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THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
i**£ ffiatytx. 
 
c^r^^^y 
 
MEMORIALS OF THE SEA. 
 
 iWg ^atfcer: 
 
 BEING RECORDS OF THE ADVENTUROUS LIFE 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 WILLIAM SCORESBY, ESQ. 
 
 OF WHITBY. 
 
 BY HIS SON 
 
 THE REV. WILLIAM SCORESBY, D.D. 
 
 FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETIES OF LONDON AND EDINBURGH; 
 
 MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE; OF THE 
 
 AMERICAN INSTITUTE, PHILADELPHIA, 
 
 ETC. ETC. 
 
 LONDON: 
 LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 
 
 1851. 
 
LONDON : 
 PRINTED T.Y M.MASON, IVY LANE, PATERNOSTER BOW. 
 
3 S3 
 
 TO THE LADY MATILDA MAXWELL, 
 
 WHOSE DISCERNMENT OF AN UNUSUAL AND SUPERIOR 
 
 CHARACTER IN A MERCHANT SEAMAN, 
 
 WHEN KNOWN ONLY BY REPORT, 
 
 FIRST LED TO THE GATHERING OF RECORDS 
 
 CONCERNING HIM ; 
 
 AND TO WHOSE EXPRESSIONS 
 
 OF DEEP AND ADMIRING INTEREST IN THE RELATION, 
 
 REPEATEDLY SOLICITED, 
 
 OF MANY CHARACTERISTIC INCIDENTS, 
 
 THEIR PUBLICATION IS STRICTLY DUE, — 
 
 Ws Folume, 
 
 COMPRISING THE OFT-TOLD STORIES, WITH 
 
 ADDITIONAL RECORDS, 
 
 OF THE ADVENTUROUS LIFE OF 
 
 f^ts JFat&tr, 
 
 IS, WITH GREAT RESPECT AND SINCERE REGARD, 
 NOW ADDRESSED, 
 
 BY HER LADYSHIP^ 
 
 FAITHFUL AND OBLIGED FRIEND, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Torquay, Feb. 3, 1851. 
 
 M367C10 
 
i&£ dfxtytx. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 Chapter I. — Early Life and Progress as a Seaman . 3 
 
 Sect. 1. My Father's eai'ly Life 3 
 
 2. His First Year's Apprenticeship . . .12 
 
 3. His Progress as a Seaman, with Incidents of 
 
 Sea-life ....... 20 
 
 4. Capture by the Enemy, and Escape from a 
 
 Spanish Prison . . . . . .26 
 
 5. Rewards of Masterly Seamanship . . .31 
 
 6. Entrance on, and Progress in Training in, the 
 
 Greenland Whale-fishery . . . .36 
 
 Chapter II. — Commencement and Progress in Whale- 
 fishing Enterprise as Commander . . .42 
 Sect. 1. Disappointment in his First Command . . 42 
 
 2. His Second Adventure and commencing Pros- 
 
 perity ....... 52 
 
 3. Further Successes, with their comparative Rela- 
 
 tions, in the Ship Henrietta . . .55 
 
 4. Episodical Incident — the Rescue of endangered 
 
 Pleasurers ....... 65 
 
 5. The Greenland Doctor 71 
 
 6. Taming of a Bear — interesting Recognition . 78 
 
 Chapter III. — The Ship Dundee, of London . . 86 
 
 Sect. 1. Entrance on, and general Results of, this new 
 
 Command ....... 86 
 
 2. Dangerous Accident — admirable Tact . . 89 
 
 3. The Dandy Sailor, or " Fine Tommy " . . 92 
 
 4. Unfortunate Voyage, and Adventure in the 
 
 Greenland Ices 96 
 
Vlll 
 
 CONTEXTS. 
 
 Chapter III. — continued. Page 
 
 Sect. 5. Successful Stratagem in War .... 103 
 6. Extraordinary Exploit in "cutting in," single- 
 handed, a moderately -grown young Whale . 108 
 
 Chapter IV. — The Ship Resolution, of Whitby . . 116 
 
 Sect. 1. Continued Prosperity, the Results, comparatively 
 
 and generally, of this fresh Enterprise . .116 
 
 2. Treatment and Recovery of a half-frozen Seaman, 1 26 
 
 3. Judicious Treatment of Wen having sufFered 
 
 from severe Exposure .... 129 
 
 4. The Crow's Nest . . . . . 135 
 
 5. Extraordinary Celerity in preparing an empty 
 
 Boat for the Fishery ..... 139 
 
 6. Tact and Bravery in attacking and killing a 
 
 dangerously resisting Whale . . . 144 
 
 7. Remarkable Enterprise : the nearest Approach 
 
 to the North Pole • 152 
 
 S. Devotional Habits, at Sea and on Shore . .164 
 
 Chapter V. — Further Enterprises: general Results, 171 
 Sect. 1. The Greenock Whale-fishing Company . . 171 
 
 2. "Cum au greim a gheibhthu " . . . . .174 
 
 3. Subsequent and concluding Enterprises . .178 
 
 4. General Results of his entire Whale-fishing 
 
 Adventures . . . . . .185 
 
 5. Unusual Capture of Walruses . . . .189 
 
 Chapter VI — General Characteristics, and M 
 laneous Notices ..... 
 
 Sect. 1. Superiority as an Arctic Navigator . 
 
 2. Natural Science .... 
 
 3. Improvements and Inventions . 
 
 4. Miscellaneous and concluding Notices 
 
 scel- 
 
 195 
 195 
 203 
 215 
 224 
 
MEMORIALS OF THE SEA. 
 
 MS tfafytx. 
 
 B 
 
MY FATHER. 
 
 Chapter I. 
 
 EARLY LIFE AND PROGRESS AS A SEAMAN. 
 
 Section I. — My Father's early Life. 
 
 The name of Scoresby, it is believed, is entirely 
 unknown, in this country, except in the case of the 
 family, and one or two relations, of the subject of 
 the present records. 
 
 My Father's " more immediate ancestors," as a 
 short biographical account of him by a friend, states,* 
 "occupied respectable stations in the middle walks 
 of life, supporting, in each case, unblemished charac- 
 ter, and possessing, at times, considerable property;" 
 and, in periods rather remote, holding conspicuous 
 stations. 
 
 In Drake's History of York, the family name, 
 varying in the spelling in a progress through several 
 centuries, repeatedly occurs. But the single line 
 traceable through my Father's ancestors, now alone 
 appears to exist in Britain. Walter cle Scourby was 
 
 * " Memoir of William Scoresby, Esq." by tbe late Mr. Samuel Drew, 
 in the "Imperial Magazine," for 1822. 
 
4 MY FATHER. 
 
 "bayliffe of York," in the year 1312; and in the 
 seventh and ninth years of Edward III., Nicholas 
 de Scoreby, it appears, was Member for York. Sub- 
 sequently, we find, under the date of 1463, Thomas 
 Scawsby, holding the office of Lord Mayor of that 
 city. Some member of the family, after the name 
 assumed its present form, must have given the desig- 
 nation of "Scoresby Manor" and "Scoresby Lodge," 
 to places still known in the neighbourhood of York. 
 
 At the period, however, of this memoir, the family 
 occupied more humble stations in life, chiefly in the 
 class of yeomen, — a class once of much importance 
 in this country, but now, unhappily, so diminished in 
 numbers, under the absorbing influence of extensive 
 properties, as to be scarcely recognised as a designa- 
 tion. 
 
 William Scoresby, my Father, 'was born on the 3d 
 of May 1760, on a small estate farmed by his parent, 
 called Nutholm, in the township of Cropton, about 
 twenty miles south-west of Whitby, in the county of 
 York. In this place the periods of his childhood 
 and boyhood were spent.' 
 
 The memoir, here again quoted, refers to some in- 
 cidents among his earliest recollections, by which his 
 life was greatly imperilled, marking 'the superintend- 
 ing providence of God, which, on all occasions, he 
 gratefully acknowledged.' 
 
 At an endowed school, in the nearest adjoining vil- 
 lage, Cropton, his early, and indeed chief, education 
 was received. But the distance being considerable, 
 
EARLY LIFE AND PROGRESS. 5 
 
 and the roads indifferent, his attendance was much 
 interrupted, and, in winter, totally suspended. His 
 progress, therefore, was far from being satisfactory. 
 Nor was this disadvantage compensated by any long 
 continuance of opportunities for obtaining scholastic 
 instruction; for, at the age of nine, he was removed, 
 and from that time forward employed, as his strength 
 and years might qualify him, in occupations among 
 the cattle, and about the farm. 
 
 Occasionally, during his advance towards manhood, 
 he was engaged with the neighbouring farmers, when, 
 during such occupation, an incident, of apparently 
 no material importance, occurred, which constituted, 
 under the ordering of an allwise and gracious Provi- 
 dence, the grand turning-point in his destiny, from 
 a probable ordinary and unobserved occupation, to 
 a stirring, adventurous and conspicuous life. The 
 change was induced by some unpleasant treatment he 
 received from the family with whom he was residing. 
 He became disgusted with a position which, without 
 satisfying the natural capabilities and enterprise of 
 his mind, exposed him to such indignities. The idea 
 had, probably, been often in his mind before; but he 
 now first resolved on leaving the occupation for 
 which his father had destined him, and on trying at 
 the nearest sea-port, Whitby, the adventure of a sea- 
 faring life. 
 
 It is somewhat curious that the course of life, in 
 respect to the adoption of a seafaring profession, of 
 two individuals, — Captain Cook and my Father, — 
 
6 MY FATHER. 
 
 whose names are associated with much of interest in 
 the history of Whitby, and who became, in their rela- 
 tive degrees, conspicuous as adventurous seamen, — 
 turned upon apparently trifling incidents; and, as to 
 the exciting of feelings of disgust with their previous 
 occupations, of a similar character. 
 
 James Cook, like my Father, was, in early youth, 
 employed along with his father, in agricultural 
 labours.* His turn of mind, however, being suited to 
 something requiring more tact than the ordinary toils 
 in which farmers' boys were wont to be engaged, 
 he was removed from the work of the field to that of 
 the counter, with the view of learning the business of 
 a country shopkeeper. It was at the fishing town of 
 Staiths, about ten miles north-west of Whitby, and 
 at the shop of a Mr. W. Sanderson, haberdasher, 
 where Cook, at the age of sixteen or seventeen, 
 entered on his new employment; and it was whilst 
 there that the incident, which led to his abandonment 
 of domestic trade for sea-life, occurred. 
 
 It happened, as the early record goes, that, at a 
 period when the coinage generally in circulation was 
 much defaced and worn, a new and fresh looking 
 shilling was paid in by a customer. Cook, attracted 
 by the comparative beauty of the coin, and thinking 
 with regret of its going forth again in the ordinary 
 progress of business, substituted the sterling value, 
 and appropriated the new coin, as "a pocket-piece," 
 to himself. It was ill-advised that he did so without 
 
 * Life of Captain James Cook, by the Rev. G. Young, of Whitby. 
 
EARLY LIFE AND PROGRESS. I 
 
 previously asking permission or intimating his pur- 
 pose; for the shilling had been observed by his 
 master, its abstraction was detected, and Cook was 
 suspected and charged with dishonesty, — a charge 
 which the production of the shilling from his pocket 
 seemed to confirm. His keen sense of right feeling, 
 and of what was due to himself, rendered this incident 
 so painful, that he determined, if he could get 
 permission to do so, to leave his employment, as a 
 shopkeeper, and, indulging a strongly imbibed pre- 
 possession, turn to the sea. The unmerited suffering 
 was abundantly compensated by that good and 
 gracious Providence, whose dispensations reach to 
 the humblest, and specially regards the oppressed. 
 The young shopkeeper — turned apparently by this 
 fretful incident from his monotonous pursuits, and 
 stimulated to seek an adventurous profession, and not 
 opposed, but kindly aided, by his master, who had 
 become perfectly satisfied of his integrity — was led 
 into those paths of distinction whereby he became so 
 highly conspicuous, if not chief among the circum- 
 navigators of the globe! 
 
 "It is worthy of remark," says Dr. Young, in his 
 life of Cook, "that the coin which so forcibly attracted 
 his notice was what is called a South-sea shilling, of 
 the coinage of George I., marked on the reverse 
 s.s.c., for South-sea Company ; as if the name of the 
 piece had been intended to indicate the principal 
 fields of his future discoveries." 
 
 If the result of disgust at his experienced indignity 
 
8 MY FATHER. 
 
 turned not to account, with my Father, in so eminent 
 a degree, — it yet was so over-ruled for good as to 
 place him at the head of the adventurers engaged in 
 the whale-fishery of the Greenland seas, and to render 
 his example, perseverance, and talent, highly bene- 
 ficial to his country in the furtherance of that, then, 
 extremely important branch of national enterprise. 
 
 It was in the winter of 1779-80, that my Father 
 proceeded to carry his resolve into effect, by leaving 
 his place and travelling to Whitby. Guided by 
 the suggestions of a relative, to whom he had com- 
 municated his intentions, he was recommended to 
 Mr. Chapman, — an opulent and respectable ship- 
 owner, and a member of the Society of Friends, — 
 with whom he engaged himself to serve as an appren- 
 tice, for three years, in a ship called the Jane, com- 
 manded by a son of the owner. 
 
 As his services, however, were not required till the 
 ensuing spring, — because of the practice, as to ships 
 trading to the Baltic and Archangel, "of laying them 
 up" for the winter, — he returned immediately home, 
 informed his father of what he had done, and then, 
 at his suggestion, went back to the farm he had some- 
 what abruptly left, and there remained until his place 
 could be satisfactorily supplied. This being speedily 
 accomplished, he set himself arduously to work to the 
 studying, by the help of whatever suitable books he 
 could get hold of, of the subjects connected with his 
 new profession. 
 
 On the 1st of February 1780, according to previous 
 
EARLY LIFE AND ADVENTURE. \) 
 
 arrangement, he repaired to Whitby for the ratifica- 
 tion of his agreement, and for receiving directions as 
 to when and how his services would be required. His 
 anxiety on this occasion, to proceed with his studies 
 in the manner in which he found himself making- 
 gradual and encouraging progress, led him at once 
 into an adventure of much peril, and into circum- 
 stances in which his acquirements in the principles 
 of navigation had their first, yet most successful and 
 important, application. 
 
 Finding that his services would not be required 
 until the month of April, he determined, being full of 
 ardour for self-improvement, not to lose a single day; 
 so that, although the afternoon had arrived before 
 he finished his arrangements with Mr. Chapman, he 
 set out on his pedestrian course towards the Moors, 
 intending to sleep at the village of Sleights. Urged, 
 however, by his feelings, and tempted by the fineness 
 of the evening, and the brilliant sunset, by which the 
 distant hills (then covered with snow) were illumined 
 and gilded, he resolved on proceeding to Salter Gate, 
 a position, in the midst of the Moors, eight miles 
 further in advance, and attainable only by a not very 
 well-defined line of road across a heath-clad and 
 totally uninhabited country. It was a region, there- 
 fore, of complete desolateness, through which he 
 prepared to pass, and, on occasions of snow-storms, 
 one of great danger to any travellers who might be 
 unfortunately overtaken by them whilst in the midst of 
 the Moors; — for, at the period of which we now 
 
 b2 
 
10 MY FATHER. 
 
 write, there were neither fences to confine, nor poles 
 (as in subsequent years were erected) to mark, the 
 line of road, so that an hour's continuance of thick 
 drifting snow might totally obliterate, in many places, 
 the distinctions betwixt the highway and the general 
 trackless heath. Hence it happened, that scarcely a 
 winter passed over without yielding the records of 
 perilous or fatal adventures; and, whenever snow- 
 storms abounded, of travellers, more or less in 
 number, perishing by being overwhelmed in the 
 snow-drifts. 
 
 It was not long before our traveller, advancing 
 rapidly with vigorous and elastic step within the 
 region of lonesome moorland, became aware that he 
 had entered upon a critical adventure; for having 
 arrived near the sixth milestone on the high-moors 
 over Whitby, he became unexpectedly encircled by 
 a dense and gloomy cloud, attended with a sudden 
 and furious storm of wind and fleecy snow, the snow 
 descending so thick as to envelope him in such dark 
 obscurity, that, for some little time, he could neither 
 see his way to advance nor to return. 
 
 Recovering somewhat from his first embarrassment, 
 and considering what might be well to be done, he 
 determined, adventurous as the attempt might be, to 
 go forward toward Salter Gate, yet six miles distant, 
 and not a house on the road. He had made but little 
 progress, however, in advance, before he found he 
 had gone off the turnpike-road; nor did his first 
 attempt, as by a nautical traverse, seem to improve his 
 
AN EARLY ADVENTURE. 11 
 
 situation. When brought to a stand in this perplexing 
 condition, it was, that his naturally reflective mind sug- 
 gested an use of his humble geometrical acquirements, 
 which afforded him essential service. He had ob- 
 served how the wind first assailed him, with reference 
 to the direction of the line of road, which, fortunately 
 for him, like the roads of ancient construction, gene- 
 rally, followed a steeple-chase directness, regardless of 
 hill or dale, for the point aimed at; and by adjusting 
 his progress on the same angle, in respect to the course 
 of the wind, he hoped to be guided in his now perilous 
 undertaking. " Taking his departure " from this in- 
 cidental starting-point, he set forward with as much 
 speed as the nature of the ground and the resistance 
 of the storm could well admit, and, proceeding in a 
 straight direction, over hill and dale, through moor 
 and bog, he accomplished another mile, and that so 
 successfully as to reach its termination, to his great 
 satisfaction, scarcely twenty yards from the seventh 
 milestone. Encouraged by this success, he now ad- 
 vanced, in spite of storm and blinding snow-drift, and 
 under painfully reduced strength, approaching at the 
 last very near to exhaustion, until his enterprise and 
 tact were happily rewarded by arriving at Salter Gate, 
 where, in the house for which he originally aimed, he 
 was enabled to obtain both shelter and refreshment. 
 The rest of the enterprise, after encountering various 
 difficulties, from the continuance of the snow on the 
 ground, was in like manner accomplished, so that with 
 no great loss of time he was welcomed in safety at his 
 father's house. 
 
12 MY FATHER. 
 
 During this arduous and hazardous journey, as his 
 biographer remarks, "he proved the value and accuracy 
 of his geometry whilst traversing the high-moors, the 
 importance of perseverance, and the gracious care of 
 Divine Providence/' 
 
 Section II. — His first year's Apprenticeship. 
 
 In the quiet of a country home, my Father now 
 resumed those studies which bore more immediately 
 upon the profession he had chosen, and perseveringly 
 continued them till the time appointed, the middle of 
 March, for his joining his ship. His preparations to- 
 wards the supplying of his maritime costume and 
 equipment being already made, he repaired to Whitby, 
 and was duly set to work, with others of the destined 
 crew, to rig and fit out the ship. Towards the end of 
 the month the arrangements were so far advanced, that 
 she was hauled down the harbour into a berth conve- 
 nient for putting to sea. But whilst here a hard gale 
 set in from the north, which brought so heavy a sea 
 into the harbour that the Jane was in danger of break- 
 ing adrift. This circumstance called for the prompt 
 and active exertions of the crew to get out cables and 
 hawsers for additional security, an occasion on which 
 my Father received his first lesson on mooring a ship, 
 — a lesson which could not be lost upon one who 
 associated with great physical strength and energy so 
 observant and reflective a mind. 
 
 Early in the month of April, the weather proving 
 
FIRST SEA-SERVICE. 13 
 
 favourable whilst the spring-tides prevailed, the Jane 
 put to sea, and for a time made pleasant progress. 
 Nearing the Naze of Norway, however, they were 
 overtaken at night, and that suddenly, by a heavy gale 
 of wind, which in its effect was in no small degree 
 alarming, and from the quality of the crew, indeed, 
 twelve out of about twenty hands being apprentices, 
 some mere lads, and several quite inexperienced, emi- 
 nently perilous, — for the ship being lightly ballasted, 
 was quickly thrown upon her " beam-ends," the water 
 rising over the lee gunwale till it reached the "comb- 
 ings of the hatches," whilst the requisite measures, 
 demanding instantaneous promptness, were seriously 
 delayed by the general inaptitude of the crew. They 
 were enabled, however, in time to save them from the 
 threatened foundering, to get the sails clewed up, 
 whereon the ship righted, though the sails were left 
 fluttering, the sport and prey of the storm, until the 
 morning. The gale then happily abating, and veering 
 to a favourable quarter, the canvas, as far as preserved 
 to them, which so recently had threatened their de- 
 struction, became available for the furtherance of their 
 voyage, and enabled them without further adventure 
 to reach Memel, the port of their destination. 
 
 But when outward danger had been safely passed, 
 and nothing but a feeling of perfect security could 
 naturally be realized, the object of this memorial be- 
 came sensibly alive to the impressiveness of the solemn 
 sentiment of our Church's funeral service — " In the 
 midst of life we are in death ! " The ballast had been 
 
14 MY FATHER. 
 
 taken out, and the hold and 'tween-decks cleared to 
 make Avay for the cargo, when my Father, being 
 below, near a " raft-port," — an opening at the bow or 
 stern by which a timber cargo is received into the 
 hold, — heard the voice of the Captain calling for a boat's 
 crew to put him on shore. There being no deck now 
 laid upon the hold-beams, but only a series of " car- 
 lings " from beam to beam, the summons was attempted 
 to be answered by running along these very narrow 
 supports. Ill directed, however, by the very decep- 
 tive light admitted by the raft-port, my Father's head 
 came in contact with an unobserved break in the upper 
 deck, by which he was precipitated into the hold, a 
 depth of about twelve feet, and was taken up by his 
 comrades in a state of insensibility. In this alarming 
 condition he remained for several hours, being mean- 
 while carried for surgical assistance on shore. 
 
 He was but barely passed out of the immediate 
 hands of the surgeon, who contemplated his case 
 hopefully, when the carpenter of the Jane was borne 
 to the same place, having also fallen into the hold in 
 a similar way, with an adze in his hand, a fearful cut 
 from which in his forehead added to the severe effects 
 of so considerable a fall. 
 
 Under careful and skilful assistance, however, both 
 the endangered sufferers were soon restored, being 
 enabled to return to the ship in about eight days' 
 time, — the carpenter, indeed, with his wound but im- 
 perfectly healed, and with a long and conspicuous 
 scar which might have been admonitory for the rest 
 
SHORE ADVENTURE. 15 
 
 of his days. The lesson to my Father had not been 
 forgotten when, near half a century after, on recurring 
 to the adventure, he remarked, " This was another 
 kind interposition of Providence which has a claim on 
 my grateful homage." 
 
 Their cargo of timber being completed, they im- 
 mediately sailed from Memel, and joining convoy at 
 Elsinore, safely reached the Thames, whither their 
 cargo was destined. 
 
 Whilst the ship was lying at Limehouse, my Father 
 and another of the apprentices obtained leave, on a 
 Sunday, to go on shore and visit the great Metropolis, 
 where they met with another, and to them a pre- 
 viously unknown, species of adventure. On reaching 
 the city they were accosted by a man dressed in 
 regimentals (apparently a serjeant), who, pretending 
 that he was a Yorkshireman and knew them, contrived 
 to insinuate himself into their confidence, and offered 
 to guide them in their object of sight-seeing, remark- 
 ing particularly that they had a fine opportunity of 
 seeing the King, who was about to attend a general 
 review in Hyde Park. Catching at a suggestion so 
 naturally pleasant, they, without an idea of mistrust, 
 put themselves under his, apparently, friendly guid- 
 ance, and proceeded in the direction of the Park. On 
 reaching Temple Bar he invited them to accompany 
 him into an eating-house, where he ordered refresh- 
 ments. 
 
 But the landlady, on making her appearance — a 
 respectable and benevolent person, as they subse- 
 
16 MY FATHER. 
 
 quently had good reason to know — observed and sur- 
 veyed the little party with a very unusual kind of 
 scrutiny, first looking the soldier sternly in the face, 
 and then, with an expression relaxed into compassion, 
 turned her gaze on his youthful and obviously too 
 confiding associates. Repeating her scrutiny of their 
 pretended friend till assured of his identity, she ad- 
 dressed him with an air of stern authority, and com- 
 manded him to leave the house. The man affecting 
 surprise, and 'presuming that she must have mistaken 
 him,' endeavoured, by a well-practised self-possession, 
 to avoid the threatened defeat of his insidious pur- 
 pose. But she, persisting in her knowledge and 
 accusation of him, and threatening to call in a con- 
 stable to her aid, succeeded in causing him to feel 
 that it might be for his safety to take himself off. 
 
 On his departure she turned to the wondering young 
 sailors, and to this effect addressed them:— "I per- 
 ceive, young men, you are from the country, and are 
 strangers in London. I am from the country myself, 
 but I know that man to be a villain. Not long since 
 he stole some articles from this very house, and I am 
 fully assured he will wait for you to get you trepanned; 
 you shall therefore not leave my house this night." 
 
 They accordingly remained her guests till the morn- 
 ing, when she allowed them to depart for their ship; 
 but on offering her compensation for her kindness, she 
 refused to take anything more than was barely suffi- 
 cient to pay for their moderate refreshments. 
 
 "This act of generous friendship," remarks the 
 
SECOND VOYAGE. 17 
 
 writer of the Memoir, iC deserves to be recorded on 
 three accounts: first, for the honour of our common 
 nature ; secondly, to be contrasted with the villany of 
 the pretended soldier ; and thirdly, to illustrate the 
 watchful Providence of God." 
 
 Having delivered their cargo at Limehouse, and 
 taken in ballast, they sailed on their second voyage, 
 to St. Petersburgh, for a cargo of hemp and iron. 
 Here they were unfortunately caught in the formation 
 of ice, with but little expectation of escaping during 
 the winter. But on the 4th of November, a gale from 
 the eastward having broken up the impeding ice, they 
 immediately sailed, and in four days reached Elsinore, 
 where they expected to join convoy for England. All 
 the men-of-war from home, however, having sailed, 
 they joined a fleet of similarly unprotected ships, num- 
 bering altogether six-and-twenty sail, and together 
 proceeded for England. About half-way across the 
 German ocean, they proved the advantage of their 
 mutual association for defence, a large cutter privateer 
 having hove in sight, and attacked the rear of the 
 fleet. For a considerable time the enemy's fire was 
 directed from a respectful distance against the nearest 
 ships, which they, according to their proportion of 
 armament, as actively returned, — so actively, indeed, 
 that, in their ill-provided warlike stores, they soon 
 expended the greater part of their ammunition. The 
 enemy, however, ignorant of this circumstance, and 
 unable to detach any single vessel, kept aloof, proba- 
 
18 
 
 MY FATHER. 
 
 bly for the chance of the night; but the night proved 
 dark, and afforded them a screen from the prowler, 
 and they all escaped unscathed into port. 
 
 They reached Portsmouth, their new destination, 
 about the middle of December, and delivered their 
 cargo among the naval stores of the King's Yard. 
 
 During the discharging of the cargo, my Father 
 received vexatious abuse, without any provocation on 
 his part, from the chief-mate of the ship, which so 
 annoyed him that, under the impulse of a strongly 
 excited feeling, he had resolved to quit the Jane, and 
 enter on board His Majesty's ship the Royal George, 
 just then passing them from the graving-dock, where 
 she had been undergoing repairs. But reflecting on 
 something which, in the bustle and confusion amongst 
 her crew as she hauled away, he had observed incon- 
 gruous with his feelings, he happily paused in his 
 hasty resolve, and ultimately decided on submitting 
 himself to a continuance, though under the constant 
 exposure to like arbitrary annoyance, of the duties of 
 his humble station, with a view to the fulfilment of 
 the engagement he had entered into with the owner 
 of the Jane. And, as estimated by the probability of 
 his being involved in the disaster of that ill-fated ship, 
 had he entered on board of her, the decision appeared 
 to be Providentially guided ; for at no long interval 
 after this time it was that the Royal George came to 
 her end so strangely, as to place the catastrophe alone 
 and without parallel, amid the varied and marvellous 
 records of our naval history. The story is well known. 
 
CATASTROPHE OF THE ROYAL GEORGE. 19 
 
 She was " careening," for the purpose of having some 
 caulking of her seams effected, or damage of her cop- 
 per sheathing repaired, whilst anchored at Spithead, 
 with her lower-deck ports open in all imaginable 
 safety. A sudden squall, whilst the ship swung across 
 the tide, laid her on her beam-ends ; the water poured 
 in by the open ports in such force and quantity, that 
 she sunk in less than eight minutes, involving officers, 
 men, and visitors, so generally in the common cata- 
 strophe, that out of about 1200 souls, or upward, on 
 board, only 331 escaped alive ! The brave Admiral 
 Kempenfelt, an experienced and accomplished navi- 
 gator, who, through many perils of war and tempest 
 had passed unscathed, suffered among the rest, a fate 
 which, very probably, had been that of my Father, 
 had he carried out his impetuously-formed design. 
 But, with the good hand of God upon him, he 
 escaped the then unimagined peril. 
 
 On the laying up of the Jane for the winter, the 
 seamen, as usual, were discharged, and the appren- 
 tices sent by a coasting vessel passengers to Whitby. 
 My Father repaired to his country home for the in- 
 terval of service, until summoned again to London, in 
 the early spring of 1781, to join his ship on her being 
 chartered for a voyage to Riga, for a cargo of deals 
 for the Government. 
 
20 MY FATHER. 
 
 Section III. — His Progress as a Seaman, with 
 Incidents of Sea-Life. 
 
 Entering the sea-service as a profession or busi- 
 ness, as an unaided adventurer, my Father felt, and 
 ever acted on the feeling, that, under the blessing of 
 Providence, to which he distinctly looked, he must be 
 the fabricator of his own fortune. To learn his pro- 
 fession, from the very elements of a seaman's duty to 
 its most manly and skilful perfection ; to acquire a 
 knowledge of navigation, of which he had anticipated 
 but little, and to extend that knowledge to the highest 
 style of seamanship, — constituted the scheme and aspi- 
 ration of his naturally vigorous and enterprising mind. 
 
 But in beginning, as a country lad, at the begin- 
 ning, with nothing of position, or education, or in- 
 fluence, to raise him above the common and ordinary 
 class of learners in the school of maritime practice, he 
 met with no small difficulty in raising himself, as his 
 purpose was to do, in character and pursuits, above 
 his fellows. His habit was — as soon as raw inex- 
 perience enabled him to form a habit — to spend his 
 leisure time, when not on watch, aloof from the galley- 
 congregation of idle, and often profane, companions. 
 And instead of following the useless and time-wasting 
 practices of those around him, his habit was, as 
 opportunity offered, to endeavour, by the help of a 
 few appropriate books, to carry out his former humble 
 acquirements in figures into the really practical "work- 
 ing of a day's work," and " the keeping of the ship's 
 
INCIDENT. 21 
 
 reckoning." Nor, in the ordinary "watch," did he 
 associate intimately with the general body of the crew, 
 preferring, unless he could find a somewhat like- 
 minded aspirant after a better position, to walk alone 
 on the main-deck or forecastle, holding companionship 
 only with his own thoughts. 
 
 Two incidents, in connection with this period of my 
 Father's personal history, are fresh in my recollection, 
 — one of them illustrative of his difficult position in 
 refusing familiar association with his fellow mariners; 
 the other illustrative of his success in the acquisition 
 of nautical knowledge, by his own persevering and 
 unaided application. 
 
 A marked degree of ill-will, on the part of several 
 of the crew in one of his early voyages, followed his 
 prevailing separation from familiar association with 
 them. This was exhibited by innumerable tokens 
 and expressions, both in word and action. Jeers, in- 
 sinuations and ridicule, were indulged in with painful 
 and increasing frequency, and these not unmixed with 
 contemptuous or offensive actions. Naturally spirited 
 and quick-tempered, as the subject of this ungenerous 
 behaviour was constitutionally, it was hard to restrain 
 the expression of indignation, or to resist the urgent 
 impulse to a just retaliation. But, acting on the sys- 
 tem of non-retaliation, so long as they kept " hands 
 off," he bore this persecution with extraordinary for- 
 bearance. For constitutionally strong and energetic, 
 few would have been able to compete with him, as the 
 issue proved, if the lion in him were roused. His 
 
22 MY FATHEK. 
 
 height was now near six feet ; his frame was strong- 
 boned and muscular; his vigour and activity were 
 unusually great. But he restrained himself to the 
 utmost, and his great strength, as to the perceptions 
 of his associates, continued long unknown. 
 
 At length the time of resistance, which he could 
 not but feel must some time or other arrive, came. 
 It happened in this way. My Father had descended 
 the deck after his watch, and with the view, I believe, 
 of retiring, as usual, to a quiet part of the vessel alone, 
 when two of the crew made on him a premeditated 
 attack — a kind of half-joking assault by no trifling 
 hits, rudely grasping him at the same moment, one on 
 each side. Endeavouring to shake them off without 
 coming to extremities, he quietly requested them to 
 desist. Their sinister defiance and rudeness in grap- 
 pling him increased in offensiveness. " You had better 
 be quiet;" "Do be quiet;" "Let me alone;" and 
 other peace-desiring solicitations of like kind, were 
 tried. But the attack and effort to throw him became 
 more determined. At length, after a firm and decided 
 utterance to the command "Hands off!" indicating 
 that the spirit was up, the attacked party in his turn 
 grappled the necks of his assailants, one with each 
 hand, and, taking advantage of the muscular reaction, 
 after they had made a simultaneous but ineffective 
 thrust against him, he flung them, by a Samson-like 
 impulse, right and left, and both of them fell, heavily, 
 prostrate on the deck ! So unawares was the throw, 
 and so totally unsustained by cautionary preparation, 
 
 i 
 
incident: retribution. 23 
 
 that, as to one of them, the subject of this self-earned 
 retribution, lay motionless, insensible, and bleeding ! 
 Others of the crew who had noticed the scuffle came 
 up, and seeing the man lie so helpless, and apparently 
 inanimate, exclaimed, "He is dead! Scoresby has 
 clone for him!" Happily, the catastrophe was not so 
 serious. By and by there was a return of motion, 
 and obvious reflux of life; but when at length the 
 prostrate had, with much difficulty, gathered himself 
 up, he contrived to stagger meekly enough away, 
 without noticing the author of his humiliation, or ever 
 after attempting either a renewal of his bravadoes, or 
 a retaliation for his severe punishment. 
 
 It is hardly needful to say that, from that time, my 
 Father was allowed to pursue his own way without 
 further molestation or offensive remark ; and that the 
 respect which seamen are generally ready to yield to 
 true bravery and superior skill was as generously be- 
 stowed by the right-minded of the crew, at least, as 
 the fine and successful effort of the unfairly assaulted 
 one deserved. 
 
 The other incident was of a totally different cha- 
 racter. 
 
 My Father had early discovered, on his studying 
 out the rules and practice of navigation, as set forth 
 in the comparatively humble nautical works of that 
 period, that there was much that was gratuitous, or 
 arbitrary and uncertain, in the allowances and correc- 
 tions proposed to be made on the " ship's log." On 
 
24 MY FATHER. 
 
 these things he made his own observations, and, in 
 calculating the ship's position, which he was now 
 tolerably well able to accomplish, he made his own 
 corrections, instead of those marked on the " log- 
 board" by the officer of the watch. His position, in 
 consequence, often differed very materially from the 
 ordinary reckoning, as well as from that kept by one 
 of his associates among the apprentices, who, like him- 
 self, was anxious for advancement in his profession. 
 
 At the time referred to he was in progress of his 
 third voyage in the Jane, when, having taken in their 
 cargo of spars for masts, at Riga, they were on their 
 return towards Elsinore. 
 
 On the third day after their departure from Riga, 
 a little after twelve at noon, — the wind being easterly 
 and the weather foggy, and the ship under studding- 
 sails, making a progress of about five knots, — the two 
 young navigators finished the day's reckoning, and 
 then proceeded to compare the results. The position 
 of the ship, as calculated simply from the register on 
 the log-board, necessarily differed from that deduced 
 from the same data on which the judgment had been 
 exercised, and various allowances and alterations made. 
 Observing the nature of the difference, which amounted 
 to several miles, the intelligent youth exclaimed, 
 "Why, by your account, we are just running down 
 Bornholm; but my journal is the same as the ship's, 
 and we are going round to the northward of the 
 island." The question being discussed with consi- 
 derable animation betwixt them, it excited observation 
 
EARLY TALENTS: SHIP SAVED. 25 
 
 among the crew, and reached the ears of the Captain. 
 A sharp look-out for land was ordered, when, in 
 brief space, the look-out on the forecastle shouted 
 " Breakers a-head ! " " Put down the helm — Let go the 
 anchor!" cried the Captain. The manoeuvre was just 
 in time to save the ship from destruction. "When she 
 swung to her anchor it was in four-and-a-half fathoms 
 water ; the breakers were close by the stern, and the 
 stern not above twenty fathoms from the shore, — and 
 the shore, as had been predicted, was that of the 
 island of Bornholm ! 
 
 The weather soon cleared up, when they found 
 themselves in a sandy bay on the south-east side of 
 the island. The sea not being considerable they soon 
 got under weigh, and sailing round the island to the 
 southward, they reached Elsinore the next day. "It 
 was to this private reckoning kept by Mr. Scoresby," 
 observes the writer of the Memoir of which I have 
 here and elsewhere availed myself, " and the debate 
 to which it led, that the preservation of the ship and 
 cargo may evidently be ascribed." 
 
 " The reward which Mr. Scoresby received for this 
 piece of essential service was such," adds the bio- 
 grapher, " as the deserving too frequently obtain from 
 their superiors in office, who feel themselves insulted 
 when their deficiencies are exposed by the efforts of 
 their superiors in merit. The preservation of the ship 
 and cargo," by the superiority of a mere tyro in sea- 
 manship — a young apprentice, "drew upon him, espe- 
 cially, the envy of the mate, who, it will be remem- 
 
 c 
 
26 MY FATHER. 
 
 bered, had aforetime shown a painful measure of ill- 
 will, and the disapprobation of some of the inferior 
 officers. These ungenerous influences, in their com- 
 bined effect, rendered his situation so uncomfortable 
 that, on reaching the Thames, he left the ship, and 
 engaged in an Ordnance-armed storeship, the Speed- 
 well cutter, destined to carry out stores to Gibraltar." 
 This step, which it is to be apprehended had not 
 the sanction of the parties to whom he was appren- 
 ticed, was attended with consequences which, with one 
 whose mind was early directed to regard a Providen- 
 tial hand perpetually engaged in guiding, controlling, 
 or, for merciful ends, rebuking the affairs of man, 
 could hardly fail to be impressive, and to yield salu- 
 tary convictions of the error into which a manly indig- 
 nation at ungenerous usage and jealous antipathy had 
 urged him. 
 
 Section IV. — Capture by the Enemy, and Escape 
 from a Spanish Prison. 
 
 The Speedwell was soon equipped, and, the ser- 
 vice being urgent, — the relief of the garrison at 
 Gibraltar, — with all haste got to sea. But admirably 
 as this fast-sailing cutter was adapted for a service 
 requiring all possible despatch, the weather proved 
 very unfavourable for making a satisfactory, much less 
 a rapid, progress. 
 
 The delay was additionally trying to those on 
 board the cutter, from the deprivations in which the 
 
CAPTURED BY THE SPANIARDS. 27 
 
 unexpected length of the voyage, by reason of calms 
 and adverse winds, involved them. For, economical 
 of room for the requisite stores whilst on the passage 
 to the Straits, the Speedwell was sent out so inade- 
 quately supplied with water, that the crew were 
 reduced to a distressingly short allowance. 
 
 This incident, however, afforded occasion and oppor- 
 tunity for the development of my Father's peculiar 
 acuteness of intellect, and the exercise of his natural 
 science. "Whilst suffering greatly from thirst, the 
 idea occurred to him that some refreshment might 
 possibly be derived through the medium of the pores 
 of the skin by bathing — an idea which the calmness 
 of the weather enabled him to put to the test and 
 satisfactorily to verify. For on undressing and taking 
 a rope for his security, and jumping overboard, he 
 realized, even beyond his expectations, a decidedly 
 refreshing influence — such as, under his report, to 
 induce most of the officers and crew not only to try 
 the same experiment, but to render it a prevailing 
 practice, whenever the state of the weather would 
 permit. 
 
 But a new incident soon substituted for this another 
 species of deprivation and suffering. They had 
 advanced within sight of the Spanish coast, when, on 
 the*26th of October 1781, being off Cape Trafalgar, 
 they fell in with a force so overwhelmingly superior, 
 as to render resistance useless. The cutter became a 
 prize to the enemy, and my Father, with his asso- 
 ciates, prisoners of war. They were taken into Cadiz 
 
28 MY FATHER. 
 
 Bay, and he, with some others, were marched into 
 the interior of the country, to St. Lucar la Major, 
 a small town of Andalusia, seated on the river 
 Guadiana, a tributary of the Quadalquiver. 
 
