August 6, Proceeding Cautiously

August 6—Some fog this morning which made us proceed with caution, but the breeze increased from the southeast around ten, blew away the mists and helped us proceed with our errands. At this rate, we should tomorrow be at Prince Regent Inlet which has been so well explored by Parry and John Ross. Even if it is open, which seems likely, given the lightness of the ice this year, we must sail on. It is not our orders and we cannot afford the time nor the risk of becoming entrapped in an area so far from our goal. 

At dinner this evening on the Terror, Sir John talked about the supplies left by Ross at Fury Beach and speculated on their probable condition. As a midshipman, Crozier helped deposit this cache and well remembers what was laid there. Apparently, John Ross spoke to Franklin of the supplies and suggested them as a possible goal for any party that might have to abandon these vessels on the far side of Boothia. Ross also promised to mount a relief expedition for his old friend in three years should he not have received communication from us by that time. 

So you see, we have many possibilities and some fine friends looking out for us should we require it, but failure is the farthest thing from anyone’s mind. How can we fail? There has never been such a well organised, well supplied, and hopeful expedition in England’s long history of seeking answers to questions in the far corners of the globe. 

Crozier mentioned his worry about the lateness of the season and the severity of the past winter. He felt we must take care that, with the openness of the ice this summer, we do not blunder on without having time to take a proper look around and, without sufficient awareness, become entrapped in the ice. It is, I am sure, a sensible comment, but few of us are in a mood to appreciate anything in the least negative as things have been going so well for us to this time. If honest enthusiasm and belief in self were alone enough to power ships, we should already have made passage and be docked in some Pacific Port.

I do not mean to present Francis Crozier as a Cassandra always prophesying doom which no one believes, and casting a dark shadow over all with whom he comes in contact; far from it, he is mostly cheerful and always kind and attentive, and we are all glad to have him second-in-command and have his knowledge and experience with us. 

Gore appears to have taken young Des Voeux under his wing and the pair can be seen at all hours with cigars dangling from their lips, leaning over the side with nets and long poles to catch the extraordinary animals which continue to send Goodsir into ecstasies. Osmer is always there too, laughing at everything; he really is an original and delightfully dry fellow. I can think of no ship I have been on where everyone is in such a good humour, either with himself or his neighbours. 

Our dinner on the Terror this evening was most pleasant. Crozier was in splendid form regaling us with stirring tales of the unfortunate collision between the Erebus and Terror amidst the ice of the Antarctic Sea. It seems the ships were separated by ice almost immediately after the incident and since both were struggling with very heavy seas and being battered by the ice, had to spend a number of hours apart not knowing that the other had survived. At least the possibility of large open-ocean icebergs being blown down on us here is now lessened with our passage into the relative tranquility of these straits and inlets. 

Sir John then amused us with many tales of the Indians with which he and his party met on his 1821 journey down the Coppermine River. “The natives are much like children,” he began, “and must be treated as such. One I recall, the chief, whose name was Akatcho, was charged with providing hunters from his subjects and in guiding us down the river to the Northern Ocean. At first, he required that he be regarded as our equal, insisting on a salute of musketry and flag waving upon his arrival at camp. 

“For all this, instead of fresh deer meat, all we got in exchange for musket ball and powder was excuses about the lack of game and the difficulty of the hunt. I was forced to state very clearly that, in future, any supplies of ammunition would be tied to the successful procurement of fresh deer meat. Almost magically, the deer became easier to hunt and our supplies increased.”

“They can hardly be blamed,” Crozier put in. “We Europeans arrive from nowhere with all manner of wonders which we distribute for reasons that must appear strange to the local populace. The temptation to increase the gifts by trickery or theft must be immense.”

“True,” Sir John answered, “when dealing with peoples who have had but little contact with Europeans, but Akatcho and his tribe had been trading on a regular basis with the voyageurs of the Hudson’s Bay Company and knew all about the value of goods and how to acquire them. Why, when we supplied some diluted rum, they immediately complained that it was watered to a greater extent than usual and we had the devil’s own job convincing them that this was indeed a new drink which was everywhere being drunk this season in London.

“No, I do not blame them, but they have not the sophistication of our society and are thus more closely similar to children who have also yet to learn the rules by which to live in company.”

This should have ended the discussion but, like a terrier with a rag, Crozier kept on.

“But perhaps it is not that their society is simple, but rather that it is complex in a different way. After all, we have not their skills, as Fitzjames discovered with the kayak at Disco, in those many areas which are essential to comfort in these lands.”

“Comfort!” Irving interrupted. “I would not call sleeping in an ice house comfort. Give me stone walls and a roaring fire any day.”

This provoked laughter, but Crozier was not to be turned aside. 

“You may laugh, Mister Irving, but I have seen these Esquimaux igloos and I can assure you that they are infinitely better suited to the land in which their owners live than would a dwelling of stone and a fireplace that must of necessity remain empty for lack of trees.”

“And on this point at least,” Sir John added, “I must agree with Mister Crozier. At Fort Enterprise on the Coppermine expedition, some visiting Esquimaux built a snow dwelling which was examined in detail by Doctor Richardson. He proclaimed it the most ideal sort of structure of such efficiency that a single oil lamp sufficed to heat the main sleeping area which measured some twelve feet across and eight high. Moreover, the snow walls allowed such a transfusion of soft light that the interior resembled nothing so much as a fine marble hall. The whole dwelling complex was quite large and, in addition to the main sleeping chamber, included pantries, kitchen, porch and several cunningly designed ante-chambers which prevented unwanted draughts of cold air. 

“In all it was a quite remarkable structure and the natives must be given full credit for its invention. Nonetheless, I must also agree with Mister Irving that there is little to compare with a comfortable chair and a glass of port in front of a roaring fire.”

We then moved from a discussion of the natives to a comparison of our crossing of Baffin’s Bay (23 days) with those who had been this way before. Parry holds the record—nine or ten days—a thing unheard of before or since. On his next voyage he was fifty-four days toiling through the ice and did not get in before September. No expedition, except John Ross’s, has ever been able to leave Disco before the 4 or 5 of July, though some sailed from England a full month before us. Ross, on his first voyage got away by the 16 of June, and was, I believe, a month going sixty miles farther, so we have not done badly.