Memorials of the Sea

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Section I.-My Father's early Life.

The name of Scoresby, it is believed, is entirely unknown, in this country, except in the case of the family, and one or two relations, of the subject of the present records.

My Father's "more immediate ancestors," as a short biographical account of him by a friend, states,[A] "occupied respectable stations in the middle walks of life, supporting, in each case, unblemished character, and possessing, at times, considerable property;" and, in periods rather remote, holding conspicuous stations.

In Drake's History of York, the family name, varying in the spelling in a progress through several centuries, repeatedly occurs. But the single line traceable through my Father's ancestors, now alone appears to exist in Britain. Walter de Scourby was "bayliffe of York," in the year 1312; and in the seventh and ninth years of Edward III., Nicholas de Scorēby, it appears, was Member for York. Subsequently, we find, under the date of 1463, Thomas Scawsby, holding the office of Lord Mayor of that city. Some member of the family, after the name assumed its present form, must have given the designation of "Scoresby Manor" and "Scoresby Lodge," to places still known in the neighbourhood of York.

At the period, however, of this memoir, the family occupied more humble stations in life, chiefly in the class of yeomen,-a class once of much importance in this country, but now, unhappily, so diminished in numbers, under the absorbing influence of extensive properties, as to be scarcely recognised as a designation.

William Scoresby, my Father, 'was born on the 3d of May 1760, on a small estate farmed by his parent, called Nutholm, in the township of Cropton, about twenty miles south-west of Whitby, in the county of York. In this place the periods of his childhood and boyhood were spent.'

The memoir, here again quoted, refers to some incidents among his earliest recollections, by which his life was greatly imperilled, marking 'the superintending providence of God, which, on all occasions, he gratefully acknowledged.'

At an endowed school, in the nearest adjoining village, Cropton, his early, and indeed chief, education was received. But the distance being considerable, and the roads indifferent, his attendance was much interrupted, and, in winter, totally suspended. His progress, therefore, was far from being satisfactory. Nor was this disadvantage compensated by any long continuance of opportunities for obtaining scholastic instruction; for, at the age of nine, he was removed, and from that time forward employed, as his strength and years might qualify him, in occupations among the cattle, and about the farm.

Occasionally, during his advance towards manhood, he was engaged with the neighbouring farmers, when, during such occupation, an incident, of apparently no material importance, occurred, which constituted, under the ordering of an allwise and gracious Providence, the grand turning-point in his destiny, from a probable ordinary and unobserved occupation, to a stirring, adventurous and conspicuous life. The change was induced by some unpleasant treatment he received from the family with whom he was residing. He became disgusted with a position which, without satisfying the natural capabilities and enterprise of his mind, exposed him to such indignities. The idea had, probably, been often in his mind before; but he now first resolved on leaving the occupation for which his father had destined him, and on trying at the nearest sea-port, Whitby, the adventure of a seafaring life.

It is somewhat curious that the course of life, in respect to the adoption of a seafaring profession, of two individuals,-Captain Cook and my Father,-whose names are associated with much of interest in the history of Whitby, and who became, in their relative degrees, conspicuous as adventurous seamen,-turned upon apparently trifling incidents; and, as to the exciting of feelings of disgust with their previous occupations, of a similar character.

James Cook, like my Father, was, in early youth, employed along with his father, in agricultural labours.[B] His turn of mind, however, being suited to something requiring more tact than the ordinary toils in which farmers' boys were wont to be engaged, he was removed from the work of the field to that of the counter, with the view of learning the business of a country shopkeeper. It was at the fishing town of Staiths, about ten miles north-west of Whitby, and at the shop of a Mr. W. Sanderson, haberdasher, where Cook, at the age of sixteen or seventeen, entered on his new employment; and it was whilst there that the incident, which led to his abandonment of domestic trade for sea-life, occurred.

It happened, as the early record goes, that, at a period when the coinage generally in circulation was much defaced and worn, a new and fresh looking shilling was paid in by a customer. Cook, attracted by the comparative beauty of the coin, and thinking with regret of its going forth again in the ordinary progress of business, substituted the sterling value, and appropriated the new coin, as "a pocket-piece," to himself. It was ill-advised that he did so without previously asking permission or intimating his purpose; for the shilling had been observed by his master, its abstraction was detected, and Cook was suspected and charged with dishonesty,-a charge which the production of the shilling from his pocket seemed to confirm. His keen sense of right feeling, and of what was due to himself, rendered this incident so painful, that he determined, if he could get permission to do so, to leave his employment, as a shopkeeper, and, indulging a strongly imbibed prepossession, turn to the sea. The unmerited suffering was abundantly compensated by that good and gracious Providence, whose dispensations reach to the humblest, and specially regards the oppressed. The young shopkeeper-turned apparently by this fretful incident from his monotonous pursuits, and stimulated to seek an adventurous profession, and not opposed, but kindly aided, by his master, who had become perfectly satisfied of his integrity-was led into those paths of distinction whereby he became so highly conspicuous, if not chief among the circumnavigators of the globe!

"It is worthy of remark," says Dr. Young, in his life of Cook, "that the coin which so forcibly attracted his notice was what is called a South-sea shilling, of the coinage of George I., marked on the reverse S.S.C., for South-sea Company; as if the name of the piece had been intended to indicate the principal fields of his future discoveries."

If the result of disgust at his experienced indignity turned not to account, with my Father, in so eminent a degree,-it yet was so over-ruled for good as to place him at the head of the adventurers engaged in the whale-fishery of the Greenland seas, and to render his example, perseverance, and talent, highly beneficial to his country in the furtherance of that, then, extremely important branch of national enterprise.

