Memorials of the Sea Part 8

Contrary to the usual habits of the Greenland whale, this individual, instead of occasionally seeking the depths of ocean for its protection, especially on receiving a fresh and painful wound, remained mainly at the surface. Its natural energies, but yet little acted on by the exhausting influence of the _pressure_ of water, were consequently very little impaired; for the superficial wounds of harpoons produce no immediate effect upon life.

Hence, the operation of lancing was yet to be effected, before there could be any chance of subduing the still existing dangerous vigour. My Father, as was his wont, proceeded next to this venturous undertaking. Again he plants his boat in parallelism of position with that of his gigantic game.

Full of ardour and confidence in their leader, his boat's crew are ready for any effort or adventure which the daring or activity of man may accomplish. The proper moment for the attack is waited for, and, when seen, instantly improved. The boat, as a thing of life, springs, at his signal, towards the side of the whale. The Commander's long lance-six feet in the iron, and four feet in the handle-is darted, at arm's length, into the writhing carca.s.s, up to the very socket; and, before the fling of fins or tail can reach, he has recovered a safe distance. The effect of the wound in the vitals is speedily seen. The previous white steamy vapour ejected from the lungs has become tinged with red; and nature's powers, as experience indicates, must soon decay. Convulsive action in the monster, as stimulated by this inward stab, being at length suspended, the favourable moment is again improved. Another lance,-darted in as quickly as the stroke of the tiger's paw,-penetrates, for the second time, the vast viscera of the whale; whilst the active agents of the attack escape, as before, unscathed. The deadly thrust is quickly repeated; and, as the capability of exerting instant violence is diminished, the deeply stricken lance is worked actively up and down whilst still within, so that every movement effects an additional wound, and the work of death is the more speedily and mercifully promoted. Thick jets of blood now issue from the blow-holes, and the sea, through the wide s.p.a.ce of disturbed waters, is tinged by the overflowing streams; whilst boats, oars, and men, are thickly sprinkled with the sanguinous dye. Lanced, now, on both sides at once, with these formidable instruments of destruction, the dangerous energies of this vast animal become soon overpowered, and it now yields itself pa.s.sively to its inevitable fate. One effort alone remains. The instinctive impulse or spasm of expiring vitality,-like the brilliant gleam or coruscation of the expiring taper, is expended in a series of tremendous death-throes. The writhing body of the giant captive is now thrown into strangely powerful action; fins and tail play with terrific violence, tossing up huge waves, and dashing the sea, for a considerable circle round, into foam. The prudent fishermen push off to a safe distance, and, looking on with the solemnised impression of a spectacle at once wonderful and sublime, leave the convulsions of expiring nature to expend themselves.

The vital energies are exhausted; the huge carca.s.s, so recently perilous in the energies of life, rolls, by the gravitating tendency of its formation, on one side, and slowly the helpless fin rises to the surface of the water, and inherent power of motion ceases for ever! Three hearty cheers from all hands engaged in the capture, with the waving and "striking" of the "jacks"

displayed in the boats from which harpoons had been struck, announce to the ship the happy issue of the conflict; from whence, in turn, similar exulting cheers are heard loudly responding.[J]

We have remarked, in a foregoing chapter, on the economy in Providence, by which the fiercest quadrupeds, under human tact and intelligence, become subdued and tractable. Here, again, we are led to reflect on the economy manifest in respect to the _hugest_ of the animal creation, whether on earth or in the ocean, whereby all become subject to man, either for advantageous employment, as to their living energies, or for purposes of utility as to the produce of their dead carca.s.ses.

The capture of the whale by man, when their relative proportions, as to physical power and ma.s.s, are considered, is a result truly wonderful. An animal of a thousand times the bulk of man, with a corresponding superiority in strength, inhabiting an element in which man cannot exist, and diving to depths where no other creature can follow, with the capabilities, too, of abiding there for an hour together, is attacked by man on its own ground, not only in the tranquil Pacific, but in the boisterous north-western seas; not only in the open seas of the tropics, but amid ice-bound regions around the pole; and in each region is constrained to yield its life to his attacks, and its carca.s.s a tribute to his marvellous enterprise.

