Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and Narrative of an Attempt to Reach the North Pole, Volume 1

by Sir William Edward Parry

CHAPTER III.

Favourable Appearances of an open Westerly Passage.—Land to the Northward, a Series of Islands.—General Appearance of them.—Meet with some Obstruction from low Islands surrounded with Ice.—Remains of Esquimaux Huts, and natural Productions of Byam Martin Island.—Tedious Navigation from Fogs and Ice.—Difficulty of Steering a Proper Course.—Arrival and Landing on Melville Island.—Proceed to the Westward, and reach the Meridian of 110° W. Long., the first Stage in the Scale of Rewards granted by Act of Parliament.

A calm which prevailed during the night kept us quite stationary till three A.M. on the 23d, when a fresh breeze sprung up from the northward, and all sail was made for Cape Hotham, to the southward of which it was now my intention to seek a direct passage towards Behring's Strait. Wellington Channel, to the northward of us, was as open and navigable to the utmost extent of our view as any part of the Atlantic; but as it lay at right angles to our coarse, and there was still an opening at least ten leagues wide to the southward of Cornwallis Island, I could have no hesitation in deciding which of the two it was our business to pursue. It is impossible to conceive anything more animating than the quick and unobstructed run with which we were favoured, from Beechey Island across to Cape Hotham. Most men have, probably, at one time or another, experienced that elevation of spirits which is usually produced by rapid motion of any kind; and it will readily be conceived how much this feeling was heightened in us, in the few instances in which it occurred, by the slow and tedious manner in which the greater part of our navigation had been performed in these seas.

At noon we had reached the longitude of 94° 43' 15", the latitude by observation being 74° 20' 52", when we found that the land which then formed the western extreme on this side was a second island, which I called GRIFFITH ISLAND. The ice in this neighbourhood was covered with innumerable "hummocks," and the floes were from seven to ten feet in thickness.

After various unsuccessful attempts to get through the ice which now lay in our way, we were at length so fortunate as to accomplish this object by "boring" through a number of heavy "streams," which occasioned the ships to receive many severe shocks; and, at half an hour before midnight, we were able to, pursue our course, through "sailing ice," to the westward.

The weather was at this time remarkably serene and clear; and although we saw a line of ice to the southward of us, lying in a direction nearly east and west, or parallel to the course on which we were steering, and some more land appeared to the westward, yet the space of open water was still so broad, and the prospect from the masthead, upon the whole, so flattering, that I thought the chances of our separation had now become greater than before; and I therefore considered it right to furnish Lieutenant Liddon with fresh instructions, and to appoint some new place of rendezvous in case of unavoidable separation from the Hecla. At ten o'clock, after having had a clear view of the ice and of the land about sunset, and finding that there was at present no passage to the westward, we hauled off to the southeast, in the hope of finding some opening in the ice to the southward, by which we might get round in the desired direction. We were encouraged in this hope by a dark "water-sky" to the southward; but, after running along the ice till half past eleven without perceiving any opening, we again bore up. There was in this neighbourhood a great deal of that particular kind of ice called by the sailors "dirty ice," on the surface of which were strewed sand, stones, and, in some instances, moss: ice of this kind must, of course, at one time or other, have been in close contact with the land.

At ten A.M. I despatched Captain Sabine and Mr. Ross to the eastern point of the island, which we were about to round in the ships, in order to make the necessary observations, and to examine the natural productions of the shore. Our latitude at noon was 75° 03' 12", long. 103° 44' 37", and the depth of water forty fathoms. The gentlemen reported, on their return, that they had landed on a sandy beach, near the east point of the island, which they found to be more productive, and altogether more interesting, than any other part of the shores of the Polar regions which we had yet visited. The remains of Esquimaux habitations were found in four different places. Six of these, which Captain Sabine had an opportunity of examining, and which are situated on a level sandy bank, at the side of a small ravine near the sea, are described by him as consisting of stones rudely placed in a circular, or, rather, an elliptical form. They were from seven to ten feet in diameter; the broad, flat sides of the stones standing vertically, and the whole structure, if such it may be called, being exactly similar to that of the summer huts of the Esquimaux which we had seen at Hare Island the preceding year. Attached to each of them was a smaller circle, generally four or five feet in diameter, which had probably been the fireplace. The small circles were placed indifferently as to their direction from the huts to which they belonged; and from the moss and sand which covered some of the lower stones, particularly those which composed the flooring of the huts, the whole encampment appeared to have been deserted for several years. Very recent traces of the reindeer and musk-ox were seen in many places; and a head of the latter, with several reindeers' horns, was brought on board. A few patches of snow remained in sheltered situations; the ravines, however, which were numerous, bore the signs of recent and considerable floods, and their bottoms were swampy, and covered with very luxuriant moss and other vegetation, the character of which differed very little from that of the land at the bottom of Possession Bay.