 Here, they were not ungenerously treated; whilst 
 the rigour of imprisonment, as at first practised, be- 
 came gradually relaxed under the imagined security 
 of the captives. The degree of liberty, indeed, after 
 awhile became such, that the prisoners were entrusted 
 to go unguarded, to some distance from their quarters, 
 to fetch water. In this indulgence my Father saw 
 a chance of escape, which, being participated in by 
 one of his associates, a spirited young sailor and 
 friend, they privately conferred thereon, and ulti- 
 mately arranged to encounter the difficulties and 
 risks of the adventure. 
 
 Availing themselves of an occasion when various 
 circumstances gave favour to the experiment, they 
 proceeded, in their usual manner, to the place where 
 water was procured; and, finding themselves un- 
 observed, they walked away, as if incidently strolling 
 about, until they had obtained shelter, I believe, 
 from a wood. Here they pushed rapidly on, dropping 
 their water-vessels in a place of concealment, until 
 having made what they deemed a sufficient progress 
 to baffle an ordinary pursuit, they hid themselves for 
 the remainder of the day. Then, with the stars only 
 for their guidance, they travelled, as by a steeple- 
 chase route, throughout the night towards the coast. 
 This, indeed, became their prevalent plan of pro- 
 
ESCAPE FROM A SPANISH PRISON. 29 
 
 ceeding, to rest in some concealment by day, and to 
 travel by night. 
 
 Their progress proved, indeed, fully as adventurous, 
 consistently with their safety, as the liveliest imagina- 
 tion could have pictured. The perils and difficulties 
 they encountered from native Spaniards, or from the 
 pursuit of troops sent after them ; from their imperfect 
 concealment during the day, or critical exposure in 
 their progress during the night ; from the applications 
 which they were necessitated to make on the generosity 
 of the enemies of their country for relief and suste- 
 nance, — for they had been deprived of everything they 
 possessed except two little bundles of clothing which, 
 in contemplation of the adventure, they had previously 
 concealed beyond their prison ; from their suspicious 
 appearance in the dress, and with the language of 
 foreigners, inducing attempts to give them up to the 
 public authorities ; with the aid and consolations, on 
 the other hand, which they occasionally met with from 
 the sympathies of the gentler sex, even whilst others 
 were seeking their recapture, — yielded altogether a 
 series of exciting and anxious incidents, which, if the 
 particulars could be thoroughly recalled, might afford 
 materials for a history of really romantic interest. 
 The fact of kind and generous sympathy, and effective 
 aid from women, I well remember as constituting a 
 touching element in the relation of their perilous 
 undertaking. As Mungo Park, in his varied and 
 perilous travels, ever found kindness, in the instinct 
 of a sympathising nature, from women, savage though 
 
30 MY FATHER. 
 
 their race might be, so did my Father and his associate 
 realize, among the Spanish peasants, the like expe- 
 rience. Once, in particular, I remember its being 
 stated, that when our adventurers had confided them- 
 selves to the supposed friendly shelter of a cottage, 
 the master of the cottage stepped away, in order to 
 give information about the fugitives at some neigh- 
 bouring magisterial or military post, whilst his wife, 
 compassionating the proscribed strangers in a foreign 
 land, meanwhile contrived to give them a secret 
 warning of their peril, and at the same time to provide 
 the means, by the back of the cottage, for their prompt 
 and effectual escape. 
 
 The remainder of the story, so far as relates to their 
 escape from the Spanish shores, may be summarily 
 given. 
 
 Under the guidance of a gracious and prospering 
 Providence, they arrived safely at the coast, and, 
 happily, when circumstances proved singularly favour- 
 able for the completion of their adventurous project. 
 For it so happened (and happened it not by the pro- 
 vidential ordering of times and circumstances to fit 
 each other for an issue accordant with confiding trust 
 and fervent prayers?) that when they reached this 
 most critical position, they found a cartel — an English 
 vessel which had disembarked her freight of prisoners 
 of war, brought out in exchange — just preparing to 
 depart for the land of their hopes ! 
 
 Penniless and friendless, as our now reanimated 
 adventurers were, besides being specially exposed to 
 
ESCAPE ON BOARD A CARTEL. 31 
 
 detection on the well-watched shores of an enemy's 
 country, it required no little management and tact 
 to get off during the night ; that so, fugitives as they 
 were on the one part, and intruders on the other, 
 they might elude the observation both of the Spanish 
 officers and the captain of the cartel. But the same 
 gracious furtherance, as heretofore they had expe- 
 rienced, continued to prosper their way, and all 
 difficulties and hazards were safely accomplished ; and, 
 by the friendly aid of the crew, upon whose humanity 
 they cast themselves, the means of concealment were 
 provided until the circumstances of present risk and 
 anxiety should have passed away. 
 
 Section V. — Rewards of Masterly Seamanship. 
 
 We are here brought to the describing of an inci- 
 dent particularly characteristic of my Father's talent 
 as an accomplished practical seaman. 
 
 After the vessel was fairly at sea, and, furthered 
 by a favourable wind, in encouraging progress on her 
 way to England, my Father and his gallant associate 
 ventured to appear upon deck. The natural surprise 
 of the Captain, on finding two intruding auxiliaries 
 amongst his people, assumed no very friendly cha- 
 racter, even when the daring and almost romantic 
 undertaking of the strangers had been made known 
 to him. On the contrary, he received their explana- 
 tion with no small measure of anger, and followed up 
 his pitiless inconsideration with heartless threatenings. 
 
32 MY FATHER. 
 
 He threatened, with much apparent determination, 
 either to land them again amongst their enemies, or 
 give them up as a boon, though of most unwilling 
 hands, to some English ship-of-war. Their appeals 
 to his sympathy and benevolence were unavailing. 
 Their offer "to work their passage," which they 
 thought might be a compensation for their provision, 
 was slighted, on the ground that " the crew was 
 sufficient." But at length the Captain suggested the 
 alternative, at which he evidently aimed, of their pay- 
 ing for their accommodation and passage to England. 
 Being, as we have shown, absolutely penniless, this 
 was a difficult requirement, though the Captain got 
 over it by proposing that they should sign a docu- 
 ment pledging themselves, on arrival in England, to 
 a payment which they deemed most exorbitant. With 
 this demand the urgency of their own purpose, and 
 the fear of the threatenings of the Captain, obliged 
 them to comply, and the paper was drawn up and 
 signed. 
 
 Fortunately for them, the Bay of Biscay maintained 
 its too dreaded celebrity at the season referred to, by 
 becoming the scene of a formidable sea and storm. 
 The gale commenced rather suddenly, and became 
 rapidly so fierce, that the seamen, who were quite 
 inadequate in number, as well as in capabilities, were 
 unable to get in the sail within the limits of safety. 
 The canvas was flapping furiously aloft, and all efforts 
 to reef were distressingly slow. Meanwhile my Father 
 and his comrade were eyed with indignation and sur- 
 
STORM AND EMBARRASSMENTS. 33 
 
 prise by the Captain, as they moved on the deck, or 
 stood holding by the " weather-rail," with quiet com- 
 posure, as if ignorant of, or indifferent to, the in- 
 creasing peril of the position of the ship. At last, an 
 exclamation of astonishment burst from the Captain, 
 that, regardless of the general safety, they should not 
 offer a helping hand. They replied most coolly, " that 
 the crew, they understood, was ample, and needed no 
 help of theirs, and they were but passengers!" The 
 perplexed commander turned away in ill-concealed 
 vexation. Still the gale increased in severity, till the 
 ship was thrown almost on her " beam-ends," and 
 their situation became quite alarming. He then 
 renewed his application under a severe taunt, as if it 
 were unmanly to allow the crew to struggle so against 
 the difficulties of the storm, and they, two able and 
 efficient seamen, looking on ! " Destroy the paper," 
 they said, " and let us work our passage, and we shall 
 be ready for your orders." Desperate now, in his 
 anxiety to save the canvas and spars, and, indeed, to 
 secure the safety of the ship, the Captain produced 
 the important and vexatious paper, and tearing it 
 passionately into pieces, he scattered its fragments on 
 the wild waste of waters to leeward. 
 
 Forthwith the two emancipated passengers spring 
 forward to their duty as members of the crew. They 
 could not have been unobservant of the slovenly man- 
 ner in which yards and sails had been prepared for 
 the operation of reefing, — so ill-arranged, indeed, with 
 a ship heeling almost yard-arm in the water, and sails 
 
 c2 
 
34 MY FATHER. 
 
 flying over the yards to leeward, as to render the 
 operation scarcely practicable. First of all the yards 
 are, in a seamanlike manner, laid to pass ; braces are 
 hauled taught, and lower yards steadied by the 
 " trusses" and " lifts;' 5 " reef-tackles/' with a helping 
 hand probably by the men aloft, are well hauled out, 
 and the inflated and flapping canvas pressed in by the 
 "buntlines" to the yards, — and then, bounding into 
 the rigging, their feet scarcely touch the "ratlines," as, 
 aided by the elasticity of tension in the shrouds, they 
 ascend up the mast. Way is instinctively made by 
 the previously dispirited hands for my Father to the 
 "weather-earing" of the topsail, and for his friend to 
 leeward. Here, as in most other operations, his sin- 
 gular energy, strength and skill, render him wonder- 
 fully efficient. Seated across the yard-arm, with 
 shoulder steadied and supported by the " lift," — the 
 " earing" passed round and reeved in the "reef-cringle" 
 of the sail, — he is enabled, with little aid from the hands 
 on the yard, to haul out the sail by vast muscular 
 strength, skilfully applied, to the fitting position, when 
 the cry " Haul out to leeward," is replied to by 
 his associate there with similar vigour and celerity of 
 action, so that the enclosed section of the sail, pre- 
 viously so intractable under other hands, is in a few 
 moments laid compact on the yard, and securely en- 
 folded within the " reef-points." Thus reef succeeded 
 reef, till the broad flapping sail displayed but its 
 smallest dimensions — the "close-reef" adapted for the 
 storm, whilst corresponding operations were performed 
 
MASTERLY SEAMANSHIP. 35 
 
 on the other sails with marvellous smartness and 
 despatch ; for the superior energy and commanding 
 efficiency of these leaders, of a previously heartless 
 and dispirited crew, had happily infused into all a new 
 spirit of confidence, and stimulated to unwonted effort 
 to imitate their admired ability, and thus to become 
 useful helps in the task to be accomplished. 
 
 Within a less interval of time, perhaps, than had 
 previously been wasted in inefficient endeavours to 
 accomplish the duties required by the sudden violence 
 of the storm, topsails are reefed and set compactly to 
 the wind ; courses and other sails are reefed or made 
 snug by handing ; top-gallant-yards, with spars and 
 flying gear aloft, are sent down upon deck ; and the 
 ship, now no longer pressed down by overwhelming 
 top-weight and fluttering sails, is restored to the de- 
 sired equilibrium, and snugly prepared to encounter 
 and weather the storm ! 
 
 From this time the duty of the ship was well and 
 smartly done. The superiority of my Father as a 
 thorough practical seaman must have been both felt 
 and acknowledged : the distance at which he soared 
 beyond the others was too great and obvious for the 
 intrusion even of that bane of social concord — jealousy; 
 and the effect seems to have been the infusion of a 
 higher character into the ordinary crew. Well, 
 therefore, did our fugitives from a Spanish prison 
 repay to ship, captain, owners and crew, the benefits 
 they themselves received. 
 
36 MY FATHER. 
 
 Section VI. — Entrance on, and Progress in training 
 in, the Greenland Whale- Fishery. 
 
 After his exciting adventure in escaping from 
 imprisonment in an enemy's country, my father re- 
 tired, for a season, from his seafaring pursuits. He 
 returned to the homestead of his fathers, where, as- 
 sisting in the management of the farm, he remained 
 about two or three years. During this interval he 
 married; the object of his choice being Lady Mary, 
 (viz. Mary, with the prefix of Lady, taken, not osten- 
 tatiously, but in rural simplicity, from the charac- 
 teristic designation of the day of her birth, which 
 was on Lady -day), the eldest daughter of Mr. John 
 Smith, of Cropton, — a rural district about five-and- 
 twenty miles from Whitby, — who resided on a small 
 landed property which he had inherited from his 
 ancestors. 
 
 By no means satisfied, however, with this retire- 
 ment, — which recent hard and perilous service had, 
 for a time, rendered congenial to his feelings, — and 
 as little contented with the limitation of his unusual 
 energies to such a contracted scope of employment, 
 he turned his attention again to the sea. And in this 
 object he at length found a congenial opening, in a 
 region and employment admirably adapted to his phy- 
 sical constitution and adventurous spirit, the Green- 
 land Whale Fishery ; a trade which, at this period, 
 the latter end of the eighteenth century, was pursued 
 with considerable enterprise from the port of Whitby. 
 
TRAINING IN THE WHALE-FISHERY. 37 
 
 On this new species of maritime service he em- 
 barked in the ship Henrietta, Captain Crispin Bean, 
 in the spring of the year 1785, as one of the seamen. 
 Of the incidents of his training in this adventurous 
 and stirring profession, we have, unfortunately, no 
 special records. To the requirements, however, in 
 every species of knowledge and duty connected with 
 the Arctic navigation and the capture of the huge 
 cetacea of the north, he gave himself with such tact 
 and perseverance, that, on his sixth voyage, we find 
 him to have risen over the heads of all his original 
 associates, and occupying the position of second 
 officer, the specksioneer of the ship.* 
 
 A single incident, though of the most trifling 
 nature, has been preserved in connection with this 
 period of my Father's life, which I am induced to 
 record, simply because there was something in it 
 illustrative of character. 
 
 As the ships employed in the whale fishery in 
 the spring and summer were usually laid up during 
 the rest of the year, it was the frequent practice of 
 the officers, who were generally engaged from year 
 to year, to embark as seamen in the coasting trade 
 during the interval of winter. My Father, habitually 
 energetic and industrious, and having now an in- 
 creasing family to support, adopted this commendable 
 course. On one occasion it so happened that he was 
 
 * The title " specksioneer," derived from the Dutch, is applied to 
 the officer who has special charge of the fishing apparatus, and the con- 
 duct of the flensing operations in the fishery. He is also a principal 
 harpooner. 
 
38 MY FATHER. 
 
 employed in a vessel whose chief officer, the mate, 
 was a young man possessing a full share of self- 
 conceit, evinced by a not unfrequent exhibition of 
 supercilious assumption of superiority — characteristics 
 excessively obnoxious to my Father's manly dispo- 
 sition. But, notwithstanding the occasional exhibi- 
 tion of an offensive manner towards himself as well 
 as others, such was always his high sense of the duty 
 of obedience to superiors, and of the importance, in 
 principle, of proper subordination, that he bore with 
 restrained feelings in silence this youthful and vex- 
 atious folly. An occasion, however, occurred, in 
 which he might legitimately suffer the fault to chas- 
 tise itself, and it is to that to which my story refers. 
 
 The vessel was lying in port about to take in 
 ballast. In this operation, which is often effected 
 (as in this case) by the shovel of " ballast-heavers" 
 out of loaded "lighters" laid alongside the ship, 
 there is a liability to scatter a good deal of the shingle 
 or other material, so as to fall overboard to the en- 
 cumbrance of the harbour. To prevent this damage 
 to the navigation, it is in many places a harbour 
 regulation that a canvas screen or sail, called a " port- 
 sail," should be placed below the small port-hole cut 
 in the side of the ship for the reception of ballast, so 
 as to catch the ballast-heavers' scatterings. 
 
 In the good ship, the , however, this canvas 
 
 protector happened to be wanting when ballast was 
 about to be taken in. The mate, with a manner (it 
 is presumed) of excessive superciliousness, came to 
 
COASTING INCIDENT. 39 
 
 my Father with a " holt " (or roll) of canvas, asking 
 him, as if doubting his capacity, whether he could 
 make such a thing ? and then requesting him to set 
 immediately to work to supply the lack of port-sails. 
 Assuming a look of meekest simplicity, which for 
 such a just retribution my Father could well put on, 
 he quietly asked, in reference to the order to make 
 port-sails, " how many he was to make ?" Mistaking 
 the look of simplicity for simpleness itself, the young 
 officer, as he turned jeeringly away, replied, " half- 
 a-dozen, to be sure." 
 
 One only, or two, at the most, could possibly be 
 required ; but, to punish arrogancy, the order was 
 strictly regarded. Some hours subsequently the 
 mate returned to the place where the work of the 
 sail-needle was being actively carried on, when, to 
 his astonishment and vexation, he found the deck 
 covered with the breadths of canvas cut out for the 
 half-dozen port-sails, and some two or three of them 
 already seamed together ! His fierce demand, " Why 
 have you cut up the whole bolt of canvas ?" was 
 responded to in the former quiet manner of sim- 
 plicity, " Did you not order me to make half-a- 
 dozen?" 
 
 Whilst thus justly chastised for his own folly, and 
 biting his lips with vexation, — the vexation being 
 the more exciting because consciously self-earned, — 
 he could not refrain from resorting to abuse, where 
 reason and justice must fail him. But singularly 
 enough it happened, whilst the altercation which 
 
40 MY FATHER. 
 
 ensued was being carried on, and when it had been 
 broadly intimated to him, I believe, that his further 
 services could be well dispensed with, that a letter, 
 just then brought by some one coming on board, was 
 put into my Father's hand, offering him the unex- 
 pected appointment and preferment which constitute 
 the subject of our next chapter. He was thus 
 enabled, with no small advantage of position over the 
 still fretted and abusive officer, to say, " If you are 
 not satisfied with what I have commenced, I can 
 leave you to do it yourself." 
 
 In concluding this chapter, it comes appropriately 
 in connection, to mention something of the state of 
 my Father's mind and feelings with respect to the 
 grand object of this probationary state with man — the 
 attainment and furtherance of a religious life. 
 
 On this topic I am the better enabled to write satis- 
 factorily, because of the repeated references to it 
 which I have heard my Father make in after-life. 
 At all times, within my own recollection, he evinced 
 a very marked regard for religion, with a clear appre- 
 hension of the great principles of our holy faith, and 
 an ardent desire for the experience of its divine con- 
 solations. But he used to refer back, with a kind of 
 longing regret, to the days of his youth, when he had 
 felt the consolations of godliness, and realized the 
 happiness of heavenly meditations. Often (as I have 
 heard him intimate) whilst pursuing his agricultural 
 labours, and not unfrequently, too, when walking 
 
RELIGIOUS FEELINGS. 41 
 
 to and fro in his night-watch at sea, — he had been 
 privileged to realize that enviable feeling of peaceful 
 happiness, in the lifting up of the heart in pious 
 meditations and communings heavenward, which con- 
 stitutes at once an experimental evidence and present 
 reward of the reception of the Gospel of our Lord 
 and Saviour Jesus Christ. For, however it may fall 
 short in the ardency of its perceptions, or however it 
 may be liable to be confounded with the hasty and tran- 
 sient impulses of mere excitement, yet, in its nature, 
 and according to its degree, the feeling thus realized 
 belongs, I doubt not, to that truly enviable class of 
 Christian experiences described by St. Paul, as " the 
 peace of God, which passeth all understanding," and 
 as the rejoicing " with joy unspeakable and full of 
 glory." 
 
42 
 
 Chapter II. 
 
 HIS COMMENCEMENT AND PROGRESS IN WHALE-FISHING 
 ENTERPRISE, AS A COMMANDER. 
 
 Section I. — Disappointment in his first Command. 
 
 In the history of men who, relatively to their pro- 
 spects by birth, have attained to distinction in life, 
 there will generally be found some special incident, 
 sometimes apparently trifling in itself, or some par- 
 ticular circumstance, or chain of circumstances, in 
 their professional career, on which, under Providence, 
 their fortune manifestly turned. 
 
 Both the incident and the circumstance referred to 
 were clearly and strikingly marked in my Father's 
 history. The incident appears in what occasioned 
 the disgust which he took in early life at farming 
 occupations, whereby he was stimulated to enter upon 
 a sea-faring life. The circumstance, or chain of 
 circumstances, we find in the important preferment 
 which unexpectedly, as to the occasion, was given to 
 him when, over the heads of many associates, he was 
 appointed to his first command. 
 
 Crispin Bean, the captain under whom my Father 
 had had his training and experience in Arctic adven- 
 ture, was, for his time, a successful whale-fisher. For, 
 
FIRST COMMAND. 43 
 
 in the course of from seventeen to twenty years in 
 which he followed this commerce, he realized a small 
 fortune, sufficient, at least, with a little patrimony, to 
 satisfy his very moderate desires and requirements, and 
 to induce him to retire, whilst in fulness of vigour, from 
 his arduous profession. He was a man of excellent 
 character, and one for whom my Father always re- 
 tained a sincere regard, and towards whom he was 
 ever ready to show kindly consideration, when his 
 means for subsistence and comfort were less sufficient 
 in after-life. A vivid remembrance of Mr. Bean's 
 regard and preference for him, on the turning point 
 of his temporal destiny, was observably retained, and 
 was elicited, as I had myself not unfrequent oppor- 
 tunities of noticing, both in his manner of speaking of 
 his former commander, and in his readiness to minister 
 to him in acts of kindness. 
 
 It was after his voyage in the year 1790, that Mr. 
 Bean announced to his owner, Nicholas Piper, Esq., 
 of Pickering, his intention of relinquishing his com- 
 mand, and retiring from the sea. Himself entirely 
 unprepared for appointing a successor, Mr. Piper 
 enquired whether there was any one, among the 
 officers of the Henrietta, whom he (Mr. Bean) could 
 recommend for a Master ? Mr. Bean, well observant 
 of my Father's persevering energy, seaman-like 
 talent, and general superiority, replied, — " There is 
 Scoresby, the specksioneer, who, I think, is the man 
 for the duty." And to him, with but little delay in 
 further investigation, the command, to the agreeable 
 
44 MY FATHER. 
 
 surprise of my Father, and the jealous vexation of 
 some of his brother officers, was transferred. 
 
 Mr. Piper, however, whilst so promptly exercising 
 this generous confidence in his appointment, failed, 
 in consistency, when proceeding with the measures 
 for carrying it into effect. Considering his limited 
 measure of experience, when contrasted with the 
 much longer engagement in the fishery of the then 
 chief officer, and some of the leading harponeers, he, 
 unfortunately, took upon himself to re-engage these 
 men for the ensuing voyage, — a proceeding which, 
 however prudential, my Father felt to be at once 
 uncourteous and unwise, though a measure which he 
 was by no means in a position either to contravene or 
 satisfactorily to resist. Every ground of hope, how- 
 ever, which he might have indulged in respect to any 
 favourable views of such a principle, in its working, 
 failed, whilst his very worst apprehensions were more 
 than realized. 
 
 This result, indeed, came out the more characteristi- 
 cally, because of the singular unfavourableness of the 
 season, wherein he made his first trial, for the objects 
 of the adventure. The fishery, in general, proved 
 unprecedentedly unsuccessful. Of seven ships which 
 set out from Whitby, (the port from whence the 
 Henrietta sailed,) one, the Marlborough, was lost ; 
 four returned " clean," — that is, without any cargo ; 
 and two had but one fish each — one of them very 
 small. Tradition has it — and the tradition I can well 
 believe to be a historical fact — that the cargoes of the 
 
SEVERE TRIAL AND DISAPPOINTMENT. 45 
 
 whole Whitby fleet of Greenland whalers (except one) 
 from the fishery of 1791, were carried overland to 
 Pickering, a distance of 21 miles, in one wagon ! 
 
 It was in the worst class, that of " clean ships," in 
 which the Henrietta stood at the conclusion of this 
 unpropitious season. But she so stood, not by any 
 means deservedly, as regarded either the talent and 
 perseverance of her new Captain, or the opportunities 
 which his enterprise had afforded to his officers and 
 crew for a position of, at least, leading prosperity. 
 My Father, indeed, whilst often speaking in after- 
 times of this trying, mortifying, and, as to his 
 prospects in life, perilous failure, was known to 
 remark, that such were the opportunities which his 
 own people had, of doing as well as the most successful 
 of his competitors, that there was scarcely a "fish" 
 caught by the whole Greenland fleet, but whilst the 
 Henrietta was in company, or during the capture of 
 which he was not within view ! 
 
 It was not the wish of the leading officers of the 
 Henrietta, however, that their position should be 
 different. A strong feeling of jealousy was inju- 
 riously cherished by certain officers over whom my 
 Father had been preferred; and so far was this 
 carried, and so variously indicated, that it became 
 evident that their wish and design was, that their 
 commander should be found in the most humiliating 
 position amongst his fellow fishermen. The reality 
 of the existence of this feeling was manifested in 
 various ways. Among the early indications of a 
 
46 MY FATHER. 
 
 conspiracy which my Father clearly detected, was 
 the positive and wilful inattention of some principal 
 officers to the objects of their enterprise, when he was 
 in bed, with the substitution of idle, if not venomous, 
 converse, for officer-like diligence and watchfulness. 
 For on one occasion, when being on very promising 
 fishing-ground, he had sent a boat " on bran," — the 
 term used for designating the condition of a whale- 
 boat when stationed afloat, with the crew ready for 
 instant action, watching for the incidental appearance 
 of a whale, — he heard, whilst lying anxiously awake 
 in his bed, the subdued creaking of the " tackles," as 
 of a cautious and surreptitious hoisting up of the 
 boat ; and, on afterwards going unexpectedly on deck, 
 he found the "watch," both officers and men, engaged 
 as we have just stated. 
 
 Attempts on the part of the officers to direct or 
 dictate, not unfrequently made, failed, as was right 
 they should do, except in one instance (judging from 
 the case being often alluded to by my Father with 
 regret), where the yielding to a proposition against 
 his better judgment met with its consistent rebuke. 
 A number of whales had been fallen in with, and the 
 greater part of the boats had been sent out in pur- 
 suit. Reckless and ill-conditioned they pulled about 
 hither and thither, frightening many, but harpooning 
 none, of the objects of chase. For a considerable 
 period the same folly or inefficiency was being 
 enacted, and yet " fish " in encouraging numbers were 
 still to be seen. The chief mate, one Matthew 
 
MUTINY. 47 
 
 Smith, came to my Father to remonstrate with him 
 for keeping the boats so long abroad without some- 
 thing to exhilarate the men, — urging, that spirits, as 
 he said was usual, should be sent to them, or it could 
 not be expected that they could either succeed or 
 persevere. Though more than doubtful of the wis- 
 dom of employing stimulants in an adventure re- 
 quiring the greatest coolness and self-possession, my 
 Father unfortunately yielded, and ordered the steward 
 to supply a quantity of brandy for being carried out 
 to the absent sailors. But the mate's boat, which 
 was sent with this refreshment {V) was seen, after it 
 had proceeded a mile or so from the ship, to cease 
 rowing, and "lie to on its oars;" and there, as my 
 Father's sure telescope told him, they remained, till 
 the crew had " drank themselves drunk." Then, in 
 their mad folly, they proceeded to the field of fishing 
 enterprise, and effectually marred any chance of suc- 
 cess, if a single honest harpooner were there, and 
 gave a new and additional impulse to the existing 
 recklessness and disaffection. 
 
 But private resistance of orders, as well as apparent 
 neglect of opportunities frequently afforded them of 
 advancing the grand object of the voyage, ultimately 
 grew into the most aggravated form of insubordina- 
 tion — mutiny. 
 
 On one occasion, when the Henrietta had been 
 pushed into an unwonted position of imagined peril 
 among the ice by her commander's adventurous spirit, 
 the alarm of her crew urged their disaffection into 
 
48 MY FATHER. 
 
 open mutiny. They gathered themselves together, and 
 proceeded to the quarter-deck, to demand (as I have 
 understood the incident) their being released from so 
 perilous a situation. My Father's disregard of their 
 remonstrances, and expressed determination to per- 
 severe, were at length met by brute force and open 
 violence. One of the men, excited by his companions' 
 clamours, and his own dastardly rage, seized a hand- 
 spike, and aimed a desperate blow, Avhich might have 
 been fatal, on the head of his Captain. But, now 
 roused to the exertion of his heretofore unimagined 
 strength and tact, he, whilst warding the blow with 
 his hand, disarmed the assailant, and seizing him, as 
 I have been told, in his athletic arms, actually flung 
 him headlong among his associates, like a quoit from 
 the hands of the player, filling the whole party with 
 amazement at his strength and power, and for the 
 moment arresting, under the influence of the feeling, 
 the unmanly pursuance of their mutinous purposes. 
 
 The power of one against so many who had 
 committed themselves to a penal act and assault, 
 however, not being likely to continue to avail him, 
 my Father, with a decision of purpose scarcely less 
 surprising than his power of action, ordered a boy 
 to take the helm, and whilst himself and others, 
 whom his example might influence, " squared the 
 yards," directed the ship's course (the wind being 
 fair) homeward. Their demand to be released from 
 the ice being thus yielded, and, with circumstances so 
 very different from what they had expected, reduced, 
 
MUTINEERS SUBDUED. 49 
 
 for a while, both the mutinous and insubordinate of 
 the crew, to a sort of dogged quiescence. But when 
 the ship, having cleared the ice, was still kept on the 
 same course, and when ice and haunts of whales began 
 to be left far astern, anxiety and alarm took place in 
 the breasts of the authors of the mischief, who now, 
 in their turn, felt just cause for dreading the issue 
 of a proceeding which they had thus unexpectedly 
 provoked. Words of unwonted calmness were now 
 dropped by one or other of the officers, in hopes of 
 eliciting some indication that the homeward direction 
 was but a threat. Hints of the loss to the owners and 
 himself were thrown out, if he followed out his appa- 
 rent purpose ; but all to no purpose — the Henrietta 
 still wended her way before the home-blowing breeze 
 with steady and unrestrained progress. At length, 
 so great was the alarm excited, that the bold and 
 blustering mutineers became subdued, and they came 
 forward, backed by their subordinates in the crew, 
 humbly soliciting that the ship might be hauled on a 
 wind again for Greenland, and promising that them- 
 selves, and every man aboard, would submit to orders, 
 and do their utmost to further the object on which 
 they had embarked. 
 
 To have persisted in a purpose undertaken from 
 necessity, the result of which could only be of un- 
 mixed injury to his employers as well as himself, when 
 yet there was a chance, however faint, of doing some- 
 thing in respect to the intention of the adventure, 
 might have been deemed an act of obstinacy, rather 
 
 D 
 
50 MY FATHER. 
 
 than wisdom. Not, therefore, to lose any chance of 
 success, which this demonstration of better feeling 
 might seem to promise, the ship was forthwith hauled 
 to the wind, and, as circumstances of wind and 
 weather allowed, every effort of seamanship was 
 employed for hastening their return to the fishing- 
 ground northward. The sunshine, however, which 
 had rendered the gathering in of a limited harvest 
 possible, was now departed, and all subsequent endea- 
 vours to make up for lost time and opportunities 
 proved fruitless, so that the talented and efficient 
 commander of the Henrietta had the mortification 
 of reporting the result of his first and trial adventure 
 as "a clean ship!" 
 
 On their arrival in port, the designs of the dis- 
 affected became gradually developed. It was hoped, 
 and evidently expected, that my Father, failing of 
 success, would be superseded ; and it ultimately came 
 out, though not until the whole scheme of this nefa- 
 rious conspiracy had been enacted, and the failure of 
 the experiment determined, that it had been matter 
 of promise or arrangement, in the event of the chief 
 officer obtaining the command, that the other officers 
 in succeeding ranks should have a step in the way of 
 promotion ; and that the men, generally, should have 
 better, and more equal treatment, and, as they were 
 vainly flattered, be rewarded with higher wages ! 
 
 Indications of this dastardly attempt to arrest the 
 advancement of a young and enterprising commander 
 appeared in two or three circumstances, which oc- 
 
FAILURE OF CONSPIRACY. 51 
 
 curred soon after the Henrietta's return to Whitby. 
 One of these was the discovery of a letter, fastened 
 conspicuously on one of the sails, addressed to Mr. 
 Bean, the former captain, " requesting him to procure 
 another master, Captain Scoresby having left the 
 vessel, or gone ashore." 
 
 Another circumstance, of a bolder character, I 
 remember being related, which, however, operated in 
 a manner directly the reverse of what was designed 
 by the originators of the ungenerous device. A party 
 of the officers, three or four in number, proceeded to 
 the owner's residence — I believe over the Moors to 
 Pickering — for the express purpose of complaining of 
 my Father's unfitness for the command. One of their 
 reasons, more curious than manly, was founded on 
 observation of their commander's fearless and adven- 
 turous practice, as a navigator, — entirely different 
 from the habit of the times. The complaint was to 
 the effect, " that, instead of keeping the ship clear of 
 danger in the fishery, he was continually running 
 them into the ice ; and his daringness was such that, 
 if he should be continued in the command, he would 
 lose the ship and drown them all I " 
 
 On a sensible man like Mr. Piper, the information, 
 as to enterprising character, conveyed by objections 
 of this kind, was by no means lost. His reflection 
 thereon, as I understood it to have been, was, "Why 
 this is the very sort of man we need!" 
 
 My Father was not, of course, without his anxieties 
 as to what the issue might be. He had embarked in 
 
52 MY FATHER. 
 
 a post of great responsibility, where, beyond the 
 ordinary qualifications of the navigator, success as a 
 Jishermanvtas looked for, and so prominently regarded, 
 too, that successfulness, above all other qualities, stood 
 absorbingly pre-eminent. Having failed on his first, 
 and most critical, trial, he anxiously expressed his 
 regrets at his failure, when he first met his disap- 
 pointed and suffering owner. But he, having mean- 
 while, I believe, spoken on the subject to his former 
 captain (Mr. Bean), replied encouragingly, "It can't 
 be helped : you must try again.'" The confiding 
 owner, however, could not but be a little surprised 
 when, on the first fitting occasion after the intimation 
 of his re-appointment, my Father, meekly, but firmly, 
 informed him, " that if he again took the command 
 he must have the appointment of all the hands — both 
 officers and general crew." Mr. Piper's usual "Pooh! 
 pooh!" at a demand so unexpected, produced no 
 change in the reasonable requirements of his anxious, 
 but decided dependent. He consulted Mr. Bean 
 thereon, and he, it is reported, recommended acquies- 
 cence on the part of the owner. At all events the 
 owner did acquiesce. The happy effect and result 
 will appear in our next section. 
 
 Section II. — His Second Adventure, and com- 
 mencing Prosperity. 
 
 Under the fitting authority yielded to my Father, 
 in respect to the absolute selection and engagement 
 of his officers and crew, he acted with equal wisdom 
 
SECOND ADVENTURE. 53 
 
 and decision. His first act was to discharge the 
 whole of his old and self-assumed accomplished or 
 experienced officers, and to replace them with younger 
 and more tractable men; some of those who had 
 served with him in his first command, whose cha- 
 racters he had appreciated, being advanced from 
 inferior stations to places of responsibility. 
 
 The principle that had been conceded by the owner 
 to his captain, as to the absolute selection of his crew, 
 was, however, in a very minor appointment, attempted 
 to be interfered with ; but it only served to bring out 
 in greater distinctiveness the character with whom 
 he had to deal. The circumstance was this : — On 
 the fitting out of the ship in the spring of 1792, my 
 Father, on going on board one morning for his usual 
 superintendence of the work, observed a stranger, — 
 one whom he had not himself engaged, — busily em- 
 ployed, as if quite installed in office, about the cook- 
 ing department. In surprise he asked the would-be 
 cook " who had sent him there V " The owner," he 
 replied, " had shipped him as the cook." 
 
 Without a word further, and without regarding 
 consequences, so momentous to himself which might 
 result, he gave himself up to the manly impulse of 
 his mind, determining either to have the appoint- 
 ment revoked, or to relinquish a post which had 
 formed at once the object of his aspirings and the 
 summit of his hopes. His manner on the occasion, 
 whilst most respectful to his superior, was as une- 
 quivocally firm, as his mind was decided. Taking the 
 
54 MY FATHER. 
 
 "ship's papers" from their safe custody in a com- 
 partment of the cabin, viz. the ship's register, certain 
 bonds claimed by the Customs and Excise, and other 
 documents required to be held by the ship's com- 
 mander, — he proceeded immediately on shore to Mr. 
 Piper's apartments, at once presenting them, and in 
 so doing, resigning his command into the hands of 
 the astonished owner. His astonishment was hardly 
 lessened when, on being asked the reason of this 
 strange conduct, my Father referred him to the ap- 
 pointment, without his personal sanction, of a cook 
 to the ship. The remonstrative "pooh! pooh! pooh!" 
 proved of no more avail than on a former occasion ; 
 but Mr. Piper's naturally good sense prevailing over 
 his mortified pride of authority, he conceded this 
 point also, and my Father, returning on board with 
 his papers, sent the intruding cook to the right-about, 
 leaving him and Mr. Piper to settle the disagreeables 
 as well as they might. 
 
 The principle, the firmness, and the tact of my 
 Father, in respect to the engagement and selection of 
 his crew, were amply vindicated in the happy result 
 of his second adventure as commander. Men who 
 had been selected and appointed by him, readily 
 deferred to him. Men who, contrary to ordinary 
 slow progress, step by step, had been advanced, per 
 saltwn, to places of responsibility, gave spontaneous 
 respect and honour to one who could so estimate 
 ability, and confide in the application of untried 
 talents. Discipline was easily preserved, and active, 
 
EXTRAORDINARY SUCCESS. 00 
 
 confiding, and cordial obedience succeeded to the 
 former disaffection. The commanding talent of the 
 director of the adventure thus obtained its proper 
 scope, and resulted in an almost unprecedented mea- 
 sure of success.* No less than eighteen whales were 
 captured, yielding 112 tuns of oil, on this, to my 
 Father, very momentous voyage; for, whilst a second 
 failure might have permanently blighted his hopes 
 and prevented his prosperity, this extraordinary suc- 
 cess directed admiring attention to the commander, 
 who had had largeness of mind to contemplate, and 
 superiority of ability to accomplish, so enterprising 
 and profitable an advance beyond what his prede- 
 cessors from the port of Whitby had either deemed 
 in any way practicable, or had been limited, by their 
 too narrow conceptions of sufficiency, from attempting. 
 
 Section III. — Further Successes, with their com- 
 parative Relations, in the Ship Henrietta. 
 
 Future results clearly indicated the source, under 
 a favouring Providence, of my Father's prosperity. 
 These first fruits of adventure were justified by the 
 subsequent harvest, as the legitimate proceeds of 
 superior management. Merely accidental circum- 
 stances may yield, for an occasion or two, or for several 
 occasions, felicitous results ; but where adventures 
 
 * This measure of success, I find, had been in a trifling degree 
 exceeded by vessels sailing from the port of Hull, hut only in four 
 instances during the preceding twenty years, comprising the enterprises 
 of 286 ships, reckoning their repeated voyages. 
 
56 MY FATHER. 
 
 involving mind and talent for their conduct, prove, 
 through a long series of repetitions, under all the 
 diversities of times and seasons, unusually successful, 
 they give evidence of a master-mind directing the 
 operations. 
 
 During the subsequent five years of my Father's 
 enterprises in the same ship — from 179-3 to 1797 
 inclusive, — the Henrietta's cargo stood generally, I 
 believe, at the head of the list of successful voyages 
 amongst the whole fleet of Greenland whalers. The 
 least successful voyage was liberally remunerating to 
 the owner — the most successful, unprecedentedly so. 
 The total captures in whales, during the six successful 
 years, including that of 1792, was no less than eighty ; 
 and the produce in oil, (considered as wonderful for 
 that day,) 729 tuns. 
 
 Before the introduction of this species of energetic 
 enterprise, the adventurers, as a class, were content 
 with small things. We have the commendatory 
 record concerning Captain Banks, of the Jenny, of 
 Whitby, who was esteemed a talented and successful 
 fisherman, that he brought home sixty-five whales 
 in ten years, or six and a half per year ; whereas the 
 average captures by my Father, during the period 
 referred to, was thirteen and one-third whales, or 
 more than double the number of this successful 
 predecessor. 
 
 The catch in his fifth year of command reached the 
 then extraordinary amount of twenty-five whales; 
 and in his last year, the proceeds in oil were greater, 
 
COMPARATIVE RESULTS OF SUCCESS. 57 
 
 being 152 tuns, than had before entered the port of 
 Whitby in any one ship. 
 
 "Whilst giving the first detailed and authentic 
 records of a Father's life and enterprises, it may be 
 permitted, I trust, in the son, to dwell still further on 
 these comparisons, whereby the enterprises referred 
 to may obtain their just estimation in their bearing on 
 the commercial prosperity of the nation. 
 
 The comparison of my Father's successes with those 
 accustomed to be realized by the northern whale- 
 fishers in general, will afford to him, as may have been 
 anticipated, a highly commendatory result. 
 
