Part 5 (1/2)
_August 6th and 7th._--Very little progress: and a squadron of blank faces showed that there were many taking a deep and anxious interest in the state of affairs. The remark that Sir James Ross's expedition was by this time, in 1848, in a better position than ourselves, and only found time to secure winter quarters at Leopold Island, was constantly heard: there was, in fact, but one hope left,--we had steam, and there was yet thirty days of open navigation.
[Headnote: _CHARGING THE ICE._]
Friday the 9th of August at last arrived. Captain Penny's squadron was gone out of sight in a lane of water towards Cape York. The schooner and ketch were pa.s.sing us: caution yielded to the grim necessity of a push for our very honour's sake: the s.h.i.+p was dropped out of the nip, the ”Pioneer” again allowed to put her wedge-bow, aided by steam, to the crack. In one hour we were past a barrier which had checked our advance for three long weary days. All was joy and excitement: the steamers themselves seemed to feel and know their work, and exceeded even our sanguine expectations; and, to every one's delight, we were this evening allowed to carry on a system of ice-breaking which will doubtless, in future Arctic voyages, be carried out with great success.
For instance, a piece of a floe, two or three hundred yards broad, and three feet thick, prevented our progress: the weakest and narrowest part being ascertained, the s.h.i.+ps were secured as close as possible without obstructing the steam vessels, the major part of the crews being despatched to the line where the cut was to be made, with tools and gunpowder for blasting, and plenty of short hand-lines and claws.
The ”Pioneer” and ”Intrepid,” then, in turn rushed at the floe, breaking their way through it until the impetus gained in the open water was lost by the resistance of the ice. The word ”Stop her! Back turn, easy!” was then given, and the screw went astern, carrying with her tons of ice, by means of numerous lines which the blue-jackets, who attended on the forecastle, and others on broken pieces of the floe, held on by. As the one vessel went astern, the other flew ahead to her work. The operation was, moreover, aided by the explosions of powder; and altogether the scene was a highly interesting and instructive one: it was a fresh laurel in the screw's wreath; and the gallant ”Intrepid”
gave a _coup-de-grace_ to the ma.s.s, which sent it coach-wheeling round, as it is termed; and the whole of the squadron taking the nip, as Arctic s.h.i.+ps should do, we were next morning in the true lead, and our troubles in Melville Bay were at an end.
It was now the 10th of August. By heavens! I shall never forget the light-heartedness of that day. Forty days had we been beset in the ice, and one day of fair application of steam, powder, and men, and the much-talked-of bay was mastered. There was, however, no time to be lost. The air was calm, the water was smooth; the land-floe (for we had again reached it) lay on the one hand--on the other the pack, from whose grip we had just escaped, still threatened us. Penny had been out of sight some time, and the ”Felix” and ”Prince Albert” were nearly ten miles ahead!
Gentle Reader, I'll bore you no longer! We had calm water and steam,--the s.h.i.+ps in tow,--our progress rapid,--the ”Albert” and ”Felix” were caught,--their news joyfully received,--and they taken in tow likewise. The dates from England were a month later than our own: all our friends were well,--all hopeful; and, putting those last dear letters away, to be read and re-read during the coming winter, we pushed on, and there was no time to be lost. Several nights before we escaped from the pack the frost had been intense, and good sliding was to be had on the pools formed by summer heat on the floes. The bay-ice[2] was forming fast, and did not all melt during the day. The birds had finished breeding; and, with the fresh millions that had been added to their numbers, were feeding up preparatory to their departure south. The sun was sweeping, _nightly_, nearer and nearer to the northern horizon. Night once set in, we knew full well the winter would come with giant strides. ”Push on, good screw!” was on every one's lip; and anxiety was seen on every brow, if by accident, or for any purpose, the propeller ceased to move. ”What's the matter? All right, I hope!”
Then a chuckle of satisfaction at being told that ”nothing was amiss!”
[2] First winter ice, or young ice, is called bay-ice, from an old Yorks.h.i.+re word _bay_, to bend.--_Author._
[Headnote: _DETENTION OFF CAPE YORK._]
Time did not allow us, or I verily believe we might have killed tons of birds between Cape Walker and Cape York, princ.i.p.ally little auks (_Alca alle_);--they actually blackened the edge of the floe for miles. I had seen, on the coast of Peru, near the great Guano mines, what I thought was an inconceivable number of birds congregated together; but they were as nothing compared with the myriads that we disturbed in our pa.s.sage, and their stupid tameness would have enabled us to kill as many as we pleased.
On August 13th, Cape York being well in sight, Penny's brigs were again in view; and whilst the ”Intrepid” and ”a.s.sistance,” with the ”Prince Albert,” communicated with the natives of Cape York, the ”Pioneer”
pushed on, and soon pa.s.sed the brigs, who, although they knew full well that the late arrivals from England had letters for them, were to be seen pus.h.i.+ng tooth and nail, to get to the westward.
Slow--as slow as possible--we steamed all day along the ”Crimson Cliffs of Beverley.” The interview with the natives of Cape York, alas! was to cost us much. My frame of mind at the time was far from heavenly; for ”Large Water” was ahead, our squadron many a long mile from its work; and I was neither interested, at the time, in Arctic Highlanders or ”Crimson Snow!” In the evening the ”a.s.sistance” joined us; and I was told that ”important information had been gained.” We were to turn back; and the ”Intrepid” went in chase of Penny, to get the aid of his interpreter, Mr. Petersen.
