J. Douglas Hoare

“ When he returned to his ship he found that matters were not going too well with his men. They had, it is true, been fairly successful with their hunting, but scurvy had broken out and Dr Armstrong already had thirteen patients in his care. Worse, however, was to come, for July brought no sign of the desired thaw. Ice still choked the bay, thick ice covered the sound, and an ominous blink glowed in the sky. Early in September the frost once more had the bay in its grip and the unfortunate men realised that they were destined to spend a third winter in the ice. ”

“ The hut was small, but it was fairly comfortable. “By the aid of the lamps,” says Nansen, “we succeeded in keeping the temperature at about freezing-point in the middle of the hut, while it was, of course, lower at the walls. The latter were covered with a thick coating of frost and ice, which in the lamplight gave them such a splendidly marmoreal appearance that in our happier moments we could dream that we dwelt in marble halls.” ”

“ We next sprang on the ice, the tossing, tremulous motion of which literally filled the air with noises, as of shrieks and howls, and we quickly got on board all the materials which were lying on the floe, and bound the fissures of the ice hastily together by ice-anchors and cables.... But, just as in the risings of a people, the wave of revolt spreads on every side, so now the ice uprose against us. ”

“ Early in April the gloom that had settled upon the ship was deepened by the first appearance of death, for one of the seamen, John Boyle, fell a victim to scurvy after only one day’s illness. Fortunately, however, the clouds were soon to break, for, while M’Clure and Lieutenant Haswell were superintending the work of hewing a grave for Boyle out of the frozen earth, they were amazed to see a strange man coming towards them across the ice. ”

“ Sherard Osborn knew them well, and he gives so eloquent a description of them that we may quote it for the benefit of the uninitiated.
“If they should feel cold,” he writes, “they must be patient, for until their return to the ship they will have no fire to warm them. Should their parched tongues cleave to their mouths, they must swallow snow to allay their thirst, for water there is none. Should their health fail, pity is all that their comrades can give them, for the sledge must move on its daily march. ”

“ THE VOYAGE OF BUCHAN AND FRANKLIN What with the American War and the Napoleonic Wars, our sailors had their hands so full at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries, that they had no time to spare for unnecessary exploration, and there is, in consequence, a hiatus of forty years in the story of Arctic discovery. ”

“ On June 26 they reached the northern edge of the inland ice and, unable to proceed any further in that direction, they turned south-east in the hope that they would succeed in making the east coast of Greenland. Following the extreme limits of the ice-cap their journey brought them, on July 4, to a large indentation, which they named Independence Bay, in honour of the day. From the top of a tremendous cliff, 4000 feet high, they obtained a magnificent view of the land all round them, a view which left no doubt whatever in their minds that Greenland was an island. ”

“ But his expedition had most valuable results, for not only did his nephew, James Clark Ross, locate the Magnetic Pole, but he also mapped out some six or seven hundred miles of coast line on either shore of Boothia and he made some exceedingly serviceable notes on the climatic conditions of North-Eastern America.
If he has never received full credit for his work, it is, perhaps, his own fault, for he made himself a most unpopular commander, and, if we may judge from the persistent pessimism of his diaries, he must have been a most depressing companion in the Arctic regions. ”

“ As we have just seen, while Conway was making the first crossing of Spitzbergen, Andrée was waiting for an opportunity to start on the daring but ill-fated Expedition for the discovery of the North Pole, by which his name will always live in the annals of Arctic exploration. Andrée was a Swedish engineer and an æronaut of unusual skill and enterprise, and it was the success of his attempt to cross the Baltic in a balloon that led him to think seriously of embarking upon that project which was to cost him his life. ”

“ Vessels attempting to penetrate far to the north had always been stopped by an impenetrable barrier of ice. Travellers trying to make the journey by sledge had found the ice so rough and the movements of the pack so disconcerting, that they had been invariably compelled to turn back before they were very far on their way, while, so far as has yet been discovered, there is no land in a sufficiently northerly latitude to form a suitable base. ”

“ Dr Bessels, a former student of Heidelberg, who had served in one of the German Arctic expeditions and in the Prussian army during the invasion of France, was the only man of scientific attainments in the ship, and the only man, besides Hall, who felt any enthusiasm for the objects of the voyage. Altogether it was an ill-assorted company, without zeal for discovery, without discipline or control, and in which every man considered himself as good as his neighbour. ”