Why this result, with such disproportionate physical powers in conflict, should not only take place, but prevalently follow the attack, is satisfactorily explained on the simple principle of the Divine enactment.

It was the appointment of the Creator that it should be so. And this, besides what we have already quoted from the sacred records of creation, we have again, by the inspired Psalmist and elsewhere, declared. Hence, as to the fact of the dominion of man over the inferior creation, Divinely yielded, we have the authority of this adoring appeal of G.o.d's inspired servant:-"What is man, that thou art mindful of him!" "Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet; all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and _whatsoever pa.s.seth through the paths of the sea_. O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!"-Psalm viii. 6-8. No doubt this striking psalm has direct reference to the world's Great and Divine Redeemer; but what herein is true of the "Son of Man," is also, in respect to the consideration of the Almighty for man and his appointed dominion, true of men as a species. And so it follows, that the monsters of the deep, as well as the wild beasts of the earth, yield to this law of creation, that man should have the dominant power!

The whale, thus adventurously subdued, proved a large one of its kind, and a very valuable prize. Its special dimensions and produce, though not noted, may be very proximately gathered from the record (always made in the whaler's journals) which we have of the length of the largest of the laminae of whalebone, viz. 11 feet 9 inches. According to the general averages, as given in the "Account of the Arctic Regions," (vol. i. pp. 449-478,) this specimen would be about 56 feet in length, and must have yielded about 20 tuns of oil, with about 22 cwt. of whalebone. The value of the capture (oil being _very low_ in price at the time) was about 500_l._; but the same capture, in the years 1801, 1813, or 1817, when prices were _high_, would have been worth no less than 1000_l._ to 1100_l._

SECTION VII.-_Remarkable Enterprise.-The nearest Approach to the North Pole._

The adventurous attempt to reach the _North Pole_, like that of the "North-west Pa.s.sage," may be considered as an enterprise peculiarly British. Of six voyages expressly undertaken for this object, up to the time, and inclusive of, Captain Buchan's, in 1818, there was no advance beyond the 81st parallel. The highest lat.i.tude reached was by Captain Phipps, in 1773, who advanced to 80 48'. Captain Buchan's farthest was about 80 34'. And up to the present day we have no account which can be fully relied upon of any ship, discovery ship or whaler, having approached within forty geographical miles of the high northern lat.i.tude reached by my Father in the year 1806.

The Honourable Daines Barrington, indeed, in his discussion of the question of the "Probability of Reaching the North Pole," adduces a great variety of instances of the advance of whalers to far higher positions of northern lat.i.tude; but for the reasons stated in the "Account of the Arctic Regions," (vol. i. p. 42,) I consider the authorities from which Mr.

Barrington derived his information as not satisfactory. As to the defectiveness in authority of _mere recollections_, or even of the notes of ordinary observers, in respect of adventures of this kind, I have a curious example in the "Account of a Voyage to Spitzbergen," by a Greenland Surgeon, who sailed in the Resolution professionally, on the very voyage on which my Father made his greatest advance northward. The author, in respect to this advance, thus states from his journal:-"May 28. Lat.i.tude by observation 81 50'. Sea almost clear of ice, with a great swell; weather serene. Had our object been the making of discoveries, there was not _apparently_ anything to have prevented us from going a good way farther to the north; at least we did not perceive any large fields of ice in that direction."

Now this is mainly erroneous. Instead of 81 50', the highest lat.i.tude _observed_ was only 81 12' 42?, and the statements as to the nature and position of the ice, are equally diverse from what those circ.u.mstances actually were.

