Chap. IX.] EXPEDITION OF Sill n. WlLLoriJHBV. 201
God of all things that are contained in heaven, earth, and the sea, and by the ad. 1553. life and tranquillity of oiu- kingdoms, that we will with like humanity accept }'Our servants if at any time they shall come to om- kingdoms." On the 10th ]Iay, 1553, the three vessels dropped down to Greenwich, where the court and
Greenwich, in 1662. — Cruden's History of Gravesend.
a vast {Assemblage from all (juarters witnessed their dejjarture amid salvos of artillery and the shouting of the mariners, " in such sort that the sky rang with the noise thereof"
After leaving the river, the vessels were detained on the Essex coast till tlie Departure 23d, when, the winds becoming favourable, they began their coui'se across the aition German Ocean. On the 1-tth of July they had reached lat. 68°, among the islands of the Norway coast, and not long after came within sight of the North Cape. Their intention was to remain together ; but in the event of their being obliged to part company, Wardhuys. in Finmark, was appointed as the port ol" rendezvous. The contingency thus provided for happened sooner than any had anticipated, and with very fatal results. Shortly after passing the cape, the weather becair-v, so stormy that the vessels were forced out to sea, and driven at the mercy of the winds. Willoughby, whose skill and caution seem not to have been equal to his courage, carried so much sail that Chancellor was unable to keep up with him, and never saw him more. His fate remained unkno^^^l till some Ru.ssian sailors discovered two tall vessels frozen in on the coast of Lap- land. On entering them, they found the lifeless bodies of Willoughby and his Fate of companions. Along with the journal of the voyage was a note, showing, by its date, that the crews were alive in January, 1554. They had reached the coast of Nova Zembla without being able to land upon it, and then penetrated still deeper into the abysses of the Arctic Oceaa Convinced at last of their mistake, they retraced their steps, and in returning westward unfortunately missed the opening of the White Sea, within which they might have found a sheltered anchorage. On reaching the coast beyond, they had resolved to make it their winter- quarters, intending to prosecute their voyage in the ensuing spring
Before it arrived the intense cold had frozen them to death.
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