Memorials of the Sea Part 7

Some warm and nourishing diluents having been given to him, he was conducted to his own berth, and, with the view of removing his distressing feeling of chilliness, two of his comrades were requested to accompany him; where, one on each side, their abundant healthful circulation and animal heat, proved most effective in ministering, restoratively, to these defects in the condition of the patient.

The shock on his const.i.tution, however, was greater, with respect to his apparent early recovery, than was antic.i.p.ated. He was so far restored, within a few days, as to be able to engage in his usual duties; but months elapsed before his countenance exhibited its wonted glow and appearance of health.

SECTION III.-_Judicious Treatment of Men having suffered from severe Exposure._

The Resolution was moored to a flat sheet of ice, surrounded by streams and open drift ice, on the 30th of April, 1808. It blew fresh, and the weather was cold. In the evening a whale was harpooned, which ran out about the length of a mile and a half of line from the fast-boat. Other harpoons, and several lances, were then struck, and no doubt remained with the pursuers but that it would speedily become their prize. But this expectation signally failed. A tremendous and convulsive throe of the whale produced an extraordinary effect: one of the lines, and also a harpoon were broken, and the other two harpoons drawn out simultaneously, when, to the astonishment of the beholders, the imagined capture was found, in one moment, to have become free. It dived and escaped!

A storm meanwhile had commenced. Five boats, with their crews, remained for the getting in of the long length of line run out from the first fast-boat, whilst two, myself in one of them, returned to the ship, in aid of the inadequate residue of men-for any nautical operation-left on board.

Thick snow set in, the storm increased, and the ship, being fast to a _light_ piece of ice, drifted rapidly to leeward, and away from the boats.

We became distressfully anxious about the safety of the absent men. At one the next morning the mooring was cut, and the ship being got under way, was worked on short tacks to windward, in the supposed direction of the boats.

At three we were rejoiced by the appearance of three of the boats, which, with crews unharmed, we got safely on board. The remainder, they reported, might be expected by the same track in half an hour.

Cheered by this hope, we continued making every effort to get the ship to windward. But, long after the time of their expected return, no other boat appeared. Hour after hour of anxiety and distress pa.s.sed over whilst we navigated, off and on, among troublesome and dangerous ices. Guns were fired occasionally, and at every unoccupied interval all hands were engaged in the one object which sympathy urged-the straining of their eyes in the hope of discerning the boats of their comrades through the obscurity of the snow. The obscurity was not attenuated; the storm raged, and the sea increased, whilst a foreboding gloom appeared in every countenance, darkening and keeping pace with the dismalness of the night. The loss of one-half of the Ipswich's crew on a similar occasion was yet fresh on our minds, and low whisperings of expressions of fear, and shuddering responses, indicated a prevailing dread of a similar fate to their comrades.

At length, happy moment! a little after eight in the morning, a sudden shout of joy announced the discovery of the boats, and in a few minutes we had the undescribable satisfaction of seeing them alongside. Aided by those on board with ropes and hands, they were all, twelve to fourteen in number, received safe on board, and welcomed with the most heartfelt greeting by their truly exulting shipmates.

The natural desire and effort to get below, into a place of genial warmth, both with the shivering sailors and the sympathising people on board, was, with most judicious consideration on the part of my Father, restrained. The men had been suffering from more than a twelve hours' exposure, without food or adequate extra clothing, to cold and storm,-the thermometer, which had been as low as 13 degrees, being still 8 or 10 degrees below freezing,-and many were partially frost-bitten, and some stiff and half-paralyzed with the severity of the weather. In this case, he wisely considered, that sudden transition to the warm galley, and proximity to the blazing fire of the cabouse below, might be productive of dangerous, possibly of fatal, effects. He felt it was needful for their safety that means should be _previously_ adopted for restoring, in some measure, the arrested or r.e.t.a.r.ded circulation.

