Memorials of the Sea Part 5

This misadventure occurred, singularly enough, when I happened, though only a boy of ten years of age at the time, to be of the number of the souls on board. On the invitation of my Father, who had landed from his ship in pa.s.sing Whitby, on his progress northward, to take leave of his family, I had gone off with him, designing to return by the pilot boat, to see the ship. I was astonished with what I saw; I explored with unmixed delight every accessible compartment of the cabins and store-rooms below, and conceived an irresistible desire to remain where I was, and go out on the voyage. At length the call of the pilots for "Master William," as the day advanced to its close, put my desire to the test of practicability. For a while I remained silent below, and when silence was no longer likely to be available, I contrived the child-like device of hiding my hat, which, on ascending the companion ladder bare-headed, I let it be understood I could not find! My Father having noticed my delight, and interpreting rightly the little device, remarked to the pilots,-"Don't mind him; he will go along with us." A mother's anguish, however, who loved me with the tenderest and most ardent affection, flashed into my mind. It forced utterance in the expression,-"But what will my Mother say?" The reply, curiously enough regarded as being consolatory, sufficed to allay my scruples,-"She will love you better when you come back!" The pilots still urging haste in my embarkation, as the boat was thumping heavily against the ship's gangway, were at length made sensible of what they at first could not credit, that I was to remain behind; and they set out for the sh.o.r.e in no small condition of amazement, and with no slight feeling of sympathising embarra.s.sment, on account of the report they must yield to one, whom they sufficiently knew as an anxious, susceptible, and affectionate mother!

But my own story must be here suspended, as it possibly may hereafter find a place, if Providence yield me health and life for the undertaking, in the series of the "Memorials of the Sea," which, sometimes, I venture to contemplate carrying on.

The leading incidents of this disappointing enterprise, I am enabled to give with a satisfactory measure of confidence, from a record made of it, many years ago, in a private autobiography, from which, mainly, I extract the following details.

After touching at Lerwick (Shetland), for the completion of our supplementary crew of _boatmen_, we proceeded northward towards the usual whale-fishing stations. On arriving in sight of Spitzbergen, and finding the western coast accessible, with a vein of clear water running continuously along sh.o.r.e, we pursued the encouraging opening as far as the northern headland of Charles Island, in lat.i.tude 78 53' N. Here, tempted by the clear water eastward, we reached into a wide inlet near King's Bay, when, by a sudden gale coming on from the northward and north-westward, we were driven, enc.u.mbered by ice of recent formation, and fragments of old ice, into the opening betwixt the foreland and the main, where the ship ultimately became closely beset in the _Bay of Birds_ of Barentz.

At first, the officers in general thought little of the entanglement, expecting that any favourable change of wind would serve to release us. My Father, however, watching the augmentation in the thickness of the ice, by pressure and frost, received, very early, a more anxious impression. He had observed, indeed, that the ice was not yet thoroughly sealed together and fixed into an immoveable ma.s.s. For, periodically, he perceived, that some relaxation in the compactness of the general body of ices took place, which he ascribed to the action of a tide; and, on one evening, before retiring to rest, when a fine breeze, favourable for promoting an opening seaward had begun to prevail, he rather confidently antic.i.p.ated some relaxation which might be available for our escape at the period of the favourably acting tide. In this expectation, he gave special orders to the chief officer, who had formerly been a whaling commander, and ought to have well appreciated the importance of the instruction,-to call him when the hoped-for relaxation of the ice might take place. But, disappointingly enough, he awoke of himself after a rather long sleep, when, as his watch indicated, the time of favourable tide must be pa.s.sed. He anxiously dressed himself and hasted upon deck; but, whilst much slack and navigable ice was yet visible at some little distance to the north-westward, all about the ship was close and impenetrable. His enquiry as to whether the ice about the ship had not also slacked? led to the mortifying admission, reluctantly extracted, that the ice had indeed slacked very near to the ship, but, as was intimated in excuse, "it was so _rank_ and difficult that nothing could be done without 'calling all hands,' and much trouble; and he," the chief mate, "thought it would perhaps be more cleared away, by the hopeful breeze, by the time the Captain turned out!"

The highly culpable folly of this conduct became too soon apparent to all.

