Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and Narrative of an Attempt to Reach the North Pole, Volume 1

by Sir William Edward Parry

On the morning of the 8th, there being no prospect of any immediate alteration in the ice, I directed the boats to be sent on shore from both ships, to endeavour to procure some game, as well as to examine the productions of this part of the island. On going to the masthead, shortly after the boats had been despatched, I found that the bight of ice in which the ships were lying was not one floe, but formed by the close junction of two, so that our situation was by no means so secure as I had supposed for this bight was so far from being a protection to us, in case of ice driving on shore, that it would probably be the means of "nipping" us between the floes which formed it. I therefore determined on immediately removing the ships in-shore, and went in a boat to look out for a place for that purpose, there being no alternative between this and our returning some distance to the eastward, into the larger space of clear water which we had there left behind us. I found that a heavy piece of ice aground in twelve fathoms, at the distance of three hundred yards from the beach, would suit our purpose for the Hecla, and another, in ten fathoms, still nearer in-shore, was selected for the Griper. These masses were from twenty to thirty feet above the sea, and each about the length of the respective ships.

At four P.M., the weather being quite calm, the ships were towed in-shore by the boats, and made fast in the places selected for them.

Impatient and anxious as we were to make the most of the short remainder of the present season, our mortification will easily be imagined at perceiving, on the morning of the 9th, not only that the ice was as close as ever to the westward, but that the floes in our immediate neighbourhood were sensibly approaching the shore. As there was no chance, therefore, of our being enabled to move, I sent a party on shore at daylight to collect what coal they could find, and in the course of the day, nearly two thirds of a bushel, being about equal to the Hecla's daily expenditure, was brought on board. Our sportsmen, who were out for several hours, could only procure us a hare and a few ducks.

On the 11th there was no alteration in the ice near the ships and Mr. Bushnan, whom I despatched at daylight to the western cape, reported on his return, that appearances were equally unpromising in that quarter. Mr. Dealy was fortunate enough to kill the first musk-ox that our sportsmen had yet been able to get near; but, as it was at the distance of eight or ten miles from the ships, our present situation with regard to the ice would not allow of my sending a party of men to bring it on board. A piece of the meat which Mr. Dealy brought with him was considered to taste tolerably well, but its smell was by no means tempting.

I must now mention an occurrence which had caused considerable apprehension in our minds for the last two days, and the result of which had very nearly proved of very serious importance to the future welfare of the expedition. Early on the morning of the 11th I received a note from Lieutenant Liddon, acquainting me that, at daylight on the preceding day, Mr. Fife, with a party of six men, had been despatched from the Griper, with the hope of surprising some reindeer and musk-oxen, whose tracks had been seen in a ravine to the westward of the ships. As they had not yet returned, in compliance with the instructions given to Mr. Fife, and had only been supplied with a small quantity of provisions, it was natural to apprehend that they had lost their way in pursuit of game. I therefore recommended to Lieutenant Liddon to send a party in search of his people, and Messrs. Reid, Beverly, and Wakeham, who immediately volunteered their services on the occasion, were accordingly despatched for this purpose. Soon after their departure, however, it began to snow, which rendered the atmosphere so extremely thick, especially on the hills along which they had to travel, that this party also lost their way, in spite of every precaution, but fortunately got sight of our rockets after dark, by which they were directed to the ships, and returned at ten o'clock, almost exhausted with cold and fatigue, without any intelligence of the absentees.

At daylight on the following morning, I sent Lieutenant Hoppner, with the Heck's fore-royal-mast rigged as a flagstaff, which he erected on a conspicuous hill four or five miles inland, hoisting upon it a large ensign, which might be seen at a considerable distance in every direction. This expedient occurred to us as a more certain mode of directing our absentees towards the ships than that of sending out a number of parties, which I could not, in common prudence as well as humanity, permit to go to any great distance from the ships; but the snow fell so thick, and the drift was so great during the whole of the 12th, that no advantage could at that time be expected from it, and another night came without the absent party appearing.

