The expedition of Sir Thomas Button to Hudson’s Bay was ably conducted, and resulted in considerable additions to geographical knowledge.
CHAPTER XVI
WILLIAM BAFFIN
When Baffin was to the fore, good scientific work was certain to be done. He had shown this in his first polar voyage to Greenland, distinguished by the longitude observation by moon’s culmination; he had shown it by his observation for sun’s refraction, and by others during his two voyages to Spitsbergen. Now the North West Company was so fortunate as to secure his services.
It is strange that Bylot should have been appointed Master of the Discovery in her fourth projected voyage to seek for the passage by Hudson Strait. No doubt he told a plausible story, or Prickett told it for him, yet his character still bore the taint of Hudson’s murder. The old seaman had been in three Arctic voyages, and was obliging and friendly when all went well, but there was nothing heroic about him. Baffin, who was only rated as mate and associate of the master, did all the work, directed the courses, took the observations, kept the tabulated log, and wrote the journal. He was on excellent terms with Bylot throughout, and said of him simply that “he was a man well experienced that wayes.” The Discovery, though only 55 tons, carried a complement of 14 men and two boys.
Baffin’s map of Hudson Strait.
Sir John Wolstenholme and Mr Allwyn Cary, the ship’s husband, came on board at St Katherine’s on the 15th March to see that all was well, give promises of rewards, and wish the explorers God speed. On the 23rd the ship was at the Downs and proceeded down Channel. But they were met by a furious gale and sought shelter at the Scilly Islands and again at Padstow. At last the Discovery got away on her voyage, and on the 6th May the land near Cape Farewell was sighted. Two days afterwards the ship was amongst icebergs and Baffin calculated the height of one and found it to be 240 feet. As the coast on the opposite side of Davis Strait was approached the Discovery’s course was checked by a line of closely-packed ice. The boldest course is usually the wisest, and on this occasion the ship’s bows were put straight at the obstacle and she forced her way into it. For six days the explorers were working their way through the ice and drifting slowly to the south. At last the pack became looser, they got clear, and soon afterwards sighted Resolution Island on the north side of the entrance to Hudson Strait. They anchored on the west side of that island and Baffin landed. On the 18th they were off islands on the north side of the strait, where dogs and Eskimo tents were seen, so they anchored and Baffin again went on shore. In one of the tents he found a leather bag containing little images of men, and one with a woman and child at her back. He took them, and put some useful articles in the tent in exchange, the people having fled. The place was named Salvage Island.
Proceeding westward along the north shore of the Strait, Baffin paid close attention to the tides and currents with a view to ascertain the direction of the passage, if it existed. Sighting Nottingham and Salisbury Islands the Discovery came to a small new island which, owing to the noise caused by the grinding of the ice, received the name of Mill Island.
It was on the 22nd June that Baffin took his memorable lunar observation for longitude. “While we were fast enclosed with ice, and the weather fair and clear, I saw both the sun and moon very clear. So I fitted my instruments to take both the almicanter and azimuth of the sun, and also of the moon.” He then describes a complete lunar observation. Not having an instrument with which he could measure so large an angle, he resorted to the method of measuring the distance, which was 104°, by the difference of azimuth[87]. The almicanters are small circles parallel to the horizon, and therefore the observed altitudes.
This method of finding the longitude was first suggested by John Werner of Nuremberg in 1514, and again by Gemma Frisius in 1545. But Baffin’s observation is the first recorded attempt to take a lunar at sea. Baffin obtained the time of the moon being on the meridian at London from Searle’s ephemeris, and at Wittenberg from that of Origanus[88]. He took another observation for longitude by the method previously adopted by him in Cockayne Sound. Sir Edward Parry, when passing up the strait in 1821, was much interested in these very remarkable observations by Baffin. Sir Edward had seen the account in Purchas but not the manuscript, where the result given is still more accurate. As regards the study and practice of nautical astronomy, Baffin was undoubtedly a genius.