Stimulants, in a case of this kind, moderately administered, were considered advantageous; but friction, and muscular exercise, much more essential to safety. Those, therefore, whose hands or feet, or faces or ears, had become _white_ (like the appearance of a tallow candle) by the utter abstraction of the blood, had their frost-bitten parts actively and perseveringly rubbed with the open hands of others, and the worst cases with snow, until the endurance of the severe, or even agonizing pain usually attending the recovery, when the repelled circulation begins to be restored in the affected parts, had removed the risk of _mortification_ taking place. Others were variously _exercised_, as they were able to make muscular efforts of themselves, or with the a.s.sistance of others. Those who were capable of the exertion were made to run about the deck, chasing, or being chased, one by another. And soon apprehending, as most of them did, the wisdom of the measures adopted, they not only entered into them heartily, but those who had been the most affected, as soon as their limbs obtained power for the exertion, were ready to join, or to attempt to join, in the exercise and race, until some glow of warmth, and consciousness of restored sensation, had taken place of the pre-existing chilliness or insensibility. They were then, under strict cautions against approaching at first too near the fire, suffered to go below; and, happily, under this wise and effective treatment, all escaped without any permanent injury.

A stout Shetland boy had well nigh fallen a sacrifice to the severity of the exposure. He expressed a great desire, whilst abroad in one of the boats, for sleep, and earnestly entreated the men, who objected to the indulgence of the inclination, to allow him to compose himself for half an hour, "for he was sure," he said, "that he should dream of the situation of the ship." After a few minutes' repose, which they were induced to permit, he was awoke, but with difficulty, and it required considerable attention on the part of his companions to keep him from a sleep which, under such circ.u.mstances, they well knew must be the harbinger of death.

Other instances of the happy exercise of good judgment in the treatment of men who had suffered long exposure to cold and hunger, might have been adduced had I particularly noted them. One other case, though of no real danger, (occurring May 29th, 1809,) may be briefly mentioned, in which I was personally a partic.i.p.ator.

It was blowing a fresh gale from the north-east, with strong frost, thermometer 20, but the sea was not very considerable because of the sheltering influence of surrounding ice. Two whales were captured; but one of them dying at a great depth under water, had to be hauled up by the united crews of two or three boats, which proved a tedious and severe labour. We were absent from the ship from fourteen to sixteen hours, without food or shelter from the inclement gale, sometimes lying inertly on our oars waiting for the rising of the harpooned whales, or for the hauling up of the sunken one to the surface; and sometimes we were engaged in pulling about, hauling in lines, or in "towing" the dead fish to the ship.

By the time we got on board we were mostly in a state of considerable exhaustion, and all were painfully suffering from cold and hunger.

My Father had considerately provided for our return. Instead of the distribution of ardent spirits,-the measure universally resorted to at this period, with the view of cheering and restoring the depressed energies of any long-exposed party of adventurers in the boats,-a far better and more effective provision had been made. A huge kettle of coffee was boiling on the fire, which, with the usual supplies of bread and beef, was distributed in ample quant.i.ty among the half-starved party now returning; and a more grateful or more salutary instance of administered refreshment I do not remember ever to have enjoyed. The heat of this beverage, supplied as it was so liberally to all, had the most happy effect in aiding the restoration of the animal heat, and of exhilarating without unduly stimulating the depressed physical condition of the men. The case afforded an admirable practical example of the correctness of the principles generally a.s.serted, in favour of simple drinks over spirituous or fermented stimulants, by the advocates of "Temperance."

SECTION IV.-_The Crow's Nest._

The invention of the CROW'S NEST in the form now universally used by the British Arctic whalers, and adopted generally by our discovery ships, deserves, from its convenience, comfort, and importance, a special record.

For the safe and effective navigation of the Arctic ices, as well as for a due watch being kept for the discovery of whales, an elevated position on the mast, as a station for the directing or "look-out" officer, is absolutely necessary. In seas covered over with numerous ma.s.ses of ice, or in positions where the navigation is at once enc.u.mbered, difficult, and perhaps dangerous, it is impossible for the officer _on deck_ to perform the duty, at all adequately, of directing the ship's course and progress.

From time immemorial, therefore, the captains of whalers, or other acting officers, have always been wont to take their station occasionally, and when necessity required, at the mast-head, or rather on the main top-mast "cross-trees." For the benefit of a little shelter from the piercing breezes in this exposed situation, some ships were provided with a canvas screen of about three and a half or four feet in height, pa.s.sed round the sides and fore-part of the top-gallant rigging, from the top-mast cross-trees upward. This, with a sort of wooden rail for a seat, extending betwixt the aftermost shrouds of the top-gallant rigging, afforded the _best crow's nest_ hitherto made use of; a shelter tolerably effective when the ship was sailing by or near the wind, but altogether useless when going with the wind abaft the beam. It was not very safe either, as accidents from sleepiness, or the giving way of the very inadequate seat, sometimes happened. Besides, when top-gallant sails were set, this contrivance was all but useless. But a far inferior sort of protection than this was in frequent or ordinary use at the time of my first experience in the Arctic seas. For years, I remember, we had nothing more for sheltering behind but bits of canvas on either side of the top-gallant rigging and round the top-mast head, without anything in front; and in some voyages still less,-a slip of canvas bound round the head of the top-mast and heel of the top-gallant mast, spreading some eighteen inches to two feet wide, and perhaps three and a half feet high, being all that the poor officer had to shield him from the most penetrating severity of the Arctic winds. Often have I myself sat, when a little boy, by the side of my Father for hours at a time, in this wretchedly exposed position, shivering with cold generally, and with hands and feet frequently in severe pain, whilst he habituated me in his superior practice of navigating amid dangerous ices.

