BELCHER'S LAST OF THE ARCTIC VOYAGES. * FROM the number of
narratives that have appeared upon the sub- ject of Arctic navigation, the attraction of its adventures and the dreary sublimity of its scenery have lost by repetition something of freshness. The proof of a North-west Passage, finally settled by Captain M'Clure in the Investigator, and the discovery by Dr. Rae of the relics of Franklin, have removed the suspense which imparted interest to a voyage undertaken for either but especially for the last object. These circumstances would have diminished the effect of The Last of the Arctic Voyages, had the incidents been more striking, the results more satisfactory, and had more of distinct and determined purpose been displayed by the leader. In truth, however, the same cautious spirit which Mr. Hughes traces in the Baltic fleet was exhibited in this expedition. The expedition itself was probably a sop to the soientifio world, at a time when the Derby Government were conciliating all parties. Be this as it may, the Admiralty seem rather to have yielded to some pressure than spontaneously to have adopted the enterprise, and the pith of their instructions was—safety before success. They chose a commander who seems to have been too much penetrated with the spirit of his orders ; to have had no experience of Arctic navigation; and whose health was not proof against the severity of the climate and the monotony of a second winter's detention in the ice. Some degree of indecision and querulousness also may be traced, at least in the composition. From want of Arctic experi- ence, Captain Belcher seems to have yielded to the suggestions or " precedents " of men who had served in former expeditions, or were chosen for their knowledge of the ice; he himself entertain- ing doubts or contrary opinions. The following remarks, apropos of warming and ventilating the vessels, are hardly in the tone of a commander; and other passages of a similar kind might be quoted. "I purposely introduce these remarks, not in any manner as a reflection on my predecessors, who, I am convinced, were quite as much alive as my- self to every precaution for the preservation of the health and comfort of their men, but to show what a very difficult position a man of common sense is placed in when he accepts such a command. He can hardly be deemed a free agent; he is pestqred by assertions that such was the course Captain H. pursued ; and if he either doubts, opposes, or varies from these self-consti- tuted Mentors, he must look for sulkiness, opposition, and the petty mutiny of petty minds. It is this underhand tyranny attempted on the chief that has made so many officers declare 'that no inducement would bring them here again.' It is the duty of every man who may command such service to institute a full and complete inquiry into all its workings, and, if able, to afford such information as may be of service to his successors."
This feeling of hesitation also injures the composition of the book. The narrative is continually suspended for comment and discussion, the precise objects of which are not very clear; though the instructions of the Admiralty, the author's knowledge of the real intention of "my Lords," the difficulties of a comuumder, the covert opposition of subordinates, the unreasonable expectations of part of the public, "reckless writers," the zeal of irresponsible people, and so forth, form the topics of the 'writer. There is also a non-naval tone about the style. Hardships and discomforts are more dwelt upon than has usually been the case with the "mari- ners of England." The manner in speaking of the natural feelings of officers and men ordered to abandon those ships which are to them as home and hearth, and the estimate of those ships them- selves as so much timber, value so much money, jars upon the mind. From the author's Italics in this not very clear passage about the abandonment of the ships, it would seem that some of the expedition only yielded to imperative orders.
"Simply, then, I stood with a recorded guarantee before the country, that the issue of the search was vested in me, and that with me it was to ter- minate. Assuredly, I was not to linger out, and thus, by accumulating ex- pense, to render it interminable ; nor yet by oscillating conduct as regarded the vessels, for that matter was fully understood before sailing ; or further to jeopardize the crews when I formed an opinion they should be withdrawn,
• The Last of the Arctic Voyages; being a Narrative of H.M.S. Assistance, under the command of Captain Sir Edward Belcher, C.B., in Search of Sir John Franklin, during the years 1852-'53-'54. With Notes on the Natural History, by Sir John Richardson, Professor Owen, Thomas Bell, J. W. Salter, and Lovell Reeve. In two volumes. Published under the Authority of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, by Levell aceve. merely to serve the feelings of any men, required to desert these purchased masses of timber, when I thought such a step desirable ; for really the pendant flew merely to insure martial law—they were not portions of our navy beyond this emblem, and the discipline which it entailed."
