CHAPTER VI.
NARRATIVE OF PROCEEDINGS ON BOARD THE SHIP ESK, DURING A WHALE-FISHING VOYAGE TO THE COAST OF SPITZBERGEN, IN THE YEAR 1816; PARTICULARLY RELATING TO THE PRESERVATION OF THE SHIP UNDER CIRCUMSTANCES OF PECULIAR DANGER.
The ship Esk sailed from Whitby on the 29th of March, 1816. We entered the frigid confines of the Icy Sea, and killed our first whale on the 25th of April. On the 30th of April, we forced into the ice with a favourable wind, and after passing through a large body of it, entered an extensive sea, such as usually lies on the western coast of Spitzbergen at this season of the year, early on the morning of the following day. The wind then blowing hard south south-east, we kept our reach to the eastward until three o’clock in the afternoon, when we unexpectedly met with a quantity of ice, which interrupted our course. We thenwaredby the way of avoiding it, but soon found, though the weather was thick with snow, that we were completely embayed in a situation that was truly terrific.
In the course of fourteen voyages, in which I had before visited this inhospitable country, I passed through many dangers wherein my ownlife, together with those of my companions, had been threatened; but the present case, where our lives seemed to be at stake for a length of time, exceeding twelve hours, far surpassed in awfulness, as well as actual hazard, anything that I had before witnessed. Dangers which occur unexpectedly and terminate suddenly, though of the most awful description, appear like a dream when they are past; but horrors which have a long continuance, though they in some measure decrease in their effect on the mind by a lengthened contemplation of them, yet they leave an impression on the memory which time itself cannot altogether efface. Such was the effect of the present scene. Whilst the wind howled through the rigging with tempestuous roar, the sea was so mountainous that the mast-heads of some accompanying ships, within the distance of a quarter of a mile, were intercepted and rendered invisible by the swells, and our ship frequently rolled the lee-boats into the water, that were suspended with their keels above the roughtree-rail!
At the same time, we were rapidly approaching a body of ice, the masses of which, as hard as rocks, might be seen at one instant covered with foam, the next concealed from the sight by the waves, and instantly afterwards reared to a prodigious height above the surface of the sea. It is needless to relate the means by which we attempted to keep the ship clear ofthe threatened danger, because those means were without avail. At eleven P.M. we were close to the ice, when perceiving through the mist an opening a short distance within, we directed the drift of the ship towards it. As we approached the ice, the sails were filled, so that the first blow was received obliquely on the bow, when the velocity of the ship was moderate. In this place the pieces of ice were happily of smaller dimensions; at least, all the larger masses we were able to avoid, so that, after receiving a number of shocks, we escaped without any particular accident into the opening or slack part of the ice above noticed. This opening, as far as we could see, promised a safe and permanent release.
But in this we were grievously disappointed: for, when we attempted to ware the ship, which soon became necessary, she refused to turn round, notwithstanding every effort, in a space which, in ordinary circumstances, would have been far more than sufficient for the evolution. In consequence of this accident, which arose partly from the badtrimof the ship, and partly from the great violence of the wind, she fell to leeward into a close body of ice, to which we could see no termination. The Mars, of Whitby, and another vessel, which closely followed us as we penetrated the exterior of the ice, being in better trim than the Esk, performed the evolution with ease, and were in a few minutes out of sight. In this dreadful situation, we laybeating against the opposing ice, with terrible force, daring eight successive hours, all which time I was rocked at the top-gallant mast-head, directing the management of the sails, to avoid the largest masses of ice, any one of which would have perforated the side of the ship. By the blessing of God, we succeeded wonderfully; and at eightA.M., the 2nd of May, gained a small opening, where we contrived to navigate the ship until the wind subsided, and we had the opportunity of forcing into a more commodious place. On examining the ship, we found our only apparent damage to consist in the destruction of most of our rudder works, a few slight bruises on the sides, and a cut on the lower part of the stern of the ship.
