July 15-16, Tumbling About

July 15-16—I was beginning to write last night, but the ship was tumbling about to such an extent that I went to bed but had to turn out again immediately and get the top-sails reefed, as it blew very hard in squalls. The ship pitched about as much as I ever witnessed. Reid is a most extraordinary rustic and prognosticates endlessly on all manner of topics, nautical and otherwise. After the experience at Disco I am disinclined to give much weight to his sayings, but they are undoubtedly quaint and sometimes amusing. Today he was saying that he does not like to see the wind “seeking a corner to blow into,” and followed this with a rough comment on the impracticality of kilt wearing in windy climates.

The weather moderated this morning, and all day we have had little wind and tolerably smooth sea. This allowed us to get the proper ‘crow’s-nest’ up. The construction is a hooped canvas cylinder attached at the main-top-gallant-masthead (if you know where that is). According to Reid, who will have the peculiar privilege of being perched up there to search out channels through the ice, this particular crow’s nest is a very expensive one. 

Blanky on the Terror proclaims this to be a very open season, much like the one he experienced when he sailed these waters in 1829 with old Captain John Ross. Of course the weather cannot be taken as a good luck omen since Ross and his crew spent four years trapped in the ice and were given up for dead before they were rescued. But you need have no fears for us. I am told by Osmer that we could easily make supplies last a farther one or even two years taking no account of what fresh meat we might obtain with musket and ball.

Osmer is a delightful fellow. He was with Beechey in the Blossom when they went to Behring’s Strait to look out for Franklin. At the time Sir John was surveying the north coast of America in 1821, and was within 150 miles of Beechey. Osmer was also at Petro Paulowski in Kamschatka, where I hope to go, and served since on the lakes of Canada. It is said that if the Purser is plump then the crew eat well. If there is any truth in this saying then we will surely benefit for Osmer is almost as broad as he is tall and his skin exudes a most ruddy glow. I was at first inclined to think him a stupid old man, because he has chins, takes snuff, and has an extraordinary nose; but he is as merry-hearted as any young man, full of quaint dry sayings, always good humoured, always laughing, never a bore, takes his ‘pinch after dinner,’ plays a ‘rubber,’ and beats me at chess—and, he is a gentleman. 

By the time you have read a quarter of this poor document you will have a fit picture of all my messmates. We have the following whom I have or shall from time to time give you descriptions:—First Lieutenant, Gore; Second, Le Vesconte; Third, Fairholme; Purser, Osmer; Surgeon, Stanley; Assistant-Surgeon, Goodsir; Ice-Master (so called), Reid; Mates, Sargent, Des Voeux, Couch; Second Master, Collins; Commander, of himself you know better; and over us all, Sir John Franklin, the hero of so many past adventures in the lonely and unexplored regions of the world. But for now I must to bed. Good night sister.