It was in the winter of 1779-80, that my Father proceeded to carry his resolve into effect, by leaving his place and travelling to Whitby. Guided by the suggestions of a relative, to whom he had communicated his intentions, he was recommended to Mr. Chapman,-an opulent and respectable ship-owner, and a member of the Society of Friends,-with whom he engaged himself to serve as an apprentice, for three years, in a ship called the Jane, commanded by a son of the owner.

As his services, however, were not required till the ensuing spring,-because of the practice, as to ships trading to the Baltic and Archangel, "of laying them up" for the winter,-he returned immediately home, informed his father of what he had done, and then, at his suggestion, went back to the farm he had somewhat abruptly left, and there remained until his place could be satisfactorily supplied. This being speedily accomplished, he set himself arduously to work to the studying, by the help of whatever suitable books he could get hold of, of the subjects connected with his new profession.

On the 1st of February 1780, according to previous arrangement, he repaired to Whitby for the ratification of his agreement, and for receiving directions as to when and how his services would be required. His anxiety on this occasion, to proceed with his studies in the manner in which he found himself making gradual and encouraging progress, led him at once into an adventure of much peril, and into circumstances in which his acquirements in the principles of navigation had their first, yet most successful and important, application.

Finding that his services would not be required until the month of April, he determined, being full of ardour for self-improvement, not to lose a single day; so that, although the afternoon had arrived before he finished his arrangements with Mr. Chapman, he set out on his pedestrian course towards the Moors, intending to sleep at the village of Sleights. Urged, however, by his feelings, and tempted by the fineness of the evening, and the brilliant sunset, by which the distant hills (then covered with snow) were illumined and gilded, he resolved on proceeding to Salter Gate, a position, in the midst of the Moors, eight miles further in advance, and attainable only by a not very well-defined line of road across a heath-clad and totally uninhabited country. It was a region, therefore, of complete desolateness, through which he prepared to pass, and, on occasions of snow-storms, one of great danger to any travellers who might be unfortunately overtaken by them whilst in the midst of the Moors;-for, at the period of which we now write, there were neither fences to confine, nor poles (as in subsequent years were erected) to mark, the line of road, so that an hour's continuance of thick drifting snow might totally obliterate, in many places, the distinctions betwixt the highway and the general trackless heath. Hence it happened, that scarcely a winter passed over without yielding the records of perilous or fatal adventures; and, whenever snow-storms abounded, of travellers, more or less in number, perishing by being overwhelmed in the snow-drifts.

It was not long before our traveller, advancing rapidly with vigorous and elastic step within the region of lonesome moorland, became aware that he had entered upon a critical adventure; for having arrived near the sixth milestone on the high-moors over Whitby, he became unexpectedly encircled by a dense and gloomy cloud, attended with a sudden and furious storm of wind and fleecy snow, the snow descending so thick as to envelope him in such dark obscurity, that, for some little time, he could neither see his way to advance nor to return.

Recovering somewhat from his first embarrassment, and considering what might be well to be done, he determined, adventurous as the attempt might be, to go forward toward Salter Gate, yet six miles distant, and not a house on the road. He had made but little progress, however, in advance, before he found he had gone off the turnpike-road; nor did his first attempt, as by a nautical traverse, seem to improve his situation. When brought to a stand in this perplexing condition, it was, that his naturally reflective mind suggested an use of his humble geometrical acquirements, which afforded him essential service. He had observed how the wind first assailed him, with reference to the direction of the line of road, which, fortunately for him, like the roads of ancient construction, generally, followed a steeple-chase directness, regardless of hill or dale, for the point aimed at; and by adjusting his progress on the same angle, in respect to the course of the wind, he hoped to be guided in his now perilous undertaking. "Taking his departure" from this incidental starting-point, he set forward with as much speed as the nature of the ground and the resistance of the storm could well admit, and, proceeding in a straight direction, over hill and dale, through moor and bog, he accomplished another mile, and that so successfully as to reach its termination, to his great satisfaction, scarcely twenty yards from the seventh milestone. Encouraged by this success, he now advanced, in spite of storm and blinding snow-drift, and under painfully reduced strength, approaching at the last very near to exhaustion, until his enterprise and tact were happily rewarded by arriving at Salter Gate, where, in the house for which he originally aimed, he was enabled to obtain both shelter and refreshment. The rest of the enterprise, after encountering various difficulties, from the continuance of the snow on the ground, was in like manner accomplished, so that with no great loss of time he was welcomed in safety at his father's house.

During this arduous and hazardous journey, as his biographer remarks, "he proved the value and accuracy of his geometry whilst traversing the high-moors, the importance of perseverance, and the gracious care of Divine Providence."

Section II.-His first year's Apprenticeship.

In the quiet of a country home, my Father now resumed those studies which bore more immediately upon the profession he had chosen, and perseveringly continued them till the time appointed, the middle of March, for his joining his ship. His preparations towards the supplying of his maritime costume and equipment being already made, he repaired to Whitby, and was duly set to work, with others of the destined crew, to rig and fit out the ship. Towards the end of the month the arrangements were so far advanced, that she was hauled down the harbour into a berth convenient for putting to sea. But whilst here a hard gale set in from the north, which brought so heavy a sea into the harbour that the Jane was in danger of breaking adrift. This circumstance called for the prompt and active exertions of the crew to get out cables and hawsers for additional security, an occasion on which my Father received his first lesson on mooring a ship,-a lesson which could not be lost upon one who associated with great physical strength and energy so observant and reflective a mind.

