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William Scoresby, Jr. (1789-1857) and the Open Polar Sea - Myth and Reality CONSTANCE MARTIN’

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William Scoresby, Jr. (1789-1857) and the Open Polar Sea - Myth and Reality CONSTANCE MARTIN’ ARCTIC VOL. 41. NO. 1 (MARCH 1988) P. 39-47 William Scoresby, Jr. (1789-1857) and the Open Polar Sea - Myth and Reality CONSTANCE MARTIN’ (Received 14 May 1987; acceptedin revised form 31 August 1987) ABSTRACT. WilliamScoresby, Jr., whaler and eminent naturalscientist, was denieda role in the BritishGovernment’s renewal ofpolar explorationin 1818. Befriended by Sir Joseph Banks anda member of the most respected leamed societies in Scotland, England and the Continent, Scoresby made detailed observationsof ice conditions in the Arcticover a period of 17years, aiding the government’s decisionto search for new polar routes. However, Scoresby and Sir John Barrow, Second Secretaryof the Admiralty, the main organizer of arcticexploration, had opposing perceptionsof thenature of the northern regions. Barrow, until the end of his life, believed the polar regions harbored a warm water sea, while Scoresby considered the theory a ludicrous chimera. This is believedto be the source of Barrow’s illogical rejectionof Scoresby. To support thisthesis the author has contrastedScoresby’s two major works,An Account of the Arctic Regions and Voyage tothe Whale Fishery, with Barrow’sarctic writings, A Chronological Historyof Voyages into the Arctic Regions and Voyage in the Arctic Regions from 1818 to the Present Time, as well as looking at other literary visions of the Arctic contemporary to the period. Scoresby’s ability as a mariner, his years of arcticexperience, his scientific education at the University of Edinburgh, his meticulous records and acute andsensitive observations in both prose and drawing, all provide a sound basis for perceiving the Admiralty’s autocratic rejection of Scoresby asa loss to arctic science in the 19thcentury. It also points up the underlying romantic vision of the northern regionsthe mind in of society at the time: a place harboring an earthly paradise. To Scoresby, the Arctic was nature’s laboratory, not a “playground for the imagination” (Loomis, 1986:12). Key words: William Scoresby, Jr., John Barrow, open polar sea, arctic exploration, perceptions of the Arctic RÉSUMÉ. William Scoresbyfils, pêcheur de baleineet spécialiste renommé des sciencesnaturelles, se vit refuser un rôle dans la reprisede 1’explFration polaire du gouvernement britannique en 1818. Traité en ami par Sir Joseph Banks, et membre des sociétés savantes les plus respectées d’Ecosse, d’Angleterreet d’Europe continentale, Scoresby avaitfait des observations détailléesde la conditiondes glaces dans l’Arctiqueau cours d’une période de 17 ans, contribuant ainsi h la décisiondu gouvernement de rechercher de nouvelles routespolaires. Scoresby and Sir John Barrow, Deuxibme secrétaire de l’Amirauté et principalorganisateur de l’exploration arctique, avaient des vues toutà fait opposées sur la nature des régions nordiques. Jusqu’à la fin de sa vie, Barrow crut que les régions polaires abritaient une mer d’eau tempérée, alors que Scoresbyconsidérait cette théorie comme absurde. On pense que ceci fut à l’origine du rejet illogique de Scoresby par Barrow. Afin d’appuyer sa thbse, l’auteur oppose deuxoeuvres principales de Scoresby, An Account of the Arctic Regions et Voyage tothe Whale Fishery, aux écritsde Barrow surl’Arctique, A Chronological History of Voyages into the Arctic Regions et Voyage in the Arcfic Regionsfrom 1818 theto Present Time,et il examine aussid’autres visions littéraires sur l’Arctique, contemporainesde cetFe époque. La compétence de Scoresby en tant que marin, ses années d’expérience dans l’Arctique, sa formation scientifique à l’Université d’Edimbourg, sa prose etses dessins révélant sa sensibilitéet montrant lesoin de ses relevés ainsi que la précisionde ses observations, fournissent tous une base solide pour percevoir son rejet autocratique par l’Amirauté comme une perte pour sciencela de l’Arctique au 19’ sibcle. L’article fait aussi ressortir la vision romantique des régions nordiques présente dans l’esprit des gens de l’époque, soit un endroit abritant un paradis terrestre. Pour Scoresby, l’Arctique était le laboratoire de la nature, et non pas un <<terrainde jeux pour l’imagination, (Loomis, 1986:12). Mots clés: William Scoresby fils, John Barrow, mer polaire libre, exploration arctique, perceptions de l’Arctique Traduit pour le journal par Nésida Loyer. INTRODUCTION be, and his career in Great Britain’s long northern epic was played off center stage. Why the Royal Navy did notenlist the In 1818 the British Admiralty decidedto renew exploration to most experienced, informed polar scientist of the time as an the Arctic. This decision to resume “ . the age-oldquest for a . official member ofone of its many expeditions to the Arctic is Northwest Passage” (Lloyd, 1970:125) wasstrongly influ- enced by the advice of WilliamScoresby, Jr. Both a whalerand the question centralto this paper. scientist, Scoresby had made detailed observationsof northern waters over many years. In 18 15before the esteemed Wernerian