From this time, to the 20th of May, the fishery was generally interrupted by the formation of new ice, insomuch that during this interval we killed but one whale, while few of our neighbours succeeded so well. During the succeeding week, we became so fixed that we never moved except occasionally a few yards. The next twelve days were spent in most arduous labour in forcing the ship through the ice. At length, on the 12th of June, we happily escaped, though our companions were, for a short time, all left behind. On the 27th of June, we had secured thirteen fish, and our quantity of oil was about 125 tuns. This was a larger cargo than any ship had procured that we had yet met with,excepting only one. On the 28th, the John, of Greenock, commanded by my brother-in-law, Mr. Jackson, joined us.
After proceeding to the westward, the greater part of the 28th, we arrived at the borders of a compact body of field-ice, consisting of immense sheets of prodigious thickness. As I considered the situation not favourable for fishing, the ship was allowed to drift to the eastward all night. In the morning of the 29th, I found, however, that she was very little removed from the place where she lay when I went to bed. I perceived that the floes, between which there had been extensive spaces, were now in the act of closing; and attempted, by lowering four boats, to tow the ship through an opening at a short distance from us. At the moment when we were about to enter it, it closed. In attempting to get the ship into the safety of an indentation, which appeared calculated to afford a secure retreat, a small piece of ice came athwart her bow, stopped her progress, and she was in a minute afterwards subjected to a considerable squeeze. From none, however, of the pieces of ice around us did we apprehend any danger, particularly as the motion of the ice soon abated. There was a danger, however, on the larboard quarter, of which we were totally unconscious. The piece of ice that touched the ship in that part, though of itself scarcely six yards square, and more than one yard above the water, concealed beneath thesurface of the sea, at the depth of ten or twelve feet, a hard pointed projection of ice, which pressed against the keel, lifted the rudder, and caused a damage that had nearly occasioned the loss of the ship. About an hour and a half after the accident, the carpenter, having sounded the pump, discovered to our great concern and amazement a depth of eight and a half feet water in the hold. This was most alarming; with despair pictured in every face, the crew set on the pumps; a signal of distress was at the same time hoisted, and a dozen boats approached us from the surrounding ships. In the space of four hours, the water had lowered to nearly four feet, but one of the pumps becoming useless, and bailing being less effectual than at first, the water once more resumed its superiority and gained upon us.
Something, therefore, was now to be done, to stop, if possible, the influx of the water. As the pumping and bailing could not possibly be continued by our own ship’s company, it was necessary to make use of some means to attempt a speedy remedy whilst our assistants were numerous. As there was a probability that a bunch of rope-yarns, straw, or oakum, might enter some of the larger leaks, and retard the influx of water, if applied near the place through the medium of a fothering-sail, (that is, a sail drawn by means of ropes at the four corners, beneath the damaged or leaky part,) we in the meantime prepared a lower studding-sail, bysewing bunches of these materials, which, together with sheets of old thin canvas, whalebone-hair, and a quantity of ashes, fitted it well for the purpose. Thus prepared, it was hauled beneath the damaged place, but not the least effect was yet produced. We set about unrigging the ship, and discharging the cargo and stores, upon a flat place of the floe, against which we had moored, with the intention of turning the ship keel upward. My own sailors were completely worn out, and most of our auxiliaries wearied and discouraged; some of them evinced, by their improper conduct, their wish that the ship should be abandoned. Before putting our plan in execution, we placed twenty empty casks in the hold, to act against a quantity of iron ballast which was in the ship, caulked the dark lights, removed all the dry goods and provisions that would injure with the wet, secured all the hatches, skuttles, companion, etc., then, erecting two tents on the ice, one for sheltering myself, and the other for the crew, we ceased pumping, and permitted the ship to fill. At this crisis, men of whom I had conceived the highest opinion for firmness and bravery greatly disappointed my expectations. Among the whole crew, indeed, scarcely a dozen spirited fellows were to be seen.