Early in the month of April, the weather proving favourable whilst the spring-tides prevailed, the Jane put to sea, and for a time made pleasant progress. Nearing the Naze of Norway, however, they were overtaken at night, and that suddenly, by a heavy gale of wind, which in its effect was in no small degree alarming, and from the quality of the crew, indeed, twelve out of about twenty hands being apprentices, some mere lads, and several quite inexperienced, eminently perilous,-for the ship being lightly ballasted, was quickly thrown upon her "beam-ends," the water rising over the lee gunwale till it reached the "combings of the hatches," whilst the requisite measures, demanding instantaneous promptness, were seriously delayed by the general inaptitude of the crew. They were enabled, however, in time to save them from the threatened foundering, to get the sails clewed up, whereon the ship righted, though the sails were left fluttering, the sport and prey of the storm, until the morning. The gale then happily abating, and veering to a favourable quarter, the canvas, as far as preserved to them, which so recently had threatened their destruction, became available for the furtherance of their voyage, and enabled them without further adventure to reach Memel, the port of their destination.

But when outward danger had been safely passed, and nothing but a feeling of perfect security could naturally be realized, the object of this memorial became sensibly alive to the impressiveness of the solemn sentiment of our Church's funeral service-"In the midst of life we are in death!" The ballast had been taken out, and the hold and 'tween-decks cleared to make way for the cargo, when my Father, being below, near a "raft-port,"-an opening at the bow or stern by which a timber cargo is received into the hold,-heard the voice of the Captain calling for a boat's crew to put him on shore. There being no deck now laid upon the hold-beams, but only a series of "carlings" from beam to beam, the summons was attempted to be answered by running along these very narrow supports. Ill directed, however, by the very deceptive light admitted by the raft-port, my Father's head came in contact with an unobserved break in the upper deck, by which he was precipitated into the hold, a depth of about twelve feet, and was taken up by his comrades in a state of insensibility. In this alarming condition he remained for several hours, being meanwhile carried for surgical assistance on shore.

He was but barely passed out of the immediate hands of the surgeon, who contemplated his case hopefully, when the carpenter of the Jane was borne to the same place, having also fallen into the hold in a similar way, with an adze in his hand, a fearful cut from which in his forehead added to the severe effects of so considerable a fall.

Under careful and skilful assistance, however, both the endangered sufferers were soon restored, being enabled to return to the ship in about eight days' time,-the carpenter, indeed, with his wound but imperfectly healed, and with a long and conspicuous scar which might have been admonitory for the rest of his days. The lesson to my Father had not been forgotten when, near half a century after, on recurring to the adventure, he remarked, "This was another kind interposition of Providence which has a claim on my grateful homage."

Their cargo of timber being completed, they immediately sailed from Memel, and joining convoy at Elsinore, safely reached the Thames, whither their cargo was destined.

Whilst the ship was lying at Limehouse, my Father and another of the apprentices obtained leave, on a Sunday, to go on shore and visit the great Metropolis, where they met with another, and to them a previously unknown, species of adventure. On reaching the city they were accosted by a man dressed in regimentals (apparently a serjeant), who, pretending that he was a Yorkshireman and knew them, contrived to insinuate himself into their confidence, and offered to guide them in their object of sight-seeing, remarking particularly that they had a fine opportunity of seeing the King, who was about to attend a general review in Hyde Park. Catching at a suggestion so naturally pleasant, they, without an idea of mistrust, put themselves under his, apparently, friendly guidance, and proceeded in the direction of the Park. On reaching Temple Bar he invited them to accompany him into an eating-house, where he ordered refreshments.

But the landlady, on making her appearance-a respectable and benevolent person, as they subsequently had good reason to know-observed and surveyed the little party with a very unusual kind of scrutiny, first looking the soldier sternly in the face, and then, with an expression relaxed into compassion, turned her gaze on his youthful and obviously too confiding associates. Repeating her scrutiny of their pretended friend till assured of his identity, she addressed him with an air of stern authority, and commanded him to leave the house. The man affecting surprise, and 'presuming that she must have mistaken him,' endeavoured, by a well-practised self-possession, to avoid the threatened defeat of his insidious purpose. But she, persisting in her knowledge and accusation of him, and threatening to call in a constable to her aid, succeeded in causing him to feel that it might be for his safety to take himself off.

On his departure she turned to the wondering young sailors, and to this effect addressed them:-"I perceive, young men, you are from the country, and are strangers in London. I am from the country myself, but I know that man to be a villain. Not long since he stole some articles from this very house, and I am fully assured he will wait for you to get you trepanned; you shall therefore not leave my house this night."

They accordingly remained her guests till the morning, when she allowed them to depart for their ship; but on offering her compensation for her kindness, she refused to take anything more than was barely sufficient to pay for their moderate refreshments.

"This act of generous friendship," remarks the writer of the Memoir, "deserves to be recorded on three accounts: first, for the honour of our common nature; secondly, to be contrasted with the villany of the pretended soldier; and thirdly, to illustrate the watchful Providence of God."

Having delivered their cargo at Limehouse, and taken in ballast, they sailed on their second voyage, to St. Petersburgh, for a cargo of hemp and iron. Here they were unfortunately caught in the formation of ice, with but little expectation of escaping during the winter. But on the 4th of November, a gale from the eastward having broken up the impeding ice, they immediately sailed, and in four days reached Elsinore, where they expected to join convoy for England. All the men-of-war from home, however, having sailed, they joined a fleet of similarly unprotected ships, numbering altogether six-and-twenty sail, and together proceeded for England. About half-way across the German ocean, they proved the advantage of their mutual association for defence, a large cutter privateer having hove in sight, and attacked the rear of the fleet. For a considerable time the enemy's fire was directed from a respectful distance against the nearest ships, which they, according to their proportion of armament, as actively returned,-so actively, indeed, that, in their ill-provided warlike stores, they soon expended the greater part of their ammunition. The enemy, however, ignorant of this circumstance, and unable to detach any single vessel, kept aloof, probably for the chance of the night; but the night proved dark, and afforded them a screen from the prowler, and they all escaped unscathed into port.