 The most distinguished whale-fishers in the world, 
 during a century and a half, or more, were the 
 Dutch, with whose ordinary successes the comparison 
 may, with propriety, first be made. Within the long 
 interval of 107 years, ending with 1778, the produce 
 of 57,590 whales was brought into Holland by 14,167 
 ships, (reckoning repeated voyages,) yielding an 
 average of four and one-fifteenth whales per ship. 
 During the ten years more immediately preceding 
 my Father's commencement, — from 1769 to 1778, for 
 instance, — the average produce of the Dutch Green- 
 land whale-fishery, per ship, a year, (ninety ships, on 
 an average being employed,) was about three and a 
 half "fish." In the ten years beginning with 1779, 
 (sixty sail being regularly sent out,) the average was 
 about three and three-quarters. And in the ten years, 
 from 1785 to 1794, passing within the period of my 
 Father's early enterprises, (sixty ships being then 
 
 d2 
 
58 MY FATHER. 
 
 also annually engaged in the fisheries of Greenland 
 and Davis' Strait), the catch was 2294 whales, giving 
 an average of three and eight-tenths whales per ship 
 for each year. Hence my Father's success, compared 
 with these various averages of the Dutch fleet, rises, 
 in respect of the number of whales captured, in the 
 remarkable proportion of above three and a half to one. 
 
 But we turn to home comparisons, which as to the 
 object in view is of more importance to us, — though 
 the materials for obtaining general results are, I 
 regret to find, but very scanty. 
 
 As to the whale-fishery of Great Britain, in 1787 
 and 1788, we find {Arctic Regions, ii. p. 112,) 505 
 cargoes were obtained in the two years, amounting to 
 15,894 tuns of oil, or 31 "5 tuns per ship a year. 
 
 The records in hand of the Greenland fishery from 
 Scotland, in the years just preceding my Father's 
 commencement, relate only to the period from 1785 
 to 1788. In each of the two latter years, when 
 thirty-one ships were employed in the trade, the 
 average success per ship w r as only two and four-fiftbs 
 whales. The general average for Scotland seems, 
 indeed, at this period to have been low ; but, soon 
 after the commencement of the present century, the 
 enterprise and perseverance of our northern sailors 
 began, not only to assert their proper position, but to 
 recompense for past inferiority, — their whale-fishery 
 of these more recent times becoming second to none, 
 either in the ability with which it was pursued, or the 
 success with which it was rewarded. 
 
COMPARATIVE SUCCESSES. 59 
 
 With the port of Whitby, from whence the 
 Henrietta sailed, we have already drawn certain 
 comparisons. We only add the general result of the 
 fishery of 1786, 1787, and 1788, when twenty ships 
 sailed from this port yearly for Greenland. The 
 catch per ship, for each of these years, was about 
 three and a half whales ; but, including the next three 
 years, one of which was most disastrous, the average 
 catch would hardly reach three fish per ship. 
 
 But the best comparisons of my Father's successes 
 are with those of the Greenland whalers from Hull ; 
 these comparisons being rendered most satisfactory 
 because of the ample records before me of the whale 
 fishery of that port. The records referred to are 
 comprised in an elaborate and carefully kept manu- 
 script, kindly entrusted to me for the present object, 
 belonging to Mr. James Simpson, painter, of Hull, 
 in which an admirable abstract is preserved of the 
 whale-fishing enterprise of the port during a con- 
 secutive period of fifty-nine years, from 1772 to 1830 
 inclusive. 
 
 From this document, for the comparison at present 
 designed, we obtain the following information : — 
 During the twenty years, from 1772 to 1791, reaching 
 my Father's commencement, Q66 ships (including 
 repeated voyages) sailed from Hull to the Greenland 
 whale-fishery, and obtained, altogether, an amount of 
 produce of 9377 tuns of oil, averaging 35*25 tuns 
 a voyage for each ship. In the six years before my 
 Father's commencement, — 1786 to 1791, — 158 ships 
 
60 MY FATHER. 
 
 (gross amount) obtained 4975 tuns of oil, or 31 '5 on 
 the average. And in the next six years, corresponding 
 exactly with those of my Father's successful enter- 
 prise in the Henrietta, — 1792 to 1797, — ninety-two 
 Greenland whalers, from Hull, procured 5464 tuns 
 of oil, or 59 "4 tuns per ship a year. 
 
 My Father's average success, taken in comparison 
 of these various home results, we hence gather, was 
 about four times as great as the ordinary success 
 (within the limited periods specified) of the British 
 whalers generally. It was also four times as great 
 as the usual average of the Whitby whalers ; in like 
 proportion above the average of the Hull whalers 
 during the previous twenty years ; and more than 
 double the Hull average for the same actual period ! 
 
 But to institute the most severe comparison with 
 the successes of his competitors in this important field 
 of commercial enterprise, we may notice that during 
 the period of his command of the Henrietta (omitting, 
 for reasons already assigned, the first year only), the 
 amount of my Father's cargoes exceeded, by 151 tuns 
 of oil, that of the most successful of the Flull ships 
 of the time, amongst more than fifteen annual com- 
 petitors ; and was larger even than the amount 
 attained by the six united cargoes of the most successful 
 ship out of the whole of the whalers from the port, 
 taken year by year ! And, it is believed, could the 
 comparison have been made with the entire fleet of 
 whalers proceeding from Britain to the Greenland 
 fishery, my Father, under this severest possible test 
 
COMPARATIVE SUCCESSES. 61 
 
 of competition, with all the disadvantages of time 
 and chance against him, would still be found at the 
 head ! 
 
 Among the captains of the Whitby fleet, no one, 
 I believe, at all approached his successes; and among 
 those commanding the Greenland whalers of Hull 
 none came at all near him, except one — Captain 
 Allan, — whose name I feel it but justice to record as 
 the most successful fisherman of his port, and one of 
 the first of his day. Captain Angus Sadler, whose 
 remarkable successes we hereafter notice, did not 
 commence until 1796. And Captain John Marshall, 
 who afterwards became so celebrated among his com- 
 peers, was but, as yet, rising towards superiority; 
 besides, his enterprises, after he became so signally 
 successful, were conducted in Davis' Strait, — a branch 
 of the fishery to which our comparison may not fairly 
 extend. 
 
 The result of the enterprise of the other captains 
 of this period was, in each case, so far below that of 
 the subject of these memorials, as only, in two or 
 three cases, to reach one-half his success. Captain 
 Taylor, of the Fanny, brought home 400 tuns of oil 
 within those six years, and Captain Wilson, of the 
 Caroline, 318; but my Father's catch, as above stated, 
 yielded no less an amount than 729 tuns ! And when 
 it is understood that the Henrietta was of but small 
 tonnage, (254 tons,) whilst many of the Hull ships 
 were from 50 to 100, or even 120, tons larger, the 
 comparison instituted becomes the more remarkable. 
 
62 
 
 MY FATHER. 
 
 In these successes of my Father, the people of 
 Whitby felt an universal and exciting interest, for 
 most of the principal inhabitants, as well as a large 
 body of those in the middle and lower classes, were, 
 more or less, directly or indirectly, participators in 
 the gains of the whale-fishery. But whilst all were 
 astonished at the results of enterprises so unques- 
 tionably due to an individual guidance, no small 
 number were moved to feelings of jealousy in con- 
 sequence of successes, to which the fruits of their 
 personal ventures in other ships bore no reasonable 
 proportion. The modes in which this baneful feel- 
 ing towards my Father was evinced, were as various 
 as they were sometimes annoying. At first, the 
 extraordinary results were ascribed to "luck;" and, 
 subsequently, when more than luck was too obvious 
 to be denied, the waning phantom of superstition 
 was resorted to in order to escape the commendation 
 of a frank acknowledgment of superior merit. Some 
 persons there were of an order of mind so simple, as 
 actually to believe what was jocosely told, that he 
 "knee-banded" a portion of fish in one year to faci- 
 litate the success of the next. Jeers and lampoons 
 were made use of as outlets for the expression of 
 narrow and jealous selfishness, — annoyances which the 
 substantiality of my Father's advantages enabled him 
 very well to bear, but which were often keenly felt 
 when played off against the less stern materials of 
 his amiable and tender-minded wife and susceptible 
 young family. 
 
EFFECTS OF JEALOUSY. 63 
 
 The working of this principle, in envious mani- 
 festations of word and feeling, presents a painfully- 
 characteristic fruit of human degeneration from ori- 
 ginal perfectness. And the manner and sphere of its 
 working yield very characteristic instruction on the 
 nature of the deteriorated mind. Mankind can well 
 bear, and be free to commend in generous frankness, 
 successful enterprise in other departments than that 
 of their own sphere. Nay, by a strange concession 
 of the secret mind, when under a disposition to with- 
 hold the meed of praise in the department which 
 trenches on self-interest, or self-consequence, we 
 find many disposed to bestow an utterly extrava- 
 gant measure of adulation, where it may be popular 
 to do so, on individuals and enterprises distinctly 
 separate and remote from interferences with them- 
 selves. But let a man be " ploughing in the same 
 field" of enterprise, or intelligent research; let the 
 admired results of the labour of one but stand out on 
 the sculptured tablet of fame in bold relief of the 
 mere groundwork surface of the other explorers of like 
 mysteries ; or let the profitable fruits of the industry 
 of one contrast with the sad failures or meagre successes 
 of others engaged in the self-same species of enterprise, 
 and then we shall find, more or less developed, among 
 the many whose efforts have been overtopped and 
 eclipsed, and among the multitudes, perhaps, associated 
 relatively or interestedly with the mortified competitors, 
 the feelings of envy and jealousy, sometimes of hatred 
 and malice, most sadly conspicuous and dominant. 
 
64 MY FATHER. 
 
 In my Father's case, where sometimes the owners, 
 captains, and crews of near a dozen ships sailing 
 from the same port had their most ardent enterprises, 
 year by year, altogether eclipsed by his superior suc- 
 cess, — and where, by reason of relative or interested 
 association, the majority of a town's population be- 
 came participators in the mortifying competition, — 
 the measure in which the ungenerous feelings might 
 possibly have their existence and impulses, may be 
 well imagined to have been very extensive. That it 
 was so in an extraordinary degree in the early progress 
 of my Father's adventures, and during many years 
 of his singular prosperity, every member of his family 
 had too painful evidence. 
 
 But as to the observant and intelligent classes 
 separate from this baneful prejudice, and as to some 
 of more dignified minds amongst parties who were 
 personally interested in whale-fishing concerns, the 
 character and merits of the subject of these records 
 were sufficiently appreciated and acknowledged. 
 
 The fame of his successes reached throughout the 
 commercial ports of the realm, and applications of a 
 very tempting nature came unsolicited upon him, for 
 transferring his guidance and energies to other asso- 
 ciates in Arctic enterprise, with encouraging promise 
 of far more profitable results. 
 
 My Mother, who was much attached to Whitby, as 
 a place of residence, viewed these repeated offers 
 with much anxiety, feeling that my Father's taking a 
 command elsewhere must involve her either in the 
 
EPISODICAL INCIDENT. 65 
 
 trial of leaving Whitby, or in the great inconvenience 
 of a much more considerable period of severance than 
 the mere Greenland voyage required, of the family 
 circle. For awhile her objections prevailed ; but 
 ultimately, as in another chapter we shall have to 
 record, these objections sunk under the advantages 
 elsewhere proffered. 
 
 Section IV. — Episodical Incident — the Rescue of 
 endangered Pleasurers. 
 
 Before carrying forward the records of my Father's 
 new adventures in a more promising field for his per- 
 sonal prosperity, I shall introduce an incident of a 
 very peculiar and interesting description, belonging 
 to the period, though not to the business of the 
 fishery, whilst he still held his command of the "good 
 ship" Henrietta. It occurred whilst the ship lay at 
 anchor, incidentally, in the river Tees, on one of her 
 most successful voyages, homeward bound, when I 
 was myself on board. Though I was but a child, I 
 remember the time well. The novelty of my posi- 
 tion in being taken on shipboard by my Father, when, 
 a few days before, he had been on shore at Whitby, 
 and the interesting circumstance, to me, of the capture 
 of a small sand-bird, which I anxiously fed and endea- 
 voured to keep alive, made an indelible impression 
 on my youthful recollection. The incident, however, 
 constituting the present story, I did not well under- 
 stand till long afterward, but which I now record with 
 
66 MY FATHER. 
 
 much confidence of being substantially correct in 
 every detail, from hearing it repeatedly related in 
 after-life. 
 
 The incident consisted in the interesting: and cn-ati- 
 fying circumstance of the saving of the lives of two 
 individuals moving in an upper sphere in society, by 
 my Father's habitual facility and accuracy in the use 
 of the pocket telescope, and by the information derived 
 therefrom being made use of with his characteristic 
 forethought and energetic promptness of action. 
 
 The success of the voyage had been such that the 
 largest amount of whales yet captured in the then 
 progress of the fishery, being twenty-five in number, 
 had enriched by their produce this single adventure. 
 Beyond the capacity of the casks taken out for the 
 reception of the cargo, a large quantity of blubber "in 
 bulk," or in massive flitches, had been stowed on the 
 top. The draught of water of the ship, thus unusually 
 loaded, was found on their arrival in Whitby Roads, 
 which was just after the spring-tides had passed off, 
 to be too great for the flow in the harbour. Whilst 
 waiting the advance of the succeeding spring-tides, 
 therefore, the ship was taken northward to the river 
 Tees, the nearest accessible port, and a supply of 
 empty casks sent thither by a small coaster, whereby 
 the men were usefully and savingly occupied through- 
 out the interval in chopping up the loose blubber, 
 from which its valuable contents in oil were perpe- 
 tually oozing out, and securing it from further waste 
 in the auxiliary casks. 
 
EPISODICAL INCIDENT. 67 
 
 Whilst this operation was still in active and greasy 
 progress, my Father, in walking the deck, remarked 
 on a large patch of sand, about a mile from the ship, 
 a gig, occupied by a gentleman and a lady, driving 
 pleasantly up and down. The day was fine, and the 
 recreation of driving on a smooth and extended surface 
 of sand, so singularly firm that the wheels did not 
 penetrate beyond the slightest impression, was very 
 enjoyable. But, as it soon appeared, and as my Father 
 providentially anticipated, it was by no means — on the 
 place selected — a safe recreation. 
 
 The bank of sand referred to, of which there are 
 many such within the wide extent of the Tees, ap- 
 peared uncovered at about half ebb, and became 
 accessible soon afterward by the drying of a slightly 
 depressed channel lying betwixt it and the shore. 
 Previous to this time of tide the party had been 
 driving nearer the fields ; but tempted by the fine 
 smooth expanse of surface of the outer sand, and en- 
 couraged by its admirable firmness on trial, they 
 forthwith limited their driving to the breadth of the 
 continuous surface, and continued to enjoy themselves 
 in this recreation and their social converse, uncon- 
 scious of danger, till after the tide had long been 
 rising. 
 
 My Father, who continued observing them anxiously 
 with his glass, had noticed the rapid rising of the 
 tide, which he soon found was entering the channel, 
 and separating them unconsciously from the shore. 
 Engrossed as they seemed in their pleasant recreation, 
 
68 MY FATHER. 
 
 he inferred, and that justly, that their lives would soon 
 be imperilled. Anticipating the danger, he ordered 
 a boat to be got ready to push off at a moment's 
 notice, should the absorbing inattention of the 
 strangers continue. At length he saw that they had 
 become aware of their position, and were driving their 
 vehicle into the narrow channel into which the tide 
 had recently flowed. With palpitating anxiety he 
 perceived that the water was deeper than they had 
 imagined, and that the previously firm ground, dis- 
 integrated by the action of the tide, had turned into 
 the treacherous quicksand. He then saw the horse 
 take alarm, the gig sink down to the axles of its 
 wheels, and the lady and gentleman jump out in 
 obvious terror behind, and with difficulty regain the 
 broad surface of the yet dry, and, happily for them, 
 firm sandbank. 
 
 Promptly he summoned the crew of the boat, whom 
 he had previously advised of the probable result of 
 this adventure, and sent them off with the urgent and 
 stimulating command, "Pull as for your lives, or they 
 will be lost ! " Bravely and humanely did the sailors 
 perform their cheerfully undertaken task : every nerve 
 was strained to give speed to the boat, whilst the 
 steersman, as he is wont in the pursuit of the whale, 
 no doubt urged their nervous and energetic efforts by 
 the oft-reiterated cry "Give way! Give way, or they 
 will be lost!" 
 
 With intense anxiety and interest my Father 
 watched every oar's stroke in the progress of the boat, 
 
RESCUE OF ENDANGERED PLEASURERS. 69 
 
 and every action of those whose rescue he sought. 
 He marked the gradual rise of the tide, till it just 
 washed the highest part of the surface on which the 
 dismayed party now stood. He perceived that the sand 
 became softened, and that they began to sink; but, 
 with a well-tutored judgment, he marked also, to his 
 heart's great joy, that the boat would be in time. It 
 approached them as they were gradually sinking, when 
 the lady threw herself forward in the water to antici- 
 pate the rescue, and both in a few moments exulted, 
 with nervous trepidation, in their now conscious safety 
 from a justly-dreaded watery grave. It was a touch- 
 ing, heart-stirring result, realized as well by the author, 
 under Providence, of the timely relief, as by the gene- 
 rously sympathising sailors and the parties themselves. 
 
 They were of course conveyed at once to the safety 
 of the proximate shore, and, being landed there, the 
 seamen returned to look after their horse and gig, 
 which were all but submerged. The horse, with no 
 small difficulty, they got disengaged from its entangle- 
 ment with the vehicle, which, fortunately, had still 
 energy enough left to enable them to swim it to the 
 shore. The gig was then sought after, secured, and 
 floated to the same place of safety. And, ultimately, 
 the horse was reharnessed by their active aid ; and 
 the two individuals, Avho had experienced such a 
 providential rescue, drove forthwith away from the 
 scene of this memorable adventure. 
 
 The gentleman was found to be a Mr. M , 
 
 nephew to a dignitary of the Cathedral Church at 
 
70 MY FATHEK. 
 
 York ; his companion, Mrs. S , a lady of fortune. 
 
 The wife of the one, I understood, and the husband of 
 the other, were also spending the morning together 
 mutually reciprocating in a social drive; but they had 
 chosen the common road of the highway, and, of 
 course, ran no risk of a similar adventure. 
 
 One would have been glad to have had to record, 
 in connection with such an unusual incident, that the 
 preservation from a premature death, by the sailors' 
 cheerfully devoted energies, had met with something 
 like a grateful recognition of the service rendered. 
 The only acknowledgment, however, which was made 
 for this timely and momentous aid, whereby a carriage 
 and horse, besides the lives of two individuals in a 
 genteel position in society were saved, was the re- 
 ward of a guinea to be divided amongst the whole 
 boat's crew. The high-minded philanthropist feels 
 sufficient reward in the satisfaction of being privi- 
 leged to be the instrument of yielding distinguished 
 benefits to his fellow-creatures ; but every right- 
 minded person loves to see some fitting evidence of 
 a grateful apprehension of benefits conferred. As to 
 the paltry offering to the sailors, I remember my 
 Father being grieved and vexed, — vexed that they 
 should have condescended to accept any reward, 
 where the offering, in reference even to the efforts 
 made, much less to the service conferred, was so 
 contemptible. As for my Father himself, the oppor- 
 tunity of saving the lives of two of his fellow-crea- 
 tures was the source, in itself, of fervent and per- 
 
THE GREENLAND DOCTOR. 71 
 
 mauent satisfaction, affording him, no doubt, one of 
 the most peculiarly pleasant and grateful recollections 
 of his adventurous life. 
 
 Section VI. — The Greenland Doctor. 
 
 Some circumstances of a more playful nature be- 
 longing to the period embraced by the present 
 chapter may here be introduced, with a view to 
 vary and perhaps enliven these parental records. 
 
 The subject I select belongs to the history of a 
 kind of steward-surgeon, — the humble class of medical 
 practitioners usually employed at the period of my 
 Father's early career, being designed, on the one 
 part, to fulfil the technical requirements of the law, 
 that a whale-ship claiming the advantage of the 
 Government " bounty," must carry a surgeon ; and, 
 on the other part, to gratify the officers in the cap- 
 tain's cabin by the improvement of the common 
 culinary operations of the ship's cook, by the hands 
 of the doctor or second-mate acting as cabin-steward 
 and pastry-cook. To my Father's credit, however, 
 it should be stated, that he was the first, as I have 
 understood, who sought out a more fitting person for 
 this department, and, obtaining a medical student 
 from Edinburgh, employed him strictly as a medical 
 officer, and gave him the advantage of a gentleman's 
 position. 
 
 On one occasion, during the period referred to, 
 my Father had not succeeded, when the time for the 
 
72 MY FATHER. 
 
 arrangement became pressing, in engaging a surgeon 
 for the voyage. Hearing, however, of a person 
 living in a village near Whitby, who had, according 
 to repute, sundry qualifications appropriable to the 
 station as its duties were then ordered, my Father 
 sent to inquire whether he would like a situation, 
 the emoluments of which might far exceed his usual 
 earnings from a multifarious profession. The " doc- 
 tor," (as we shall hereafter call him,) forthwith pro- 
 ceeded to Whitby, and, on being particularly ques- 
 tioned as to his various capabilities, gave a most 
 ample schedule of the duties he was qualified to un- 
 dertake. He could bleed and draw teeth — the two 
 essentials for the surgeon; — he could shave and dress 
 hair — the qualifications of the barber ; — he could 
 make pastry and bake — the chief requisites of the 
 cabin cook. 
 
 But, in order to his passing the mustering-officer 
 of the Customs, a medical certificate, to be obtained 
 only by personal examination, he, somewhat to his 
 discomfiture, was told would be requisite. After some 
 consideration, as to the difficulties of such an ordeal, 
 and the probabilities of failure or success, he expressed 
 his willingness to submit to an examination. What- 
 ever his anxieties might have been, in prospect of the 
 trial, my father could hardly be less solicitous than 
 the doctor himself about the result, as the sailing of 
 the ship might possibly be delayed if the present 
 candidate for the post of medical-officer should fail. 
 
 An appointment was forthwith arranged for this 
 
THE GREENLAND DOCTOR. 73 
 
 serious affair, Doctor R , of Whitby, being the 
 
 examiner, and the Angel Inn, the place for the 
 exercise. My Father, who had accompanied his 
 candidate officer to the place of meeting, sent him, 
 under guidance of a waiter, to a private room, where 
 
 Dr. R was waiting for him, wishing him, with 
 
 no small measure of anxious misgivings, good-luck 
 in his examination. But the doctor was a ivise man, 
 and his simple-minded forethought did him essential 
 service. 
 
 In a very few minutes, to my Father's much sur- 
 prise and disappointment, as he naturally anticipated, 
 the doctor returned " How is this?" he exclaimed, 
 " What is the matter, that you have returned so 
 soon ?" " Oh," said the doctor, with a curious mix- 
 ture of expression of subdued happiness and self- 
 sufficient gratulation, "it's all over — I've passed." 
 "Passed!" ejaculated my Father, "how is that pos- 
 sible? Doctor R had no time to examine you." 
 
 The doubt was settled by the handing over of a slip 
 of paper containing a sufficient certificate. All curi- 
 osity to know how such an issue could have been 
 attained in so limited a space of time, my Father 
 impatiently asked, " But how was it, doctor ? How 
 were you examined ?" 
 
 The doctor described the scene, as I well remember 
 my Father's account of it, in about the following 
 terms :— " When I went to Doctor R.," said the now 
 happily appointed surgeon, " I spoke first; I said to 
 him, Doctor R , the long and the short of the busi- 
 
 E 
 
74 MY FATHER. 
 
 ness is this — if I can do no good, I'll do no harm. 1 ' 9 
 " Then/' after a moment's pause and consideration, 
 with some little expression of cool surprise, as the 
 candidate described it, " Then," replied the exa- 
 miner, " you'll do better than half the doctors in 
 England;" and, without a word more, he proceeded 
 to write out a certificate. 
 
 Anecdotes of the doctor were not unfrequently 
 told, with evident pleasant recollections, by my Father, 
 who seemed, in an unusual degree, to have exercised 
 a playful pleasantry with this simple-minded officer of 
 many departments. 
 
 The cookery he managed with a fair measure of 
 ability; and the breakfast cakes, though not always 
 so fair as they might have been, were sufficiently 
 enjoyable in comparison of hard coarse biscuits. 
 But a little disrelish was threatened by an acci- 
 dental sight of the process of cake-making, which 
 it required the full measure of indifference to trifling 
 unfitnesses among the sailors of the mess to get over. 
 One morning, early, my Father happened to pass by 
 the place where the doctor was industriously pre- 
 paring the paste for the oven. To his surprise he 
 observed, and uttered an exclamation expressive of 
 the surprise, that the hands of the manipulator of the 
 elements of bread were not only unwashed, but most 
 remote from the ordinary colour belonging to clean- 
 liness. The doctor bore the exclamation with the 
 coolest perseverance, and without even lifting his 
 
THE GREENLAND DOCTOR. 75 
 
 eyes from the bowl in which he was mixing the 
 materials, contented himself with remarking, in re- 
 duplication of expression, the but ill-consoling fact, 
 as to the effect of the operation on his hands, " the 
 paste will clean them ! the paste will clean them ! " 
 
 The doctor was ambitious of practice in shooting, 
 and fond of embracing occasions for the purpose. 
 Whilst the ship was incidentally lying close beset 
 in the ice, without the possibility of any movement 
 being effected, my Father, on one occasion, be- 
 thought himself of an enlivenment of the general 
 depression incident to such a situation, at the ex- 
 pense of the simple-hearted, good-natured doctor. 
 For this he made the fitting arrangements, and then, 
 calling up the doctor, pointed him out a dark-looking 
 object, apparently a seal, lying at some little distance 
 from the ship, and asked him if he would like to go 
 and try to shoot it ? The proposition was too plea- 
 sant to the doctor's wishes to be rejected, and pre- 
 parations were forthwith made by the bringing up 
 of two guns, with the requisites for loading, upon 
 the deck. My Father took one of the guns to load, 
 handing over the other to the doctor for the same 
 purpose, and then they descended upon the ice, which 
 afforded a sufficiently firm footing for their travelling 
 to the place where the object of the contemplated 
 sport was seen. 
 
 As they proceeded, my Father favoured the doctor 
 by offering him the first shot ; but supposing his own 
 
76 MY FATHER. 
 
 gun might suit the doctor best, being a finer and 
 lighter piece than the other, he proposed an exchange, 
 which was readily and thankfully accepted. 
 
 Coming near the place, they saw the dark-looking 
 back of the creature plainly appearing, with an occa- 
 sional slight movement indicative of wakefulness, 
 behind a small hummock of the ice; then advancing 
 cautiously, till almost within shot, my Father sug- 
 gested that the doctor should creep forward, in 
 shelter of the hummock, till he got the animal suf- 
 ficiently within command of his gun. Having 
 attained the requisite position, my Father, in an 
 audible whisper, cried, "Now, doctor, now's your 
 time !" The doctor having anxiously taken his aim, 
 and satisfactorily covered the creature with his gun, 
 fired, when, instead of a seal, up started one of the 
 seamen, uttering a terrific shout of " Murder ! mur- 
 der ! I'm a murdered man !" My Father joined in 
 the exclamation of horror at what the doctor had 
 done ; and the doctor turning ashy pale, his knees 
 tottering and his teeth chattering from terror, had 
 well nigh fallen insensible under his acute emotions — 
 emotions aggravated in intenseness of anxiety, by 
 the cries of the other seamen now rushing in a body 
 to the place, to see the sad catastrophe of " a man 
 shot in mistake for a seal by the fool of a doctor." 
 
 Happily for the dismayed and suffering sportsman, 
 the catastrophe, though almost too painful as a joke, 
 was soon proved to be exaggerated and unreal, by 
 the supposed wounded seaman throwing aside the 
 
THE GREENLAND DOCTOR. 77 
 
 deceptive character he had assumed, and coming 
 forward to join in the laugh against him. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to mention that the whole 
 affair was contrived, and that, by the changing of 
 guns, my Father had secured the well-charged one 
 of the doctor's, and replaced it with one abundantly 
 furnished with powder and wadding, but devoid alto- 
 gether of deadly shot. 
 
 It is seldom that practical jokes go off so well; 
 for few persons will be content to be made the dupe 
 for others' entertainment. The potion, therefore, that 
 we should not like to have given sportively unto 
 ourselves, we should be cautious in administering 
 to others. Manifold cases of very serious mischief, 
 extending even to results fatal to human life, have 
 arisen from the unfitting or unseasonable playing off 
 of practical jokes. In the case which I have ventured 
 to describe, however, there was little risk. The posi- 
 tion of the author of the joke in respect to that of 
 its subject, on the one part, and the good-natured 
 simplicity of character of the subject on the other, 
 afforded, together, a sufficient security against any 
 essential mischief. Perhaps, too, where an entire 
 ship's company were in much depression of mind, 
 by reason of the alarming and tedious besetment 
 under which they were suffering, a beneficial and 
 redeeming effect was, on the whole, realised. For 
 the doctor himself, so far from cherishing any painful 
 or unkindly feelings on account of the part he had 
 unconsciously played in the little facetious drama, 
 
78 MY FATHER. 
 
 was too happy in being relieved from the temporarily 
 imagined misery of having, whilst seeking sport, de- 
 prived a fellow-creature of life. So effective, indeed, 
 did this influence react upon his feelings of anxiety, 
 that he himself joined in the general hilarity as 
 heartily as any of his amused shipmates. 
 
 Section VI. — Taming of a Bear — Interesting 
 Recognition. 
 
 The Polar Bear is popularly known as one of the 
 strongest and most ferocious of that class of animals 
 which shrinks not from voluntary conflict with man. 
 The species is often met with, sometimes in consider- 
 able numbers, upon the shores of the Arctic lands, 
 and within the region of the ices of the Greenland sea. 
 It not unfrequently occurs of the length of seven or 
 eight feet, and four or five feet high, weighing as 
 much as a small ox. Specimens whose skin measured 
 twelve to thirteen feet in length, have been described 
 by voyagers. The "paw of the bear," of which there 
 is Scriptural mention, may, in the full-grown animal, 
 as now met with, be from seven to nine inches in 
 breadth, and large enough to overspread two-thirds of 
 a square foot, or more, of the snowy surface on which 
 it treads. Hence its admirable adaptation for the 
 region in which Providence has placed its abode. 
 
 Of this animal the Arctic whaler has frequent 
 opportunities of making captures, and, sometimes, of 
 adding a stirring variety to the ordinary scenes of 
 
TAMING OF A BEAR. 79 
 
 conflict and adventure. My Father's experience, 
 whilst affording many examples of the former result, 
 had a reasonable share of the latter. It is to a special 
 case, however, as indicated in our head-title, that the 
 present record relates. 
 
 On one occasion, when a female bear with cubs had 
 been attacked, one of the young ones was taken alive. 
 It was a fine, and, for a cub, well-grown animal. 
 When first taken on board, it was temporarily secured 
 on an unoccupied part of the deck, but in a place 
 near to which my Father had incidentally to pass. 
 Whilst thus passing, inconsiderate about any risk of 
 assault, the animal very unexpectedly made a spring 
 at him, but fortunately, checked by his rope, failed 
 in the ferocious intent. This circumstance suggested 
 the idea, which he soon proceeded to carry out, not 
 only of chastising, but of subduing the captive animal. 
 The proceeding adopted was as follows : — 
 
 The rope already encircling the neck of the bear 
 was put through a ring-bolt on the deck, and the 
 head was thereby drawn so closely down as to limit 
 its capabilities of extension within the range of a 
 few inches, or perhaps about a foot. My Father then 
 took his station in a secure position, and held out 
 his hand invitingly towards it, an action which the 
 irritated creature retorted by a furious roar, and 
 attempt to bite. This act he rebuked by striking it 
 over the snout with the fingers, closely compacted, 
 of one of his hands. At each blow, attempts were 
 vainly made to catch and tear the audacious instru- 
 
80 MY FATHER. 
 
 ment by which Bruin was thus being chastised. But 
 after very many repetitions of the now keenly-felt 
 strokes of the hand on this tender place of the head, 
 and after as many failures, on the part of the chas- 
 tised creature, in his endeavours to retaliate, the bear 
 began evidently to feel a commanding influence, as 
 indicated by the frequent effort to avoid the coming 
 blow. Occasionally, however, he would renew his 
 attempts to bite, roaring, with an obviously mixed 
 expression of ferocity and pain. Perseveringly, as 
 the bear continued to resist, the same chastisement 
 was regularly administered, till at last, the recently 
 intractable animal began to be subdued under the 
 master-power with which he struggled. 
 
 The effect of the process was, from time to time, 
 tested, by holding out a finger near to the creature's 
 face. If it attempted to bite, the chastisement was 
 continued until, on the application of the test, there 
 was either a quiet submission, or a turning away of 
 the head. Ultimately the animal was made acquainted 
 with our accustomed modes of expressing approbation, 
 by being patted on the neck or side of the head; and, 
 then, as often as it rebelled, the usual punishment was 
 renewed, and, whenever it indicated submission, it 
 either received the former token of approval, or the 
 more substantial and intelligible reward of being 
 fed by the hand by which it had been wont to be 
 chastised. 
 
 The thorough subjection, indeed, of this naturally 
 ferocious creature was soon effected, — within the 
 
ESCAPE OF THE BEAR. 81 
 
 space, I believe, of two or three days, — and from 
 that time forward my Father's command over it was 
 uniform and supreme. Nor was the kindness with 
 which he treated the captive lost upon it; for it yielded, 
 as occasions permitted, very decided indications of 
 an inversion of its ordinary vicious propensities in 
 respect to its considerate master. Two illustrative cases 
 belong to this record. 
 
 On the arrival of the ship in port, bruin was re- 
 moved to the oil-yard, — the premises on which the 
 blubber was landed, in order to its being reduced into 
 marketable oil. Its arrival became a subject of 
 popular interest, and the inhabitants of Whitby 
 flocked out in masses to see it. 
 
 Whilst so situated, the bear, somehow or other, 
 obtained his release, and escaped into an adjoining 
 covert, — " Cockmill Wood." The incident soon be- 
 came known at Whitby. A wild and dangerous 
 animal — now rendered supremely ferocious by reason 
 of the almost perpetual teazing to which he had been 
 subjected from his numerous visitors — at large, within 
 a mile or so of the town, and in a wood intersected by 
 a much-frequented footpath, proved the occasion of 
 great and general excitement. Men and lads, assisted 
 by dogs, and armed with guns and a variety of other 
 destructive weapons, were speedily in progress, and 
 with overwhelming superiority, towards the retreat of 
 the bear, with a view to its destruction. 
 
 Happily for poor Bruin, my Father got timely inti- 
 mation of the circumstance that had occasioned so 
 
 b2 
 
82 MY FATHER. 
 
 much alarm. He proceeded forthwith to the oil-yard, 
 where he provided himself with a short piece of rope, 
 and then climbed the cliff into the wood in search of 
 the stray animal. Guidance was sufficiently afforded 
 by the stream of persons flowing towards the place of 
 his retreat, and, on nearer approach, by the noise and 
 clamours of the assemblage. 
 
 It was a curious scene. A motley crowd of men 
 and boys and dogs formed, at a respectable distance, 
 a curvilinear front, with the surprised object of attack 
 quietly standing in the focus. Fortunately no blood 
 had yet been shed ; no wounds or bruises yet given. 
 It was the important moment of mutual reconnois- 
 sance. It might have been a question how the creature 
 should be dealt with? Whether he should be sum- 
 marily attacked with fire-arms, or, by the help of the 
 restrained dogs, his recapture attempted ? 
 
 Any doubts which might have thus occasioned the 
 desirable delay were now speedily settled. My Father, 
 with only the rope in his hand, made his appearance. 
 He passed through the ranks of the would-be warriors 
 in the contemplated fight; when, to their utter amaze- 
 ment, and to the no small alarm of many, he proceeded 
 without hesitation forward. Speaking to the bear, in his 
 usual manner, as he approached, and walking straight 
 up to him, face to face, he patted the shaggy neck, as 
 he placed a prepared noose of the rope around it, and 
 then quietly led away the furious brute, which, under 
 his commanding guidance, became as tractable as a 
 lap-dog ! 
 
INTERESTING RECOGNITION BY THE BEAR. 83 
 
 The other incident connected with this animal is 
 worthy of record, being, if somewhat less adventurous, 
 not less curious. 
 
 The care-taking and maintenance of a now con- 
 siderably grown Polar bear soon became matter of 
 inconvenience. It might, there is little doubt, have 
 been sold advantageously for being itinerated as a 
 show about the country; but my Father imagined a 
 destination for it, where it would be better cared for, 
 by having it deposited along with the wild beasts in 
 the Tower. 
 
 It being ascertained that the contribution would be 
 very acceptable, the bear was embarked in a coaster. 
 On its arrival in the Thames, it was received in a 
 manner befitting its importance and security, and 
 safely transferred to its final destination. 
 
 It was about a twelvemonth or more, I believe, 
 after Bruin's regular installation among the wild 
 beasts of the National collection, that my Father, 
 happening to be in London, determined on taking 
 a look at his old acquaintance, Bruin. Proceeding 
 to the Tower, he paid the usual entrance-fee, and 
 without intimating anything about his special object, 
 took the course through the collection, like other 
 visitors, as guided by the exhibitor. 
 
 His eye being wistfully directed in advance of his 
 position, he at length got sight of the looked-for 
 object; when, breaking away from those pursuing the 
 prescribed progress, he hurried directly up to where 
 his ursine friend was encaged, A warning cry came 
 
84 MY FATHER. 
 
 urgently from the keeper, who had noticed his near 
 and bold approach to a place of danger — " Take care, 
 sir, that is one of the most ferocious animals in the 
 collection;" but it was disregarded. My Father only 
 paused, whilst, by his familiar and accustomed salu- 
 tation, — " Poor Bruin ! poor fellow !" — he gained the 
 attention of the animal, when, catching its eye, and 
 perceiving he was recognised, he went quietly up, 
 thrust his arm through the cage, and, whilst he patted 
 the neck and head of the evidently delighted creature, 
 received a species of fawning response, which was 
 eloquently interesting and touching. The keeper, who 
 had rushed forward on witnessing the daring intrusion 
 on the interior of the bear's cage, now stood fixed 
 in almost speechless astonishment. At length, lifting 
 his hands with a characteristic indication of his ex- 
 treme amazement, he exclaimed, — " Why, sir, I never 
 saw the like of that all the days of my life ! " 
 
 The subjection of the wildest and most ferocious 
 animals to the authority of man is not so much, we 
 may observe, the result of man's superiority as of the 
 Creator's special appointment. It was His design and 
 command, in respect to the inferior creatures, that 
 this should be so. The superiority appointed origin- 
 ally to Adam was, that he should "have dominion 
 over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, 
 and over every living thing that moveth upon the 
 face of the earth." But the appointment, which was 
 simple and natural when all was innocency, was after- 
 
SUBJECTION OF ANIMALS TO MAN. 85 
 
 wards renewed, we find, under a new influence, that 
 of fear, specially induced on the general constitution 
 of the animal creation. For among the blessings 
 graciously assured by the Almighty to the righteous 
 Noah and his sons, on their descent from the Ark, 
 we have this pervading influence set forth in these 
 characteristic terms: — " The fear of you, and the 
 dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, 
 and upon every fowl of the air ; upon all that moveth 
 upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea : 
 into your hand are they delivered." — Gen. ix. 2. 
 
86 
 
 Chapter III. 
 
 THE SHIP "DUNDEE," OF LONDON. 
 
 Section I. — Entrance on, and General Results of, 
 this New Command. 
 
 The aversion of his wife to a change in the port of 
 sailing, though it might retard, did not prevent my 
 Father's ultimately making that change. He had 
 been applied to by letter, and with reiterated urgency, 
 and offers of additional advantages, by a mercantile 
 firm in London (Messrs. Edward Gale and Sons) to 
 take charge of a ship of theirs, which they were 
 anxious to employ in the northern whale-fishery. 
 But, finding that the applications by letter failed, or 
 at least led to no satisfactory result, one of the prin- 
 cipals of the house determined on an application in 
 person, — an undertaking, at that time, involving a 
 most troublesome and tedious journey, — and, totally 
 unexpected, made his appearance at the residence 
 of our family in Whitby. 
 
 The circumstance of Mr. Piper's early consideration 
 for, and confidence in, my Father, on an occasion which, 
 under the Divine blessing, proved the turning-point 
 of his fortune in life, had induced a feeling of regard 
 and gratitude so decided as to become strongly re- 
 sistant of the temptation to change. But, on the other 
 
NEW COMMAND. 87 
 
 hand, he had long felt dissatisfaction at the abridgment 
 of some allowances and perquisites enjoyed by his 
 predecessor in command, and promised to himself, 
 which, though of but small consideration in the meagre 
 extent of the former wonted success, had accumulated, 
 in the estimation made year by year during his extra- 
 ordinary successful career, to a very handsome amount, 
 in money value. His repeated remonstrances at this 
 deprivation and injustice being always met with a 
 "Pooh, pooh! be content; you have done very well," 
 — no doubt served greatly to weaken the binding in- 
 fluence of ties otherwise so decidedly felt, and frankly 
 acknowledged. Hence, from an unwise and ungene- 
 rous policy, which, in the course of six years had 
 deprived my Father of a sum amounting, as he calcu- 
 lated, to about 3001. out of his rightful earnings, the 
 alliance previously existing betwixt himself and the 
 owners of the Henrietta, was, with due and honourable 
 notice on his part, brought to a conclusion by the visit 
 and liberal proposals of Mr. Gale. These proposals, 
 as I have understood, involved a new and additional 
 advantage to the commander, in a per centage upon 
 the value of the cargo obtained, together with the 
 proffer of a small share in the concern, on terms at 
 once equitable and easy. On this encouraging basis 
 an arrangement was forthwith made with the house 
 which Mr. Gale represented, for the command, by 
 my Father, of the Dundee, of London, a ship much 
 larger and finer than the Henrietta, on a whale- 
 fishing adventure in the Greenland seas. 
 