The consequences of this deficiency of protection were,-that the proper navigation of the ship was often neglected, the discovery of many whales sufficiently within view from thence was prevented, and the success of the adventure was much restricted.

The greatest boon, therefore, of modern times, ever given to the Arctic navigator, it may be safely, I think, said, was my Father's invention of the _round top-gallant crow's nest_. It was in May, 1807, I believe, in which the first of these was built. It was placed, in the first instance, at the top-mast head, but ultimately, when the invention became perfected, it was perched, like a rostrum, on the head of the main top-gallant mast, with nothing whatever above.

This structure, as most approved by the inventor, is about four and a half feet in height and two and a half in diameter. The form is cylindrical, open above and closed below. The frame-work of the cylindrical part is covered with leather or canvas. The entrance is by a trap-hatch at the bottom. Arrangements are made for the depositing (sheltered from the weather) of various pieces of useful apparatus, such as speaking-trumpet, telescope, signal-flag, perhaps a rifle for shooting narwals, compa.s.s, etc.

For the more effectual shelter of the observer when standing up, a moveable screen, two or three feet wide and adding a foot to the elevation, is placed on the windward side, and shifted whenever the ship is tacked, or the course materially changed.

The protection thus obtained from the chilling action of the wind is most perfect. Not a breath of air stirs within this elevated rostrum. The observer has free use of all his limbs, and, being safe from the possibility of falling, has nothing to disturb him in giving his entire attention to the navigation of the ship and the look-out for whales. Being perched, too, on the most elevated part of the mast, there is nothing to interfere with his view of the whole area of the circle of vision, having, in clear weather, a diameter of twenty to twenty-two geographical miles. So supported, and so effectually protected, with the means of sitting, and s.p.a.ce for moving about when standing, there is no particular hardship, in tolerable weather, in remaining at the mast-head for some hours together.

Often has this elevated position been occupied by my Father, (and often by myself, too,) during ten or twelve hours, and sometimes fourteen hours or more, within the twenty-four.

This invention has not only added unspeakably to the comfort and security of the officer at the mast-head, but has, no doubt, contributed greatly both to the safety of ships navigating the Arctic ices, and, in respect of its position for "a good look-out," in no inconsiderable degree to the prosperity of their adventures.

The attainment of this position during storm and snow, or when the rigging, as not unfrequently happens, is covered with gla.s.sy ice, is the chief matter of discomfort, difficulty, and risk. The frigid northerly blast feels as if blowing quite through and through you. The ascent, by the ordinary rigging and ratlings, conducts you to about three-fourths of the elevation of the top-mast; you then step into midships, upon a series of battens extending betwixt the top-mast backstays; and, finally, when approaching the cross-trees, you proceed up a vertically stretched ladder of ropes and battens,-ropes on the sides, and battens as steps,-until you make lodgment within the crow's nest by the trap-hatch, which, being then put down, forms a part of the close and secure platform.

SECTION V.-_Extraordinary Celerity in preparing an empty Boat for active Service in the Fishery._

In the celerity with which he accomplished complex or tedious operations pertaining to seamanship or the whale-fishery, my Father stood quite unrivalled. We have elucidated this characteristic in a former section, in respect to the flensing of a young whale with extraordinary rapidity, and we now adduce another example of a more incidental nature.

During the outward pa.s.sage towards the fishing-stations, the boats, designed for the fishery, are carried out in an entirely dismantled state,-some being stowed away upon deck, and some, perhaps, below. On reaching the ice it is usual to suspend a couple of boats, or more, by their davits, at the quarters of the ship, to be ready for sealing, or any occasional purpose. But the whale-lines and other fishing apparatus are not wont to be put into them until the ship reaches, or approaches near to, some of the accustomed fishing-stations.