They reached Portsmouth, their new destination, about the middle of December, and delivered their cargo among the naval stores of the King's Yard.

During the discharging of the cargo, my Father received vexatious abuse, without any provocation on his part, from the chief-mate of the ship, which so annoyed him that, under the impulse of a strongly excited feeling, he had resolved to quit the Jane, and enter on board His Majesty's ship the Royal George, just then passing them from the graving-dock, where she had been undergoing repairs. But reflecting on something which, in the bustle and confusion amongst her crew as she hauled away, he had observed incongruous with his feelings, he happily paused in his hasty resolve, and ultimately decided on submitting himself to a continuance, though under the constant exposure to like arbitrary annoyance, of the duties of his humble station, with a view to the fulfilment of the engagement he had entered into with the owner of the Jane. And, as estimated by the probability of his being involved in the disaster of that ill-fated ship, had he entered on board of her, the decision appeared to be Providentially guided; for at no long interval after this time it was that the Royal George came to her end so strangely, as to place the catastrophe alone and without parallel, amid the varied and marvellous records of our naval history. The story is well known. She was "careening," for the purpose of having some caulking of her seams effected, or damage of her copper sheathing repaired, whilst anchored at Spithead, with her lower-deck ports open in all imaginable safety. A sudden squall, whilst the ship swung across the tide, laid her on her beam-ends; the water poured in by the open ports in such force and quantity, that she sunk in less than eight minutes, involving officers, men, and visitors, so generally in the common catastrophe, that out of about 1200 souls, or upward, on board, only 331 escaped alive! The brave Admiral Kempenfelt, an experienced and accomplished navigator, who, through many perils of war and tempest had passed unscathed, suffered among the rest, a fate which, very probably, had been that of my Father, had he carried out his impetuously-formed design. But, with the good hand of God upon him, he escaped the then unimagined peril.

On the laying up of the Jane for the winter, the seamen, as usual, were discharged, and the apprentices sent by a coasting vessel passengers to Whitby. My Father repaired to his country home for the interval of service, until summoned again to London, in the early spring of 1781, to join his ship on her being chartered for a voyage to Riga, for a cargo of deals for the Government.

Section III.-His Progress as a Seaman, with Incidents of Sea-Life.

Entering the sea-service as a profession or business, as an unaided adventurer, my Father felt, and ever acted on the feeling, that, under the blessing of Providence, to which he distinctly looked, he must be the fabricator of his own fortune. To learn his profession, from the very elements of a seaman's duty to its most manly and skilful perfection; to acquire a knowledge of navigation, of which he had anticipated but little, and to extend that knowledge to the highest style of seamanship,-constituted the scheme and aspiration of his naturally vigorous and enterprising mind.

But in beginning, as a country lad, at the beginning, with nothing of position, or education, or influence, to raise him above the common and ordinary class of learners in the school of maritime practice, he met with no small difficulty in raising himself, as his purpose was to do, in character and pursuits, above his fellows. His habit was-as soon as raw inexperience enabled him to form a habit-to spend his leisure time, when not on watch, aloof from the galley-congregation of idle, and often profane, companions. And instead of following the useless and time-wasting practices of those around him, his habit was, as opportunity offered, to endeavour, by the help of a few appropriate books, to carry out his former humble acquirements in figures into the really practical "working of a day's work," and "the keeping of the ship's reckoning." Nor, in the ordinary "watch," did he associate intimately with the general body of the crew, preferring, unless he could find a somewhat like-minded aspirant after a better position, to walk alone on the main-deck or forecastle, holding companionship only with his own thoughts.

Two incidents, in connection with this period of my Father's personal history, are fresh in my recollection,-one of them illustrative of his difficult position in refusing familiar association with his fellow mariners; the other illustrative of his success in the acquisition of nautical knowledge, by his own persevering and unaided application.

A marked degree of ill-will, on the part of several of the crew in one of his early voyages, followed his prevailing separation from familiar association with them. This was exhibited by innumerable tokens and expressions, both in word and action. Jeers, insinuations and ridicule, were indulged in with painful and increasing frequency, and these not unmixed with contemptuous or offensive actions. Naturally spirited and quick-tempered, as the subject of this ungenerous behaviour was constitutionally, it was hard to restrain the expression of indignation, or to resist the urgent impulse to a just retaliation. But, acting on the system of non-retaliation, so long as they kept "hands off," he bore this persecution with extraordinary forbearance. For constitutionally strong and energetic, few would have been able to compete with him, as the issue proved, if the lion in him were roused. His height was now near six feet; his frame was strong-boned and muscular; his vigour and activity were unusually great. But he restrained himself to the utmost, and his great strength, as to the perceptions of his associates, continued long unknown.