For when an easterly, and then a southerly wind blew, without inducing any repet.i.tion of the slackness that had been missed; when we found the whole of the acc.u.mulated ices frozen into a solid field, without crack, or opening of any kind to be seen from the mast-head; when we marked our position as deeply embayed within the projecting headlands, and the ice everywhere wedged up against and cemented to all the circ.u.mjacent sh.o.r.es,-every one became anxious respecting the success of the voyage, whilst some began to entertain the depressing apprehension that the ship might possibly be detained throughout the winter!

The story of our distressing detention, with the measures adopted partly for the employment of the men, but which became ultimately available, even beyond our utmost hopes, for facilitating our release, is too long,-consistently with the extent designed for this volume, and the completion hereafter, possibly, of some personal records,-for being given in detail. It may be sufficient, for our present purpose, now to say, that after the endurance of the misery of an eight weeks' besetment, release was happily attained, and the Dundee was again free (but not until the season adapted for the fishery had thus been all but wasted) to range through any part of the ordinarily accessible ocean.

Our course being directed towards the north-west, we soon fell in with ships, and learnt that the fishery had been tolerably good, and that two or three ships had already obtained almost full cargoes.

Shortly afterwards we met with fish, and all hands set forth in earnest anxious pursuit. But they were, in fact, too anxious, and, in part, discouraged by the idea that the season was about at an end. Their efforts, in consequence, were ill directed or inadequately followed up, and only mortifying failures resulted. Stimulated by the defects and failures of his harponeers, my Father was induced to try the chase himself. Forthwith taking his post at the bow of one of the boats, he soon gave evidence of his superior efficiency. He "struck" whale after whale to the amount of three; but not being adequately supported by the other boats, one of the first of these escaped from the harpoon, under circ.u.mstances such as, he considered, should have led to its capture. Excited by this failure, he changed boats, in one of the other cases, after the fish, under the first harpoon, had reappeared at the surface; and, as the harponeers generally seemed heartless and inert, he changed again, after fastening another harpoon, until he had planted no less than three or four harpoons, in the same fish, with his own hands!

The season, however, soon came to a close, and these two whales, with a dead one which was also discovered by himself, const.i.tuted the whole of the Dundee's cargo in this trying year,-a cargo yielding only five-and-forty tuns of oil, yet amounting, after all, to nearly two-thirds of the general average of the Greenland fishery.

Notwithstanding this serious abstraction from the general average of his five years' adventures in the Dundee, my Father's general pre-eminence was, in the issue, still maintained. During these five voyages, ninety-four whales were captured, and an amount of 812 tuns of oil brought to market.

The yearly average, _inclusive_ of the year of unavoidable failure, was no less than 188 whales, producing 1624 tuns of oil, besides the fair proportion of whalebone, sealskins, etc.

Compared with the fishery from Hull and Whitby, and, as far as my materials go, elsewhere, this result was considerably beyond that of any other Greenland whaler. With respect to the Hull average for the same period, the Dundee's superiority was in the ratio of 1624 to 775 tuns of oil, or more than two to one. In comparison with the success of any other individual ship, the Dundee still stood at the head of the list,-the nearest approach in Hull being that of the Ellison, a ship commanded, during four years out of the five, by the same enterprising and talented officer, Mr. Allan, as we had occasion to notice, so favourably, in a former comparison. The Molly, Captain Angus Sadler,-a hardy adventurous and able commander, who, in subsequent years, became chief amongst his compet.i.tors from Hull,-obtained, during my Father's command of the Dundee, the next highest amount of cargoes,-the total, in the five years, being 689 tuns of oil.

The Egginton, Wray, (one voyage under another captain) obtained, at the same time, 508 tuns; the Symmetry, Rose, 481 tuns; the f.a.n.n.y, Jameson and Taylor, 460 tuns; the Manchester, Matson, 417 tuns, etc.;-the Dundee's cargoes, as has been shewn, being, in the same period, 812 tuns.

But, besides these comparisons, in all respects so favourable, we may again venture, up to the end of eleven years of consecutive adventures, to take the severest test of compet.i.tion; viz. a comparison betwixt the Dundee's cargoes, and that of the select cargoes, for the five corresponding years, of the most prosperous Greenland-man, from Hull, of each year. And under this amount, being 806 tuns of oil, the Dundee is found still to stand the first.

SECTION V.-_Successful Stratagem in War._

An incident of a very stirring and exciting nature occurred in the very outset of the unfortunate voyage just referred to, which I here take occasion of introducing, as very characteristic of my Father's tact and cool self-possession.

