THE CALL OF THE ICE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2809, 15 January 1908, Page 15

THE CALL OF THE ICE.

Prosaic, stay-at-home folk have had their imaginations etirred lately by the preparations made at Lyt-telton by Lieutenant Shackleton and his party, who are now making their way down to the regions of perpetual ice and snow in that inhospitable expanse which is only faintly I comprehended by the iniagination under the term of "the Antarctic." The mighty j ice-cap^'-which surrounds the South Pole j undoubtedly has ■' attractions for the scientist and mathematician, but it must be confessed that the Antarctic Tegions compare unfavourably with the Arctic, so tax a^ humananterest is concerned. From , the days of Hakluyt, Behring, and Davis, j down to the- present, time, there has been a vast expenditure of strenuous effort and a large loss of human life in endeavouring to fight King 'Frost wrest from him his well-guarded secrets. In years gone ' by the northern waters teemed with whales of all kinds, the ice does swarmed , with fur. seals and polar bears, -whilst interesting tribes of Esquimaux provided that human element which only served to. the mystery of it/ all. The British sailor took as natufally to • whaling and sealing as he did to bucaneering and filibustering in the days of Frobisher, •, Drake, and Morgan, and year . after year vessels saikd away from various -British porte to garner the. harvest of the Arctic seas. In 1848 tie whaler Victor sailed 'from Peterhead, bound for the Arctic seas. Included in her crew was a lad of 18 yeafrs of age, who had become seized with a desire to travel into the ice, regions of the Far North. He attained his object, rose rapidly to the position of master of a vessel, and as Captain John Wataon has been for many years a highly respected resident of Port Chalmers. '- . Most sailors are modest, as well as brave, but "whilst they may occasionally relate some incidents of thrilling interest in their lives, they usually relapse into exasperating reticence when a pressman endeavours to get "copy" out of them ; and it is not too much to say that many of Captain Watson's oldest friends will b3 surprised to learn that he spent a number of years in the Arctic regions. Bom at Peterhead, Scotland 1 , in May, 1834, he was educated at tEe-local parish I school and Peterhead Academy. After ( leaving school he served in the Inland Revenue Department for two years ; but, tiring of clerical -work, he went to sea in 1848, as an . apprentice on -the aforesaid whaler. The Victor Was commanded by Captain Robert Martin, and Captacn Wateon states that his was the, last vessel to speak Si* John Franklin as he passed through Davis Strait about three years previously, on what proved to be his lastand ill-fated voyage of discovery. In 1864 Captain Watson " passed his Board of Trade examination a& mate, and in that capacity made no less than 12 voyages into the Arctic regions in various vessels. In 1856 he was master of the barque Perseverance, having parsed his examination as master, in that year. Shortly 'afterwards a company, comprising English, Norwegian, and Danish gentlemen, secured the yacht Dolpin, 216 tons, four guns, and fitted her out for the purpose of exploiting mineral deposits which were believed to exist within the Arpfcic circle. Captain -Watson Was appointed ice master, by reason of his great experience, and the vessel sailed from Portsmouth in due course for the coast of GfreenslaiKi. v The little cr*ft got bjudly knocked about with- gales in the IrishChannel, and got dismasted and other*' wise damaged. Eventually- she reached Liverpool, wTiere she refit-ted, after which she reached her destination safely. The minerals were located, and samples of copper, tin, plumbago, ■«iid criolite were taken to London. -As a result of this trip a large quantity of the last-mentioned mineral was afterwards obtained and snipped to St. John's dad Hamburg. In May, 1857, Captain Wateon reached the high latitude of 82$ north, in search of whales. The following year he was chief officer o* the ship Gipsy* Whilst drying to force a passage through the icepac& in Melville Bay th© vessel was crumpled up amongst the bergs like an eggshell, and all hlMMfe had to shelter on an ice-floe for some days, when the party endeavoured to reach the south by means of the ship's 'boats. After enduring many privations and Hardships, they sighted a vessel beset in the ice some miles aw&y, afid after £reat difficulty succeeded in reaching~her,- when she proved to be the •barque Emma, of Hull.' All hands gladly climbed -on hoard, and after they had enjoyed the ship's welcome hospitality for a week che ice opened, and the Emma was able to proceed to the southward, | where obey found a number of whalers \ made fast to the shore ice. —Each vessel j took a boat's crew of the castaways, wlio remained in the Arctic for another four : months before they left again for Home. | After a brief spell ashore, Captam Wat- 1 son found himself chief mate of the ] whaKng ship Eclipse, bound for a cruise in Davis Strait in search of whales. When he had reached the high latitude to which lie had attained in the previous year, the ice closed in on the vessel, and then the ] trouble began. All hands set to work to cut a dock in the ice-floe, as a strong J southerly gate had set the ice in motion. ; With great difficulty they cnt a dock ; hv ths ice larg© : enough to accom- \ modate her and another , vessel — the Heroine, of Dundee. Six hours later \ both crews were rewarded lor all their strenuous toil by seeing the ice go right through the Eclipse - and her masts fall over the side, and shortly afterwards the Heroine was lifted up bodily by the resistless ice floes and dumped right on top of her hapless neighbour, both vessels i being hopelessly" wrecked. 'After landing \ some small boats and provisions on the \ ice they camped for a few day 6, when a j