My Father's notable enterprise in the attainment, probably, of the highest lat.i.tude that had ever been reached by man was made in the ship Resolution, in the voyage of 1806. Occupying, young as I was, the responsible office of chief-mate in the ship, I have the records of the adventure preserved in my journal in all their essential or important details.

The entrance into the ordinary fishing-stations on the western side of Spitzbergen was, on this occasion, occupied by ice of extraordinary breadth and compactness. We entered it on the 28th of April, in the lat.i.tude of 76 N., and, pressing northward at every available opening, we reached the lat.i.tude of 77 on the 7th of May. Several ships were then in sight. On the 10th, a gale setting in from the S.E., we were enabled to make considerable progress through the enc.u.mbering ice, and soon left all our a.s.sociate whalers fairly out of sight; and from that time until the 19th of June (after we had retraced much of our progress southward) we never saw a sail.

Up to the 13th of May, indeed, there was nothing unusual, as to the practice of my Father, in the nature of the adventure. But on that day, being in lat.i.tude about 78 46', within sight of Charles Island, on the western coast of Spitzbergen, he entered upon a new and apparently dangerous enterprise,-the attempt to find, whilst the sea was apparently _filled_ with ice, in this high lat.i.tude, a navigable sea still nearer the Pole.

The ice around was singularly compact, and, to ordinary apprehension, impenetrable. Northward of us it consisted, as far as our view extended, of scattered ma.s.ses of heavy drift-ice, closely cemented into a compact body by recently formed _bay-ice_. To attempt a pa.s.sage herein, if such were possible, must, in any case, be a most difficult and laborious undertaking; but if the compact body were entered, and not successfully penetrated and pa.s.sed beyond, it might involve a risk, which a considerable fleet actually fell into, of the loss of the fishing season by a helpless besetment. There were indications, however, which my Father's experienced eye alone discerned,-of open water to the northward. The bright reflection of the snow-covered ices in the sky, const.i.tuting the phenomenon of the "ice blink," most certainly pointed out the continuous enc.u.mbering of the navigation for a considerable way in advance; but, when elevated to the very top of the mast, he could perceive a bluish grey streak _below_ the ice-blink, parallel to and skirting the horizon, which he deemed a sure indication of "clear water," _beyond_ the proximate "pack." Yet this grey reflection, or "water-sky," might not be of any great extent? It might arise from a transient vein of water capable of being obliterated on the first change of wind? Were such the nature of the opening, it might prove, even if reached, the more dangerous trap, as its position was more advanced northward?

These considerations, of very serious import, were settled, happily, by another sign which the watchful navigator got sight of. He discerned, for short intervals, occasionally, a very slight motion, as he conceived, of the water in contact with some of the large lumps of ice near the ship.

His careful scrutiny of the ma.s.ses, under an anxiously watchful eye, at length a.s.sured him that there _was_ a movement. Experience then certified that the movement could only arise from a _swell_, and that the swell must proceed either from the main ocean, southward, or else from some immense interglacial lake, or what is technically called "a sea of water,"

northward. That it _did not_ come from the southern ocean, the distance to which he had penetrated, and the unmixed brightness of the ice-blink in each of the southern quarters, convinced him; and that it _did_ come from the northward he was able to satisfy himself, by carefully observing the points or places on the ma.s.ses of ice where the alteration of level in the water was the greatest; for this scrutiny sufficed to show, that the axial position of the ice, which the motion pointed out, was in strict parallelism with a wave coming directly from the place of the "water-sky"

to the northward.

