On Friday the Resolution, and the other ships nearby, were still beset, though a few ships could be seen underway in the distance. Scoresby again made experiments with water, and the effects of freezing it without air. Water was boiled in a glass vial, and then taken outside, where the vial was stoppered and inverted, to prevent more air coming in. Scoresby made notes of his observations, remarking on the air bubbles trapped in the rapidly-formed ice, before the bottle burst. Had it not broken, Scoresby reveals his world view, and in particular the limitations of his understanding: “… it would have been curious to have examined the air remaining above the Ice. This might shew the quality of the air evolved when water freezes.”
On May 11th, the temperature remained well below freezing, with “Ice particles constantly floating in the air”. There were 20 ships close by, all beset; Scoresby reckoned a further fifteen were out of sight. While bread was being taken from the hold, and the casks in which it had been stored “shaked” or broken up, for storage, a dramatic event took place:
About 4PM our Surgeon either induced by the love of gain of a 5 Shilling bet or the fear of being called a coward stripped off most of his clothes and committed his body to the water alongside the Aimwell swam a few yards and returned amidst the acclamations of the sailors who pronounced hi mad.
That day the air temperature stood quite steady at 9 degrees Fahrenheit, almost -13 Celcius.
On Sunday, small openings appeared in the ice, and whales and narwhals were spotted. “Had a boat on one near the Ship but could not get fast”.
For most of the month of May the crew of the Resolution and those of around 40 British whalers, struggled to find an opening for their vessels to escape from amongst heavy ice. Between May 5th and 15th the situation was especially perilous, so much so that Scoresby remarked on the 5th:
I was not fond of the situation in which we now lay the Ice had frozen so thick about us that a Boat could scarcely break it. We were in the midst of heavy pieces of Ice frozen together by Bay Ice. This should the Frost continue would in the space of a week or two (were we to be so long detained) become impervious to our feeble efforts … Therefore anxious to be in a less confined spot.
With that aim, Scoresby “set all Hands to work to break the Ice with two Boats”. They were helped by the crew of the Aimwell, so that by six PM on Monday, May 6th, using saws, boats, sallying, and brute strength, they had succeeded in dragging the two ships 150 yards into a more open position. All around them other ships were doing the same thing, and all were relieved on the 7th by a swell which broke up the ice enough for them to make sail until around 1PM, when the ice gathered again.
Tuesday was also spent in trying to break up the ice and find room to make sail:
We frequently cut the Bay Ice round the larger pieces or heavy Ice at considerable distance whereby loosening that next the Ship … [by 11PM] the Aimwell near us … Many ships in sight.
By the morning of Wednesday May 8th, the Resolution had reached an opening, but with a strong wind blowing, the ice gathered again, and they were forced to “make fast” to large pieces of ice, along with many other ships. Frustratingly, clear, open water was visible from the masthead, but there was no way through.
As before, Scoresby took the opportunity to set up experiments and observations, this time “on the freezing and thawing of water”. He observed different formations of ice in vials corked, and uncorked, and noted that the air trapped in the vial formed bubbles in the ice, before the bottle burst.
On May 9th, there were “Fresh gales small showers of snow” but the ship had not moved for 24 hours. The Resolution stood among “30 sail” of ships, with land observed 70 miles to the ENE.
Sallying. A method of freeing a ship from bay ice, by having the crew run from one side of the vessel to the other, causing it to rock, and break up the ice. In his 1811 journal (entry for May 6th) Scoresby Jr. says “This excellent plan was first used by my father”.
On Friday, the wind increased and the ice showed signs of weakening. Open water was just 200 yards from the Resolution, and by means of a boat, which was run onto the ice, and an ice saw, the crew broke up the bay ice sufficiently to allow the ship to turn. On Saturday the struggle continued, and Scoresby used “sallying” to break through. Jackson notes that Scoresby credited his father with having invented this technique, in which the crew rocked the ship by running together across the deck from side to side. It took three hours of this to move the ship through 120 yards, but they were frustrated by the ice continuing to fill the open space, and finally gave up. Scoresby concludes his entry for Saturday May 4th: “The Aimwell came up our tract and lay close to us. Procured some Fresh Ice[.] Saw many Whales in the water to windwd one near the Ship[.] The Chance of Capture even if struck but small[.]
Gaff Sails. In his Account of the Arctic Regions II (pp. 197-198) Scoresby explains that when the whale boats were deployed after whales, the ship itself had to be managed by a crew of just six or seven men. For this reason the sails were arranged to allow the ship to be steered amongst ice with as little effort as possible. On a square-rigged whaling vessel, Gaff Sails were triangular, or small four-sided sails suspended between the masts, on a “gaff” or spar that could be managed from the deck, essentially mimicking the simpler “fore-and-aft” layout of a sloop.
