A Voyage to the South Atlantic and round Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean, etc./Chapter 2
1793.On leaving Rio Janeiro, I stood away to the Southward and Eastward to search for the Island Grand, which is said to lay in the Latitude of 45° South, and was the first object recommended to me by the Board of Admiralty. On theMarch 17. seventeenth of March, at noon, Latitude by observation 39° 33′ South; Longitude by the mean of chronometers 34° 21′ West; and by account, 34° 25′; variation, 9° East. The sea appeared of a pale green, and we saw many birds, some of which were said by several of my people, to be of those kinds which are supposed to indicate the vicinity of land; such as sand-larks, and a large species of curlew; but neither of the latter kinds of birds were seen by me. From noon of the seventeenth, until six in the evening, the wind blew from the South, South East, and we stood away to the Southward and Westward: it then became calm and continued so till midnight; when it blew from the North West, being, at this time, in the situation which I had often heard my old commander, Captain Cook, mention, as the position of the Isle of Grand: I accordingly entertained great expectations of seeing it; more especially as the birds appeared in great numbers during the whole of the day. In the evening we stood away to the Southward, in which direction I continued my course for the night. At day-lightMarch 18., on the eighteenth, the surface of the water was covered with feathers; and frequently in the forenoon we passed several birch twigs, as well as quantities of drift-wood and sea-weed. These appearances continued until noon of the same day, when our observation was in Latitude 40° 12′ South: Longitude by observation of Sun and Moon, 35° 34′ West; and by mean of chronometers 34° 8′. At this time the appearance of the sea had changed to a dirty green; which could not be the effect of the sky, as it was very clear: those tokens of land induced me to heave to and try for soundings with an hundred and fifty fathoms of line, but got no bottom, we had no sooner got the lead in, when to our great astonishment, at three or four miles distance from us, the whole horizon was covered with birds of the blue petrel kind. At the same time black whales were seen spouting in every direction, and the boats pursued one to harpoon it, but without success. Indeed, we were not very solicitous to kill black whales, and willingly gave up the chase at this time, to make all the sail we could, and to exert our utmost efforts in order, if possible, to discover the land before night; which every one on board had possessed themselves with the idea of seeing, although at such a considerable distance from the Latitude in which it was supposed to lay.
During this afternoon we passed several fields of spawn, which caused the water to wear the appearance of barely covering the surface of a bank. At sun-set we could see as far as twelve or fourteen leagues; but did not perceive any other signs of land than the great flight of birds which continued to accompany us, and they were so numerous at times, that had they all been on the wing together, and above us, instead of rising in alternate flocks and skimming after the whales, the atmosphere must have been altogether darkened by them. And the number of whales in sight presented a fair opportunity of making a profitable voyage in the article of black oil; but my predominant object was to fulfill the particular services recommended to me by the Lords of the Admiralty; and in one point I had at this moment, the most flattering hopes of succeeding.
Towards the evening, the barometer fell, and the weather began to be cloudy: but I continued standing to the Southward with a fresh breeze till midnight, when we hove to and sounded; but did not find ground, with one hundred and seventy fathoms of line. The gale was increasing every hour with a heavy sea; and, by day-light, we could only carry close-reefed top-sails and fore-sail. The weather was dark and hazy, the sea assumed a deep lead-colour, many birds and whales remained with us, and we passed large quantities of sea-weed. At noon we were in the Latitude of 43° 3′ South, and Longitude 35° 38′ West. Here we sounded, but found no bottom: nevertheless, every circumstance strengthened our conjectures that we were nearing the land, which induced me to proceed on my course, although it continued to blow hard from West North West. At midnight we hove to, and sounded with one hundred and seventy fathoms of line, but found no bottom. At day-light we sounded again with two hundred fathoms of line, and were equally unsuccessful. We now made sail, and at noon our Latitude was 44° 51′; Longitude by observation, 34° 59′; and by mean of chronometers 33° 53′ 30″ West.
