SUFFERINGS OF THE ICE-BOUND WHALERS; CONTAINING COPIOUS EXTRACTS FROM A JOURNAL TAKEN ON THE SPOT BY AN OFFICER AND EMERACING FULL DETAILS OF THE JANE OF HULL AND OF THE WRECK The Lord maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters.-ISAIAH. SECOND EDITION. EDINBURGH: WILLIAM WHYTE AND CO. BOOKSELLERS TO HER MAJESTY; J. CUMMING, KIRKALDY; W. COLLINS, AND M. OGLE AND SON, GLAS- MDCCCXXXVI. K BOOK EDITIONS Waplington Hall, Allerthorpe, York, England. This book has been reproduced from a copy held in the special collection on Whaling of the Kingston upon Hull City Libraries, Hull, England, with the kind permission of the Chief Librarian. THE season of 1835 will be long remembered as one of the most eventful and disastrous in the history of the Whale Fishery. Perilous as the occupation is at all times, we believe no one season can produce so many shipwrecks and detentions, accompanied with such loss of life and property, and extreme privations and suf-ferings. The sudden and extensive changes that take place in the Polar Seas, appear to depend on causes which we are as unable to foresee as to controul, and have often baffled the calculations of the most skilful and experienced navigators. Those acquainted with the many unsuccessful voyages which have been undertaken with a view to the discovery of north-east and west passages to India, will be at no loss to call up instances in confirmation of our statement, and the events of last season furnish a remarkable addition. It was the opinion of persons, the best acquainted with the navigation of those seas, that the vessels beset in the western parts of the Straits were moored in comparative safety, and that on account of their proximity to the shore the ensuing summer would be far advanced before the ice should so break up and divide, as to allow them to escape,-if the crews should succeed in preserving a precarious and miserable existence so long. This might have been the case in the ordinary course of things, but the following pages will show it to have been in this instance quite the reverse. Instead of being moored in safety, they were driven in all directions by floating fieids and bergs, obeying the winds and tides, sustained fearful concussions that often obliged them to leave the vessels and betake themselves to the ice,-faced the most awful dangers,-and made many narrow and heart-stirring escapes. In perfect keeping with these apparent irregularities, they were liberated almost in the middle of winter, and returned unexpectedly to the joy of anxious friends, but, alas! in too many instances to the sorrow of the widow and fatherless. There are now (2d March) only two vessels remaining in those seas, concerning whose fate an anxious uncertainty continues to be felt, the Lady Jane of Newcastle and William Torr of Hull. The latest ac counts received of the former were by the Grenville Bay, Captain Taylor, who saw her towards the central parts of the Straits, on the 17th December. The latter is understood to be near the western shore, and was supposed to have been in company with those embraced in our narrative; but it turns out that they neither saw nor heard of her, unless (and it is highly probable) she were the vessel descried from the masthead the 15th October. The following journal is confined to the Viewforth of Kirkaldy, Jane of Hull, and Middleton of Aberdeen; and though taken by an officer in the first-named ship, they were so much in company during the whole period of their detention, and participated so often in the same privations and dangers, that it will be found to include every thing material in the history of the other two. An error has found its way into nearly all the public prints regarding the place in which these ships were beset. Home Bay, where they are represented to have been inclosed, lies in lat. 68° 37′, but they never were beyond lat. 68°. To speak with as much accuracy as such a point ordinarily admits of, with vessels in those seas, they were first inclosed in the beginning of August, in Merchant Bay, in lat. 67° 40′, and notwithstanding unremitting and hazardous exertions, were seldom able to make their way to any great distance, but were continually drifted about, mainly to southward, till the period of their liberation. The situation of these unfortunate vessels, during the past winter, excited an interest truly national, and we believe there is a general curiosity to know how the time was spent, and what befel them in a region seldom visited by man at such a season. That curiosity, we happen to be able to gratify to a very considerable extent. The following journal possesses all the advantages of being written on the spot as events occurred, and is highly creditable to the head and heart of its author, whose name is withheld merely in deference to his own excessive modesty. In giving the selections, we have been influenced chiefly by a regard to variety. The extracts from the journal will be easily distinguished from our occasional remarks by the monthly dates, and being marked as quotations. The following brief notices of the passage outward, before they arrived at the scene of their perils, or even of their professional operations, may not be unacceptable to the reader. April 30. "Exactly at noon, Neptune went through his exercise of shaving, and not fewer than a dozen went through his hands. It is almost the only amuse |