The lands of silence

by Sir Clements R. Markham

When the whalers were all sailing vessels there was usually much detention, and sometimes considerable loss, in passing through Melville Bay. In 1850 the ice offered such opposition to progress that the whole fleet gave it up in despair. In 1830 the whole whaling fleet was nipped against the land floe 40 miles south of Cape York, the floes overlapping each other. Nineteen ships were destroyed, but a few escaped by digging deep docks in the land ice. A thousand men were encamped on the floes, and the loss amounted to £142,000.

Commander Markham found a very different state of things in 1873. The whaling fleet consisted of ten ships, the largest being the Arctic of 439 tons. She made a very quick passage through Melville Bay, reaching the north water on June 9th. This enabled Commander Markham to visit Port Leopold, Fury Beach, and Prince Regent’s Inlet as far as Cape Garry, as well as to learn all the mysteries of the industry, and take his share in the pursuit and capture of whales. The Arctic returned after the capture of twenty-eight whales, yielding nearly 15 tons of bone and 265 tons of oil, worth £18,925. The publication of Commander Markham’s most interesting narrative much increased the feeling in favour of Arctic enterprise. The battle had indeed been a hard and long-contested one, but victory was in sight. On November 17th, 1874, the Prime Minister, Lord Beaconsfield, announced that the Government would despatch an Arctic expedition for the encouragement of maritime enterprise, and for the exploration of the region round the North Pole. Nothing could be more satisfactory. We had deprecated a mere rush to the Pole itself as useless, but we had been constantly urging the exploration of the region round the Pole for twelve long years. But the matter passed into the hands of the Admiralty, and all our arguments, supported by those of the various learned Societies, were totally disregarded. It was announced that the main object of the expedition was to attain the highest latitude and, if possible, to reach the North Pole!

Fortunately, Sir Leopold M’Clintock was the Admiral Superintendent at Portsmouth dockyard, where the expedition was fitted out, Dr Lyall and Mr Lewis of the Assistance (1852–54) being responsible for the provisions. The Alert, a 17-gun sloop, was strengthened and prepared for Arctic service[147]; and by my advice a sealer, built at Dundee in 1873 and named the Bloodhound, was purchased for the second ship. She was the best possible model for a vessel for Arctic service[148]. Captain Nares, who had served on board the Resolute in 1852–54, when he was in charge of Mecham’s depôt sledge, was recalled from the Challenger to take command of the expedition. The Captain of the second ship was Captain Stephenson, Albert Markham being Commander of the Alert, and Lewis Beaumont first lieutenant of the Bloodhound, whose name was changed to the Discovery. The officers Aldrich, May, Parr, Giffard, Egerton, Archer, Rawson, and Conybeare, nearly all attained distinction in after life, thanks to an Arctic training. Captain Feilden was the naturalist of the Alert, Mr Hart of the Discovery. The surgeons were Drs Colan and Moss in the Alert, Ninnis and Coppinger with Captain Stephenson.

A volume was printed by the Geographical Society and presented to the Expedition, containing papers on Arctic geography and ethnology, and another manual was prepared by the Royal Society on various branches of science in their connection with the regions proposed to be visited. The sledge equipments were in the able and efficient hands of Sir Leopold, and were of course as perfect as it was possible to make them[149]. The provisions for ships and sledges were the same as for the search expeditions, or were intended to be the same. The Valorous paddle steamer was in company, to fill up the exploring ships at Disco, and take a line of deep-sea soundings across the Atlantic during her return voyage.

The immense crowd, brought by trains from all parts of England, which was assembled on Southsea Common on the 29th May, 1875, when the Arctic ships left Portsmouth Harbour, was a proof that a proper spirit had at length been aroused. Men and officers were the pick of the service, and the expedition started under most promising conditions. It encountered terrific gales, however, in crossing the Atlantic, and it was not until July 6th that the three vessels arrived at Lievely or Godhavn, on the south coast of Disco Island. The Alert and Discovery were here filled up with stores and provisions by the Valorous, took on board dogs, and with them a Dane named Petersen (not the great Carl Petersen) and the Eskimo Frederick. Parting company with the Valorous at Ritenbenk, they sailed down the Waigat fjord north of Disco, and on July 19th arrived at Proven, where the services of the veteran Hans Hendrik were secured for the Discovery[150].

As the season was late Captain Nares took the middle pack, and reached the north water of Baffin’s Bay in 34 hours. At the end of July a small depôt was left at Cape Isabella, the western entrance of Sir Thomas Smith’s Channel, but soon afterwards the ships were beset near Cape Sabine, and detained by the ice for five days. At last there was a lead to the north, but the Alert was for some time in great danger of being forced up the side of a berg. There were heavy falls of snow and much danger from the drifting floes, and on August 8th they had to cut a dock in order to avoid a serious nip. At length Lady Franklin Bay was reached, and fixed upon as the winter quarters of the Discovery. The Alert pushed on, and fortunately a south-west gale drove the pack off the shore, and enabled Captain Nares to take a narrow channel along the coast, and reach “Floe-berg Beach” facing the great polar ocean, where the vessel was hauled inside some huge masses of ice, which from their size and formation, received the name of “floe bergs.” Here, in 82° 30′ N., within a hundred yards of a low beach, were her winter quarters, about 50 miles from those of the Discovery. No ship had ever wintered so far north before. There was some autumn travelling in spite of soft snow, a depôt being laid out forty miles from the ship. A most severe winter was cheerfully faced, the men being kept interested and amused with a school, lectures, and other entertainments, while the Royal Arctic Theatre was opened again after an interval of twenty-one years. The chaplain, Mr Pullen, author of Dame Europa’s School, was fortunately endowed both with dramatic and poetic talent, adapting plays with much literary skill and writing excellent verses; and Dr Moss was an artist of more than ordinary talent.

In other successful expeditions we have had to deal with the work of strong and healthy men. Now we have to contemplate the heroic, indeed almost miraculous efforts of men who attained great results in spite of the ravages of a terrible and deadly disease. The seeds of scurvy had taken root throughout the winter, and no one knew it. The travelling parties had started before the calamity became known, and of 121 men in the two ships there were 56 cases of scurvy, 42 in the Alert, but only 14 in the Discovery, in which ship a larger supply of fresh meat was obtained from musk oxen.

Captain Nares had now to consider how to carry out his instructions. He was ordered to reach the highest latitude, and if possible the Pole itself. Exploration was to be quite secondary. Before him was a frozen sea consisting of huge ice masses and lines of heavy crushed-up ice, and he expected the pack to break up and be in movement in the spring. He did not think that an important advance could be made unless a coast-line could be found trending north. He accordingly determined to send out three sledge parties, one westward, another eastward, and another north over the frozen sea, though he did not expect that the latter could proceed for any great distance.

Sub-Lieut. George Le Clerc Egerton, R.N.