Our apprehensions on their account was by this time increased to a most painful degree, and I therefore ordered four parties, under the command of careful officers, to be prepared to set out in search of them the following morning. These parties carried with them a number of pikes, having small flags attached to them, which they were directed to plant at regular intervals, and which were intended to answer the double purpose of guiding themselves on their return and of directing the absent party, should they meet with them, to the ships. For the latter purpose a bottle was fixed to each pike, containing the necessary directions for their guidance, and acquainting them that provisions would be found at the large flagstaff on the hill. Our searching parties left the ships soon after daylight, the wind still blowing hard from the westward, with incessant snow, and the thermometer at 28°. This weather continued without intermission during the day, and our apprehensions for the safety of our people were excited to a most alarming degree, when the sun began to descend behind the western hills for the third time since they had left the ship; I will not, therefore, attempt to describe the joyful feelings we suddenly experienced, on the Griper's hoisting the signal appointed, to inform us that her men, or a part of them, were seen on their return. Soon, after we observed seven persons coming along the beach to the eastward, who proved to be Mr. Nias and his party, with four out of the seven men belonging to the Griper. From the latter, consisting of a corporal of marines and three seamen, we learned that they had lost their way within a few hours after leaving the ship, and had wandered about without anything to guide them till about ten o'clock on the following day, when they descried the large flagstaff at a great distance. At this time the whole party were together; but now unfortunately separated, in consequence of a difference of opinion respecting the flagstaff, which Mr. Fife mistook for a smaller one that had been erected some days before at a considerable distance to the eastward of our present situation; and with that impression, walked away in a contrary direction, accompanied by two of his men. The other four, who had now returned (of whom two were already much debilitated), determined to make for the flagstaff. When they had walked some distance and were enabled to ascertain what it was, one of them endeavoured to overtake Mr. Fife, but was too much fatigued, and returned to his comrades. They halted during a part of the night, made a sort of hut of stones and turf to shelter them from the weather, and kindled a little fire with gunpowder and moss to warm their feet; they had never been in actual want of food, having lived upon raw grouse, of which they were enabled to obtain a quantity sufficient for their subsistence. In the morning they once more set forward towards the flagstaff, which they reached within three or four hours after Lieutenant Beechey had left some provisions on the spot; having eaten some bread, and drunk a little rum and water, a mixture which they described as perfectly tasteless and clammy, they renewed their journey towards the ships, and had not proceeded far, when, notwithstanding the snow which was constantly falling, they met with footsteps which directed them to Mr. Nias and his party, by whom they were conducted to the ships.

The account they gave us of Mr. Fife and his two companions led us to believe that we should find them, if still living, at a considerable distance to the westward; and some parties were just about to set out in that direction, when the trouble and anxiety which this mistake would have occasioned us were prevented by the arrival of another of the searching parties, with the information that Mr. Fife and the two men were on their way to the ships, being about five miles to the eastward. Some fresh hands were, immediately sent to bring them in, and they arrived on board at ten P.M. after an absence of ninety-one hours, and having been exposed during three nights to the inclemency of the first wintry weather we had experienced. Almost the whole of this party were much exhausted by cold and fatigue, and several of them were severely frostbitten in their toes and fingers; but, by the skill and unremitted attention of our medical gentlemen, they were in a few days enabled to return to their duty.

At three A.M. of Tuesday, the 14th, the thermometer fell to 9°; and from this time the commencement of winter may fairly be dated. On the 20th I considered it a duty incumbent upon me to call for the opinions of the senior officers of the expedition as to the expediency of immediately seeking a harbour in which the ships might securely lie during the ensuing winter. The opinions of the officers entirely concurring with my own as to the propriety of immediately resorting to this measure, I determined, whenever the ice and the weather would allow, to run back to the bay of the Hecla and Griper, in which neighbourhood alone we had any reason to believe that a suitable harbour might be found.

At half past two on the morning of the 22d, the night signal was made to weigh, and we began to heave at our cables; but such was the difficulty of raising our anchor and of hauling in our hawsers, owing to the stiffness of the ropes from frost and the quantity of ice which had accumulated about them, that it was five o'clock before the ships were under way. Our rudder, also, was so choked by the ice which had formed about it, that it could not be moved till a boat had been hauled under the stern, and the ice beaten and cut away from it. We ran along to the eastward without any obstruction, in a channel about five miles wide, till we were within four or five miles of Cape Hearne, where the bay-ice, in unbroken sheets of about one third of an inch in thickness, began to offer considerable impediment to our progress. We at length, however, struck soundings with twenty-nine fathoms of line, and at eight P.M. anchored in nine fathoms, on a muddy bottom, a little to the eastward of our situation on the 5th.