Encouraged by these indications, he determined on leaving a position recently attained, where the ship had some little room, and pushing, at all risks, into the formidable body of consolidated ices still beyond him. This arduous and adventurous purpose was commenced on the 13th of May, with a moderate breeze (favourable to our advance) from the south-west. Little progress was, indeed, then made; but laborious perseverance, rendered effective by a consummate application of all the means and resources available for our furtherance, ultimately yielded the desired, and I might add, deserved success. During five successive days, a series of labours were carried on of the most energetic and persevering description. The transit through the intervening ice,-which consisted, as we have intimated, of extensive sheets of bay-ice, with heavy lumps and ma.s.ses consolidated therein,-was urged by all the variety of aids that were known to be applicable. These aids, beyond the available force of occasional favourable winds, consisted in the cutting of tracks or channels with ice-saws, where the thickness was too great to be broken, or, where thinner, in breaking the ice under the bows by boats suspended beneath the bowsprit, whilst their crews rolled them violently, from side to side, as in "sallying;" in making ca.n.a.ls, by well-laden boats being run across extensive planes of ice, where their weight, with that of their crews, might be sufficient to break the resisting surface; in "warping" through enc.u.mbered channels, or amid lumps of more ponderous ices; in "towing" with boats, or "tracking" by men on the ice, during calms, along any clear channels of water which might have been opened out a-head; and, finally, by _sallying the ship_, in aid of any of these resources, for widening the s.p.a.ce in which she floated, so as to leave her free to move, where room might exist in advance. And here, I think it due to my Father to notice, in regard to the sallying of the ship,-an oscillating or rolling motion accomplished by the running of the crew, simultaneously, from side to side across the deck,-that the application of this most important auxiliary process was original with him, and, as far as I can remember, _now_ for the first time employed. It is a process, I may add, which has subsequently been adopted by fishermen and discoverers in general, as a mean which may often be made effective when, _under all other means_ for the promotion of progress, the wedged-up or ice-bound ship has become utterly immoveable.

The manner in which these various operations were carried on was laborious in an extreme degree. Whilst the crew were allowed but limited and distant periods for rest, my Father's exertions were such as, except under the pressure of circ.u.mstances involving the alternative of life or death, I think I never saw equalled. Not only was he always at his post directing, instructing, stimulating his men when progress was being made or attempted, but often looking out when the hands in general slept, or continuing his superintending toils, watch after watch, when portions of the crew had, alternately, their intervals of rest. In that severe service, indeed, few men could have so persevered. An extraordinary vigour and strength of const.i.tution enabled him to accomplish, in labours of this kind, for which he had so high capabilities, what most men would have broken down in attempting.

His exertions and talents, as we have indeed antic.i.p.ated, had their due recompense in the most successful results of the enterprise. After pa.s.sing an icy barrier of extraordinary tenaceousness and compactness, as well as of formidable extent, we reached a region, in the 80th parallel, of incomparably greater openness than we could have antic.i.p.ated,-"a sea of water,"-to which we could see no bounds, but the ice we had pa.s.sed through on the south side, and the land to the eastward.

Under a brisk gale of wind and with fine clear weather, we were enabled rapidly to explore through a considerable portion of its extent, the immense interglacial sea upon which we had entered. It was found to stretch east and west, or E.N.E. and W.S.W. more nearly, to an extraordinary extent, and to be bounded to the northward as well as to the southward by packed ice of undeterminable extent,-the two bodies of ice being ten to twenty leagues apart. And within this vast opening, though not till after the northern and southern ices had closed together and joined to the westward, we made the princ.i.p.al part of our fishery.

On the 28th of May, being in lat.i.tude 80 8', we killed our first whale; and within the next fortnight, and near the same position, sixteen others yielded their lives to our harpoons and lances. On the 29th of June, only two-and-thirty days from the time of our first capture, we completed our cargo, being "a full ship," with the produce of twenty-four whales, one narwal, two seals, two walruses, and two bears. This cargo, by far the largest, I believe, of the season, yielded 216 tuns of oil, and almost eleven tons of whalebone. The fishery, in consequence of the peculiar position of the ice, and the unusual inaccessibility of the best fishing stations, proved generally bad. Judging from the returns in my possession, comprising the successes of twenty-four of the Greenland whalers of that year, I should calculate the general average at about fifty tuns of oil per ship, or less than one-fourth of the Resolution's cargo. The united cargoes of nine ships, out of eighteen, from one port (taking, of course, the worst fished ships), exceeded only by a few tuns the single cargo which resulted from the singular enterprise of my Father.