The boats of the Resolution were in this second condition on the 11th of April, 1808, when the ship, in her progress northward, had reached the 71st degree of lat.i.tude,-a parallel in which whales were not expected to be met with. It happened, however, on the occasion alluded to, (as I find it noted in my log-book, kept at the time,) that a whale made its appearance very near to the ship. It was in the morning, early, whilst my Father was yet in bed; but he was not called, because, in the unprepared condition of the boats, the officer of the watch, and indeed all the people on deck, considered the pursuit of it to be utterly impracticable.

My Father, however, as little trammelled in judgment by ordinary usages as he was in the habit of being guided by popular ideas of the limits of practicability, was much annoyed by the officer's a.s.sumption, which had prevented his being called. "It was no use disturbing you," the officer pleaded, "as there was not a boat in readiness for the fishery." "But a boat might have been got ready," was the confidently a.s.serted rebuke. That this could have been done, however, within the short period of time in which a solitary whale might be expected to remain within sight, seemed to the officers as utterly impossible; for whilst a whale, under such circ.u.mstances, would seldom be found to remain within sight for half an hour, the preparing of the boats with lines, harpoons, and other requisites for the fishery, would, as they conceived, occupy several hours.

My Father maintained, however, the practicability of a boat being fitted out, in a manner sufficient for efficiency, in the course of a quarter of an hour; and, when the idea was unhesitatingly objected to as an _impossibility_, he undertook to prove his a.s.sertion. A boat then hanging at the larboard quarter, empty, except as to oars, he selected for an experiment, and undertook, with the help only of the watch upon deck,-about sixteen hands,-to have that boat ready for active service within the s.p.a.ce of fifteen minutes.

To the due apprehending of this unprecedented undertaking, it will be proper to describe what is ordinarily deemed needful for fitting out a boat for the harpooning and capturing of the whale. The loose furniture of oars, harpoons, lances, etc., present no particular difficulty; but the supplying of an adequate quant.i.ty of lines, and placing them in a condition for being safely run out, is, as ordinarily practised, a long and tedious operation.

The lines, it may be mentioned, are taken on board from their winter storehouse, in coils made up by the ropemaker, in the shape of a short drum, each coil weighing a little more than a hundred-weight, and measuring 120 fathoms in length. They are so coiled, in regular layers, commencing with that of the slender square or cylindrical centre on which they are wound, that they may be either unwound, by reversing the original motion of the coil from the exterior, or by taking up the inner end left loose in the open centre, the line may be drawn out thence whilst the coil remains at rest. For the lodgment of the lines, when deliberately preparing for the fishery, they are _unrolled_ from the cylindrical ma.s.s, and coiled in compartments in the boats as they come off; but as this could not be done under a period of some hours, the running of the lines out of the centre of the coils was the plan alone available for my Father's object.

Whilst every article of the requisite apparatus was yet in the place of its ordinary lodgment,-harpoons and lances being in the places appropriated for them in the 'tween decks, and whale-lines in the gunroom,-the time for commencing was noted, and my Father proceeded, as I very well recollect witnessing, to the proof of this new feat of activity and management.

To the several hands of the "watch," now gathered round him, was distinctly apportioned his part of the undertaking; first of all in bringing promptly on deck the requisite quant.i.ty of whale-lines and fishing apparatus, and then in placing them fit for service. Several lines (I think about four in number) were stowed away in different compartments of the boat, with the interior cavity of each upward. The inner end of the line of one of the coils, in the most favourable position for running, was rapidly "spliced"

to the "foreganger" of the harpoon by my Father, whilst the officers about him were set to the splicing properly together of the alternate outside end of one coil with the inner end of another, so as to const.i.tute an appropriate running series. Everything being accomplished, and the boat got ready for lowering, the time was again noted, when, to the astonishment of all on board, the interval expended was found only to have been _twelve_ minutes!

The rebuke of the officer of the morning watch, thus experimentally justified, occasioned, very naturally, a desire to question, if questioning could in any one particular be maintained, the effectiveness or safety of the preparations thus hastily made. And it _was_ questioned whether lines so disposed, for being run off the ropemaker's coils, would be safe to trust to their running clear in the case of actual service. This matter was soon settled by a most satisfactory experiment. As a whale when harpooned does not go faster away than a man can run, it was proposed to run off the whole of the lines out of the boat by hand, in order to prove that the arrangements that had been made were adequate, both for ordinary service and safety.