The birds lessened greatly in numbers, and with them our hopes of finding the land which was the object of our search. I continued, however, to cruise about for several successive days near this Longitude, but saw nothing to encourage any further endeavors.
The season was now far advanced for doubling Cape Horn, and it appeared to me, that the most rational course I could take, would be to run down West to the main land of Patagonia, in the Latitude in which the Isle of Grand is placed; as we were now to the Eastward of Mr. Dalrymple's position of it[1]: so that if it was not found in that Latitude, I might, on my return, search for it in the Latitudes of 40° and 41°, having strong reason to believe, that there is land in or near those Latitudes, but to the Eastward of the Longitude which I crossed; as otherwise, I am at a loss to account for such a quantity of birch twigs, sea-weed, drift-wood and birds as were seen in that situation. Some of these birds appeared to be quite young, from the difficulty with which they seemed to use their wings; though that circumstance, it is possible, might have proceeded from their being gorged with sea blubber, with which the surface of the water was covered.
From the land discovered by Monsieur La Roche, in Latitude 55° South, which I touched at with Captain Cook, in the year 1771, who named it Georgia, I am disposed to believe, that the Isle of Grand also exists, and that my not being able to find it, arose from an error in copying the Latitude given by La Roche: nor can I doubt, from the quantity of whales I perceived near its supposed situation, that it would prove a much greater acquisition than the Island Georgia, to which many profitable voyages had been made for seal skins alone.
This route, however, will be of some advantage to British navigators, even if no land should be discovered according to our expectations, as it will tend to undeceive the masters and owners of whalers, who have entertained an opinion that the black whale was never to be found in bodies, so far to the Eastward: for, if half the whalers belonging to London had been with me, they might have filled their vessels with oil.
March 23.The autumnal equinoctial gale came on us the twenty-third of March, and held upwards of four days, with frequent claps of thunder, accompanied by lightning, hail and rain. It blew as hard as I ever remember, and, for several hours, we could not venture to shew any sail. At the same time a whirlwind or typhoon arose to windward, from whence in one of the squalls, two balls of fire, about the size of cricket balls, fell on board. One of them struck the anchor which was housed on the fore-castle, and bursting into particles, struck the chief mate and one of the seamen, who fell down ill excruciating tortures. On examining them several holes appeared to have been burned in their clothes which were of flannel: and in various parts of their bodies there were small wounds, as if made with a hot iron of the size of a sixpenny piece. I immediately ordered some of the crew to perform the operation of the Otahiteans, called Roro mee[2], which caused a considerable abatement of their pains, but several days elapsed before they were perfectly recovered. The other ball struck the funnel of the caboose, made an explosion equal to that of a swivel gun, and burned several holes in the mizen-stay-sail and main-sail which were handed. At the height of it the barometer was 28°. The alarm which we may be supposed to have experienced during the whirlwind, was not allayed by the noise of the birds, who, not considering the ship to be a place of safety, as is the case in common gales, appeared, by the violence of their shrieks and the irregularity of their flight, to be sensible of the danger: for as the squall approached them numbers plunged into the sea, to avoid it; while those who could not escape its influence, were whirled in a spiral manner out of sight in an instant. It very fortunately reached us only within two cables length of each beam, and so passed a-head of the ship to the North. From our first seeing, to our losing sight of it, was about half an hour. In this gale, I lost the greatest part of my live stock, together with all the vegetables that hung at the stern of the ship.
April 8.On the eighth day of April, in Latitude 50°, we struck soundings off the North West end of Falkland's Islands. The whole way I saw plenty of black whales; and two days before striking soundings, we perceived a shoal of spermaceti whales, apparently bound round Cape Horn; but our boats being all housed and well secured for doubling the Cape, we did not pursue them. In this course I ran directly over the situations in which the Isle of Grand is placed in all the charts, without discovering any appearance of land. 9.On the ninth, in the afternoon, we struck soundings in sixty-five fathoms off the West end of Falkland's Islands; but the violence of the wind and the thick weather prevented me from making an accurate observation. The shallowness of the bottom induced me to believe that I was not so far to the West as the watch gave me. When by my calculation I was to the South of Falkland's Isles, I stood away for Cape Saint John, Staten Land. The winds were variable North West, South, South East, East, and North East. The greatest depth at which I found bottom was ninety fathoms; and then no bottom at one hundred and fifty fathoms.