But we return to the grand exploration of a region which, as far as conclusive records go, has not, before or since, ever been _navigated_.

In the first instance, after our arrival in this vast northern opening of the ice, we proceeded to the westward, and, finding no whales, tacked, when we had reached the longitude of about 8 W., in the parallel of 79 30' N.

We then stretched to the northward and eastward, proceeding, generally, near to or within sight of the northern "pack," for a distance of above 300 miles,-a direct uninterrupted progress in this high lat.i.tude quite unparalleled. On the 23d-24th, at midnight, an alt.i.tude of the sun, below the Pole, carefully taken with a fifteen-inch s.e.xtant by Ramsden, gave the lat.i.tude 81 12' 42?. We continued our progress until (early the following morning) we had reached the longitude of 19 E., when our lat.i.tude, as estimated from the recent observation, was 81 30' N. This was our farthest advance northward, in which we had gained a position within about 510 miles of the Pole! Even then, the navigation was still quite open to the E.N.E., (true) and from that point round to the S.E.; so open, that, as we could certainly gather from the appearance of the sky, we could have easily advanced many many leagues farther in the direction we had so extensively pursued.

Our situation, at our farthest advance, was singular and solitary indeed.

No ship, no human being, it was believed, was within 300 or 350 miles of us. Unquestionably, the crew of the Resolution now occupied the most northern position of any individuals in the world! The sea began to freeze and threatened our detention. We had made no progress in the fishery, nor could we find any whales. The seamen began to be anxious, fearful, and troublesome, so that abundant considerations urged our return to the westward, where, as has been shown, our commercial enterprise became so signally successful.

The accuracy of the determinations for the lat.i.tude we have stated, was variously verified during our progress both ways. Thus, going north-eastward, we observed, May 23d, at noon, in lat. 80 50' 28?; at next midnight, as we have noted, in 81 12' 42?. At the succeeding noon, after above eight hours sailing on our return, we again observed in 81 1' 53?; and, still running south-westerly, we sighted at 8 P.M. of the same day Hackluyt's Headland, some forty miles still to the southward of our position.

We have spoken of this adventure as reaching to the highest lat.i.tude ever attained, as far as we have conclusive records, _by sailing_. Captain Parry, in his Polar attempt of 1827, indeed, went beyond my Father's greatest attainment a distance of seventy or eighty miles; but this advance was wholly gained by travelling across the ice. For with all the advantage of a later period in the summer, and the penetration of the loose ice by boats, the _travelling_ had to be commenced on attaining the lat.i.tude of 81 13'.

In referring to this attempt, one can hardly refrain from expressing regret at the success of an expedition so energetically pursued being marred by circ.u.mstances which, under better arrangements, might have been avoided.

For had the plan as originally suggested, about twelve years before this adventure, been acted on, I have no hesitation in affirming, that _a far greater advance_ northward, if not complete success, must have attended the daring enterprise. It falls not, indeed, within the object of the present Memorials to take up again a question which is discussed in detail in a communication of mine to the "Edinburgh Philosophical Journal," and published in the number for July 1828; but it may suffice to say, that the opinion offered just above has now the sanction of the gallant conductor of the enterprise himself, who, in a letter published by the late Sir John Barrow, in his volume of "Arctic Voyages" (p. 313) states, that "he believes it to be an object of no very difficult attainment, if set about in a different manner." And, it may be added, a plan for that adventure is given in the letter now quoted, substantially embodying the characteristic points of my original scheme,[K] and, indeed, in no essential particular, except the suggestion for spending the previous winter at Spitzbergen, differing from it.