The Resolution remained beset by ice, and though whales were sighted in an opening to windward, the whalers could do little about it. There were “27 or 28 sail in sight about this time” and Scoresby noted the way the ice moved them around, one being pulled away to a distance of about 3 miles. Adjustments were made to the sails: “Fitted a Gaf Top sail out of a Flying Jib which stood well[.] Unbent the Fore Sail and fore Top Sail and bent other older sails.”
As before, when the ice closed in on Tuesday April 30th, several ships were trapped together, including the Resolution, and the Aimwell, still struggling with damage to her bow. With little chance of braking free, Scoresby’s crew assisted in making repairs, first “careening” the ship, by shifting weight, and then attaching cables to the masts and pulling the ship onto her side:
By these means the place of the blow was got above the surface of the water–a small piece of doubling was removed and renewed by means of the Carpenters of the Aimwell and Resolution. Our Armourer supplied them with Bolts a complete job was made of it in a short time after which the Ship which was before leaky became tight[.]
In 1816, when Scoresby was in command of the Esk, he was helped in a similar way, though his ship was too badly damaged to do anything but run for home. This task completed, the following day Scoresby worried about being trapped in the ice while the ship drifted too far to the Northeast, but May 1st was a special day for whalers, who celebrated with music, pageants, and dancing, culminating with suspending a garland in the rigging at midnight.
The ‘fishery’ was both a dangerous place, and an uncertain one. On Monday April 29th both the Hope, and the Vigilant struck whales, and in the afternoon, as the wind fell, the sea began to freeze. Scoresby, for whom the problem of accurately deteermining longitude became a longstanding obsession, set about taking measurements, taking advantage of the clear sky, and the visibility of sun and moon. While engaged in this activity, he also noted a strange optical illusion, illustrated above, in an image from his 1823 book, Journal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale Fishery, and also described in his Account of the Arctic Regions. In the 1811 journal he describes it thus:
The Air near the horizon though cloudless was so variable in Density that the Circumferencial boundary appeared hilly replete with [ringes? see Ian C. jackson, 2003] of [one third] or [half] a degree of Altitude[.] A ship also to the NEd appeared to be on her beam ends, but whether this was the Case or it was an optical deception I could not at this time determine[.] … The case of the ship last night proved to have been an optical deception for this morning she appeared in her natural position.
On the 26th the Resolution passed Latitude 77N. The day began with safe and clear sailing, but it was not to last:
… we were attacked by such a heavy squall that the Ship could scarecely sustain the pressure she kieled amazingly the Main Stay sail (an old sail) gave way in the foot were obliged to take it in[.] Not having room to take in Sail the Ship was oberburthened by this insomuch that she became almost unmanageable. We drifted very heavilyu against one piece of Ice but avoided the rest of the heavy pieces[.]
Fortunately Scoresby managed to find room to tack and sail away from the pack ice, but he notes that there were “27 Ships in sight half of them beset.”
Saturday 27th was little better. They filled 16 casks in the ‘forehold’ with water to improve the ship’s trim. The extent of the problem can be gleaned from Scoresby’s almost off-hand comment: “this brought the Ship nearly upon an even keel”. Once this was complete, they “made much sail” to ram the ice pack and force the ship through. Again there were several ships close by, including the James of Liverpool, and the Aimwell of Whitby, with her bow stove in, from a failed attempt to break through the ice on the 26th.
Scoresby made no journal entry for Sunday, April 28th.
At Latitude 76 degrees 58, there were strong winds and gales overnight, and the Resolution continued running in poor light, before laying to, to drift through it in the dark. Despite the vast area of sea in which the whalers operated, ships were often in sight, and when the ice made open water scarce, there was considerable danger of collision. At about half past two in the afternoon, the Resolution was passed by two ships, and Scoresby made sail to force their way through the ice; they lay to again among open ice for the night. The following morning Scoresby was reminded of the dangers they faced, not just from the Arctic conditions, but from one another:
At 8AM while dressing myself I heard a bustle on deck ran up and observed a Ship (the Hope of London) almost aboard of us. He attempted to come to Windward of us while we were in the act of Stays* or immediately following, consequently our ship was under no command[.] Our Sprit sail Yard carried away one of his Quarter Boats Davids [davits] the Boat was precipitated bottom upwards into the water. Two men in her escaped with a wetting. I believe the lines which were in the Boat were not lost. From what I could learn it evidently appeared the Hope alone was to blame.
In the end, Scoresby ran for a “trifling opening” simply to get away from the gathering of five ships. Even so, with so few options, the Resolution was followed by several ships.
*A sailing ship in “Stays” was in the process of going about, and as such was “without command” in the sense that it was unable to take evasive action, being without power.
Letters to Elizabeth 