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
My Mother, who was much attached to Whitby, as a place of residence, viewed
these repeated offers with much anxiety, feeling that my Father’s taking a
command elsewhere must involve her either in the trial of leaving Whitby,
or in the great inconvenience of a much more considerable period of
severance than the mere Greenland voyage required, of the family circle.
For awhile her objections prevailed; but ultimately, as in another chapter
we shall have to record, these objections sunk under the advantages
elsewhere proffered.
SECTION IV.—_Episodical Incident—the Rescue of endangered Pleasurers._
Before carrying forward the records of my Father’s new adventures in a more
promising field for his personal prosperity, I shall introduce an incident
of a very peculiar and interesting description, belonging to the period,
though not to the business of the fishery, whilst he still held his command
of the “good ship” Henrietta. It occurred whilst the ship lay at anchor,
incidentally, in the river Tees, on one of her most successful voyages,
homeward bound, when I was myself on board. Though I was but a child, I
remember the time well. The novelty of my position in being taken on
shipboard by my Father, when, a few days before, he had been on shore at
Whitby, and the interesting circumstance, to me, of the capture of a small
sand-bird, which I anxiously fed and endeavoured to keep alive, made an
indelible impression on my youthful recollection. The incident, however,
constituting the present story, I did not well understand till long
afterward, but which I now record with much confidence of being
substantially correct in every detail, from hearing it repeatedly related
in after-life.
The incident consisted in the interesting and gratifying circumstance of
the saving of the lives of two individuals moving in an upper sphere in
society, by my Father’s habitual facility and accuracy in the use of the
pocket telescope, and by the information derived therefrom being made use
of with his characteristic forethought and energetic promptness of action.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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