Under such support in the idea, from one of the best authorities amongst those experimentally acquainted with the difficulties of the undertaking, I am led, not only to an increased conviction of the practicability of the enterprise, but to the entertaining of the belief, that the triumph is yet in store for the daring and adventurous nation

"Whose _flag_ has braved a thousand years, The battle and the breeze;"

when

"The meteor flag of England"

shall wave upon the axial point of the world at the Northern Pole!

SECTION VIII.-_Devotional Habits, at Sea and on Sh.o.r.e._

At this period of my Father's life, his religious views and habits had become matter of personal notice, and observation with myself,-so as, in certain respects, to enable me to speak of them from distinct recollections.

He always spoke of religion with reverence, and manifested a particular regard for the inst.i.tution of the Sabbath. He was strongly attached to the Church, and attended its public services with most reverential and undeviating regularity. In theological views, he inclined to those of the Rev. John Wesley, of whose character and principles he was a great admirer.

Holding the system of that eminent servant of Christ as auxiliary to the Church,-he became much attached to it, so that, for a considerable extent of his life, whilst by profession a churchman, he was commonly the holder of a pew in the old Wesleyan Chapel at Whitby, and, on the Sunday evenings (after the services of the Church had closed) was a constant attendant, not unfrequently being accompanied by some members of his family, at the religious services conducted there.

This feeling and habit brought him into personal intimacy with the leading Wesleyans resident at Whitby, and into friendly intercourse with the officiating ministers of that body-to whom he always evinced pleasure in showing kindness and hospitality.

It was in this connection that he made the acquaintance, and obtained the friendship, of the late talented Mr. Drew, to whose brief memoir, published in the "Imperial Magazine," which he edited, I have been indebted for several particulars in my Father's early life, not elsewhere to be found.

His attachment to the Wesleyans, indeed, had a further expression than that of often joining in their devotional services, and having much friendly intercourse with their members; for it extended to several instances of substantial good-will in the form of liberal contributions, as well as in loans of money in aid of their chapels.

My Father's distinctive regard for religion, and religious ordinances, was still further indicated by several circ.u.mstances which I had the opportunity of noticing as prevalent with him when at sea. Among these stand prominently in my recollection, the habit of having Divine service performed on the Lord's-day, whilst I accompanied him during his command of the Resolution of Whitby. On these occasions, the crew, summoned by the tolling of the ship's bell, were a.s.sembled in the cabin, where my Father conducted the service according to the form comprised in the Liturgy of the Church, and afterwards (for some voyages at least,) read portions, such as he deemed suitable, from some devotional book, or latterly, with my a.s.sistance as I advanced in years and experience, from a collection of plain, practical, and valuable sermons, which had been presented to me, for the purpose, by that amiable and eminent servant of Christ, the Rev. T.

Dikes of Hull.

In addition to these devotional habits, may be noted, his habitual reliance on the guidance and protection of Divine Providence. This was variously indicated; not only by the use of pious expressions, which he was heard to utter when he was about adventuring on some perilous enterprise, or when he had been enabled safely to wend his adventurous way out of imminent dangers, but in respect to a habit, which he suggested to me, as fitting to be copied, of commencing his sea-journal with an appropriate prayer, supplicatory of the Divine guidance and protection, and of inserting at the conclusion of a successful fishery, a fitting collect of thanksgiving. The insertion of the latter, in a foregoing section, may claim the addition here of the form, as modified out of a collect in the Liturgy, for the former, which I find uniformly inserted in many of my own journals:-"a.s.sist us mercifully, O Lord, in this our intended voyage, and make it profitable to us, particularly by disposing us towards the attainment of Thy everlasting salvation; that, among all the changes and chances of this mortal life, we may ever be defended by Thy most gracious and ready help, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen."

The journal from which this form is quoted comprises, too, a poetic attempt by my Father,-an acrostic on my own name,-strikingly characterised by sentiments of devotion, humiliation, and adoration.