Our Sailors Part 12

In consequence of the excessive roughness of the ice, no other boat could have been got across. "By these means a large party were relieved, who were without tents, clothing, fuel, provisions, or in any way provided to withstand the severities of a Polar night, with the thermometer eight degrees _minus_." We take the opportunity of advising that all vessels should be provided with one or more of these admirable contrivances. They may be of any size, from that in which one man alone can sit, to one capable of carrying fifty people. One might always be kept on deck, which could be launched in a moment should a man fall overboard. By this means numberless lives might be saved.

Captain McClure, feeling a.s.sured that the ship was immovably fixed for the winter, started with a sledge party on the 21st, to proceed to the north-east, in the hopes of discovering Barrow's Straits; and, after travelling for upwards of seventy miles, they had the intense gratification, on the 26th of October, of pitching their tents on its sh.o.r.es. The next morning, before sunrise, he and Mr Court ascended a hill, 600 feet in height, whence they could command a view of forty or fifty miles over the Straits, though the opposite sh.o.r.e of Melville Island could not be discerned. They found, however, by their observations, that Sir Edward Parry had very correctly marked the loom of the land on which they stood; and that thus the long-vexed question was solved, and that, whatever others might have done, or might be doing, they had, at all events, found a watery way from the Pacific to the Atlantic Oceans.

They reached the ship again on the 31st, narrowly escaping destruction in a fog, when Captain McClure had to wander about during a whole night on a floe, with the thermometer from five to fifteen degrees below zero.

And now the first winter of the _Investigator_ was commenced in those ice-bound regions. By the middle of April, expeditions were sent out in all directions, and depots of provisions established for the relief of the long-lost companions of Sir John Franklin.

Both sides of the Prince of Wales' Straits were thoroughly explored, as was Baring Island and Prince Albert's Land as far as its southern sh.o.r.e, known as Wollaston Land,--a continuous coast-line being thus laid down along the whole southern sh.o.r.e of Barrow's Straits, and that of the north sh.o.r.e of the American continent, united with the discoveries of previous explorers. This, it will be remembered, was the winter of 1850-51.

When the short summer once more returned, Captain McClure made every endeavour to get the ship to the north-east, through the Prince of Wales' Straits into Barrow's Straits, but in vain. So closely was the ice packed at the north-east end, that, after running great hazard of shipwreck, he was compelled to give up the attempt on the 16th of July, when only twenty-five miles distant from Barrow's Straits, and bearing up, he ran to the south and west round Baring Island. The voyage off the west coast of that large island was full of danger, the ship frequently narrowly escaping being cast away, till at length, with a fair breeze, she entered Banks' Straits, which, leading into Melville Sound, may be looked upon as the western end of Barrow's Straits. They were but some eighty miles distant from Barrow's Straits, with every prospect of gaining them, and being able the following season to return home, when a heavy barrier of ice rose before them to intercept their progress. Backward they were driven into a deep bay, to which the name of the Bay of Mercy was given, as an acknowledgment of the merciful way in which they had been preserved from so many dangers. They had actually been only five days under weigh after leaving their winter quarters in Prince of Wales' Straits.

As in the previous season, their time was fully occupied in making exploring expeditions in all directions, and in shooting excursions.

With the exception of about three weeks in January, when it was too dark to shoot, enough game was killed to enable them to enjoy a meal of fresh meat three days in the fortnight.

On the 11th of April, Captain McClure, with Mr Court, second master, and a sledge party, started to cross the ice on sledges, to visit Winter Harbour, in Melville Island. Soon after leaving the ship a thick fog came on, and continued for several days, so that their destination was not reached till the 28th.

We must picture to ourselves the sort of work these brave men had to go through, to do full justice to their perseverance and courage,--day after day travelling on, dragging their sledges across the frozen strait, often in the face of biting winds, encamping night after night with simply a tent to shelter them and a spirit-lamp only with which to cook their food or to afford them warmth. Yet thus, during that eventful period in the history of Arctic discovery, were many hundred British seamen employed in different portions of the icy ocean, all n.o.bly engaged in the search for their lost countrymen and brother sailors. Not only for month after month, but year after year,--the only interruption being the dark, long night of mid-winter, and the brief period of summer navigation,--when, amid icebergs and ice-fields, whirled here and there, tossed by storms, and urged impetuously on by currents, they forced their way onward, in the hope of gaining the open ocean in another hemisphere.

At Winter Harbour Captain McClure found a large fragment of sandstone, with this inscription--"His Britannic Majesty's ships _Hecla_ and _Griper_, Commanders Parry and Lyddon, wintered in the adjacent harbour during the winter of 1819-20. _A. Fisher, sculpsit_." Lieutenant McClintock had left a notice of his visit on the previous year on the same fragment, and protected it by a large cairn. In this cairn Captain McClure now deposited his own despatches, giving a plan of the way he intended to proceed under the various circ.u.mstances which might occur.