As no ship could with propriety venture near us, to assist in turning the Esk over, on account of the hazardous position of the ice around her, we had no other means of attempting this singularevolution than by attaching purchases to the ice from the ship. Everything being prepared, while the water flowed into the ship, I sent our exhausted crew to seek a little rest. For my own part, necessity impelled me to endeavour to obtain some repose. I had already been fifty hours without rest, which unusual exertion, together with the anxiety of mind I endured, caused my legs to swell and become so extremely painful, that I could scarcely walk. Spreading, therefore, a mattress upon a few boards, laid on the snow within one of the tents, notwithstanding the coldness of the situation, and the excessive dampness that prevailed from the constant fog, I enjoyed a comfortable repose of four hours, and arose considerably refreshed.
Immediately afterwards, about threeP.M., on the 1st of July, I proceeded with all hands to the ship, which, to our surprise, we found had only sunk a little below the sixteenth mark externally, while the water but barely covered a part of “’tween decks within.” Perceiving that it was not likely to sink much further, on account of the buoyancy of the empty casks, and the materials of which the ship was composed, we applied all our purchases, but with the strength of 150 men we could not heel her more than five or six stakes. When thus careened, with the weight of two anchors suspended from the mast, acting with the effect of powerful levers on the ship, I accompanied about 120 men on board. All these being arranged on the highside of the deck, ran suddenly to the lower side, when the ship fell so suddenly on one side that we were apprehensive she was about to upset, but after turning a little way the motion ceased. The tackles on the ice being then hauled tight, the heeling position of the ship was preserved, until we mounted the higher part of the deck, and ran to the lower as before. At length, after a few repetitions of this manœuvre, no impression whatever was produced, and the plan of upsetting the ship appeared quite impracticable.
The situation of the ship being now desperate, there could be no impropriety in attempting to remove the keel and garboard strake, which prevented the application of the fothering, for, whatever might be the result, it could scarcely be for the worse. These incumbrances being removed, the sail for fothering was immediately applied to the place, and a vast quantity of fothering materials thrown into its cavity, when it was fairly underneath. Over this sail we spread a fore-sail, and braced the whole as tight to the ship as the keel-bolts, which yet remained in their horizontal position, would admit. The effect was as happy as we could possibly have anticipated. Some time before all these preparations were completed, our people, assisted by the John’s crew, who, after a short rest, had returned to us, put the three pumps and bailing tubs in motion, and applied their energies with such effect that in eleven hours the pumps sucked! In this time, a depth of thirteen feetwater was pumped out of the hold, besides the leakage. The John’s crew on this occasion exerted themselves with a spirit and zeal which were truly praiseworthy. As the assistance of carpenters was particularly needed, we fired a gun, and repeated our signal of distress, which brought very opportunely two boats, with six men each, from the Prescot, and the same number from our tried friend, Mr. Allen, of the North Britain. As we likewise procured the carpenters of these ships, together with those of the John, they commenced operations by cutting through the ceiling, between two frames of timbers directly across the hold, at the distance of about twenty-six feet from the stern-post; a situation which, we were assured, was on the fore part of the leak, or between the leak and the body of the ship. The timbers in this place were unhappily found so closely connected that we had to cut away part of one of the floors, that we might come at the outside plank, and caulk the crevices between it and the timbers; which operation, on account of the great depth of timber, and the vast flow of water that issued at the ceiling, was extremely difficult, tedious, and disagreeable.
Meanwhile that we had good assistance, I allowed our crew four hours’ rest, half of them at a time, for which purpose some of their beds were removed from the ice to the ship. Here, for the first time during four days, they enjoyed their repose; for on account of the coldand damp that prevailed when they rested on the ice, several of them, I believe, never slept. Some of the John’s people returning to us, swayed up the top-mast, and rigged most of the yards, while our men were employed stowing the main-hold, which, by the floating of the casks, was thrown into a singular state of disorder. Some of the casks were found without heads, and all the blubber lost, and many were found bilged, or otherwise damaged.
