Our Government then had a far clearer perception of their duties as regards discovery than is the case now. By Acts George II cap. 17 (1745) and George III cap. 6 (1776) £5000 were offered for reaching 89° N. and £20,000 for making the North-West Passage. In 1818 a further attempt to stimulate discovery was made by offering proportionate rewards for reaching high latitudes from 83° to 89°. But it was due to the persistent representations of a private geographer that the Government itself was induced to take action.

The Hon. Daines Barrington—brother of the excellent Dr Shute Barrington, Bishop of Durham, and friend of Gilbert White of Selborne—was born in 1727, and after leaving Oxford became a barrister, and eventually a Bencher of the Inner Temple and Recorder of Bristol. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Society of Antiquaries, and the author of a translation of King Alfred’s work on Orosius. He was deeply interested in northern voyages, and collected many accounts of ships reaching high latitudes from English and Dutch whaling captains. He published the information he had collected in his Possibility of approaching the North Pole asserted[103], and at the same time made strong representations to the Royal Society on the scientific importance of a northern voyage. At last he induced that body to make an appeal to the Government, and Lord Sandwich, then First Lord of the Admiralty, resolved that an expedition should be fitted out and despatched.

Two ship-rigged bomb vessels, the Racehorse and Carcass, were selected and specially strengthened. Captain Constantine John Phipps, the eldest son of Lord Mulgrave, a scientific officer and a good seaman, received the command of the expedition on board the Racehorse, and Captain Lutwidge was appointed to the Carcass. The Board of Longitude appointed Mr Israel Lyons as astronomer. Great pains were taken with the outfit, but the ships were not intended to winter. The surgeon, Dr Irving, had invented an apparatus for distilling fresh from salt water, which was very simple, but answered its purpose admirably. Lord Sandwich visited the ships on the 22nd April, and on June 4th, 1773, the expedition left the Nore.

Phipps’s expedition was well conducted throughout. A latitude of 80° 50′ N. was reached, and the edge of the ice was examined along all the meridians north of Spitsbergen, without a sign of any opening. Near the Seven Islands the ships were closely beset, the ice piling up to a great height, and there seemed little hope of extricating them without a strong north-east wind. A party was sent to an island about 12 miles off, under a midshipman, named Walden, to see if any open water was in sight from its summit. He reported that there was water to the westward. The island received the name of Walden. Boats were also sent to see if a passage could be found into open water. One of the boats of the Racehorse was attacked by a herd of walrus, and was in danger of being swamped when she was rescued by one of the boats of the Carcass under the command of Horatio Nelson, a young midshipman not quite 15 years old.

The same young midshipman was keeping the middle watch on board the Carcass, when a bear came in sight, and he started off after it with a musket and one companion. A fog came down over the ice, and when it rose young Nelson and his friend were seen at a considerable distance, attacking the bear. A gun was fired which frightened their intended quarry, and the boys returned. Nelson’s excuse to his Captain was that he wanted the bear’s skin for his father.

The danger to the ships appeared to be so imminent that preparations were made to abandon them, and all the boats were got ready. At the same time all sail was made, and taking advantage of every slight opening, the ships at length reached open water. They passed Hakluyt Headland, and came to anchor in Smeerenburg Harbour in company with some Dutch whalers. Very heavy weather was encountered during the voyage home, but the ships reached the Thames safely and were paid off in October, 1773.

This was an ably conducted expedition, and should have shown the folly of attempting to approach the pole by trying to make headway against ice drifting south, without the refuge of a land-floe. But it did not. Captain Phipps published an interesting narrative of the voyage, prefaced by a review of former attempts, with some valuable scientific appendixes. He succeeded to the barony of Mulgrave on his father’s death in the following year, and marrying into an old naval Yorkshire family, Cholmley of Howsham, left an only daughter when he died in 1792. Captain Phipps was among the ablest of our scientific Arctic explorers[104].

One important interest connected with the expedition of Captain Phipps is the presence of Nelson as a midshipman on board the Carcass. The future hero thus gained his first naval experience in the Arctic regions, as other naval heroes of lesser fame have done before and since his time. Nelson’s continued friendship for, and correspondence with, his old captain show that his Arctic work was not forgotten in after life. It is this phase of exploration that has the highest importance. Great as are the commercial advantages obtained from Arctic discovery, and still greater as are its scientific results, the most important of all are its uses as a nursery for our seamen, as a school for our future Nelsons, and as affording the best opportunities for distinction to young naval officers in time of peace.

CHAPTER XX
RUSSIAN ARCTIC DISCOVERIES

The Russians have taken no inconspicuous part in Arctic discovery. If we look at a map of 130 years ago, such an one as is used to illustrate the book of Daines Barrington or Scoresby’s Arctic Regions, we shall see the whole continuous coast line delineated in the Siberian quadrant, while in the American quadrant there is nothing beyond Icy Cape but the mouths of the Coppermine and Mackenzie rivers. Moreover, in the achievement of their discoveries, the Russians often had to overcome even greater dangers and hardships than their fellow explorers in the other quadrants.