88 MY FATHER. 
 
 In the spring of the year 1798, the Dundee, accord- 
 ing to the arrangement made, was, after being strength- 
 ened and fortified for the navigation of the formidable 
 ices of the north, fitted out, and set forth on her first 
 voyage to the fishery. The result far more than 
 realized the hopes and expectations of all the parties 
 interested in the adventure; for, in a surprisingly 
 short interval of time, the return of the Dundee to the 
 Thames was announced, with the exulting and almost 
 incredible report, that she brought the spoils of no 
 less than six-and-thirty captured whales ! The report 
 proved true; and, although many of the whales were 
 of small size, yet a quantity of produce, in oil and 
 whalebone, such as no other adventurer had hitherto 
 obtained, was yielded by this extraordinary "catch." 
 
 During subsequent adventures, with but one excep- 
 tion in a series of five years, my Father's high repu- 
 tation for pre-eminent skill and success, was amply 
 maintained. In one of these voyages (that of 1801) 
 twenty-three whales were captured, which yielded 
 the previously unequalled qiiantity of 225 tuns of 
 oil;* and the voyage following, which terminated his 
 command of the Dundee, produced twenty whales, 
 yielding 200 tuns of the best kind of train oil, with a 
 proportional weight of whalebone. 
 
 These voyages were not only unequalled in the 
 
 * Up to the end of the eighteenth century ray Father's successes, 
 with but rare exceptions, were at the head of the list of the whole of 
 the northern whalers, both of Davis' Strait and Greenland. But about 
 this period Captain Marshall, in the Davis'- Strait branch, began to take 
 the lead of all competitors there. 
 
DANGEROUS ACCIDENT. 89 
 
 Greenland whale-fishery in their measure of success, 
 but likewise in the quickness with which they were 
 accomplished. Ordinarily, my Father's ship, not 
 sailing earlier than his competitors in general, not 
 only brought home the largest cargo of any in the 
 fleet, but returned amongst the soonest. The pro- 
 duce in oil, therefore, partly from the freshness of the 
 blubber when it was brought to the "coppers," and 
 partly from the care taken, under his direction, in the 
 process of boiling, was, as I have advisedly designated 
 it, of the best quality. 
 
 Section II. — Dangerous Accident — Admirable 
 
 Tact. 
 
 Whilst pursuing for a long series of years, so 
 adventurous a profession as that of the whale-fishery, 
 accidents of a peculiar nature were not unfrequently 
 occurring. On such occasions, my Father's prompt- 
 ness and judiciousness of action were as admirable as 
 they were characteristic. 
 
 But leaving such incidents, as far as may be, to 
 their place, chronologically, in our present Memorials, 
 we adduce here a single example, which may serve 
 at once to illustrate and to justify this observation. 
 The case, indeed, though pertaining to his professional 
 pursuits, did not occur when at sea; but during the 
 process of reducing the blubber of the whale into oil, 
 after the return of the ship into port. 
 
 The ship Dundee, whilst commanded by my Father, 
 
90 MY FATHER. 
 
 had but recently returned from one of her usually 
 successful voyages, and was laid, for discharging at 
 the quay, in Blackwall Dock, near to the premises in 
 which the oil was being boiled. My Father, during the 
 most active part of the operations of discharging and 
 boiling, was in the habit of sleeping on board the ship; 
 and, at the time of the accident referred to, I, then a 
 boy, happened to be with him. Sometime during the 
 night, we were all awoke by loud and fearful shrieking, 
 from the direction of the boiling-house. My Father, 
 instantly apprehending some accident there, jumped 
 from his bed, and, just as he was, flew up on deck 
 and over the ship's side, and in a few moments of 
 time was at the spot from whence the shrieks pro- 
 ceeded. The idea that had at once flashed upon his 
 mind was appallingly realized. One of the poor 
 fellows, engaged at the reducing of the blubber, was 
 in the condition of being dragged out of the boiling 
 cauldron by his associate in the work ! 
 
 My Father's most powerful helping hand was 
 opportunely available, and, with the quickness of 
 thought, he plunged the appalled sufferer into a large 
 cistern of cold oil and blubber, resting on the plat- 
 form above the copper, — a cistern, or " beck," as it 
 is called, out of which the contents of the copper, 
 after being boiled and emptied, were to be renewed. 
 In this most appropriate bath, the poor fellow was for 
 a considerable time kept immersed. My impression 
 is that he was kept there until means were obtained 
 for his removal; and then he was conveyed, without 
 
ADMIRABLE TACT. 91 
 
 further delay, to the London Hospital. His life, 
 notwithstanding the terrible severity, was thus happily 
 saved. My Father's conduct was highly commended 
 and applauded by the medical staff of the Hospital, 
 both for his discernment of the best treatment, 
 perhaps, which could have been administered, and for 
 his so promptly giving the sufferer the advantage of it. 
 
 The cause of this appalling accident, was, I believe, 
 the breaking of the staff of the stirrer, which the 
 night-watch over the boiling was required to have 
 continually in motion, to prevent the " finks" (the 
 cellular substance of the blubber) sticking to the 
 bottom or sides of the copper when boiling. By the 
 sudden failure of the staff, against which he pressed 
 his shoulder, he was projected forward, but, provi- 
 dentially, not so as to fall headlong, — his effort to 
 recover himself so far succeeding as to cause him to 
 plunge feet foremost, whilst he sunk, on attempting 
 to reach the shelving side of the copper, up to the 
 waist in the horrible bath ! 
 
 I yet remember, young as I then was, the return 
 of the debilitated but happy sufferer, after his dis- 
 charge, "as cured," from the Hospital. The man, 
 whom I had known familiarly as a stout, lively, good- 
 natured fellow, was now reduced into a mere shred — 
 a poor, pallid creature, an almost skeleton of a man ! 
 But his ultimate restoration, I believe, was quite 
 complete. He knew and appreciated the wisdom 
 with which he had been treated — he felt and ac- 
 knowledged that to my Father, under Providence, 
 he owed his life. 
 
92 MY FATHER. 
 
 Section III. — TJie Dandy Sailor; or, " Fine 
 Tommy. " 
 
 In this connection, whilst now story-telling, we 
 may perhaps, as fittingly as elsewhere, introduce a 
 little record, very often told by my Father, for en- 
 forcing a moral lesson in respect of a species of folly 
 which we often witness, and from which some of my 
 young readers, peradventure, may not find themselves 
 entirely devoid. 
 
 If the sacrifice of personal comfort to the tyranny 
 of fashion appeared to my Father a great absurdity; 
 much more did the risking of health for the indul- 
 gence of personal conceit in dress, or the braving of 
 severity of climate, inadequately clothed, from the 
 vanity of singularity in hardiness, seem to him as 
 the very summit and extravagance of folly. 
 
 It was in support of his views on this particular 
 subject, when conspicuous instances of such folly 
 happened to come before him, that my Father was 
 wont to tell, as an impressive warning, the instructive 
 story of " Fine Tommy." 
 
 Fine Tommy, who had acquired this appellation 
 by particularity and almost dandyism of dress when 
 at sea, was a smart and well-looking youthful sailor, 
 who had shipped himself with my Father in one of 
 the voyages in which he commanded the " Dundee." 
 His personal conceit, so unusual with the thorough- 
 bred sailor, was nevertheless associated in him with 
 such a measure of activity and seamanlike acquire- 
 
FINE TOMMY. 93 
 
 ments, as to save him from that ridicule of his asso- 
 ciates, which in any other case would have been 
 excessive, if not intolerable. Whilst the temperature 
 of the weather was but moderately severe, his ap- 
 pearance on deck in a smart light shore-going jacket, 
 exposed him to little damage beyond the playful 
 salutations of his comrades, — salutations which he 
 was wont good-humouredly to return by speaking 
 with indifference of the hitherto experienced cold, 
 and ridiculing the feminine weakness of a premature 
 muffling of the person with pea-jackets, huge boots, 
 comforters, and mittens. 
 
 During most of the progress of the ship northward, 
 Fine Tommy continued successfully and proudly to 
 brave, as I have just intimated, the gradually increas- 
 ing cold, and that without material inconvenience 
 or damage. But at length, when the region of ice 
 had been some little way penetrated, the previously 
 prevailing southerly or temperate wind happened to 
 shift during the night to the northward, which, with 
 a fresh blowing gale, brought a rapidly lowering 
 temperature, approaching the zero of the thermo- 
 metic scale. The ship soon became covered with 
 ice, and a chilly penetrating " frost-rime " powdered 
 the hair, or (as in some cases acloptedj the rough 
 wigs of the sailors. Before Fine Tommy's watch 
 was called, — for there were usually three watches in 
 the whale ships, affording eight hours below alter- 
 nately with four upon deck, — the extreme change, 
 almost from a bearable frostiness to the greatest 
 
94 MY FATHER. 
 
 severity of cold, had taken place. He, incredulous 
 of the influence as well as unconscious of the change 
 that had taken place, came up in his usual clothing, 
 a thin jacket, light shoes, and uncovered hands. 
 Now jeered by his watch-mates as to his perception 
 of cold, he determinately faced the chilling blast, 
 renewing his bravadoes of indifference of feeling 
 even to the then prevailing severity. This lasted 
 during his two watches for the day. All hands 
 besides were muflled up in every species of warm 
 clothing, whilst Fine Tommy still walked the deck 
 and performed his various duties with no other pro- 
 tection against the really Arctic severity of cold than 
 aforetime. 
 
 On the calling of the watch the following morning, 
 however, Fine Tommy did not appear. The next 
 day, too, he was absent from his station. When 
 his turn came to take the helm he was not there. 
 Enquiry was made, and my Father found, as he 
 had well predicted, that Fine Tommy was ill, and 
 obliged to keep his bed. Day after day, and week 
 after week, passed over, and the absent one was still 
 unseen. Even months passed over until the voyage, 
 which had been prospered with splendid success, 
 was approaching to a close, so that the attainment 
 of a temperate latitude and a return of warm weather 
 had begun to cheer our northern adventurers with 
 the prospect of a speedy realization of home enjoy- 
 ment, when, like the hybernating insect revived by 
 the genial influence of the summer sun, Fine Tommy 
 
FINE TOMMY. 95 
 
 was also resuscitated ; and the long prostrate and 
 once foolish defier of the Arctic climate appeared 
 again upon deck to breathe the restorative air as it 
 came pure from the grand repository of the atmo- 
 sphere, instead of the defiled and mixed vapours of 
 the 'tween decks of a whale-ship. 
 
 The lesson thus impressively taught was often read 
 in my hearing; the application, in some cases, pos- 
 sibly, might be intended for myself. If one was seen 
 wading, as it were, in mud with a pair of light shoes 
 inadequate for defence either against cold or wet, — 
 the admonition or remark was ever prompt, " it 
 would be well to mind Fine Tommy." If a fashion- 
 able "dandy" coat, in the days of dandyism, were 
 worn in the severity of winter; if a dress insufficient 
 for protection or warmth were, by either sex, ob- 
 served to be worn; if the outside of a coach were 
 mounted without an adequate covering, or a ride in 
 an open carriage undertaken with only the habili- 
 ments usually worn in walking, the monition became 
 natural, as the moral was apt, — " to remember Fine 
 Tommy." Whenever, too, I have myself remarked 
 the analogous folly, every where, indeed, more or 
 less observable, of risking health or abandoning per- 
 sonal comfort to appearance or fashion, the moral of 
 this very lesson has constantly been forced on my 
 recollection, tempting to the relation of the story, 
 in order to the more impressive effect of the warn- 
 ing, — "Remember Fine Tommy!" 
 
96 MY FATHER. 
 
 Section IV. — Unfortunate Voyage, and Adventure 
 in the Greenland Ices. 
 
 One of my Father's voyages in the Dundee, and 
 but one in the various ships he commanded for a 
 period of upwards of a quarter of a century, com- 
 mencing with the year 1792, proved a failure. The 
 failure, however, arose from one of those incidental 
 circumstances of climate, on the one part, and neglect 
 of a principal officer, on the other part, which no 
 human foresight could have anticipated, or human 
 skill or diligence have remedied, after the perilous 
 character of the ice-entanglement became clearly 
 apparent. 
 
 This misadventure occurred, singularly enough, 
 when I happened, though only a boy of ten years of 
 age at the time, to be of the number of the souls on 
 board. On the invitation of my Father, who had 
 landed from his ship in passing Whitby, on his pro- 
 gress northward, to take leave of his family, I had 
 gone off with him, designing to return by the pilot 
 boat, to see the ship. I was astonished with what 
 I saw; I explored with unmixed delight every acces- 
 sible compartment of the cabins and store-rooms 
 below, and conceived an irresistible desire to remain 
 where I was, and go out on the voyage. At length 
 the call of the pilots for " Master William," as the 
 day advanced to its close, put my desire to the test of 
 practicability. For a while I remained silent below, 
 and when silence was no longer likely to be available, 
 
UNFORTUNATE VOYAGE. 97 
 
 I contrived the child-like device of hiding my hat, 
 which, on ascending the companion ladder bare- 
 headed, I let it be understood I could not find ! My 
 Father having noticed my delight, and interpreting 
 rightly the little device, remarked to the pilots, — 
 "Don't mind him; he will go along with us." A 
 mother's anguish, however, who loved me with the 
 tenderest and most ardent affection, flashed into my 
 mind. It forced utterance in the expression, — " But 
 what will my Mother say?" The reply, curiously 
 enough regarded as being consolatory, sufficed to 
 allay my scruples, — " She will love you better when 
 you come back!'' The pilots still urging haste in 
 . my embarkation, as the boat was thumping heavily 
 against the ship's gangway, were at length made 
 sensible of what they at first could not credit, that 
 I was to remain behind; and they set out for the 
 shore in no small condition of amazement, and with 
 no slight feeling of sympathising embarrassment, on 
 account of the report they must yield to one, whom 
 they sufficiently knew as an anxious, susceptible, and 
 affectionate mother! 
 
 But my own story must be here suspended, as it 
 possibly may hereafter find a place, if Providence 
 yield me health and life for the undertaking, in the 
 series of the " Memorials of the Sea," which, some- 
 times, I venture to contemplate carrying on. 
 
 The leading incidents of this disappointing enter- 
 prise, I am enabled to give with a satisfactory measure 
 
 F 
 
98 MY FATHER. 
 
 of confidence, from a record made of it, many years 
 ago, in a private autobiography, from which, mainly, 
 I extract the following details. 
 
 After touching at Lerwick (Shetland), for the com- 
 pletion of our supplementary crew of boatmen, we 
 proceeded northward towards the usual whale-fishing 
 stations. On arriving in sight of Spitsbergen, and 
 finding the western coast accessible, with a vein of 
 clear water running continuously along shore, we pur- 
 sued the encouraging opening as far as the northern 
 headland of Charles Island, in latitude 78° 53' N. 
 Here, tempted by the clear water eastward, we 
 reached into a wide inlet near King's Bay, when, by 
 a sudden gale coming on from the northward and 
 north-westward, we were driven, encumbered by ice 
 of recent formation, and fragments of old ice, into 
 the opening betwixt the foreland and the main, where 
 the ship ultimately became closely beset in the Bay 
 of Birds of Barentz. 
 
 At first, the officers in general thought little of the 
 entanglement, expecting that any favourable change 
 of wind would serve to release us. My Father, 
 however, watching the augmentation in the thickness 
 of the ice, by pressure and frost, received, very early, 
 a more anxious impression. He had observed, indeed, 
 that the ice was not yet thoroughly sealed together 
 and fixed into an immoveable mass. For, periodically, 
 he perceived, that some relaxation in the compactness 
 of the general body of ices took place, which he 
 ascribed to the action of a tide ; and, on one evening, 
 
UNFORTUNATE VOYAGE. 99 
 
 before retiring to rest, when a fine breeze, favourable 
 for promoting an opening seaward had begun to pre- 
 vail, he rather confidently anticipated some relaxation 
 which might be available for our escape at the period 
 of the favourably acting tide. In this expectation, 
 he gave special orders to the chief officer, who had 
 formerly been a whaling commander, and ought to 
 have well appreciated the importance of the instruc- 
 tion, — to call him when the hoped-for relaxation of 
 the ice might take place. But, disappointingly 
 enough, he awoke of himself after a rather long 
 sleep, when, as his watch indicated, the time of 
 favourable tide must be passed. He anxiously dressed 
 himself and hasted upon deck; but, whilst much 
 slack and navigable ice was yet visible at some little 
 distance to the north-westward, all about the ship 
 was close and impenetrable. His enquiry as to 
 whether the ice about the ship had not also slacked? 
 led to the mortifying admission, reluctantly extracted, 
 that the ice had indeed slacked very near to the ship, 
 but, as was intimated in excuse, " it was so rank and 
 difficult that nothing could be done without ' calling 
 all hands,' and much trouble ; and he," the chief 
 mate, " thought it would perhaps be more cleared 
 away, by the hopeful breeze, by the time the Captain 
 turned out!" 
 
 The highly culpable folly of this conduct became 
 too soon apparent to all. For when an easterly, and 
 then a southerly wind blew, without inducing any 
 repetition of the slackness that had been missed: 
 
100 MY FATHER. 
 
 when we found the whole of the accumulated ices 
 frozen into a solid field, without crack, or opening of 
 any kind to be seen from the mast-head; when we 
 marked our position as deeply embayed within the 
 projecting headlands, and the ice everywhere wedged 
 up against and cemented to all the circumjacent 
 shores, — every one became anxious respecting the 
 success of the voyage, whilst some began to entertain 
 the depressing apprehension that the ship might 
 possibly be detained throughout the winter ! 
 
 The story of our distressing detention, with the 
 measures adopted partly for the employment of the 
 men, but which became ultimately available, even 
 beyond our utmost hopes, for facilitating our release, 
 is too long, — consistently with the extent designed for 
 this volume, and the completion hereafter, possibly, 
 of some personal records, — for being given in detail. 
 It may be sufficient, for our present purpose, now to 
 say, that after the endurance of the misery of an 
 eight weeks' besetment, release was happily attained, 
 and the Dundee was again free (but not until the 
 season adapted for the fishery had thus been all but 
 wasted) to range through any part of the ordinarily 
 accessible ocean. 
 
 Our course being directed towards the north-west, 
 we soon fell in with ships, and learnt that the fishery 
 had been tolerably good, and that two or three ships 
 had already obtained almost full cargoes. 
 
 Shortly afterwards we met with fish, and all hands 
 set forth in earnest anxious pursuit. But they were, 
 
UNFORTUNATE VOYAGE. 101 
 
 in fact, too anxious, and, in part, discouraged by the 
 idea that the season was about at an end. Their efforts, 
 in consequence, were ill directed or inadequately 
 followed up, and only mortifying failures resulted. 
 Stimulated by the defects and failures of his har- 
 poneers, my Father was induced to try the chase 
 himself. Forthwith taking his post at the bow of 
 one of the boats, he soon gave evidence of his supe- 
 rior efficiency. He " struck " whale after whale to 
 the amount of three; but not being adequately sup- 
 ported by the other boats, one of the first of these 
 escaped from the harpoon, under circumstances such 
 as, he considered, should have led to its capture. 
 Excited by this failure, he changed boats, in one of 
 the other cases, after the fish, under the first harpoon, 
 had reappeared at the surface; and, as the harponeers 
 generally seemed heartless and inert, he changed 
 again, after fastening another harpoon, until he had 
 planted no less than three or four harpoons, in the 
 same fish, with his own hands ! 
 
 The season, however, soon came to a close, and 
 these two whales, with a dead one which was also 
 discovered by himself, constituted the whole of the 
 Dundee's cargo in this trying year, — a cargo yielding 
 only five-and-forty tuns of oil, yet amounting, after 
 all, to nearly two-thirds of the general average of the 
 Greenland fishery. 
 
 Notwithstanding this serious abstraction from the 
 general average of his five years' adventures in the 
 
102 MY FATHER. 
 
 Dundee, my Father's general pre-eminence was, in 
 the issue, still maintained. During these five voyages, 
 ninety-four whales were captured, and an amount of 
 812 tuns of oil brought to market. The yearly 
 average, inclusive of the year of unavoidable failure, 
 was no less than 18*8 whales, producing 162*4 tuns of 
 oil, besides the fair proportion of whalebone, seal- 
 skins, etc. 
 
 Compared with the fishery from Hull and Whitby, 
 and, as far as my materials go, elsewhere, this result 
 was considerably beyond that of any other Greenland 
 whaler. With respect to the Hull average for the 
 same period, the Dundee's superiority was in the ratio 
 of 1624 to 77*5 tuns of oil, or more than two to one. 
 In comparison with the success of any other individual 
 ship, the Dundee still stood at the head of the list, — 
 the nearest approach in Hull being that of the 
 Ellison, a ship commanded, during four years out of 
 the five, by the same enterprising and talented officer, 
 Mr. Allan, as we had occasion to notice, so favour- 
 ably, in a former comparison. The Molly, Captain 
 Angus Sadler, — a hardy adventurous and able com- 
 mander, who, in subsequent years, became chief 
 amongst his competitors from Hull, — obtained, during 
 my Father's command of the Dundee, the next 
 highest amount of cargoes, — the total, in the five 
 years, being 689 tuns of oil. The Egginton, Wray, 
 (one voyage under another captain) obtained, at the 
 same time, 508 tuns; the Symmetry, Rose, 481 tuns; 
 the Fanny, Jameson and Taylor, 460 tuns ; the 
 
SUCCESSFUL STRATAGEM IN WAR. 103 
 
 Manchester, Matson, 417 tuns, etc.; — the Dundee's 
 cargoes, as has been shewn, being, in the same period, 
 812 tuns. 
 
 But, besides these comparisons, in all respects so 
 favourable, we may again venture, up to the end of 
 eleven years of consecutive adventures, to take the 
 severest test of competition; viz. a comparison betwixt 
 the Dundee's cargoes, and that of the select cargoes, 
 for the five corresponding years, of the most pros- 
 perous Greenland-man, from Hull, of each year. 
 And under this amount, being 806 tuns of oil, the 
 Dundee is found still to stand the first. 
 
 Section V ' .—Successful Stratagem in War. 
 
 An incident of a very stirring and exciting nature 
 occurred in the very outset of the unfortunate voyage 
 just referred to, which I here take occasion of intro- 
 ducing, as very characteristic of my Father's tact and 
 cool self-possession. 
 
 A day or two after leaving the coast of Yorkshire, 
 from whence I had myself embarked, — the weather 
 being fine with a brisk and favourable wind, and the 
 ship going steadily and swiftly under her ample and 
 well-trimmed sails, — all hands were set to work, my 
 Father superintending, in clearing the 'tween-decks 
 of a variety of stores hastily taken in, and confusedly 
 scattered about, in order to make all snug and secure 
 for the North-Sea passage. So much were all hands, 
 men and officers, engrossed by this important labour 
 
104 MY FATHER. 
 
 of clearance and order, that, some how or other, the 
 "look-out" had been for awhile neglected, when, 
 suddenly it was announced, by a voice calling out 
 from the deck at one of the hatchways — " a ship 
 bearing down close upon us ! " 
 
 It being a time of war, and the North Sea abound- 
 ing with ships of war and privateers of the enemy, 
 the announcement produced an instant suspension of 
 the work going on, and drew universal attention to a 
 circumstance which might possibly involve the safety 
 of life and property in the ship. 
 
 My Father's quick eye, and sure telescopic glance, 
 discovered at once the characteristic marks of an 
 enemy, and vessel of war. She was bearing down, 
 steering easterly, exactly so as to intercept our track, 
 but not on any of the courses usually steered either 
 for England, France, or Denmark. Already she had 
 approached within a little more than a mile of our 
 position, and so that in about a quarter of an hour we 
 must be within hailing distance. 
 
 With the promptness and coolness characteristic of 
 the Dundee's Commander, measures for self-defence, 
 and skilful stratagy, were arranged and progress 
 commenced. These measures, I conceive, are worthy 
 of some particular notice. 
 
 His habit, it should be observed, was to endeavour 
 to anticipate, in quiet contemplation, the various 
 contingencies pertaining to his enterprise, which, 
 peradventure, might be considered as not unlikely to 
 happen. The meeting of an enemy, therefore, was 
 
SUCCESSFUL STRATAGEM IN WAR. 105 
 
 one of those incidents that had been regarded as by 
 no means improbable, and the dealing with which, 
 by what ingenious tact or device might be available, 
 had been well considered. For to fight with an 
 enemy, where stratagy might answer for an escape, 
 was justly held as most unwise, where success in 
 conflict could gain no prize;* where failure must 
 issue in loss of property, voyage, and personal liberty; 
 and where either failure or success must probably 
 involve a loss of life, for which there was neither call 
 of duty to risk, nor possible compensation to justify. 
 
 Fortunately, had the extremity required, he was 
 in a position calculated for a brave defence. The 
 Dundee was as well armed as she was well manned, 
 carrying twelve guns, eighteen pounders, I believe, 
 with a crew of betwixt fifty and sixty men. The 
 guns were already loaded, and in every way fit for 
 immediate service. 
 
 The stratagy, in this case, contemplated, was to 
 give, to the threatening assailant, the surprise of a 
 concealed armament, and the impression as of a 
 designed deception in the class of ship assumed. 
 
 And fortunate it was, that there were circumstances 
 connected with the qualifications of the crew, and the 
 
 * Some of our readers may require to be informed, that an ordinary 
 merchant ship, not having "letters of marque" for acting as a privateer, 
 can have no claim on any property which the bravery of her captain 
 and crew might take from an enemy. So that, in the event of cap- 
 turing an assailant, as might have been possible in the case referred 
 to, the hard blows and damage must be borne by the merchantman, 
 whilst the prize would fall due to the first slu'p of war incidently met 
 with, or otherwise to the sovereign or public officers at home. 
 
 f2 
 
106 MY FATHER. 
 
 construction of the ship, admirably adapted for the 
 experiment proposed. For contemplating, as we 
 have intimated, such a risk as that now threatening 
 him, my Father had selected out of the variety of 
 hands offering themselves for the voyage, two men of 
 rather unusual qualifications, — one, who was an adept 
 in beating the drum, the other "in winding a boat- 
 swain's call." These qualities, amongst seafaring 
 men, being almost peculiar to classes employed in 
 vessels of war, induced a preference, in respect to 
 them, over others, though the drummer might by no 
 means be equal to some who were rejected, in regard 
 to general seamen-like attainments. 
 
 The construction of the ship, too, was well adapted 
 for the execution of the proposed surprise, being 
 " deep-waisted " with a high quarter-deck, and having 
 her guns entirely below, with no outward indication, 
 at a distance, of either ports or armament. 
 
 On the first alarm, the hands, with one accord, had 
 begun to swarm up on the deck, but their retirement 
 was promptly commanded. The men required for 
 the guns were sent to their quarters, with orders to 
 make all ready for action, but to lift no port. The 
 hands above, whilst requiring to move about, were 
 kept as much as possible on the leeside of the deck, 
 where, from the heeling of the ship and the enemy's 
 windward position, they were in sufficient conceal- 
 ment. The drummer and boatswain, now most 
 important elements in the plan, had their special 
 instructions, whilst the crew thus became generally 
 
SURPRISE OF AN ENEMY. 107 
 
 sensible, by means of the orders given, of the inge- 
 nious device of their commander, so as to be well 
 prepared to give to it its utmost impression. 
 
 Short as the time was, — the coolness of the com- 
 mander being communicated to the men, so as to 
 relieve the urgent haste from any embarrasing con- 
 fusion, — all arrangements had been completed before 
 the enemy came within hailing distance. At that 
 period (as apparently from the first), everything 
 visible on board the Dundee indicated an unconcerned 
 quietness, and utter unconsciousness of danger from 
 the stranger's approach. The men on deck were laid 
 down flat on their faces. My Father coolly walking 
 the quarter-deck, and the helmsman engaged in his 
 office of steering, were the only living beings who 
 could be discerned from the deck of the assailant. 
 
 Without showing any colours, in answer to our 
 English ensign waving at the mizen-peak, the stranger 
 came down to within short musket-shot distance, when 
 a loud and unintelligible roar of the Captain, through 
 his speaking-trumpet, indicated the usual demand of 
 the nation or denomination of our ship. A significant 
 wave of my Father's hand served instead of a reply. 
 The drum beats to quarters, and whilst the roll yet 
 reverberates around, the shrill sound of the boat- 
 swain's pipe is heard above all. And whilst the 
 hoarse voice of this officer is yet giving forth the 
 consequent orders, the apparently plain sides of the 
 ship become suddenly pierced; six ports on a side 
 are simultaneously raised, and as many untompioned 
 
108 MY FATHER. 
 
 cannon, threatening a more serious bellowing than 
 that of the now astonished Captain's trumpet-aided 
 voice, are run out, pointing ominously toward the 
 enemy's broadside! 
 
 The stratagem was complete; its impression quite 
 perfect. The adversary seemed electrified. Men on 
 the enemy's deck, some with lighted matches in hand, 
 and plainly visible to us by reason of her heeling 
 position whilst descending obliquely from the wind- 
 ward, were seen to fall flat, as if prostrated by our 
 shot; the guns, pointed threateningly at us, remained 
 silent; the helm flew to port, and the yards to the 
 wind, on our opposite tack; and without waiting for 
 answer to his summons, or venturing to renew his 
 attempt on such a formidable looking opponent, he 
 suddenly hauled off, under full sail, in a direction 
 differing, by some six points, from that in which he 
 had previously intercepted our track! 
 
 Section VI. — Extraordinary Exploit in " cutting -in , " 
 single-handed, a moderately-grown Young Whale. 
 
 The tardy formality with which the "flensing" of 
 the whale was accomplished, irrespective of the parti- 
 cular magnitude of the animal to be despoiled of its 
 blubber and whalebone, was frequently a source of 
 great annoyance to my Father. The number of cuts, 
 with the placing of straps, and attachment of tackles, 
 had become — like the skeleton forms issued by public 
 offices — an established system ; and, cumbrous as it 
 
EXTRAORDINARY EXPLOIT. 109 
 
 was, with respect to fish of smaller growth, it was 
 made generally applicable to all. The effect of this 
 was, that whilst the largest sized fish would be flensed 
 in about four hours, the taking in of one of the fourth 
 or sixth part its size would occupy nearly half as 
 much time. An hour and a half at least, but more 
 frequently two hours, at that period of the fishery, 
 would be expended upon one of the ordinary small- 
 sized whales. The poor little carcass, indeed, was en- 
 cumbered by the number of the harponeers (to whose 
 province belongs the fixing of the tackles and the 
 cutting away of the blubber) congregated upon, or 
 about it, whilst flensing. 
 
 As every instance of remonstrance, whilst failing 
 in producing any improvement, regularly induced 
 unpleasantness of feeling, my Father was at length 
 provoked to put forth a challenge, to which his 
 officers were able to offer no possible objection, 
 except the indication, by look and gesture, that 
 they would derive some recompense for the rebukes 
 passed on them, by certain and signal failure. His 
 adventurous challenge was, that, with the assistance 
 of only one-third part of the available crew, he 
 would go on a fish, and send it in, single-handed, 
 in half the time occupied by the four or six har- 
 poneers with the help of all hands ! 
 
 Opportunities for the experiment being at this time 
 abundantly afforded, he forthwith prepared himself 
 for this trial of skill. The available hands — that is, 
 excluding cook, steward, surgeon, etc. — were usually 
 
110 MY FATHER. 
 
 about forty-five or forty-six in number. Out of these 
 he took, not a picked set, but only two boats' crews, 
 with their supernumeraries, according to their existing 
 classification, comprising about sixteen men. These 
 he appointed to their several stations about the deck ; 
 eight to the capstan, four, perhaps, to the "crab" or 
 "winch," and the rest to manage the "tackle-falls," 
 to cut up the blubber and heave it into the "flens- 
 gut," or receptacle for it below. The two boys who 
 were appointed, on the usual plan, to hold the boat 
 in which he was to stand whilst flensing, were, per- 
 haps, extra; but this I forget. 
 
 Previous to the commencement of the experi- 
 ment, the preparing of his cutting instruments, viz. 
 a "blubber-spade" and "blubber-knife," became 
 matter of personal and special attention. The spade, 
 (an instrument with the cutting part about eight inches 
 broad, and used in the manner of the "hay-spade,") 
 was not merely ground to a fine edge and then 
 sharpened with an oil-stone, but the sides (ordinarily 
 left black with varnish, or encrusted with rust,) were 
 reduced by the grindstone to a bright and smooth 
 surface. His blubber-knife (an instrument with a 
 three feet blade and three feet straight handle) was, 
 in like manner, carefully ground, sharpened, and 
 polished; so that these instruments, presenting the 
 least possible resistance, from the adhesion of the 
 metal to the blubber, when in use, the muscular 
 strength of the flenser might, in no respect, be use- 
 lessly expended. 
 
EXTRAORDINARY EXPLOIT. Ill 
 
 All things being ready, and the men duly dis- 
 tributed, the time was noted, and my Father, single- 
 handed, as I have said, — except as to a man to put in 
 the straps* and attach the tackles, that he might not 
 have occasion to wet or grease his hands, — proceeded 
 to the trial on his apparently presumptuous challenge. 
 
 The plan he had previously determined on, and 
 which subsequently became very common in the 
 flensing of small fish, was the following: — 
 
 The under part of the head (always being placed 
 upward for flensing), with the jaw-bones, "lips," and 
 tongue, is first attached to the capstan tackle, and, 
 being separated as it is hove up, is taken on deck 
 altogether. Meanwhile the skull, with the whalebone 
 and upper part of the head, — which is brought in 
 sight, clear of the water, by the strain hove upon 
 the other section or lower jaw, — is secured by the 
 second tackle, and speedily made to follow its com- 
 panion in the ascent to the deck. 
 
 * Blubber-straps are usually made out of whale-line, but some of 
 thicker cordage, and consist of a length of about two fathoms for each 
 strap, the ends of which being spliced together, constitute a flexible ring 
 of rope. A hole being cut through the commencing end of the slip of 
 blubber to be raised, the strap, being of course double, is inserted 
 therein, and the two ends, brought together from the opposite sides of 
 the blubber, are looped over the hook of the tackle, and so the attach- 
 ment for heaving up made complete. It may here be added, that the 
 tackles for flensing are fixed aloft to a strong rope, along which the 
 blocks are distributed, extending (but not very tightly stretched) from 
 the mainmast-head to that of the foremast, called the guy. The consi- 
 derable height of this attachment of the tackles (or, technically, " speck- 
 tackles") permits a long slip of blubber to be hove up in continuity, 
 whilst the distribution of the blocks thereon admits of the two tackles 
 being worked either jointly or separately without interference. 
 
112 MY FATHER. 
 
 One of the fins, having a strap previously put 
 round it, is next hove upon, till (the fish being free 
 to roll over, so as to adjust its position to the direc- 
 tion of the strain,) it is well raised upward, and, the 
 blubber annexed to it, put upon the stretch. The fin 
 is then easily "unsocketed," and the blubber on the 
 seaward side being cut across beyond it, it becomes 
 the attachment for heaving up a long slip of three or 
 four feet in width, and extending, with its upper part, 
 high above the level of the deck. As this ascends, 
 (the fish meanwhile spontaneously "canting" out- 
 wardly from the ship), the other fin appears in sight, 
 and, being embraced by another strap, is, in its turn, 
 hove up by the " fore-tackle" correspondently, as 
 to its further progress, with its fellow. When the 
 attachment of the second, or fore-tackle, rises to 
 about the level of the deck, the blubber-slip is cut 
 across, just above the place of that attachment, and 
 the separated portion, being lowered down upon the 
 deck, is cut up, with singular celerity, into square 
 lumps, adapted for being easily thrown about by the 
 "pick-haak" men; and these, as rapidly as they are 
 cut out, are made to disappear through a hole in one 
 of the main-hatches into the flens-gut below. 
 
 The moment the first, or "after-tackle/' is re- 
 leased, it is overhauled again over the ship's side, 
 and, a fresh strap being fixed in the continuous slip, 
 (which, to preserve its continuity, is cut spirally from 
 the carcass,) the progress of the operation goes on, 
 without ceasing, till the whole superficies of blubber 
 is removed. 
 
EXTRAORDINARY EXPLOIT. 11 
 
 Q 
 
 The progress in the case referred to must, doubt- 
 less, have been regarded with strange feelings of 
 astonishment and mortification by the severely re- 
 buked harponeers; for, on the completion of the 
 operation, the watch being again appealed to, the 
 adventurous challenge was found to have been 
 triumphantly vindicated. Instead of the work being 
 effected, as challenged to be done, in half the time 
 which had been expended by thrice the force in the 
 number of men, it was found to have occupied but 
 little more than a third part of that interval. With 
 all hands to help, the time frequently expended by 
 the harponeers in flensing a small fish had been 
 nearly two hours ; my Father, with a third part of 
 the crew, had, single-handed, done the same thing in 
 almost forty minutes ! 
 
 This extraordinary feat of tact and strength was 
 first accomplished, I believe, during my Father's 
 command of the Dundee; but the feat was repeated, 
 under my own observation, on board the Resolution, 
 and the tardiness of a burdensome system, still too 
 prevalently acted upon by the officers, was similarly 
 rebuked. To the extent, at least of a saving of 
 one-half the time spent in the operation by the har- 
 poneers, the bold experiment, single-handed and 
 with but one-third of the crew, was successfully 
 repeated. 
 
 My Father's plan of proceeding, in this extraor- 
 dinary feat, is worthy of notice. His constitutional 
 
114 MY FATHER. 
 
 habit, as I may term it, of a sort of deliberate celerity 
 was here the characteristic of his progress. But no 
 time was wasted. As fast as the men on deck could 
 heave-up the blubber, the blubber was freed to their 
 hands. Every change of tackle, or place of working, 
 was so managed as to leave no interruption in the 
 labours of his men. As he never himself ceased 
 working, he took care by judicious preconsideration, 
 that they should never stand idle. On the contrary, 
 he had his own part always in advance of their 
 province, so that, in order to keep pace with him, 
 they were stimulated to the utmost practicable degree 
 of activity. The capstan, whilst the tackle was slack, 
 or the strain slight, actually spun round, whilst the 
 hands on it, "shortening in on the bars," ran at their 
 utmost speed. An instinctive spirit was infused into 
 every department ; for no section of the men liked to 
 be behind, so as to be in the humiliating position of 
 hinderers of the others. 
 
 Though the master-hand was accomplishing so much 
 in so short a time, — more, in this species of work, I 
 may be bold to say, than any other man ever did 
 before or since, — there was no appearance of hurry. 
 His sharp and finely-polished spade with which he 
 chiefly worked, seemed to meet with no resistance 
 from the animal textures against which its edge was 
 directed. Instead of cutting downward through the 
 blubber a spade-breadth at a time, as most usually 
 was done, he would run the instrument in a direction 
 obliquely horizontal, so as to separate the slip then 
 
EXTRAORDINARY EXPLOIT. 115 
 
 heaving up from the general envelopment of the 
 blubber, for a yard or two in extent, at a single stroke 
 or thrust of the instrument. The slight attachment 
 of the blubber to the muscles of the carcass could 
 then be usually torn away (with a touch underneath 
 with the spade when incidentally needful to be cut) 
 by the force with which the slip was being raised by 
 the mechanical engines in motion on the deck. 
 
 Thus proceeding with calm and quiet self-pos- 
 session, and with unceasing perseverance, few cuts 
 being made but at the best advantage, and no stroke 
 of his cutting-tools being struck in vain, the work 
 proceeded with such despatch as to accomplish the 
 extraordinary results we have just described. 
 
116 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 
 THE SHIP "RESOLUTION," OF WHITBY. 
 
 Section I. — Continued Prosperity : — the Results, 
 
 comparatively and generally, of this 
 
 fresh Enterprise. 
 
 The change of command which, in the progress of 
 our Memorials, comes now under consideration, was 
 brought about by two circumstances ; — the great in- 
 convenience of a family residence at Whitby, whilst 
 my Father was sailing from, and returning to, Lon- 
 don ; and the incidental formation of a co-partnery 
 at Whitby, which my Father was invited to join, for 
 the building and equipment of a new Greenland ship 
 from that port. 
 