WHALER AND NATURAL SCIENTIST OF THE ARCTIC Society atthe University of Edinburgh, where he was astudent, Like his famous predecessor, the great explorer Captain he presented a paper on changing ice patternsin the Arctic, and James Cook, Scoresby was born in Yorkshire and sailed from in 18 17, through Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal the port of Whitby.He also shared Cook’s hardheaded practical Society, he brought this and more current information to the views of seafaring. The son and apprentice of a successful attention of theAdmiralty (Stamp and Stamp, 1975). His whaler, from the ageof ten until1823 he sailed the arctic waters experience as an arctic mariner and his scientific training at for 17 summers. Appointedfirst mate bythe age of 16, he wasin Edinburgh made him a valuable sourcefor the nation’s plansfor command of his ownship at the age of 21. His father, recogniz- arctic exploration. They also meantthat Scoresby himself ing thathis son’s marineobservations were intellectuallypreco- deeply hopedto participate in Britain’s renewed searchfor new cious, insisted on his furthering his studies at the University of polar routes (Scoresby, Sr., 19175). This, however, was not to Edinburgh. This was highly unusualfor a whaler at the time.It ‘The Arctic Institute of North America, The University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive N.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4 @The Arctic Institute of North America 40 I C. MARTIN was there thathe came in contact with greatscientists of the day: John Playfair, John Leslie and Robert Jameson, his particular mentor, who urged him to become an explorer (Stamp and Stamp, 197553). Admitted to the Wernerian Societyby unani- mous vote following the delivery of his first paper in1809, he became a Fellowof the RoyalSociety of Edinburgh in 1819 and the Royal Society of London in 1824 and a member of the Institute of France in 1827. His reputation was solidly based on the two-volume studyAn Account of the Arctic Regions with a FTG. I. William Scoresby’s coastal view (watercolor in the collection of the History and Description of the Northern Whale-Fishery pub- Whitby Museum, Whitby, Yorkshire). lished in 1820and Voyageto the Northern Whale-Fishery published in 1823. The first work is a compilationof records and massive bodies of ice could elicit in the uninitiated, Scoresby observations, includinginformation presented or published wrote: between 1807 and 1818; the second publication is ajournal of his 1822 voyage.In these two books we find expressed a of view Of the inanimate productions of the Polar Seas, none perhaps excites so much interest and astonishment in a stranger, as the the Arctic diametrically opposed to thatof the Admiralty. ice in its great abundance and variety. The stupendous masses, Alister Hardy, in hisintroduction to the1969 reprint of known by the name of Ice-islands, or Icebergs, . are calcu- Scoresby’s An Account of the Arctic Regions, describes the latedto strike the beholder with wonder. [Scoresby, book as “a classic of whaling literature” and an “outstanding 1969:22.] pioneer work on sciencethe of the sea” (Scoresby, 1969:Intro.). Or the propheticwarning, long lost in the windto mariners of His essay also tells us that the great authority on whales and the doomed Titantic: whaling, the late Sidney Harmer, referred to it as “one of the most remarkable books in the English language” (Scoresby, In thenight, ice-bergs are readily distinguished, even at a distance, by their natural effulgence; and in foggy weather,by a 1969:Intro.). It is to Hardy “. the finest account of the peculiar blackness in the atmosphere, by which the danger to the Arctic whale fisheries ever written” (Scoresby, 1969:Intro.), navigator is diminished. As, however, they occurfar from land, praise further supported by theDictionary of National Biogra- andoften in unexpected situations, navigators crossing the phy, which describes Scoresby’s work as“the foundation stone Atlantic in the gloomof night, between the parallelsof 50 and 60 of Arctic science” (1950:945). latitude, or even farther to the south, require to be onalways the His secondbook, Journal of a Voyage tothe Northern Whale watch for them . fatal accidents have occurred, by vessels Fishery, describes Scoresby’s independent survey of the east gettinginvolved among them in the night. [Scoresby, coast of Greenland bothto look for fresher whaling grounds and 1969:25.] to explore its coastline, a subject longof interest to both him and Related in substancebut the opposite in magnitudeare his father. The only detailed survey since Hudson’s in 1607 was Scoresby’s drawings andobservations of snow crystals (Figs. 3 of definite scientific value (Wordie, 1927). Its most permanent and 4), an areaof study thatalone would have secured his place contributionwas the 90-mile penetrationof Scoresbysund (named in the history of natural science. Not until modem technology for his father), the longest fiord in the world. and the photographic microscope were his images surpassed Nothing he encountered in the Arctic escaped his scrutiny (Bentley and Humphreys, 1962). While an apprentice whaler either in prose or in drawing.
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