Memorials of the Sea Part 3

But the best comparisons of my Father's successes are with those of the Greenland whalers from _Hull_; these comparisons being rendered most satisfactory because of the ample records before me of the whale fishery of that port. The records referred to are comprised in an elaborate and carefully kept ma.n.u.script, kindly entrusted to me for the present object, belonging to Mr. James Simpson, painter, of Hull, in which an admirable abstract is preserved of the whale-fishing enterprise of the port during a consecutive period of fifty-nine years, from 1772 to 1830 inclusive.

From this doc.u.ment, for the comparison at present designed, we obtain the following information:-During the twenty years, from 1772 to 1791, reaching my Father's commencement, 266 ships (including repeated voyages) sailed from Hull to the Greenland whale-fishery, and obtained, altogether, an amount of produce of 9377 tuns of oil, averaging 3525 tuns a voyage for each ship. In the six years _before_ my Father's commencement,-1786 to 1791,-158 ships (gross amount) obtained 4975 tuns of oil, or 315 on the average. And in the next six years, corresponding exactly with those of my Father's successful enterprise in the Henrietta,-1792 to 1797,-ninety-two Greenland whalers, from Hull, procured 5464 tuns of oil, or 594 tuns per ship a year.

My Father's average success, taken in comparison of these various _home_ results, we hence gather, was about _four times_ as great as the ordinary success (within the limited periods specified) of the British whalers generally. It was also _four times_ as great as the usual average of the _Whitby_ whalers; in like proportion above the average of the _Hull_ whalers during the previous twenty years; and more than double the Hull average for the same actual period!

But to inst.i.tute the most _severe_ comparison with the successes of his compet.i.tors in this important field of commercial enterprise, we may notice that during the period of his command of the Henrietta (omitting, for reasons already a.s.signed, the first year only), the amount of my Father's cargoes exceeded, by 151 tuns of oil, that of the most successful of the Hull ships of the time, amongst more than fifteen annual compet.i.tors; and was larger even than the amount attained by the six united cargoes of the most successful ship out of the whole of the whalers from the port, taken year by year! And, it is believed, could the comparison have been made with the entire fleet of whalers proceeding from Britain to the Greenland fishery, my Father, under this severest possible test of compet.i.tion, with all the disadvantages of time and chance against him, would still be found at the head!

Among the captains of the Whitby fleet, no one, I believe, at all approached his successes; and among those commanding the Greenland whalers of Hull none came at all near him, except one-Captain Allan,-whose name I feel it but justice to record as the most successful fisherman of his port, and one of the first of his day. Captain Angus Sadler, whose remarkable successes we hereafter notice, did not commence until 1796. And Captain John Marshall, who afterwards became so celebrated among his compeers, was but, as yet, rising towards superiority; besides, his enterprises, after he became so signally successful, were conducted in Davis' Strait,-a branch of the fishery to which our comparison may not fairly extend.

The result of the enterprise of the other captains of this period was, in each case, so far below that of the subject of these memorials, as only, in two or three cases, to reach one-half his success. Captain Taylor, of the f.a.n.n.y, brought home 400 tuns of oil within those six years, and Captain Wilson, of the Caroline, 318; but my Father's catch, as above stated, yielded no less an amount than 729 tuns! And when it is understood that the Henrietta was of but small tonnage, (254 tons,) whilst many of the Hull ships were from 50 to 100, or even 120, tons larger, the comparison inst.i.tuted becomes the more remarkable.

In these successes of my Father, the people of Whitby felt an universal and exciting interest, for most of the princ.i.p.al inhabitants, as well as a large body of those in the middle and lower cla.s.ses, were, more or less, directly or indirectly, partic.i.p.ators in the gains of the whale-fishery.