One portion especially is worthy of notice.

After stating his intention of visiting Port Leopold, in Barrow's Straits, and of leaving there information of the route he purposed to pursue, he says: "Should no intimation be found of our having been there, it may be at once surmised that some fatal catastrophe has happened, either from being carried into the Polar Sea, or smashed in Barrow's Straits, and no survivors left. If such should be the case, it will then be quite unnecessary to penetrate farther to the westward to our relief, as, by the period that any vessel could reach that port, we must, from want of provisions, all have perished; in such case I would submit that the officer may be directed to return, and by no means incur the danger of losing other lives in quest of those who will then be no more." Admirable indeed is the calm courage with which he contemplated that fearful contingency which we now know too well overtook the expedition of which he was in quest, and his generous anxiety that no more valuable lives should be sacrificed in searching for him.

Accomplishing in ten days what occupied eighteen upon the outward trip, the party reached the ship on the 9th of May. Summer was approaching.

Some deer and musk oxen were shot. By the 10th of August the frozen-up mariners began to entertain the joyful hopes of being liberated. Lanes of water were observed to seaward, and along the cliffs of Banks' Land there was a clear s.p.a.ce of six miles in width extending along them as far as the eye could reach; and on the 12th the wind, which had been for some time from the northward, veered to the south, which had the effect of separating the ice from that of the bay entirely across the entrance.

Every moment they were in expectation of their release, and then a few days' sail would carry them into Barrow's Straits, and perhaps into Baffin's Bay itself. Shortly, however, the wind changed to the northward, the ice again closed: in vain they waited for it to open.

On the 20th the temperature fell to 27 degrees, and the entire bay was frozen over. The ice never again opened, and the usual preparations were made for pa.s.sing a third winter in those Arctic seas. It is wonderful to observe how officers and men kept up their spirits, and how cheerfully they bore their trials and privations. They had for a year been placed on two-thirds allowance of provisions; the consumption was still further decreased, to enable them to exist another eighteen months. The winter was severe, but pa.s.sed away without sickness; and now Captain McClure informed his crew that it was his purpose to send a portion home in a boat by Baffin's Bay. The intended travellers were put on full allowance, and all preparations were made for their starting on the 15th of April.

One day towards the end of March, Captain McClure and his first lieutenant were taking their daily exercise on the floe near the ship, when they saw running towards them a person whom they supposed to be one of their own men chased by a bear. They hurried on, when, to their surprise, they discovered that he was a stranger, his face so blackened by the smoke from the oil-lamp that his features could not be recognised. "Who are you? Where are you come from?"

"Lieutenant Pim--_Herald_--Captain Kellet," was the answer. Wonderful indeed it seemed; for Lieutenant Pim was the last person with whom the captain of the _Investigator_ had shaken hands in Behring's Straits. It was some time before Lieutenant Pim could find words to express himself, when he announced that he was ahead of his party, who had crossed from the winter quarters of the _Resolute_ in Bridport Inlet, Melville Island. Captain McClure then set out with a party of officers and men to visit the _Resolute_, which ship was reached on the 19th of April 1853, after traversing a distance of 170 miles.

Great was the satisfaction of the two gallant captains at thus again meeting. It was finally resolved that a portion of the crews of both ships should be sent home, while the remainder should stay in the hopes of extricating them during the coming summer. As, however, many of the _Investigator's_ crew were suffering from scurvy, only a small number were able to continue the journey westward, under command of Lieutenant Cresswell and Lieutenant Wynniett.

On the 2nd of June they arrived on board the _North Star_, Captain Pullen, at Beechey Island. The distance was 300 miles, and it had taken them four weeks to perform the journey.

On the 8th of August the _Phoenix_ screw-steamer, Captain Inglefield, arrived. At that time Captain Pullen had been away a month up Wellington Channel, to communicate with Sir Edward Belcher. By the time he returned, the season had so much advanced, that it was decided to send back the _Phoenix_ with Lieutenant Cresswell and his party. On the 4th of October they landed at Thurso, and on the 7th of October arrived at the Admiralty, with the announcement of the safety of the _Investigator_, and the tidings that the geographical question of the existence of the long-sought-for North-West Pa.s.sage had been satisfactorily solved.

We must now turn briefly to narrate the fate of the numerous exploring vessels left in the Arctic regions at the setting in of the winter of 1853-54.

Before we do so, we must, however, give a brief account of the progress made by the persevering and brave Captain Collinson.