April 11.On the eleventh at midnight, when I supposed myself off Cape Saint John, we sounded and struck ground at ninety fathoms, small dark stones. In this depth of water I did not consider myself as far to the Eastward of the Cape as I wished, for which reason, I hauled on a wind, and beat to windward, with the wind at North East and East North East, till seven o'clock in the morning, when having no soundings at one hundred and fifty fathoms, I bore up for Cape Horn. 12.On the twelfth at noon, the wind drew round to the South, South East, as the preceding night indicated, by the cold being so severe, that some of the crew were frost bitten for several hours, and the ship and rigging covered with snow and ice. After this, the wind inclined to the West of South, which was soon succeeded by moderate weather and smooth water; this was also of short duration, for it changed gradually round, until it got to the East, and 13.at midnight on the thirteenth, it shifted suddenly in a squall of rain to the South, and brought me on a lee-shore.
At day-light we saw the Isles of Diego Ramieres, bearing North by East, three or four leagues; and I make them by observations corrected, in Longitude 68° 58′ West; and in Latitude 56° 30′ South. They appeared to lay in an East and West direction. The Western Isle, which is the highest, is surrounded with small islets; and the circumference of the whole may be nine or ten miles. With the assistance of telescopes, it appeared to be entirely barren, though it may be an asylum for seals; there being many about us at this time, as well as white crows. These birds resemble in size and figure, the dun crow, which I have frequently seen in Hampshire, in the winter season, and is probably a bird of passage. We daily saw these crows, from the Latitude of the Falkland Islands, until we had doubled Cape Horn. They all appeared to come from the Eastward and Southward; perhaps from Sandwich land, and to be bound to the main land of America. Several of them were caught, but could not be preserved alive. It may be remarked that I never saw any of these birds at Cape Horn in my former voyages.
- ↑
Extract from Mr. Dalrymple.
In the Latitude of 45° South there is a very large, pleasant island, discovered by Ant. La Roche, a native of England, in his passage from the South Seas, in the year 1675. The Spanish author who gives the abstract of La Roche's voyage, printed according to him, in 1678, says, "That La Roche, having the land, (discovered by him in 55° South, and which was since seen by the Leon, in 1756,) and sailing one whole day to the North West, the wind came so violently at South, that he stood North for three days more, till they were got into 46° South, when thinking themselves then secure, they relate, that directing their course for the Bahia de Todos Santos, in Brazil, they found, in 45° South, a very large, pleasant island, with a good port towards the Eastern part; in which they found wood, water and fish, they saw no people, notwithstanding they stayed there six days." The size of this island is not mentioned in the Spanish abstract; but the expression, Muy Grande, very large, and the expectation of finding inhabitants, seemed to indicate that it is of great extent.
The existence of this island, and, in some measure its extent, is confirmed by other authorities: for Halley, near this Longitude, in about 43° South says, "the color of the sea was changed to pale green, and in 45° South he saw abundance of small sea-fowl and beds of weeds." Funnel, in his passage, into the South Sea, also mentions signs of land from about 40° South, near this Longitude. The Nassau fleet, 1624, had also signs of land here, so as to think themselves near the Southern continent. These testimonies and the Leon, in 1756, finding the other land mentioned by La Roche, leave very little reason to doubt his veracity; and, if there is such an island, situated in the middle of the ocean, in 45° South Latitude, it cannot fail of being a very temperate and pleasant country, in a situation very favorable for carrying on the whale fishery and others, and also for the prosecution of any commerce, which may be found in the countries to the South. - ↑ Roro mee. It consists in grasping the fleshy parts of the body, legs, and arms, and working it with the fingers.