I remember being awoke at six o'clock on the morning of the 14th of August, and being told a hobgoblin story, which made me rub my eyes, and doubt my own hearing. What I thought of it is neither here nor there. Suffice it that Adam Beck--may he be branded for a liar!--succeeded, this day, in misleading a large number of Her Majesty's officers (as his attested doc.u.ment proves), and in detaining, for two days, the squadrons in search of Franklin. No one with common perception, who witnessed the interview on our deck between Mr.
Petersen, Adam Beck, and our new s.h.i.+pmate, the Esquimaux from Cape York, could fail to perceive that Mr. P. and the Cape York native understood one another much better than the latter could the vile Adam Beck; and had I had any doubts upon the subject, they would have been removed when I learnt that Petersen had seen and communicated with these very natives before our squadron came up, and that no such b.l.o.o.d.y tale had been told him; in fact, it was the pure coinage of Adam Beck's brain, cunningly devised to keep, at any rate, his own s.h.i.+p on a coast whither he could escape to the neighbourhood of his home in South Greenland.
The fact of the ”North Star” having wintered last year in Wolstenholme Sound, or ”Petowack,” was elicited, and that the natives had been on board of her. The ”a.s.sistance” and ”Intrepid,” therefore, remained to visit that neighbourhood, whilst we proceeded to the south sh.o.r.e of Lancaster Sound, touching, as had been pre-arranged, at Pond's Bay and Cape Possession.
Steaming along the Crimson Cliffs for a second time, we left the ”Lady Franklin” and ”Sophia,” in a stark calm, to do their best. Fewer s.h.i.+ps, the faster progress; and heartily did all cheer when, at midnight, we turned to the N.W., leaving the second division to do their work in Wolstenholme Sound. So ended the memorable 14th of August: it will be, doubtless, remembered by many with far from pleasant feelings; and some who have been ”gulled” in England may thank Mr. Petersen that a carrier-pigeon freighted with a c.o.c.k-and-bull story of blood, fire, wreck, and murder, was not despatched on that memorable day.
[Headnote: _THE WEST WATER._]
The 15th we struck westward, that is, the ”Pioneer,” with ”Resolute”
and ”Prince Albert” in tow. After four hours of very intricate navigation, called ”reeving through the pack,” we reached the West Water,--a wide ocean of water without one piece of floe-ice, and very few icebergs. The change was wonderful--incredible. Here was nothing but water; and we were almost within sight, as we steered to the S.W., of the spot where, for forty-seven days, we had had nothing but ice!
ice! ice! Let us hurry on. The West Water (as usual with the water at this season of the year) was covered with fog: in it we steered. The ”Resolute,” as a capital joke, in return for the long weary miles we had towed her, set, on one occasion, all studsails, and gave us a tow for four hours. When off the mouth of Lancaster Sound, the ”Prince Albert” was cast off; and she departed to carry out, as I then thought, a part of the grand scheme of land travelling next year, into which it became almost daily apparent the search for Franklin would resolve itself. Already had night commenced; next came winter.
Touching at Pond's Bay was made a longer proceeding than was ever calculated upon, for a succession of thick fogs and strong gales prevented the ”Pioneer” running into the bay, or ascertaining whether cairns or other marks had been erected on the coast.
The 21st of August came before we had a change of weather: happily it then took place; and the ”Pioneer” (having some days before left the ”Resolute,” to cruise off Possession Bay) entered Pond's Bay, running up the northern sh.o.r.e towards a place called b.u.t.ton Point.
The ”West Land,” as this side of Baffin's Bay is called, strikes all seamen, after struggling through the icy region of Melville Bay, as being verdant and comparatively genial. We all thought so, and feasted our eyes on valleys, which, in our now humbled taste, were voted beautiful,--at any rate there were signs and symptoms of verdure; and as we steered close along the coast, green and russet colours were detected and pointed out with delight. The bay was calm and gla.s.sy, and the sun to the west, sweeping along a water horizon, showed pretty plainly that Pond's Bay, like a good many more miscalled bays of this region, was nothing more than the bell-shaped mouth to some long fiord or strait.
One of my ice-quartermasters, a highly intelligent seaman, a.s.sured me he had been in a whale-boat up this very inlet, until they conjectured themselves to be fast approaching Admiralty Inlet; the country there improved much in appearance, and in one place they found abundance of natives, deer, and gra.s.s as high as his knees. I landed with a boat's crew on b.u.t.ton Point. The natives had retired into the interior to kill deer and salmon: this they are in the habit of doing every season when the land ice breaks up. Numerous unroofed winter habitations and carefully secured _caches_ of seal-blubber proved that they had been here in some numbers, and would return to winter after the ice had again formed in the bay, and the seals began to appear, upon which the existence of the Esquimaux depends.
On first landing we had been startled by observing numerous cairns, standing generally in pairs: these we pulled down one after the other, and examined without finding any thing in them; and it was only the accidental discovery by one of the men of a seal-blubber _cache_, which showed that the cairns were merely marks by which the Esquimaux, on their return in the winter, could detect their stores.