The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson | Page 3

decked long-boat, which was attached to the commanding-officer's ship
at Chatham. Thus he became a good pilot for vessels of that description
from Chatham to the Tower, and down the Swin Channel to the North
Foreland, and acquired a confidence among rocks and sands of which
he often felt the value.

Nelson had not been many months on board the TRIUMPH, when his
love of enterprise was excited by hearing that two ships were fitting out
for a voyage of discovery towards the North Pole. In consequence of
the difficulties which were expected on such a service, these vessels
were to take out effective men instead of the usual number of boys.
This, however, did not deter him from soliciting to be received, and, by
his uncle's interest, he was admitted as coxswain under Captain
Lutwidge, second in command. The voyage was undertaken in
compliance with an application from the Royal Society. The Hon.
Captain Constantine John Phipps, eldest son of Lord Mulgrave,
volunteered his services. The RACEHORSE and CARCASS bombs
were selected as the strongest ships, and, therefore, best adapted for
such a voyage; and they were taken into dock and strengthened, to
render them as secure as possible against the ice. Two masters of
Greenlandmen were employed as pilots for each ship. No expedition
was ever more carefully fitted out; and the First Lord of the Admiralty,
Lord Sandwich, with a laudable solicitude, went on board himself,
before their departure, to see that everything had been completed to the
wish of the officers. The ships were provided with a simple and
excellent apparatus for distilling fresh from salt water, the invention of
Dr. Irving, who accompanied the expedition. It consisted merely in
fitting a tube to the ship's kettle, and applying a wet mop to the surface
as the vapour was passing. By these means, from thirty-four to forty
gallons were produced every day.
They sailed from the Nore on the 4th of June. On the 6th of July they
were in latitude 79d 56m 39s; longitude 9d 43m 30s E. The next day,
about the place where most of the old discoverers had been stopped, the
RACEHORSE was beset with ice; but they hove her through with
ice-anchors. Captain Phipps continued ranging along the ice, northward
and westward, till the 24th; he then tried to the eastward. On the 30th
he was in latitude 80d 13m; longitude 18d 48m E. among the islands
and in the ice, with no appearance of an opening for the ships. The
weather was exceedingly fine, mild, and unusually clear. Here they
were becalmed in a large bay, with three apparent openings between
the islands which formed it; but everywhere, as far as they could see,
surrounded with ice. There was not a breath of air, the water was

perfectly smooth, the ice covered with snow, low and even, except a
few broken pieces near the edge; and the pools of water in the middle
of the ice-fields just crusted over with young ice. On the next day the
ice closed upon them, and no opening was to be seen anywhere, except
a hole, or lake as it might be called, of about a mile and a half in
circumference, where the ships lay fast to the ice with their ice-anchors.
From these ice-fields they filled their casks with water, which was very
pure and soft. The men were playing on the ice all day; but the
Greenland pilots, who were further than they had ever been before, and
considered that the season was far advancing, were alarmed at being
thus beset.
The next day there was not the smallest opening; the ships were within
less than two lengths of each other, separated by ice, and neither having
room to turn. The ice, which the day before had been flat and almost
level with the water's edge, was now in many places forced higher than
the mainyard by the pieces squeezing together. A day of thick fog
followed: it was succeeded by clear weather; but the passage by which
the ships had entered from the westward was closed, and no open water
was in sight, either in that or any other quarter. By the pilots' advice the
men were set to cut a passage, and warp through the small openings to
the westward. They sawed through pieces of ice twelve feet thick; and
this labour continued the whole day, during which their utmost efforts
did not move the ships above three hundred yards; while they were
driven, together with the ice, far to the N.E. and E. by the current.
Sometimes a field of several acres square would be lifted up between
two larger islands, and incorporated with them; and thus these larger
pieces continued to grow by aggregation. Another day passed, and
there