But whilst all were astonished at the results of enterprises so unquestionably due to an individual guidance, no small number were moved to feelings of jealousy in consequence of successes, to which the fruits of their personal ventures in other ships bore no reasonable proportion. The modes in which this baneful feeling towards my Father was evinced, were as various as they were sometimes annoying. At first, the extraordinary results were ascribed to "luck;" and, subsequently, when more than luck was too obvious to be denied, the waning phantom of superst.i.tion was resorted to in order to escape the commendation of a frank acknowledgment of superior merit. Some persons there were of an order of mind so simple, as actually to believe what was jocosely told, that he "knee-banded" a portion of fish in one year to facilitate the success of the next. Jeers and lampoons were made use of as outlets for the expression of narrow and jealous selfishness,-annoyances which the substantiality of my Father's advantages enabled him very well to bear, but which were often keenly felt when played off against the less stern materials of his amiable and tender-minded wife and susceptible young family.

The working of this principle, in envious manifestations of word and feeling, presents a painfully characteristic fruit of human degeneration from original perfectness. And the manner and sphere of its working yield very characteristic instruction on the nature of the deteriorated mind.

Mankind can well bear, and be free to commend in generous frankness, successful enterprise in _other_ departments than that of their own sphere.

Nay, by a strange concession of the secret mind, when under a disposition to withhold the meed of praise in the department which trenches on self-interest, or self-consequence, we find many disposed to bestow an utterly extravagant measure of adulation, where it may be popular to do so, on individuals and enterprises distinctly separate and remote from interferences with themselves. But let a man be "ploughing in the same field" of enterprise, or intelligent research; let the admired results of the labour of one but stand out on the sculptured tablet of fame in bold relief of the mere groundwork surface of the other explorers of like mysteries; or let the profitable fruits of the industry of one contrast with the sad failures or meagre successes of others engaged in the self-same species of enterprise, and then we shall find, more or less developed, among the many whose efforts have been overtopped and eclipsed, and among the mult.i.tudes, perhaps, a.s.sociated relatively or interestedly with the mortified compet.i.tors, the feelings of envy and jealousy, sometimes of hatred and malice, most sadly conspicuous and dominant.

In my Father's case, where sometimes the owners, captains, and crews of near a dozen ships sailing from the same port had their most ardent enterprises, year by year, altogether eclipsed by his superior success,-and where, by reason of relative or interested a.s.sociation, the majority of a town's population became partic.i.p.ators in the mortifying compet.i.tion,-the measure in which the ungenerous feelings might possibly have their existence and impulses, may be well imagined to have been very extensive. That it was so in an extraordinary degree in the early progress of my Father's adventures, and during many years of his singular prosperity, every member of his family had too painful evidence.

But as to the observant and intelligent cla.s.ses separate from this baneful prejudice, and as to some of more dignified minds amongst parties who were personally interested in whale-fishing concerns, the character and merits of the subject of these records were sufficiently appreciated and acknowledged.

The fame of his successes reached throughout the commercial ports of the realm, and applications of a very tempting nature came unsolicited upon him, for transferring his guidance and energies to other a.s.sociates in Arctic enterprise, with encouraging promise of far more profitable results.

My Mother, who was much attached to Whitby, as a place of residence, viewed these repeated offers with much anxiety, feeling that my Father's taking a command elsewhere must involve her either in the trial of leaving Whitby, or in the great inconvenience of a much more considerable period of severance than the mere Greenland voyage required, of the family circle.

For awhile her objections prevailed; but ultimately, as in another chapter we shall have to record, these objections sunk under the advantages elsewhere proffered.

SECTION IV.-_Episodical Incident-the Rescue of endangered Pleasurers._

Before carrying forward the records of my Father's new adventures in a more promising field for his personal prosperity, I shall introduce an incident of a very peculiar and interesting description, belonging to the period, though not to the business of the fishery, whilst he still held his command of the "good ship" Henrietta. It occurred whilst the ship lay at anchor, incidentally, in the river Tees, on one of her most successful voyages, homeward bound, when I was myself on board. Though I was but a child, I remember the time well. The novelty of my position in being taken on shipboard by my Father, when, a few days before, he had been on sh.o.r.e at Whitby, and the interesting circ.u.mstance, to me, of the capture of a small sand-bird, which I anxiously fed and endeavoured to keep alive, made an indelible impression on my youthful recollection. The incident, however, const.i.tuting the present story, I did not well understand till long afterward, but which I now record with much confidence of being substantially correct in every detail, from hearing it repeatedly related in after-life.