At length the time of resistance, which he could not but feel must some time or other arrive, came. It happened in this way. My Father had descended the deck after his watch, and with the view, I believe, of retiring, as usual, to a quiet part of the vessel alone, when two of the crew made on him a premeditated attack-a kind of half-joking assault by no trifling hits, rudely grasping him at the same moment, one on each side. Endeavouring to shake them off without coming to extremities, he quietly requested them to desist. Their sinister defiance and rudeness in grappling him increased in offensiveness. "You had better be quiet;" "Do be quiet;" "Let me alone;" and other peace-desiring solicitations of like kind, were tried. But the attack and effort to throw him became more determined. At length, after a firm and decided utterance to the command "Hands off!" indicating that the spirit was up, the attacked party in his turn grappled the necks of his assailants, one with each hand, and, taking advantage of the muscular reaction, after they had made a simultaneous but ineffective thrust against him, he flung them, by a Samson-like impulse, right and left, and both of them fell, heavily, prostrate on the deck! So unawares was the throw, and so totally unsustained by cautionary preparation, that, as to one of them, the subject of this self-earned retribution, lay motionless, insensible, and bleeding! Others of the crew who had noticed the scuffle came up, and seeing the man lie so helpless, and apparently inanimate, exclaimed, "He is dead! Scoresby has done for him!" Happily, the catastrophe was not so serious. By and by there was a return of motion, and obvious reflux of life; but when at length the prostrate had, with much difficulty, gathered himself up, he contrived to stagger meekly enough away, without noticing the author of his humiliation, or ever after attempting either a renewal of his bravadoes, or a retaliation for his severe punishment.

It is hardly needful to say that, from that time, my Father was allowed to pursue his own way without further molestation or offensive remark; and that the respect which seamen are generally ready to yield to true bravery and superior skill was as generously bestowed by the right-minded of the crew, at least, as the fine and successful effort of the unfairly assaulted one deserved.

The other incident was of a totally different character.

My Father had early discovered, on his studying out the rules and practice of navigation, as set forth in the comparatively humble nautical works of that period, that there was much that was gratuitous, or arbitrary and uncertain, in the allowances and corrections proposed to be made on the "ship's log." On these things he made his own observations, and, in calculating the ship's position, which he was now tolerably well able to accomplish, he made his own corrections, instead of those marked on the "log-board" by the officer of the watch. His position, in consequence, often differed very materially from the ordinary reckoning, as well as from that kept by one of his associates among the apprentices, who, like himself, was anxious for advancement in his profession.

At the time referred to he was in progress of his third voyage in the Jane, when, having taken in their cargo of spars for masts, at Riga, they were on their return towards Elsinore.

On the third day after their departure from Riga, a little after twelve at noon,-the wind being easterly and the weather foggy, and the ship under studding-sails, making a progress of about five knots,-the two young navigators finished the day's reckoning, and then proceeded to compare the results. The position of the ship, as calculated simply from the register on the log-board, necessarily differed from that deduced from the same data on which the judgment had been exercised, and various allowances and alterations made. Observing the nature of the difference, which amounted to several miles, the intelligent youth exclaimed, "Why, by your account, we are just running down Bornholm; but my journal is the same as the ship's, and we are going round to the northward of the island." The question being discussed with considerable animation betwixt them, it excited observation among the crew, and reached the ears of the Captain. A sharp look-out for land was ordered, when, in brief space, the look-out on the forecastle shouted "Breakers a-head!" "Put down the helm-Let go the anchor!" cried the Captain. The man?uvre was just in time to save the ship from destruction. When she swung to her anchor it was in four-and-a-half fathoms water; the breakers were close by the stern, and the stern not above twenty fathoms from the shore,-and the shore, as had been predicted, was that of the island of Bornholm!

The weather soon cleared up, when they found themselves in a sandy bay on the south-east side of the island. The sea not being considerable they soon got under weigh, and sailing round the island to the southward, they reached Elsinore the next day. "It was to this private reckoning kept by Mr. Scoresby," observes the writer of the Memoir of which I have here and elsewhere availed myself, "and the debate to which it led, that the preservation of the ship and cargo may evidently be ascribed."

"The reward which Mr. Scoresby received for this piece of essential service was such," adds the biographer, "as the deserving too frequently obtain from their superiors in office, who feel themselves insulted when their deficiencies are exposed by the efforts of their superiors in merit. The preservation of the ship and cargo," by the superiority of a mere tyro in seamanship-a young apprentice, "drew upon him, especially, the envy of the mate, who, it will be remembered, had aforetime shown a painful measure of ill-will, and the disapprobation of some of the inferior officers. These ungenerous influences, in their combined effect, rendered his situation so uncomfortable that, on reaching the Thames, he left the ship, and engaged in an Ordnance-armed storeship, the Speedwell cutter, destined to carry out stores to Gibraltar."

This step, which it is to be apprehended had not the sanction of the parties to whom he was apprenticed, was attended with consequences which, with one whose mind was early directed to regard a Providential hand perpetually engaged in guiding, controlling, or, for merciful ends, rebuking the affairs of man, could hardly fail to be impressive, and to yield salutary convictions of the error into which a manly indignation at ungenerous usage and jealous antipathy had urged him.

Section IV.-Capture by the Enemy, and Escape from a Spanish Prison.

The Speedwell was soon equipped, and, the service being urgent,-the relief of the garrison at Gibraltar,-with all haste got to sea. But admirably as this fast-sailing cutter was adapted for a service requiring all possible despatch, the weather proved very unfavourable for making a satisfactory, much less a rapid, progress.

The delay was additionally trying to those on board the cutter, from the deprivations in which the unexpected length of the voyage, by reason of calms and adverse winds, involved them. For, economical of room for the requisite stores whilst on the passage to the Straits, the Speedwell was sent out so inadequately supplied with water, that the crew were reduced to a distressingly short allowance.

