HMS Fury

“ When the lateness of the season to which the ships had now been detained in the ice is considered, with reference to the probability of the Fury's effecting anything of importance during the short remainder of the present summer, it will not be wondered at that, coupling this consideration with that of the health of my officers and men, I began to entertain doubts whether it would still be prudent to adopt the intended measure of remaining out in the Fury as a single ship; whether, in short, under existing circumstances, the probable evil did not far outweigh the possible good. ”

“ Pulfer and Fiddis, took the Fury's boats in hand themselves, their men being required as part of our physical strength in clearing the ship. The armourer was also set to work on the beach in forging bolts for the martingales of the outriggers. ”

“ A fourth time Parry tried to make the northwest passage, by way of Regent inlet. This attempt was terminated by the shipwreck of the Fury, commanded by Captain Hoppner. With great forethought, Parry caused all the provisions to be landed from the wreck and safely housed on Fury beach, where they were subsequently found by Ross, and were the means of rescuing his crew from starvation. ”

“ He returned to the Glorieuse, waited until a lieutenant was sent by the admiral to take charge of her, and then, with twenty-five men, including Babbage and Turley, and stores hastily provided from the brig, he sailed out of the harbor in the Fury. The admiral, he suspected, would be somewhat amazed when he learned of the sudden departure; but, having permission, Jack had resolved on his way back to set off at once on his quest. The sooner the Fury was out of sight the better; and by sailing in the darkness she would be most likely to escape observation. ”

“ After the third winter preparations were accordingly made for a retreat, and on May 29th, 1832, the ship was abandoned. They travelled on, going round every bay and inlet owing to the roughness of the ice outside. James Ross with a sledge crew of the strongest men, Abernethy and Park, pushed on to Fury Beach, and returned with supplies of food for the sick and weak. On July 1st they all arrived at Fury Beach, and a house was built for the winter. There were plenty of birds, 50 dovekies being shot on the 7th, and 100 on the 17th. ”

“ On the 26th Aug. 1799, the Fury bombarded a military post near the Helder point, and on the following morning assisted in covering the debarkation of the army under Sir Ralph Abercromby on the coast of Holland [4] . After the surrender of the Dutch squadron lying in the Texel, she accompanied Vice-Admiral Mitchell’s flotilla to the Zuyder Zee; on which occasion, the whole of her shot, shells, iron-ballast, guns, and spare stores, were put into schuyts in order to. lighten her ”

“ At this point a sailor put his head in at the little cabin.
"If you please, sir, Mr. Babbage says we're off Minton Point, and waits for orders."
"Very well, Turley. Go on deck, Mr. Hardy, and take a run down Channel. Let me know what you think of the Fury's sailing powers; we've nothing but our speed to trust to if we happen to fall in with the enemy in force."
All feelings of disappointment vanished from Jack's mind immediately as he stepped on deck. The Fury was in all respects a model cutter. ”

“ There were others, however, who, knowing of the abundance of supplies on Fury Beach, entertained a hope that they might still be alive, and among these was Mr George Ross, a near relative of the commander of the Victory.
Mr Ross felt that, if it were possible to find a man who would be prepared to lead an expedition through Northern America, and thence to Fury Beach, the crew of the Victory might be rescued, or, at any rate, some definite information might be obtained concerning their fate. ”

“ In the meantime, the Fury stretched over from Igloolik to the northward, for the purpose of examining the state of the fixed ice at the eastern mouth of the strait communicating with the Polar sea, and found it firmly attached to both shores, while one vast expanse of level solid ice occupied the whole extent of sea visible to the westward, the eye wearying itself in vain to discover a single break upon its surface. ”

“ It was now evidently impossible to proceed without heaving the Fury down to repair, her officers and men being in a few days almost exhausted with excessive fatigue; the men's hands having become so sore from the constant friction of the ropes, that they could hardly handle them any longer without the use of mittens.
The shore being a straight and exposed one, the principal difficulty consisted in securing the ship from the inroads of the ice during the operation. There was little hopes of discovering a harbour for this purpose, and the only alternative was to endeavour to make one. ”

