Chapter VIII: Section I: Disappointment in his first Command

In the history of men who, relatively to their prospects by birth, have attained to distinction in life, there will generally be found some special incident, sometimes apparently trifling in itself, or some particular circumstance, or chain of circumstances, in their professional career, on which, under Providence, their fortune manifestly turned.

Both the _incident_ and the circumstance referred to were clearly and strikingly marked in my Father's history. The incident appears in what occasioned the disgust which he took in early life at farming occupations, whereby he was stimulated to enter upon a seafaring life. The _circumstance_, or chain of circumstances, we find in the important preferment which unexpectedly, as to the occasion, was given to him when, over the heads of many associates, he was appointed to his first command.

Crispin Bean, the captain under whom my Father had had his training and experience in Arctic adventure, was, for _his time_, a successful whale-fisher. For, in the course of from seventeen to twenty years in which he followed this commerce, he realized a _small_ fortune, sufficient, at least, with a little patrimony, to satisfy his very moderate desires and requirements, and to induce him to retire, whilst in fulness of vigour, from his arduous profession. He was a man of excellent character, and one for whom my Father always retained a sincere regard, and towards whom he was ever ready to show kindly consideration, when his means for subsistence and comfort were less sufficient in after-life. A vivid remembrance of Mr. Bean's regard and preference for him, on the turning point of his temporal destiny, was observably retained, and was elicited, as I had myself not unfrequent opportunities of noticing, both in his manner of speaking of his former commander, and in his readiness to minister to him in acts of kindness.

It was after his voyage in the year 1790, that Mr. Bean announced to his owner, Nicholas Piper, Esq., of Pickering, his intention of relinquishing his command, and retiring from the sea. Himself entirely unprepared for appointing a successor, Mr. Piper enquired whether there was any one, among the officers of the Henrietta, whom he (Mr. Bean) could recommend for a Master? Mr. Bean, well observant of my Father's persevering energy, seamanlike talent, and general superiority, replied,--"There is Scoresby, the specksioneer, who, I think, is the man for the duty." And to him, with but little delay in further investigation, the command, to the agreeable surprise of my Father, and the jealous vexation of some of his brother officers, was transferred.

Mr. Piper, however, whilst so promptly exercising this generous confidence in his appointment, failed, in consistency, when proceeding with the measures for carrying it into effect. Considering his limited measure of experience, when contrasted with the much longer engagement in the fishery of the then chief officer, and some of the leading harponeers, he, unfortunately, took _upon himself_ to re-engage these men for the ensuing voyage,--a proceeding which, however prudential, my Father felt to be at once uncourteous and unwise, though a measure which he was by no means in a position either to contravene or satisfactorily to resist. Every ground of hope, however, which he might have indulged in respect to any favourable views of such a principle, in its working, failed, whilst his very worst apprehensions were more than realized.

This result, indeed, came out the more characteristically, because of the singular unfavourableness of the season, wherein he made his first trial, for the objects of the adventure. The fishery, in general, proved unprecedentedly unsuccessful. Of seven ships which set out from Whitby, (the port from whence the Henrietta sailed,) one, the Marlborough, was lost; four returned "clean,"--that is, without any cargo; and two had but one fish each--one of them very small. Tradition has it--and the tradition I can well believe to be a historical fact--that the cargoes of the whole Whitby fleet of _Greenland_ whalers (except one) from the fishery of 1791, were carried overland to Pickering, a distance of 21 miles, in one wagon!

It was in the worst class, that of "clean ships," in which the Henrietta stood at the conclusion of this unpropitious season. But she so stood, not by any means deservedly, as regarded either the talent and perseverance of her new Captain, or the opportunities which his enterprise had afforded to his officers and crew for a position of, at least, leading prosperity. My Father, indeed, whilst often speaking in after-times of this trying, mortifying, and, as to his prospects in life, perilous failure, was known to remark, that such were the opportunities which his own people had, of doing as well as the most successful of his competitors, that there was scarcely a "fish" caught by the whole Greenland fleet, but whilst the Henrietta was in company, or during the capture of which he was not within view!