This incident, however, afforded occasion and opportunity for the development of my Father's peculiar acuteness of intellect, and the exercise of his natural science. Whilst suffering greatly from thirst, the idea occurred to him that some refreshment might possibly be derived through the medium of the pores of the skin by bathing-an idea which the calmness of the weather enabled him to put to the test and satisfactorily to verify. For on undressing and taking a rope for his security, and jumping overboard, he realized, even beyond his expectations, a decidedly refreshing influence-such as, under his report, to induce most of the officers and crew not only to try the same experiment, but to render it a prevailing practice, whenever the state of the weather would permit.

But a new incident soon substituted for this another species of deprivation and suffering. They had advanced within sight of the Spanish coast, when, on the 26th of October 1781, being off Cape Trafalgar, they fell in with a force so overwhelmingly superior, as to render resistance useless. The cutter became a prize to the enemy, and my Father, with his associates, prisoners of war. They were taken into Cadiz Bay, and he, with some others, were marched into the interior of the country, to St. Lucar la Major, a small town of Andalusia, seated on the river Guadiana, a tributary of the Quadalquiver.

Here, they were not ungenerously treated; whilst the rigour of imprisonment, as at first practised, became gradually relaxed under the imagined security of the captives. The degree of liberty, indeed, after awhile became such, that the prisoners were entrusted to go unguarded, to some distance from their quarters, to fetch water. In this indulgence my Father saw a chance of escape, which, being participated in by one of his associates, a spirited young sailor and friend, they privately conferred thereon, and ultimately arranged to encounter the difficulties and risks of the adventure.

Availing themselves of an occasion when various circumstances gave favour to the experiment, they proceeded, in their usual manner, to the place where water was procured; and, finding themselves unobserved, they walked away, as if incidently strolling about, until they had obtained shelter, I believe, from a wood. Here they pushed rapidly on, dropping their water-vessels in a place of concealment, until having made what they deemed a sufficient progress to baffle an ordinary pursuit, they hid themselves for the remainder of the day. Then, with the stars only for their guidance, they travelled, as by a steeple-chase route, throughout the night towards the coast. This, indeed, became their prevalent plan of proceeding, to rest in some concealment by day, and to travel by night.

Their progress proved, indeed, fully as adventurous, consistently with their safety, as the liveliest imagination could have pictured. The perils and difficulties they encountered from native Spaniards, or from the pursuit of troops sent after them; from their imperfect concealment during the day, or critical exposure in their progress during the night; from the applications which they were necessitated to make on the generosity of the enemies of their country for relief and sustenance,-for they had been deprived of everything they possessed except two little bundles of clothing which, in contemplation of the adventure, they had previously concealed beyond their prison; from their suspicious appearance in the dress, and with the language of foreigners, inducing attempts to give them up to the public authorities; with the aid and consolations, on the other hand, which they occasionally met with from the sympathies of the gentler sex, even whilst others were seeking their recapture,-yielded altogether a series of exciting and anxious incidents, which, if the particulars could be thoroughly recalled, might afford materials for a history of really romantic interest. The fact of kind and generous sympathy, and effective aid from women, I well remember as constituting a touching element in the relation of their perilous undertaking. As Mungo Park, in his varied and perilous travels, ever found kindness, in the instinct of a sympathising nature, from women, savage though their race might be, so did my Father and his associate realize, among the Spanish peasants, the like experience. Once, in particular, I remember its being stated, that when our adventurers had confided themselves to the supposed friendly shelter of a cottage, the master of the cottage stepped away, in order to give information about the fugitives at some neighbouring magisterial or military post, whilst his wife, compassionating the proscribed strangers in a foreign land, meanwhile contrived to give them a secret warning of their peril, and at the same time to provide the means, by the back of the cottage, for their prompt and effectual escape.

The remainder of the story, so far as relates to their escape from the Spanish shores, may be summarily given.

Under the guidance of a gracious and prospering Providence, they arrived safely at the coast, and, happily, when circumstances proved singularly favourable for the completion of their adventurous project. For it so happened (and happened it not by the providential ordering of times and circumstances to fit each other for an issue accordant with confiding trust and fervent prayers?) that when they reached this most critical position, they found a cartel-an English vessel which had disembarked her freight of prisoners of war, brought out in exchange-just preparing to depart for the land of their hopes!

Penniless and friendless, as our now reanimated adventurers were, besides being specially exposed to detection on the well-watched shores of an enemy's country, it required no little management and tact to get off during the night; that so, fugitives as they were on the one part, and intruders on the other, they might elude the observation both of the Spanish officers and the captain of the cartel. But the same gracious furtherance, as heretofore they had experienced, continued to prosper their way, and all difficulties and hazards were safely accomplished; and, by the friendly aid of the crew, upon whose humanity they cast themselves, the means of concealment were provided until the circumstances of present risk and anxiety should have passed away.

Section V.-Rewards of Masterly Seamanship.

We are here brought to the describing of an incident particularly characteristic of my Father's talent as an accomplished practical seaman.

After the vessel was fairly at sea, and, furthered by a favourable wind, in encouraging progress on her way to England, my Father and his gallant associate ventured to appear upon deck. The natural surprise of the Captain, on finding two intruding auxiliaries amongst his people, assumed no very friendly character, even when the daring and almost romantic undertaking of the strangers had been made known to him. On the contrary, he received their explanation with no small measure of anger, and followed up his pitiless inconsideration with heartless threatenings. He threatened, with much apparent determination, either to land them again amongst their enemies, or give them up as a boon, though of most unwilling hands, to some English ship-of-war. Their appeals to his sympathy and benevolence were unavailing. Their offer "to work their passage," which they thought might be a compensation for their provision, was slighted, on the ground that "the crew was sufficient." But at length the Captain suggested the alternative, at which he evidently aimed, of their paying for their accommodation and passage to England. Being, as we have shown, absolutely penniless, this was a difficult requirement, though the Captain got over it by proposing that they should sign a document pledging themselves, on arrival in England, to a payment which they deemed most exorbitant. With this demand the urgency of their own purpose, and the fear of the threatenings of the Captain, obliged them to comply, and the paper was drawn up and signed.

