The lands of silence

by Sir Clements R. Markham

The gallant explorer and all his companions perished before the spring’s arrival, though some survived into January. The ship was found by some Russian fishermen, and Mr Killingworth, the Company’s agent in Russia, sent a ship to bring the property home. Sir Hugh Willoughby’s journal and his will, with other papers, were recovered. Milton, in his history of Muscovia, says that the ship was also despatched on her return, “but being unstaunch as is supposed, she sunk by the way with her dead, and them also that brought them.” Milton was, however, mistaken. The ships returned safely to England under the command of John Buckland, with the body of Sir Hugh Willoughby and his effects. Like La Perouse and Franklin, Sir Hugh Willoughby, England’s first Arctic explorer, perished in the midst of his discoveries—a glorious close to his honourable career.

Chancellor, in the Edward Bonaventure, after parting from the other two vessels, proceeded to Vardö, where he waited for seven days. He then continued the voyage, entered the White Sea, and obtained supplies and information from the Russians at Kholmogori, afterwards called Archangel. He was told that the country was ruled by a king named Ivan Vasilivitch, and eventually it was arranged that he should make a journey to Moscow, where he was well received, travelling back to his ship, and making the return voyage to England. He had discovered Russia, and an important trade between the two countries was begun. It would be difficult to over-estimate the commercial importance of our first Arctic expedition.

The Muscovy Company received a charter of incorporation in February 1555, and in June Richard Chancellor was sent on a second voyage with two ships, the Edward Bonaventure and the Philip and Mary. George Killingworth accompanied him as the Company’s agent. Chancellor again visited Moscow, and rejoined the Edward Bonaventure at Kholmogori with a Russian Ambassador, in July 1556. In November she arrived off Pitsligo, near Aberdeen, where she was driven on the rocks during a heavy gale. Chancellor perished in an attempt to reach the shore in a boat, but the Russian Ambassador was safely landed, and honourably received in London. The narrative of Chancellor’s first voyage was written in Latin by Edward Adam, the learned young schoolmaster to King Edward’s pages, who received his information from Chancellor himself. It is given in English by Hakluyt.

The first Arctic expedition thus opened the trade to Russia, a great service, the first of many which Polar exploration has done to this country. But we must leave the Company’s agents actively engaged in the establishment of that trade to follow the course of discovery. Of the crew of Chancellor’s ship, we hear again of at least six. The two merchants John Hasse and Richard Johnson were useful agents whose reports are given by Hakluyt. John Buckland, the master’s mate, commanded the ship which went to recover the journal and effects of his chief, Sir Hugh Willoughby. Stephen and William Burrough and Arthur Pet continued the work of discovery, and the two former became very distinguished naval officers.

Stephen Burrough is the third name on our Arctic roll of honour, following Willoughby and Chancellor. He was born at Borough in the parish of Northam near Bideford in Devonshire, in 1525, and was Master of the Edward Bonaventure under Chancellor at the age of 28. His brother William was eleven years younger, and served as a sailor boy under Stephen. In 1556 a pinnace called the Searchthrift was fitted out by the Muscovy Company for discovery, and Stephen Burrough was entrusted with the command. His brother William went with him. On the 27th of April the Searchthrift was at Gravesend, and was visited by the managers of the Company and several ladies, who after a collation on board, distributed liberal presents to the men, and gave a banquet followed by dancing at the Christopher Inn. On the 29th they left Gravesend, and by the end of May the Searchthrift was off the well-known headland to which Burrough gave the name North Cape.

Thence the explorers sailed along the Murman coast, as the Russians call the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula. It consists of high and precipitous granite cliffs with some harbours towards the western end. At the river Kola the English voyagers met with a number of Russian boats called lodias, chiefly belonging to Kholmogori (Archangel), with 20 oars and a crew of 24 men each. They were engaged in walrus and salmon fishing. The Russian captains were extremely friendly, presenting Burrough with loaves of bread, oatmeal, and fish, and piloting him along the coast. Crossing the entrance to the White Sea, Burrough sighted Kolguev Island, the mouth of the Petchora, and Kaninnoss, learning the names from his Russian friends. By the middle of July the Searchthrift sighted land right ahead, with distant mountains to the north. This, he learnt, was called Waigatz, and the northern land Novaya Zemlya. Part of its western coast, further to the north, had, as we have seen, already been discovered by Sir Hugh Willoughby.