After the carpenters had completely cleared the roomstead—that is, the space between any two ribs or frames of timbers in a ship—they drove oakum into it, along with an improved woollen sheathing substance; and occasionally, where the spaces were very large, pieces of fat pork. The spaces or crevices between the planks of the ceiling and the timber being then filled, all the above substances were firmly driven down by means of pine wedges, and the spaces between each of the wedges caulked. This would have been very complete, had not the increased flow of the water overcome the pumps, and covered the ceiling where the carpenters were at work. They were therefore obliged to wedge up the place with great expedition; and being at the same time greatly fatigued, the latter part of the operation was accomplished with much less perfection than I could have wished.
Hitherto calm weather, with thick fog, having constantly prevailed, was the occasion of severalships remaining by us and affording assistance, which would otherwise have left us. But the weather having now become clear, and a prospect of prosecuting the fishery being presented, every ship deserted us, except the John, and she was preparing to leave us likewise. In the state of extreme jeopardy in which we were still placed, the love of life, on the part of the crew, determined them to attempt to quit the ship, and take refuge in the John as soon as she should attempt to leave us. I was confident, through the information I had received, that unless the assistance of the John were secured, the Esk, after all the labour bestowed on her, and the progress which had been made towards her preservation, must yet be abandoned as a wreck. At length, I yielded to the request of my whole crew, and made a proposal to captain Jackson, who agreed on certain conditions, involving the surrender of a large proportion of our cargo, to stay by us and assist us until our arrival at some port of Shetland. The original of this contract was voluntarily signed by every individual of both ships’ companies. A subsequent agreement of a more explicit kind, on the part of masters and owners of the Esk and the John, was drawn out and signed by myself and Mr. Jackson.
These agreements being fully understood and signed, the John hauled alongside of the ice, which had now opened near the Esk for the first time since the accident, and took onboard the whole of our loose blubber, estimated at seventy-eight butts and fifty-eight butts, in twenty-five casks, together with half our whalebone, as agreed. Everything now went on favourably, and whilst our crew and assistants were in full and vigorous employment, I retired to seek that repose which my wearied frame stood greatly in need of. On the 5th July, assisted by all hands from the John, the stowing of the hold and the rigging of the ship were completed, and, under a moderate breeze of wind, we left the floe, but what was our astonishment and mortification to find that the ship could not be guided! The rudder had become perfectly useless, so that with the most appropriate disposition of the sails possible, and the requisite position of the helm, the ship could not be turned round, or diverted in the least from the course in which the impetus of the wind on the sails was the most naturally balanced. This was an alarming disappointment. However, as the ship was in such constant danger of being crushed in the situation where she lay, the John, with the greatest difficulty imaginable, towed us three or four miles to the eastward, into a place of comparative safety. Here we rectified our rudder, and arranged for the trimming of the ship more by the stern, to compensate in some degree for the loss of the after-keel. When these matters were completed, on account of strong wind and thick weather, we could not, without imminentdanger, attempt to penetrate the compact body of ice which at this time barred our escape to the sea, and I took the advantage of the opportunity to procure a long rest. The attention of the carpenters in caulking the ceiling of the ship, together with the advantage derived from the fothering sails, had now produced an effect so considerable, that on Sunday, the 7th of July, the original leakage was found to be reduced nearly four-fifths. During an hour, in which we were engaged in Divine service, the pumps were allowed to “stand;” two and a half feet of water, which in this interval flowed into the hold, was pumped out in twenty minutes.
After various alarms and careful attention to the leakage, together with the unremitting diligence of the crew in the use of the pumps, we descried land on the 23rd of July, and approached within three or four miles of the coast of Shetland. In the evening, the John having fulfilled the articles of agreement as far as was required, we sent the twelve men belonging to her crew on board, and after receiving from them a supply of fresh water, they left us with three cheers, and the usual display of colours. We were now left to sail by ourselves; our progress was in consequence rather slow. At daylight of the 27th, we were rejoiced with a sight of our port. Knowing the flow of water to be sufficient for the ship, and there being a probability of reaching the harbour before the tide was too much fallen, we pressed towards itwith every sail we could set, and having received a pilot as we approached the pier, we immediately entered the harbour, and grounded at half-past fiveA.M.in a place of safety.