The incident consisted in the interesting and gratifying circ.u.mstance of the saving of the lives of two individuals moving in an upper sphere in society, by my Father's habitual facility and accuracy in the use of the pocket telescope, and by the information derived therefrom being made use of with his characteristic forethought and energetic promptness of action.

The success of the voyage had been such that the largest amount of whales yet captured in the then progress of the fishery, being twenty-five in number, had enriched by their produce this single adventure. Beyond the capacity of the _casks_ taken out for the reception of the cargo, a large quant.i.ty of blubber "in bulk," or in ma.s.sive flitches, had been stowed on the top. The draught of water of the ship, thus unusually loaded, was found on their arrival in Whitby Roads, which was just after the spring-tides had pa.s.sed off, to be too great for the flow in the harbour. Whilst waiting the advance of the succeeding spring-tides, therefore, the ship was taken northward to the river Tees, the nearest accessible port, and a supply of empty casks sent thither by a small coaster, whereby the men were usefully and savingly occupied throughout the interval in chopping up the loose blubber, from which its valuable contents in oil were perpetually oozing out, and securing it from further waste in the auxiliary casks.

Whilst this operation was still in active and _greasy_ progress, my Father, in walking the deck, remarked on a large patch of sand, about a mile from the ship, a gig, occupied by a gentleman and a lady, driving pleasantly up and down. The day was fine, and the recreation of driving on a smooth and extended surface of sand, so singularly firm that the wheels did not penetrate beyond the slightest impression, was very enjoyable. But, as it soon appeared, and as my Father providentially antic.i.p.ated, it was by no means-on the place selected-a _safe_ recreation.

The bank of sand referred to, of which there are many such within the wide extent of the Tees, appeared uncovered at about half ebb, and became accessible soon afterward by the drying of a slightly depressed channel lying betwixt it and the sh.o.r.e. Previous to this time of tide the party had been driving nearer the fields; but tempted by the fine smooth expanse of surface of the outer sand, and encouraged by its admirable firmness on trial, they forthwith limited their driving to the breadth of the continuous surface, and continued to enjoy themselves in this recreation and their social converse, unconscious of danger, till after the tide had long been rising.

My Father, who continued observing them anxiously with his gla.s.s, had noticed the rapid rising of the tide, which he soon found was entering the channel, and separating them unconsciously from the sh.o.r.e. Engrossed as they seemed in their pleasant recreation, he inferred, and that justly, that their lives would soon be imperilled. Antic.i.p.ating the danger, he ordered a boat to be got ready to push off at a moment's notice, should the absorbing inattention of the strangers continue. At length he saw that they had become aware of their position, and were driving their vehicle into the narrow channel into which the tide had recently flowed. With palpitating anxiety he perceived that the water was deeper than they had imagined, and that the previously firm ground, disintegrated by the action of the tide, had turned into the treacherous quicksand. He then saw the horse take alarm, the gig sink down to the axles of its wheels, and the lady and gentleman jump out in obvious terror behind, and with difficulty regain the broad surface of the yet dry, and, happily for them, firm sandbank.

Promptly he summoned the crew of the boat, whom he had previously advised of the probable result of this adventure, and sent them off with the urgent and stimulating command, "Pull as for your lives, or they will be lost!"

Bravely and humanely did the sailors perform their cheerfully undertaken task: every nerve was strained to give speed to the boat, whilst the steersman, as he is wont in the pursuit of the whale, no doubt urged their nervous and energetic efforts by the oft-reiterated cry "Give way! Give way, or they will be lost!"

