Farthest North: The Life and Explorations of Lieutenant James Booth Lockwood, of the Greely Arctic ExpeditionLanman, Charles
History
Farthest North: The Life and Explorations of Lieutenant James Booth Lockwood, of the Greely Arctic Expedition
Lanman, Charles
Arctic regions; Lady Franklin Bay Expedition (1881-1884); Lockwood, James Booth, 1852-1884
The journal kept by Lieutenant Lockwood after his departure from
Fort Conger was written in short-hand, as always while in the field,
and is a very complete record. In the following pages, only a brief
summary of purely personal incidents will be attempted, without
presuming to give the phraseology of the youthful explorer.
On the 9th of August, the little fleet pushed off from shore, laden
with the twenty-five adventurers and a comfortable supply of
provisions. They reached Bellot Island without much trouble, but
afterward encountered a good deal of ice, and, while working very
hard to get through, Rice accidentally fell overboard, which was for
him a poor beginning. The ice continued to be troublesome until the
close of the next day, when the boats were so severely nipped that
they had to be drawn up on the floe. Afterward, open water appearing
all the way across the fiord, the launch and the other boats made a
successful crossing nearly opposite Sun Bay. They reached the depot
near Cape Baird, at about 2 P. M., up to which hour, from the time
of leaving Fort Conger, they had not been able to secure any sleep,
nor anything to drink but cold water. Reaching Cape Lieber on the
11th in a snow-storm, they landed on a bluff about a mile from the
cape, where they waited for the ice to move, so that they might
continue on their route toward the south along the western shore of
the strait. The only animals seen in that vicinity were two
narwhals, fighting near the shore. The fog now became so very dense
that no headway could be made, and this gave them an opportunity to
obtain some needed rest. Their next advance was in the midst of a
severe storm of wind and snow, in spite of which they reached Carl
Ritter Bay on the morning of the 12th. The next morning, while they
had open water near the shore, they discovered ice-barriers
extending to the south as far as they could see. At this point a
young seal was killed, which was greatly enjoyed by all of the
party; but this luxury, in the case of Lockwood, was counterbalanced
by the discomfort of sleeping on shore without any protection
excepting that of his bag. He also spent several nights on a
floe-berg, where, by laying his sleeping-bag on a sheep-skin, he
slept more comfortably. From the 13th until the 20th, when the party
reached Rawlings’s Bay, it was a continual conflict with floating
ice, snow-storms, and fog, the monotony of the struggle having been
broken by an accident to the launch, and also one to Lieutenant
Greely, who had a fall into the water, from which he was rescued
without harm. At all the places where they encamped, they had great
difficulty in securing a safe harbor for the launch. Having passed
across Richardson Bay in safety and reached Cape Collinson, they
found about one hundred and twenty, out of two hundred and forty,
English rations which had been deposited there, the missing portion
having been eaten by the foxes. On the 22d they reached Scoresby
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account