CHAPTER III.
Return to the Eastward through the Frozen Strait.—Discovery of Hurd Channel.—Examined in a Boat.—Loss of the Fury's Anchor.—Providential Escape of the Fury from Shipwreck.—Anchor in Duckett Cove.—Farther Examination of the Coast by Boats and Walking-parties.—Ships proceed through Hurd Channel.—Are drifted by the Ice back to Southampton Island.—Unobstructed Run to the Entrance of a large Inlet leading to the Northwestward.—Ships made fast by Hawsers to the Rocks.—Farther Examination of the Inlet commenced in the Boats.
Having now satisfactorily determined the non-existence of a passage to the westward through Repulse Bay, to which point I was particularly directed in my instructions, it now remained for me, in compliance with my orders, to "keep along the line of this coast to the northward, always examining every bend or inlet which might appear likely to afford a practicable passage to the westward." It was here, indeed, that our voyage, as regarded its main object, may be said to have commenced, and we could not but congratulate ourselves on having reached this point so early, and especially at having passed, almost without impediment, the strait to which, on nearly the same day[*] seventy-nine years before, so forbidding a name had been applied.
[Footnote: Middleton discovered the Frozen Strait on the 20th
August 1742, according to the New Style.]
All sail was made at daylight on the 23d along the northern shore of the Frozen Strait, which here continues about the same height as that of Repulse Bay, and was at this time quite free from snow. At nine A.M. the weather became squally with thick snow, which rendered great caution necessary in running. There was something in the appearance of this part of the coast which held out so favourable a prospect of a direct passage to the northward, that I determined more closely to examine it. Having beat up to the mouth of an opening which, the nearer we approached, assumed a more and more favourable appearance, we found that a body of ice occupied the greater part of the channel, rendering it impracticable then to enter it either with the ships or the boats. The only mode left, therefore, of examining it without loss of time, was to despatch a party equipped for travelling by land, to ascertain enough of its extent and communications to enable me to decide as to our farther progress. As, however, in their present situation, I did not feel myself justified in leaving the ships, I requested Captain Lyon to undertake this service. He was accompanied by Mr. Bushnan and two seamen from each ship, and was furnished with a tent, blankets, and four days' provisions.
Captain Lyon, on his return, at the end of two days, reported that he had landed on an island, which he called BUSHNAN'S ISLAND, had then crossed a strait, to which afterward the name of HURD'S CHANNEL was given, and landed on a steep point called by him CAPE MONTAGU. From hence his party proceeded to a high and remarkable hill called BROOKS'S BLUFF: following the strait to the northward, they passed the remains of many Esquimaux habitations; and, though their short journey had been unsatisfactory on account of the badness of the weather, there was still sufficient to cause the most lively interest, and give strong hopes of the existence of some passage to the northeast of the small inlet they had examined.
At eight P.M., having shoaled the water from sixty to forty, and then to thirty-two fathoms, and the weather still continuing extremely thick, I suspected that the tide was taking us too close to Passage Island, which was the nearest land when the fog came on. A large space of open water was at this time not more than a quarter of a mile distant from us in the opposite direction; but, before the ships could be moved by warps or any other means within our power, the tide was observed to be setting her directly between the island and the little yellow-looking rock I have before mentioned as lying on its eastern side. The anchors were kept ready to drop in an instant should the ship drive into shoal water; had we grounded, and the heavy masses of ice continued to drive upon us, little less than the total destruction of the ship was to be apprehended. The natural direction of the stream, however, effected for us that which, hampered as we were, our own exertions must have failed in accomplishing; the ship drove through, at the distance of one hundred yards from the rock and about one hundred and forty from Passage Island, having no less than twelve fathoms; and soon after deepened the water to thirty-five and forty, and then to no bottom with ninety.
After this providential escape we lay-to within the island, in order to drift to the northward and westward of it with the flood tide, which runs stronger here than in any other part of the Frozen Strait. The night was fine, but extremely dark, so that after ten o'clock we could not distinguish where the land lay, and the compasses could not be depended on. After an ineffectual attempt to push through the ice towards the middle of the Strait, in order to avoid the danger of being entangled among the numerous islands lying off this shore, we were literally obliged to let the ship take her chance, keeping the lead going and the anchors in readiness.
The Hecla having got clear of the ice the preceding evening, and narrowly escaped an adventure similar to that which we had experienced, rejoined us early in the morning, when Captain Lyon returned to her to prepare a boat for his intended excursion. We then stood in under all sail for the land, and at eleven A.M. Captain Lyon left the Hecla, while the ships tacked off and on to await his return. At nine P.M. Captain Lyon returned, acquainting me that he had met with a small bay having no stream of tide, and being at present clear of ice, he thought it might answer our purpose, but he wished me to see it before the ships were taken in.
