Adventures on the high seas

Preface

NOT all the races that have won renown by their daring adventures on the ocean can, perhaps, be credited with a passion for the sea. Those adventurous traders, the old Phoenicians, are said to have hugged the shores of the Mediterranean, and to have ventured as little as possible out of sight of land. It was the pursuit of wealth and the thirst for discovery which led the mercantile Venetians of the Middle Ages and the Spanish and Portuguese explorers to brave the dangers of the deep, rather than a love of its salt breezes and rolling waves. Yet among them, as among the old Vikings, and the Dutchmen of later times, not less ready on occasion to fight than to trade, and the hardy mariners from British ports and from harbours across the Atlantic, have been many of those true lovers of the sea to whom the sailor's life, if the most dangerous of avocations, is also the most alluring. These are ready to exclaim, with Childe Harold —

Once more upon the waters ! yet once more ! And the waves hound beneath me as a steed That knows his rider. Welcome to their roar ! Swift be their guidance, wheresoever it lead,

Though the strained mast should quiver as a reed. And the rent canvas fluttering strew the gale.

PREFACE

Of Adventures on the High Seas the tales are endless, and in these chapters are gathered stories, as true as they are thrilling, of most various character : stories of the exploits, the achievements, the failures, and the disasters of honest mariners and plundering corsairs, of peaceful merchantmen and ships of war, of the voyager for pleasure and the intrepid explorer ; with many a tale of storm, of fire at sea, of fog, or frozen ocean and wandering iceberg, of hunger and thirst and exposure, and of splendid rescue by stout-armed and stouter-hearted lifeboatmen.

The author desires to acknowledge with thanks the kindness of the authors and publishers who have granted him permission to make use of their works : Mr. N. H. Bishop, Mr. Antonio D. Lussick, Mr. David Douglas, and Mr. T. Fisher Unwin.

CHAPTER I A whaler's terrible experiences PAGE

The whaling disasters of 1836 — The Dee of Aberdeen — Unfavourable weather in Baffin's Bay — Winter sets in — No outlet from the ice — Attempts to find a passage — Allowance of food reduced — Frozen in — The Dee in a very dangerous place — Huge icebergs — Shocks and crushes — Two days of terrible exposure — A dock cut for the Dee — Dock breaks in — A second basin cut — Collapses also — Continuous night begun — The Thomas breaks up — Excellent conduct of the men — Disease — Only fifteen sound men on the Dee — Death of captain and others — Dee drifts southward — Colder weather — The open sea ! — A dreadful voyage — Dee reaches Aberdeen — Forty-six deaths . . . . . . 17

Chapter II The Fate Of The Ivager

Anson commands an expedition against the Spanish possessions — Start from the Isle of Wight — Cape Horn rounded — The fleet scattered — The Wager missing — Wager wrecked — Riotous conduct of the crew — A desolate and inhospitable country — Terrible scenes on board the wreck — The mutineers also go ashore — Great difficulty in getting provisions ashore — Serious differences between captain and men — Violent quarrels — A midshipman shot by the captain — Crew arrest the captain on a charge of murder — Long-boat prepared— Eighty men embark, and leave behind the captain and nineteen others — Sufferings from famine by those left behind — An attempt to reach Juan Fernandez — Disastrous expedition — Four men have to be left on the desert coast — A bargain with an Indian canoe owner — Six of the Wager men make off with the canoe — Five survivors — Dreadful sufferings — Byron's experiences — Another bargain for a canoe — Landed on Chiloe Island — Kindness of the people — Spanish prisoners — Return to England — Only four survivors — Fate of the eighty deserters 28

Chapter III

Captain Cook and his followers — The Bounty, Lieutenant Bligh, sails for the Pacific — A long stay at Otaheite — A mutiny caused through commander's harshness — Bligh and eighteen

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others turned adrift in small boat — With difficulty Timor, and then England, reached by the castaways — Fletcher Christian chosen captain of the Bounty — The mutineers and the Otaheitans — Dissensions among- the mutineers — Sixteen men remain behind at Otaheite — Bounty sails away, and is lost sight of — Pandora frigate sent from England in search — Reaches Otaheite — Pandora wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef — Inhumanity to the Bounty prisoners — The mutineers court-martialled — Discoveries on Pitcairn Island — A remarkable story — Description of the island and its inhabitants . 39