When, in 1850, Captain McClure succeeded in reaching the ice through Behring's Straits, the _Enterprise_, from having been somewhat longer on her voyage, was not so fortunate, and was compelled to winter in Port Clarence. Hence the _Enterprise_ again sailed on the 10th of July 1851, to push her way eastward along the American coast, visiting the islands which form the northern sh.o.r.e of the channel. Here he found several depots and marks left by Captain McClure in the spring or in the previous autumn. The _Enterprise_ finally was frozen in, in a sheltered harbour in Prince Albert's Land, near the entrance of Prince of Wales'

Straits.

Several long and hazardous expeditions were performed on foot with sledges during the spring of 1852, both north and east, being out between forty and fifty days. Again putting to sea, the _Enterprise_ pa.s.sed through Dolphin and Union Straits and Dean's Straits eastward.

By the 26th of September the _Enterprise_ reached Cambridge Bay, when she was again frozen in, to pa.s.s her third winter in the ice--one of the most severe ever experienced in those regions. During the next spring, that of 1853, Captain Collinson, with his Lieutenants Jago, Parkes, and other officers, were employed in pushing on their laborious explorations in the direction where they hoped some traces of their long-lost countrymen might be found. In lat.i.tude 70 degrees 3 minutes north and longitude 101 degrees west they fell in with a cairn erected by Dr Rae, from which they obtained the first intimation that any parties had preceded them in the search, and their observations tended to corroborate his, namely, that the ice, _except in extraordinary seasons, does not leave the east coast of Victoria Land_.

Little did Captain Collinson know that from the sh.o.r.e on which he stood, as he looked eastward, he gazed on the very ice-field in which the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ had been beset, and that amid it, not many miles distant, the brave, the n.o.ble Franklin had breathed his last--that it was during an extraordinary season the two exploring ships had entered the icy snare, from which they were never to be released.

But we are antic.i.p.ating the events of our deeply interesting and melancholy history.

Captain Collinson and his companions reached their ship on the 31st of May, after an absence of forty-nine days. It will be thus seen, that in justice the honour should be awarded to Captain Collinson and his followers, equally with Captain McClure and his, of having discovered the North-West Pa.s.sage. Indeed, it is believed that it is only by the way he came, if any pa.s.sage is practicable, that a ship could get round from the east to the west.

On the 10th August the _Enterprise_ once more put to sea, steering westward. The Straits were found free of ice till they were abreast of the mouth of the Coppermine River, where they were detained till the 23rd. They pa.s.sed Cape Bathurst on the 31st, again encountering ice; Herschel Island on the 5th of September; and, after overcoming various obstacles, were finally fixed for the winter on the west side of Camden Bay.

The season pa.s.sed mildly away. In the spring more expeditions were made, and visits received from the Esquimaux. The ship was not free till the 20th of July. She reached Port Clarence on the 21st of August; and at length Captain Collinson was able to send home despatches announcing the safety of his ship, officers, and crew.

We are inclined to consider Captain Collinson's voyage, with the light of the information subsequently given us, not only as the most remarkable of all the Arctic voyages, but as guided by the greatest wisdom, and executed with a courage, forethought, and perseverance unsurpa.s.sed. He may well claim the honour of being "the first navigator who took a ship of 530 tons through the narrow Dolphin and Union Straits and Dease's Strait, ice-strewn and rocky as they are, in safety to Cambridge Bay (105 degrees west), preserved his men in health through three winters, and finally brought them home in health and his ship in safety."

We must now return to Sir Edward Belcher's expedition. The greatest service it rendered was through Captain Kellet, by whose means the brave Captain McClure and his crew were rescued from their perilous position.

We left the _Resolute_ and _Intrepid_ on the northern side of the Strait, frozen up in Bridport Inlet, in the spring of 1853. Although a northern gale drove them to sea during the summer, when they drifted about for eighty-seven days helplessly in the pack till off Cape c.o.c.kburn, on the 12th of November they were again frozen in; and the _Investigator_, also remaining fixed, was abandoned, the officers and crew spending the winter on board the _Resolute_. The _a.s.sistance_ and _Pioneer_ being likewise frozen in, Captain Kellet received orders from Sir Edward Belcher to abandon his part of the squadron; and on the 26th of August the two last-named ships were also abandoned, the officers and crews arriving safely on board the _North Star_ on the following day at Beechey Island. Fortunately the next day the _North Star_ met the _Phoenix_ and _Talbot_, when all the ships returned to England.

All due praise must be awarded to the gallant officers and men of the expedition, who exerted themselves heroically in the great cause they had undertaken. An Arctic pa.s.sage was discovered; McClure and his followers performed it _on the ice_, probably the only way in which it ever will be performed; but the most important Arctic mystery was still unsolved--the fate of Franklin remained undiscovered. It was only known where he was not. As if to teach all those engaged in that well-arranged, powerful expedition a lesson of humility, the discovery was reserved for others with far humbler means at their disposal.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

VOYAGE OF THE FOX.