 The advantages, in point of comfort and conve- 
 nience alone, were such as to render the change in 
 ship and port to which this scheme pointed, highly 
 desirable ; and most earnestly and imploringly was 
 the proposition of the parties at Whitby supported 
 by my long discomforted and pining mother. But 
 the conditions submitted to my Father were equally 
 acceptable. It was designed that the co-partnery 
 should consist of the holders of eight equal shares, 
 of 1000/. each ; that Messrs. Fishburn and Brodrick, 
 the designed builders of the ship, should hold two 
 
THE "RESOLUTION." 117 
 
 shares, five other inhabitants of Whitby, as arranged 
 among themselves, each a share, making seven, and 
 my Father the eighth. His wages and perquisites, 
 too, on the liberal and advanced scale as allowed him 
 by the Messrs. Gale, were to be continued. 
 
 Without difficulty, and with but little loss of time, 
 the arrangements were all completed, and the owners 
 of the Dundee, who were justly esteemed for their 
 honourable and generous dealing by their Captain, 
 had due and respectful notice given them of the 
 intended change, and were easily made sensible of 
 the propriety of it, as far as regarded his personal 
 well-being. 
 
 In the " Resolution," a fine, substantial, and in all 
 respects well-built ship of 291 tons burden, was com- 
 prised the property of the new co-partnery. The cost 
 of the ship, with casks and all other stores, was 
 632 11. 3s. \d. The provisions for the voyage, toge- 
 ther with insurance, and the advance wages usually 
 paid to the men, amounted to 1470/. 4s. Id. Thus 
 the total expenditure in preparation for the voyage 
 was 779 11. Is. 6d., leaving a small balance out of the 
 sum subscribed in the hands of the managers. 
 
 The proceedings on board the ship, with the re- 
 sults of this adventure, for, and during the whole time 
 of my Father's command (a period of eight years), 
 are in considerable detail before me, being comprised 
 in a regular series of journals kept by myself. For 
 young as I was when the Resolution commenced her 
 career of adventure — being then but thirteen — I was 
 
118 MY FATHER. 
 
 regularly installed, and by no means unwillingly, in 
 training for the whale-fishery as a profession, as one 
 of her apprenticed hands. 
 
 On the 21st of February, 1803, the ship was 
 launched, and duly "christened" the "Resolution;" 
 and on the 21st of March, she left her moorings in 
 the harbour and proceeded to sea. We made the 
 ice on the 2d of April ; on the 12th were in latitude 
 78° 40' N. in sight of the " Middle Hook of the 
 Foreland;" and on the 18th "struck" and killed our 
 first whale. The 20th was a prosperous day, for so 
 early a period of the season, adding two more large 
 fish to our commencing cargo. The 29th, however, 
 was very different, being a day of mortifying adven- 
 ture. We had obtained shelter, during a gale of 
 wind, under the lee-side of a "field," — a large and 
 continuous sheet of ice extending beyond the reach 
 of vision from the mast-head, — where several whales, 
 (chiefly old ones, with their cubs or calves,) were 
 met with. Four of them — comprising two old and 
 two cubs — were harpooned during the day. The 
 little ones, of but trifling value, were captured; but 
 both the "mothers" escaped. One of them had been 
 so energetically assailed as to receive four harpoons, — 
 a condition from which the capture generally results, 
 — when she made a most determinate advance beneath 
 and beyond the ice. She ultimately escaped, carry- 
 ing away with her a spoil (a painful and deadly boon, 
 indeed, to herself) of a harpoon, with twelve attached 
 lines, comprising a total extent of 1440 fathoms, or 
 
CONTINUED SUCCESSES. 119 
 
 about a mile and two-thirds, in measure ! The next 
 day, however, yielded us some compensation, in the 
 capture of another large fish, a result altogether not 
 a little inspiriting, where the attainment of an amount 
 of six whales, before the expiration of the month of 
 April, was a circumstance rarely, if ever, realized 
 before. Our thirteenth fish was killed on the 8th of 
 June ; but, though we persevered about ten days 
 longer, and had well nigh captured another fish, in 
 which two harpoons were struck, we made no acces- 
 sion to our not full, but, as the season went, most 
 satisfactory cargo. 
 
 In looking over my journal for materials for this 
 abstract, it was singularly interesting and pleasant to 
 the feelings to find, under date of the 27th of June, 
 when the good ship Resolution was on her homeward 
 passage, a written recognition, which I remember to 
 have received from my Father, of the Divine hand 
 and Providence in respect of the successes obtained. 
 It is comprised in this brief but appropriate Collect: — 
 " O most merciful Father, who of Thy gracious good- 
 ness hast crowned our labours with success, we give 
 Thee humble and hearty thanks for this, Thy special 
 bounty, beseeching Thee to continue Thy loving 
 kindness unto us, that we may enjoy the fruits of our 
 labours to Thy glory and our comfort, through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord, Amen." 
 
 The proceeds of this first voyage in oil were \Qo\ 
 tuns: the Whitby average of the same year (exclu- 
 sive of the Resolution's cargo) being only 62 tuns, 
 
120 MY FATHER. 
 
 and the greatest catch among the rest of the Whitby 
 fleet being eight whales, yielding 139 tuns of oil. 
 Hence, with relation to the average of the port, — 
 six ships, — my Father's success stood in the ratio of 
 2'8 to 1, or nearly three to one ! 
 
 But subsequent voyages — the next three especially 
 — proved regularly and increasingly prosperous; the 
 cargoes of the years 1804, 1805, and 1806, yielding 
 a produce of rather more than 600 tuns of oil, de- 
 rived from the capture of eighty-seven whales. The 
 entire proceeds of my Father's enterprises in eight 
 voyages, in this successful ship, amounted to 194 
 whales, yielding 1617 tuns of oil, or an average of 
 twenty-four whales and one-fourth, with 202 tuns of 
 oil per voyage ! 
 
 His competitors from the same port, during the 
 whole of this particular period, comprising 7 - 8 ships 
 a year, obtained, on the eight years' average, only 
 sixty- eight fish, yielding 646*4 tuns of oil ; whilst the 
 united cargoes of the most successful ship of each 
 year, amounted but to 138 whales, 1228 tuns of oil; 
 this select amount being exceeded by nearly a third 
 part, by my Father's individual catch; and the general 
 average being exceeded in the proportion of two and 
 a half to one ! 
 
 But it was hardly to be expected that, whatever 
 might be my Father's peculiar superiority, as com- 
 pared with the general body of competitors, no one, 
 out of many hundreds of different commanders, 
 should be found successfully to emulate, within a 
 
PRE-EMINENT SUCCESS. 121 
 
 long series of years, even his extraordinary enter- 
 prise. 
 
 Yet, closely as two or three individuals commanding 
 in the Greenland fishery might approximate, or occa- 
 sionally exceed, his successes, it is remarkable that 
 no one, within any of the periods of the Henrietta, 
 the Dundee, or the Resolution, or within the whole 
 period of nineteen years, ever went beyond him ! 
 
 My Father's most successful competitor, within 
 the longest period of cotemporary enterprise, ending 
 with the year 1810, was Mr. Angus Sadler, of Hull. 
 From 1796 to 1810 (fifteen voyages) they fished in 
 the same region, the Greenland Seas, my Father 
 obtaining 2693 tuns of oil, and Mr. Sadler 2539. 
 In the eight voyages of the Resolution, however, the 
 competition was singularly close ; Mr. Sadler bringing 
 home the produce of only two whales in number 
 less, and the exact same quantity (1617 tuns) of oil. 
 But, in this comparison, my Father was at great dis- 
 advantage from the inferior size of his ship, — the 
 Aurora, of Hull, which Mr. Sadler commanded in 
 several of his most prosperous voyages, being of the 
 burden of 366 tons, and the Resolution only of 291. 
 This difference of capacity was very important, 
 enabling Mr. Sadler, in two or three different voyages, 
 to bring home a quantity of produce exceeding by 
 some sixty or seventy tuns, altogether, the capabilities 
 of stowage of the Resolution, — which ship, five years 
 out of eight, having been what was called "a full 
 ship," might, no doubt, have obtained some greater 
 
 G 
 
122 MY FATHER. 
 
 cargoes, and, by consequence, a better position in the 
 competition, had her capacity been larger. 
 
 It falls not within my present province, nor within 
 the scope of my materials, to set forth the consider- 
 able successes of some other leading fishermen at the 
 time of the Resolution's enterprises. I may merely 
 notice, that Mr. Kearsley, of the Henrietta (trained 
 under my Father), was the most successful of the 
 other Whitby captains ; and that some enterprising 
 men, commanding ships out of Scotland, began now, 
 or soon after this, to take a high position in the 
 prosperous class. 
 
 The only other general competitor of my Father's 
 yet to be named, whose enterprises were cotemporary 
 during the whole or greater part of his career, from 
 1792 to 1810, was Captain John Marshall, of Hull. 
 Within the western field of Arctic enterprise — the 
 whale-fishery of Davis' Strait — Captain Marshall 
 stood pre-eminent. His successes there corresponded 
 very much with those of my Father in the fishery of 
 Greenland; and the total results did not materially 
 differ. Whilst my Father's successes yielded, within 
 the period referred to 2728 tuns of oil, Captain Mar- 
 shall's, though deprived of the chance of one year's 
 adventure in which he remained on shore, amounted 
 to 2691 tuns. Had the full nineteen years been 
 . completed, his successes would, probably, have been 
 the greatest. But the services, and the qualities 
 required for them, differ so materially, as not to 
 permit, in fairness, of an arithmetical comparison 
 
PRE-EMINENT SUCCESS. 123 
 
 of the mere quantities of produce. For success in 
 the fishery of Davis' Strait, at the time under con- 
 sideration, was a far more easy undertaking than in 
 that of Greenland. This fact is satisfactorily derived 
 from a comparison of the average success in the two 
 fisheries. In seventeen years out of the nineteen 
 under review, (there being no ship from Hull to 
 Davis' Strait during 1792 and 1793,) the average 
 success of 313 Greenland whalers from Hull was 
 a produce in oil of 84-4 tuns, whilst the mean suc- 
 cess of the Davis' Strait fishery, 190 ships, was for 
 the same period 124 "3, — indicating, most clearly, that 
 the latter fishery then afforded a better chance of a 
 cargo than the fishery of Greenland, in the ratio of 
 very nearly three to two ! * 
 
 Hence, my Father's success, when taken on the 
 most extensive comparison with the fishermen of his 
 day, stands decidedly conspicuous and pre-eminent. 
 And this pre-eminence, it should be noted, was not only 
 in the amount of the cargoes he obtained, but also in 
 the shortness of the time occupied in his voyages; for 
 whilst the general average of Greenland voyages of 
 this period (as indicated, at least, by the extensive 
 enterprise from the port of Hull,) comprised four 
 months and nineteen days, the average of my Father's 
 absence from sailing to his return was, in the Eeso- 
 
 * The proportion of profit, it may be noted, did not equal that of the 
 relative produce obtained from the two fisheries, in consequence of the 
 additional expenses of the Davis' Strait voyage, in respect of the time 
 absent, and of the higher premium required for insurance. 
 
124 
 
 MY FATHER. 
 
 lution's eight voyages, only three months and twenty- 
 eight days ! 
 
 It may not be uninteresting to some of our readers 
 to be informed, before we conclude this section of 
 results, of the actual realization in gross amount of 
 value, and in profits divided amongst the partners, in 
 this prosperous whale-fishing adventure. This, by 
 reason of a complete abstract of the payments and 
 receipts during the greater part of the Resolution's 
 career, I am enabled to give with perfect accuracy : — 
 
 PAYMENTS. 
 
 Expenses on First Voyage, including Outfit 
 of the Second 
 Ditto for Second Voyage . 
 Ditto for Third Voyage . 
 Ditto on Fourth and Fifth 
 Ditto on Sixth 
 Ditto on Seventh 
 Ditto on Eighth 
 
 RECEIPTS. 
 Proceeds of Cargo and Government Bounty 
 (20s. per ton on the ship's measure- 
 ment, or 291?.) on the First Voyage 
 
 Ditto, Second Voyage 
 
 Ditto, Third . 
 
 Ditto, Fourth and Fifth 
 
 Ditto, Sixth 
 
 Ditto, Seventh 
 
 Ditto, Eighth . 
 
 d. 
 
 . 4008 
 
 18 
 
 4 
 
 . 4476 
 
 o 
 
 6 
 
 . 4679 
 
 11 
 
 5 
 
 . 9216 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 . 5823 
 
 14 
 
 4 
 
 . 4729 
 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 . 4722 
 
 11 
 
 5 
 
 £ 37,657 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 Amount of Receipts 
 Ditto Expenses 
 
 Clear Profits 
 
 6864 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 6568 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 6287 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 0,428 
 
 7 
 
 11 
 
 7157 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 8275 
 
 14 
 
 G 
 
 8195 
 
 16 
 
 10 
 
 £53,777 
 37,657 
 
 9 11 
 4 2 
 
 £16,120 
 
 5 9 
 
PROFITABLE RESULTS OF ADVENTURE. 125 
 
 This balance I have stated as "clear profits/' be- 
 cause, in consequence of the perfect state of repair of 
 the Resolution, the large augmentation in the quan- 
 tity of her stores, and the increased cost of shipping, 
 the value of the ship (augmented by the charge of 
 outfit for the ninth voyage in the table of expenses) 
 was scarcely at all deteriorated. Hence we derive 
 for the clear profit on the original advance of 8000/., 
 — a capital still existing, — during eight years conti- 
 nuously, the sum of 2015/. 0-s. Sd. a year, or 25 per 
 cent per annum. 
 
 With this result, the enterprises of my Father in 
 the Resolution, of Whitby (influenced, in a consider- 
 able degree, I believe, by a kindly and parental con- 
 sideration for myself), concluded. For on the very 
 day on which I completed my twenty-first year, he, 
 at a Board of the co-partnery, specially summoned, 
 formally resigned his command; and, on the same 
 day, — the earliest at which, by reason of age, I could 
 legally hold a command, — I was unanimously elected 
 his successor. 
 
 Whilst thus retiring from the command of the 
 Resolution, my Father was by no means disposed to 
 abandon his stirring and highly remunerative occu- 
 pation. At the very period of his retirement, indeed, 
 the opportunity of a new and satisfactory connection 
 was, incidentally by my own medium, opened to 
 him, of which he forthwith availed himself. 
 
 But before entering on the relation of his subse- 
 
126 M? FATHER. 
 
 quent enterprises, we shall proceed, according to our 
 usual plan, to adduce a few incidents or circumstances, 
 illustrative, mainly, of character or talents, which are 
 associated with this period of our memorial history. 
 
 Section II. — Treatment and Recovery of a half- 
 frozen Seaman. 
 
 The peculiarity of the conflicts, and the severity 
 of the climate, encountered by the Arctic whale- 
 fishers, yield a characteristic novelty both to the in- 
 cidents and accidents of their adventure. So that, 
 although the incidents of whaling enterprise may, for 
 the most part, possess such general characteristics as 
 to admit of some classification among themselves, 
 they are at the same time novel, when considered in 
 relation to the results of ordinary adventure; whilst, 
 every now and then, an accident happens, or a cir- 
 cumstance is met with, which, taken on the broadest 
 scheme of comparison, is found to be sui generis. 
 
 Such incidents afford special occasions for the ex- 
 ercise of inherent science and originality of intellect 
 in those who have to deal with the results. And, 
 I may add, every accident or occurrence of this kind, 
 which claimed my Father's directing consideration, 
 was, in all cases that I ever heard of, dealt with in 
 a manner consistent with a condition of mind of 
 inexhaustible resources in itself. 
 
 Several cases of this description happened, whilst 
 I was myself present, during my youthful training as 
 
WHALE-FISHING ACCIDENT. 127 
 
 a seaman and a fisherman. The one referred to, in 
 the title of this section, was specially interesting. 
 
 Whilst the ship Resolution navigated an open lake 
 of water, in the 81st degree of latitude, — something 
 like the Baltic Sea in magnitude, — during a keen 
 frost and strong northerly wind, a whale appeared, 
 and a boat put off in pursuit.* On its second visit 
 to the surface the boat came up with it, and a har- 
 poon was securely struck. A convulsive and terrible 
 heave of its ponderous tail, which succeeded the 
 wound, struck the boat at the stern, and by its re- 
 action projected the boat-steerer overboard. As the 
 line attached to the harpoon drew the boat instantly 
 off, the crew threw some of their oars towards him 
 for his support, one of which he fortunately seized. 
 
 The auxiliary boats, as well as the ship, being at a 
 considerable distance, and the fast-boat being rapidly 
 drawn away from the imperilled seaman, the harpo- 
 neer, under the instinctive impulse of humanity, cut 
 his line with the view of yielding him succour. But 
 no sooner was the sacrifice made than, to the great 
 mortification of all in the boat, it was found to be 
 useless ; for, in consequence of the loss of oars, some 
 being thrown towards the sufferer, and some broken 
 or carried off by the stroke from the whale, the boat 
 had become altogether unmanageable ! 
 
 A considerable time elapsed before the headmost 
 
 auxiliary boat reached the place : happily they were 
 
 so far in time that the object of their anxious solicitude 
 
 * Given in substance in the "Account of the Arctic Regions," 
 vol. ii. page 360. 
 
128 MY FATHER. 
 
 still floated, stretched over an oar, whilst retaining 
 but little sensation. 
 
 On his arrival at the ship, being hauled up the 
 side by ropes, with judicious help from his comrades 
 in the boat, he was found to be in a deplorable con- 
 dition. His clothes were frozen like a casing of 
 mail, and his hair was consolidated into a helmet 
 of ice. 
 
 My Father, having ordered him to be taken into 
 the cabin abaft, gave his immediate attention, in 
 guidance and precedence of the ship's surgeon, in a 
 system of treatment which, under the circumstances, 
 was, perhaps, the most judicious that could have been 
 adopted. 
 
 Whilst placed on the cabin floor, where the tempe- 
 rature was moderate, but not high, the frozen clothing 
 of the patient was forthwith removed, and his person 
 dried with warm towels, and then industriously 
 rubbed, by two or three hands at a time, with well 
 heated coarse cloths and flannels. There being great 
 exhaustion, and all but a suspension of the circu- 
 lation, stimulating cordial was administered as he 
 was able to take it. 
 
 When the process of friction had been continued 
 until sensation began to be restored, and the general 
 faculties in some measure awakened, he was covered 
 with dry under clothing, and placed, amid an abund- 
 ance of warm blankets, in my Father's bed. After a 
 few hours' sleep he awoke considerably resuscitated, 
 but complained of a painful sensation of cold. 
 
INCIDENT IN THE FISHERY. 129 
 
 Some warm and nourishing diluents having been 
 given to him, he was conducted to his own berth, 
 and, with the view of removing his distressing feeling 
 of chilliness, two of his comrades were requested to 
 accompany him; where, one on each side, their 
 abundant healthful circulation and animal heat, 
 proved most effective in ministering, restoratively, 
 to these defects in the condition of the patient. 
 
 The shock on his constitution, however, was greater, 
 with respect to his apparent early recovery, than was 
 anticipated. He was so far restored, within a few 
 days, as to be able to engage in his usual duties ; but 
 months elapsed before his countenance exhibited its 
 wonted glow and appearance of health. 
 
 Section III. — Judicious Treatment of Men having 
 suffered from severe Exposure. 
 
 The Resolution was moored to a flat sheet of ice, 
 surrounded by streams and open drift ice, on the 30th 
 of April, 1808. It blew fresh, and the weather was 
 cold. In the evening a whale was harpooned, which 
 ran out about the length of a mile and a half of 
 line from the fast-boat. Other harpoons, and several 
 lances, were then struck, and no doubt remained with 
 the pursuers but that it would speedily become their 
 prize. But this expectation signally failed. A tre- 
 mendous and convulsive throe of the whale produced 
 an extraordinary effect : one of the lines, and also a 
 harpoon were broken, and the other two harpoons 
 
 g2 
 
130 MY FATHEK. 
 
 drawn out simultaneously, when, to the astonishment 
 of the beholders, the imagined capture was found, in 
 one moment, to have become free. It dived and 
 escaped! 
 
 A storm meanwhile had commenced. Five boats, 
 with their crews, remained for the getting in of the 
 long length of line run out from the first fast-boat, 
 whilst two, myself in one of them, returned to the 
 ship, in aid of the inadequate residue of men — for any 
 nautical operation — left on board. 
 
 Thick snow set in, the storm increased, and the 
 ship, being fast to a light piece of ice, drifted rapidly 
 to leeward, and away from the boats. We became 
 distressfully anxious about the safety of the absent 
 men. At one the next morning the mooring was cut, 
 and the ship being got under way, was worked on 
 short tacks to windward, in the supposed direction of 
 the boats. At three we were rejoiced by the appear- 
 ance of three of the boats, which, with crews un- 
 harmed, we got safely on board. The remainder, 
 they reported, might be expected by the same track 
 in half an hour. 
 
 Cheered by this hope, we continued making every 
 effort to get the ship to windward. But, long after 
 the time of their expected return, no other boat 
 appeared. Hour after hour of anxiety and distress 
 passed over whilst we navigated, off and on, among 
 troublesome and dangerous ices. Guns were fired 
 occasionally, and at every unoccupied iuterval all 
 hands were engaged in the one object which sym- 
 
INCIDENT IN THE FISHERY. 131 
 
 pathy urged — the straining of their eyes in the hope 
 of discerning the boats of their comrades through 
 the obscurity of the snow. The obscurity was not 
 attenuated; the storm raged, and the sea increased, 
 whilst a foreboding gloom appeared in every coun- 
 tenance, darkening and keeping pace with the dis- 
 malness of the night. The loss of one-half of the 
 Ipswich's crew on a similar occasion was yet fresh on 
 our minds, and low whisperings of expressions of 
 fear, and shuddering responses, indicated a pre- 
 vailing dread of a similar fate to their comrades. 
 
 At length, happy moment ! a little after eight in 
 the morning, a sudden shout of joy announced the 
 discovery of the boats, and in a few minutes we had 
 the undescribable satisfaction of seeing them along- 
 side. Aided by those on board with ropes and hands, 
 they were all, twelve to fourteen in number, received 
 safe on board, and welcomed with the most heartfelt 
 greeting by their truly exulting shipmates. 
 
 The natural desire and effort to get below, into a 
 place of genial warmth, both with the shivering 
 sailors and the sympathising people on board, was, 
 with most judicious consideration on the part of my 
 Father, restrained. The men had been suffering from 
 more than a twelve hours' exposure, without food or 
 adequate extra clothing, to cold and storm, — the thermo- 
 meter, which had been as low as 13 degrees, being still 
 8 or 10 degrees below freezing, — and many were par- 
 tially frost-bitten, and some stiff and half-paralyzed 
 with the severity of the weather. In this case, he wisely 
 
132 MY FATHER. 
 
 considered, that sudden transition to trie warm gal- 
 ley, and proximity to the blazing fire of the cabouse 
 below, might be productive of dangerous, possibly of 
 fatal, effects. He felt it was needful for their safety 
 that means should be previously adopted for restoring, 
 in some measure, the arrested or retarded circulation. 
 Stimulants, in a case of this kind, moderately admi- 
 nistered, were considered advantageous ; but friction, 
 and muscular exercise, much more essential to safety. 
 Those, therefore, whose hands or feet, or faces or 
 ears, had become white (like the appearance of a 
 tallow candle) by the utter abstraction of the blood, 
 had their frost-bitten parts actively and perse veringly 
 rubbed with the open hands of others, and the worst 
 cases with snow, until the endurance of the severe, 
 or even agonizing pain usually attending the reco- 
 very, when the repelled circulation begins to be 
 restored in the affected parts, had removed the risk 
 of mortification taking place. Others were variously 
 exercised, as they were able to make muscular efforts 
 of themselves, or with the assistance of others. Those 
 who were capable of the exertion were made to run 
 about the deck, chasing, or being chased, one by 
 another. And soon apprehending, as most of them 
 did, the wisdom of the measures adopted, they not 
 only entered into them heartily, but those who had 
 been the most affected, as soon as their limbs obtained 
 power for the exertion, were ready to join, or to 
 attempt to join, in the exercise and race, until some 
 glow of warmth, and consciousness of restored sensa- 
 
JUDICIOUS TREATMENT OF MEN. 133 
 
 tion, had taken place of the pre-existing chilliness or 
 insensibility. They were then, under strict cautions 
 against approaching at first too near the fire, suffered 
 to go below ; and, happily, under this wise and 
 effective treatment, all escaped without any perma- 
 nent injury. 
 
 A stout Shetland boy had well nigh fallen a sacri- 
 fice to the severity of the exposure. He expressed 
 a great desire, whilst abroad in one of the boats, for 
 sleep, and earnestly entreated the men, who objected 
 to the indulgence of the inclination, to allow him to 
 compose himself for half an hour, " for he was sure," 
 he said, " that he should dream of the situation of 
 the ship." After a few minutes' repose, which they 
 were induced to permit, he was awoke, but with 
 difficulty, and it required considerable attention on 
 the part of his companions to keep him from a sleep 
 which, under such circumstances, they well knew 
 must be the harbinger of death. 
 
 Other instances of the happy exercise of good 
 judgment in the treatment of men who had suffered 
 long exposure to cold and hunger, might have been 
 adduced had I particularly noted them. One other 
 case, though of no real danger, (occurring May 29th, 
 1809,) may be briefly mentioned, in which I was 
 personally a participator. 
 
 It was blowing a fresh gale from the north-east, 
 with strong frost, thermometer 20°, but the sea was 
 not very considerable because of the sheltering in- 
 
134 MY FATHER. 
 
 fluence of surrounding ice. Two whales were cap- 
 tured; but one of them dying at a great depth under 
 water, had to be hauled up by the united crews of 
 two or three boats, which proved a tedious and severe 
 labour. We were absent from the ship from four- 
 teen to sixteen hours, without food or shelter from 
 the inclement gale, sometimes lying inertly on our 
 oars waiting for the rising of the harpooned whales, 
 or for the hauling up of the sunken one to the sur- 
 face; and sometimes we were engaged in pulling 
 about, hauling in lines, or in "towing" the dead 
 fish to the ship. By the time we got on board we 
 were mostly in a state of considerable exhaustion, and 
 all were painfully suffering from cold and hunger. 
 
 My Father had considerately provided for our 
 return. Instead of the distribution of ardent spirits, 
 — the measure universally resorted to at this period, 
 with the view of cheering and restoring the depressed 
 energies of any long-exposed party of adventurers in 
 the boats, — a far better and more effective provision 
 had been made. A huge kettle of coffee was boiling 
 on the fire, which, with the usual supplies of bread 
 and beef, was distributed in ample quantity among 
 the half-starved party now returning; and a more 
 grateful or more salutary instance of administered re- 
 freshment I do not remember ever to have enjoyed. 
 The heat of this beverage, supplied as it was so 
 liberally to all, had the most happy effect in aiding 
 the restoration of the animal heat, and of exhilarating 
 without unduly stimulating the depressed physical 
 
the crow's nest. 135 
 
 condition of the men. The case afforded an ad- 
 mirable practical example of the correctness of the 
 principles generally asserted, in favour of simple 
 drinks over spirituous or fermented stimulants, by 
 the advocates of " Temperance." 
 
 Section IV. — Tlie Croiv's Nest. 
 
 The invention of the Crow's Nest in the form 
 now universally used by the British Arctic whalers, 
 and adopted generally by our discovery ships, de- 
 serves, from its convenience, comfort, and import- 
 ance, a special record. 
 
 For the safe and effective navigation of the Arctic 
 ices, as well as for a due watch being kept for the 
 discovery of whales, an elevated position on the 
 mast, as a station for the directing or "look-out" 
 officer, is absolutely necessary. In seas covered over 
 with numerous masses of ice, or in positions where 
 the navigation is at once encumbered, difficult, and 
 perhaps dangerous, it is impossible for the officer 
 on deck to perform the duty, at all adequately, of 
 directing the ship's course and progress. 
 
 From time immemorial, therefore, the captains of 
 whalers, or other acting officers, have always been 
 wont to take their station occasionally, and when 
 necessity required, at the mast-head, or rather on 
 the main top-mast " cross-trees." For the benefit 
 of a little shelter from the piercing breezes in this 
 exposed situation, some ships were provided with a 
 
136 MY FATHER. 
 
 canvas screen of about three and a half or four feet 
 in height, passed round the sides and fore-part of 
 the top-gallant rigging, from the top-mast cross-trees 
 upward. This, with a sort of wooden rail for a seat, 
 extending betwixt the aftermost shrouds of the top- 
 gallant rigging, afforded the best crow's nest hitherto 
 made use of; a shelter tolerably effective when the 
 ship was sailing by or near the wind, but altogether 
 useless when going with the wind abaft the beam. 
 It was not very safe either, as accidents from sleepi- 
 ness, or the giving way of the very inadequate seat, 
 sometimes happened. Besides, when top-gallant sails 
 were set, this contrivance was all but useless. But 
 a far inferior sort of protection than this was in fre- 
 quent or ordinary use at the time of my first expe- 
 rience in the Arctic seas. For years, I remember, 
 we had nothing more for sheltering behind but bits 
 of canvas on either side of the top-gallant rigging 
 and round the top-mast head, without anything in 
 front; and in some voyages still less, — a slip of can- 
 vas bound round the head of the top-mast and heel 
 of the top-gallant mast, spreading some eighteen 
 inches to two feet wide, and perhaps three and a 
 half feet high, being all that the poor officer had to 
 shield him from the most penetrating severity of the 
 Arctic winds. Often have I myself sat, when a little 
 boy, by the side of my Father for hours at a time, in 
 this wretchedly exposed position, shivering with cold 
 generally, and with hands and feet frequently in 
 severe pain, whilst he habituated me in his superior 
 practice of navigating amid dangerous ices. 
 
INVENTION OF THE CROW'S NEST. 137 
 
 The consequences of this deficiency of protection 
 were, — that the proper navigation of the ship was 
 often neglected, the discovery of many whales suffi- 
 ciently within view from thence was prevented, and 
 the success of the adventure was much restricted. 
 
 The greatest boon, therefore, of modern times, 
 ever given to the Arctic navigator, it may be safely, 
 I think, said, was my Father's invention of the round 
 top-gallant crow's nest. It was in May, 1807, I 
 believe, in which the first of these was built. It 
 was placed, in the first instance, at the top-mast 
 head, but ultimately, when the invention became 
 perfected, it was perched, like a rostrum, on the 
 head of the main top-gallant mast, with nothing 
 whatever above. 
 
 This structure, as most approved by the inventor, 
 is about four and a half feet in height and two and 
 a half in diameter. The form is cylindrical, open 
 above and closed below. The frame-work of the 
 cylindrical part is covered with leather or canvas. 
 The entrance is by a trap-hatch at the bottom. 
 Arrangements are made for the depositing (sheltered 
 from the weather) of various pieces of useful appa- 
 ratus, such as speaking-trumpet, telescope, signal- 
 flag, perhaps a rifle for shooting narwals, compass, 
 etc. For the more effectual shelter of the observer 
 when standing up, a moveable screen, two or three 
 feet wide and adding a foot to the elevation, is placed 
 on the windward side, and shifted whenever the ship 
 is tacked, or the course materially changed. 
 
138 MY FATHER. 
 
 The protection thus obtained from the chilling 
 action of the wind is most perfect. Not a breath 
 of air stirs within this elevated rostrum. The ob- 
 server has free use of all his limbs, and, being safe 
 from the possibility of falling, has nothing to disturb 
 him in giving his entire attention to the navigation 
 of the ship and the look-out for whales. Being 
 perched, too, on the most elevated part of the mast, 
 there is nothinsr to interfere with his view of the 
 whole area of the circle of vision, having, in clear 
 weather, a diameter of twenty to twenty-two geo- 
 graphical miles. So supported, and so effectually 
 protected, with the means of sitting, and space for 
 moving about when standing, there is no particular 
 hardship, in tolerable weather, in remaining at the 
 mast-head for some hours together. Often has this 
 elevated position been occupied by my Father, (and 
 often by myself, too,) during ten or twelve hours, 
 and sometimes fourteen hours or more, within the 
 twenty-four. 
 
 This invention has not only added unspeakably to 
 the comfort and security of the officer at the mast- 
 head, but has, no doubt, contributed greatly both to 
 the safety of ships navigating the Arctic ices, and, 
 in respect of its position for "a good look-out," in 
 no inconsiderable degree to the prosperity of their 
 adventures. 
 
 The attainment of this position during storm and 
 snow, or when the rigging, as not unfrequently hap- 
 pens, is covered with glassy ice, is the chief matter 
 
FITTING OF BOATS FOR THE FISHERY. 139 
 
 of discomfort, difficulty, and risk. The frigid north- 
 erly blast feels as if blowing quite through and 
 through you. The ascent, by the ordinary rigging 
 and ratlings, conducts you to about three-fourths of 
 the elevation of the top-mast; you then step into mid- 
 ships, upon a series of battens extending betwixt the 
 top-mast backstays; and, finally, when approaching 
 the cross-trees, you proceed up a vertically stretched 
 ladder of ropes and battens, — ropes on the sides, and 
 battens as steps, — until you make lodgment within the 
 crow's nest by the trap-hatch, which, being then put 
 down, forms a part of the close and secure platform. 
 
 Section V. — Extraordinary Celerity in preparing 
 an empty Boat for active Service in the Fishery. 
 
 In the celerity with which he accomplished com- 
 plex or tedious operations pertaining to seamanship 
 or the whale-fishery, my Father stood quite unrivalled. 
 We have elucidated this characteristic in a former 
 section, in respect to the flensing of a young whale 
 with extraordinary rapidity, and we now adduce 
 another example of a more incidental nature. 
 
 During the outward passage towards the fishing- 
 stations, the boats, designed for the fishery, are 
 carried out in an entirely dismantled state, — some 
 being stowed away upon deck, and some, perhaps, 
 below. On reaching the ice it is usual to suspend a 
 couple of boats, or more, by their davits, at the 
 quarters of the ship, to be ready for sealing, or any 
 
140 MY FATHER. 
 
 occasional purpose. But the whale-lines and other 
 fishing apparatus are not wont to be put into them 
 until the ship reaches, or approaches near to, some of 
 the accustomed fishing-stations. 
 
 The boats of the Resolution were in this second 
 condition on the 11th of April, 1808, when the ship, 
 in her progress northward, had reached the 71st 
 degree of latitude, — a parallel in which whales were 
 not expected to be met with. It happened, however, 
 on the occasion alluded to, (as I find it noted in 
 my log-book, kept at the time,) that a whale made its 
 appearance very near to the ship. It was in the 
 morning, early, whilst my Father was yet in bed; 
 but he was not called, because, in the unprepared 
 condition of the boats, the officer of the watch, and 
 indeed all the people on deck, considered the pur- 
 suit of it to be utterly impracticable. 
 
 My Father, however, as little trammelled in judg- 
 ment by ordinary usages as he was in the habit of 
 being guided by popular ideas of the limits of practi- 
 cability, was much annoyed by the officer's assump- 
 tion, which had prevented his being called. "It was 
 no use disturbing you," the officer pleaded, "as 
 there was not a boat in readiness for the fishery." 
 " But a boat might have been got ready," was the 
 confidently asserted rebuke. That this could have 
 been done, however, within the short period of time 
 in which a solitary whale might be expected to 
 remain within sight, seemed to the officers as utterly 
 impossible; for whilst a whale, under such circum- 
 
FITTING OF BOATS FOR THE FISHERY. 141 
 
 stances, would seldom be found to remain within sight 
 for half an hour, the preparing of the boats with 
 lines, harpoons, and other requisites for the fishery, 
 would, as they conceived, occupy several hours. 
 
 My Father maintained, however, the practicability 
 of a boat being fitted out, in a manner sufficient for 
 efficiency, in the course of a quarter of an hour; and, 
 when the idea was unhesitatingly objected to as an 
 impossibility, he undertook to prove his assertion. A 
 boat then hanging at the larboard quarter, empty, 
 except as to oars, he selected for an experiment, and 
 undertook, with the help only of the watch upon 
 deck, — about sixteen hands, — to have that boat ready 
 for active service within the space of fifteen minutes. 
 To the due apprehending of this unprecedented 
 undertaking, it will be proper to describe what is 
 ordinarily deemed needful for fitting out a boat for 
 the harpooning and capturing of the whale. The loose 
 furniture of oars, harpoons, lances, etc., present no 
 particular difficulty; but the supplying of an adequate 
 quantity of lines, and placing them in a condition for 
 being safely run out, is, as ordinarily practised, a 
 long and tedious operation. The lines, it may be 
 mentioned, are taken on board from their winter 
 storehouse, in coils made up by the ropemaker, in 
 the shape of a short drum, each coil weighing a 
 little more than a hundred-weight, and measuring 120 
 fathoms in length. They are so coiled, in regular 
 layers, commencing with that of the slender square 
 or cylindrical centre on which they are wound, that 
 
142 MY FATHER. 
 
 they may be either unwound, by reversing the 
 original motion of the coil from the exterior, or by 
 taking up the inner end left loose in the open centre, 
 the line may be drawn out thence whilst the coil 
 remains at rest. For the lodgment of the lines, when 
 deliberately preparing for the fishery, they are unrolled 
 from the cylindrical mass, and coiled in compartments 
 in the boats as they come off; but as this could not 
 be done under a period of some hours, the running of 
 the lines out of the centre of the coils was the plan 
 alone available for my Father's object. 
 
 Whilst every article of the requisite apparatus was 
 yet in the place of its ordinary lodgment, — harpoons 
 and lances being in the places appropriated for them 
 in the 'tween decks, and whale-lines in the gun- 
 room, — the time for commencing was noted, and my 
 Father proceeded, as I very well recollect witnessing, 
 to the proof of this new feat of activity and manage- 
 ment. 
 
 To the several hands of the "watch/' now gathered 
 round him, was distinctly apportioned his part of 
 the undertaking; first of all in bringing promptly on 
 deck the requisite quantity of whale-lines and fishing 
 apparatus, and then in placing them fit for service. 
 Several lines (I think about four in number) were 
 stowed away in different compartments of the boat, 
 with the interior cavity of each upward. The inner 
 end of the line of one of the coils, in the most favour- 
 able position for running, was rapidly "spliced" to 
 the "foreganger" of the harpoon by my Father, 
 
EXTRAORDINARY FEAT. 143 
 
 whilst the officers about him were set to the splicing 
 properly together of the alternate outside end of one 
 coil with the inner end of another, so as to constitute 
 an appropriate running series. Everything being 
 accomplished, and the boat got ready for lowering, 
 the time was again noted, when, to the astonishment 
 of all on board, the interval expended was found only 
 to have been twelve minutes ! 
 
 The rebuke of the officer of the morning watch, 
 thus experimentally justified, occasioned, very natu- 
 rally, a desire to question, if questioning could in 
 any one particular be maintained, the effectiveness or 
 safety of the preparations thus hastily made. And it 
 was questioned whether lines so disposed, for being 
 run off the ropemaker's coils, would be safe to trust 
 to their running clear in the case of actual service. 
 This matter was soon settled by a most satisfactory 
 experiment. As a whale when harpooned does not 
 go faster away than a man can run, it was proposed 
 to run off the whole of the lines out of the boat by 
 hand, in order to prove that the arrangements that 
 had been made were adequate, both for ordinary 
 service and safety. 
 
 The decks were forthwith cleared, fore and aft, 
 and the men arranged to run with the line, from the 
 boat to the forecastle, in unceasing succession, — a 
 service which they performed, after the word was 
 given to start, with a hearty goodwill and their 
 utmost activity; and the experiment was admirably 
 successful. The whole of the lines went out of the 
 
144 MY FATHER. 
 
 boat, by the usual notch over the stem, without hitch 
 or failure of the slightest kind interrupting their free 
 progress from beginning to end ! 
 
 Section VI. — Tact and Bravery in attacking and 
 killing a dangerously-resisting Whale. 
 
 It was no uncommon event for my Father, in case 
 of any difficult or dangerous enterprise in the fishery, 
 to take part himself in the adventure. The special 
 case now referred to will illustrate at once his prac- 
 tice and talent. 
 
 On the 29th of May, 1807, a whale was harpooned 
 by one of our officers. It descended to some con- 
 siderable depth, but speedily returned. On its re- 
 appearance, it evinced an uncommon degree of 
 irritation. Its motions, whilst making but little 
 progress a-head, were vehement and incessant, — 
 rolling itself quite over, or, in an oscillating manner, 
 from side to side ; throwing its huge tail into the air, 
 or flinging it with fearful impulse right and left, and 
 so keeping the surface of the sea around it in perpetual 
 commotion and foam. The display of its fins and tail 
 was so terrific and dangerous, that few of those in 
 command of our boats were hardy enough to approach 
 it. But, under this violent action of the fish, and the 
 inaction of our men, the risk of losing the hoped-for 
 prize became imminent. This being evident to my 
 Father, who, with discerning and watchful eye, had 
 all along been viewing from the masthead, with 
 
ADVENTUROUS EXPLOIT. 145 
 
 intense anxiety, the exciting scene with his glass, — 
 he made the signal, and in a manner indicative of 
 urgent haste, for one of the boats to come to the 
 ship. In brief space, — the fish not being far distant, 
 — he had personally embarked on his dangerous enter- 
 prise. 
 
