Besides the astrolabe our earliest Arctic navigators were supplied with large blank globes on which they puzzled out the navigation problems, an armillary sphere, a great chart with all that was known or conjectured on it, smaller navigation charts, compasses and hourglasses, and the regiment of Medina, translated from the Spanish at the instance of the Arctic navigator Burrough. With such slight and rather unreliable help our brave seamen of the 16th century, in great peril and difficulty, found their way over the trackless ocean, a way now made easy for their descendants.
CHAPTER VIII
FIRST ENGLISH VOYAGES TO THE NORTH-EAST. WILLOUGHBY. CHANCELLOR. BURROUGH. PET
Many reasons led English seamen to turn northward. East and west were occupied by Portugal and by Spain, and our own adventurers, rather later in the field, sought the discovery of routes to Cathay and the Spice Islands by northern ways. Our seamen had long traded with Norway and Iceland. The more northern voyages received hearty encouragement from our Plantagenet kings, who granted charters in 1404, 1432, and 1463 for trade with the Scandinavian nations. Richard III specially favoured the Iceland voyages. William of Worcester, in his chronicle, tells us of the enterprises of William Canynge of Bristol, who sent his ships not only to the Mediterranean and the Baltic, but so far as Iceland, where one of his vessels of 160 tons was lost. Ships also went northward from Lynn and other ports, and before long the commercial ventures led to voyages of discovery. It must always be remembered that the notices of voyages to be met with in the 15th century chronicles, few and far between, represented but a small fraction of English maritime activity and of the voyages actually undertaken. England was preparing silently, but actively and strenuously, for her supremacy of the sea, and for her great work in the Arctic regions.
Land was reported beyond the ocean to the westward of Bristol, and as early as July 1480 we are told by William of Worcester that a seaman named Thylde—the most scientific seaman, it is added, in all England—led an expedition in search of the unknown land, and was absent for 64 days. Others followed in his wake. At last the crew of the Bristol ship Matthew did actually discover Newfoundland, or rather re-discover it, for it was the Vinland of the Norsemen. This was in 1496, and in the following years there were other voyages from Bristol to the new land. Nine years afterwards the Company of Merchant Adventurers received their charter, and English Arctic enterprise was not very long in starting under the auspices of that famous Company.
Mr Robert Thorne, a merchant of London who long resided at Seville, and whose father had been an adventurer to the new land, was one of those who urged the importance of northern exploration. In a letter to the English Ambassador at Madrid, and in another to Henry VIII, he counselled the discovery of routes to China and the Spice Islands by the north. He pointed out that from the situation of this realm of England it was nearest and aptest of all others for the prosecution of such a discovery, which would win perpetual glory for the King and infinite profit for his subjects. After reaching the Pole, he said, the discoverers can decline to which part they list.
Such words were as seed falling on fertile soil. Arctic enterprise needed stimulus, however, and received it from two young princes of great promise, both alas! cut off in their prime—Edward VI and Prince Henry of Wales. King Edward took a warm and personal interest in the maritime prosperity of his country, and in the science of navigation. His friend and companion, Henry Sidney[28], was imbued with the same feeling. Under their auspices the first Arctic expedition was organised and despatched by the Company of Merchant Adventurers to undertake a voyage to Cathay by the north-east. The whole subject was considered with the greatest care as regards the management and discipline, the ships, the merchandise to be taken, and the provisions.
The most important matter of all was the selection of good commanders. Sir Hugh Willoughby, a most valiant gentleman and well born, very earnestly requested that he might be chosen to command the expedition. Sir Hugh was a younger son of Sir Henry Willoughby, Knight Banneret of Wollaton, who died in 1528, and whose altar tomb is in Wollaton church[29]. Sir Henry left three sons John, Edward, and Hugh, and Edward’s grandson was the builder of the present fine old mansion at Wollaton, near Nottingham. Hugh was connected, by his father’s marriages, with two names afterwards known in Arctic history, Markham and Egerton. He himself married Joan, daughter of Sir Nicholas Strelly, a Nottinghamshire neighbour. His portrait, now at Wollaton, of which there is a replica in the Painted Hall at Greenwich, is that of a tall and handsome man. He was to be Captain-General of the expedition on board a ship of 120 tons called the Bona Esperanza, with a crew of 36 officers and men[30]; the second ship was the Edward Bonaventure of 160 tons, with a crew of 51 officers and men; and the third was the Bona Confidentia of 90 tons, with 28 officers and men. Sir Hugh had a relation with him, named Gabriel Willoughby, among the merchants.
As second in command, Richard Chancellor was selected from among many applicants, on the recommendation of King Edward’s friend, Sir Henry Sidney, who made a speech to the Merchant Adventurers, commending an enterprise which, he said, would prove profitable and honourable to our country. Chancellor had been in the service of Sidney, who reminded the merchants that while they found the means but remained at home, Chancellor hazarded his life amongst the perils of the sea. He concluded by saying, “If it fall so happily out that he return again, it is your part and duty liberally to reward him.” Chancellor was in the Edward Bonaventure as chief pilot of the fleet, and he had with him Stephen Borough as master of the ship, his brother William Borough, and Arthur Pet, all destined later to become famous as Arctic navigators. The master of the Bona Confidentia was Cornelius Durforth, whose young son sailed with him as a seaman. King Edward VI addressed a “letter missive,” in several languages, to the potentates inhabiting the north-east parts of the world toward the mighty empire of Cathay, commending the right valiant and worthy Sir Hugh Willoughby to their good offices.
The three ships left Ratcliffe on May 10th, 1553, and started with the ebb. They were towed by their boats, the sailors being dressed in sky-coloured cloth, and passing Greenwich there was a great crowd on the shore, and the courtiers stood at the windows of the palace, the ships saluting. But, alas! the young King who had taken great interest in the expedition, receiving news of it from his friend Henry Sidney, was on his deathbed. There was a detention at Harwich owing to some of the provisions being bad, but on the 23rd of June the little squadron stood out to sea from Orfordness.
It was not until the 14th of July that Halgoland was sighted, the home of Ohthere, the first Arctic navigator. They visited Udröst, on the Arctic Circle and had friendly intercourse with the people of the Lofoten Islands. They also touched at Senjen, but off the coast of Finmarken, Chancellor, in the Edward Bonaventure, parted company in a gale of wind. Sir Hugh Willoughby, with his own ship and the Bona Confidentia, searched for the port of Vardö, which he called “Wardhouse,” the rendezvous. But strong breezes obliged him to shape a course to the eastward, and on the 14th of August he came in sight of land in 72° N. He hoisted out the boat, but could not reach the coast owing to the water being shoal. Sir Hugh had discovered Novaya Zemlya, at the part now called the “Goose Coast,” It was known to the adventurers of those days as “Willoughby’s Land,” but was shown on some maps as a separate island[31]. Sir Hugh continued to work up along the coast for three days, but the Bona Confidentia was leaking badly, and it was decided to seek a harbour in Finmarken in order to repair her. After beating about for some days Sir Hugh finally brought the two vessels into a haven at the mouth of the river Arzina, near Kegor on the coast of Lapland. Here he determined to winter, as animals were seen both on land and sea, but no human dwellers could be found.