Section I.—Continued Prosperity:—the Results, comparatively and generally, of this fresh Enterprise.
The change of command which, in the progress of our Memorials, comes now under consideration, was brought about by two circumstances;—the great inconvenience of a family residence at Whitby, whilst my Father was sailing from, and returning to, London; and the incidental formation of a co-partnery at Whitby, which my Father was invited to join, for the building and equipment of a new Greenland ship from that port.
The advantages, in point of comfort and convenience alone, were such as to render the change in ship and port to which this scheme pointed, highly desirable; and most earnestly and imploringly was the proposition of the parties at Whitby supported by my long discomforted and pining mother. But the conditions submitted to my Father were equally acceptable. It was designed that the co-partnery should consist of the holders of eight equal shares, of 1000l. each; that Messrs. Fishburn and Brodrick, the designed builders of the ship, should hold two shares, five other inhabitants of Whitby, as arranged among themselves, each a share, making seven, and my Father the eighth. His wages and perquisites, too, on the liberal and advanced scale as allowed him by the Messrs. Gale, were to be continued.
Without difficulty, and with but little loss of time, the arrangements were all completed, and the owners of the Dundee, who were justly esteemed for their honourable and generous dealing by their Captain, had due and respectful notice given them of the intended change, and were easily made sensible of the propriety of it, as far as regarded his personal well-being.
In the “Resolution,” a fine, substantial, and in all respects well-built ship of 291 tons burden, was comprised the property of the new co-partnery. The cost of the ship, with casks and all other stores, was 6321l. 3s. 4d. The provisions for the voyage, together with insurance, and the advance wages usually paid to the men, amounted to 1470l. 4s. 1d. Thus the total expenditure in preparation for the voyage was 7791l. 7s. 5d., leaving a small balance out of the sum subscribed in the hands of the managers.
The proceedings on board the ship, with the results of this adventure, for, and during the whole time of my Father’s command (a period of eight years), are in considerable detail before me, being comprised in a regular series of journals kept by myself. For young as I was when the Resolution commenced her career of adventure—being then but thirteen—I was regularly installed, and by no means unwillingly, in training for the whale-fishery as a profession, as one of her apprenticed hands.
On the 21st of February, 1803, the ship was launched, and duly “christened” the “Resolution;” and on the 21st of March, she left her moorings in the harbour and proceeded to sea. We made the ice on the 2d of April; on the 12th were in latitude 78° 40′ N. in sight of the “Middle Hook of the Foreland;” and on the 18th “struck” and killed our first whale. The 20th was a prosperous day, for so early a period of the season, adding two more large fish to our commencing cargo. The 29th, however, was very different, being a day of mortifying adventure. We had obtained shelter, during a gale of wind, under the lee-side of a “field,”—a large and continuous sheet of ice extending beyond the reach of vision from the mast-head,—where several whales, (chiefly old ones, with their cubs or calves,) were met with. Four of them—comprising two old and two cubs—were harpooned during the day. The little ones, of but trifling value, were captured; but both the “mothers” escaped. One of them had been so energetically assailed as to receive four harpoons,—a condition from which the capture generally results,—when she made a most determinate advance beneath and beyond the ice. She ultimately escaped, carrying away with her a spoil (a painful and deadly boon, indeed, to herself) of a harpoon, with twelve attached lines, comprising a total extent of 1440 fathoms, or about a mile and two-thirds, in measure! The next day, however, yielded us some compensation, in the capture of another large fish, a result altogether not a little inspiriting, where the attainment of an amount of six whales, before the expiration of the month of April, was a circumstance rarely, if ever, realized before. Our thirteenth fish was killed on the 8th of June; but, though we persevered about ten days longer, and had well nigh captured another fish, in which two harpoons were struck, we made no accession to our not full, but, as the season went, most satisfactory cargo.
In looking over my journal for materials for this abstract, it was singularly interesting and pleasant to the feelings to find, under date of the 27th of June, when the good ship Resolution was on her homeward passage, a written recognition, which I remember to have received from my Father, of the Divine hand and Providence in respect of the successes obtained. It is comprised in this brief but appropriate Collect:—“O most merciful Father, who of Thy gracious goodness hast crowned our labours with success, we give Thee humble and hearty thanks for this, Thy special bounty, beseeching Thee to continue Thy loving kindness unto us, that we may enjoy the fruits of our labours to Thy glory and our comfort, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.”
The proceeds of this first voyage in oil were 163½ tuns: the Whitby average of the same year (exclusive of the Resolution’s cargo) being only 62 tuns, and the greatest catch among the rest of the Whitby fleet being eight whales, yielding 139 tuns of oil. Hence, with relation to the average of the port,—six ships,—my Father’s success stood in the ratio of 2·8 to 1, or nearly three to one!