 On reaching the scene of action, where the wounded 
 monster was still exerting its excited energies in 
 aiming blows at any approaching boats, or thrashing 
 the sea into a foam, — our accomplished whale-hunter 
 quietly assumed a station, in parallelism, nearly, with 
 the direction of the animal's extended length, and 
 within a few fathoms of its broadside. The boat- 
 steerer, — as the custom is, — he guided by the motion 
 of his hand ; but the boat's crew, being previously 
 urged to exert a tremendous spring on their oars 
 when he should decide on making his attack, were 
 to await his verbal command. 
 
 A favourable pause, succeeding a terrific display 
 of action and power, had been watchfully discerned 
 by my Father, when, giving the signal to the boat- 
 steerer to sheer towards the fish, and, simultaneously, 
 the emphatic order to the men, — " Give way, my 
 lads; give way!" — he was in a moment placed within 
 reach; and then, at long arm's length, whilst leaning 
 over the boat's bow for distance' sake, he plunged 
 his well-sharpened harpoon deep into the writhing 
 creature's side. Its usual vengeance-slash of its tail 
 was made harmlessly ; for the order to " back off," 
 had been so instantly and. effectively obeyed, that the 
 
 H 
 
146 MV FATHER. 
 
 boat was beyond reach before this ponderous engine 
 of motion or destruction could be thrown out. 
 
 Rebuked, in a measure, by this daring attack of 
 their commander, as well as encouraged and stimu- 
 lated by its success, one of the hitherto hesitating 
 boats immediately followed for a similar object; but 
 the officer commanding it, not having the same tact, 
 advanced incautiously, at an unfavourable moment, 
 and too far within the range of the enemy's destruc- 
 tive members, as to subject himself and comrades to 
 a formidable peril. The tail of the fish was again 
 reared into the air, in a terrific attitude over the 
 boat. The harponeer, who was directly underneath, 
 happily discovered his danger, and leaped overboard; 
 and the next moment the threatened stroke was im- 
 pressed with tremendous force upon the centre of the 
 boat, which literally buried it in the water ! 
 
 Providentially, no one was hurt. The officer who 
 leaped overboard, escaped certain death by the prompt 
 adventure. The huge tail (a member measuring per- 
 haps twenty feet in width, extending to a superficial 
 area of about eighty square feet, and weighing from 
 one to two tons), struck the very spot on which he 
 had previously stood. The effects of the blow on the 
 boat were extraordinary. The keel was broken ; the 
 gunwale, and all the planks, except two, were cut 
 through; and it was evident that the boat would 
 have been completely divided, had not the tail struck 
 directly upon a deep coil of the whale-lines. The 
 crew, succoured by the various boats lying around, 
 
ADVENTUROUS EXPLOIT. 147 
 
 were all speedily picked up ; but the boat was so 
 thoroughly smashed as to be rendered useless. 
 
 This alarming discouragement, with the crippling 
 of their strength and resources by the destruction of 
 one boat and the withdrawal of another for the con- 
 veyance to the ship of the drenched and shivering 
 sailors, threw the principal burden of the exploit of 
 capture on my Father. For though other harpoons, 
 after some minor adventures, were struck, the actual 
 killing of this leviathan of its tribe was effected by 
 himself. 
 
 Contrary to the usual habits of the Greenland 
 whale, this individual, instead of occasionally seeking 
 the depths of ocean for its protection, especially on 
 receiving a fresh and painful wound, remained mainly 
 at the surface. Its natural energies, but yet little 
 acted on by the exhausting influence of the pressure 
 of water, were consequently very little impaired; 
 for the superficial wounds of harpoons produce no 
 immediate effect upon life. 
 
 Hence, the operation of lancing was yet to be 
 effected, before there could be any chance of sub- 
 duing the still existing dangerous vigour. My 
 Father, as was his wont, proceeded next to this 
 venturous undertaking. Again he plants his boat 
 in parallelism of position with that of his gigantic 
 game. Full of ardour and confidence in their leader, 
 his boat's crew are ready for any effort or adventure 
 which the daring or activity of man may accomplish. 
 The proper moment for the attack is waited for, and, 
 
148 MY FATHER. 
 
 when seen, instantly improved. The boat, as a thing 
 of life, springs, at his signal, towards the side of the 
 whale. The Commander's long lance — six feet in 
 the iron, and four feet in the handle — is darted, at 
 arm's length, into the writhing carcass, up to the 
 very socket ; and, before the fling of fins or tail can 
 reach, he has recovered a safe distance. The effect 
 of the wound in the vitals is speedily seen. The 
 previous white steamy vapour ejected from the lungs 
 has become tinged with red; and nature's powers, 
 as experience indicates, must soon decay. Con- 
 vulsive action in the monster, as stimulated by this 
 inward stab, being at length suspended, the favour- 
 able moment is again improved. Another lance, — 
 darted in as quickly as the stroke of the tiger's paw, 
 — penetrates, for the second time, the vast viscera 
 of the whale : whilst the active agents of the attack 
 escape, as before, unscathed. The deadly thrust is 
 quickly repeated ; and, as the capability of exerting 
 instant violence is diminished, the deeply stricken 
 lance is worked actively up and down whilst still 
 within, so that every movement effects an additional 
 wound, and the work of death is the more speedily 
 and mercifully promoted. Thick jets of blood now 
 issue from the blow-holes, and the sea, through the 
 wide space of disturbed waters, is tinged by the 
 overflowing streams ; whilst boats, oars, and men, 
 are thickly sprinkled with the sanguinous dye. 
 Lanced, now, on both sides at once, with these form- 
 idable instruments of destruction, the dangerous ener- 
 
ADVENTUROUS EXPLOIT. 149 
 
 gies of this vast animal become soon overpowered, 
 and it now yields itself passively to its inevitable 
 fate. One effort alone remains. The instinctive 
 impulse or spasm of expiring vitality, — like the 
 brilliant gleam or coruscation of the expiring taper, 
 is expended in a series of tremendous death-throes. 
 The writhing body of the giant captive is now 
 thrown into strangely powerful action ; fins and tail 
 play with terrific violence, tossing up huge waves, 
 and dashing the sea, for a considerable circle round, 
 into foam. The prudent fishermen push off to a safe 
 distance, and, looking on with the solemnised im- 
 pression of a spectacle at once wonderful and sublime, 
 leave the convulsions of expiring nature to expend 
 themselves. The vital energies are exhausted; the 
 huge carcass, so recently perilous in the energies of 
 life, rolls, by the gravitating tendency of its formation, 
 on one side, and slowly the helpless fin rises to the 
 surface of the water, and inherent power of motion 
 ceases for ever ! Three hearty cheers from all 
 hands engaged in the capture, with the waving and 
 "striking" of the "jacks" displayed in the boats 
 from which harpoons had been struck, announce to 
 the ship the happy issue of the conflict; from whence, 
 in turn, similar exulting cheers are heard loudly re- 
 sponding.* 
 
 * It will here be proper to notice, that in the foregoing description 
 of this adventurous capture, we have taken occasion (in the way of 
 illustration generally) to fill up the picture, in regard to some par- 
 ticulars of well known and prevalent experience, beyond the extent of 
 the leading facts and outlines, or memorial records, specially before us. 
 
150 MY FATHER. 
 
 We have remarked, in a foregoing chapter, on the 
 economy in Providence, by which the fiercest qua- 
 drupeds, under human tact and intelligence, become 
 subdued and tractable. Here, again, we are led to 
 reflect on the economy manifest in respect to the 
 hug est of the animal creation, whether on earth or in 
 the ocean, whereby all become subject to man, either 
 for advantageous employment, as to their living- 
 energies, or for purposes of utility as to the produce 
 of their dead carcasses. 
 
 The capture of the whale by man, when their 
 relative proportions, as to physical power and mass, 
 are considered, is a result truly wonderful. An 
 animal of a thousand times the bulk of man, with a 
 corresponding superiority in strength, inhabiting an 
 element in which man cannot exist, and diving to 
 depths where no other creature can follow, with the 
 capabilities, too, of abiding there for an hour toge- 
 ther, is attacked by man on its own ground, not only 
 in the tranquil Pacific, but in the boisterous north- 
 western seas; not only in the open seas of the tropics, 
 but amid ice-bound regions around the pole ; and in 
 each region is constrained to yield its life to his 
 attacks, and its carcass a tribute to his marvellous 
 enterprise. 
 
 Why this result, with such disproportionate phy- 
 sical powers in conflict, should not only take place, 
 but prevalently follow the attack, is satisfactorily ex- 
 plained on the simple principle of the Divine enact- 
 ment. It was the appointment of the Creator that 
 
ADVENTUROUS AND SUCCESSFUL EXPLOIT. 151 
 
 it should be so. And this, besides what we have 
 already quoted from the sacred records of creation, 
 we have again, by the inspired Psalmist and else- 
 where, declared. Hence, as to the fact of the domi- 
 nion of man over the inferior creation, Divinely 
 yielded, we have the authority of this adoring appeal 
 of God's inspired servant : — " What is man, that thou 
 art mindful of him!" "Thou madest him to have 
 dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put 
 all things under his feet ; all sheep and oxen, yea, 
 and the beasts of the field ; the fowl of the air, and 
 the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through 
 the paths of the sea. O Lord, our Lord, how excel- 
 lent is thy name in all the earth ! " — Psalm viii. 6 — 8. 
 No doubt this striking psalm has direct reference to 
 the world's Great and Divine Redeemer; but what 
 herein is true of the " Son of Man," is also, in respect 
 to the consideration of the Almighty for man and his 
 appointed dominion, true of men as a species. And 
 so it follows, that the monsters of the deep, as well as 
 the wild beasts of the earth, yield to this law of 
 creation, that man should have the dominant power ! 
 
 The whale, thus adventurously subdued, proved a 
 large one of its kind, and a very valuable prize. Its 
 special dimensions and produce, though not noted, 
 may be very proximately gathered from the record 
 (always made in the whaler's journals) which we have 
 of the length of the largest of the lamina? of whale- 
 bone, viz. 11 feet 9 inches. According to the general 
 
152 MY FATHER. 
 
 averages, as given in the " Account of the Arctic 
 Regions," (vol. i. pp. 449 — 478,) this specimen would 
 be about 56 feet in length, and must have yielded 
 about 20 tuns of oil, with about 22 cwt. of whale- 
 bone. The value of the capture (oil being very low 
 in price at the time) was about 500/.; but the same 
 capture, in the years 1801, 1813, or 1817, when 
 prices were high, would have been worth no less than 
 1000/. to 1100/. 
 
 Section VII. — Remarkable Enterprise. — The 
 nearest Approach to the North Pole. 
 
 The adventurous attempt to reach the North Pole, 
 like that of the " North-west Passage," may be con- 
 sidered as an enterprise peculiarly British. Of six 
 voyages expressly undertaken for this object, up to 
 the time, and inclusive of, Captain Buchan's, in 
 1818, there was no advance beyond the 81st parallel. 
 The highest latitude reached was by Captain Phipps, 
 in 1773, who advanced to 80° 48'. Captain Buchan's 
 farthest was about 80° 34'. And up to the present 
 day we have no account which can be fully relied 
 upon of any ship, discovery ship or whaler, having 
 approached within forty geographical miles of the 
 high northern latitude reached by my Father in the 
 year 1806. 
 
 The Honourable Daines Barrington, indeed, in his 
 discussion of the question of the "Probability of 
 Reaching the North Pole," adduces a great variety 
 
REMARKABLE ENTERPRISE. 153 
 
 of instances of the advance of whalers to far higher 
 positions of northern latitude ; but for the reasons 
 stated in the "Account of the Arctic Regions," (vol. 
 i. p. 42,) I consider the authorities from which Mr. 
 Barrington derived his information as not satisfactory. 
 As to the defectiveness in authority of mere recollec- 
 tions, or even of the notes of ordinary observers, in 
 respect of adventures of this kind, I have a curious 
 example in the "Account of a Voyage to Spitz- 
 bergen," by a Greenland Surgeon, who sailed in the 
 Resolution professionally, on the very voyage on 
 which my Father made his greatest advance north- 
 ward. The author, in respect to this advance, thus 
 states from his journal: — "May 28. Latitude by 
 observation 81° 50'. Sea almost clear of ice, with a 
 great swell ; weather serene. Had our object been 
 the making of discoveries, there was not apparently 
 anything to have prevented us from going a good 
 way farther to the north ; at least we did not per- 
 ceive any large fields of ice in that direction." 
 
 Now this is mainly erroneous. Instead of 81° 50', 
 the highest latitude observed was only 81° 12' 42", 
 and the statements as to the nature and position of 
 the ice, are equally diverse from what those circum- 
 stances actually were. 
 
 My Father's notable enterprise in the attainment, 
 probably, of the highest latitude that had ever been 
 reached by man was made in the ship Resolution, 
 in the voyage of 1806. Occupying, young as I was, 
 
 h 2 
 
154 MY FATHER. 
 
 the responsible office of chief-mate in the ship, I have 
 the records of the adventure preserved in my journal 
 in all their essential or important details. 
 
 The entrance into the ordinary fishing-stations on 
 the western side of Spitzbergen was, on this occasion, 
 occupied by ice of extraordinary breadth and com- 
 pactness. We entered it on the 28th of April, in the 
 latitude of 76° N., and, pressing northward at every 
 available opening, we reached the latitude of 77° on 
 the 7th of May. Several ships were then in sight. 
 On the 10th, a gale setting in from the S.E., we were 
 enabled to make considerable progress through the 
 encumbering ice, and soon left all our associate 
 whalers fairly out of sight ; and from that time until 
 the 19th of June (after we had retraced much of our 
 progress southward) we never saw a sail. 
 
 Up to the 13th of May, indeed, there was nothing- 
 unusual, as to the practice of my Father, in the nature 
 of the adventure. But on that day, being in latitude 
 about 78" 46', within sight of Charles Island, on the 
 western coast of Spitzbergen, he entered upon a new 
 and apparently dangerous enterprise, — the attempt to 
 find, whilst the sea was apparently filled with ice, in 
 this high latitude, a navigable sea still nearer the 
 Pole. 
 
 The ice around was singularly compact, and, to 
 ordinary apprehension, impenetrable. Northward of 
 us it consisted, as far as our view extended, of scat- 
 tered masses of heavy drift-ice, closely cemented 
 into a compact body by recently formed hay-ice. To 
 
REMARKABLE ENTERPRISE. 155 
 
 attempt a passage herein, if such were possible, must, 
 in any case, be a most difficult and laborious under- 
 taking ; but if the compact body were entered, and 
 not successfully penetrated and passed beyond, it 
 might involve a risk, which a considerable fleet 
 actually fell into, of the loss of the fishing season by 
 a helpless besetment. There were indications, how- 
 ever, which my Father's experienced eye alone 
 discerned, — of open water to the northward. The 
 bright reflection of the snow-covered ices in the sky, 
 constituting the phenomenon of the " ice blink," 
 most certainly pointed out the continuous encum- 
 bering of the navigation for a considerable way in 
 advance ; but, when elevated to the very top of the 
 mast, he could perceive a bluish grey streak below 
 the ice-blink, parallel to and skirting the horizon, 
 which he deemed a sure indication of " clear water," 
 beyond the proximate " pack." Yet this grey re- 
 flection, or " water-sky," might not be of any 
 great extent ? It might arise from a transient vein 
 of water capable of being obliterated on the first 
 change of wind? Were such the nature of the 
 opening, it might prove, even if reached, the more 
 dangerous trap, as its position was more advanced 
 northward ? 
 
 These considerations, of very serious import, were 
 settled, happily, by another sign which the watchful 
 navigator got sight of. He discerned, for short 
 intervals, occasionally, a very slight motion, as he 
 conceived, of the water in contact with some of the 
 
156 MY FATHER. 
 
 large lumps of ice near the ship. His careful scrutiny 
 of the masses, under an anxiously watchful eye, at 
 length assured him that there toas a movement. 
 Experience then certified that the movement could 
 only arise from a swell, and that the swell must pro- 
 ceed either from the main ocean, southward, or else 
 from some immense interglacial lake, or what is tech- 
 nically called " a sea of water," northward. That it 
 did not come from the southern ocean, the distance 
 to which he had penetrated, and the unmixed bright- 
 ness of the ice-blink in each of the southern quarters, 
 convinced him ; and that it did come from the north- 
 ward he was able to satisfy himself, by carefully 
 observing the points or places on the masses of ice 
 where the alteration of level in the water was the 
 greatest; for this scrutiny sufficed to show, that the 
 axial position of the ice, which the motion pointed 
 out, was in strict parallelism with a wave coining 
 directly from the place of the " water-sky" to the 
 northward. 
 
 Encouraged by these indications, he determined 
 on leaving a position recently attained, where the 
 ship had some little room, and pushing, at all risks, 
 into the formidable body of consolidated ices still 
 beyond him. This arduous and adventurous pur- 
 pose was commenced on the 13th of May, with a 
 moderate breeze (favourable to our advance) from 
 the south-west. Little progress was, indeed, then 
 made; but laborious perseverance, rendered effective 
 by a consummate application of all the means and 
 
NEW RESOURCES. 
 
 157 
 
 resources available for our furtherance, ultimately 
 yielded the desired, and I might add, deserved 
 success. During five successive days, a series of 
 labours were carried on of the most energetic and 
 persevering description. The transit through the 
 intervening ice, — which consisted, as we have inti- 
 mated, of extensive sheets of bay-ice, with heavy 
 lumps and masses consolidated therein, — was urged 
 by all the variety of aids that were known to be 
 applicable. These aids, beyond the available force of 
 occasional favourable winds, consisted in the cutting 
 of tracks or channels with ice-saws, where the thick- 
 ness was too great to be broken, or, where thinner, in 
 breaking the ice under the bows by boats suspended 
 beneath the bowsprit, whilst their crews rolled them 
 violently, from side to side, as in "sallying;" in 
 making canals, by well-laden boats being run across 
 extensive planes of ice, where their weight, with that 
 of their crews, might be sufficient to break the resist- 
 ing surface; in "warping" through encumbered 
 channels, or amid lumps of more ponderous ices ; 
 in " towing" with boats, or " tracking" by men on the 
 ice, during calms, along any clear channels of water 
 which might have been opened out a-head; and, 
 finally, by sallying the ship, in aid of any of these 
 resources, for widening the space in which she floated, 
 so as to leave her free to move, where room might 
 exist in advance. And here, I think it due to my 
 Father to notice, in regard to the sallying of the 
 ship, — an oscillating or rolling motion accomplished 
 
158 MY FATHER. 
 
 by the running of the crew, simultaneously, from side 
 to side across the deck, — that the application of this 
 most important auxiliary process was original with 
 him, and, as far as I can remember, now for the first 
 time employed. It is a process, I may add, which 
 has subsequently been adopted by fishermen and dis- 
 coverers in general, as a mean which may often be 
 made effective when, under all other means for the 
 promotion of progress, the wedged-up or ice-bound 
 ship has become utterly immoveable. 
 
 The manner in which these various operations 
 were carried on was laborious in an extreme degree. 
 Whilst the crew were allowed but limited and dis- 
 tant periods for rest, my Father's exertions were 
 such as, except under the pressure of circumstances 
 involving the alternative of life or death, I think I 
 never saw equalled. Not only was he always at his 
 post directing, instructing, stimulating his men when 
 progress was being made or attempted, but often 
 looking out when the hands in general slept, or 
 continuing his superintending toils, watch after watch, 
 when portions of the crew had, alternately, their 
 intervals of rest. In that severe service, indeed, few 
 men could have so persevered. An extraordinary 
 vigour and strength of constitution enabled him to 
 accomplish, in labours of this kind, for which he had 
 so high capabilities, what most men would have 
 broken down in attempting. 
 
 His exertions and talents, as we have indeed anti- 
 cipated, had their due recompense in the most sue- 
 
HIGH NORTHERN LATITUDE. 159 
 
 cessful results of the enterprise. After passing an 
 icy barrier of extraordinary tenaceousness and com- 
 pactness, as well as of formidable extent, Ave reached 
 a region, in the 80th parallel, of incomparably greater 
 openness than we could have anticipated, — " a sea of 
 water," — to which Ave could see no bounds, but the 
 ice we had passed through on the south side, and the 
 land to the eastward. 
 
 Under a brisk gale of wind and with fine clear 
 Aveather, we were enabled rapidly to explore through 
 a considerable portion of its extent, the immense in- 
 terglacial sea upon Avhich we had entered. It Avas 
 found to stretch east and west, or E.N.E. and 
 W. S.W. more nearly, to an extraordinary extent, 
 and to be bounded to the northward as well as to 
 the southward by packed ice of undeterminable ex- 
 tent, — the two bodies of ice being ten to twenty 
 leagues apart. And Avithin this vast opening, though 
 not till after the northern and southern ices had 
 closed together and joined to the westAvard, we made 
 the principal part of our fishery. 
 
 On the 28th of May, being in latitude 80° 8', we 
 killed our first whale; and Avithin the next fortnight, 
 and near the same position, sixteen others yielded 
 their lives to our harpoons and lances. On the 29th 
 of June, only two-and-thirty days from the time of 
 our first capture, we completed our cargo, being " a 
 full ship," with the produce of twenty-four Avhales, 
 one narwal, two seals, two walruses, and two bears. 
 This cargo, by far the largest, I believe, of the 
 
160 MY FATHER. 
 
 season, yielded 216 tuns of oil, and almost eleven 
 tons of whalebone. The fishery, in consequence of 
 the peculiar position of the ice, and the unusual in- 
 accessibility of the best fishing stations, proved gene- 
 rally bad. Judging from the returns in my possession, 
 comprising the successes of twenty-four of the Green- 
 land whalers of that year, I should calculate the 
 general average at about fifty tuns of oil per ship, or 
 less than one-fourth of the Resolution's cargo. The 
 united cargoes of nine ships, out of eighteen, from 
 one port (taking, of course, the worst fished ships), 
 exceeded only by a few tuns the single cargo which 
 resulted from the singular enterprise of my Father. 
 
 But we return to the grand exploration of a region 
 which, as far as conclusive records go, has not, before 
 or since, ever been navigated. 
 
 In the first instance, after our arrival in this vast 
 northern opening of the ice, we proceeded to the 
 westward, and, finding no w r hales, tacked, when we 
 had reached the longitude of about 8° W., in the 
 parallel of 79° 30' N. We then stretched to the 
 northward and eastward, proceeding, generally, near 
 to or within sight of the northern " pack," for a dis- 
 tance of above 300 miles, — a direct uninterrupted pro- 
 gress in this high latitude quite unparalleled. On 
 the 23d-24th, at midnight, an altitude of the sun, 
 below the Pole, carefully taken with a fifteen-inch 
 sextant by Ramsden, gave the latitude 81° 12' 42". 
 We continued our progress until (early the following 
 
NEAREST APPROACH TO THE POLE. 161 
 
 morning) we had reached the longitude of 19° E., 
 when our latitude, as estimated from the recent ob- 
 servation, was 81° -30' N. This was our farthest ad- 
 vance northward, in which we had gained a position 
 within about 510 miles of the Pole ! Even then, 
 the navigation was still quite open to the E.N.E., 
 (true) and from that point round to the S.E.; so 
 open, that, as we could certainly gather from the 
 appearance of the sky, we could have easily advanced 
 many many leagues farther in the direction we had 
 so extensively pursued. 
 
 Our situation, at our farthest advance, was singular 
 and solitary indeed. No ship, no human being, it 
 was believed, was within 300 or 350 miles of us. 
 Unquestionably, the crew of the Resolution now 
 occupied the most northern position of any indi- 
 viduals in the world ! The sea began to freeze and 
 threatened our detention. We had made no pro- 
 gress in the fishery, nor could we find any whales. 
 The seamen began to be anxious, fearful, and trouble- 
 some, so that abundant considerations urged our 
 return to the westward, where, as has been shown, 
 our commercial enterprise became so signally suc- 
 cessful. 
 
 The accuracy of the determinations for the latitude 
 we have stated, was variously verified during our 
 progress both ways. Thus, going north-eastward, 
 we observed, May 23d, at noon, in lat. 80° 50' 28" ; 
 at next midnight, as we have noted, in 81° 12' 42". 
 At the succeeding noon, after above eight hours 
 
162 MY FATHER. 
 
 sailing on our return, we again observed in 81° 1' 53" ; 
 and, still running south-westerly, we sighted at 8 p.m. 
 of the same day Hackluyt's Headland, some forty 
 miles still to the southward of our position. 
 
 We have spoken of this adventure as reaching to 
 the highest latitude ever attained, as far as we have 
 conclusive records, by sailing. Captain Parry, in 
 his Polar attempt of 1827, indeed, went beyond my 
 Father's greatest attainment a distance of seventy or 
 eighty miles ; but this advance was wholly gained by 
 travelling across the ice. For with all the advantage 
 of a later period in the summer, and the penetration 
 of the loose ice by boats, the travelling had to be 
 commenced on attaining the latitude of 81° 13'. 
 
 In referring to this attempt, one can hardly refrain 
 from expressing regret at the success of an expedi- 
 tion so energetically pursued being marred by cir- 
 cumstances which, under better arrangements, might 
 have been avoided. For had the plan as originally 
 suggested, about twelve years before this adventure, 
 been acted on, I have no hesitation in affirming, that 
 a far greater advance northward, if not complete 
 success, must have attended the daring enterprise. 
 It falls not, indeed, within the object of the present 
 Memorials to take up again a question which is dis- 
 cussed in detail in a communication of mine to the 
 "Edinburgh Philosophical Journal," and published 
 in the number for July 1828 ; but it may suffice to 
 say, that the opinion offered just above has now the 
 
PRACTICABILITY OF REACHING THE POLE. 163 
 
 sanction of the gallant conductor of the enterprise 
 himself, who, in a letter published by the late Sir 
 John Barrow, in his volume of "Arctic Voyages" (p. 
 313) states, that "he believes it to be an object of no 
 very difficult attainment, if set about in a different 
 manner." And, it may be added, a plan for that 
 adventure is given in the letter now quoted, substan- 
 tially embodying the characteristic points of my 
 original scheme,* and, indeed, in no essential parti- 
 cular, except the suggestion for spending the previous 
 winter at Spitzbergen, differing from it. 
 
 Under such support in the idea, from one of the 
 best authorities amongst those experimentally ac- 
 quainted with the difficulties of the undertaking, I 
 am led, not only to an increased conviction of the 
 practicability of the enterprise, but to the entertaining 
 of the belief, that the triumph is yet in store for the 
 daring and adventurous nation 
 
 when 
 
 " Whose flag has braved a thousand years, 
 The battle and the breeze ;" 
 
 " The meteor flag of England" 
 
 shall wave upon the axial point of the world at the 
 Northern Pole ! 
 
 * Tins plan was first communicated to the Wernerian Society of 
 Edinburgh, and published in the second volume of its Memoirs. It 
 was subsequently set forth in a revised form, in the "Account of the 
 Arctic Regions," published in the year ]819. 
 
164 MY FATHER. 
 
 Section VIII. — Devotional Habits, at Sea and 
 
 on Shore. 
 
 At this period of my Father's life, his religious 
 views and habits had become matter of personal 
 notice, and observation with myself, — so as, in certain 
 respects, to enable me to speak of them from distinct 
 recollections. 
 
 He always spoke of religion with reverence, and 
 manifested a particular regard for the institution of 
 the Sabbath. He was strongly attached to the 
 Church, and attended its public services with most 
 reverential and undeviating regularity. In theo- 
 logical views, he inclined to those of the Rev. John 
 "Wesley, of whose character and principles he was a 
 great admirer. Holding the system of that eminent 
 servant of Christ as auxiliary to the Church, — he 
 became much attached to it, so that, for a considerable 
 extent of his life, whilst by profession a churchman, 
 he was commonly the holder of a pew in the old 
 Wesleyan Chapel at Whitby, and, on the Sunday 
 evenings (after the services of the Church had closed) 
 was a constant attendant, not unfrequently being 
 accompanied by some members of his family, at the 
 religious services conducted there. 
 
 This feeling and habit brought him into personal 
 intimacy with the leading Wesleyans resident at 
 Whitby, and into friendly intercourse with the 
 officiating ministers of that body — to whom he always 
 evinced pleasure in showing kindness and hospitality. 
 
DEVOTIONAL HABITS. 165 
 
 It was in this connection that he made the acquaint- 
 ance, and obtained the friendship, of the late talented 
 Mr. Drew, to whose brief memoir, published in the 
 "Imperial Magazine," which he edited, I have been 
 indebted for several particulars in my Father's early 
 life, not elsewhere to be found. 
 
 His attachment to the Wesleyans, indeed, had a 
 further expression than that of often joining in their 
 devotional services, and having much friendly inter- 
 course with their members; for it extended to several 
 instances of substantial good-will in the form of 
 liberal contributions, as well as in loans of money in 
 aid of their chapels. 
 
 My Father's distinctive regard for religion, and 
 religious ordinances, was still further indicated by 
 several circumstances which I had the opportunity of 
 noticing as prevalent with him when at sea. Among 
 these stand prominently in my recollection, the habit 
 of having Divine service performed on the Lord's- 
 day, whilst I accompanied him during his command 
 of the Resolution of Whitby. On these occasions, 
 the crew, summoned by the tolling of the ship's bell, 
 were assembled in the cabin, where my Father con- 
 ducted the service according to the form comprised 
 in the Liturgy of the Church, and afterwards (for 
 some voyages at least,) read portions, such as he 
 deemed suitable, from some devotional book, or 
 latterly, with my assistance as I advanced in years 
 and experience, from a collection of plain, practical, 
 and valuable sermons, which had been presented to 
 
166 
 
 MY FATHER. 
 
 me, for the purpose, by that amiable and eminent 
 servant of Christ, the Rev. T. Dikes of Hull. 
 
 In addition to these devotional habits, may be 
 noted, his habitual reliance on the guidance and pro- 
 tection of Divine Providence. This was variously 
 indicated ; not only by the use of pious expressions, 
 which he was heard to utter when he was about 
 adventuring on some perilous enterprise, or when he 
 had been enabled safely to wend his adventurous way 
 out of imminent dangers, but in respect to a habit, 
 which he suggested to me, as fitting to be copied, 
 of commencing his sea-journal with an appropriate 
 prayer, supplicatory of the Divine guidance and pro- 
 tection, and of inserting at the conclusion of a suc- 
 cessful fishery, a fitting collect of thanksgiving. The 
 insertion of the latter, in a foregoing section, may 
 claim the addition here of the form, as modified out 
 of a collect in the Liturgy, for the former, which I 
 find uniformly inserted in many of my own journals: 
 — " Assist us mercifully, O Lord, in this our intended 
 voyage, and make it profitable to us, particularly by 
 disposing us towards the attainment of Thy everlast- 
 ing salvation; that, among all the changes and chances 
 of this mortal life, we may ever be defended by Thy 
 most gracious and ready help, through Jesus Christ 
 our Lord, Amen." 
 
 The journal from which this form is quoted com- 
 prises, too, a poetic attempt by my Father, — an 
 acrostic on my own name, — strikingly characterised 
 by sentiments of devotion, humiliation, and adoration. 
 
DEVOTIONAL HABITS. 167 
 
 Another practice, which he prevalently pursued 
 when at sea, in addition to the religious exercises 
 already noted, was that of devotional reading when 
 in bed. I refer to this particularly, not only because 
 it was a practice that I had constant opportunities of 
 observing, but because of the admirable contrivance 
 (applicable, I think, to the condition of many invalids,) 
 adopted for rendering this exercise and recreation 
 convenient and agreeable without the labour of hold- 
 ing the book, or the prevalent exposure of the hands 
 to the cold and often freezing temperature of his 
 " state-room." 
 
 The contrivance consisted in an open deal frame, 
 about eighteen inches by twelve inside, like a light 
 flat picture-frame when empty, which, in my Father's 
 case, was fixed by hinges to the bulkhead forming 
 the inner side of his bed, so as to be turned up, flat 
 against the side, when not in use. Being hung on an 
 oblique plane, it became, when let down for reading, 
 parallel to the position of the reader with his head, 
 face upward, lying on a pillow. The distance from 
 the face was adjusted to his own reading focus; but 
 could easily be altered by different loops on the string 
 or wire, by which the end opposite to that affixed by 
 hinges was supported from the planking of the deck, 
 or ceiling, overhead. 
 
 The book designed to be used was laid, with the 
 open pages downward, upon the interior of the frame, 
 where it was supported by three parallel wires, the 
 side wires receiving the margins of the book, and the 
 
168 MY FATHER. 
 
 centre wire the middle. These wires for the adjust- 
 ment of distance were made to slide, by loops at their 
 ends, upon two other strong wires attached longitudi- 
 nally to the interior of the frame, so that the wires 
 could be readily adapted for a book of any size, from 
 a large quarto down to the smallest volume. 
 
 The condition of my Father's mind, in reference 
 to this all-important subject, I find particularly indi- 
 cated in two of his letters, fortunately preserved, 
 which were written to me at the period embraced by 
 the present chapter, whilst, as a youth, I was attend- 
 ing the scientific lectures of the University of Edin- 
 burgh.* I select, with slight verbal correction, two 
 or three passages : — 
 
 " It is a great pleasure to us to learn that you 
 know the value of time which you have so nicely 
 divided to suit the lectures, etc. ; but, at the same 
 time, beg leave to say, that we think you have made 
 a mistake when you say, 'I intend, if all's well, to go 
 to Mr. Wood's on Sunday, as, on that day, I have no 
 lectures to attend.' My dear son, I know it is too 
 much the custom to visit and take our pleasure on 
 the Sabbath-day, which ought to be strictly observed, 
 as the wise Author of all things has appointed. He 
 
 * From attendance on the instructive lectures and demonstrations 
 of -everal of the most eminent men of science and learning of the day. 
 during a considerable portion of two sessions, I feel it a matter of 
 grateful duty here, by the way, to say, that I obtained a larger measure 
 of general information and scientific knowledge than, within like period, 
 perhaps, any other existing instrumentality could have yielded. 
 
DEVOTIONAL HABITS. 169 
 
 has appointed one day in seven to Himself, that we 
 may rejoice therein and serve Him, as he has com- 
 manded us in the Holy Scriptures, desiring us therein 
 to search for wisdom, (as Solomon sought, and was 
 blessed with riches and honour,) which your Bible, 
 and Sunday Lectures, and your own prayers offered 
 up to God, will procure for you, and He will yield 
 His peace which passeth all understanding. We are 
 very poorly off indeed if there be no better things 
 in store for us than those of this world, which, com- 
 pared to spiritual things, are all vanity and vexation 
 of spirit." 
 
 After a very gratifying notice of my "steady con- 
 duct," followed by some judicious paternal counsel 
 and warnings, the section of the letter now quoted 
 thus concludes : — " Hearken to the advice of a 
 Father, and walk in the laws of the Lord, which 
 you will find the greatest comfort this life can 
 afford." 
 
 The other letter, after a high commendation of 
 diligence in the acquisition of knowledge, and the 
 citing, for one's example, the names and enterprises 
 of many of the most distinguished scholars and 
 philosophers of antiquity, proceeds as follows: — " But 
 after a man may (like these distinguished examples) 
 have studied all arts and sciences, until he be as 
 great a proficient as Crichton, yet, without religion, 
 he will, at the latter end of his life, have, with Sir 
 John Mason, to exclaim, — Seriousness is the greatest 
 wisdom, Temperance the best physician, and a Good 
 
 I 
 
170 MY FATHER. 
 
 Conscience the best estate. Therefore, my son, with 
 all thy getting, get wisdom and understanding, and 
 never be ashamed to carry a pocket Bible about with 
 you, wherein you may find comfort in every state of 
 life, and, at the same time, you will feel a thirst for 
 every useful science, which, I flatter myself, you will 
 not relax in pursuit of." 
 
 In conclusion of this sketch of my Father's views 
 and habits, religiously considered, I may just notice, 
 that, although his principles sometimes failed under 
 special temptations, as in the case of Sabbath-day 
 fishing, yet the feeling of reverence for the day 
 appointed for rest and devotion, was seldom without 
 some manifestation. If whales were pursued when 
 incidentally seen on the sacred day, they were not 
 sought for, nor were boats sent out on watch, as on 
 other days, nor was ordinary work ordered or per- 
 mitted to be done. During his latter voyages, how- 
 ever, his practice became more decided in this 
 respect; for the fishery itself, pressing as, in a 
 worldly view, its claims might seem, was suspended 
 ■ during the Sabbath ; and the day was generally 
 given to the appointed objects of the gracious and 
 beneficent institution. 
 
171 
 Chapter V. 
 
 FURTHER ENTERPRISES: GENERAL RESULTS. 
 
 Section I. — TJie Greenock Whale-fishing Company. 
 
 In the summer of 1810, whilst I was on a recreative 
 tour in Scotland, and visiting at the house of a mer- 
 chant in Greenock, my adventures and experience in 
 the northern whale-fishery became a frequent topic 
 of conversation. This was the means of eliciting, 
 in respect to several gentlemen with whom I had 
 intercourse, a strong disposition to embark in this, 
 to them, new department of commercial enterprise. 
 My Father, at this very time, being on the point of 
 retiring from the command of the Resolution, was 
 informed of the circumstance, which speedily led to 
 his forming a new and satisfactory connection with 
 some of the first men, in character and position, in 
 that enterprising port. 
 
 The associates, originally, were, I believe, George 
 Robertson and William Forsyth (of the house of 
 Messrs. Robertson, Forsyth, and Co.), and David 
 Hyde, Esquires, who, with my Father, each holding 
 equal, or one-fourth shares, constituted the new firm 
 of " The Greenock Whale-fishing Company." Of 
 this association, my Father was appointed the 
 
172 MY FATHER. 
 
 managing partner, with authority to purchase and 
 fit out one or not exceeding two ships, for the 
 Greenland fishery, in which he was to have the 
 select or principal command. 
 
 Under this arrangement my Father proceeded to 
 London, and purchased two ships, only one of which, 
 however, the John, was ultimately appropriated to 
 this Arctic adventure. 
 
 The John was a Batavia-built teak ship, 316 tons 
 burden. To ships built of this species of timber, 
 almost indestructible in respect of ordinary decay, 
 my Father was very partial ; and, in purchasing the 
 John, though she proved more expensive than was 
 expected (having cost 12,700/. to sea), he was not, 
 as to this peculiar and important quality of her 
 timber, disappointed. She proved a fine ship, an 
 admirable "sea-boat/' and, except as to capacity, 
 which was rather too small, fully answered his 
 expectations. 
 
 No time was lost in entering upon this new and 
 responsible enterprise. The John sailed, on her 
 first voyage, in 1811, the season next succeeding my 
 Father's last command of the Besolution; and the 
 result, as to its successfulness, well satisfied the 
 sanguine hopes of the parties associated in the risk. 
 The cargo obtained was sixteen stout whales, which 
 yielded a produce of 200 tuns of oil. 
 
 With this commencement, the residue of the ad- 
 venture of this concern amply corresponded. During 
 the four voyages to which the co-partnery extended, 
 
GREENOCK WHALE-FISHING COMPANY. 173 
 
 103 whales were captured, and a produce of 837 
 tuns of oil, averaging 209 tuns a season, brought into 
 port. In the last voyage of the series, that of 1814, 
 thirty -four whales, yielding 249 tuns of oil, were 
 taken; being, as to quantity, the best of all my 
 Father's adventures. The cargo of the preceding 
 year, however, was, on account of the very high 
 price of oil, the most remunerative. The gross 
 receipts of that year, on account of a cargo of 190 
 tuns of oil, and about ten tons of whalebone, 
 amounted to the extraordinary sum of about 11,000/.! 
 The entire successes of this fourth command of my 
 Father's, as thus exhibited, not merely equalled, it is 
 seen, but actually exceeded any one of his former 
 enterprises. Though his cargoes, however, were 
 nearly double the general average of the fishery, 
 there were now competitors, in this field of enter- 
 prise, who, within this limited and particidar period, 
 equalled or even outrun him in the race. The only 
 accurate comparison which I am here enabled to 
 make, is with respect to the successes of the Hull 
 fishermen. And here I find two, — Captain Joseph 
 Sadler, of the Gilder, and Captain Harrison, of the 
 Walker, — whose enterprises during these four years 
 were highly productive ; having yielded, as to the 
 former, something more than the John's cargoes, 
 and as to the latter, just about the same amount. 
 But in both these cases, it may be noticed, that the 
 tonnage of the ships was advantageously larger than 
 that of the John. 
 
174 MY FATHER. 
 
 Before proceeding with an account of the con- 
 cluding enterprises of the subject of these memorials, 
 we have an incident to notice, which, however 
 trifling in itself, may, it is hoped, interest the reader, 
 because of its characteristic nature and somewhat 
 amusing result. 
 
 Section II. — " Cum au greim a gheibhthu." 
 