Stephen Burrough discovered the strait, 25 miles wide, between Waigatz and Novaya Zemlya, which rightfully bears his name. The limit of knowledge was then the mouth of the Obi, but Burrough, pestered by ice, fogs, and gales of wind, was unable to penetrate into the Kara Sea. He landed on Waigatz, an island 70 miles long by 20 to 25 broad, consisting of a limestone ridge on the east side, and a lower shaley ridge to the west, with a swampy plain covered with small lakes between. The climate is extremely severe in the winter, but in the short summer the ground is covered with wild flowers. There are acres of flowering plants a foot high, including a delicate pink-blossomed crucifer, a yellow poppy, and a sort of lousewort (Melampyrum sylvaticum) of many colours, from glorious yellows to rich pinks. Buttercups carpet wide areas, and one water-loving species floats on the meres and tarns like a miniature water-lily, filling the air with its fragrance. There are stunted willows a foot high but no other wood-forming plant. Birds are numerous, and the peregrine falcon and the rough-legged buzzard nest on the cliffs of the island.

The approach of winter obliged our explorers to give up their attempt for that year, and on the 11th September Burrough brought the Searchthrift to Kholmogori, intending to renew his efforts in the following year. But the orders of the Company were that he should shape a homeward course, and in the autumn of 1557 he returned to the Thames.

Both the brothers, Stephen and William, became distinguished officers, showing what an admirable training Arctic service is for the navy, both in its executive and scientific branches. Stephen Burrough induced Richard Eden to translate the Arte de Navegar of Martin Cortes, then the best book on navigation, thus securing the means whereby our seamen could obtain instruction. In 1563 he became Chief Pilot in the Medway, with the duty of instructing and examining officers in the art of navigation. He died in July, 1584, and was buried at Chatham. His brother William continued to serve the Muscovy Company in voyages to the White Sea, and in 1570 he commanded a fleet bound to Narva in the Baltic. Both brothers were very attentive in observing the variation of the compass during the voyage to Waigatz, and in 1581 William Burrough published his Discourse of the Variation of the Needle. He became Comptroller of the Navy in 1583, and commanded the fleet which conveyed the Earl of Leicester from Harwich to Flushing in 1585. He constructed charts and prepared sailing directions, besides serving with Drake at Cadiz, and under Lord Howard against the Spanish Armada. His chart of the mouth of the Thames was the best until the first trigonometrical survey was made by Murdoch Mackenzie in 1790[32]. He died in 1599. For such valuable services as these, the Arctic expeditions which trained the Burroughs to observe and to act promptly and judiciously are doubtless not a little to be thanked.

For more than 20 years after the return of the Searchthrift the northern voyages were devoted to the promotion of Russian trade and not to discovery, but in 1580 Sir George Barne, a prominent citizen of London, with his colleague, Sir Rowland Hayward, resolved to fit out a small expedition with the object of continuing the discoveries made by Stephen Burrough. They equipped two small vessels, the George of London, 40 tons, and the William of London, 20 tons. Arthur Pet of Ratcliffe, who had been a seaman in the Edward Bonaventure, received command of the George with a crew of nine men and a boy, including Hugh Smith, an intelligent person who wrote an account of the voyage. The William was entrusted to Charles Jackman of Poplar, with a crew of five men and a boy. Nicholas Chancellor, perhaps one of the two sons of Richard, who caused him so much anxiety when he sailed into the unknown with Sir Hugh Willoughby, sailed with Pet as merchant. They were supplied with letters from the Queen. Sailing directions were drawn up by William Burrough, with instructions for observing; a paper of advice was written for them by Dr Dee, and a note on the commercial aspects of the enterprise by Richard Hakluyt. Under these excellent auspices the two tiny little vessels set out on the voyage to Cathay by the north-east.