The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson | Page 5

ships, and had full confidence in their officers. About noon,
the ice appeared rather more open near the vessels; and as the wind was
easterly, though there was but little of it, the sails were set, and they got
about a mile to the westward. They moved very slowly, and were not
now nearly so far to the westward as when they were first beset.
However, all sail was kept upon them, to force them through whenever
the ice slacked the least. Whatever exertions were made, it could not be
possible to get the boats to the water's edge before the 14th; and if the
situation of the ships should not alter by that time, it would not be
justifiable to stay longer by them. The commander therefore resolved to
carry on both attempts together, moving the boats constantly, and
taking every opportunity of getting the ships through. A party was sent
out next day to the westward to examine the state of the ice: they
returned with tidings that it was very heavy and close, consisting
chiefly of large fields. The ships, however, moved something, and the
ice itself was drifting westward. There was a thick fog, so that it was

impossible to ascertain what advantage had been gained. It continued
on the 9th; but the ships were moved a little through some very small
openings: the mist cleared off in the afternoon, and it was then
perceived that they had driven much more than could have been
expected to the westward, and that the ice itself had driven still further.
In the course of the day they got past the boats, and took them on board
again. On the morrow the wind sprang up to the N.N.E. All sail was set,
and the ships forced their way through a great deal of very heavy ice.
They frequently struck, and with such force that one stroke broke the
shank of the RACEHORSE's best bower-anchor, but the vessels made
way; and by noon they had cleared the ice, and were out at sea. The
next day they anchored in Smeerenberg Harbour, close to that island of
which the westernmost point is called Hakluyt's Headland, in honour of
the great promoter and compiler of our English voyages of discovery.
Here they remained a few days, that the men might rest after their
fatigue. No insect was to be seen in this dreary country, nor any species
of reptile--not even the common earth-worm. Large bodies of ice,
called icebergs, filled up the valleys between high mountains, so dark
as, when contrasted with the snow, to appear black. The colour of the
ice was a lively light green. Opposite to the place where they fixed their
observatory was one of these icebergs, above three hundred feet high;
its side toward the sea was nearly perpendicular, and a stream of water
issued from it. Large pieces frequently broke off and rolled down into
the sea. There was no thunder nor lightning during the whole time they
were in these latitudes. The sky was generally loaded with hard white
clouds, from which it was never entirely free even in the clearest
weather. They always knew when they were approaching the ice long
before they saw it, by a bright appearance near the horizon, which the
Greenlandmen called the blink of the ice. The season was now so far
advanced that nothing more could have been attempted, if indeed
anything had been left untried; but the summer had been unusually
favourable, and they had carefully surveyed the wall of ice, extending
for more than twenty degrees between the latitudes of 80d and 81d,
without the smallest appearance of any opening.
The ships were paid off shortly after their return to England; and

Nelson was then placed by his uncle with Captain Farmer, in the
SEAHORSE, of twenty guns, then going out to the East Indies in the
squadron under Sir Edward Hughes. He was stationed in the foretop at
watch and watch. His good conduct attracted the attention of the master
(afterwards Captain Surridge), in whose watch he was; and upon his
recommendation the captain rated him as midshipman. At this time his
countenance was florid, and his appearance rather stout and athletic;
but when he had been about eighteen months in India, he felt the effects
of that climate, so perilous to European constitutions. The disease
baffled all power of medicine; he was reduced almost to a skeleton; the
use of his limbs was for some time entirely lost; and the only hope that
remained was from a voyage home. Accordingly he was brought home
by Captain Pigot, in the DOLPHIN; and had it not been for the
attentive and careful kindness of that officer on the way, Nelson would
never have lived to reach his native