 The capacity for receiving knowledge, and the 
 capability of applying the knowledge possessed, are 
 characteristics of very different qualities of mind. 
 The latter of these qualities is, per se, incomparably 
 the most important and valuable. For one man, with 
 comparatively moderate attainments, but having a 
 facility in applying the knowledge he has acquired, 
 will be a far more useful member of society, and is 
 capable of becoming a more distinguished character, 
 than another of vastly superior acquirements in 
 learning, who does not possess the faculty of appli- 
 cation. Thus one, like the skilful mechanician, may 
 be able out of small variety of materials to construct 
 apparatus of indefinite extent of usefulness, or, 
 like the expert and talented smith, may be able to 
 construct out of one material every species of instru- 
 ment (to use a sailor's phraseology), "from a needle 
 to an anchor," whilst another, though possessing 
 almost unlimited stores of materials, may have little 
 capacity for bringing them out and applying them 
 to purposes of usefulness. The former case is that 
 
GAELIC PHRASE. 175 
 
 of one who is of himself a practical artist in know- 
 ledge i the latter, of one who requires others to bring 
 out and apply the knowledge which he has been 
 careful to store up. 
 
 My Father, in a truly eminent degree, possessed 
 the first of these characteristics of mind. Whatever 
 knowledge he might gain he was apt in applying, 
 and so applying, by the powers of a vigorous intelli- 
 gence, as to make the result strikingly original. 
 
 The incident which I here record, was, indeed, of 
 itself, rather curious and amusing, than important or 
 specially useful. But in it we find developed an 
 order of mind which, if it possess but one fact of a 
 particular species, will, if occasion should ever re- 
 quire, or admit of its being done, turn that one fact 
 to account. 
 
 Whilst resident for considerable intervals of time in 
 Scotland, during his engagement with the Greenock 
 Whale-fishing Company, my Father had been thrown 
 into intercourse with some of the Gaelic speaking 
 population of the district. Some of their phrases 
 had struck him as being curious and forcible, espe- 
 cially in relation to the economics of worldly policy. 
 Among these, one phrase in particular had been 
 fixed in his memory — "Cum au greim a gheibhthu;" 
 which, being interpreted in Scottish idiom, he under- 
 stood to imply, " Flaud," or " Keep the grip you have 
 got." 
 
 The occasion on which this phrase, somewhat 
 felicitously, was brought into use, was the following : 
 
176 
 
 MY FATHER. 
 
 — Returning from one of his voyages to the Green- 
 land seas, whilst sailing from the port of Greenock, 
 they had stretched, under a prevalence of south- 
 westerly gales, to leeward of the northern shore of 
 the island of Mull, forming part of the county of 
 Argyle. The wind not availing for convenient pro- 
 gress on the destined course, they took shelter in 
 Tobermory, near the head of the Sound of Mull. 
 This port, as a site for commercial enterprise, was 
 brought into consideration (undue consideration as 
 the trial has proved) by the " Board of Trustees for 
 the Encouragement of the Fisheries," a little more 
 than half a century ago. The place naturally at- 
 tracting my Father's attention, he went on shore 
 with little delay. He proceeded to the inn first of 
 all, and indicated his wish to the landlord to have 
 dinner provided for him before he returned to his 
 ship. The interval he naturally employed in ex- 
 amining the place and the neighbouring scenery. 
 
 During the time whilst he remained at the inn, 
 and was in communication with its inmates, he ob- 
 served, — when ordering his dinner, and when being 
 waited on as he was eating, as also, subsequently, 
 when he asked the cost of the entertainment he had 
 received, — no language was spoken betwixt the land- 
 lord and his wife (who mutually contributed to his 
 requirements) but the Gaelic. And on two or three 
 occasions, especially on a discussion, as he fancied, of 
 the important matter of the reckoning, there seemed 
 to be a considerable difference of opinion betwixt the 
 parties as to the amount to be charged. Nevertheless 
 
GAELIC PHRASE. 177 
 
 whilst by the significant action, and whispering tone, 
 he gathered, or supposed he gathered, so much of 
 the purport of the discussion, not one word of what 
 was said, as they had justly inferred, could he strictly 
 or certainly interpret. 
 
 But a trifling incident, by which his acquaintance 
 with the maxim above spoken of was elicited, gave a 
 new and somewhat astounding annunciation to his 
 Gaelic-speaking hosts. 
 
 Some little time before his departure, being in 
 want of some carbonate of soda, which he occasionally 
 took for a not unfrequent annoyance of acidity at the 
 stomach, a messenger, a little son of the landlord, was 
 sent to the apothecary, to procure what was required, 
 he being furnished with sixpence as payment for the 
 same. On his return with the article it happened 
 that the parents of the boy, who had just finished one 
 of their Gaelic discussions, were both in the room, 
 and were observant of his delivering the carbonate, 
 and, along with it, twopence, the amount of the 
 change. This, my Father declined receiving; but 
 the boy, not thoroughly assured of the intention, 
 turned to his parents for directions how to act, who, 
 participating in his perplexity about retaining it, 
 motioned him to return the pence again. On his 
 second essay to do this, he was met by the most ex- 
 pressive and intelligible injunction, — " Cum au greim 
 a gheibhthu," — an injunction which the lad received 
 with not less surprise than satisfaction. 
 
 Whilst my Father, with his characteristic self- 
 
 i2 
 
178 MY FATHER. 
 
 possession and coolness, practised this little device, he 
 was greatly amused in marking the wonderful effects 
 of his Gaelic maxim upon the minds and feelings 
 of his hosts. The mere utterance of a few words 
 in a language supposed to be unknown to their 
 guest, might have sufficed, under any circumstances, 
 to have occasioned some surprise; but the so feli- 
 citous an application of a national phrase in the 
 peculiar circumstances of the case, seemed abso- 
 lutely to overwhelm them with consternation. For 
 they naturally inferred that their guest must be 
 familiar with a language which he had thus idio- 
 matically employed, and therefore that he must have 
 understood the discussions, designed to be most 
 private, which had been held in his hearing. From 
 that moment there was an obvious change of man- 
 ner and conduct towards their guest by his hosts; 
 not that they were less respectful, but more cautiously 
 reserved; and it seemed not a little curious, after 
 so much of the native tongue had been heard, that 
 not another word of Gaelic was ever uttered by any 
 of the household in my Father's hearing so long as 
 he remained among them. 
 
 Section III. — Subsequent and concluding 
 Enterprises. 
 
 On the retirement of my Father from the Greenock 
 Whale-fishing Company, the command of the John, 
 with the advantages and perquisites enjoyed by her 
 
FURTHER ENTERPRISES. 179 
 
 orieinal commander, was transferred to his son-in-law, 
 Captain Thomas Jackson. Having previously, during 
 a period of three years, held a command in the 
 transport service, besides having been associated with 
 my Father in his voyages of 1813 and 1814, Mr. 
 Jackson took up this somewhat novel service with 
 that spirit, talent, and enterprise, which, in their 
 action and results, were alike commendatory and 
 successful. 
 
 My Father, meanwhile, whose spirit of enterprise, 
 if not wearied, had become somewhat less constrain- 
 ing in furtherance of fresh undertakings, was content, 
 for the first time during a period of above thirty 
 years service, to remain for a season (that of the year 
 1815) unemployed. But, ill at ease in a condition of 
 entire idleness, he undertook, for a couple of voyages, 
 to sail out of Whitby (without engagement of pro- 
 perty in the adventure) in charge of the Mars, a new 
 ship of 343 tons, belonging to his old and steady 
 friends, Messrs. Fishburn and Brodrick. The cargoes, 
 in this instance obtained, did not correspond with 
 those which had hitherto claimed for him an unri- 
 valled superiority. They were still characterised, 
 when compared with the results of the fishery in 
 general, as superior ; but superior only to an extent of 
 one-fourth or one-fifth beyond the common average. 
 
 Another year of retirement from the sea-service, as 
 a commander, succeeded his engagement in the com- 
 mand of the Mars; but the time was not spent, as 
 before, without any professional object; my Father, 
 
180 MY FATHER. 
 
 in the autumn of 1817, having purchased, solely on 
 his own account, another teak-built ship, the Fame, 
 of 370 tons burden, originally brought into England 
 as a prize from the French. 
 
 The fitting out of the Fame was deferred until a 
 period very inconveniently late, under the idea, 
 perhaps, of her being employed by the Government 
 for Arctic researches, — just at this time proposed to 
 be renewed ; and this idea he might well be supposed 
 to entertain, because of the knowledge of the fact, — 
 that it was in consequence of information communi- 
 cated by myself to the President of the Royal Society, 
 Sir Joseph Banks, that the attention of the Council 
 of the Royal Society and -the Government had been 
 directed to the long dormant enterprise, and that that 
 distinguished patron of science, with whom we both 
 had frequent intercourse, was very desirous that I 
 should be employed (having requested me to be 
 sent for to London with this view) in the proposed 
 adventure.* 
 
 Our expectations herein, however, I need hardly 
 add, were altogether disappointed, and, so far as 
 expense, at least, was concerned, much to the national 
 disadvantage, as we could have accomplished one of 
 those enterprises (the Polar research of 1818) at one- 
 
 * This fact having been differently reported and understood, the 
 reader who feels any interest in the subject may satisfy himself, I 
 believe, of the reality by reference to an article in the " Edinburgh 
 Philosophical Journal," vol. xx. 1835-6, "On some Circumstances 
 connected with the Original Suggestion of the Modern Arctic Expe- 
 ditions." 
 
CONCLUDING ENTERPRISE. 181 
 
 tenth of the cost of the appointed expedition, and, at 
 all events, with as much effectiveness; for, on that 
 unfortunate occasion, less could not have been ac- 
 complished. 
 
 In consequence of the delay by this and other 
 causes induced, it was not without very great efforts 
 that the Fame was got ready for the fishery of the 
 ensuing season, 1818. The requisite preparations 
 however, were completed, whilst there was yet time 
 for the adventure, and the ship, for the first attempt, 
 being put under my command, sailed from Liverpool 
 on the 2nd April. Having obtained, for the season, 
 which was not a prosperous one, a good cargo, we 
 returned, August the 18th, (as had been arranged) 
 to Whitby. 
 
 In the following spring my Father re-assumed his 
 habitual occupation in command of the Fame; but 
 the great draught of water and somewhat sharp 
 build of the ship, rendering the tide-harbour, to 
 which, in this first instance, she had resorted, both 
 inconvenient and unsafe, her port was again changed 
 for Hull, to which, with but a moderate cargo, she 
 returned. The next voyage, that of 1820, was, for 
 the somewhat unfavourable season, a very successful 
 one; that of 1821 was moderately good; that of 1822 
 returned only an average cargo; and the attempt 
 of 1823 was prematurely arrested by the unfortu- 
 nate destruction of the ship by fire. 
 
 The Fame had been fitted out for this contem- 
 plated voyage with unusual care and expense, — con- 
 
182 
 
 MY FATHER. 
 
 siderable alterations and improvements, independent 
 of repairs, having been made; she had proceeded 
 northward as far as the Orkneys, where she had 
 taken up an anchorage for the completion of her 
 crew with boatmen, when the catastrophe, which 
 summarily frustrated the undertaking, brought my 
 Father's Arctic adventures at the same time to a 
 sudden termination; for after so long a pursuance 
 of his arduous enterprises, and the acquisition of a 
 handsome and ample competency, there were much 
 stronger motives for inducing him now to remain 
 on shore, "for the enjoyment of the fruits of his 
 labours," than to stimulate to further efforts in any 
 new undertaking. 
 
 The summary of these two latter enterprises, it 
 will naturally have been anticipated, does not corre- 
 spond with that of the three-and-twenty years of all 
 but continuous successes. For though the cargoes 
 obtained in his six last voyages were, on the whole, 
 considerably above the ordinary average, yet they by 
 no means maintained the claim to superiority. 
 
 This change, however, in my Father's position as 
 a fisherman, admits of a satisfactory explanation. The 
 circumstances on which success was now dependent 
 had, in some most essential particulars, changed. 
 Superior knowledge of the Arctic ices, and consum- 
 mate skill in penetrating and navigating the compact 
 or tortuous interruptions to the usual retreats of the 
 whales, which with him were so characteristic, were 
 now no longer available. So greatly had the whales 
 
PRECARIOUS FISHERY. 183 
 
 "been reduced in number, apparently, by the enor- 
 mous slaughter of their species during the last quarter 
 of a century ; and so much scattered had the residue 
 been by the perpetual harass and attacks to which 
 they had been subjected, that the positions, wherein 
 the opportunity for making a successful voyage used 
 to be constantly afforded, were now almost entirely 
 deserted. Hence the enterprise and skill, enabling 
 the fisherman to take the lead in penetrating the ice, 
 which had been wont to be eminently rewarded, had 
 now become of little avail. No one could calculate 
 on the positions in which fish might be found. In 
 places apparently most likely, not a fish, perhaps, 
 was to be seen ; whilst in circumstances least ex- 
 pected success might be met with. And although a 
 few active, enterprising, and clever men, were now 
 and then found taking a lead in respect to propor- 
 tionate success, yet the fishery altogether had become 
 very precarious ; so increasingly precarious, indeed, 
 that within about half-a-dozen years of this time the 
 whale-fishery of the Greenland seas proved so utterly 
 unremunerative, as to be all but abandoned as a 
 distinct commercial enterprise. The port of Hull, 
 for example, which during the whole period of my 
 Father's command of a whaler had, on an average, 
 sent out twenty-two ships annually to the Greenland 
 fishery, — in 1828, only five years after he discon- 
 tinued the pursuit, had only one Greenlandman, and 
 the year following none. 
 
184 MY FATHER. 
 
 His retirement from so active and enterprising a 
 pursuit as had engaged the subject of these records 
 during a period, altogether, of six-and-thirty years 
 of his life, was by no means an event of unmixed 
 benefit. It was far otherwise. For the effect of 
 wear and tear on the constitution, whilst for this 
 long period subjected to circumstances of peculiar 
 anxiety and excitement of adventure, soon became 
 apparent under the trial of absolute leisure and the 
 deprivation of ordinary stimulus. It is, indeed, a 
 well-ascertained characteristic of the human system, 
 strikingly indicative of the wisdom and goodness of 
 the Creator, to derive temporary energy from the 
 very stimulus of the demands for energy. Thus 
 strength, beyond all previous imagination, is often 
 yielded for special occasions, whilst the capability 
 of action is wonderfully maintained for the period 
 of protracted necessity or duty. But the trial comes 
 when the tension of the mysterious fabric of the 
 human system has to be relaxed. The strength, for 
 the occasion, being beyond the ordinary powers of 
 renovation, is maintained by the nervous stimulant 
 at the expense of a wear and tear which not only 
 becomes apparent on the cessation of the undue 
 exercise, but in aggravated proportion by reason of 
 the natural reaction. 
 
 How far these operations in a too long continued 
 stretch of the natural powers might have induced 
 the inferior state of my Father's health, during the 
 six years of his life succeeding the time of his retire- 
 
GENERAL RESULTS OF ADVENTURES. 
 
 185 
 
 ment from the sea, it is impossible to say; though the 
 fact of this deterioration of health, in the interval of 
 leisure, was abundantly apparent. 
 
 Section IV. — General Results of his entire Whale- 
 Jishing Adventures. 
 
 In conclusion of these records of my Father's 
 Arctic enterprises, commercially, there remain yet to 
 be given the general comparisons and results, in which 
 we shall again find them to be great and pre-eminent. 
 The materials for these comparisons, on my Father's 
 part, are compendiously exhibited in the following 
 summary of his various voyages : — 
 
 TABULAR VIEW OF THE SUCCESSES OF THE LATE 
 
 W. SCORESBY, ESQ., IN HIS ADVENTURES IN 
 
 THE GREENLAND WHALE-FISHERY. 
 
 No. of 
 Voyage. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Ship commanded. 
 
 Cargo obtained. 
 
 Whales. 
 
 Tuns of 
 Oil. 
 
 1 
 
 1791 
 
 Henrietta . 
 
 clean. 
 
 nil. 
 
 2 
 
 1792 
 
 » 
 
 18 
 
 112 
 
 3 
 
 1793 
 
 )> 
 
 6 
 
 90 
 
 4 
 
 1794 
 
 !) 
 
 6 
 
 120 
 
 5 
 
 1795 
 
 IJ 
 
 25 
 
 143 
 
 6 
 
 1796 
 
 H 
 
 9 
 
 112 
 
 7 
 
 1797 
 
 !J 
 
 16 
 
 152 
 
 8 
 
 1798 
 
 Dundee 
 
 36 
 
 198 
 
 9 
 
 1799 
 
 » 
 
 12 
 
 144 
 
 10 
 
 1800 
 
 )! 
 
 3 
 
 45 
 
 11 
 
 1801 
 
 )> 
 
 23 
 
 225 
 
 12 
 
 1802 
 
 7? 
 
 20 
 
 200 
 
 13 
 
 1803 
 
 Resolution . 
 
 13 
 
 164 
 
186 
 
 MY FATHER. 
 
 Tabular View — continued. 
 
 No. of 
 Voyage. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Ship commanded. 
 
 Cargo obtained. 
 
 Whales. 
 
 Tuns of 
 Oil. 
 
 14 
 
 1804 
 
 Resolution . 
 
 33 
 
 188 
 
 15 
 
 1805 
 
 » 
 
 30 
 
 196 
 
 16 
 
 1806 
 
 I! 
 
 24 
 
 216 
 
 17 
 
 1807 
 
 » 
 
 13 
 
 213 
 
 18 
 
 1808 
 
 )! 
 
 27 
 
 210 
 
 19 
 
 1809 
 
 !) 
 
 26 
 
 216 
 
 20 
 
 1810 
 
 J? 
 
 28 
 
 214 
 
 21 
 
 1811 
 
 John 
 
 16 
 
 200 
 
 22 
 
 1812 
 
 » 
 
 25 
 
 198 
 
 23 
 
 1813 
 
 !> 
 
 28 
 
 190 
 
 2-1 
 
 1814 
 
 )) 
 
 35 
 
 249 
 
 — 
 
 1815 
 
 [on shore.] 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 25 
 
 1816 
 
 Mars. 
 
 20 
 
 170 
 
 26 
 
 1817 
 
 h 
 
 6 
 
 82 
 
 — 
 
 1818 
 
 [on shore.] 
 
 — 
 
 • 
 
 27 
 
 1819 
 
 Fame 
 
 10 
 
 120 
 
 28 
 
 1820 
 
 ji 
 
 10 
 
 184 
 
 29 
 
 1821 
 
 ii 
 
 9 
 
 143 
 
 30 
 
 1822 
 
 ?> 
 
 6 
 
 70 
 
 The total number of voyages in which, he held the 
 command in the fishery, from first to last, was just 
 thirty. The entire cargoes obtained, under this per- 
 sonal guidance, comprised the produce of 533 whales, — 
 " a greater number," says his friend Mr. Drew, 
 " than has fallen to the share of any other indi- 
 vidual in Europe," — with that of many thousands of 
 seals, some hundreds of walruses, very many nar- 
 wals, and probably not less than sixty bears, The 
 quantity of oil yielded by this produce was 4664 
 tuns, of whalebone about 240 tons weight, besides 
 the skins of the seals, bears, and walruses taken. 
 
GENERAL RESULTS OF ADVENTURES. 187 
 
 From hence we derive a general average, during 
 the thirty voyages, of eighteen whales, yielding 155*5 
 tuns of oil per voyage; or, omitting the first voyage, 
 which, for reasons stated in Chapter II., ought fairly 
 to be excluded, the average would be 18*4 whales, 
 yielding 160 tuns of oil for each voyage. 
 
 In comparison of the general average of the British 
 whale-fishery, this, no doubt, stands singularly high. 
 But not having the materials for the exact deter- 
 mination of this general comparison, we may take 
 the Hull whale-fishery for our guidance, which, from 
 the large number of ships regularly engaged therein, 
 will, it is believed, afford a fair estimate. And this 
 section of the fishery, we find, comprised, betwixt 
 the years 1791 and 1822 inclusive, an average of 
 twenty-two ships annually, the cargoes of which, 
 during that period, averaged 84*5 tuns of oil a 
 voyage per ship. Compared with this, it is seen, 
 that my Father's yearly average was almost double 
 the quantity! 
 
 It is not possible, because of the lack of accounts 
 as to several of my Father's ships, to ascertain, except 
 proximately, the actual value of the produce now 
 determined; but, from the variety of information 
 now before me, as to the marketable value of Green- 
 land produce during a considerable majority of the 
 years corresponding with these voyages, I have been 
 enabled to calculate the gross proceeds of the whole 
 thirty years adventures, in money, at 196,591/., or 
 possibly a full 200,000/. ! 
 
188 MY FATHER. 
 
 The proportion of expenses due to these enter- 
 prises and results may, in like manner, be proximately 
 calculated. For, if the Hull fishery, with little more 
 than half of my Father's success, were fairly remune- 
 rative, — as it obviously must have been to induce 
 perseverance therein,— then, the residue of his catch 
 above that average may, mainly, be considered as 
 clear profit; for, in such estimate, we set off the 
 additional expenses incurred where there is superior 
 success against the actual remunerating profits in 
 the inferior success. On this estimate we should 
 have the value of, say, seventy-five tuns of oil and 
 four tons of whalebone for the clear profit; or, out of 
 a gross annual produce of the value of 6600/., a residue 
 calculated to yield about 3000/. a voyage profit.* 
 
 This estimate would give the sum of 90,000/., or, 
 omitting the first voyage, 87,000/. for the amount of 
 this individual skill and enterprise, divided, in the 
 shape of profits, among the owners embarked in the 
 general enterprise ! On another ground of calcula- 
 tion, guided by the proportion of expenses in certain 
 known cases, the expenses were taken at two-fifths 
 the produce, which would reduce the profits (pro- 
 bably too low) to about 80,000/. 
 
 In setting forth this result as very remarkable, it is 
 with reference, it should be observed, to the instru- 
 mentality and capital employed. It is no uncommon 
 
 * This estimate of profits, though exceeding those of the Resolution, 
 already given, may he still maintained, on the ground of the price of 
 provisions and the high rates of seamen's wages and insurance, pertain- 
 ing to a period, except as to one year, of continuous war. 
 
THE WALRUS. 189 
 
 thing for a sum like this, or much greater than this, 
 to be realized in commercial enterprises ; but, in such 
 cases, there are generally many instruments and a 
 large capital employed in the business. But here, 
 under the one individual direction, there was but one 
 ship employed, involving an investment of capital of 
 from 6000/. to 12,700/., or, on an average, not exceed- 
 ing 9000/., and this small investment yielding, through 
 a series of about thirty years, no less a sum than 
 3000/. a year, being at the rate of 33 1 per cent per 
 annum on the capital employed. 
 
 Section V. — Unusual Capture of Walruses, 
 
 This incident, which belongs to the period of the 
 Fame's voyages, is here introduced, in conclusion of 
 the general series of my Father's Northern adven- 
 tures, as presenting something of novelty in the 
 modern whale-fishery. 
 
 The xoalrus or sea-horse, as the whalers designate 
 it, is one of those extraordinary animals so prevalent 
 in the Arctic regions, in which, like the whale, 
 are comprised the mixed characteristics of the inha- 
 bitants of sea and land. The body, generally, from 
 its extensive conformity, might be supposed to be 
 that of a huge seal; but the head is peculiar, ap- 
 proaching the nearest, but only in rude and diminu- 
 tive resemblance, to that of the elephant, as being 
 somewhat square-faced, with a hard and massive 
 skull, scarcely pervious to a musket-ball, and with 
 
190 MY FATHER. 
 
 two large external tusks pointing downward. The 
 fore paws may be compared to webbed hands; the 
 hind feet, in their ordinary position when at rest, 
 form an expansive tail. The skin, covered with 
 short hair, is of remarkable substance, so as to pro- 
 duce a strong, but rather porous leather, of about 
 an inch in thickness. A thin layer of fat lies beneath 
 the skin. 
 
 As met with on the coast of Spitzbergen, this 
 animal is found of the length, ordinarily, of twelve 
 to fifteen feet, and eight to ten feet in circumference. 
 But specimens elsewhere found on the coasts of some 
 Arctic countries, are represented as extending to 
 twenty feet in length. The Spitzbergen animal, full 
 grown, is about the bulk of an ox ; its weight, as 
 I have estimated it, being from fifteen to twenty- 
 four hundredweight. But a twenty-feet walrus could 
 hardly weigh less than three tons. 
 
 Though the tusks, the fat, and the skins, have a 
 fair commercial value, the animal is never sousrht 
 after as a special object of enterprise by the whalers, 
 except incidentally, and very few are taken. Large 
 captures, indeed, were occasionally made of sea- 
 horses, in the early periods of adventure after the 
 discovery of Spitzbergen ; but these animals have 
 seldom been met with by our modern whalers 
 in any considerable number together, and their 
 capture, consequently, has very rarely exceeded 
 half-a-dozen in a voyage. No summary mode of 
 killing them, indeed, had been prevalent or under- 
 
WALRUSES. 191 
 
 stood by which due advantage might be taken 
 of any extraordinary opportunity. If met with 
 in the water, where they might be attacked with 
 muskets or lances, the chance of capture was but 
 small, as the wounded animal would generally 
 dive and escape. Formerly, I remember, harpoons 
 of a small kind were provided expressly for the sea- 
 horse; but with the whale harpoon, now only used, 
 the tough skin of the creature is hard to be pene- 
 trated. If met with on shore or on ice, lances and 
 muskets were more available, and in such positions 
 the principal, though scanty, captures of modern 
 times were wont to be made. 
 
 My Father's enterprise, therefore, in the case 
 now referred to, was the more remarkable, not only 
 because of the unusual number captured, but because 
 of the novelty adopted in the mode of attack, by 
 which mainly the success was gained. 
 
 Being on the coast of Spitzbergen, in the Fame, 
 in the summer of 1819, when no incumbrance was 
 met with from ice, my Father was induced to stretch 
 into one of the fine picturesque inlets with which 
 this remarkable region abounds, Magdalena Bay, 
 where an extraordinary sight on the beach attracted 
 his attention. Hundreds, if not thousands, of ani- 
 mals, which on their near approach proved to be sea- 
 horses, were seen congregated on the sloping shore, 
 thickly huddled together, basking in the bright sun- 
 shine and genial warmth of the sheltered position. 
 
 No one on board having ever seen anything of 
 
192 MY FATHER. 
 
 the kind before, all were in a state of excitement, 
 which soon became naturally diverted into ardour 
 for conflict and capture. Measures were speedily- 
 concerted by which a due harvest might, if possible, 
 be reaped out of this wonderfully stocked field. 
 Muskets, evidently, could do little, as the vast herd, 
 on being alarmed, would doubtless hurry into the 
 sea, before the discharged arms could be reloaded, 
 and harpoons could be of no avail. Lances and 
 whale-knives, however, promised a better instru- 
 mentality, and especially one kind of the latter, the 
 tail-knife, which in reality proved the most effective 
 of all. This instrument, designed for making per- 
 forations in the tail and fins of the captured whale, 
 when preparing to be towed to the ship, constitutes 
 a portion of the furniture of every whale-boat, and 
 consists of a nearly three-feet straight sharp-pointed 
 blade, with a wooden handle of like measure. It 
 resembles the blade of a cutlass, out of which weapon, 
 indeed, this kind of knife is frequently constructed. 
 
 From accounts which at different times I have 
 received from individuals participating in the affair, 
 I am enabled to offer such description of the plan 
 and proceedings as may serve, I hope, to give a 
 tolerably correct notion of this curious and novel 
 kind of exploit. 
 
 Well furnished with what appeared to be the best 
 weapons for the attack, the boats set out on the 
 adventure, spreading themselves, whilst at a distance, 
 so as to make a simultaneous and warlike descent 
 upon the beach. 
 
WALRUSES. 193 
 
 As this animal is but imperfectly adapted for 
 locomotion on land, and its progress, usually, 
 sluggish and slow, there was a chance with the 
 individuals which had adventured highest up the 
 slope of doing some considerable execution among 
 them. Though the walrus, ordinarily, appears 
 singularly fearless, — it might be said, stupidly fear- 
 less,— yet the whole herd, in this case, was soon put 
 into a state of commotion and alarm. The principal 
 attack on the flanks having arrested several of the 
 number, the general mass began a scrambling retreat, 
 assuming a strangely formidable, yet otherwise gro- 
 tesque appearance, whilst, in their haste, the huge 
 carcasses were seen, in their mutual interferences, 
 rolling one over another down the beach. 
 
 Two or three of the leaders of the attacking 
 party,— the foremost among whom was, I believe, 
 Mr. William Jackson, afterwards a successful com- 
 mander, — perceiving the risk of the vast herd 
 escaping before they should have time for any consi- 
 derable success in captures, boldly threw themselves 
 betwixt the affrighted walruses and the sea, so as, 
 to the extent their means of destruction might enable 
 them, to cut off their retreat. And now it was that 
 the tail-knife was found to be a most admirable 
 weapon for the occasion, its sharpness of point, and 
 length of blade, yielding mortal results at almost 
 every stroke, and its length of handle enabling its 
 wielder to avoid the formidable tusks of the creature 
 whilst attacking it close to hand. 
 
194 MY FATHER. 
 
 The result exceeded the most sanguine expecta- 
 tions of the assailants. Many wounded ones, I be- 
 lieve, escaped into the sea, but a famous slaughter 
 and advantageous spoil rewarded the adventure. 
 One hundred and thirty of these animals remained 
 as trophies of the sailors' victory, yielding, besides 
 the corresponding quantity of hides, a large weight 
 of tusks and teeth, adapted for dental purposes, and 
 a quantity of oil, which, perhaps, we may roughly 
 estimate at 1500 to 2000 gallons. 
 
195 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 
 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS AND MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 NOTICES. 
 
 Section I. — Superiority as an Arctic Navigator. 
 
 My Father's superiority as a fisherman, as exhibited 
 in the foregoing pages, had an essential relation to 
 his talents as a seaman and a navigator. The former, 
 indeed, was in no inconsiderable degree a fruit of the 
 latter; for it was his superiority as a navigator of ice- 
 encumbered seas particularly, which, for a consider- 
 able series of years, enabled him generally to obtain 
 a position in advance of his competitors, and thus 
 yielded to him the best opportunities, whilst the 
 ground was undisturbed, for making his fishery. 
 
 Not only, indeed, was he thus unrivalled among 
 his associates in Arctic enterprise, but to him was 
 due the introduction of a truly scientific system of 
 arrangements, which, with their masterly application 
 in practice, enabled him at all times, when " beating 
 to windward" among crowded ices, or contending 
 under the greatest obstructions and difficulties for 
 a passage " to the northward," to take the lead. 
 
 The penetration of the Greenland ices, whilst in 
 search of whales, being very prevalently pursued by 
 
196 MY FATHER. 
 
 beating to windward, or by sailing " on a wind," — 
 so prevalently, indeed, that, during a quarter of a 
 century from my Father's commencement in com- 
 mand, nine days out of ten, or more, were spent in 
 this description of navigation, — it became a matter 
 of grand importance to have the ship, as " to trim," 
 " cut of the sails," ballasting, etc., specially prepared 
 for sailing " close-hauled." 
 
 For this style of navigation, the arrangements pre- 
 valent in the merchant service, at the time, were 
 most ill adapted. When without cargo, the ships 
 usually went in light "ballast-trim," and had their 
 sails cut so as to " bag " into a deep concave on the 
 side acted on by the wind, — conditions most un- 
 favourable for " holding a good wind " or " working 
 close." 
 
 The whalers were thus universally circumstanced 
 at my Father's commencement. They went ordi- 
 narily ballasted, or, sometimes, " flying-light," not 
 only because of this being accordant with the general 
 practice with merchantmen, but with the view of 
 lessening the concussions against the ice when 
 coming into violent contact with it. My Father, 
 on the contrary, adopted a totally different system. 
 He caused such a large quantity of the lower and 
 second tiers of casks to be filled with water (to which 
 he subsequently added ballast of shingle or iron in the 
 interstices of the casks of the "ground tier"), that 
 the ship became as deep as with the third part of a 
 cargo; his sails he had made to stand as flat, under 
 
SUPERIORITY AS A NAVIGATOR. 197 
 
 the force of the wind, as possible ; he had his ship 
 denuded of all useless spars aloft, as well as of sails 
 of little adaptation for sailing on a wind; and, finally, 
 the braces of the yards, and other running geer, he 
 had so adapted as to run free, and as light as con- 
 sistent with safety. 
 
 His ship thus presenting the least possible quantity 
 of surface to the leeward-tending action of the wind, 
 being so fully ballasted, and having her sails, so far 
 as he had the adjusting of them, adapted for standing 
 flat and "near the wind," he was enabled to make 
 a progress, in "windward sailing " among ice, which, 
 during a long period of years, defied all competition. 
 
 But the adaptation of the ship, it was apparent, 
 was not all. For the ships which he had himself 
 prepared for sailing on this effective system, retained 
 their advantage but very partially when they came 
 under other management. The Henrietta, which for 
 several years had taken the undisputed lead, was, 
 after my Father left her, beaten by the Dundee, and 
 the Dundee, in like manner, by the Resolution; and 
 not by the ship, only, which he now commanded, 
 was his former ship beaten, but by many competitors 
 besides. The loss of character in the ship he had 
 retired from, indeed, became a matter of much obser- 
 vation and remark both at sea and on shore ; and the 
 circumstance was justly enough accounted for under 
 the quaint expression, — "she has lost her jockey." 
 
 It was, in fact, strictly so. The succeeding com- 
 mander — clever as he might be in other respects, and 
 
198 MY FATHER. 
 
 successful as one, especially, of my Father's training 
 was — had not the superiority in seamanship with 
 which the ship had formerly been managed. The 
 special adaptations, therefore, which my Father had 
 turned to such good account, were now only partially 
 available. Under considerable difficulties in the 
 navigation, or against hard competitors in the navi- 
 gators, the once leading ship was liable to fail, and 
 very often did fail. The advantages provided in the 
 adaptation of the ship were, in such cases, lost in the 
 management. But where the navigator, as in my 
 Father's case, was pre-eminently skilful, the adap- 
 tations for windward and ice-encumbered sailing 
 became in the highest degree efficient, and resulted, 
 as has been shown, in an unrivalled superiority. 
 
 A commander may sometimes become distinguished 
 in war by successes acquired at an unusual sacrifice 
 of life. His resulting superiority may, in certain 
 cases, be dearly purchased. But there was no such 
 counteracting element in the pre-eminence, as an 
 Arctic navigator, gained by my Father. His deeply 
 ballasted ship might have struck heavier against the 
 ice than others, but she rarely was alloiced to strike 
 heavily. Concussions not unfrequently fell to the lot 
 of other ships, light enough, and free to rebound as 
 they might be, by which, nevertheless, bows or sides 
 were stove in, and heavy expenses in damages con- 
 sequently incurred ; but no such disasters were en- 
 countered by him. His ship was wont to be a-head 
 in adventure, navigating the most difficult positions, 
 
SUPERIORITY AS A NAVIGATOR. 199 
 
 braving most alarming threateniugs of the ices and the 
 wind. But his ship went gallantly amid, and passed 
 safely through, all these dangers. He knew precisely 
 what his ship, in difficulties or dangers, might do ; 
 and that, under his commanding management, was 
 done, and safely done. If, by the hundred chances 
 which might thwart a difficult operation, — in the 
 perpetual movements of the ice, the varying winds, 
 the mistakes or defects of his helmsman, or the 
 unpromptness of the men in management of the 
 yards and sails, — his intended object or manoeuvre 
 should happen to be defeated, he was always ready, 
 in his inexhaustible and well-considered resources, 
 to save his ship from the imminent danger which a 
 failure or blunder, in such cases, frequently involved. 
 His quick apprehension of almost every possible con- 
 tingency, served at once to develop and to bring into 
 timely operation the resources which his fertile talent 
 supplied; whilst his keen discernment of the quality 
 and measure of the various movements of detached 
 pieces or bodies of ice, as unequally acted upon by 
 wind or currents, enabled him so to anticipate any 
 probable risks, as to be prepared, however he might 
 be baulked in his principal design, for some other 
 furthering project, or, at all events, for a safe retreat. 
 The reality of my Father's superiority, as a navi- 
 gator, now being described, admits, as to me it seems, 
 of conclusive evidence in these two remarkable facts, 
 — that, for the long series of voyages in which he 
 held his first three or four commands, his ship, in all 
 
200 MY FATHER. 
 
 difficulties ivhere talent could be availing, always took 
 the lead; and that, for the whole time of his command, 
 wherein he was wont to take the lead, equally in 
 danger as in advanced position, he was always enabled, 
 under the constantly recognised and sought-for bless- 
 ing of Providence, to pursue his adventurous object 
 safely, or without damage of any essential considera- 
 tion, to his ship! 
 
 Within my own experience, whilst I accompanied 
 him during nine voyages, from a mere child to adult 
 age, I had perpetual opportunities of discerning his 
 superiority over all the competitors we met with; 
 and, during the same experience, I had repeated 
 occasions for noticing with proud admiration, his 
 wonderful skill in beating to windward amongst 
 intricate ices, so as to leave every ship that we found 
 near us in succession behind. In the morning, 
 perhaps, at the commencement of a progress amid 
 encumbering ices, I have seen around the Resolution, 
 in various positions, to windward as well as to lee- 
 ward, a considerable fleet of companion-whalers; and 
 in the evening of the same day, after twelve or four- 
 teen hours efforts in getting to windward, I have 
 been able to see no ship whatever within the limits 
 of vision from the level of the deck. On ascending 
 then to the topmast head, where the extent of vision 
 became vastly increased ; I have generally found the 
 pursuing fleet, bent on the same course, to be far 
 away from us; some ships being left so much behind, 
 perhaps, as to have disappeared, not from fog, or 
 darkness, but from mere distance to leeward ! 
 
SUPERIORITY AS A NAVIGATOR. 201 
 
 This striking feat of skill— differing in degree of 
 course, according to the nature and extent of the 
 navigable interstices of the ice, and the force and 
 direction of the wind, with the sailing qualities of the 
 competing ships likewise, as well as the seamanship 
 of their commanders — was, as I have intimated, 
 repeatedly performed under my own observation. 
 But the like triumph of superiority was also gained, 
 and that on different occasions within my personal 
 observation, when the competing progress was being 
 made through a compact body of ice into the northern 
 fishing stations, and where the penetration, in antici- 
 pation of the general fleet, gained its due reward in 
 an early and superior success. 
 
 The voyage of 1806, described in Chapter IV. 
 Section VII., exhibited a striking example of the 
 successful application of this talent; and in that of 
 1809, the same result was interestingly realized. 
 
 We had taken the ice, in the latter case, with the 
 view of penetrating the barrier betwixt the free 
 northern ocean and the fishing stations in the seventy- 
 ninth and eightieth degree of latitude, along with a 
 large fleet of other whalers. For some days, whilst 
 no material progress could be made, we remained 
 in varying relative positions presenting but little 
 decided advantage. At length, when circumstances 
 gave room for the due exercise of talent and perse- 
 verance, we made a progress so much beyond that of 
 our associates, that we gradually left them, farther 
 and farther, behind us, until the whole of the fleet 
 
 k2 
 
202 MY FATHER. 
 
 were out of sight. We thus gained the "northern 
 water " considerably before the others, and, falling 
 in with whales in abundance, soon commenced a 
 most encouraging fishery. By and by, others of the 
 fleet began to make their appearance; and I well 
 remember the astonishment of the captains and men 
 of three ships which came close up to us on the 5th of 
 June, just as we had taken in our fourteenth whale, 
 whilst they had only obtained six amongst them. 
 One of these ships had been near us, or in company 
 with us, on the 27th of May, the day on which we 
 succeeded in surmounting the icy-barrier. She, how- 
 ever, had only made the same passage the day before 
 this, and had made but trifling progress in the fishery. 
 As there is no portion of the navigable ocean 
 throughout the globe, at all comparable, as a field for 
 the exercise of superior talent in seamanship, with 
 the ice-encumbered regions around the poles ; so my 
 Father's capabilities in this beautiful practical science, 
 had, at once, the requisite scope for their abundant 
 exercises, and their admirable triumphs. No matter 
 what the species of manoeuvre or operation might be, 
 he was equally superior in all. In "making fast" to 
 the ice in gales of wind — an operation of singular dif- 
 ficulty and ofttimes of no small risk, — the manner in 
 which he brought up his ship to the nearest possible 
 proximity with the place of the ice-anchor, afforded 
 time and opportunity for getting out and attaching 
 the mooring hawser, and then, with progressively 
 reduced sails, eased the ship's action on the rope till 
 
NATURAL SCIENCE. 203 
 
 fairly brought up, head to wind, — was in the highest 
 degree masterly and beautiful. Repetitions of trial, 
 and failure on failure, with much useless toil and 
 re-setting of sails, and, not unfrequently, with very 
 hard blows against the ice, were matters of such 
 perpetual experience among the inferior navigators 
 engaged in the service, as to render the operations 
 we have just attempted to illustrate, the more con- 
 spicuously admirable. 
 