A boat from each ship being prepared, Captain Lyon and myself left the cove at three P.M. to proceed on the proposed examination. We separated at Point Cheyne, Captain Lyon having pointed out to me the broad eastern channel from which the tide appeared to come, and which if was my intention to examine, while he directed his attention to the smaller passage he had described as leading to the northward. It was agreed that we should return to the ships with as little delay as was consistent with the object we had in view, namely, to ascertain through which of the two channels it was expedient or practicable to bring the ships.
The breeze moderated soon after our landing, and a fine clear night succeeded. At four in the morning Mr. Ross and myself ascended the nearest hill, in the hope of being able to satisfy ourselves respecting the existence of a passage for the ships in at least one direction. I therefore directed the tents to be struck, and everything to be in readiness for moving on our return. On reaching the summit of the first hill, however, we found, as is not unfrequently the case, that our view was but little improved, and that no prospect could be obtained to the northward without ascending the higher hill seen the preceding evening, which we now found still several miles beyond us. While preparing for this, I felt so much indisposed, that, being apprehensive of laying myself up at a time when I could least afford to do so, I determined to intrust the proposed service to Mr. Ross, in whose zeal and ability to accomplish it I felt the utmost confidence. Mr. Ross and his party accordingly set out for the hill at six A.M. On his return in the evening Mr. Ross reported that, having reached a commanding hill, he found himself overlooking a sea of considerable extent to the eastward, and washing the foot of the hill on which he stood. This sea appeared to have some islands scattered about it, and was much encumbered with ice. To the southeastward there seemed to be several openings between islands, of which the land we stood then upon appeared to form one, the sea sweeping round to the northward and westward, as if to join the strait discovered by Captain Lyon. Mr. Ross described the country over which he passed as much intersected by lakes, some of them not less than two or three miles in length, and having in their neighbourhood abundance of grass, moss, and other fine feeding for the deer. The report of Mr. Ross, accompanied by an eye-sketch made upon the spot, left no doubt of the existence of an outlet to the eastward, and enabled me to decide without hesitation upon attempting the passage of the narrows with the ships, leaving our subsequent route to be determined on according to the report of Captain Lyon.
Piles of stones and the remains of Esquimaux habitations were everywhere to be seen, and Mr. Ross met with their marks even on the highest hills; but none appeared of recent date. The reindeer were here very numerous. Mr. Ross saw above fifty of them in the course of his walk, and several others were met with near the tents. A large one was shot by one of the men, who struck the animal; as he lay on the ground, a blow on the head with the butt end of his piece, and, leaving him for dead, ran towards the tents for a knife to bleed and skin him; when the deer very composedly got on his legs, swam across a lake, and finally escaped. A small fawn was the only one killed. Three black whales and a few seals were playing about near the beach.
Our people being somewhat fatigued with walking, were allowed to rest till half past one in the morning of the 29th, when, it being high water, the tents were struck and the boat loaded. I found that Captain Lyon had returned on board the preceding evening, having accomplished his object in a shorter time than was expected.
That no time might be lost in running the ships through the narrows, I directed three boats from each to be prepared, for the purpose of sounding every part of this intricate, and, as yet, unknown passage, which I named after Captain THOMAS HURD, of the royal navy, hydrographer to the admiralty. Giving to the officer commanding each boat a certain portion to accomplish, I reserved for my own examination the narrowest part of the channel; and at thirty minutes past one P.M., as soon as the flood tide began to slacken, we left the ships and continued our work till late at night, when, having received the reports of the officers, and made out a plan of the channel for each ship, I directed everything to be in readiness for weighing at the last quarter of the ebb on the following morning. Much as I lamented this delay, at a period of the season when every moment was precious, it will not appear to have been unnecessary, when it is considered that the channel through which the ships were to be carried did not in some places exceed a mile in breadth, with half of that space encumbered with heavy masses of ice, and with an ebb tide of six knots running through it.
At fifteen minutes past three P.M. on the 30th, a light air of wind springing up from the eastward, we weighed, and, having warped out by kedges till we had cleared the shoal-point of the cove, made sail for the channel, and, with the assistance of the boats, got the Fury into the fair set of the tide before it made very strong to the eastward. At a quarter before seven, when in the narrowest part, which is abreast of a bold headland on the south shore, where the tide was now driving the ice along at the rate of five or six knots, the wind came in a sudden gust from the southwest, scarcely allowing us to reduce and trim our sails in time to keep the ship off the north shore, which is not so safe as the other. By carrying a heavy press of canvass, however, we succeeded in forcing through the ice, but the Fury was twice turned completely round by eddies, and her sails brought aback against the helm; in consequence of which she gathered such fresh sternway against several heavy floe-pieces, that I apprehended some serious injury to the stern-post and rudder, if not to the whole frame of the ship. The Hecla got through the narrows soon after us; but Captain Lyon, wishing to bring away the flags and staves set up as marks, had sent his little boat away for that purpose during the continuance of the calm weather. When the breeze suddenly came on she was still absent, and, being obliged to wait for some time to pick her up, the Hecla was about dusk separated several miles from us.