The decks were forthwith cleared, fore and aft, and the men arranged to run with the line, from the boat to the forecastle, in unceasing succession,-a service which they performed, after the word was given to start, with a hearty goodwill and their utmost activity; and the experiment was admirably successful. The whole of the lines went out of the boat, by the usual notch over the stem, without hitch or failure of the slightest kind interrupting their free progress from beginning to end!

SECTION VI.-_Tact and Bravery in attacking and killing a dangerously-resisting Whale._

It was no uncommon event for my Father, in case of any difficult or dangerous enterprise in the fishery, to take part himself in the adventure.

The special case now referred to will ill.u.s.trate at once his practice and talent.

On the 29th of May, 1807, a whale was harpooned by one of our officers. It descended to some considerable depth, but speedily returned. On its reappearance, it evinced an uncommon degree of irritation. Its motions, whilst making but little progress a-head, were vehement and incessant,-rolling itself quite over, or, in an oscillating manner, from side to side; throwing its huge tail into the air, or flinging it with fearful impulse right and left, and so keeping the surface of the sea around it in perpetual commotion and foam. The display of its fins and tail was so terrific and dangerous, that few of those in command of our boats were hardy enough to approach it. But, under this violent action of the fish, and the inaction of our men, the risk of losing the hoped-for prize became imminent. This being evident to my Father, who, with discerning and watchful eye, had all along been viewing from the mast-head, with intense anxiety, the exciting scene with his gla.s.s,-he made the signal, and in a manner indicative of urgent haste, for one of the boats to come to the ship. In brief s.p.a.ce,-the fish not being far distant,-he had personally embarked on his dangerous enterprise.

On reaching the scene of action, where the wounded monster was still exerting its excited energies in aiming blows at any approaching boats, or thrashing the sea into a foam,-our accomplished whale-hunter quietly a.s.sumed a station, in parallelism, nearly, with the direction of the animal's extended length, and within a few fathoms of its broadside. The boat-steerer,-as the custom is,-he guided by the motion of his hand; but the boat's crew, being previously urged to exert a tremendous spring on their oars when he should decide on making his attack, were to await his verbal command.

A favourable pause, succeeding a terrific display of action and power, had been watchfully discerned by my Father, when, giving the signal to the boat-steerer to sheer towards the fish, and, simultaneously, the emphatic order to the men,-"Give way, my lads; give way!"-he was in a moment placed within reach; and then, at long arm's length, whilst leaning over the boat's bow for distance' sake, he plunged his well-sharpened harpoon deep into the writhing creature's side. Its usual vengeance-slash of its tail was made harmlessly; for the order to "back off," had been so instantly and effectively obeyed, that the boat was beyond reach before this ponderous engine of motion or destruction could be thrown out.

Rebuked, in a measure, by this daring attack of their commander, as well as encouraged and stimulated by its success, one of the hitherto hesitating boats immediately followed for a similar object; but the officer commanding it, not having the same tact, advanced incautiously, at an unfavourable moment, and too far within the range of the enemy's destructive members, as to subject himself and comrades to a formidable peril. The tail of the fish was again reared into the air, in a terrific att.i.tude over the boat. The harponeer, who was directly underneath, happily discovered his danger, and leaped overboard; and the next moment the threatened stroke was impressed with tremendous force upon the centre of the boat, which literally buried it in the water!

Providentially, no one was hurt. The officer who leaped overboard, escaped certain death by the prompt adventure. The huge tail (a member measuring perhaps twenty feet in width, extending to a superficial area of about eighty square feet, and weighing from one to two tons), struck the very spot on which he had previously stood. The effects of the blow on the boat were extraordinary. The keel was broken; the gunwale, and all the planks, except two, were cut through; and it was evident that the boat would have been completely divided, had not the tail struck directly upon a deep coil of the whale-lines. The crew, succoured by the various boats lying around, were all speedily picked up; but the boat was so thoroughly smashed as to be rendered useless.

This alarming discouragement, with the crippling of their strength and resources by the destruction of one boat and the withdrawal of another for the conveyance to the ship of the drenched and shivering sailors, threw the princ.i.p.al burden of the exploit of capture on my Father. For though other harpoons, after some minor adventures, were struck, the actual killing of this leviathan of its tribe was effected by himself.