.e; and the circ.u.mstance was justly enough accounted for under the quaint expression,-"she has lost her jockey."