The lands of silence

by Sir Clements R. Markham

When the compact character of the ice-floes between Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya deprived Hudson of all hope by a northerly course, his intention was to pass by the Waigat and the mouth of the river Obi to Cape Tabin, the supposed northern point of Asia. But now a hope was conceived that the quantity of walrus might defray the expense of the expedition, and also that there might be a better passage to the east side of Novaya Zemlya by way of Kostin Shar, as the bay in which he was had been named—the Dutch believing it to be a strait. On the 2nd July the boat was sent on shore with the mate, and brought back four dozen birds, half a boat-full of drift-wood, and a report of many reindeer. But a careful examination showed that the Kostin Shar was only a deep bay and not a strait, to Hudson’s great disappointment. On the 6th, all hope was abandoned of finding a passage by the north-east.

Hudson then resolved to ascertain whether “Willoughby Land” was in the position in which it was placed on his chart, because if so he considered it would be a good place for walrus. So he shaped a westerly course. But no such land was seen, for in reality “Willoughby Land” was the very land of Novaya Zemlya which they had been visiting. On the 18th July the North Cape was again sighted; and the Hopewell arrived at Gravesend on the 26th August, 1608. Hudson tells us that having found the routes by the north pole and the north-east impracticable, he had resolved to try the north-west the same year, taking the route of Lumley’s Inlet and the “Furious Overfall” mentioned by Davis. But the season was far spent and he felt it to be his duty to his employers to return.

Hudson’s next voyage was in the service of the Dutch in 1609, when he discovered the river which bears his name, and it was not until 1610 that he was enabled to undertake the enterprise he had in his heart, an attempt by way of the “Furious Overfall” of John Davis. But that sad episode belongs to another part of the Arctic story.

Of the great commercial as well as geographical importance of the two first voyages of Hudson there can be no question. They led the way to the famous Spitsbergen whale fishery. In 1609 the Muscovy Company sent Captain Jonas Poole to complete the work of Hudson, and he carefully examined the whole of the west coast of Spitsbergen, naming Bell Sound, Ice Sound, and several other positions. He wrote interesting journals which are given in Purchas, and he had a prosperous career before him. But unfortunately he was “miserably and basely murdered between Radcliffe and London,” after his return in 1611.

The reports of Hudson and Poole made it manifest that there was great wealth to be derived from the fishery in the seas round the New Land. In 1612 the Muscovy Company obtained a Charter from James I excluding all others from the fishery, English or foreign, so that henceforward it would be a question which had the strongest fleet. Christian IV thereupon put in a claim on the ground first that the country was Greenland, and then that it was part of Norway. The Dutch obtained a Charter, similar to that of the Muscovy Company, from Prince Maurice. Dunkirk privateers and Biscayners also began to arrive at the fishery. The grand work of discovery, though never quite lost sight of by the English, was practically put aside, and the sordid greed of wealth-seekers was substituted.

The first appearance of the Dutch was in 1612, when a ship arrived at the fishery piloted by an Englishman named Bonner. In that year also, Captain Marmaduke, one of the most able and dashing sailors on the Spitsbergen side in those days, with a crew from his native town of Hull, boldly pushed forward to make discoveries, and we are told by Fotherby, a reliable authority, that he reached 82° N.

The country was called “King James his Newland” by the Muscovy Company, and Greenland by the Dutch and Danes and also for long by the English.

In 1613 the Muscovy Company fitted out a large fleet under the command of Benjamin Joseph, an experienced seaman. The Admiral or leading ship was the Tiger of 200 tons, with Joseph in command and William Baffin as pilot. The Matthew of 250 tons was Vice-Admiral, and Captain Marmaduke appears to have commanded her, with Fotherby as pilot. Thomas Edge, who afterwards did such good service as a discoverer as well as a whaling captain, was also in the fleet. The Rear-Admiral was the Gamaliel of 200 tons, the fourth ship was the John and Francis of 180 tons, and the fifth the Annula of 140 tons. There was also a pinnace of 60 tons called the Richard and Barnard. The fleet left the Thames on the 13th May, and by the 1st June, all the ships being in company, they were off Prince Charles’s Island on the west coast of Spitsbergen, anchoring in Sir Thomas Smith’s Bay between Prince Charles’s Island and the mainland of Spitsbergen. On the 4th June they killed their first whale.

At first the English were quite ignorant of the art of whale-killing, and this, the most important part of the business, was left to two dozen Basques who were shipped for the voyages and ordered “to be used very kindly and friendly, being strangers, and leaving their own country to do us service.”

In the middle ages a whale frequented the Bay of Biscay (Balaena Biscayensis) rather smaller than the right whale, but differing very little in other respects. It is now extinct. The fishermen of Biscay and Guipuzcoa had been engaged in pursuing this whale from time immemorial, and the dangerous occupation had trained a most expert and daring race of sailors along those coasts. They did not use ships in their whaling. There were atalayas or watch-towers on the heights above the little fishing towns, whence signals were made that a whale was in the offing, and instantly the boats started in pursuit. The King and the Church shared the profits. Fernando III of Castile and Leon in about 1220 decreed that “si mactaveris aliquam ballenam dabis mihi unam tiram a capite usque ad caudam sicut forma est.” The churches received part of the whalebone, and in the church at Lequeitio there is a most interesting record of whales caught, with occasional notes of happenings, extending over a century. A whale figures in the coat-of-arms of St Jean de Luz, Fuenterrabia, Guetaria, and Motrico. When the Muscovy Company began to send fleets to Spitsbergen, it was the custom to enter one or two boats’ crews of Basques from St Jean de Luz or San Sebastian to attack and kill the whales, while the rest of the crews got the gear ready on shore for boiling down. But it was not long before the English had learnt their lesson from the Basques and become expert harpooneers.