The dip of the magnetic needle was 88° 25' 58", and the variation was now found to have changed from 128° 58' west, in the longitude of 91° 48', where our last observations on shore had been made, to 165° 50' 09" east, at our present station; so that we had, in sailing over the space included between those two meridians, crossed immediately to the northward of the magnetic pole and had undoubtedly passed over one of those spots upon the globe where the needle would have been found to vary 180°, or, in other words, where its north pole would have pointed due south.

The wind became very light from the eastward, and the weather continued so foggy that nothing could be done during the night but to stand off-and-on, by the soundings, between the ice and the land. On the 29th, after a few hours of clear weather, the fog came on again as thick as before; fortunately, however, we had previously been enabled to take notice of several pieces of ice, by steering for each of which in succession we came to the edge of a floe, along which our course was to be pursued to the westward. As long as we had this guidance, we advanced with great confidence; but as soon as we came to the end of the floe, which then turned off to the southward, the circumstances under which we were sailing were perhaps such as have never occurred since the early days of navigation. To the northward was the land; the ice, as we supposed, to the southward; the compasses useless; and the sun completely obscured by a fog so thick, that the Griper could only now and then be seen at a cable's length astern. We had literally, therefore, no mode, of regulating our course but by once more trusting to the steadiness of the wind; and it was not a little amusing, as well as novel, to see the quartermaster conning the ship by looking at the dogvane.

The weather cleared a little at intervals, but not enough to enable us to proceed till nine A.M. on the 31st, when we cast off from the ice, with a very light air from the northward. We occasionally caught a glimpse of land through the heavy fog-banks with which the horizon was covered, which was sufficient to give us an idea of the true direction in which we ought to steer. Soon after noon we were once more enveloped in a fog, which, however, was not so thick as to prevent our having recourse to a new expedient for steering the ships, which circumstances at the time naturally suggested to our minds. Before the fog recommenced, and while we were sailing on the course which, by the bearings of the land, we knew to be the right one, the Griper was exactly astern of the Hecla, at the distance of about a quarter of a mile. The weather being fortunately not so thick as to prevent our still seeing her at that distance, the quartermaster was directed to stand aft, near the taffrail, and to keep her constantly astern of us, by which means we contrived to steer a tolerably straight course to the westward. The Griper, on the other hand, naturally kept the Hecla right ahead; and thus, however ridiculous it may appear, it is nevertheless true, that we steered one ship entirely by the other for a distance of ten miles out of sixteen and a half, which we sailed between one and eleven P.M.

The wind died away on the morning of the 1st of September, and the fog was succeeded by snow and sleet, which still rendered the atmosphere extremely thick. At a quarter before four A.M., I was informed by the officer of the watch that a breeze had sprung up, and that there was very little ice near the ships. Anxious to take advantage of these favourable circumstances, I directed all sail to be made to the westward: there was no difficulty in complying with the first part of this order; but to ascertain which way the wind was blowing, and to which quarter of the horizon the ship's head was to be directed, was a matter of no such easy accomplishment; nor could we devise any means of determining this question till five o'clock, when we obtained a sight of the sun through the fog, and were thus enabled to shape our course, the wind being moderate from the northward.

At one A.M. on the 2d, a star was seen, being the first that had been visible to us for more than two months.