“ Having been accompanied by a supporting party as far as Cape Henry, Markham set out over the Polar Sea on April 10, 1876. Fearing that they might chance upon an open sea, the party took with it two boats, which added greatly to their labours, making it necessary for them to cover every mile of their journey four times. Their way, moreover, lay in peculiarly unpleasant places, for the ice-field over which they had to travel was like a frozen ocean, the depressions between the waves being filled with snow and broken pack-ice. ”

“ It was not exactly impervious to the cold winds, for the clay with which the walls were daubed cracked as it was put on and admitted the air freely; compared with the tents, however, it was luxurious. The weather was now bitter, and hunting was over for the season. The store-house was fairly well stocked, while the carcases of eighty deer were stowed away at various distances from the house en cache, that is to say, covered with heavy loads of wood and stones so that the wolves and wolverines could not get at them. ”

“ THE VOYAGE OF THE “TEGETTHOFF” Many routes to the North Pole had now been tried and found wanting. Expeditions had started out by Behring Strait, through Smith Sound, up the eastern coast of Greenland and from Spitzbergen, but they had one and all been frustrated by those great Arctic currents, which, rushing down from the Polar basin, carried with them such quantities of ice that real progress towards the Pole was practically impossible. There still remained one route, however, which had scarcely been tried at all, namely that which lay round the north-east shores of Nova Zembla. ”

“ Indeed, had it not been for the great kindness with which they had been treated by the Etah Eskimos they must inevitably have perished.
A more unutterably miserable winter was probably never passed by any band of Arctic explorers. As the anti-scorbutics, the food and the fuel failed, the condition of the men grew worse and worse, and Kane made up his mind that as soon as spring came round he would spare no efforts to make his way to civilised regions. The only person on board who seems to have been reasonably happy was the hunter, Hans Christian. ”

“ Lieutenant Pullen’s boat expedition to the Mackenzie met with no better success. Cramped up in open boats which were in constant danger of being wrecked by gales or the drifting ice, he and his men suffered tortures from cold and exposure, and the difficulties and dangers of their 1500-mile journey were enhanced by the unfriendliness of the natives. The winter was spent at the various stations of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and, in the following spring, Pullen set out again for the shores of the Polar Sea. ”

“ M’Clure was an incurable optimist and never could be induced to believe that his men were not capable of performing the impossible, so, with a view to ensuring a fairly adequate supply of provisions for the travelling parties, he cut down the rations once more. The result was that the whole crew lived in a state of perpetual hunger. The scurvy patients grew worse and those who had, up to the present, remained healthy, sickened rapidly. To add to their discomforts, the winter was one of the coldest on record, and on one occasion the thermometer registered ninety-nine degrees of frost. ”

“ On September 10, however, the Windward cast anchor off Cape Flora, the westernmost point of Northbrook Island, and here the party erected their winter house, to which they gave the name of Elmwood.
Mr Jackson made it evident at once that he had at any rate one of the qualities essential to a successful Arctic explorer, in that he was a splendid disciplinarian. He was convinced that if good health was to be preserved, every member of his party must be kept constantly busy, so he saw to it that his men always had plenty of occupation. ”

“ The energy and enterprise which Lieutenant Peary displayed in carrying on his chosen work in the Polar Regions aroused so much sympathy in America, that not long ago a number of those who were interested in it formed a club which they called the Peary Arctic Club, and which was founded with a view to providing him with funds for carrying on the explorations in which he had already achieved so conspicuous a success. ”

“ British merchants, however, were by no means disposed to let Spain and Portugal retain their lucrative monopoly without making a struggle to wrest it from them, so they determined to send out a fresh expedition which should attempt to force its way to the land of gems and spices over the North Pole itself. The command of this expedition was entrusted to Henry Hudson, a seaman of such daring and skill that he was well able to accomplish the work if it lay within the power of a human being to do so. ”

“ The fear that we should not have enough fuel made us grasp at every loose piece of wood and throw it on the ice. The sinking of the ship was now almost imperceptible, it must have found support on a tongue of ice or some promontory of our field. There was still a small medicine chest and a few other things, which, in our future position, would be great treasures, such as the cabin-lamp, books, cigars, boxes of games, etc. The snow roof (with which the Hansa had been equipped for the winter) and the sails were brought on to the ice ”

“ Their physical sufferings grew more and more terrible every day. Hunger was not the only hardship with which they had to contend, for their course was constantly intersected by swamps through which they had to wade, and, as the thermometer was always below freezing point, their wet clothes were instantly frozen as stiff as boards, making walking more painful than ever. ”