With intense anxiety and interest my Father watched every oar's stroke in the progress of the boat, and every action of those whose rescue he sought. He marked the gradual rise of the tide, till it just washed the highest part of the surface on which the dismayed party now stood. He perceived that the sand became softened, and that they began to sink; but, with a well-tutored judgment, he marked also, to his heart's great joy, that the boat would be in time. It approached them as they were gradually sinking, when the lady threw herself forward in the water to antic.i.p.ate the rescue, and both in a few moments exulted, with nervous trepidation, in their now conscious safety from a justly-dreaded watery grave. It was a touching, heart-stirring result, realized as well by the author, under Providence, of the timely relief, as by the generously sympathising sailors and the parties themselves.

They were of course conveyed at once to the safety of the proximate sh.o.r.e, and, being landed there, the seamen returned to look after their horse and gig, which were all but submerged. The horse, with no small difficulty, they got disengaged from its entanglement with the vehicle, which, fortunately, had still energy enough left to enable them to swim it to the sh.o.r.e. The gig was then sought after, secured, and floated to the same place of safety. And, ultimately, the horse was reharnessed by their active aid; and the two individuals, who had experienced such a providential rescue, drove forthwith away from the scene of this memorable adventure.

The gentleman was found to be a Mr. M--, nephew to a dignitary of the Cathedral Church at York; his companion, Mrs. S--, a lady of fortune.

The wife of the one, I understood, and the husband of the other, were also spending the morning together mutually reciprocating in a social drive; but they had chosen the common road of the highway, and, of course, ran no risk of a similar adventure.

One would have been glad to have had to record, in connection with such an unusual incident, that the preservation from a premature death, by the sailors' cheerfully devoted energies, had met with something like a grateful recognition of the service rendered. The only acknowledgment, however, which was made for this timely and momentous aid, whereby a carriage and horse, besides the lives of two individuals in a genteel position in society were saved, was the reward of a guinea to be divided amongst the whole boat's crew. The high-minded philanthropist feels sufficient reward in the satisfaction of being privileged to be the instrument of yielding distinguished benefits to his fellow-creatures; but every right-minded person loves to see some fitting evidence of a grateful apprehension of benefits conferred. As to the paltry offering to the sailors, I remember my Father being grieved and vexed,-vexed that they should have condescended to accept any reward, where the offering, in reference even to the efforts made, much less to the service conferred, was so contemptible. As for my Father himself, the opportunity of saving the lives of two of his fellow-creatures was the source, in itself, of fervent and permanent satisfaction, affording him, no doubt, one of the most peculiarly pleasant and grateful recollections of his adventurous life.

SECTION V.-_The Greenland Doctor._

Some circ.u.mstances of a more playful nature belonging to the period embraced by the present chapter may here be introduced, with a view to vary and perhaps enliven these parental records.

The subject I select belongs to the history of a kind of _steward-surgeon_,-the humble cla.s.s of medical pract.i.tioners usually employed at the period of my Father's early career, being designed, on the one part, to fulfil the technical requirements of the law, that a whale-ship claiming the advantage of the Government "bounty," must carry a surgeon; and, on the other part, to gratify the officers in the captain's cabin by the improvement of the common culinary operations of the ship's cook, by the hands of the doctor or second-mate acting as cabin-steward and pastry-cook. To my Father's credit, however, it should be stated, that he was the first, as I have understood, who sought out a more fitting person for this department, and, obtaining a medical student from Edinburgh, employed him strictly as a medical officer, and gave him the advantage of a gentleman's position.

On one occasion, during the period referred to, my Father had not succeeded, when the time for the arrangement became pressing, in engaging a surgeon for the voyage. Hearing, however, of a person living in a village near Whitby, who had, according to repute, sundry qualifications appropriable to the station as its _duties_ were then ordered, my Father sent to inquire whether he would like a situation, the emoluments of which might far exceed his usual earnings from a multifarious profession. The "doctor," (as we shall hereafter call him,) forthwith proceeded to Whitby, and, on being particularly questioned as to his various capabilities, gave a most ample schedule of the duties he was qualified to undertake. He could bleed and draw teeth-the two essentials for the surgeon;-he could shave and dress hair-the qualifications of the barber;-he could make pastry and bake-the chief requisites of the cabin cook.