None of the numerous expeditions sent forth to discover traces of Sir John Franklin's expedition afford matter of greater interest than that of the little yacht the _Fox_, while it has surpa.s.sed all in successfully clearing up the mystery which for ten long years or more hung over the fate of that gallant Arctic explorer and his brave companions.

The _Fox_, a screw-steamer of 177 tons, was the property of Lady Franklin, and the command of her was confided to Captain McClintock, RN, who had already made several Arctic voyages. He had as officers, Lieutenant Hobson, RN, and Captain Allan Young, a n.o.ble-minded commander of the mercantile marine; with Dr Walker as surgeon, and Mr Carl Petersen as interpreter. She was prepared at Aberdeen for her arduous undertaking, and sailed 1st of July 1857. She entered Baffin's Bay, and had got as far north as Melville Bay, on its north-west sh.o.r.e, when she was beset by the ice early in September, and there blocked up for the winter.

Soon after midnight on the 25th of April 1858, she was once more under weigh, and forcing her way out from among huge ma.s.ses of ice thrown in on her by the ocean swell. Repeatedly the frozen ma.s.ses were hurled against the sharp iron bow, causing the vessel to shake violently, the bells to ring, and almost knocking the crew off their feet. On one occasion the ice stopped the screw for some minutes. Anxious moments those--"After that day's experience I can understand how men's hair has turned grey in a few hours," says Captain McClintock.

Touching at the Danish settlements to refit, and at Pond's Bay, the little _Fox_, narrowly escaping destruction, at length reached Beechey Island on the 11th of August. Here a tablet was erected to the memory of Sir John Franklin and his officers and crew, and the _Fox_, having filled up with stores and coals from the depot there, left again on the 16th.

On the 18th she had run twenty-five miles down Peel's Straits, the hopes of all raised to the utmost, when a pack of ice appeared, barring their farther progress. Putting about, she visited the depot at Port Leopold, where boats and an abundant supply of all sorts of articles were found, which, in case of the destruction of their own vessel, would afford the explorers a fair prospect of escape.

Far different was the condition of Arctic explorers now, than it had been when Franklin sailed on his fatal expedition. Then they had to depend entirely on their own resources; now, through the sagacity and forethought of those who sent them forth, depots of provisions and boats and sledges, and even huts, had been provided, to afford every possible means of escape should any disaster overtake their ships.

Captain McClintock, on leaving Leopold Harbour, sailed north down Prince Regent's Inlet, but in vain attempted to force a pa.s.sage through any channel to the east. At last he returned some way north to Bellot's Straits, discovered by Mr Kennedy, and called after his unfortunate companion, Lieutenant Bellot, of the French navy, who lost his life when belonging to Sir Edward Belcher's expedition. He pa.s.sed some distance through Bellot's Straits, and the _Fox_ was finally beset, on the 28th September, in a beautiful little harbour in them, to which the name of Kennedy Harbour was given.

Depots were now established by travelling parties to the north-east, some eighty miles or more from the ship, and all preparations made for prosecuting their interesting search in the spring. This commenced the winter of 1858-59, the second pa.s.sed by the _Fox_ in the ice.

On the 17th February, Captain McClintock started with Mr Petersen and one man, Thompson, on a long pedestrian expedition, with two sledges drawn by dogs. Lieutenant Hobson set off about the same time, as did also Captain Young,--all three expeditions in different directions, towards the south; the first two accomplished several hundred miles to King William's Island.

Great indeed were the trials and hardships they underwent in these expeditions. Day after day they trudged on, employed for two hours each evening, before they could take their food or go to rest, in building their snow huts, exposed to biting winds, to snow and sleet, and often to dense fogs.

On one occasion one man alone of a whole party escaped being struck by snow-blindness; and he had to lead them with their packs, and to guide them back to the vessel. How terrible would have been their fate had he also been struck with blindness!

On the west coast of King William's Island, which is separated by a broad channel from the mainland of America, they fell in with several families of Esquimaux, among whom numerous relics of the Franklin expedition were discovered. The most interesting were purchased.

Farther north, on the west coast, a cairn was found, within which was a paper with the announcement of Sir John Franklin's death, and with the sad statement, written at a subsequent period, that it had been found necessary to abandon the ships and to proceed to the southward.

A boat on runners also was found with two skeletons in her, and another skeleton at a distance--all too plainly telling a tale which shall be narrated hereafter. The Esquimaux also said that they had seen men sink down and die along the sh.o.r.e; and that one ship had gone down crushed by the ice, and that another had been driven on sh.o.r.e. With this terrible elucidation of the long-continued mystery, only partly cleared up before by Dr Rae, they began their return journey.

On the 19th of June Captain McClintock reached his ship, the ice having begun to melt with the increased warmth of the weather. August arrived, and the explorers began to look out anxiously for the breaking up of the ice.