At midnight on the 19th May the three little vessels Sunshine, Elizabeth, and Ellen sailed out of Dartmouth harbour before a fresh gale from the north-east. The Sunshine sprang a leak which could only be kept under by 500 strokes of the pump during each watch, and the Ellen was such a bad sailer that she had to be towed. On the 16th June, in spite of these drawbacks, the three vessels came to anchor in Gilbert Sound. Davis was so anxious that the expedition should pay its expenses that he determined to despatch both the Sunshine and the Elizabeth to the fishery, and to continue his voyage of discovery in the little pinnace Ellen of barely 20 tons. Then John Churchward reported that the Ellen had sprung a leak and that it required 300 strokes of the pump every watch to keep her clear of water. In this wretched little craft the explorers were to hazard their lives. All felt the crisis to be serious. Some hesitated. John Davis considered the matter, and his decision was worthy of him. He told his people that it would be better to end their lives with credit than to return with infamy and disgrace. The crew accepted his words as final and resolved to live and die together.
At midnight therefore on the 21st June all sailed from Gilbert Sound, the two barks for the fishing voyage, and Davis in the pinnace to continue the work of discovery. Proceeding northward along the west coast of Greenland, to which he gave the name of the London Coast, Davis took an observation on the 30th which showed the pinnace to be in 72° 12′ N. A lofty perpendicular cliff, in reality one of several small islands off the coast, was named after the friend and chief promoter of the expedition “Sanderson his Hope,” for here it was that there seemed to be the chiefest hope of a passage. Sanderson his Hope rises to the height of 850 feet above the sea, perpendicular save for narrow ledges on which myriads of looms and kittiwakes rear their young.
Davis was now obliged to alter course to the west owing to a strong northerly wind, and ran for 40 leagues in that direction without sighting land. Throughout the voyage he paid close attention to the phenomena of terrestrial magnetism, and did his best to increase the data for studying the properties of the magnet during all his voyages. The observations for variation at London have been continuous since 1580, and Davis had studied the work of another Arctic navigator, William Burrough, whose Discourse of the Compass and Magnetic Needle appeared in 1581, followed in 1585 by Robert Norman’s New Attractive.
While engaged in these observations, Davis found the progress of the little Ellen suddenly checked by broad floes stretching across her path. This was the famous “middle pack” drifting towards the Atlantic, sometimes extending for 200 miles, with an average thickness of eight feet. A lane of water was followed for some distance but it proved deceptive, and the Ellen was lucky in being able to escape from it without being beset. Davis then coasted along the southern edge of the pack and succeeded in reaching the western side of the Strait. By midnight of the 19th July the Ellen was off the entrance of Cumberland Gulf. Sailing along the coast they sighted Frobisher Strait and “Meta Incognita” without knowing that they were Frobisher’s discoveries, for the map-makers had placed them on the other side, in Greenland. The Ellen also crossed the entrance of the great strait which Frobisher had discovered, and Davis named the point on the south side Cape Chidley, after an old friend in Devonshire. The confused current which Frobisher likened to the waterfall then existent at London Bridge, appears to have been called by Davis “the furious overfall” as shown on the Molyneux globe and the “new map” of 1599. Davis in his log and Janes in his narrative describe it as “a mighty overfall, with divers circular motions like whirlpools in such sort as forcible streams pass through the arches of bridges.” The rendezvous of the fishing vessels was in 54° N. on the coast of Labrador, where the Ellen waited until the 15th August, and then shaped a course for England, arriving at Dartmouth on the 15th September, 1587. The logs of the Sunshine and Elizabeth have not been preserved, but we may hope that their cargoes remunerated Master Sanderson and the other subscribers, and paid the expenses of the expedition[50].
The discoveries of Davis were most important. He converted the Arctic regions from a confused myth into a defined area. He not only described and mapped the extensive tracts explored by himself, but he clearly pointed out the work cut out for his successors. He lighted Hudson into his strait, as Luke Fox truly said. He lighted Baffin into his bay. He lighted Hans Egede to the scene of his Greenland labours. He did more. His true-hearted devotion to the cause of Arctic discovery, his patient scientific research, his loyalty to his employers, his dauntless courage and enthusiasm, his care for the welfare of his men, form an example which has been a beacon light to the best Arctic explorers for all time.
When Davis returned from his last Arctic voyage, England was threatened by the Spanish Armada and there could be no thought but for her defence. Our Arctic navigator was also an expert pilot of the Channel, and had constructed a chart with soundings, mainly from his own surveys. His ability and zeal were well known, but he could only obtain the command of a small vessel of 20 tons called the Black Dog to act as tender to the Lord Admiral. She served throughout the war. Davis afterwards commanded the Drake to unite with the squadron of the Earl of Cumberland and prey upon Spanish commerce, joining him between Flores and Fayal in the Azores. These war services had the satisfactory result of enriching Davis with prize money and enabling him to undertake an expedition having geographical discovery for its main object.
The admirable character of the subsequent services of John Davis was due in great measure to the influence of his Arctic training and experience, but the plan of the present work makes it impossible to recount those services in detail. In joining the second expedition of Cavendish to the South Sea, the object of Davis was to discover the passage thither by the north, entering on the west side. In an evil hour Davis consented to unite forces with Cavendish, and commanded the Desire of 120 tons, contributing a large sum to the expedition. The terrible story of the dangers and sufferings in the Straits of Magellan and how through them all Davis diligently surveyed and prepared sailing directions, and the disastrous voyage home, are all graphically described by his friend Janes. This failure of the venture on which all the hopes of Davis had been set was heart-breaking. All his money was lost. To add to his affliction he returned to Sandridge only to find that his wife had deserted him, and that his three little boys were motherless.
Davis’s energy was in no way weakened by his sorrows and misfortunes. For two years he lived in retirement at Sandridge, busily engaged on his two works, The Seaman’s Secrets and the World’s Hydrographical Description. The first was dedicated to his old Admiral, Lord Howard of Effingham, on the 20th August, 1594. It was a book of instruction intended for sailors, a work on practical navigation, treating exclusively on “those things that are needfully required in a sufficient seaman.” “I distrust not,” he wrote, “but that all honest-minded seamen and pilots of reputation will gratefully accept this book, only in regard of my friendly good-will towards them, for it is not only in respect of my pains, but of my love that I would receive favourable courtesy[51].” But Davis’s work was by no means limited to promoting the safety of English ships by his surveys and charts, and greatly assisting their navigation by the publication of his Seaman’s Secrets. He did much towards the improvement of instruments for observing for latitude. The Davis quadrant was the forerunner of the plan of taking angles by reflection and was a great improvement on the cross-staff. It came into general use, and held its own until the invention of Hadley’s quadrant in 1731. There was even one in use on board the Royal George when she sank at Spithead[52]. Davis’s other work, The World’s Hydrographical Description is a learned disquisition on the discovery of a north-west passage to Cathay, and on the advantages to be derived from Arctic exploration.
Davis’s career as a seaman and explorer did not terminate until many years later when, on December 27th, 1605, he was murdered by Japanese pirates off the coast of Malacca. As chief pilot of the first Dutch expedition to the East Indies in 1598, and again in the service of the East India Company under Sir James Lancaster, he did good work in eastern waters. But his Arctic explorations were over. As a consummate pilot, a scientific seaman, and a great discoverer he takes rank among the foremost sea worthies of the glorious reign of Queen Elizabeth[53].