It was not the wish of the leading officers of the Henrietta, however, that their position should be different. A strong feeling of jealousy was injuriously cherished by certain officers over whom my Father had been preferred; and so far was this carried, and so variously indicated, that it became evident that their wish and _design_ was, _that their commander should be found in the most humiliating position_ amongst his fellow fishermen. The reality of the existence of this feeling was manifested in various ways. Among the early indications of a conspiracy which my Father clearly detected, was the positive and wilful inattention of some principal officers to the objects of their enterprise, when he was in bed, with the substitution of idle, if not venomous, converse, for officer-like diligence and watchfulness. For on one occasion, when being on very promising fishing-ground, he had sent a boat "on bran,"--the term used for designating the condition of a whale-boat when stationed afloat, with the crew ready for instant action, watching for the incidental appearance of a whale,--he heard, whilst lying anxiously awake in his bed, the subdued creaking of the "tackles," as of a cautious and surreptitious hoisting up of the boat; and, on afterwards going unexpectedly on deck, he found the "watch," both officers and men, engaged as we have just stated.

Attempts on the part of the officers to direct or dictate, not unfrequently made, failed, as was right they should do, except in one instance (judging from the case being often alluded to by my Father with regret), where the yielding to a proposition against his better judgment met with its consistent rebuke. A number of whales had been fallen in with, and the greater part of the boats had been sent out in pursuit. Reckless and ill-conditioned they pulled about hither and thither, frightening many, but harpooning none, of the objects of chase. For a considerable period the same folly or inefficiency was being enacted, and yet "fish" in encouraging numbers were still to be seen. The chief mate, one Matthew Smith, came to my Father to remonstrate with him for keeping the boats so long abroad without something to exhilarate the men,--urging, that spirits, as he said was usual, should be sent to them, or it could not be expected that they could either succeed or persevere. Though more than doubtful of the wisdom of employing stimulants in an adventure requiring the greatest coolness and self-possession, my Father unfortunately yielded, and ordered the steward to supply a quantity of brandy for being carried out to the absent sailors. But the mate's boat, which was sent with this _refreshment_ (?) was seen, after it had proceeded a mile or so from the ship, to cease rowing, and "lie to on its oars;" and there, as my Father's sure telescope told him, they remained, till the crew had "drank themselves drunk." Then, in their mad folly, they proceeded to the field of fishing enterprise, and effectually marred any chance of success, if a single honest harpooner were there, and gave a new and additional impulse to the existing recklessness and disaffection.

But private resistance of orders, as well as apparent neglect of opportunities frequently afforded them of advancing the grand object of the voyage, ultimately grew into the most aggravated form of insubordination--_mutiny_.

On one occasion, when the Henrietta had been pushed into an unwonted position of imagined peril among the ice by her commander's adventurous spirit, the alarm of her crew urged their disaffection into open mutiny. They gathered themselves together, and proceeded to the quarter-deck, to demand (as I have understood the incident) their being released from so perilous a situation. My Father's disregard of their remonstrances, and expressed determination to persevere, were at length met by brute force and open violence. One of the men, excited by his companions' clamours, and his own dastardly rage, seized a hand-spike, and aimed a desperate blow, which might have been fatal, on the head of his Captain. But, now roused to the exertion of his heretofore unimagined strength and tact, he, whilst warding the blow with his hand, disarmed the assailant, and seizing him, as I have been told, in his athletic arms, actually flung him headlong among his associates, like a quoit from the hands of the player, filling the whole party with amazement at his strength and power, and for the moment arresting, under the influence of the feeling, the unmanly pursuance of their mutinous purposes.

The power of one against so many who had committed themselves to a penal act and assault, however, not being likely to continue to avail him, my Father, with a decision of purpose scarcely less surprising than his power of action, ordered a boy to take the helm, and whilst himself and others, whom his example might influence, "squared the yards," directed the ship's course (the wind being fair) _homeward_. Their demand to be released from the ice being thus yielded, and, with circumstances so very different from what they had expected, reduced, for a while, both the mutinous and insubordinate of the crew, to a sort of dogged quiescence. But when the ship, having cleared the ice, was still kept on the same course, and when ice and haunts of whales began to be left far astern, anxiety and alarm took place in the breasts of the authors of the mischief, who now, in their turn, felt just cause for dreading the issue of a proceeding which they had thus unexpectedly provoked. Words of unwonted calmness were now dropped by one or other of the officers, in hopes of eliciting some indication that the homeward direction was but a threat. Hints of the loss to the owners and himself were thrown out, if he followed out his apparent purpose; but all to no purpose--the Henrietta still wended her way before the home-blowing breeze with steady and unrestrained progress. At length, so great was the alarm excited, that the bold and blustering mutineers became subdued, and they came forward, backed by their subordinates in the crew, humbly soliciting that the ship might be hauled on a wind again for Greenland, and promising that themselves, and every man aboard, would submit to orders, and do their utmost to further the object on which they had embarked.

