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The discovery of a north-west passage has always been a favourite object with English navigators. We are told that Alfred the Great was the first of our Sovereigns who sent out mariners to the North Sea, with a view to discover a passage to the East. Descending to a period of which authentic records are pre served, we know that in the reign of Henry VII, the memorable John Cabot, the Venitian, projected a north-west passage, and being supplie by the merchants ‘of Bristol with ships ‘and money, obtained the King’s patent to conquer and settle unknown lands. Cabot was the discoverer of Newfoundland and Florida. The me lancholy fate of Sir Hugh Willoughby and his crew, who, after being the first Englishmen that penetrated to lat 72, perished miserably of cold and hunger on the east coast of Russian Lapland, during the time of Edward VII, is well known. The reign of Queen Elizabeth is celebrated in our naval history. Sir Martin Frobisher, one of the heroes who commanded the fleet which was fitted out to repulse the Spanish Armada, made three voyages to the North Sea, and discovered the Strait which bears his name. The merchants of Lon don promoted the next expeditions, and the results were creditable to their spirit and liberality. Under these auspices in 1585, 1586, and 1586, J. P. Davis made three voyages, sailed up the Strait which has ever since been known by his name, called the remark able promontory “ Sanderson’s Hope,” after the principal supporter of the voyage, and although no further successful, pronounced ge to the East attainable. It is to this favourable opinion, perhaps, that we should ascribe the several expeditions which took place during the reign of James I., of which the principal are those by Capts. Hall and Knight ; by the very successful but most unfor tunate Hudson, after whom the bay of the same name is called; by the uneducated Bylot and his pilot, whose name is preserved in “ Baffin’s Bay,” and by Sir T. Button and Capt. Gibbon. Baffin, in his second voyage, reached the 78th lot. and discovered but did not examine Alderman Jones’ and Sir T. Lancaster's sounds. Sir T. Button was decidedly of opinion that the discovery was practicable. An old and very interesting letter from this veteran to Lord Secretary Dorchester has lately been discovered by Mr. Lemon in the State Paper office, in which no doubt is expressed of the possibility of making a north-west passage.* Notwithstanding these repeated failures, Charles I. commanded Capt. Luke Fox to make the voyage. He only reached lat. 66 degrees. In 1668, Capt. Gil lam wintered on the coast of Hudson’s Bay; and in 1676, the Duke of York, afterwards James II, fitted out a vessel under Capt. Wood, which sailed as far as lat. 76 degrees, where the vessel foundered; the object was then declared unattainable ; but in 1719, the Hudson’s Bay Company made another effort, and the unsuc cessful and unfortunate voyage of Capts. Knight, Barlow, Vaughan, and Scroogs, followed rapid succession, and without important results. In 1742, M. Dobbs prevailed on government to send out two sloops of war, under Capt. Middleton; and they got to Repulse Bay, a higher point on the American coast than had been previously reached. In consequence of some charges made by Mr. Dobbs against Capavnt Middleton, Government was induced to offer 20,0002. to any person who should make the desired passage—a powerful stimulus, which caused several expeditions, but no success. Captains Moore and Smith sailed in 1746, and only reached Wager River; in 1773 Capt. Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, made an attempt to reach the north pole, which was followed by the voyages of Lieut. Pickersgill and Mr. Young in 1776—7; and by Mr. Duncan in 1791—all gave fresh proofs of the indomitable spirit of British seamen, without adding any advantages to science, or in any degree advancing the great object they had separately in view. We are now arrived at that epoch in the history of maritime dis covery in the Northern Seas, when Capt. Joan Ross (whose Por trait is this day presented GRATIS to the readers of the Sunday HERALD AND UNITED KINGDOM) entered upon the first of those voyages which have made his name and services memorable in the annals of Great Britain. He was born at Stranraer, a small fishing town, remarkable for its oysters, on the west coast of Scotland. He was the youngest son of the Rev. Andrew Ross, Minister of the Inchan Galloway, and has one surviving brother, Mr. George Ross, the projector, we believe, of the arctic land expedition which is now in progress under Capt. Back. A second brother was the late Maj. Gen. Andrew Ross. Capt. Ross entered the navy at a very early age, and was made lieutenant March, 1805; advanced to the rank of commander in February, 1812, through the recommendation of Ad miral Sir George Hope, and appointed to the Briseis brig, of 10 guns, on the Baltic station, March 21, in the same year. His bravery in this last ship, procured for him the Swedish order of the Sword. In the night of the 28th June 1812, his lieutenant, Thos, Jones, with a midshipman and 18 men, most gallantly attacked and recaptured an English merchant-ship, lying in Pillau Roads, armed, in expectation of such an attempt, with 6 guns and 4 swivels, de fended by a party of French troops on her deck, and surrounded by small craft in the act of receiving her cargo. In this affair, the British had one man killed and the midshipman, one sailor, and one marine, wounded. In October, the Briseis captured Le Petit Poncet, French privateer, of 4 guns and 23 men, and drove on shore three