A day or two after leaving the coast of Yorkshire, from whence I had myself embarked,-the weather being fine with a brisk and favourable wind, and the ship going steadily and swiftly under her ample and well-trimmed sails,-all hands were set to work, my Father superintending, in clearing the 'tween-decks of a variety of stores hastily taken in, and confusedly scattered about, in order to make all snug and secure for the North-Sea pa.s.sage. So much were all hands, men and officers, engrossed by this important labour of clearance and order, that, some how or other, the "look-out" had been for awhile neglected, when, suddenly it was announced, by a voice calling out from the deck at one of the hatchways-"a ship bearing down close upon us!"

It being a time of war, and the North Sea abounding with ships of war and privateers of the enemy, the announcement produced an instant suspension of the work going on, and drew universal attention to a circ.u.mstance which might possibly involve the safety of life and property in the ship.

My Father's quick eye, and sure telescopic glance, discovered at once the characteristic marks of an enemy, and vessel of war. She was bearing down, steering easterly, exactly so as to intercept our track, but not on any of the courses usually steered either for England, France, or Denmark. Already she had approached within a little more than a mile of our position, and so that in about a quarter of an hour we must be within hailing distance.

With the promptness and coolness characteristic of the Dundee's Commander, measures for self-defence, and skilful strategy, were arranged and progress commenced. These measures, I conceive, are worthy of some particular notice.

His habit, it should be observed, was to endeavour to antic.i.p.ate, in quiet contemplation, the various contingencies pertaining to his enterprise, which, peradventure, might be considered as not unlikely to happen. The meeting of an enemy, therefore, was one of those incidents that had been regarded as by no means improbable, and the dealing with which, by what ingenious tact or device might be available, had been well considered. For to _fight_ with an enemy, where stratagy might answer for an escape, was justly held as most unwise, where success in conflict could gain no prize;[F] where failure must issue in loss of property, voyage, and personal liberty; and where either failure or success must probably involve a loss of life, for which there was neither call of duty to risk, nor possible compensation to justify.

Fortunately, had the extremity required, he was in a position calculated for a brave defence. The Dundee was as well armed as she was well manned, carrying twelve guns, eighteen pounders, I believe, with a crew of betwixt fifty and sixty men. The guns were already loaded, and in every way fit for immediate service.

The stratagy, in this case, contemplated, was to give, to the threatening a.s.sailant, the surprise of a concealed armament, and the impression as of a designed deception in the cla.s.s of ship a.s.sumed.

And fortunate it was, that there were circ.u.mstances connected with the qualifications of the crew, and the construction of the ship, admirably adapted for the experiment proposed. For contemplating, as we have intimated, such a risk as that now threatening him, my Father had selected out of the variety of hands offering themselves for the voyage, two men of rather unusual qualifications,-one, who was an adept in beating the drum, the other "in winding a boatswain's call." These qualities, amongst seafaring men, being almost peculiar to cla.s.ses employed in vessels of war, induced a preference, in respect to them, over others, though the drummer might by no means be equal to some who were rejected, in regard to general seamen-like attainments.

The construction of the ship, too, was well adapted for the execution of the proposed surprise, being "deep-waisted" with a high quarter-deck, and having her guns entirely below, with no outward indication, at a distance, of either ports or armament.

On the first alarm, the hands, with one accord, had begun to swarm up on the deck, but their retirement was promptly commanded. The men required for the guns were sent to their quarters, with orders to make all ready for action, but to lift no port. The hands above, whilst requiring to move about, were kept as much as possible on the leeside of the deck, where, from the heeling of the ship and the enemy's windward position, they were in sufficient concealment. The _drummer_ and _boatswain_, now most important elements in the plan, had their special instructions, whilst the crew thus became generally sensible, by means of the orders given, of the ingenious device of their commander, so as to be well prepared to give to it its utmost impression.

Short as the time was,-the coolness of the commander being communicated to the men, so as to relieve the urgent haste from any embarra.s.sing confusion,-all arrangements had been completed before the enemy came within hailing distance. At that period (as _apparently_ from the first), everything visible on board the Dundee indicated an unconcerned quietness, and utter unconsciousness of danger from the stranger's approach. The men on deck were laid down flat on their faces. My Father coolly walking the quarter-deck, and the helmsman engaged in his office of steering, were the only living beings who could be discerned from the deck of the a.s.sailant.