“ She was driven about three hundred yards, powerfully pressed by the ice, until she became so severely nipped and strained as to leak a good deal, when she was again forced ashore. Both ships, however, got off at high water, but on the 2nd of August the Fury was again driven on the beach, and the Hecla narrowly escaped. Captain Parry went on board the former vessel, and found four pumps going, and Commander Hoppner and his men almost exhausted with the incessant labours of the last eight and forty hours. ”

“ To the right lay the harbor and town. To the left were two sloops and three or four praams; alongside the nearest sloop a coasting brig; then two fishing smacks. A cable's length from these lay the Fury, now apparently refitted with new main- and topmasts, and eastward of her, a little farther out, a lugger and another smack. Jack guessed that, besides the Fury, only the sloops and the praams were likely to be armed with cannon, though the lugger might carry a small gun. ”

“ In 1872 Barnaby was appointed chief naval architect, a title changed in 1875 to director of naval construction. As successor to Reed he had to deal with the designs of the Devastation and Thunderer and of the Fury, afterwards named Dreadnought: the first two vessels, of 9,380 tons displacement, with no sail power, had an ‘all big gun’ armament of four 12-inch 35-ton muzzle-loading guns, two in each of two turrets at the ends of the vessel; the Fury was of similar general design but somewhat larger with increased armour protection. ”

“ This part of the coast, from the Agnes Islands to Cape Schomberg, is the worst I have seen, it is so very broken, and has so many rocks and dangerous breakers lying at a long distance from the shore.
"At noon we were close to Fury Island; but the wind fell and prevented our making much progress. Fury Harbour, where the Saxe Cobourg was lost, is a wild exposed place, and, as the bottom is bad, it ought to be avoided by all vessels: there is but one patch of good ground, and that is very small. ”

“ In June 1815 he was moved into the Terror bomb, which he took to England, and in July 1816 he was appointed to the Fury bomb for service in the expedition against Algiers, under Lord Exmouth [see Pellew, Edward, Viscount Exmouth] . In the bombardment of that stronghold of piracy, on 27 Aug. 1816, the Fury in nine hours threw 318 shells, or double the number thrown by any other bomb. This difference gave rise to an admiralty inquiry, when it was found to be due to the fitting of the mortars on a plan which Moorsom had himself devised. ”

“ On the 18th Captain Parry arrived at the Admiralty, and the ships were paid off on the 16th of November.
The idea being entertained that the passage westward into the Pacific might be made through Prince Regent’s Inlet, Captain Parry was appointed to the command of another expedition for the purpose of ascertaining if this could be done. The Hecla was re-commissioned, he taking command of her, while Commander Hoppner was appointed to the Fury, with Horatio Thomas Austin and James Clark Ross as his lieutenants. The Hecla carried sixty-two and the Fury sixty persons. ”

“ The land was, indeed, so clear of ice to the southward that Dr. Neill, who walked a considerable distance in that direction, could see nothing but an open channel in-shore to the utmost extent of his view. We took advantage of this open water to send the launch for the Fury’s ironwork left at the former station; for though the few men thus employed could very ill be spared, we were obliged to arrange everything with reference to the ultimate saving of time; and it would have occupied both ships’ companies more than a whole day to carry the things round by land. ”

“ In the afternoon it blew a hard gale, with constant rain, from the northward, the clouds indicating an easterly wind in other parts. This wind, which was always the troublesome one to us, soon brought the ice closer and closer, till it pressed with very considerable violence on both ships, though the most upon the Fury, which lay in a very exposed situation. Early on the morning of the 31st, as soon as a communication could be effected, Captain Hoppner sent to inform me that the Fury had been forced on the ground, where she still lay ”