lane . appeared in the ice, through which a steamer could be seen approaching. Hastily launching their boats, the castaways made tracks for the stranger, whose officers and crew were considerably em- j barrassed at^seeing so many visitors, and j as the new arrival was unable to accom- j modate them all on board for fear of running short of provisions inNcase of get- j ting beset in the ice, Captain Watson and ] a number of his fellow-castaways hauled their boats up on the berg and travelled 'five miles across the ice to a brig which was beset in the pack ice. After they had stayed on board this vessel for a few days the ice opened, and picking up their boats again they made for the south. Eventually they reached the Esquimo settlement at Upernavik, where they lived ! with the natives for a few months. The Esquimos proved most hospitable and well disposed towards the party, and Captain Wat-son still cherishes kindly feelings | for those hardy people amongst whom his lot was so rudely cast nearly half a century ago. Eventually the castaways were rescued by a Danish brig which called at the settlement „to collect furs and oils from the natives, leaving in return provisions and other commodities for the settlement. They all returned home by the brig, and arrived safely after a six■EPeeks' passage. — ! Undeterred by the hardships and experi- r ences of previous voyages to these high latitudes, Captain Watson deeided-to visit ' the Arctic again, and to the mysterious calling of those icy solitudes he joined the steam whaler Camperdown as chief officer in 1860, This fine vessel hailed from Dundee, then, as now, the home of the British whaling fleet. She was well equipped for her strenuous calling, and carried 10 boats and B^s of a crew. The vessel cruised over the whaling grounds in Davis Strait for six months, and just before the time appointed to return some of th© party, including Cap- ( | tain Watson, met with a lively experience, which came within an ace of proving fatal to all. Captain Watson's boat had made ! fast to a very large whale, and as they I were unable to kijl it three more boats were sent to their assistance. Whilst they were all busily engaged with the big - cetacean a . heavy northerly gale sprang up, accompanied with thick, driving snow. Under that bitfng blizaard everything froze in a very short time, and all hands had their work cut out to save their boats j from being swamped. As the wind-driven "icebergs threatened the safety of the ; whaler, she had to run before the gale, 1 and was quickly lost to sight. Left to , their own resoutGes, and with darkness I approaching to the- accompaniment of a howling gale, tlie boats had to cut their lines and abandon their hard-won prize, and all hands were very glad to seek the friendly shelter of an iceberg -which was aground some distance away. The gale continued throughout the night and following day, after which it moderated, and the whaler steamed back and picked them up. Had their vessel been a sailer there is not the slightest doubt that the whole party would have perished. Three days later another Teasel picked up their valuaole prize, which had died, but as the sea-son was now late and ' the ice -becom* ing dangerous the Camperdown was turned homewards. Whilst making for the open water the ship had a perilous time whilst threading a passage through the icebergs, which Captain Watson describes as beinej j 'as thick as tombstones in a cemetery." | 'At one time the Camperdown was. beset with berge on every hand* and the great- ]' est difficulty was experienced* in K et * ul S j her through the tortuous channel formed J 6y the gigantic berg 6, many of them 500 ft j high. In several instances the, vessel had i \to scrape «o close to .some of them that ! it- really aeemed as if her yards would be brought down by projecting pinnacles. I Alter an exceedingly anxious time of it, j the vessel at length got clear of the menac- ' ing icebergs, and the open water was safely reached, and a few weeks later the Camperdown arrived Home. j Here Captain Watson only remained a short time. He joined the ship Alibi as . chief officer, and after a few months trans- •■ ferred to the *hip Queen in a similar capacity. In September, 1862, he was in . Southampton, when he accepted the posi- j tion of second officer on the steamer Alhambra, I»und for Melbourne, and shortly after arrival there he joined the I tsteamer Lady Par ling as- chief officer, afterwards becoming master of several sailing vessels engaged in the Newcastle ] coal trade. Eventually he found himself ; on the New Zealand coast during the Maori troubles, and two Greeks after the redoubtable . Maori warrior Te Kooti es- , eaped from the Chathams in the schooner , Rifleman, Captain Watson received in- j structions to proceed there in the barque Collingwood for the purpose of removing . 160 Maoris and Honoris to Taranalri. j Later on he acted as coasta\ pilot and i assistant pilot at the Heads for- several j years, and evenually settled down on shore as dockmaster and secretary for the f Otago Dock Trust, -a position he filled for j over 18 years before relinquishing his 1 clerical duties and dual office. After 18 . months' service as dockmaster only Cap- j tain Watson retired from the service, and j now devotes his leisure hours to the , allurements of bowling and horticulture — two amiable pastimes which betoken a love of .Nature and -human fellowship — attributes which must always command respect. Such J6 the very bald sketch of a noteworthy career, which covets more than mankind's allotted span, and into the ; earlier part of which Captain Watson contrived enough of peril and thrilling adven- i ture' to -satisfy most mortals, but that . innate modesty of his, which is such a characteristic "trait in the typical British sea-dog, will permit us to do little more than guess at his exploits and adventures, and so, respecting his wishes, We leave him at the turn of the road, whence he surveys the past, and looks with kindling eye towards the southern ice, -which\ is fraught with such human interest wt toe present juncture. Whilst the.Koonya and j Nhnrod are battling with rude, Boreas in ' the Antarctic, thousands of people w$

speculating as to the probable outcome of tne enterprise,* but few are so well qualified to estimate the chances of success or failure as Captain John Watson. j