Fortunately for them, the Bay of Biscay maintained its too dreaded celebrity at the season referred to, by becoming the scene of a formidable sea and storm. The gale commenced rather suddenly, and became rapidly so fierce, that the seamen, who were quite inadequate in number, as well as in capabilities, were unable to get in the sail within the limits of safety. The canvas was flapping furiously aloft, and all efforts to reef were distressingly slow. Meanwhile my Father and his comrade were eyed with indignation and surprise by the Captain, as they moved on the deck, or stood holding by the "weather-rail," with quiet composure, as if ignorant of, or indifferent to, the increasing peril of the position of the ship. At last, an exclamation of astonishment burst from the Captain, that, regardless of the general safety, they should not offer a helping hand. They replied most coolly, "that the crew, they understood, was ample, and needed no help of theirs, and they were but passengers!" The perplexed commander turned away in ill-concealed vexation. Still the gale increased in severity, till the ship was thrown almost on her "beam-ends," and their situation became quite alarming. He then renewed his application under a severe taunt, as if it were unmanly to allow the crew to struggle so against the difficulties of the storm, and they, two able and efficient seamen, looking on! "Destroy the paper," they said, "and let us work our passage, and we shall be ready for your orders." Desperate now, in his anxiety to save the canvas and spars, and, indeed, to secure the safety of the ship, the Captain produced the important and vexatious paper, and tearing it passionately into pieces, he scattered its fragments on the wild waste of waters to leeward.

Forthwith the two emancipated passengers spring forward to their duty as members of the crew. They could not have been unobservant of the slovenly manner in which yards and sails had been prepared for the operation of reefing,-so ill-arranged, indeed, with a ship heeling almost yard-arm in the water, and sails flying over the yards to leeward, as to render the operation scarcely practicable. First of all the yards are, in a seamanlike manner, laid to pass; braces are hauled taught, and lower yards steadied by the "trusses" and "lifts;" "reef-tackles," with a helping hand probably by the men aloft, are well hauled out, and the inflated and flapping canvas pressed in by the "buntlines" to the yards,-and then, bounding into the rigging, their feet scarcely touch the "ratlines," as, aided by the elasticity of tension in the shrouds, they ascend up the mast. Way is instinctively made by the previously dispirited hands for my Father to the "weather-earing" of the topsail, and for his friend to leeward. Here, as in most other operations, his singular energy, strength and skill, render him wonderfully efficient. Seated across the yard-arm, with shoulder steadied and supported by the "lift,"-the "earing" passed round and reeved in the "reef-cringle" of the sail,-he is enabled, with little aid from the hands on the yard, to haul out the sail by vast muscular strength, skilfully applied, to the fitting position, when the cry "Haul out to leeward," is replied to by his associate there with similar vigour and celerity of action, so that the enclosed section of the sail, previously so intractable under other hands, is in a few moments laid compact on the yard, and securely enfolded within the "reef-points." Thus reef succeeded reef, till the broad flapping sail displayed but its smallest dimensions-the "close-reef" adapted for the storm, whilst corresponding operations were performed on the other sails with marvellous smartness and despatch; for the superior energy and commanding efficiency of these leaders, of a previously heartless and dispirited crew, had happily infused into all a new spirit of confidence, and stimulated to unwonted effort to imitate their admired ability, and thus to become useful helps in the task to be accomplished.

Within a less interval of time, perhaps, than had previously been wasted in inefficient endeavours to accomplish the duties required by the sudden violence of the storm, topsails are reefed and set compactly to the wind; courses and other sails are reefed or made snug by handing; top-gallant-yards, with spars and flying gear aloft, are sent down upon deck; and the ship, now no longer pressed down by overwhelming top-weight and fluttering sails, is restored to the desired equilibrium, and snugly prepared to encounter and weather the storm!

From this time the duty of the ship was well and smartly done. The superiority of my Father as a thorough practical seaman must have been both felt and acknowledged: the distance at which he soared beyond the others was too great and obvious for the intrusion even of that bane of social concord-jealousy; and the effect seems to have been the infusion of a higher character into the ordinary crew. Well, therefore, did our fugitives from a Spanish prison repay to ship, captain, owners and crew, the benefits they themselves received.

Section VI.-Entrance on, and Progress in training in, the Greenland Whale-Fishery.

After his exciting adventure in escaping from imprisonment in an enemy's country, my father retired, for a season, from his seafaring pursuits. He returned to the homestead of his fathers, where, assisting in the management of the farm, he remained about two or three years. During this interval he married; the object of his choice being Lady Mary, (viz. Mary, with the prefix of Lady, taken, not ostentatiously, but in rural simplicity, from the characteristic designation of the day of her birth, which was on Lady-day), the eldest daughter of Mr. John Smith, of Cropton,-a rural district about five-and-twenty miles from Whitby,-who resided on a small landed property which he had inherited from his ancestors.

By no means satisfied, however, with this retirement,-which recent hard and perilous service had, for a time, rendered congenial to his feelings,-and as little contented with the limitation of his unusual energies to such a contracted scope of employment, he turned his attention again to the sea. And in this object he at length found a congenial opening, in a region and employment admirably adapted to his physical constitution and adventurous spirit, the Greenland Whale Fishery; a trade which, at this period, the latter end of the eighteenth century, was pursued with considerable enterprise from the port of Whitby.

