Baffin’s geographical discoveries were extensive and his scientific observations were not only valuable at the time but were of permanent use. Without his numerous magnetic observations Professor Hansteen could not have constructed his first magnetic chart. Baffin’s devoted zeal and untiring industry, his genius as an inventive observer, his gallantry and intrepidity, and his great services have secured for him a permanent and an honourable place among the naval worthies of the Elizabethan era, side by side with Frobisher and Davis.
CHAPTER XVII
JENS ERIKSEN MUNK. FOXE AND JAMES. WOOD
Sir John Wolstenholme was one of the most persistent of the Merchant Adventurers and, after Baffin’s return, he fitted out a ship in 1619 for John Hawkridge, the friend of Button who had accompanied him on his voyage. But Hawkridge never got beyond the entrance to Hudson Strait.
The sailor King of Denmark then resolved to have a turn at the North-west Passage and appointed Jens Eriksen Munk to command an expedition.
The early adventures of this gallant Danish seaman are not without interest. His father had an estate at Barbo near Arendal in Norway, but the boy Jens was brought up by an aunt at Aalborg in Jutland from the time that he was nine years old. Three years later, in 1591, he was sent in charge of a Friesland skipper to England, and thence to Oporto to learn the language, in the employment of a Portuguese named Duarte Duez. Duez sent the boy at the age of 13 to his brother Miguel Duez at Bahia in Brazil. On his arrival young Munk found that Miguel Duez was gone, so the boy went on a returning ship to go home. The ship was attacked by a French privateer and sunk, only seven of the crew being saved, including the Danish boy. He was landed at Bahia destitute, and became a shoemaker’s apprentice for eleven, and a portrait painter’s boy for six months. At last Miguel Duez came back, and young Munk was with him for three years. In 1598 two Dutch vessels arrived, and the Spaniards on shore formed a plot to seize them. They were saved by the youthful Dane. Getting wind of the treachery, he swam off to the ships in the night, and warned them just in time. The Dutchmen were grateful, and enabled their saviour to return to Copenhagen. In 1601, Munk entered the service of a merchant named Hendrik Rommel, and made voyages to the Baltic ports and to Spain. He became a Captain in 1605 and made a voyage on his own account to Iceland for a cargo of sulphur, then to Archangel and Kolguev Island, where he was wrecked. In 1610 he made a voyage to Novaya Zemlya. In 1611 he received a commission as Captain in the Danish Royal Navy, and was in a naval action with the Swedes, but peace was signed in 1613. Next he accompanied Jacob Ulfeldt in an embassy to Spain, and in 1616 we find him at St Jean de Luz engaging Basques for the whale fishery.
Christian IV could not have found a better man to command his Arctic expedition than Jens Eriksen Munk, then aged 40. He was to lead two exploring ships, the Eenhiörningen (Unicorn) and Lamprenen (Lamprey), sailing from Copenhagen on the 9th May, 1619. When Munk sighted Cape Farewell he humorously remarked that he who gave it the name never wished to see it again. The two exploring vessels had to make their way through much ice before they could enter Hudson Strait. Crossing Hudson’s Bay Munk decided upon wintering on the west side, at a place now called Port Churchill, where they anchored in September, and moored with six hawsers on the 28th during a terrible snow-storm.
Captain Munk did his best for the health of his people. He sent them out to gather whortleberries and crowberries, and to shoot ptarmigan, and also procured white whale flesh. There was weekly divine service and Holy Communion, and exercise for the men, who were sent out on ski. But the dreaded scurvy appeared very early. The first death was on December 13th, the surgeon of the Lamprey. There was a solemn service on Christmas Day, but the chaplain, Rasmus Jensen, took to his bed a few days afterwards and died in February. Those who were strong enough were sent to gather berries for the sick. Day after day more and more were prostrated. Men were dying almost every day. At the end of March, Munk wrote, “commenced my greatest sorrow and misery, attending all day to the sick. I was then like a wild and lonely bird.” On the 1st of April his own young nephew, Erik Munk, died, then his Lieutenant, Morits Stygge, then the mate, a young Englishman named John Watson. Munk had baths prepared for the survivors, and on April 20th he shot three ptarmigan. Still there were deaths daily. Those smitten with the scurvy suffered great pains in the loins, the body turning blue and brown, and becoming powerless, the mouth in a miserable condition, with all the teeth loose. Captain Munk was at last too weak to bury the dead. Only three besides himself were left in June. He wrote a note asking anyone that came to bury him. He and the other survivors crawled about on shore, seeking for any green thing. Towards the end of June they caught some fish, and got some every day. They began to gain strength, and in the middle of July they were strong enough to get the little Lamprey ready for sea, leaving the larger vessel, and the four survivors at length sailed, arriving at Bergen on the 25th September, 1620.
After this appalling experience Munk needed some rest. His ability, however, was well known to the King and he was later much employed. During the early part of the Thirty Years War he was in command in the Weser. He became an Admiral, and died in 1628[92].
After Munk’s disastrous voyage there was a pause for a dozen years, and then Luke Foxe, with his diligent research, whole-hearted enthusiasm, and quaint humour engages our attention.
Foxe was a Yorkshireman and almost certainly from Hull. He tells us that he was sea bred from a boy and had been in voyages to the Baltic and the Mediterranean. He had evidently received a good education and was well read. He had an excellent opinion of himself, and was very young when he applied to Captain Knight to take him as his mate. He was reminded of his youth and he afterwards admitted that he had been rather presumptuous. Foxe was much with John Tappe, a bookseller with a shop on Tower Hill, who published the Maryner’s Book, and a translation of the Arte de Navegar by Martin Cortes. This friend enabled him to study Arctic history. Foxe also had the great advantage of securing the friendship of Henry Briggs, the famous mathematician, Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, who introduced the practical use of logarithms. When Foxe resolved to get command of an Arctic expedition, it was through Briggs that he obtained the patronage of Sir Thomas Roe, the ambassador, who had returned from India.