Chapter IV

The "Open Polar Sea" — Dr. Hayes — In Smith's Sound — Blown out again — In an ice lane — Hemmed in — A terrible crush — Lifted by the ice — A time of suspense — The ship rights itself — A walrus hunt — Rifles and harpoon at work — Desperate attack on the sportsmen — A lively quarter of an hour — A splendid specimen — Explorer travels 450 miles over ice in sledge — The "northernmost bit of land on the globe" — The " Open Polar Sea" . . ... 51

Chapter V

Lord Dundonald — "Worthy to stand with Blake" — His naval exploits — In command of the Speedy — A torment to the Spaniard — Attacked by the Gamo — Boarding with blackened faces — Capture of the Gamo — Cochrane's wonderful career with the Speedy — Also with the Pallas — Fireship operations against French — Subordinate to Lord Gambier — The French boom and its defences — Fireships and explosion vessels — The first of the explosion ships fired by Cochrane himself— Terrific result — Mediator sails through broken boom — Its captain blown out of his ship — Thirteen French vessels stranded — More destruction by the English — Gambier refuses help — Gambier court-martialled, but acquitted — Cochrane dismissed— Offers his sword to the foreigner . . . 63

Chapter VI A "coffin Ship"

"Coffin ships" — The Melville Castle — Starts with troops and stores for the East — A hurricane — Mainmast gone— In Sandgate Bay — A leak — All hands to the pumps — A warning from a Dover pilot — Astounding parsimony — Two more warnings — Ship crashes upon one of the groynes — Pumps abandoned — Ship's back broken! — 170 persons perish — Jolly-boat swamped — A raft made, but at once overturned — Bowsprit breaks off— Two men escape on hogshead — A second raft — Eighteen survivors out of 454 . . 75

Chapter VII Page

What a typhoon is — Hong- Kong-, September 18th, 1906 — The first news — Crowded harbour — The tornado comes with terrific force — Huge waves — Thousands of ships and boats sunk — A letter from an old schoolboy — The Governor's first report — An American steamer landed high beyond the sea-wall — Fearful loss of life — The Fatshan steamer — A plucky captain — A hundred and fifty lives saved by three men — The vessel safely beached — The Heung Shan — First mate swims ashore with line — Saves three hundred Chinese — Violence on board — Loss of life — A renewal of the storm — The Bishop among the victims — Splendid efforts of the authorities — The aftermath . . . ... 86

Chapter VIII

A SCENE ON THE DOGGERBANK The Doggerbank — The Hull fleets — Russian Baltic fleet on its way to Japan — A bad attack of nerves — The warships approach — Searchlights turned on — Firing suddenly commenced — Showers of shot and shell — The Moidmein and the Mino — The Swift and its skipper — A terrible scene on board the Crane — Death of the skipper and mate — The vessel sinking — Gull comes up to help — An awful spectacle — Firing suddenly stopped — The report of the doctor on the Hospital Mission ship — Russians steam away — Indignation universal — The Russian version of the story — "All their own fault" . 96

Chapter IX The Wreck Of An East Indiaman

Two East Indiamen, a contrast — The Halsewell — A fine ship — A gale in the Channel — On a lee shore — Five feet of water in the hold — Fall of the mainmast — Driving fast on a rock-bound coast — Ship strikes — An affrighted party in the round-house — Men leap over the side — Attempts to get a spar to the cliff — Brave attempt by the first mate — First mate slips into sea — Hurled into a cavern — Seized by unseen hands — Escape on a hen-coop — The final catastrophe — A night in a miserable cave — A perilous climb — Rescue by quarrymen — The rescued 107

Chapter X

Buccaneers, pirates, filibusters — The buccaneers turn into pirates — Bartholomew Roberts, one of the last of the buccaneer-pirates — Captured by pirates — Chosen captain — Revenges the death of his predecessor — Attack on a fort — A slack time — Attacks forty-two trading ships and a man-of-war — Cowardice of the Portuguese — A rich prize — Escape from a

Martinique sloop— The biter bitten — Judge and jury on board the pirate — A shipload of negroes burnt alive — Chased by the cruiser Swallow — Companion ship captured — Roberts attacked by the Swallow — Death of Roberts — The Royal Forttme taken, and pirate crew hanged — End of the gang — A magnificent scoundrel . . ...

Chapter XI

TWO THOUSAND MILES IN A PAPER CANOE North American bays and estuaries — Mr. Bishop starts from Quebec in a canoe — How a paper boat is made — Weight fifty-eight pounds only — In Delaware Bay — Big rollers — Swamped, and upside down — Blindly swimming — A hard struggle — Boat follows — A cool change of clothes — Rough seas off the Virginian coast — A desolate and cheerless shore — Musk-rats and oyster-coons — The storm in Pamplico Sound — The yacht Julia — A wreck-strewn coast — Chased by porpoises — An alligator at close quarters — The Gulf of Mexico .