“ Fog, of course, is one of the most dangerous enemies of the Arctic navigator, for, when his course is obscured by it, he may be wrecked by an ice-floe before he is aware of his danger. Consequently there was nothing for them to do but to kick their heels on Foggy Island until more favourable weather allowed them to proceed. ”

“ Even when the sun returned it brought them but little relief from their sufferings, for the intensity of the cold seemed to increase, and there was no hope that the ice in their harbour would break up early. The ship was so badly damaged that she could not survive the voyage home, so they set about repairing the boats as best they could, with a view to crossing in them the thousand miles of sea that lay between them and Lapland. At last the time came for them to make their departure, but Barents was now so ill that he had to be taken to the boat on a sledge. ”

“ They were not much too soon, for before the month was over the fate of the unfortunate Hansa was sealed. On October 8 a gale arose which blew violently for several days. On the 18th, the ice began to make itself conspicuous by “thrusting and pressing against the ship. This unpleasant noise lasted until the afternoon. At regular intervals underneath, the ice, like a succession of waves, groaned and cracked, squashed and puffed; now sounding like the banging of doors, now like many human voices raised against one another ”

“ The framework of the house was already up, a fishery had been established which was yielding a plentiful supply of food, while Indians were already beginning to flock to Fort Reliance, as Back had named his winter quarters. The Indians of that country, it should be said, had an innate objection to being burdened with the sick and aged members of their tribe, and were in the habit of entrusting them to the care of the nearest white man, a species of dumping against which it was impossible to take any protective measures. ”

“ On reaching Advent Bay, which he proposed to make his starting-place, he was surprised to find an inn in the process of erection by an enterprising Norwegian company. An inn in an uninhabited [Pg 288] country like Spitzbergen might seem de trop, but the explanation was that a series of trips had been organised thither, and a steamer was bringing out tourists once a week, most of whom were probably attracted by Andrée’s balloon, then waiting at the north end of the island for a chance to start on its hazardous voyage. ”

“ Coals are burning up, food is being consumed, the pumps are still going, and thirty-three people are wearing out their lives and souls like men doomed to imprisonment for life. If this next summer comes and goes like the last without any result, what reasonable mind can be patient in contemplation of the future? ”

“ The ship happened to be caught in the ice with which she drifted into Baffin Bay. On October 15 she was severely nipped, whereupon the panic-stricken Buddington promptly cried out, “Throw everything upon the ice.” Of course the whole ship was instantly cast into the direst confusion. The sailors hurled everything that they could lay hands on on to the floe, including a bundle which was subsequently found to contain two of Hans Christian’s offspring. Men, women, and children leapt after them, and though Tyson did his best to calm them his efforts were not of much avail. ”

“ Many expeditions were sent out to their rescue, and reports were brought in by natives of shots heard upon the ice and figures seen on the drifting floes. Fishermen, too, said that they had heard cries for help, and that they had seen what looked like a deflated balloon drifting on the sea. But, carefully though these clues were followed, they came to nothing, and it can only be supposed that, descending on some vast ice-field far from human aid, probably somewhere between Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, and Siberia, the unfortunate men perished miserably of starvation and exposure. ”

“ Nordenskiöld was now within 120 miles of his destination, and his ambition to complete the passage in a single voyage seemed on the verge of fulfilment, when his ship was caught in the ice, and so firmly frozen in that all hopes of getting her free again that winter had to be abandoned. The Vega was lying off a Chukche village, and Nordenskiöld and his assistants at once set about gaining some knowledge of the manners and customs of the natives. ”

“ Peary is a native of Maine, and he began his career as an engineer in the United States navy. He seems, however, to have been predestined by nature for the life of an Arctic traveller, for, as Sir Clements Markham well put it, he combines “forethought and prudence in planning his operations with great skill and undaunted resolution in carrying them into execution”—qualities which more, perhaps, than any others go to make a successful explorer. ”

“ The “fair ships” had as their objective no less a place than the North Pole, but the men do not seem to have been sufficiently “cunning” to make much headway against the difficulties that beset their path, and the chronicles [Pg 5] of the time are singularly reticent concerning their doings.
The voyage of the Trinitie and Minion, which sailed in 1536, is one of the most disastrous on record. The expedition was sent out with a view to exploring North-West America, and it reached the coast of Newfoundland in safety. ”

“ On May 16 a slight diversion was caused by the discovery of two islands, which they named Jeannette Island and Henriette Island. De Long started off on a sledging expedition to them, and, like many other Arctic explorers, had great trouble with his dogs, which, in accordance with the traditions of their race, refused to face the open water, and had to be dragged, sledges and all, through every lead that intersected their path. ”