As we were making no way to the westward, I left the ship, accompanied by a large party of officers and men, and was soon after joined by the Griper's boats. The basis of this land is sandstone; but we met with limestone also, occurring in loose pieces on the surface, and several lumps of coal were brought in by the parties who had traversed the island in different directions. Our sportsmen were by no means successful, having seen only two deer, which were too wild to allow them to get near them. The dung of these animals, however, as well as that of the musk-ox, was very abundant, especially in those places where the moss was most luxuriant; every here and there we came to a spot of this kind, consisting of one or two acres of ground, covered with a rich vegetation, which was evidently the feeding-place of those animals, there being quantities of their hair and wool lying scattered about. Several heads of the musk-ox were picked up, and one of the Hecla's seamen brought to the boat a narwhal's horn, which he found on a hill more than a mile from the sea, and which must have been carried thither by Esquimaux or by bears: three or four brace of ptarmigan were killed, and these were the only supply of this kind which we obtained. We found no indication of this part of the island having been inhabited, unless the narwhal's horn be considered as such.

The wind continued light and variable till half past eight A.M. on the 3d, when a breeze from the northward once more enabled us to make some progress. I was the more anxious to do so from having perceived that the main ice had, for the last twenty-four hours, been gradually, though slowly, closing on the shore, thereby contracting the scarcely navigable channel in which we were sailing. The land which formed our western extreme was a low point, five miles to the westward of our place of observation the preceding day, which I named Point Ross, and the ice had already approached this point so much that there was considerable doubt whether any passage could be found between them. We had scarcely cleared the point when the wind failed us, and the boats were immediately sent ahead to tow, but a breeze springing up shortly after from the westward, obliged us to have recourse to another method of gaining ground, which we had not hitherto practised: this was by using small anchors and whale-lines as warps, by which means we made great progress, till, at forty minutes after noon, we were favoured by a fresh breeze, which soon took us into an open space of clear water to the northward and westward. A little to the westward of Point Ross there was a barrier of ice, composed of heavy masses firmly fixed to the ground at nearly regular intervals for about a mile, in a direction parallel to the beach. At right angles to this a second tier projected, of the same kind of ice, extending to the shore, so that the two together formed a most complete harbour, within which, I believe, a ship might have been placed in case of necessity, without much danger from the pressure of the external floes of ice. It was natural for us to keep in view the possibility of our being obliged to pass the ensuing winter in such a harbour; and it must be confessed, that the apparent practicability of finding such tolerable security for the ships as this artificial harbour afforded, should we fail in discovering a more safe and regular anchorage, added not a little to the confidence with which our operations were carried on during the remainder of the season.

At a quarter past nine P.M. we had the satisfaction of crossing the meridian of 110° west from Greenwich, in the latitude of 74° 44' 20"; by which his majesty's ships under my orders became entitled to the sum of five thousand pounds, being the reward offered to such of his majesty's subjects as might succeed in penetrating thus far to the westward within the Arctic Circle. In order to commemorate the success which had hitherto attended our exertions, the bluff headland which we had just passed was subsequently called by the men BOUNTY CAPE; by which name I have therefore distinguished it on the chart.

The wind increasing to a fresh gale from the northward in the afternoon, and the ice still continuing to oppose an impenetrable barrier to our farther progress, I determined to beat up to the northern shore of the bay, and, if a tolerable roadstead could be found, to drop our anchors till some change should take place. This was accordingly done at three P.M., in seven fathoms' water. This roadstead, which I called the BAY OF THE HECLA AND GRIPER, affords very secure shelter with the wind from E.N.E. round by north to S.W., and we found it more free from ice than any other part of the southern coast of the island.

The Bay of the Hecla and Griper was the first spot where we had dropped anchor since leaving the coast of Norfolk; a circumstance which was rendered the more striking to us at the moment, as it appeared to mark, in a very decided manner, the completion of one stage of our voyage. The ensigns and pendants were hoisted as soon as we had anchored, and it created in us no ordinary feelings of pleasure to see the British flag waving for the first time in these regions, which had hitherto been considered beyond the limits of the habitable part of the world.