I was sorry to perceive, on the morning of the 1st of September, that the appearance of the ice was by no means favourable to our object of sailing to the northward, along the Sturges Bourne Islands; but at ten A.M., the edge being rather more slack, we made all sail, with a very light air of southerly wind, and the weather clear, warm, and pleasant. We were at noon in lat. 66° 03' 35", and in long. 83° 33' 15", in which situation a great deal of land was in sight to the northward, though apparently much broken in some places. From N.E. round to S.S.E. there was still nothing to be seen but one wide sea uninterruptedly covered with ice as far as the eye could reach.
At forty-five minutes past one P.M. we had come to the end of the clear water, and prepared to shorten sail, to await some alteration in our favour. At this time the weather was so warm that we had just exposed a thermometer to the sun to ascertain the temperature of its rays, which could not have been less than 70° or 80°, when a thick fog, which had for some hours been curling over the hills of Vansittart Island, suddenly came on, creating so immediate and extreme a change, that I do not remember to have ever experienced a more chilling sensation. As we could no longer see a hundred yards around us in any direction, nothing was to be done but to make the ships fast to the largest piece of ice we could find, which we accordingly did at two P.M., in one hundred and fifty-eight fathoms. Just before dark the fog cleared away for a few minutes, when, perceiving that the wind, which was now increasing, was likely to drift us too near the islands, we took advantage of the clear interval to run a mile farther from the land for the night, where we again made fast to a large floe-piece in two hundred fathoms.
The wind, drawing round to the northward and westward, on the morning of the 2d, increased to a fresh gale, which continued to blow during the night, notwithstanding which, I was in hopes that the immense size of the floe to which the ships were attached would enable us to retain our station tolerably. It was mortifying, therefore, to find, on the morning of the 2d, that we had drifted more than I remember ever to have done before in the same time under any circumstances. It was remarkable, also, that we had not been set exactly to leeward, but past Baffin Island towards two remarkable hills on Southampton Island, from which we were at noon not more than seven or eight leagues distant. Thus, after a laborious investigation which occupied one month, we had, by a concurrence of unavoidable circumstances, returned to nearly the same spot on which we had been on the 6th of August. To consider what might have been effected in this interval, which included the very best part of the navigable season, had we been previously aware of the position and extent of the American Continent about this meridian, is in itself certainly unavailing; but it may serve to show the value of even the smallest geographical information in seas where not an hour must be thrown away or unprofitably employed.
In the afternoon an attempt was made to move, for the mere sake, it must be confessed, of moving and keeping the people on the alert, rather than with the slightest prospect of gaining any ground; but, by the time that we had laid out the hawsers, the small hole of water that had appeared again closed, and we were obliged to remain as before.
At four A.M. on the 5th, we cast off and made sail for the land, with a fresh breeze from the southeast. The ice was closely packed, against the land near the passage I had intended to try, and as it appeared slack to the eastward, I determined to run between the southeast point of Baffin Island and the smaller islands lying off it. The wind drawing more to the eastward as we approached the channel, we had several tacks to make in getting through, but carried a good depth of water on each side, though its breadth does not exceed three quarters of a mile. As we now advanced to the northward, we found less and less obstruction, the main body of the ice having been carried to the southward and eastward by the late gale, which had in so extraordinary a manner drifted us in the same direction. This was one of the opportunities I have before described as the most favourable that ever occur for making progress in these seas. We had, therefore, a fine run during the day along the east side of Sturges Bourne Islands; for, having found the passages between them still choked with ice, we were obliged to run to the northward with the hope of attaining our present object, till it was time to look out for an anchorage. Having first sent the boats to sound, we hauled into a small bay, where we anchored at dusk in seventeen fathoms, good holding-ground, though the bottom was so irregular that we had from five to thirteen close upon our quarter.
We had now once more approached a part of the coast, of which the thorough and satisfactory examination could not possibly be carried on in the ships, without incurring constant and, perhaps, useless risk, and a certain and serious loss of time. I determined, therefore, to proceed at once upon this service in two boats, one from each ship. Having communicated my intentions to Captain Lyon, and requested him to move the ships, when practicable, into some more secure situation, I left the Fury, accompanied by Mr. Ross and Mr. Sherer, taking with us our tents, blankets, and stove, together with four days' provisions and fuel.