This want of distinctness both in mind and style not only mars the effect of the narrative, but reduces the apparent results of the expedition ; for more was really done than in some other Arctic voyages. The squadron consisted of the Assistance and the Re- solute, with two tenders, the Pioneer and the Intrepid, and the North Star as a del:Wit-ship. The object was undoubtedly, as Sir Edward Belcher more than once remarks, not to make discoveries, but to search for Franklin ; and two courses were adopted to carry out this purpose. Sir Edward in the Assistance, with the Pioneer steam-tender, was to proceed up Wellington Channel, which runs nearly due North from Barrow's Strait in about 92 degrees West longitude, while Captain Xellet in the Resolute, with the Intrepid tender, should proceed in a Westerly direction through Barrow's Strait. Of IrPlret's exploration no full particulars are given; those which do appear are fragmentary. During his detention in the winter's ice, the company were successful in procuring game, which furnished a change of diet; they made very extensive ex- plorations by land or ice journeys; they discovered and relieved Captain M'Clure in the Investigator, who sailing from Behring's Straits had been blocked up for three winters in the hie in the Bay of Mercy, Banks Land, in about 74 degrees of North latitude, 118 degrees of West longitude; and they demonstrated the existence of the North-west Passage, although no doubt of the fact previously ex- isted. Sir Edward Belcher was fortunate enough to make his way up Wellington ChauneL The ships being rather prematurely blocked up, he by boat and sledge discovered a passage stretching Eastward, which he considers communicates with Jones Sound, Baffin's Bay; while Northward the water was seemingly open to the much-talked-of Polar Sea, which speculation so often affirms to be a free ocean reaching to the Pole. He also discovered va- rious smaller channels, and laid down his discoveries. In the sum- mer of 1853 he could not make his way down Wellington Chan- nel for the ice, but was frozen up within less than a degree of lati- tude from its mouth. As the summer of 1854 did not enable the Assistance and the Pioneer to clear the channel, Sir Edward de- termined to abandon all the vessels—Investietor, Assistance, Re- solute, Pioneer, and Intrepid; returning with the crews in the store-ship North Star. Luckily, the Phomix and Talbot, two vessels which had been sent out to the grand depOt and starting-place at Beechey Island, arrived before he went, and facilitated the berthing of the crews. This abandonment, we suppose unexampled in the British Navy, is a topic which looms upon the reader in some form throughout the two volumes ; to the great injury of the narrative, especially as the reasons for abandoning three out of the five ships are intelligible and lie in small compass. The In- vestigator had remained frozen up for three winters in the remote position of the Bay of Mercy, where no certain assistance could be rendered her, and only by means of ice-travelling. Neither could any human aid effect her extrication. The reasons for abandoning the Assistance and Pioneer may be stated thus. It is a mistake to suppose that a current runs up or down Wellington Channel. The tide from Baffin's Bay or Lancaster Sound enters the Channel from the South, the tide from the Polar Sea from the North. This meet- ing of the waters causes a dead lock, preventing, not facilitating, the breaking-up of the ice. That can only take place in an extra- ordinary storm occurring when the ice is rotten. It was there- fore useless for crews to remain on a chance of this kind. The reasons for abandoning Captain Xellet's vessels are of a nature that can only be judged of by nautical men. The reasons for not leaving a vessel or a crew at the great depot at Beechey Island are economical, accompanied with an inuendo. The Italics are the author's.
"For what reasonable purpose, then, I would inquire, was it proposed to risk another vessel, and to add her to the list of losses, incurring the heavy expenditure of double pay and provision; the officers and men idly spending a winter, and imagining how they were to be engaged when spring travel became possible? But here, again, glaring inconsistency stares us in the face!
"With the public, which may be misled by the assumption that one of the vessels could have been left as a depot at Beechey Island, I will venture to remark, that officers who have been long accustomed to command inde- pendently know full well all the difficulties they must be prepared to en- counter, and they too often discover that men who volunteer headlong never give to the world the insuperable difficulties which they know must render any accordance to their wishes impossible, and entailing on the commander of an expedition alone all the censure of accordance to their volunteer."
Owing to the causes already indicated, these volumes do not much abound in passages at once of interest and freshness, but the departure is one.
" On the fpfl moon of the 25th of August, at six a. m., the crew of the Assistance allotted to the cutters and a life-boat belonging to the Pioneer were assembled in travelling order on the floe. The decks had been cleanly swept, the cabins put in order, and, accompanied by Commander Richards, the ship fully inspected ; the hatchways were already securely caulked down, leaving only the small aperture to my cabin. The colours, pendant, and Jack, were so secured that they might be deemed 'nailed to the mast' p- ond the last tapping of the caulker's mallet at say companion-hatch found an echo on many a heart, as if we had encoffined some cherished object. Accompanied by Commander Richards, we silently passed over the aide ; no cheers, indeed no sounds escaped,—our hearts were too full. Turning our backs upon our ships, we pursued our cheerless route over the floe, leaving behind our home, and seeking, for aught we knew, merely the change to the depbt at Beechey Island."
We have already mentioned that the hardships of Arctic travel- ling come out more fully in these pages. Sir Edward Belcher's health induced him to pay more attention to the influence of cold, haw: exposure, and winter. confinement, upon the 99=1;4-titian,
than other commanders. Much scattered information upon these points, and the sanitary precautions on shipboard, will be found in the volumes. It is the opinion of Sir Edward Belcher and Captain Kellet, that it is not the climate so much as the ice-work, the wet, and the drag, that injure the constitution. This was the work down Wellington Channel in conveying the ship's stores to Beeohey Island.
"These cracks, which in some instances had opened to widths of fifteen and sixteen feet, rendered sledge travel very precarious. Vast quanti- ties of water, resulting from extensive thaws, overlaid the ice, presenting al- most the appearance of lakes. In many instances very deep holes occurred, but the general depth of the worst that we travelled over did not exceed fourteen inches. This depth, to those marching and dragging the sledges, was mama as hip-high,' to which limit they certainly wetted; but the criterion from which my opinion ie deduced is founded on the fact that the bottoms of the largest sledges were not more than fourteen inches in height, and the cargoes were not wet. One fact is worth a dozen assertions. Knee- deep would be eighteen inches, and hip-deep heavy wading. I know full well the depressing effect of ten inches' water; and to overcome that, during several hours' heavy drag, is killing. Once wet, the greater part of a man's courage is damped ; and for that day, or until he can obtain a change on reaching his tent at night, his value at the drag-belt is to a considerable ex- tent damaged. Yet for weeks this has been the condition of those engaged in the long journeys of the latter part of the season. "Such are the ills, the difficulties, the wearing miseries entailed on those engaged on this Arctic search. Par from their ship, they feel that life can only be preserved by such continuous labour, such endurance, as we should hesitate to inflict on the horse, if he could sustain it (?). Let any of the hardiest of my readers try the effect of this on his own person for one day, under a temperature even of 24°, or 8° below freezing, and say, Does double pay compensate for ninety-five or a hundred continuous days of such fa- tigue? "In some instances this surface water was seen to rush with considerable velocity to escape by the fissures ; but in others, where a seal-hole only of- fered its funnel shape, the vortex was highly dangerous to man or beast, and at times attended with considerable noise."
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