New lands within the Arctic circle: Narrative of the discoveries of the Austrian ship "Tegetthoff" in the years 1872-1874Payer, Julius
History
New lands within the Arctic circle: Narrative of the discoveries of the Austrian ship "Tegetthoff" in the years 1872-1874
Payer, Julius
Admiral Tegetthoff (Ship); Arctic regions; Franz Josef Land (Russia) -- Discovery and exploration
4. An intelligent crew, from their greater feeling of independence,
is, however, more difficult to command than an ignorant one. Devotion
and blind confidence are more rarely found in an educated crew; their
amenability to discipline is dependent on the good example, the kindness
and unalterable calmness of those who may command them. The law of a
Polar expedition is obedience, and its basis morality. Punishments are
in such situations a miserable and depressing means for the preservation
of order, and then employment, especially in a private undertaking,
will tend rather to loosen than to maintain the bonds of discipline.
If Parry, in 1820, caused corporal punishments to be inflicted, this
proves the greater facility with which discipline is maintained on
board of a man-of-war, but not its appropriateness generally. Coercion
and threats produce no effect; and hence the folly of attempting to
secure success by sending out again those who returned without having
achieved anything, which was done last century by the authorities of St.
Petersburg with every unsuccessful enterprise on the Arctic coasts of
Siberia. The regulation that the most meritorious among the crew shall
be specially rewarded, after the return of the expedition, provides
for the recognition of merit, without exciting ill feeling in the less
worthy. For the officers scientific success may be a perfect reward
of their toils, but for the crew the reward should consist of more
material advantages. Money, indeed, seems a feeble motive of action to
men destined to withstand for years the inclemency of Arctic winters,
and uncertain whether they shall ever return; but, notwithstanding, it
is the only form by which men without sympathy for the aims of science
can be gained for the attainment of such objects. The crews of Sir John
Ross received for a martyrdom of four years passed in the ice about £100
a head; in the second German expedition from eight to twelve thalers
were the monthly pay of each sailor. The pay of the sledgers in the
_Tegetthoff_ was, however, nearly four times as much; in some sledge
journeys it amounted to 3,000 gulden a man.
5. Contrary to what might be expected, the re-employment of those who
have served before is not to be recommended as a rule. The very best
only should be re-enlisted. The others are too much disposed to place
their experience on a level with that of their commanders; and in
all cases, where their opinions differ from those of their officers,
they damage by a kind of passive opposition the fundamental law of an
expedition—obedience. Those who enter the Arctic regions for the first
time are wont to receive the orders of an experienced commander with an
attention as unquestioning as it is respectful. Married men also should
be excluded, as they were by Barentz in his second (1596) expedition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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