CHAPTER IV
ROSS’S FAILURES AND PARRY’S SUCCESSES
While Buchan and Franklin were in difficulties in the ice off Spitzbergen, Ross and Parry with the Isabella (385 tons) and the Alexander (252 tons) were searching the shores of Baffin’s Bay for the North-West Passage. They had set sail from Lerwick on May 3, and by the end of June they were past Disco Island. Here, through the medium of John Sackheuse, their invaluable interpreter, they opened up very friendly relations with the natives, in whose honour they gave a ball, which afforded immense entertainment to all concerned. After this, progress became slower, for the sea was cumbered with ice, and the crew were compelled to adopt the tedious expedient of “tracking” the ship through it, that is to say, of going ashore with a rope and dragging her through the obstruction. At the end of July, however, Ross succeeded in reaching Melville Bay, which proved to be one of the most important discoveries of the voyage, for the sea was full of whales, and has proved a lucrative hunting-ground for whalers ever since.
As they were nearing the northern shores of the Bay the voyage of the Isabella and the Alexander came near to being summarily ended by a terrific gale which drove the ice upon them in such quantities that they were almost overwhelmed by it. Fortunately they both survived, and shortly after the storm had subsided, a number of natives with dog-sleighs were seen in the distance. All attempts at enticing them nearer by means of presents proved vain, but eventually the interpreter, Sackheuse, succeeded in getting into communication with them. At first they were inclined to distrust the strangers, imagining that the ships were some kind of weird animals with wings which had come either from the sun or the moon, they could not be sure which, with the express object of doing them an injury. The misunderstanding, however, was eventually cleared up, and they were induced to visit the ships, where everything that they saw was a source of infinite interest to them, with the exception of the ship’s biscuit and salted meat, for which they expressed supreme disdain.
Pressing on north, the explorers found the sea fairly clear of ice, and they soon passed Cape Dudley Digges, Wolstenholme Island and Whale Sound, none of which had been visited since Baffin’s day, and which cartographers had thought fit to erase from the maps, believing that Baffin had been the victim of hallucinations.
It was just after he had passed the Canary Islands that Ross made his first great mistake. It must be remembered in his extenuation that he was totally inexperienced in Arctic travel, and that he was unused to the strange atmospheric phenomena and illusions which meet the voyager in these regions at every turn. Even in the short period of his stay in the Polar seas, however, he ought to have learnt enough to prevent him from being beguiled into the belief that Smith’s Sound was nothing but a bay headed by a huge range of impenetrable mountains. That, however, was the conclusion to which he came, and he made no effort to push further north than the entrance to the Sound. Had he done so he would, of course, have found that his mountains were nothing but weather-gleam.
He now put about and pushed south, taking very accurate bearings of the various headlands which he passed. In the course of his voyage he came upon the entrances to Jones and Lancaster Sounds, both of which he was deterred from exploring by more ranges of impenetrable mountains, through which, however, his own lieutenant, Parry, sailed with perfect ease in the following year.
He reached Grimsby on November 14, meeting with no adventures worth recording on the way home. His voyage had two great results. It opened up an enormous and most lucrative whale fishery in and around Melville Bay, and it vindicated Baffin’s position as an explorer. Otherwise it was a little disappointing, for if he had not been so obsessed with the idea that mountains hemmed him in on every side, he might have accomplished much more than he actually achieved.
In the narrative of his voyage, which he published after his return, Ross distinctly implies that his opinion as to the impossibility of finding a passage through any one of these three sounds was shared by the rest of his officers. This, however, appears to have been very far from the truth, as Parry’s journals and letters attest. At the time when the two vessels were cruising about in the mouth of Lancaster Sound they were some three miles apart, the Isabella being in advance. When the Isabella put about, the crew of the Alexander were positively amazed, for so far as they could discern, there was no land anywhere in sight.
The Admiralty seems to have had some inkling of the truth, for shortly after their return, Parry and Franklin were summoned into the presence of Lord Melville, and they gathered from the words that he let fall that he was of opinion that Lancaster Sound was a passage leading into some sea to the westward, an opinion which they heartily endorsed. The result was that, when it was decided to send out another expedition in the following spring, Parry was offered the command. This expedition was to consist of two ships, the Hecla, a bomb of 375 tons, and the Griper, a gunboat of 180 tons. Both of these ships were selected by Parry before he knew that he was to be placed in command, and it was under his supervision that they were put in thorough repair, and specially strengthened for work in the Arctic regions. Parry himself was to command the Hecla, while the Griper was to be entrusted to Lieutenant Liddon. The full complement of both ships was ninety-four, and the Admiralty had no difficulty in finding excellent seamen, for they offered double pay to all those who took part in the expedition. Captain Sabine, whose name subsequently became famous for his excellent scientific work, was appointed naturalist and astronomer, and among the officers were Lieutenants Beechey and Hoppner. The object of the mission, as stated in the Admiralty instructions, was to seek out a north-west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific either through Lancaster, Jones or Smith Sounds.
The ships weighed anchor on May 5, 1819, and at first progress was slow, for the Griper proved such a bad sailor that the Hecla had to take her in tow. On the 23rd they sighted the ice of Davis Strait, and for a while they were obliged to bear to the eastward of it owing to its thickness. On July 21, however, Parry was able to set his course westwards, and eight days later they sighted the mountains at the southern entrance of Lancaster Sound.