Without showing any colours, in answer to our English ensign waving at the mizen-peak, the stranger came down to within short musket-shot distance, when a loud and unintelligible roar of the Captain, through his speaking-trumpet, indicated the usual demand of the nation or denomination of our ship. A significant wave of my Father's hand served instead of a reply. The drum beats to quarters, and whilst the roll yet reverberates around, the shrill sound of the boatswain's pipe is heard above all. And whilst the hoa.r.s.e voice of this officer is yet giving forth the consequent orders, the apparently plain sides of the ship become suddenly pierced; six ports on a side are simultaneously raised, and as many untompioned cannon, threatening a more serious bellowing than that of the now astonished Captain's trumpet-aided voice, are run out, pointing ominously toward the enemy's broadside!

The stratagem was complete; its impression quite perfect. The adversary seemed electrified. Men on the enemy's deck, some with lighted matches in hand, and plainly visible to us by reason of her heeling position whilst descending obliquely from the windward, were seen to fall flat, as if prostrated by our shot; the guns, pointed threateningly at us, remained silent; the helm flew to port, and the yards to the wind, on our opposite tack; and without waiting for answer to his summons, or venturing to renew his attempt on such a formidable looking opponent, he suddenly hauled off, under full sail, in a direction differing, by some six points, from that in which he had previously intercepted our track!

SECTION VI.-_Extraordinary Exploit in "cutting-in" single-handed, a moderately-grown Young Whale._

The tardy formality with which the "flensing" of the whale was accomplished, irrespective of the particular magnitude of the animal to be despoiled of its blubber and whalebone, was frequently a source of great annoyance to my Father. The number of cuts, with the placing of straps, and attachment of tackles, had become-like the skeleton forms issued by public offices-an established system; and, c.u.mbrous as it was, with respect to fish of smaller growth, it was made generally applicable to all. The effect of this was, that whilst the largest sized fish would be flensed in about four hours, the taking in of one of the fourth, or sixth part its size would occupy nearly half as much time. An hour and a half at least, but more frequently two hours, at that period of the fishery, would be expended upon one of the ordinary small-sized whales. The poor little carca.s.s, indeed, was enc.u.mbered by the number of the harponeers (to whose province belongs the fixing of the tackles and the cutting away of the blubber) congregated upon, or about it, whilst flensing.

As every instance of remonstrance, whilst failing in producing any improvement, regularly induced unpleasantness of feeling, my Father was at length provoked to put forth a challenge, to which his officers were able to offer no possible objection, except the indication, by look and gesture, that they would derive some recompense for the rebukes pa.s.sed on them, by certain and signal failure. His adventurous challenge was, that, with the a.s.sistance of only one-third part of the available crew, he would go on a fish, and send it in, single-handed, in _half the time_ occupied by the four or six harponeers with the help of all hands!

Opportunities for the experiment being at this time abundantly afforded, he forthwith prepared himself for this trial of skill. The available hands-that is, excluding cook, steward, surgeon, etc.-were usually about forty-five or forty-six in number. Out of these he took, not a picked set, but only two boats' crews, with their supernumeraries, according to their existing cla.s.sification, comprising about sixteen men. These he appointed to their several stations about the deck; eight to the capstan, four, perhaps, to the "crab" or "winch," and the rest to manage the "tackle-falls," to cut up the blubber and heave it into the "flens-gut," or receptacle for it below. The two boys who were appointed, on the usual plan, to hold the boat in which he was to stand whilst flensing, were, perhaps, extra; but this I forget.

Previous to the commencement of the experiment, the preparing of his cutting instruments, viz. a "blubber-spade" and "blubber-knife," became matter of personal and special attention. The _spade_, (an instrument with the cutting part about eight inches broad, and used in the manner of the "hay-spade,") was not merely ground to a fine edge and then sharpened with an oil-stone, but the sides (ordinarily left black with varnish, or encrusted with rust,) were reduced by the grindstone to a bright and smooth surface. His blubber-knife (an instrument with a three feet blade and three feet straight handle) was, in like manner, carefully ground, sharpened, and polished; so that these instruments, presenting the least possible resistance, from the adhesion of the metal to the blubber, when in use, the muscular strength of the flenser might, in no respect, be uselessly expended.

All things being ready, and the men duly distributed, the time was noted, and my Father, single-handed, as I have said,-except as to a man to put in the straps[G] and attach the tackles, that he might not have occasion to wet or grease his hands,-proceeded to the trial on his apparently presumptuous challenge.

The plan he had previously determined on, and which subsequently became very common in the flensing of small fish, was the following:-

The under part of the head (always being placed upward for flensing), with the jaw-bones, "lips," and tongue, is first attached to the capstan tackle, and, being separated as it is hove up, is taken on deck altogether.

