Captain Cook: His Life, Voyages, and Discoveries

by William Henry Giles Kingston

The expedition quitted the Cape of Good Hope on November 22, and steered a course towards Cape Circumcision, which was the first object for which they were directed to search. They soon found the weather very cold, when warm clothing was issued; and having encountered a heavy gale, with hail and rain, which drove them far to the eastward of their course, all hope of reaching the looked-for cape was given up. Owing, also, to the severity of the weather, and the sudden transition from dry heat to extreme cold and wet, the ships’ companies suffered a severe misfortune in the loss of nearly all the live-stock (consisting of sheep, hogs, and geese) which they had brought with them from Cape Town. This weather continued for the greater part of the time the ships remained in that high latitude. On December 10 an island of ice was seen in latitude 50 degrees 40 minutes South and 2 degrees 0 minutes East of the Cape of Good Hope. After this thick, hazy weather again came on, with sleet and snow. The ships continued their course, the Resolution leading, when an iceberg, directly for which they were steering, was discovered through the mist not a mile off. It was about fifty feet high, flat at top, about half a mile in circumference, and its sides, against which the sea broke furiously, rose perpendicularly from the ocean. Captain Furneaux, who was astern, took this ice for land, and hauled off from it; and there is no doubt that many navigators who have reported land in these latitudes have been deceived in the same way.

Nothing could be more trying to the explorers than the navigation in which they were now engaged, day after day tacking off and on among large fields of ice, through which they in vain endeavoured to find a passage to the southward, with the constant risk, in thick weather, of running foul of icebergs, or of getting fast in the packed ice which might any moment enclose them, while all the time they were exposed to storms of snow and sleet, with a constant frost, although it was the middle of summer. Dangerous as it was sailing among icebergs, or, as Captain Cook calls them, ice-rocks, especially in thick weather, the ships were in still greater peril when surrounded by packed ice, which consisted of huge slabs, of great thickness, varying from thirty or forty feet down to three or four feet square, packed close together, and often piled one on another. Stout as were the ships, it was not expected that they could resist the enormous pressure to which they would be subjected should they get caught in such frozen bonds. It was the opinion of those on board that this sort of ice was formed only in bays and rivers, and that therefore they must be near land, which was eagerly though vainly looked-for. So severe was the cold that an iceberg examined by the master had no water running down it, as is generally the case in summer.

Captain Cook now steered to the west, in the hope of getting round the ice; but though he held on this course for some time, both to the south and west of the supposed position of Cape Circumcision, he neither fell in with it, nor did he observe any of the usual indications of land. Various birds, however, were seen, and several of them were shot; but as they would find roosting-places on the ice islands, they might have come a very great distance from the land. Thus, the penguins, which were seen in great numbers on some icebergs, and are supposed never to go far from land, might have come a very great distance over the ice from their native haunts. Be that as it may, no land was seen by either vessel, notwithstanding the diligent search made for it.

On December 31, while the ships were still surrounded by ice, a strong gale sprang up, with a heavy sea, which made it very dangerous for them to remain in the position in which they then were. The peril was yet further increased by an immense field of ice which appeared to the north, extending from north-east by east to south-west by west, and between two and three miles off. The ships received several severe blows from masses of ice of the largest size. Providentially, they got clear by the afternoon, for at that time the wind increased so much that it was necessary to haul the top-sails and to strike topgallant masts. The next day the wind abated, but the weather continued thick and hazy, with sleet and snow which froze on the rigging as it fell, and ornamented the whole of it with icicles. At length the longitude in which the looked-for cape was supposed to lie was reached, and as the ships were far to the southward of the latitude in which Captain Bouvet stated he had seen it, no doubt remained that he had mistaken lofty icebergs, surrounded by loose or field ice, for land, as Captain Cook and his officers had already been deceived on the first day they fell in with field ice.

When the weather became finer the ships were able to fill up their water-casks with pure fresh water, by collecting masses of ice, and then hanging them up to allow any salt which might have adhered to them to run off. Whenever the weather permitted, the astronomers were employed in making observations, and the naturalists in collecting birds, the only objects they had the means of obtaining.

The antarctic circle was crossed on January 17, in longitude 39 degrees 35 minutes East; and on the evening of that day the whole sea to the south and west appeared covered with ice, though shortly before none was in sight. In this space thirty-eight ice islands, great and small, were counted, besides loose ice in abundance, so that the ships were obliged to luff to avoid one piece, and to bear up to escape another, as they proceeded to the south. At length a compact mass, from sixteen to eighteen feet high, appearing to the south, without any opening, Captain Cook altered his course to the north. A number of whales were now seen sporting about the ice, and several flocks of antarctic petrels. The ships did not alter their course an hour too soon, for that night a heavy gale sprang up which would have rendered their position very dangerous. After this, search was in vain made for the land said to have been seen by the French captain in the longitude of the Mauritius.

On February 8, during thick weather, the Adventure was separated from the Resolution, and though, according to arrangement, Captain Cook cruised for three days about the spot where his consort had last been seen, and continued burning blue lights and firing guns, he was compelled at last to give up the search. On the night of the 17th the aurora presented a very beautiful appearance. It was first seen in the east, and, gradually rising, formed a brilliant arch across the heavens, with a light sufficiently strong to cast shadows on the deck, and at one time to allow a book to be read. A description of the incidents met with during this part of the voyage would not prove generally interesting. One, however, must not be omitted.

The Resolution being off a large ice island, round which there was a quantity of loose ice, Captain Cook sent two boats to take some on board. The island was not less than half a mile in circumference, and its summit three or four hundred feet above the surface of the sea. While the boats were thus engaged in its neighbourhood, it was seen to bend over till it turned nearly bottom up, though it seemed by the change not to have lost either in height or size. The boats escaped without damage from their dangerous position.

During all the time, up to the separation of the two ships, the crews had enjoyed generally excellent health. A few slight symptoms of scurvy had appeared, but they were quickly subdued by a liberal use of the remedies which had been supplied. The fresh wort made from malt seems to have been very efficacious in arresting the malady. Occasionally, too, when the weather allowed, the men’s bedding and clothes were spread on deck to air, and the ship was smoked and cleaned between decks. This prevented the crews from contracting those diseases which have proved so fatal on board ships where they have been neglected.

At length, by the middle of March, the antarctic summer being nearly over, and his crew requiring rest and his ship refitting, Captain Cook shaped a course which would soon bring her into a more genial clime. He had purposed visiting Van Diemen’s Land, but as the wind would not allow him to shape a course for that country, he steered for New Zealand, which was sighted on March 25. A heavy gale compelled him to keep at sea, but the following day he entered Dusky Bay, at the south-west end of Tavai Poenammoo, or the Middle Island, as it is now called. This was on Friday, March 26, after having been one hundred and seventeen days at sea, and sailed over three thousand six hundred and sixty leagues, or nearly ten thousand miles, without having once sighted land. Only one man, and he of a naturally bad habit of body, had been seriously ill; and Cook attributed the excellent health of his crew, partly to the frequent airing and sweetening of the ship by fires, etcetera, and partly to the portable broth, sweet-wort, pickled cabbage, and sour-krout. Although no discovery, except of a negative character, was made during this part of the voyage, we cannot but admire the hardihood and perseverance, the skill and courage, exhibited by the great navigator during the whole of that trying time.