THE “RACEHORSE” AND THE “CARCASE” IN THE ICE
FROM A PICTURE BY J. CLIVELY

It was three years after the return of the Racehorse and Carcase that Captain Cook made his only expedition into the Arctic seas. His success in the Antarctic had led his friends in England to hope great things of his voyage through the Bering Strait, but, unfortunately, his two ships, the Resolution and the Discovery, proved but ill-adapted for service in the Arctic, and though he succeeded in charting a good deal of the unknown American coast, he made no approach to finding that North-West Passage for the discovery of which he had been set out. He had intended to return to the Arctic again with a view to prosecuting his discoveries there, but his death at Hawaii in 1779 prevented him from fulfilling his purpose, and his second in command, Captain Clerke, on whom the leadership of the expedition devolved, died of consumption at Petropaulovsk.

CHAPTER III
THE VOYAGE OF BUCHAN AND FRANKLIN

What with the American War and the Napoleonic Wars, our sailors had their hands so full at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries, that they had no time to spare for unnecessary exploration, and there is, in consequence, a hiatus of forty years in the story of Arctic discovery. In 1817, however, Captain William Scoresby, junior, one of the most famous of Scotch whalers, reported to Sir Joseph Banks that he had found nearly 2000 square leagues of the Spitzbergen Sea free from ice, and that he had, in consequence, been able to sight the eastern coast of Greenland, at a meridian usually considered inaccessible, adding that it would be greatly to the advantage of our whale fishery if expeditions were sent out to continue the work of exploration which had remained in abeyance for so long. Both Sir Joseph Banks and Sir John Barrow, then Secretary to the Admiralty, were much impressed by this report and it was through their representations that the Government decided to send out two expeditions in 1818, one of which was to make an effort to reach the Pole, while the other was to search for the elusive North-West Passage. The list of the officers of these two expeditions included six names which were destined to become famous all over the world for their Arctic work—those of Back, Beechey, Franklin, Parry, John Ross, and James C. Ross.

The ships detailed for the first of these two expeditions were the Dorothea (370 tons) and the Trent (250 tons), two stout whalers which were specially strengthened for work in the ice with all the extra wood and iron that they could carry. They were provisioned for two years, and the leadership of the expedition was entrusted to Captain Buchan, who sailed on the Dorothea, while Franklin commanded the Trent, with Beechey as his lieutenant. The object of the mission was scientific as well as geographical, and it was hoped that many useful investigations would be made into the atmospheric, meteorological, and magnetic phenomena of the unknown region which it was to traverse.

The expedition sailed on April 25, the Arctic circle was crossed on May 18, and Bear Island sighted on the 24th. Standing north for the south cape of Spitzbergen, the ships met with their first serious opposition from the ice. They succeeded in making their way through the belt, however, and they were soon lying in Magdalena Bay. Further progress north was summarily checked by a vast field of ice through which it was impossible to penetrate, for the moment at any rate. Accordingly, Buchan decided to spend some time in exploring Magdalena Bay, in the hope that the conditions would change, and that he would be able to pass through it. His second venture, however, met with no better success. Indeed, disaster very nearly cut short the career of the two ships, for, while they were coasting along the pack, the breeze suddenly dropped, and they were driven by the swell into the midst of the innumerable floes which were constantly being dashed by the rollers against the main sheet of ice. So fierce was the impact of these floes that they were crumbled to pieces, and for miles around the sea was covered with a thick pasty substance, known as brash ice, which often extended to a depth of five feet.

Fortunately, however, a breeze arose which carried them out of their dangerous predicament, and they were able to proceed on their way. Continuing their reconnaisance to the west, they found but little change in the condition of the pack, and they decided to desist for the present from their attempts to find a way through it. Accordingly they put about and made for Spitzbergen, where they found that the pack, though still impenetrable, had shifted a little, leaving a passage between it and the land. Rather unwisely, perhaps, Buchan attempted to make his way along this channel, and he had only just passed Red Cliff when the ice closed in upon him on every side, making it impossible for him either to advance or to retreat.

Here they remained for thirteen days with little to do except to observe the habits of the animals which appeared on all sides, and to indulge in a little hunting when the opportunity offered. In this connection Beechey tells a rather interesting story illustrating the ingenuity of the Polar bear. “Bears, when hungry,” he writes, “seem always on the watch for animals sleeping on the ice, and endeavour by stratagem to approach them unobserved: for, on the smallest disturbance, the animals dart through holes in the ice, which they always take care to be near, and thus evade pursuit. One sunshiny day a walrus, of nine or ten feet in length, rose in a pool of water not very far from us, and after looking round, drew his greasy carcase upon the ice, where he rolled about for a time, and at length laid himself down to sleep. A bear which had probably been observing his movements, crawled carefully upon the ice at the opposite side of the pool, and began to roll about also, but apparently more with design than amusement, as he progressively lessened the distance that intervened between him and his prey. The walrus, suspicious of his advances, drew himself up, preparatory to a precipitate retreat into the water, in case of a nearer acquaintance with his playful but treacherous visitor; on which the bear was instantly motionless as if in the act of sleep, but after a time began to lick his paws and clean himself, and occasionally to encroach a little more on his intended prey. But even this artifice did not succeed; the wary walrus was far too cunning to allow himself to be entrapped, and suddenly plunged in the pool.” The bears, however, were not always so unlucky in their hunting, for in the stomach of one that they killed they found a Greenlander’s garter.

Walrus hunting also afforded them a little sport, and on one occasion the crew were so unwise as to attack a herd in the ordinary ship’s boats. Immediately the walruses rose on all sides, and it was no easy matter to prevent them from staving in the sides of the boats with their tusks, or dragging them under water. “It was the opinion of our people,” says Beechey, “that in this assault the walruses were led by one animal in particular, a much larger and more formidable beast than any of the others; and they directed their efforts more particularly towards him, but he withstood all the blows of their tomahawks without flinching, and his tough hide resisted the entry of the whale lances, which were, unfortunately, not very sharp, and soon bent double. The herd were so numerous, and their attacks so incessant, that there was not time to load a musket, which, indeed, was the only mode of seriously injuring them. The purser fortunately had his gun loaded, and the whole crew being now nearly exhausted with chopping and sticking at their assailants, he snatched it up, and thrusting the muzzle down the throat of the leader, fired into his body. The wound proved mortal, and the animal fell back amongst his companions, who immediately desisted from the attack, assembled round him, and in a moment quitted the boat, swimming away as hard as they could with their leader, whom they actually bore up with their tusks, and assiduously prevented from sinking.”

The release which they had been praying for came at last, but it brought little improvement to their position, for a terrific gale arose which drove both the ships into the pack, with the result that half the timbers of the Trent were strained, while the Dorothea was reduced to something little better than a wreck. To attempt any further exploration was hopeless, so they made for Spitzbergen, where they found a safe anchorage in South Gat. Here the vessels were put into a state of repair, the officers in the meantime exploring the part of the island on which they found themselves, and making observations. On August 30 they put to sea once more, and arrived safely in England on October 22.