Chapter XII A "levanter"

An American writer stranded at Smyrna — Takes passage for Malta in the Metamora — A big gale blows up — Under bare poles — The cabin a-wash — "On deck for your life!" — A jagged precipice in front — Saved! — Holding on while asleep — Two days and nights in the dangerous Archipelago — Nearing Malta — A great difficulty in landing the passenger — Unselfish conduct of the crew — Exhausted men haul out the heavy long-boat — Landed on the quarantine steps of Malta — Gallant and kindly skipper and crew

Chapter XIII

Captain Vancouver — The Discovery and the Chatham sail for the Pacific — An early circumnavigator — Always tries to conciliate the savages — At Nootka Sound — A sudden attack by canoes — English boats in danger — The war dress and weapons of the Indians — Savages attempt to grab everything — Indians seize the boat — An odd mask — Savages egged on by an old woman — A lively time for Vancouver — His endeavours to preserve peace — Two sailors badly wounded — Orders to fire — Hasty and ludicrous flight — Attack from the top of the cliff— Reconciliation — A friendly visit from the chiefs — A squabble between two native factions — A savage sea-fight averted . . . ...

Chapter XIV

ENGLISH BARQUES AND LA PLATAN SHOALS The "English Bank" — The Aglaia — Risky salvage operations — She floats again — Hawsers snap — Rescue of the crew by the tug Plata — Destruction of the Aglaia — Another vessel

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on the Bank — A dash to the rescue — Fruitless attempts — Tugs return to Monte Video for coal — To the rescue again — Second failure — A third attempt — The barque not to be seen ! — A search and a find — Plata creeps to within sixty yards of the wreck — Franco goes off in small boat — Rescues four men — His second trip rescues five — Third trip brings off the remaining four — A bump and a splintered stern-post — Full steam on and pumps working — All safe in port — Rewards from the British Government . ... 169

Chapter XV

James Choyce — Prentice on board whaler — Wooden guns ! — A risky swimming lesson — Taken prisoner by the Spanish — A canoe seized — Upset — Sufferings from want of water — A raid on a water-carrier — A stream — Caught by the Spaniards — A fresh plan— The Lucky Escape — Mule-drivers attempt to lasso the sailors — A Spanish brig seized — A course set for Galapagos Islands — A drunken crew — Threats — Anxious days — A dark outlook for Choyce — " Land ho I " — Free men at last . . . . ... 181

Chapter XVI

Crossing the line in former days — On board an East Indiaman, in 1814 — Nearing the Equator — A visit from the representative of the sailors — Three " razors " — An obstinate steerage passenger — Neptune and his car — Amphitrite and the Tritons — The ship's doctor the first victim — The cabin passenger called up — " I paid for No. 1 " — Not to be drawn — Retaliation — Chased and soused — The steerage passenger — Strikes out — A rush for the captain's cabin — Skipper interferes — A recalcitrant victim — A well-wielded trident — Ducked in the sea — Almost drowned — Broken heads — The vigorous resister comes off triumphant . . . 194

Chapter XVII

The Amazon on her first voyage — Heated bearings — An ominous misfortune — "Fire!" in the middle of the night — Rush on deck — Engines cannot be stopped — Hose and pumps destroyed — "To the boats!" — Terrible disaster in the launching — Third and fourth attempts — Mother and child cling to the thwarts — Boat launched at last — Lifeboat safely off — She picks up five men from the dingy — The end of the Amazon — Sufferings of those in the boats — A brutal captain — One boat-load picked up and carried to Plymouth — Another to Brest — A third boat found next day — A fourth batch of survivors landed a fortnight later — The loss of life — Wreck of the A?nazon a memorable one — Heroism of the ship's officers 205

Chapter XVIII

The Prince, a French East Indiaman — Fire discovered in the hold — Desperate efforts to smother the fire — Fire spreads rapidly — Soldiers drawn up on deck — Seven men get away in the yawl — Mishap to the long-boat — Men and women frantic — The chaplain gives all absolution — The Prince heels partly over — Danger from the cannon — Lieutenant de la Fond — Slips into the sea — Grasped by a drowning soldier — The lieutenant's unselfishness — His terrible struggles — He tries to help and encourage on all sides — Mainmast falls and crushes many — Guns still discharging and killing — The ship explodes — All lost save those in the yawl — A marvellous voyage across the Atlantic — They reach Brazil — Well treated by the Portuguese — Return to France

Chapter XIX

THE DISASTER AT SAMOA Terrific hurricane at Samoa — The harbour of Apia — Seven warships there — The German ship Eber drags her anchors — Overwhelmed with nearly her entire crew — The Adlers fate — The American vessel Nipsic beached — The wreck of the Vandalia — Captain knocked senseless and swept away — The Trenton and the Olga — The British Calliope — Her captain determines to attempt to run out — Collisions — " Every pound of steam" — But only half a knot an hour — Safe outside the harbour — Calliope back at Samoa — Runs for Sydney — Immense enthusiasm — " Nerve and decision" .