other vessels of the same description. Captain Ross’s subse quent appointments were: June 7, 1814, to the Action, of 16 guns; August 23, 1815, to the Driver sloop; and, in 1818, to the command of the first Polar expedition of the present century. This enterprise was projected by Mr. Barrow, Secretary to the Admiralty. The Admiralty instructions to Capt. Ross were, to search for a north west passage into the Pacific. For this purpose, the Isabella, of 363 tons, and 58 officers and men, and the brig Alexander, of 252 tons, and 37 officers and men, were fitted out, and placed under his order; the Alexander being commanded by Lieutenant (now Sir Edward) Parry. On April 25, 1818, the ships put to sea, and, on the 30th, anchored in Lerwick harbour, Shetland, which they quitted on the 3d of May. They made the first iceberg on the 26th, considerably to the south of Cape Farewell; and proceeding along the coast of Greenland, on June 14th reached Kron-Prins Island, and, on the 23d, were stopped by the ice, in company with several whalers, near Four-point Island, about ten miles to the northward of Wiggat, or Hare Island. It now appeared that this coast was erroneously laid down in all the charts; the error in longitude amounting to more than 5 deg. On July 5th, the ships were enabled to advance; on the 31st they parted company with the last whaler; and, on the 6th and 7th of August, were in great danger from being caught by a gale of wind among the ice. The two ships ran foul of each other; the ice-anchors and cables broke, one after another; and the sterns of the vessels came so violently into contact, as to crash to pieces a boat that could not be removed in time. Nothing but the admirable manner in which they the passa had been strengthened enabled the Isabella and Alexander to wea ther the storm. —— In lat. 75. deg. 54 min.,when the ships had passed what were hitherto deemed the inhabited parts of Greenland, a party of Esqui maux were seen approaching over the ice.. Further on they saw cliffs covered with snow of a deep red colour,which, when thawed had the appearance of muddy port wine. They circumnavigated Baffin's Bay, and, descending the western coast, the officers ‘were confident that the inlet, now recognized as Lancaster Sound, was a strait communicating with the open sea to the westward. Captain Ross, however, considered that he saw land stretching across this inlet, at 8 leagues distance, and abandoned further investigation in that quarter. October 1, the ship reached the entrance of Cumber land Strait, and Capt. Ross, directing his course homeward, re turned to England without accident. He published an account of his expedition in quarto volume, in 1819, which was much an i madverted on. Meanwhile, Lieut. Parry had sailed on another ex pedition, and instead of land, as Capt. Ross supposed, found a sea without bottom, at 170 fathoms, and subsequently passed the me ridian of 110 deg. west longitude, in latitude 74 deg. 44 min. 20 sec., by which he entitled the crew to 5,0001,, the first sum in the scale of rewards granted by Parliament.Thus, it has been well observed, did Captain Ross, although too easily satisfied of the contrary, point out the very course which led to the discoveries of his more fortunate successor, Sir Edward Parry. But whatever ad vantage Sir Edward Parry may have had in showing a more accu rate judgment, in some particulars, than his original commander, the two voyages subsequently undertaken by that intrepid knight in no respect solved the great problem of a northern passage round the Pole. Such a result would have daunted many vigor ous minds, but it had a contrary effect upon Captain Ross. The mistrust with which his first statements were received, and the success with which his failure was followed up by Captain Parry, stimulated him to the important duty of establishing his own views, and thus clearing himself of the imputations which had been thrown upon his skill. Government would not sanction another outfit; but, in 1829, Captain Ross was enabled by his friend Mr. Felix Booth (late Sheriff of London and Middlesex), to equip an expe dition in a superior style. In May, in the above year, the Captain, his nephew, a most experienced and scientific officer, and 23 men set sail in the Victory, formerly a Liverpool trader, and now sited up so as to combine the advantages of steam power, with the per fect capability of a sailing vessel. After experiencing some very stormy weather, in which she lost her foremast, they arrived at Wylie Fiord, Greenland, rigged anew, and repaired from the wreck of a London whaler, which had been abandoned on that coast. Capt. Ross then sailed up Baffin’s Bay, entered Lancaster Sound, and arrived safely at Fury Beach ; there they found the boats, provisions, c., left by Parry, in excellent condition, but no vestige of the wreck. After taking in supplies, they again sailed on 14th August, and after rounding Cape Gerry, ran down the western coast, until they passed the latitude 72 deg. north, in the longitude 94 deg. west ; here they surveyed a considerable inlet to the westward, and were first seriously obstructed by the ice, which extended from the south cape of the inlet, in a solid mass round by S. and E. to E. N.E.; their progress from the shallowness of the water, and the rapidity of the tides, now became dangerous and tedious, but they succeeded in penetrating below the latitude of 70 deg. north, in longitude 92 deg. west, where the coast after having carried them as far east as 90 deg., took a decided westerly direction, whilst land was seen extending east and west, at a distance of forty miles. At this point, 