Thus, through the peculiar favour of God, by whose influence our perseverance was stimulated, and by whose blessing our contrivances were rendered effectual, happily terminated a voyage at once hazardous, disastrous, and interesting. Men whose lives have been exposed to dangers so fearful and imminent, may reasonably be expected to be influenced by a vivid sense of the nearness of eternity, and to feel the powers of the world to come. It is the prerogative of the Christian religion, whilst it prepares men for death, to take away undue apprehensions of it; to furnish consolation of unspeakable value, when it is present; and to light up the distant and unknown future, with the peace and happiness of the hope of eternal life. To the rude and courageous mariner, as well as to the inhabitants of refined and luxurious homes, God’s message is one and the same. It is suitable, and worthy of acceptation, on sea and on land, in sickness and in health, when we expect instant removal from our present temporary dwelling-place, or look forward to the activities and cares of a protracted life. To every one of us the Almighty is saying, Repent, believe, and live—promising a free and complete pardon through the death of his Son, and engaging, to those who welcome and obeyhis message, that they shall live under the smile of His countenance and the protection of his power.
Intelligence relative to the distressed state of the ship, and the helplessness of her situation, reached Whitby the day before us, and, in consequence of exaggerations respecting the loss of the crew, involved every interested person in deep distress. Throughout the town, and in a great measure throughout the neighbourhood, the event was considered as a general calamity. Some of the underwriters on the Esk, I was informed, had offered sixty per cent. for the reassurance of the sums for which they were liable, but such was the nature of the risk, as ascertained from the information of some ships’ crews, by whom we had been assisted, that no one would undertake the assurance, even at this extraordinary premium. The hearty congratulations I received on landing, from every acquaintance, were almost overwhelming, and these, with the enhanced endearments of my affectionate and enraptured wife, amply repaid for all the toils and anxieties of mind that I had endured.
On the tide ebbing out, the Esk was left dry, on which, for the first time since the accident, the whole of the water was drawn out of the hold by the pumps. The next tide, the ship was removed above the bridge to a place of perfect safety, where the pumps being neglected, the water in the course of two tides rose nearlyas high within as without. After the cargo was discharged, the ship was put into dock, and it was found that, excepting the loss of twenty-two feet of keel, and the removal of a piece of the starboard garboard strake, nine feet in length, with a portion of dead-wood brought home upon deck, no other damage of consequence had been produced by the ice. The whole expense of repairs did not, I believe, exceed £200. Though the sacrifice of nearly one-half of our cargo was a considerable disappointment to the owners, who had been apprized of our success in fishery, yet, when compared with the salvage, which might have been demanded had no contract been entered into for the assistance of the John, the sacrifice appeared to have been a material benefit, having been productive of the saving of perhaps £2,000. The approbation of my conduct by the owners, Messrs. Fishburn and Brodrick, was testified by their presenting to me a gratuity of £50; and the sense entertained by the Whitby underwriters, of the preservation of the ship, was pleasingly manifested by a present of a handsome piece of plate.
I may add, in conclusion, that the whole of my crew, excepting one individual, returned from this adventurous and trying voyage in safety, and in general in a good state of health. Several of the men, indeed, were affected more or less by the excessive fatigue, and by the painful exposure to cold and damp, while resting on the ice; but all of them were, in a greatmeasure, restored before our arrival at home, excepting one man; he, poor fellow, being of a weak constitution, suffered severely from the inclement exposure, and died soon after he arrived in port.
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY: INSTITUTED 1799.
Transcriber’s Notespg26Changed period after: this, in 1749 to: commapg27Changed equipped from Embden to: Emdenpg47Changed misspelling of “sails becomes neccessary” to: necessarypg64Removed repeated word it from: It it bears thispg74Added period to the end of: moment of dangerpg75Changed comma to period at: requiring extreme dispatchpg78Changed rate of 816 to: 8·16 and 718 to: 7·18pg80Added period to: 3,104,640 lbspg115Changed to provent them to: preventpg165Added period to: not been feltpg185Changed swayed up the topmast to: top-mastVarious hyphenated and non-hyphenated words left as written