To have persisted in a purpose undertaken from necessity, the result of which could only be of unmixed injury to his employers as well as himself, when yet there was a chance, however faint, of doing something in respect to the intention of the adventure, might have been deemed an act of obstinacy, rather than wisdom. Not, therefore, to lose any chance of success, which this demonstration of better feeling might seem to promise, the ship was forthwith hauled to the wind, and, as circumstances of wind and weather allowed, every effort of seamanship was employed for hastening their return to the fishing-ground northward. The sunshine, however, which had rendered the gathering in of a limited harvest possible, was now departed, and all subsequent endeavours to make up for lost time and opportunities proved fruitless, so that the talented and efficient commander of the Henrietta had the mortification of reporting the result of his first and trial adventure as "a clean ship!"

On their arrival in port, the designs of the disaffected became gradually developed. It was hoped, and evidently expected, that my Father, failing of success, would be superseded; and it ultimately came out, though not until the whole scheme of this nefarious conspiracy had been enacted, and the failure of the experiment determined, that it had been matter of promise or arrangement, in the event of the chief officer obtaining the command, that the other officers in succeeding ranks should have a step in the way of promotion; and that the men, generally, should have better, and more _equal_ treatment, and, as they were vainly flattered, be rewarded with higher wages!

Indications of this dastardly attempt to arrest the advancement of a young and enterprising commander appeared in two or three circumstances, which occurred soon after the Henrietta's return to Whitby. One of these was the discovery of a letter, fastened conspicuously on one of the sails, addressed to Mr. Bean, the former captain, "requesting him to procure another master, Captain Scoresby having left the vessel, or gone ashore."

Another circumstance, of a bolder character, I remember being related, which, however, operated in a manner directly the reverse of what was designed by the originators of the ungenerous device. A party of the officers, three or four in number, proceeded to the owner's residence--I believe over the Moors to Pickering--for the express purpose of complaining of my Father's unfitness for the command. One of their reasons, more curious than manly, was founded on observation of their commander's _fearless and adventurous practice, as a navigator_,--entirely different from the habit of the times. The complaint was to the effect, "that, instead of keeping the ship clear of danger in the fishery, he was continually running them into the ice; and his daringness was such that, if he should be continued in the command, _he would lose the ship and drown them all!_"

On a sensible man like Mr. Piper, the information, as to enterprising character, conveyed by objections of this kind, was by no means lost. His reflection thereon, as I understood it to have been, was, "Why this is the very sort of man we need!"

My Father was not, of course, without his anxieties as to what the issue might be. He had embarked in a post of great responsibility, where, beyond the ordinary qualifications of the navigator, _success as a fisherman_ was looked for, and so prominently regarded, too, that successfulness, above all other qualities, stood absorbingly pre-eminent. Having failed on his first, and most critical, trial, he anxiously expressed his regrets at his failure, when he first met his disappointed and suffering owner. But he, having meanwhile, I believe, spoken on the subject to his former captain (Mr. Bean), replied encouragingly, "It can't be helped: you must try again." The confiding owner, however, could not but be a little surprised when, on the first fitting occasion after the intimation of his re-appointment, my Father, meekly, but firmly, informed him, "that if he again took the command he must have the appointment of all the hands--both officers and general crew." Mr. Piper's usual "Pooh! pooh!" at a demand so unexpected, produced no change in the reasonable requirements of his anxious, but decided dependent. He consulted Mr. Bean thereon, and he, it is reported, recommended acquiescence on the part of the owner. At all events the owner did acquiesce. The happy effect and result will appear in our next section.