1st of Oc tober, they were arrested by an impenetrable barrier of ice, but having found an excellent wintering port, which they named Felix Harbour, they prepared for the long and dreary season. The ship was dismantled, the deck covered in, and thus secluded for an in definite period, the officers actively employed themselves intmaking surveys and land expeditions, taking astronomical observations and collecting subjects of natural history. Early in January, a tribe of Esquimaux approached, with whom the most friendly communi cation was immediately established; from these people it was ascer tained that the expedition had already seen the coast of America, and that forty miles to the south-west were two great seas, divided by a narrow strait or neck of land. Early in April, Commander Ross, to whose judgment and scien tific attainments the greatest praise is due, accompanied by one mate, and guided by two natives, visited this isthmus, which he found to be two ridges of high land, connecting the land on the north and south, about fifteen miles in breadth, intersected by a chain of fresh-water lakes, which reduced the actual dry land to about five miles. Commander Ross subsequently surveyed the sea-coast to the southward of the isthmus, leading westward as far as 99 deg., or to one hundred and fifty miles of Cape Turn again,for Franklin; to which point the land, after leading him into 70 deg. of north lati tude, directly trenched. He also surveyed thirty miles of the coast to the north of the isthmus, also the sea-coast to the south, so as to leave no doubt that it joined Repulse Bay, and determined that there was no passage southward, for thirty miles northward of their pre sent position. During the summer, the object now being to try a more northern latitude, the expedition could only (owing to the vast quantity of ice) succeed in retracing its steps four miles, to Sheriff's Harbour, where the second winter was passed, during which, Commander Ross surveyed fifty miles more of the coast, and determined that no passage could exist below 71 deg. The follow ing autumn, the vessel was, with difficulty, got fourteen miles north ward, or to Victory Harbour, where, as all hope of saving her,was put beyond possibility by another very severe winter, she was left; Captain Ross and his crew, with such provisions and fuel as they could carry, starting 29th May, 1832, for Fury Beach, where they ar rived completely exhausted by fatigue and hunger on the first of July. On the 1st August they again set forward in three boats, which had been providentially preserved, and on the 1st September reached Leopold South Island, now established to be the north-east point of America in latitude, 73 deg. 56 min., and longitude 90 deg. west. Here the sea presented one impenetrable mass of ice, and they re mained in a state of anxiety and suspense until forced by want of provisions, to return on foot to Fury Beach, where they arrived on the 7th of October, after a fatiguing and laborious march. Here a fourth severe winter was passed in a canvas tent, 32 feet by 16, covered with snow frozen so hard, that they may be said to have in habited an iceberg; their sufferings were greatly increased by want of bedding, clothing, and animal food. Thomas, the carpenter, here perished, and three others of the crew were reduced to the last state of debility. On the 8th of July, 1833, these intrepid individuals again left Fury Beach, being obliged to carry the three sick men who were unable to walk, and in six days reached the boats at Batty Bay; but it was not until 15th August, that they were able to put to sea. On the 26th, having crossed Navy Board Inlet, they descried a ship be calmed in the offing, which proved to be the Isabella, of Hull, the same ship that Capt. Ross commanded in his first voyage of disco very, in 1818; they were received on board with every kindness and hospitality, and safely reached England on the 18th of October, after having been exposed to the perils and privations of four severe Polar winters, the fatigues and hardships of which were freely shared by those in command, and were endured by the crew with a degree of cheerfulness, sobriety, and discipline, rarely to be met with but amongst British seamen. The important results of this voyage, to use the words of Captain Ross, have been “the discovery of the Gulf of Boothia, the Conti nent and Isthmus of Boothia Felix, and a vast number of islands, rivers, and lakes, the undeniable establishment that the N. E. point of America. extends to the 74 degree of latitude, valuable observa tions of every kind, but particularly on the magnet, and to crown all, the honour of placing the name of our William IV., on the true position of the magnetic Pole” For these high services it is now understood, that Parliament will be moved to vote sums of money, both to Capt. Ross, and his nephew, in public testimony of the sense entertained by the country of their merits. Such grants will be no more than common justice. *Both gentilemen embarked their all in the late expedition and lost it. It is but fit therefore, that the country should remunerate them by separate rewards for all they have done, to add to the re putation of British seamen, and promote the general interests of com merce and of science. There will be no new appointment at the India Board in the room of Mr. Macauley, on his leaving for India. Mr. Gordon and Mr. Stewart Mackenzie will then be the two secretaries.
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London United Kingdom Sunday Herald
London, Middlesex, GB
Sun, Feb 09, 1834
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