HANGING OUR NEW RUDDER AT HOPEDALE
SAWING WOOD TO FEED THE FURNACES ALONG THE LABRADOR COAST
The nights now were very dark. Off Cape Athol we got free of the young ice again, and steaming south in open water, were off Cape Dudley Diggs early the following morning and steamed into Parker Snow Bay to land the last of my Eskimos. This day was a perfect one of brilliant sunshine and pronounced warmth. The Eskimos worked with a will landing their belongings, their dogs, and the walrus meat which I had secured for the purpose of carrying them through the winter, as I was bringing them back at the close of the hunting season when they could hope to secure only a scanty supply of food before the winter set in. By night everything was landed, and several tents set up on the shore. As the darkness came down it began to snow, accompanied by light wind from the southeast. In the morning the whole country was white with snow and a vicious southeaster in progress which held us here until the following morning. This time was occupied in getting the Roosevelt ready for rough water. From Cape Union to here all provisions, ammunition and equipment of all kinds had been carried on deck ready to be thrown ashore or out upon the ice whenever the necessity arose. This deck load was now transferred to the hold, and the ship generally put in better trim for the mauling which we were sure to receive at this season of the year once we got clear of the ice. As soon as the weather moderated sufficiently we steamed to Cape York where four families were found. Here we made fast to the newly formed land ice and remained three or four hours while repairing a bent eccentric. The natives here reported that the ice in Melville Bay had gone out but a short time previous, and during the entire season no ship had been able to approach the Cape, an occurrence which has not happened before since my acquaintance with this region, dating back to 1891.
Leaving Cape York late in the afternoon of the 26th, in a dense snowstorm, which doubled the gloom of the already descending night, we groped our way in almost complete darkness out through the numerous icebergs, and felt that we had really begun the homeward voyage. The darkness during this night was so intense that we slowed down to half-speed. The following afternoon a fresh breeze accompanied by a heavy swell set in from the southeast, and the rolling of the ship washed out some ashes in the fire-room, clogging the suctions of all the pumps, and allowing the water in the fire-room to rise to the stoke-hole plates before it was noticed. During the next two days the Roosevelt was hove-to while the fire-room was cleared of water, the pumps overhauled and got in commission again, and steps taken to prevent a recurrence of the trouble. During this time the weather remained thick and the wind continued from the southeast. When we got under way it was impracticable to make the Greenland coast and we continued down the middle of Baffin’s Bay. At midnight of September 30th we rounded the end of the middle pack and in the afternoon of October 1st, in a fresh southeast breeze and heavy swell, the foretopmast broke off at the springstay, and went overboard carrying with it the topmast rigging, barrel, and flying jib. October 3d we made the west coast just above Cape Dyer and followed it past Walsingham and Mercy, and across the mouth of Cumberland Sound, until 4 A. M. of the 6th, when about seven miles north of Monumental Island, a sea striking under the starboard quarter broke the rudder-stock square off, rendering us helpless.
It was very thick at the time and the Roosevelt was hove-to heading eastward to avoid being drifted upon the ragged coast about Cape Haven. A spar was got ready and rigged out as a jury rudder, but we were scarcely under way again when the wind came on from the northeast, and in two or three hours the rising sea had carried away the improvised rudder. After this we hove-to again, the storm increasing to almost hurricane violence for some thirty-six hours and raising a heavy sea. The Roosevelt proved herself a fine sea boat, lying to under double-reefed foresail with the same ease as one of the best of our Banks fishing schooners, and though she repeatedly rolled her rail to the water, she did not ship a bucketful of green sea.
With the slackening of the gale followed some twenty-four hours of chop sea off the mouth of Hudson Strait and work was commenced on a second rudder which, after two days of work under extreme difficulties, was finally completed and hung, the men being flung back and forth across the deck as they worked. The next day we made the Labrador coast at what is perhaps the worst locality in its northern portion, known as the Pot Rocks. Threading our way through these in fog and driving snow, with the breakers on either side, we kept off the coast and had no distinct view of it until the 13th, when it could be seen clearly enough for us to determine that we were just north of Sagdlek Bay. As we were now entirely out of water and had but a few tons of coal left, I determined to put into Hebron in hopes that we might secure a few tons of coal there. Darkness fell while we were still several miles from Hebron, but Captain Bartlett had been there some years before and he skilfully worked the ship through the crooked channels to her anchorage. No coal was to be had here but we obtained water and a few essential supplies, and early Monday morning started for Nain, taking the inside passage from Cape Mugford with which Captain Bartlett fortunately was familiar. Lying to during the night we reached Nain shortly after noon the following day.
Here some wood and a little blubber and two or three tons of coal-dust were obtained after much delay, due to heavy squalls which prevented the passage of boats from the ship to the shore. These squalls were so violent that they tore one of our boats loose and drifted it away. The Eskimo women here did all the work of loading and unloading the wood.
Still following the inside route, we proceeded to Hopedale where more wood was obtained, and more delay experienced from heavy wind. The second night the squalls were so violent that even in the inner harbour the Roosevelt dragged both anchors and went aground; coming off easily, however, at the next high tide.
On leaving the harbour the ship was found to be so light that in the fresh northwester then blowing she would not answer her helm. Both anchors were let go and when at night the wind moderated, she worked back into the harbour where she was beached, rudder hoisted out and rebuilt, the stern recalked, natives employed to bring ballast and work the pumps, while we awaited the arrival of the mail steamer to secure coal, without which I did not think it advisable to proceed farther along this coast at this season of the year with the Roosevelt in her present condition.