Memorials of the Sea: My Father: Being Records of the Adventurous Life of the Late William Scoresby, Esq. of Whitby — John Shaqi
Memorials of the Sea: My Father: Being Records of the Adventurous Life of the Late William Scoresby, Esq. of WhitbyScoresby, William
History
Memorials of the Sea: My Father: Being Records of the Adventurous Life of the Late William Scoresby, Esq. of Whitby
Scoresby, William
Fathers and sons -- England -- Whitby; Scoresby, William, 1760-1829; Whaling
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 manœuvre 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.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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