It was exactly two hundred years afterwards that these northern places were visited by Ross and Parry. Baffin’s work had been almost forgotten, and his discoveries were not believed.
During the seventeenth century many expeditions were sent out which were the means of opening up extensive commercial relations with Russia and of establishing the fisheries of Spitzbergen, Davis Straits, and Newfoundland.
During the eighteenth century several expeditions were fitted out by the Hudson Bay Company, and a good deal of exploration was done by the Russians. In 1728, Vitus Bering discovered the straits which now bear his name; and in 1742, Lieutenant Chelyuskin reached the most northerly point of Asia in 77° 34′ by sledges. In 1765, Admiral Tschitschagoff was sent by the Czarina Catharine of Russia with three vessels to Spitzbergen to sail towards the North Pole. He reached 80° 21′, but found it impossible to advance farther. The following year he reached 80° 28′. In 1770 the New Siberian Islands were discovered by Liakhof.
In 1773, Constantine John Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, sailed with the Racehorse and Carcass, with a view of reaching the North Pole. He reached 80° 37′, and visited some of the Seven Islands. He also mapped the north of Spitzbergen. In this expedition the great Horatio Nelson was captain’s coxswain on board the Carcass.
In 1818, Captain Buchan in the Dorothea, and Lieutenant (afterwards Sir John) Franklin in the Trent, attained 80° 34′ north of Spitzbergen.
In 1823, Clavering and Sabine, in the ship Griper, visited Spitzbergen, and while Sabine carried on magnetic observations on the inner Norway Island, Clavering went to sea and steered northwards, but did not get farther than 80° 20′.
The edge of the ice had now been thoroughly examined between the coast of Greenland and Novaya Zemlya, and it became evident that the ice could not be pierced by a ship. It occurred to Sir John Franklin and Sir Edward Parry that the best way of reaching the Pole would be by means of sledging over the ice. Parry put his ideas into practice in 1827, when he undertook his well-known expedition in the Hecla. He had just returned from his third Arctic voyage in search of the North-West Passage. His fourth voyage was an important one, and will be treated at some length in the first chapter.
The Siege and Conquest of the North Pole
CHAPTER I
PARRY’S EXPEDITION OF 1827
In April 1826, Captain William Edward Parry proposed to Viscount Melville, First Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty, “to attempt to reach the North Pole, by means of travelling with sledge-boats over the ice, or through any spaces of open water that might occur.” The proposal was referred to the Royal Society, who strongly recommended its adoption; and an expedition having been equipped, Parry was appointed to the command of it.
Before making the proposal, Parry had given the subject careful consideration. He mentions that Captain Lutwidge, the associate of Captain Phipps in the expedition towards the North Pole in 1773, describes the ice north of Spitzbergen to the distance of ten or twelve leagues to have the appearance of “one continued plain of smooth unbroken ice, bounded only by the horizon.” The testimony of Mr. Scoresby, Jun., “a close and intelligent observer of Nature in these regions,” was also found to agree with that given by Lutwidge. “I once saw,” says he, “a field that was so free from either fissure or hummock, that I imagine, had it been free from snow, a coach might have been driven many leagues over it in a direct line, without obstruction or danger.” In addition to these, experienced whalers, whom Parry consulted as to the nature of the ice, agreed that it was highly favourable for the purpose of his expedition. An important factor in determining Parry to make the proposal was the fact that Franklin had drawn up a plan for making the attempt on the same lines.
For the journey over the ice, two boats were constructed having great flatness of floor, with the extreme breadth carried well forward and aft, and possessing the utmost buoyancy, as well as capacity for stowage. Their length was 20 feet, and their extreme breadth 7 feet. The timbers were made of tough ash and hickory, 1 inch by half an inch square, and a foot apart, with a “half-timber” of smaller size between each two. On the outside of the frame thus formed was laid a covering of Mackintosh’s waterproof canvas, the outer part being coated with tar. Over this was placed a plank of fir, 3/16 of an inch thick; then a sheet of stout felt; and over all, an oak plank of the same thickness as the fir; the whole of these being firmly and closely secured to the timbers by iron screws applied from without. “On each side of the keel, and projecting considerably below it, was attached a strong ‘runner’ shod with smooth steel, in the manner of a sledge, upon which the boat entirely rested while upon the ice; and to afford some additional chance of making progress on hard and level fields, we also applied to each boat two wheels, of 5 feet diameter, and a small one abaft, having a swivel for steering by, like that of a Bath chair; but these, owing to the irregularities of the ice, did not prove of any service, and were subsequently relinquished. A ‘span’ of hide-rope was attached to the fore part of the runners, and to this were affixed two strong ropes of horse-hair, for dragging the boat; each individual being furnished with a broad leathern shoulder-belt, which could readily be fastened to or detached from the drag-ropes.” The boats weighed 1539 lb. and 1542 lb. respectively. Two officers and twelve men were selected for each boat’s crew. The provisions consisted of biscuit, sweetened cocoa-powder, and pemmican. The process of making the latter consisted in drying large thin slices of the lean of the meat over the smoke of wood fires, then pounding it, and lastly mixing it with about an equal weight of its own fat. In this state it was quite ready for use, without further cooking.
The Hecla, which was to convey the expedition to the north coast of Spitzbergen, left the Thames on the 25th of March 1827. They arrived at Hammerfest on 18th April. Here they obtained a small quantity of venison and an abundance of good fish. They also purchased a set of snow-shoes, together with Lapland shoes (called “Kamooga”). They also took on board eight reindeer and a supply of moss. “The quantity of clean moss considered requisite for each deer per day is 4 pounds, but they will go five or six days without provender, and not suffer materially. As long as they can pick up snow as they go along, which they like to eat quite clean, they require no water; and ice is to them a comfortable bed.”
Hammerfest was left on 29th April, and on the 5th of May, in latitude 73° 30′, the first straggling mass of ice was met. After some delay in waiting for the ice to open, Hakluyt’s Headland was reached on 14th May. While preparations were being made to land a quantity of provisions here, a gale came on, and forced Parry to take shelter among the pack-ice, where he remained beset twenty-four days. Now began a search for a suitable harbour for the Hecla, but it was not till the 20th June that this was found in Treurenburg Bay. During this search Parry reached as far north as 81° 5′, and landed a small store of provisions on Walden Island, and another on an islet near Little Table Island.
Preparations were now made to leave the ship on the journey to the north. Parry writes: “As it was still necessary not to delay our return beyond the end of August, the time originally intended, I took with me only seventy-one days’ provisions; which, including the boats and every other article, made up a weight of 260 lb. per man; and as it appeared highly improbable, from what we had seen of the very rugged nature of the ice we should first have to encounter, that either the reindeer, the snow-shoes, or the wheels would prove of any service for some time to come, I gave up the idea of taking them. We, however, constructed out of the snow-shoes four excellent sledges for dragging a part of our baggage over the ice, and these proved of invaluable service to us, while the rest of the things just mentioned would only have been an encumbrance.”
The Hecla was left on the 21st June, and Low Island was reached on the 22nd. One of the ship’s cutters accompanied the two boats in order to carry part of the provisions which were to be landed on Low Island and on Walden Island. Open water for the boats was found until they reached latitude 81° 12′ 51″, which was now the highest that had ever been reached. Scoresby, in 1806, had reached 81° 12′ 42″, and with this exception no one had ever reached the 81st degree.
Parry now writes: “Our plan of travelling being nearly the