“ While the ships were at anchor, hunting parties were sent out, and the game laws of the preceding year were strictly enforced, by which every beast and bird was to be given up for the general good, the capturer only retaining the head and legs. The head, however, was sometimes greatly extended, so as to include several joints of the back-bone. At length the explorers found themselves among a complete labyrinth of islands, amidst which strong currents set in various directions, while fogs and drift ice made navigation perilous in the extreme. Successive masses assailed the Fury. ”

“ He commanded the Fury sloop of war, and captured l’Elize, a French schooner of 10 guns, in 1795; assisted at the reduction of St. Lucia, in May 1796 [1] ; and was present at the unsuccessful attack upon Porto Rico in the following year. ”

“ Nautilus, and Fury were anchored off the town, and the troops, preceded by the gun-boats, approached to the attack, which commenced at two o’clock in the afternoon of the 27th.
“The enemy made no resistance until the troops came close to the very strong fort, and attempted to force the gate; he then commenced a fire, I am sorry to say, most destructive, as your Excellency will see by the accompanying return, added to that of Lieutenant-Colonel Smith to the government [5] . The piratical vessels, eleven in number, 3 of them very large dows, were in the mean time burnt by the seamen ”

“ Nothing but vast beds of glistering lava, now rough like immense piles of scoriae and clinker, now smooth like crystal mirrors, and reflecting the Sun's rays with the same intolerable glare. Not the faintest speck of life. A world absolutely and completely dead, fixed, still, motionless—save when a gigantic land-slide, breaking off the vertical wall of a crater, plunged down into the soundless depths, with all the fury too of a crashing avalanche, with all the speed of a Niagara, but, in the total absence of atmosphere, noiseless as a feather, as a snow flake, as a grain of impalpable dust. ”

“ If we had had provisions enough for months, how could we get out of the abyss into which we were being hurled by an irresistible torrent? Why should we fear the horrors of famine, when death was swooping down upon us in a multitude of other forms? Would there be time left to die of starvation?
Yet by an inexplicable play of the imagination I forgot my present dangers, to contemplate the threatening future. Was there any chance of escaping from the fury of this impetuous torrent, and of returning to the surface of the globe? ”

“ Arctic adventure, the ships which have been wrecked have been those of the fight or horror? They are the "Fury," the "Victory," the "Erebus," the "Terror." But the ships which never failed their crews,—which, for all that man knows, are as sound now as ever,—bear the names of peaceful adventure; the "Hecla," the "Enterprise," and "Investigator," the "Assistance" and "Resolute," the "Pioneer" and "Intrepid," and our "Advance" and "Rescue" and "Arctic," never threatened any one, even in their names. And they never failed the men who commanded them or who sailed in them. ”

“ The morning wore away before Captain Furze had convinced himself that escape was impossible, but being at last fully satisfied of the necessity of fighting, he took in his studding sails and awaited 288the attack. The schooner, as she came nearer, was seen to be a formidable antagonist, mounting sixteen guns, and having her decks literally crowded with men. She was flying American colours, which fact of itself was enough to show the Packetsmen that if they were to save their vessel and their liberty, it would be no child’s play that they had to face. ”

“ To our left rear and above hung the mass of an enemy cruiser, her screens glowing on standby as she drove forward to her place in the line. We had caught her by surprise, a thousand to one shot, and our torpedoes were on their way before her detectors spotted us. We didn't stay to see what happened, but the probe showed an enormous fireball which blazed briefly in the blackness, shooting out globs of scintillating molten metal that cooled and disappeared as we watched.
"Scratch one cruiser," someone in fire control yelped.
The effect on morale was electric. ”

“ It is of the utmost importance that his message should not be delivered; the British fleet 108is not quite ready to strike, and it does not wish the enemy to know this. Onward steams the cruiser, the fastest vessel of her class in the world. It is broad daylight, and she can be seen by our own cruisers who, unhappily, are half a knot slower than she is. British destroyers have attempted to torpedo her as she steams quickly by, but her quick-firing guns and her attendant torpedo craft have so far foiled their purpose and the daylight is against them. ”