On this new species of maritime service he embarked in the ship Henrietta, Captain Crispin Bean, in the spring of the year 1785, as one of the seamen. Of the incidents of his training in this adventurous and stirring profession, we have, unfortunately, no special records. To the requirements, however, in every species of knowledge and duty connected with the Arctic navigation and the capture of the huge cetacea of the north, he gave himself with such tact and perseverance, that, on his sixth voyage, we find him to have risen over the heads of all his original associates, and occupying the position of second officer, the specksioneer of the ship.[C]

A single incident, though of the most trifling nature, has been preserved in connection with this period of my Father's life, which I am induced to record, simply because there was something in it illustrative of character.

As the ships employed in the whale fishery in the spring and summer were usually laid up during the rest of the year, it was the frequent practice of the officers, who were generally engaged from year to year, to embark as seamen in the coasting trade during the interval of winter. My Father, habitually energetic and industrious, and having now an increasing family to support, adopted this commendable course. On one occasion it so happened that he was employed in a vessel whose chief officer, the mate, was a young man possessing a full share of self-conceit, evinced by a not unfrequent exhibition of supercilious assumption of superiority-characteristics excessively obnoxious to my Father's manly disposition. But, notwithstanding the occasional exhibition of an offensive manner towards himself as well as others, such was always his high sense of the duty of obedience to superiors, and of the importance, in principle, of proper subordination, that he bore with restrained feelings in silence this youthful and vexatious folly. An occasion, however, occurred, in which he might legitimately suffer the fault to chastise itself, and it is to that to which my story refers.

The vessel was lying in port about to take in ballast. In this operation, which is often effected (as in this case) by the shovel of "ballast-heavers" out of loaded "lighters" laid alongside the ship, there is a liability to scatter a good deal of the shingle or other material, so as to fall overboard to the encumbrance of the harbour. To prevent this damage to the navigation, it is in many places a harbour regulation that a canvas screen or sail, called a "port-sail," should be placed below the small port-hole cut in the side of the ship for the reception of ballast, so as to catch the ballast-heavers' scatterings.

In the good ship, the --, however, this canvas protector happened to be wanting when ballast was about to be taken in. The mate, with a manner (it is presumed) of excessive superciliousness, came to my Father with a "bolt" (or roll) of canvas, asking him, as if doubting his capacity, whether he could make such a thing? and then requesting him to set immediately to work to supply the lack of port-sails. Assuming a look of meekest simplicity, which for such a just retribution my Father could well put on, he quietly asked, in reference to the order to make port-sails, "how many he was to make?" Mistaking the look of simplicity for simpleness itself, the young officer, as he turned jeeringly away, replied, "half-a-dozen, to be sure."

One only, or two, at the most, could possibly be required; but, to punish arrogancy, the order was strictly regarded. Some hours subsequently the mate returned to the place where the work of the sail-needle was being actively carried on, when, to his astonishment and vexation, he found the deck covered with the breadths of canvas cut out for the half-dozen port-sails, and some two or three of them already seamed together! His fierce demand, "Why have you cut up the whole bolt of canvas?" was responded to in the former quiet manner of simplicity, "Did you not order me to make half-a-dozen?"

Whilst thus justly chastised for his own folly, and biting his lips with vexation,-the vexation being the more exciting because consciously self-earned,-he could not refrain from resorting to abuse, where reason and justice must fail him. But singularly enough it happened, whilst the altercation which ensued was being carried on, and when it had been broadly intimated to him, I believe, that his further services could be well dispensed with, that a letter, just then brought by some one coming on board, was put into my Father's hand, offering him the unexpected appointment and preferment which constitute the subject of our next chapter. He was thus enabled, with no small advantage of position over the still fretted and abusive officer, to say, "If you are not satisfied with what I have commenced, I can leave you to do it yourself."

In concluding this chapter, it comes appropriately in connection, to mention something of the state of my Father's mind and feelings with respect to the grand object of this probationary state with man-the attainment and furtherance of a religious life.

On this topic I am the better enabled to write satisfactorily, because of the repeated references to it which I have heard my Father make in after-life. At all times, within my own recollection, he evinced a very marked regard for religion, with a clear apprehension of the great principles of our holy faith, and an ardent desire for the experience of its divine consolations. But he used to refer back, with a kind of longing regret, to the days of his youth, when he had felt the consolations of godliness, and realized the happiness of heavenly meditations. Often (as I have heard him intimate) whilst pursuing his agricultural labours, and not unfrequently, too, when walking to and fro in his night-watch at sea,-he had been privileged to realize that enviable feeling of peaceful happiness, in the lifting up of the heart in pious meditations and communings heavenward, which constitutes at once an experimental evidence and present reward of the reception of the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. For, however it may fall short in the ardency of its perceptions, or however it may be liable to be confounded with the hasty and transient impulses of mere excitement, yet, in its nature, and according to its degree, the feeling thus realized belongs, I doubt not, to that truly enviable class of Christian experiences described by St. Paul, as "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding," and as the rejoicing "with joy unspeakable and full of glory."

FOOTNOTES:

[A] "Memoir of William Scoresby, Esq." by the late Mr. Samuel Drew, in the "Imperial Magazine," for 1822.

[B] Life of Captain James Cook, by the Rev. G. Young, of Whitby.

[C] The title "specksioneer," derived from the Dutch, is applied to the officer who has special charge of the fishing apparatus, and the conduct of the flensing operations in the fishery. He is also a principal harpooner.