Thirty-five years ago I made a voyage to the Arctic Seas in what
Chaucer calls
A little bote
No bigger than a manne's thought;
it was a Phantom Ship that made some voyages to different parts of
the world which were recorded in early numbers of Charles Dickens's
"Household Words." As preface to Richard Hakluyt's records of the
first endeavour of our bold Elizabethan mariners to find North-West
Passage to the East, let me repeat here that old voyage of mine from
No. 55 of "Household Words," dated the 12th of April, 1851: The
Phantom is fitted out for Arctic exploration, with instructions to
find her way, by the north-west, to Behring Straits, and take the
South Pole on her passage home. Just now we steer due north, and
yonder is the coast of Norway. From that coast parted Hugh
Willoughby, three hundred years ago; the first of our countrymen who
wrought an ice-bound highway to Cathay. Two years afterwards his
ships were found, in the haven of Arzina, in Lapland, by some
Russian fishermen; near and about them Willoughby and his
companions - seventy dead men. The ships were freighted with their
frozen crews, and sailed for England; but, "being unstaunch, as it
is supposed, by their two years' wintering in Lapland, sunk, by the
way, with their dead, and them also that brought them."
Ice floats about us now, and here is a whale blowing; a whale, too,
very near Spitzbergen. When first Spitzbergen was discovered, in
the good old times, there were whales here in abundance; then a
hundred Dutch ships, in a crowd, might go to work, and boats might
jostle with each other, and the only thing deficient would be
stowage room for all the produce of the fishery. Now one ship may
have the whole field to itself, and travel home with an imperfect
cargo. It was fine fun in the good old times; there was no need to
cruise. Coppers and boilers were fitted on the island, and little
colonies about them, in the fishing season, had nothing to do but
tow the whales in, with a boat, as fast as they were wanted by the
copper. No wonder that so enviable a Tom Tidler's ground was
claimed by all who had a love for gold and silver. The English
called it theirs, for they first fished; the Dutch said, nay, but
the island was of their discovery; Danes, Hamburghers, Bisayans,
Spaniards, and French put in their claims; and at length it was
agreed to make partitions. The numerous bays and harbours which
indent the coast were divided among the rival nations; and, to this
day, many of them bear, accordingly, such names as English Bay,
Danes Bay, and so forth. One bay there is, with graves in it, named
Sorrow. For it seemed to the fishers most desirable, if possible,
to plant upon this island permanent establishments, and condemned
convicts were offered, by the Russians, life and pardon, if they
would winter in Spitzbergen.
Enter page number
Next
Page 1 of 95
Words from 1 to 523
of 50368