But, in order to his pa.s.sing the mustering-officer of the Customs, a medical certificate, to be obtained only by personal examination, he, somewhat to his discomfiture, was told would be requisite. After some consideration, as to the difficulties of such an ordeal, and the probabilities of failure or success, he expressed his willingness to submit to an examination. Whatever his anxieties might have been, in prospect of the trial, my father could hardly be less solicitous than the doctor himself about the result, as the sailing of the ship might possibly be delayed if the present candidate for the post of medical-officer should fail.

An appointment was forthwith arranged for this serious affair, Doctor R--, of Whitby, being the examiner, and the Angel Inn, the place for the exercise. My Father, who had accompanied his candidate officer to the place of meeting, sent him, under guidance of a waiter, to a private room, where Dr. R-- was waiting for him, wishing him, with no small measure of anxious misgivings, good-luck in his examination. But the doctor was a _wise_ man, and his simple-minded forethought did him essential service.

In a very few minutes, to my Father's much surprise and disappointment, as he naturally antic.i.p.ated, the doctor returned. "How is this?" he exclaimed, "What is the matter, that you have returned so soon?" "Oh," said the doctor, with a curious mixture of expression of subdued happiness and self-sufficient gratulation, "it's all over-I've pa.s.sed." "Pa.s.sed!"

e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed my Father, "how is that possible? Doctor R-- had no time to examine you." The doubt was settled by the handing over of a slip of paper containing a sufficient certificate. All curiosity to know how such an issue could have been attained in so limited a s.p.a.ce of time, my Father impatiently asked, "But how was it, doctor? How were you examined?"

The doctor described the scene, as I well remember my Father's account of it, in about the following terms:-"When I went to Doctor R.," said the now happily appointed surgeon, "I spoke first; I said to him, Doctor R., the long and the short of the business is this-_if I can do no good, I'll do no harm_." "Then," after a moment's pause and consideration, with some little expression of cool surprise, as the candidate described it, "Then,"

replied the examiner, "_you'll do better than half the doctors in England_;" and, without a word more, he proceeded to write out a certificate.

Anecdotes of the doctor were not unfrequently told, with evident pleasant recollections, by my Father, who seemed, in an unusual degree, to have exercised a playful pleasantry with this simple-minded officer of many departments.

The cookery he managed with a fair measure of ability; and the breakfast cakes, though not always so _fair_ as they might have been, were sufficiently enjoyable in comparison of hard coa.r.s.e biscuits. But a little disrelish was threatened by an accidental sight of the process of cake-making, which it required the full measure of indifference to trifling unfitnesses among the sailors of the mess to get over. One morning, early, my Father happened to pa.s.s by the place where the doctor was industriously preparing the paste for the oven. To his surprise he observed, and uttered an exclamation expressive of the surprise, that the hands of the manipulator of the elements of bread were not only unwashed, but most remote from the ordinary colour belonging to cleanliness. The doctor bore the exclamation with the coolest perseverance, and without even lifting his eyes from the bowl in which he was mixing the materials, contented himself with remarking, in reduplication of expression, the but ill-consoling fact, as to the effect of the operation on his hands, "the paste will clean them! the paste will clean them!"

The doctor was ambitious of practice in shooting, and fond of embracing occasions for the purpose. Whilst the ship was incidentally lying close beset in the ice, without the possibility of any movement being effected, my Father, on one occasion, bethought himself of an enlivenment of the general depression incident to such a situation, at the expense of the simple-hearted, good-natured doctor. For this he made the fitting arrangements, and then, calling up the doctor, pointed him out a dark-looking object, apparently a seal, lying at some little distance from the ship, and asked him if he would like to go and try to shoot it? The proposition was too pleasant to the doctor's wishes to be rejected, and preparations were forthwith made by the bringing up of two guns, with the requisites for loading, upon the deck. My Father took one of the guns to load, handing over the other to the doctor for the same purpose, and then they descended upon the ice, which afforded a sufficiently firm footing for their travelling to the place where the object of the contemplated sport was seen.