Meanwhile the skull, with the whalebone and upper part of the head,-which is brought in sight, clear of the water, by the strain hove upon the other section or lower jaw,-is secured by the second tackle, and speedily made to follow its companion in the ascent to the deck.

One of the fins, having a strap previously put round it, is next hove upon, till (the fish being free to roll over, so as to adjust its position to the direction of the strain,) it is well raised upward, and, the blubber annexed to it, put upon the stretch. The fin is then easily "unsocketed,"

and the blubber on the seaward side being cut across beyond it, it becomes the attachment for heaving up a long slip of three or four feet in width, and extending, with its upper part, high above the level of the deck. As this ascends, (the fish meanwhile spontaneously "canting" outwardly from the ship), the other fin appears in sight, and, being embraced by another strap, is, in its turn, hove up by the "fore-tackle" correspondently, as to its further progress, with its fellow. When the attachment of the second, or fore-tackle, rises to about the level of the deck, the blubber-slip is cut across, just above the place of that attachment, and the separated portion, being lowered down upon the deck, is cut up, with singular celerity, into square lumps, adapted for being easily thrown about by the "pick-haak" men; and these, as rapidly as they are cut out, are made to disappear through a hole in one of the main-hatches into the flens-gut below.

The moment the first, or "after-tackle," is released, it is overhauled again over the ship's side, and, a fresh strap being fixed in the continuous slip, (which, to preserve its continuity, is cut spirally from the carca.s.s,) the progress of the operation goes on, without ceasing, till the whole superficies of blubber is removed.

The progress in the case referred to must, doubtless, have been regarded with strange feelings of astonishment and mortification by the severely rebuked harponeers; for, on the completion of the operation, the watch being again appealed to, the adventurous challenge was found to have been triumphantly vindicated. Instead of the work being effected, as challenged to be done, in half the time which had been expended by thrice the force in the number of men, it was found to have occupied but little more than a third part of that interval. With all hands to help, the time frequently expended by the harponeers in flensing a small fish had been nearly two hours; my Father, with a third part of the crew, had, single-handed, done the same thing in almost forty minutes!

This extraordinary feat of tact and strength was first accomplished, I believe, during my Father's command of the Dundee; but the feat was repeated, under my own observation, on board the Resolution, and the tardiness of a burdensome system, still too prevalently acted upon by the officers, was similarly rebuked. To the extent, at least of a saving of _one-half_ the time spent in the operation by the harponeers, the bold experiment, single-handed and with but one-third of the crew, was successfully repeated.

My Father's plan of proceeding, in this extraordinary feat, is worthy of notice. His const.i.tutional habit, as I may term it, of a sort of _deliberate celerity_ was here the characteristic of his progress. But no time was wasted. As fast as the men on deck could heave-up the blubber, the blubber was freed to their hands. Every change of tackle, or place of working, was so managed as to leave no interruption in the labours of his men. As he never himself ceased working, he took care by judicious preconsideration, that they should never stand idle. On the contrary, he had his own part always in advance of their province, so that, in order to keep pace with him, they were stimulated to the utmost practicable degree of activity. The capstan, whilst the tackle was slack, or the strain slight, actually spun round, whilst the hands on it, "shortening in on the bars," ran at their utmost speed. An instinctive spirit was infused into every department; for no section of the men liked to be behind, so as to be in the humiliating position of hinderers of the others.

Though the master-hand was accomplishing so much in so short a time,-more, in this species of work, I may be bold to say, than any other man ever did before or since,-there was no appearance of hurry. His sharp and finely-polished _spade_ with which he chiefly worked, seemed to meet with no resistance from the animal textures against which its edge was directed.

Instead of cutting downward through the blubber a spade-breadth at a time, as most usually was done, he would run the instrument in a direction obliquely horizontal, so as to separate the slip then heaving up from the general envelopment of the blubber, for a yard or two in extent, at a single stroke or thrust of the instrument. The slight attachment of the blubber to the muscles of the carca.s.s could then be usually torn away (with a touch underneath with the spade when incidentally needful to be cut) by the force with which the slip was being raised by the mechanical engines in motion on the deck.

Thus proceeding with calm and quiet self-possession, and with unceasing perseverance, few cuts being made but at the best advantage, and no stroke of his cutting-tools being struck in vain, the work proceeded with such despatch as to accomplish the extraordinary results we have just described.