 Section II. — Natural Science. 
 
 To my Father's natural science, or original, al- 
 most intuitive, perception and application of scientific 
 principles, I have already made repeated allusion. 
 But this characteristic of originality, as well as supe- 
 riority of mind, deserves, I think, more special con- 
 sideration. 
 
 Having to deal with circumstances perpetually 
 varying, and frequently presenting features entirely 
 new, the profession to which he had devoted himself 
 afforded almost the best possible opportunities for 
 the development and application of this quality of 
 mind. And, in a greater or less degree, every 
 voyage he undertook as commander served to elicit 
 this admirable characteristic. Those who understood 
 him not, very naturally ascribed many of his novel 
 proceedings to eccentricity, and these might be liable 
 to run into this very usual extreme ; but, for the 
 most part, the apparent eccentricity was, in reality, a 
 
204 MY FATHER. 
 
 sound result of reflective, philosophical consideration. 
 I might adduce some incidents, perhaps, in which the 
 originality of conception was pushed into an extreme : 
 yet I could recal, possibly, hundreds of others in 
 which such conceptions resulted in proceedings at 
 once admirable, in their fitness, and, as such, worthy 
 of imitation. 
 
 1. Take, for example, the process of sallying the 
 ice-bound ship for relieving her of any remediable 
 pressure, and giving free action to the power of wind 
 or " warps " for promoting her progress. And in this 
 we have an adaptation of a previously unapprehended 
 mean and provision, always at hand, possessing extra- 
 ordinary capabilities as a mechanical force. It may 
 not be uninteresting to elucidate this fact. 
 
 Suppose a ship, navigating the Arctic seas, to be 
 held firmly on the sides by the contact of two 
 large sheets, or numerous compacted pieces, of ice. 
 The ice just a-head may be less compact, or there 
 maybe a proximate channel, available for "boring" 
 or sailing, if the existing pressure could be relieved 
 so that the ship might be free to move. For the 
 relief of this lateral pressure, no mechanical force, 
 except the action of the wind on the sails when 
 coming somewhat in the direction of " the beam," 
 had heretofore been considered as available, or had 
 been applied. But my Father's device afforded a 
 novel, as well as a powerfully available, agency. In 
 what degree powerful is easily estimated. The ship, 
 
NATURAL SCIENCE. 205 
 
 in the case referred to, we will suppose is tolerably 
 flat-sided (like the Resolution), and floats, ordinarily, 
 at the depth of the greatest width. Now the power 
 yielded by sallying may be considered as correspond- 
 ing with that obtained by a wedge acted on by a 
 heavy weight; the ivedge, in this case, being the 
 portion of the ship's side that becomes depressed, 
 operating by virtue of the expansion of the ship's 
 width when heeling, and the force acting on the 
 wedge being the weight transferred from an even 
 distribution with an upright position of the ship, to 
 an accumulation of weight on one side, inducing a 
 heeling position. Let the extent of heeling be con- 
 sidered as a "streak" of nine inches, in which case, 
 as the opposite side will be proportionally and equally 
 raised, the width of the line of flotation will be in- 
 creased, altogether (in a main breadth of 26 feet), 
 about half an inch, or a quarter inch on either side. 
 The depressed side, then, in its progress under water, 
 as far as nine inches, will have expanded a quarter 
 of an inch in width, and the raised side an equal 
 quantity; and both sides will act on the contiguous 
 ices with the mechanical force of a wedge of nine 
 inches long and a quarter-inch at the thick end, — 
 exhibiting, on the ordinary mode of calculating the 
 power of the wedge, a gain of power for either side 
 in the proportion of twice the length of the wedge,* 
 or 18 inches, to a quarter inch, or as 72 to 1. 
 
 * The inexperienced mechanic is liable to be puzzled with the action 
 of the wedge, because of its being estimated, in some modes of its appli- 
 
206 MY FATHER. 
 
 The force acting on these wedges is that of the 
 weight of the men employed in sallying, when all 
 are placed on one side of the deck right over the 
 head or back of one of the wedges. In a whaler 
 carrying fifty men, the weight available for this pur- 
 pose, say that of forty-six or forty-eight of the crew, 
 may be estimated at about three tons, one half of 
 which only would act downward, the other half being 
 expended in the resistance upward, of the opposite 
 side. 
 
 Hence the mechanical force hereby derived, as 
 represented by these data, would appear to be that of 
 two wedges of a power of seventy-two to one, each 
 acted on by a weight of a ton and a half, that is, a 
 
 cation, in the double proportion of its length to that of once its thickness, 
 giving to it, apparently, twice the force of the other mechanical powers. 
 It may not be unfitting, for the sake of our young readers, to explain 
 the little difficulty. The wedge when acting against one fixed and 
 immoveable body for the removal of another body, has then, only, the 
 like force as the lever, — a force proportionate to the extent of space 
 passed over, in driving, by the length, with respect to the increase in 
 the thickness, of the wedge; but when acting for the separation of two 
 bodies, both moveable, both sides then become effective, and it neces- 
 sarily exerts double that power. And so does the lever. For if the 
 lever be employed in like manner, the action in separating two moveable 
 bodies will be just double that of its ordinary action where the fulcrum 
 is absolutely fixed. This, indeed, is obviously the same with all the 
 mechanical powers. Action and reaction being equal, the power 
 exerted in raising or moving one heavy body must be exerted reversely 
 against the earth, or other fixed body serving as a fulcrum to the lever, 
 or for the attachment of one extremity of a tackle or series of pullies, 
 or for the securing of the capstan spindle. Let the attachments of the 
 machine and its object, however, be both afloat, and then any of the 
 mechanical powers, like that of the wedge, will have an efficiency of 
 double that of its ordinary operation where one part is a fixture. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCE. 207 
 
 force of the weight of 108 tons acting towards the 
 separation of the ice and ship on each side. But 
 only half the amount of these two forces, it will be 
 obvious, comes effectively into operation ; for the 
 wedges, being on opposite sides of the ship, act anta- 
 gonistically, thus spending one-half of their power 
 against each other, in the compressing of the opposite 
 sides of the ship together. The force really in 
 operation, then, serving to push off the ice from each 
 side, or tending to separate the compressing masses 
 of ice, will be equivalent to two weights of fifty-four 
 or altogether to a weight of 108 tons. 
 
 If there were no resistance either from the friction 
 of the ice on the ship's sides, or from the stability of 
 the ship, the estimated mechanical force, for the case 
 assumed, would no doubt take effect. The resistance 
 from friction cannot, it is evident, be determined; 
 but that of the ship's stability might be easily repre- 
 sented. At the commencement of the heeling position, 
 however, the resistance from this source would be 
 but trifling. In its actual influence, in ordinary 
 cases, the stability might abstract, perhaps, a quarter 
 or a third part from the entire force exerted, but 
 still leaving a free action equivalent to the weight of 
 seventy or eighty tons towards the separation of the 
 ices, right and left. 
 
 But the force ultimately brought into operation, 
 after a sallying motion is once obtained, becomes still 
 greater and more effective, — acting now and then, 
 in the nature of concussion from the momentum of a 
 
208 MY FATHER. 
 
 portion of the ship's weight, as thus may be illus- 
 trated: — 
 
 The weight of the crew, in the outset of the opera- 
 tion, being placed all on one side of the deck, and 
 then suddenly transferred to the other, will, after the 
 overcoming of the friction originally induced by the 
 ice, cause the ship to heel, and, on the reversing of 
 the action (by the men running back again across the 
 deck) the direction of the heeling will be also reversed. 
 The process being carried on with a strict attention 
 to the adjustment of the moment of the running of 
 the men (indicated by the word of command, "over") 
 to the time of change in the natural oscillations of 
 the ship, — these oscillations (supposing the ice to 
 be gradually receding) will increase to a maximum, 
 whilst the incidental concussions of the ship's sides 
 against the contiguous ices will act as a "ram" on 
 the wedge-like expansion of the width of her two 
 broadsides. The additional force thus incidentally 
 applied, it is evident, may be enormous. Hence the 
 wonderful effects sometimes produced by my Father's 
 ingenious device of sallying, — effects not less im- 
 portant and striking when "clawing" to windward 
 of masses of ice in boring, when, by the mere action 
 of the wind on the sails the ship may have come to a 
 stand, as when stuck fast betwixt equally compressing 
 ices on both broadsides at once. The moment the 
 sallying is perceived, the ship realises such relief 
 from both pressure and friction, as to start a-head as 
 if acted on by a magical power! 
 
NATURAL SCIENCE. 209 
 
 It hardly requires, perhaps, to be explained, that 
 our investigations of the operation of sallying in 
 urging a path through encumbering ices, are, strictly, 
 only illustrative. For the action of the ship's side 
 which we have considered as that of a regular 
 straight wedge is, in reality, curvilinear, and, ordi- 
 narily, would be unusually thin at the apex, thus 
 giving, at the commencement of the heeling move- 
 ment, a much higher degree of mechanical power. 
 The extent of the compression on the ship's sides, 
 too, we could only consider in a particular case, such 
 as one of thin ice, or ice touching the sides to no 
 great depth. In case of compression from thick ice, 
 having contact with the ship's sides to a considerable 
 depth, the resistance to the sallying would, of course, 
 be much increased, and, by consequence, the operation 
 less effective. 
 
 It may just be added that the principle of sallying 
 is evidently capable of still more powerful application 
 by aiding the iveight of the men, in the first instance 
 of movement, by auxiliary loads of guns, chains, 
 casks, or other heavy bodies transferred to one side 
 of the deck ; or, in a still higher degree, by an auxi- 
 liary mechanical force derived from a " purchase " 
 from the ship's lowermast, or topmast head, to an 
 anchor fixed in a distant part of the ice on either 
 side. An enormous power, it is evident, might be 
 derived from a leverage of this kind, sufficient almost 
 to compress or squeeze in the very timbers of the 
 hull. 
 
210 JO FATHER. 
 
 2. Another example of the application of the prin- 
 ciples of natural science, may be adduced with respect 
 to my Father's practice in the capture of certain har- 
 pooned whales. In the most usual habits of the 
 mysticetus, when struck in the Greenland seas, it 
 descends to a considerable depth, generally 600 or 
 700 fathoms, and, after an interval of about half an 
 hour, or so, returns spontaneously to the surface for 
 respiration. But sometimes, especially when a taught 
 strain has been held on the line, the whale continues 
 to press so determinately into the depths of the ocean 
 that it dies by a process similar to drowning. In 
 that" case the heaving up of the capture becomes a 
 matter of great labour and difficulty, and, because of 
 the liability of the harpoon to draw, or of the lines 
 to part, of much uncertainty as to the result. It is a 
 matter, therefore, of much importance to avoid the 
 rjossible contingency of a harpooned whale " dying 
 down." The process ordinarily adopted for inducing 
 the return of the fish to the surface, after the down- 
 ward course is suspended, is to haul on the lines 
 as soon as any impression can be produced, so as to 
 stimulate to action and urge an ascending motion. 
 In very many cases this process is effective, but by 
 no means in all. For sometimes so desperate and 
 continuous is the effort to get down that, when neces- 
 sity might urge a return to the surface for respira- 
 tion, the power to return no longer remains, and the 
 helpless monster dies at its utmost depression. 
 
 My Father, with his peculiar felicity of consider- 
 
NATURAL SCIENCE. 211 
 
 ation and device, assumed a measure of proceeding 
 as apparently unfitting as it was novel in its character. 
 When the usual processes for the obtaining of the 
 fish's return to the surface had failed, and no pros- 
 pect remained but that it must die where it was, he 
 would throw off the turns of his line round the stem 
 or "losrserhead" of the boat, and allow an extent of 
 fifty or a hundred fathoms more to run freely out 
 and sink in the water. 
 
 The meaning of the device was this: — The en- 
 tangled whale had no doubt descended deep in the 
 water, as its ordinary mode of escaping from its 
 natural enemies ; but the attachment and restraint 
 of the line it could not escape from. It was an 
 instinct with it, therefore, as he conceived, — as in 
 the case of some well-known quadrupeds, which may 
 be driven but will not be led, — to resist the restraining 
 force, and to struggle to distance the point from which 
 the restraint proceeds. The untoward effect of this 
 instinct, my Father supposed, might be diverted by 
 rapidly slacking out a large extent of the entangling 
 line, so that it might sink beloiv the place of the fish, 
 and so draw downward ; for the same instinct which 
 had incited it so perseveringly to dive, might natu- 
 rally be expected to urge it, under this change of 
 circumstances, to an upward course. 
 
 The experiment on being tried proved, in different 
 cases, successful. The whale, stimulated to a new 
 course by a new direction being given to the re- 
 straining line, returned to the surface, where it was 
 
212 MY FATHER. 
 
 received by its waiting assailants, and, when deprived 
 of its life, became a prompt and easy prize, instead 
 of an uncertain, hard-earned object of pursuit! 
 
 3. Besides the cases just recited of aptness in natural 
 science, another occasion is before my recollection in 
 which, during his varied adventures in the whale- 
 fishery, this characteristic of mind, with my Father, 
 was strikingly developed. A large whale had been 
 <l struck" on the borders of a vast sheet of ice, 
 denominated a "field," which took refuge beneath 
 the frozen surface, and, after suffering the deprivation 
 of air for a period too considerable for its capabilities 
 of endurance, died there. 
 
 After a long interval of patient waiting, on the part 
 of the whalers, for the turning out of the expected 
 capture (for the compactness of a firm field of ice 
 generally obliges the whale to return to the outside 
 for the purpose of respiration), they proceeded to 
 haul on the line to try to facilitate their expectation. 
 But when as much force had been applied as the 
 line might safely bear, their efforts came to a stand. 
 There was no reactive motion indicative of life in 
 the whale, nor any progress towards its withdrawal, 
 if dead. 
 
 Various repetitions of a similar effort, after slacking 
 out a quantity of line to give some change to the 
 direction of the tension, ended in the same dis- 
 couraging manner ; so that a doubt arose whether 
 the harpoon were yet attached to the line, or 
 
NATURAL SCIENCE. 213 
 
 whether it might have got entangled on some sub- 
 merged irregularity of the ice. 
 
 My Father at length left the ship to give his per- 
 sonal attention to this difficult business. His first 
 care was to examine the line at its fullest tension; 
 but the exact direction was not discoverable because 
 of the thickness of the verge of the ice. Slacking 
 out, therefore, a considerable quantity of the line, he 
 caused the boat to be backed off to a little distance, 
 and, whilst it was kept off as much as possible by the 
 oars of several boats attached, the line was hauled in, 
 till, becoming nearly horizontal by tension, its direc- 
 tion beneath the ice could be clearly determined. 
 By this direction he traced, by the eye, an imaginary 
 corresponding line on the surface of the ice-field, 
 which, by means of numerous irregularities and 
 hummocks, he was enabled to do satisfactorily, — 
 noticing particularly a very high and conspicuous 
 hummock in this exact direction, and at about the 
 distance to which the quantity of line run out might 
 be supposed to reach. His next step, and that a 
 truly scientific one, was to try to vary the line of 
 direction, so that he might determine, by the inter- 
 section of lines, the position of the harpoon. This 
 he effected by again slacking out the line, but to a 
 much greater extent, and then causing the position 
 of the boat to be changed by rowing slowly in a 
 direction parallel to, and at some distance from, the 
 edge of the ice, until the new direction might make 
 a large angle with that previously determined. Time 
 
214 MY FATHER. 
 
 being allowed for the rope to subside into its position 
 of rest, tension was given to it, as before, and another 
 imaginary line traced by the eye on the ice. My 
 Father now perceived that the point of intersection 
 corresponded very nearly with the position of the 
 remarkable hummock, almost a mile distant, before 
 noticed, and that it must be immediately beyond it. 
 
 Taking a whale-lance in his hand he walked over 
 the ice to the place, and just beyond the hummock 
 he found a thin flat surface of much younger ice. 
 Striking his lance repeatedly into this, he gradually 
 effected its perforation; when, to his no small delight 
 and to the amazement of the men who had followed 
 his steps, his lance struck against a soft and elastic 
 substance beneath: — it was the back of the dead 
 whale ! 
 
 Aid of hands and instruments being now obtained, 
 the thin sheet of ice was partly cut out and the frag- 
 ments removed till the attached line could be got at. 
 When effected, it was again slacked out of the boat, 
 and the end firmly secured to the slender part of the 
 body of the fish adjoining the tail. The two lobes of 
 the tail were then partly cut off, so as to hang down 
 in the water as sustained by a slight attachment, and 
 thus by their gravity to help to sink the carcass 
 whilst they no longer were calculated to catch the 
 irregularities of the submerged surface of the ice, as 
 the tail, when perfect in structure and position, had 
 previously done. A considerable weight, I believe, 
 in sand-bags, was also hung upon the " bight" of the 
 
IMPROVEMENTS AND INVENTIONS. 215 
 
 line for helping to sink the fish clear of obstructions 
 above, and, finally, the line being hauled on in the 
 boat from whence the fish had been originally har- 
 pooned, it progressively yielded to the force applied, 
 and in due time the loud and cheerful huzzas of the 
 sailors announced the completion of the capture in 
 its appearance outside ! 
 
 Section III. — Improvements and Inventions. 
 
 We have had occasion, in the course of our me- 
 morial records, to describe several important inven- 
 tions or improvements of my Father's in connection 
 with his professional occupations. There remain yet 
 to be mentioned a variety of other contributions, of 
 a like order, to Greenland apparatus or operations 
 pertaining to the fishery, and also to objects of public 
 consideration generally. 
 
 As to whale-fishing apparatus and operations, his 
 contributions in the form of new contrivances and 
 improvements were numerous, and, many of them, 
 of considerable importance. These, we shall not 
 attempt to describe in any measure of detail, but 
 chiefly in the manner of notices 
 
 In the stowage of his ship, for the economising of 
 space and facilitating the depositing of cargo, his 
 improvements were valuable. 
 
 His casks he had built on a plan adapted for the 
 accurate filling of the space in the " hold," comprising 
 special deviations from the general size and form in 
 
216 MY FATHER. 
 
 the introduction of large " leagers" for the midships 
 (on the kelson), adjusted, in length, to the exact spaces 
 of the stantions of the hold beams, as also of narrow, 
 short, or irregularly formed casks for the extremities 
 of the hold, fore and aft. 
 
 The deck on the hold beams, instead of being laid, 
 as usual, in a continuous series of planks, was cut up 
 into hatches, and laid level betwixt the beams, so as, 
 whilst forming a flat and even platform when laid 
 down, to open out the hold, on the removal of the 
 hatch -like planking, without other incumbrance 
 against the stowing and filling of the casks beneath, 
 except the naked beams and their essential fastenings. 
 
 In the suspension of the boats, with regard to 
 facility in lowering or hoisting, as well as for safety, 
 his improvements were of great importance. 
 
 It had been the practice in whale ships' equip- 
 ments, to suspend the boats, usually seven in number, 
 in double tiers at both quarters, one at the " waist," 
 on each side, and one over the stern. The arrange- 
 ments for these objects were at once clumsy and 
 incommodious. In place of the huge lofty beams 
 across the quarter-deck, from the extremities of 
 which were suspended the four " quarter boats," my 
 Father substituted compact, but lofty oak " davits," 
 which, with their associate " skids" (upright timbers 
 against which the sides of the boats press and slide), 
 were removable when not required. For the double 
 tier at the quarters, he substituted an additional 
 length of boats over the main chains, thus consti- 
 
IMPROVEMENTS AND INVENTIONS. 217 
 
 tuting an even running series of three lengths of 
 boats, having the advantage of great facility in being- 
 lowered or hoisted, as well as a much improved 
 security against accidents in the passing of hummocks 
 of ice, or from the sea in gales of wind, to which the 
 loioer quarter-boats, on the old plan of suspension, 
 were frequently exposed. 
 
 In fshing and other apparatus, my Father made 
 various improvements. In the harpoon, the improve- 
 ment consisted mainly in the mode of keeping it in 
 condition for use, — bright and clean as well as sharp ; 
 but in the lance he altered the form of the blade, 
 which had usually been sharp - pointed and only 
 moderately hardened, for a somewhat rounded point 
 and a better quality of steel with greater hardness, — 
 the ad van cage of which was, that if striking against a 
 bone, the point was not liable to be fixed by its deep 
 penetration, nor to be turned up or broken, as often 
 happened, by the collision. 
 
 Some of the " flensing " apparatus, and one or two 
 of the instruments used in " making-off" the blubber, 
 he variously modified and improved, substituting for 
 some very clumsy contrivances employed in the latter 
 operation, compact and well-adapted instruments. 
 
 The ice-drill, a handy and very effective instrument 
 for setting an ice-anchor, was his contrivance, being 
 a great improvement upon the old ice-axe. 
 
 The talent for contrivance and improvement, as 
 thus practically evinced, was by no means limited in 
 
 L 
 
218 MY FATHER. 
 
 its exercises to subjects of a mere professional nature. 
 The town and harbour of Whitby, with regard to 
 some important modern improvements, have reaped 
 conspicuous benefits from my Father's suggestions. 
 
 His views on various matters of improvement in 
 the town and harbour, with their respective ap- 
 proaches, were first put forward in a pamphlet which 
 he published in the winter of 1816-17; and in 1826, 
 about three years after his retirement from the sea, 
 the substance of the original pamphlet, revised, ex- 
 tended, and illustrated by engraved plans, was again 
 brought out under the title of "An Essay on the 
 Improvement of the Town and Harbour of Whitby, 
 with its Streets and neighbouring Highways; designed 
 also for the Maintenance of the labouring Classes 
 who are out of Employment." 
 
 The improvements herein suggested, appear so far 
 to have commended themselves to the local executive 
 authorities, that, in certain important particulars, cor- 
 responding improvements have already been carried 
 into effect. 
 
 Of these various suggestions, the one by far the 
 most important of all is evidently that designed for 
 deepening the harbour-channel, and rendering the 
 entrance more safe and accessible. 
 
 For a long period the harbour of Whitby had been 
 protected, seaward, by two principal piers, — one run- 
 ning from the eastern cliff about 215 yards, in a north- 
 westerly direction, and the other (a fine specimen of 
 massive and substantial architecture) running north- 
 
IMPROVEMENTS AND INVENTIONS. 219 
 
 north-easterly, along the western side of the harbour 
 and extending beyond the line of the west cliff, a dis- 
 tance of about 940 feet into the sea. This longer pier, 
 at the time my Father wrote, stretched out a distance 
 of about 100 yards (reckoned from the general direc- 
 tion of the coast) farther than the head of the other, 
 leaving, however, a clear width, for the entrance of 
 the harbour, of about ninety-two yards. 
 
 The effect of this arrangement, as to the extension 
 of the western pier so far beyond the other, was, as 
 my Father well observed, extremely injurious; for a 
 deep bed of sand was constantly found encumbering 
 the entrance by the formation of a " bar," which not 
 only rendered the channel tortuous and incommodi- 
 ous, but not unfrequently diminished the otherwise 
 available depth on the firmer bed of the river to an 
 extent of several feet. And besides this mischief to 
 a harbour almost drying at low water, — the access, 
 with scant winds from the westward, was rendered 
 at once difficult and dangerous because of the flood- 
 tide sweeping strongly across the harbour-mouth to 
 the eastward, and tending, by its leeward set, to carry 
 the ship attempting to enter, against, or beyond, the 
 left-hand pier, and thus to risk her total destruction 
 by stranding on the contiguous dangerous scar. 
 
 For the correction of the evil and clanger thus, 
 apparently, induced, my Father proposed the exten- 
 sion of the east-pier by a bend in a more northerly 
 direction, so that, whilst the reflux of the harbour 
 water, and the natural stream of the Esk, might, 
 
220 MY FATHER. 
 
 within the narrowed and extended channel, carry- 
 out the loose sand of the bar into the sea, and thus 
 deepen the entrance, — the projection of the east pier 
 might serve at once to guide the tidal coast-stream of 
 flood with more force into the harbour, and to render 
 the access more easy and safe by such a protection 
 immediately under the lee of any ship coming in 
 with a scant wind from the westward. 
 
 This plan, with some little deviation, has already 
 been carried into effect. The pier has been length- 
 ened in a N. by W. (westerly) direction, by sections 
 of fifty feet at a time, in the proposed direction ; at 
 each section, now increased altogether to about 300 
 feet, the channel has been found to be deepened and 
 rendered less tortuous, and the entrance has become 
 more safe, — exactly as the projector of the improve- 
 ment had anticipated.* 
 
 A grand improvement, as to the change of aspect 
 and accommodation, to the inner harbour, was also 
 suggested by my Father, but has not yet been carried 
 into effect. The improvement suggested was for the 
 
 * This important work not being yet brought to a completion, — the 
 ultimate and abiding influence of the alterations cannot be accurately 
 predicted. The entrance of the harbour, by the new extension of the 
 east pier, having been narrowed, perhaps too considerably, a temptation 
 is offered to cast the terminal length, or head, in a bell-mouthed fashion 
 more easterly. If such an arrangement were made (as my intelligent 
 connection, Mr. Jackson of Whitby, suggests^) it might produce a very 
 mischievous effect by giving a broad fan-tail exit to the escaping ebb- 
 tide waters, and so diminishing their force at the very point where con- 
 centration and compactness of efflux are of the greatest importance in 
 scouring the entrance and keeping it clear of sandy deposits. 
 
IMPROVEMENTS AND INVENTIONS. 221 
 
 formation of the large space, above bridge, which is 
 filled at spring tides from the sea, into a permanent 
 floating-dock, — a scheme which he conceived could 
 be easily effected by a wall, with gates, across the 
 harbour, at, or near, the place of the present bridge. 
 
 The effect of such an arrangement, indeed, is not 
 easy to be anticipated. How far the overflow of 
 water would suffice to keep the channel clear of 
 sandy deposits ? or to what extent the body of 
 debris and shale from the mines above might, in 
 such case, make lodgment in the bed of the inner 
 harbour? cannot be certainly determined. Yet as 
 there are existing wears at some distance from the 
 town across the river bed, and no permanent deposits, 
 except in their immediate contiguity, I believe, in- 
 duced, it seems not improbable but that with a 
 sufficient number of escape sluices in the seaward 
 bounding-wall, the efflux, whilst carrying off the 
 considerable supply of water yielded by the river, 
 might suffice, at the same time, to urge outward the 
 descending debris, and keep the channel free. 
 
 In conclusion of these notices respecting my 
 Father's inventions and suggestions for improve- 
 ments, it will not be out of place to add the substance 
 of an interesting and curious autograph document 
 (which fell into my hands after his decease) referring 
 to other speculations, contemplated evidently as 
 practicable, though neither explained, as to principle 
 or process, nor attempted to be carried out. 
 
222 MY FATHER. 
 
 The document, which as to its manner reminds one 
 of the Marquis of Worcester's " Century of Inven- 
 tions," bears the date of London, 23d December, 
 1824, and is aptly entitled — "Hints; or Outlines of 
 Improvements conceived by W. Scoresby." These 
 outlines, of which the following are pretty nearly 
 literal and verbal extracts, are, in the original, thus 
 introduced : — 
 
 " How swift is a glimpse of the mind! 
 
 Compared with the speed of its flight, 
 The tempest itself lags behind, 
 
 And the swift-winged arrows of light ! " 
 
 " During forty years occupation at sea, (the docu- 
 ment then proceeds to set forth,) when duty called 
 me to watch, my mind was, at intervals, employed 
 about many things which might have been made 
 useful to the public, had they been brought forward 
 in due time. 
 
 Amongst these conceptions may be particularised 
 the following : — 
 
 1. An improved method of ship-building, both as 
 to ships-of-war and merchantmen, by adding to their 
 strength in framing, and promoting velocity by 
 placing the masts and rigging, and also adding to 
 their durability by preventing in a great measure the 
 attack of dry-rot. 
 
 2. Seasoning timber to prevent the dry-rot in 
 ships, churches, and other buildings. 
 
 3. To deepen the water on bar-harbours, and in 
 navigable rivers, so as to give easy access to all 
 friends, and to shut out, when necessary, the enemies 
 of our highly favoured land ! 
 
IMPROVEMENTS AND INVENTIONS. 223 
 
 4. To build breakwaters in any depth, not 
 exceeding twelve or fourteen fathoms water, of 
 materials that will not yield to the surge of the sea, 
 and, when immersed in the briny flood, will become 
 tenacious and durable as terra-firma, even as the 
 granite rock. 
 
 5. To secure the banks of rivers, [subject to en- 
 croachments,] and to support [endangered] buildings 
 of any magnitude. 
 
 6. To improve low, wet, barren lands, near tide- 
 flowing rivers, that bear up only mire and dirt, by 
 draining on the ebb and warping on the flood-tide. 
 
 7. To draw off the foul and inflammable air from 
 coal-pits and other mines liable to explosion. 
 
 8. To lay out new streets, nearly level, over un- 
 even ground, with vaults under them for containing 
 fuel, etc. for the inhabitants, and so arranged as to 
 admit of pipes for gas, water, etc., being laid or 
 altered without molesting the pavements. 
 
 9. To improve the hanging of Venetian blinds in 
 windows, [and to render them more manageable and 
 useful] for keeping out the sun. 
 
 10. To prepare oatmeal for the table by a new 
 method of drying and shelling the corn. 
 
 1 1. " To keep in health " by regimen. 
 
 12. To improve the making of lasts, so that the 
 boot or shoe may comfortably fit the foot of the 
 wearer. 
 
 13. An improved method of pulling down decayed 
 buildings in towns, in order to rebuilding, as also of 
 
224 MY FATHER. 
 
 making new roads, to the honour of the British 
 nation, the accommodation of trade, commerce, and 
 of the public. 
 
 14. Lastly, To beautify the Church and draw man 
 unto it, [not by mere outward architecture and 
 adorning, however admirable,] but by appointing and 
 supporting faithful pastors now when the current of 
 prejudice is setting in so strongly against it!" 
 
 Some few of my Father's original ideas, on such 
 topics as these, were occasionally elicited in conver- 
 sation, but, unfortunately, no record was made of 
 them by those immediately in intercourse with him, 
 nor were any papers, generally expository of his 
 views, met with among those amid which this curious 
 and interesting document was found. 
 
 Section IV. — Miscellaneous and concluding Notices. 
 
 The originality of mind, superiority of intelligence 
 and peculiar abilities of the subject of these records, 
 were characteristics yielding much variety of illustra- 
 tion in the foregoing pages. 
 
 His peculiar abilities as a whale-fisher, as may 
 have been already inferred, were conspicuous in 
 every department, and in every practical operation 
 connected with the adventurous pursuit. If he could 
 successfully attack, and safely subdue, a vicious and 
 dangerous whale which was working destruction 
 upon others who had assailed it; so he could har- 
 
CONCLUDING NOTICES. 225 
 
 poon a whale, under circumstances of difficulty or 
 distance^ when no less powerful and expert an arm 
 could reach it. In the primary attack, the aim of 
 the harponeer is to get the boat fairly on the back of 
 the whale, that he may the metre effectually bury his 
 barbed weapon deep in its body; but, as ofttimes 
 happens, the whale retires from the surface before 
 the boat can come up to it, and must then be 
 assailed, if the distance will permit, by the projecting 
 of the harpoon with an energetic heave. To strike 
 the retiring or affrighted fish in this manner, with a 
 weapon, which, with its immediately attached line, 
 is of the weight of eleven or twelve pounds, is an 
 operation requiring both strength and skill. Com- 
 paratively few harponeers are able to perform this 
 important object, effectually, beyond a distance of 
 twenty to twenty-two feet ; and the distance of four 
 fathoms, or twenty-four feet, requires superior expert- 
 ness. This, however, was an easy range with my 
 Father; whilst he has been known to heave his harpoon 
 with precision and success even as far as twenty-six 
 or twenty-eight feet. 
 
 His management in the urging and furthering of 
 the general operations of the fishery was sometimes 
 attended with extraordinary results. Thus, on one 
 occasion, during his command of the John of Gree- 
 nock, he captured thirteen whales in thirty hours, 
 and flensed five of them, comprising a produce of 
 about eighty tuns of oil, of the commercial value 
 (inclusive of the whalebone) of about 8500/.! The ice, 
 
226 MY FATHER. 
 
 in this case, closing and threatening besetment, 
 other ships in company urgently made their escape ; 
 my Father, judiciously weighing the risks and pro- 
 bable advantages, determined to abide the issue. He 
 did so, his ship got beset, but, as he had anticipated, 
 was soon released, and on the relaxation of the 
 pressure, just as the ice was opening, whales again 
 appeared, and he made further important progress 
 in the fishery ! 
 
 The originality of talent and tact so observable in 
 the various records heretofore given, became equally 
 conspicuous, as occasions offered, in an enlarged and 
 general scope of application. The following case, 
 though I do not remember how I learnt it, is so 
 characteristic of my Father, that I cannot hesitate in 
 offering it for illustration. 
 
 He had a remarkable keenness and power in the 
 eye, which, in the case referred to, he turned to ac- 
 count with a curious and surprising result. Having 
 occasion to visit a ship lying in a tier in a dock, 
 he encountered, in his transit across from vessel to 
 vessel, a fierce and dangerous dog. Though warned 
 against venturing to cross the deck on which this 
 formidable looking animal was placed as guardian, 
 he, relying on the power of the human eye, which 
 he believed no animal, if its gaze were once fixed, 
 could bear, determined to venture on the experiment. 
 Immediately on the dog observing the approach of 
 an intruder on its domain, it exhibited the most ex- 
 
CONCLUDING NOTICES. 221 
 
 pressive tokens of the intention to resist ; and when 
 my Father put his leg over the bulwark of the con- 
 tiguous vessel it flew fiercely towards him. Pausing 
 in this position, he strove to catch the eye of the dog, 
 an attempt which for some time it contrived to evade. 
 But at length succeeding so that whenever it glanced 
 towards his face it met his steady, stern, and pene- 
 trative gaze, an effect, in the discomposed expression 
 of the creature, became soon observable. Whilst 
 thus obtaining and holding its unwilling look, my 
 Father moved his other leg over and slowly advanced 
 with one foot upon the rail of the guarded vessel, — a 
 movement which was resisted by fierce barking and 
 sundry traverse-like springs, but, withal, an obvious 
 indisposition to attack the being whose eye was so 
 over-awing. Another step forward renewed the 
 display of noise and action, but the stern, fixed look, 
 now perpetually watched, repelled the assailant. He 
 next stood firm on the forbidden deck, and yet was 
 free from attack; he advanced a step, and the dog- 
 still bounding from side to side, or forward and 
 backward in front, came no nearer. Another and 
 another step was deliberately, but determinately 
 pushed forward, whilst the dog, repelled by the 
 immovable gaze, yielded the ground . The result, as 
 I have understood, was, that when the dog had been 
 driven entirely across the deck where there happened 
 to be no defence as bulwark, betwixt the rail and the 
 ship's side, my Father sprung a step or two suddenly 
 forward, as if designing, in turn, to become the 
 
228 MY FATHER. 
 
 assailant, when the panic-stricken brute, as suddenly 
 backing, unconsciously passed beneath the railing 
 and fell overboard ! 
 
 As it has not been our plan in these memorial 
 records to give a regular and general biography, few 
 circumstances in respect to habits on shore, domestic 
 relations, and private life, have been introduced. We 
 may here, however, supply some incidental matters 
 in brief notices. 
 
 His habits of life were, in respect to matters of 
 self-indulgence, generally moderate and temperate. 
 At sea, his favourite beverage was tea ; and though 
 not connected with any Temperance Society, nor 
 practising total abstinence from stimulating drinks, 
 he was a great tea-drinker. On occasions of long 
 exposure at the mast-head, or after irritation of the 
 throat by much exertion with the speaking-trumpet 
 in giving directions to the men at a distance, when 
 on ice or in boats, he was wont to take what was 
 called an " egg-dram," consisting of a raw egg beat 
 up with a spoonful or two of ardent spirits. This 
 was not unfrequently carried up to him by the 
 steward, and taken in the crow's-nest; but he almost 
 regularly, except at the dinner hour, resorted to tea 
 on each succeeding occasion when refreshment was 
 needed. Under hard and prolonged engagements in 
 fishing, or penetrating the ice, when from twelve to 
 eighteen hours (with but very brief intervals below) 
 might be spent aloft, his call to the steward, as he 
 
CHARACTER. 229 
 
 anticipated a few minutes of respite, was often heard 
 to prepare tea. And "tea," "tea," some four or five 
 or even six times, betwixt rising from and retiring to 
 his bed, has been the chief orders for refreshment in 
 his hard and protracted exertions. 
 
 In character, my Father was patriotic, benevolent, 
 and philanthropic ; in temper, quick and passionate, 
 but soon composed, and singularly free from animosity 
 against those with whom he had been at variance, 
 and most forgiving to those who had injured him. 
 
 He was an enthusiastic admirer of the British 
 Constitution, in Church and State; an ardent loyalist, 
 and a sincere respecter of magisterial authority. He 
 loved his country, and made neither few nor unex- 
 pensive efforts for the public benefit. On the last 
 renewal of the "Whitby Pier Act, when difficulty and 
 opposition were expected, he spent a considerable 
 sum in the engaging of professional assistance with 
 the view to the renewal and improvement of an Act 
 so important to Whitby and the coasting navigation. 
 
 His course through life, though of almost uninter- 
 rupted prosperity, was not of unmixed quietude. 
 Jealousies and envyings on the part of some; oppo- 
 sition, arising from misconceptions as to what they 
 could not understand, prevailed with others. But with 
 those amongst whom he was cast, of superior intelli- 
 gence, he not unfrequently made his way satisfactorily 
 and agreeably. His personal superior intelligence 
 and originality of conception commended him to the 
 
230 MY FATHER. 
 
 favourable consideration of many of our most emi- 
 nent engineers and naval architects, and others pro- 
 fessionally engaged in public works. He was well 
 known to the late Sir John Barrow, and was a rather 
 frequent visitor at the scientific assemblages at the 
 house of Sir Joseph Banks, as also many times a 
 guest at the hospitable table of that distinguished 
 patron of science. 
 
 At all periods of his life, he was well estimated by 
 many of those whose judgment and superiority were 
 publicly recognised; and, after his decease, most of 
 those who had not understood him, received new and 
 favourable impressions concerning him. 
 
 In his regard to religion, there was no special 
 profession. There was as much freedom from osten- 
 tation as there was from hypocrisy, which he despised. 
 As to those things which mankind are prone to fail 
 in, and as to results in life in which it is found (i that 
 by reason of the frailty of our nature we cannot 
 always stand upright," — I never recollect, in his OAvn 
 case, his excusing them, or expressing views deroga- 
 tory to Divine Grace, or tending to the abuse of its 
 consoling doctrines. It was most manifest, that his 
 simple and entire reliance for justification before 
 God, was in Christ, and Christ alone ; and it was 
 equally manifest that he recognised and held the 
 duties of Christianity in their broad and practical 
 bearing, as of grand and indispensable importance 
 for life and godliness. 
 
CHARACTER. 231 
 
 But not to anticipate further another opinion, 
 which may serve for a conclusion of these records, 
 I proceed again to quote from Mr. Drew, who, after 
 speaking, in summary, of his life as a seaman and 
 a whale-fisher, noticing very approvingly his im- 
 provements in the whale-fishery, and the benefits 
 conferred by his experience and observations on 
 navigation and commerce, proceeds (writing, it will 
 be observed, whilst the subject of his memoir was 
 yet living,) in these commendatory terms: — 
 
 "In the career of this man we behold the progress 
 of natural genius and superior talents, surmounting 
 every impediment, and conducting him from a team 
 of oxen and the plough to wealth and reputation, 
 and to the highest honours that the whale-fishery 
 can bestow. 
 
 "To this it is pleasing to add, that, instead of 
 imitating the conduct of too many engaged in his 
 profession, ascribing success to luck or fortune, — 
 Mr. Scoresby, throughout the whole of his dangerous 
 course, acknowledges the overruling Providence of 
 God, and does not forget, though an inhabitant of 
 time, that he has an interest in eternity. 
 
 " Of benevolent institutions he is the patron and 
 friend, and the poor of Whitby have experienced his 
 bounty. The diffusion of the truths of Revelation 
 throughout the world has his best wishes and his 
 [most liberal] support. He views Christianity, not 
 merely as a system of ethics, but as possessing a 
 soul-transforming power, which renovates the heart 
 
232 MY FATHER. 
 
 and regulates the life, and as that alone which can 
 make men wise unto salvation." 
 
 Reader ! If very much has been said, in the fore- 
 going pages, in respect of superiority of talent, and 
 energy and originality of mind in the individual 
 whose acts and adventures it has been my object to 
 describe, the statements and facts adduced will, I 
 trust, be found to justify the terms made use of; but 
 if commendations beyond what some might be dis- 
 posed to yield, have, in any case, been bestowed, or 
 if admiration extending to partiality may have ap- 
 peared to characterise any of my comments, I would 
 confidently ground my claim on your indulgence in 
 consideration of the circumstance, that the revered 
 subject of these records was 
 
 MY FATHER! 
 
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