As they proceeded, my Father favoured the doctor by offering him the first shot; but supposing his own gun might suit the doctor best, being a finer and lighter piece than the other, he proposed an exchange, which was readily and thankfully accepted.

Coming near the place, they saw the dark-looking back of the creature plainly appearing, with an occasional slight movement indicative of wakefulness, behind a small hummock of the ice; then advancing cautiously, till almost within shot, my Father suggested that the doctor should creep forward, in shelter of the hummock, till he got the animal sufficiently within command of his gun. Having attained the requisite position, my Father, in an audible whisper, cried, "Now, doctor, now's your time!" The doctor having anxiously taken his aim, and satisfactorily covered the creature with his gun, fired, when, instead of a seal, up started one of the seamen, uttering a terrific shout of "Murder! murder! I'm a murdered man!" My Father joined in the exclamation of horror at what the doctor had done; and the doctor turning ashy pale, his knees tottering and his teeth chattering from terror, had well nigh fallen insensible under his acute emotions-emotions aggravated in intenseness of anxiety, by the cries of the other seamen now rushing in a body to the place, to see the sad catastrophe of "a man shot in mistake for a seal by the fool of a doctor."

Happily for the dismayed and suffering sportsman, the catastrophe, though almost too painful as a joke, was soon proved to be exaggerated and unreal, by the supposed wounded seaman throwing aside the deceptive character he had a.s.sumed, and coming forward to join in the laugh against him.

It is hardly necessary to mention that the whole affair was contrived, and that, by the changing of guns, my Father had secured the well-charged one of the doctor's, and replaced it with one abundantly furnished with powder and wadding, but devoid altogether of deadly shot.

It is seldom that practical jokes go off so well; for few persons will be content to be made the dupe for others' entertainment. The potion, therefore, that we should not like to have given sportively unto ourselves, we should be cautious in administering to others. Manifold cases of very serious mischief, extending even to results fatal to human life, have arisen from the unfitting or unseasonable playing off of practical jokes.

In the case which I have ventured to describe, however, there was little risk. The position of the author of the joke in respect to that of its subject, on the one part, and the good-natured simplicity of character of the subject on the other, afforded, together, a sufficient security against any essential mischief. Perhaps, too, where an entire ship's company were in much depression of mind, by reason of the alarming and tedious besetment under which they were suffering, a beneficial and redeeming effect was, on the whole, realised. For the doctor himself, so far from cherishing any painful or unkindly feelings on account of the part he had unconsciously played in the little facetious drama, was too happy in being relieved from the temporarily imagined misery of having, whilst seeking sport, deprived a fellow-creature of life. So effective, indeed, did this influence react upon his feelings of anxiety, that he himself joined in the general hilarity as heartily as any of his amused shipmates.

SECTION VI.-_Taming of a Bear-Interesting Recognition._

The _Polar Bear_ is popularly known as one of the strongest and most ferocious of that cla.s.s of animals which shrinks not from voluntary conflict with man. The species is often met with, sometimes in considerable numbers, upon the sh.o.r.es of the Arctic lands, and within the region of the ices of the Greenland sea. It not unfrequently occurs of the length of seven or eight feet, and four or five feet high, weighing as much as a small ox. Specimens whose skin measured twelve to thirteen feet in length, have been described by voyagers. The "paw of the bear," of which there is Scriptural mention, may, in the full-grown animal, as now met with, be from seven to nine inches in breadth, and large enough to overspread two-thirds of a square foot, or more, of the snowy surface on which it treads. Hence its admirable adaptation for the region in which Providence has placed its abode.