Chapter XX

THE ROMANCE OF THE ATLANTIC CABLE "The triumph of our age" — Mr. Cyrus Field and the Atlantic Cable project — The Niagara and the Agamemnon leave Valentia with the cable — Haps and mishaps — The cable breaks ! — Another attempt — Ships meet in mid-Atlantic — A violent storm — Splicing operations — A huge whale fouls the cable ! — Breakage and loss of cable — A return to England for more — Success — Messages across the Atlantic — Cable ceases to " speak" — The Great Eastern — Takes new coil on board — More mishaps — Suspicions of foul play — All goes merrily till two-thirds of the work is done — Cable breaks — Fishing for a million of money — A second rope also breaks — A third and last try — Forging a grapnel, a weird scene on board — Another failure — The cable of 1866 — Great Eastern reaches Newfoundland — The cable of 1865 recovered and completed — A magnificent work . ...

Chapter XXI

Icebergs in the Atlantic — The Lady Hobart — Leaves Halifax for England — Strikes on an iceberg in the night — A hasty rush

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to the boats — The mails thrown overboard — Ship sinks — Emptying- a rum cask — Danger from a school of whales — A course set for Newfoundland — Other icebergs — A gale — The two boats separated — A sail ! — A delirious man tied down — Another jumps overboard — The captain ill — Another gale — Signs of land — Newfoundland at last . ... 252

Chapter XXII

The Alceste and the Lyra in the Canton estuary — A critical time — Insults from the Canton Viceroy — Visit from a mandarin, who promises a "Chop" — A second mandarin — A game of bluff — John Bull begins to roar — The frigate opposed by war-junks — British open fire — A telling shot — Attack on the shore batteries — Battery knocked to pieces — The first-class Chop arrives in haste — Maxwell with four men rows to Canton — The Lyra surrounded by junks — Threatening neighbours — " Pigeon English" — Flight of the Chinese commodore — The British ships masters of the situation . ... 263

Chapter XXIII

A WATER-LOGGED TIMBER VESSEL The England) a Newcastle timber vessel — Leaves Quebec — A beautiful aurora borealis — A fearful hurricane — The wheel shattered — Ship full of water — The timber cargo keeps her afloat — Crew take to the rigging — The intense cold — Famine staring the men in the face — A terrible Christmas and New Year — A sail — Jolly-boat in chase, but misses it — Another sail — Boat off again — The boat lost and in a fog — Picked up by a brig — In search of the England — Found at last — Landed on one of the Azores . . ... 275

Chapter XXIV

A HURRICANE IN A TROPICAL SEA Mr. Caunter, an English clergyman — Takes ship at Calcutta for Madras — A forbidding-looking skipper — Fishing for sharks — A storm brewing — The Lascar sailors become useless — Gun breaks loose — Loosens a heavy drip-stone — The mate lassoes the gun — A fearful sea on board — Lady swept out of her cabin — The skipper to the rescue — A night alarm for the clergyman — Up to his shoulders and clinging for life — Ship full of water— Ports opened — Water escapes, and the ship rights herself — Skulking Lascars — A rope's-end argument — Storm abates — Off Madras — A heavy surf— A boat turns a somersault — All saved . . . . . 287

Chapter XXV British Warships In Russian Seas

The combined British and French navies in the Crimean War — A terrific storm — The chief theatres of the naval operations — A little British gunboat chases three Russian ships — A

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queer floating battery — British and French sailors fraternise — Guns hurled into the sea— A blaze of forts — A plucky inventor — Russian ships after the fall of Sebastopol — Preparations to destroy — Britishers at work in the dark — A big- Russian anchors close to the spot — "We are going to catch it ! " — All the Russian ships fired by themselves — Except one, and that is scuttled — A demonstration before Odessa — Reconnoitring the Bug estuary — Dutch courage— A puff of white smoke — A lively time . . ... 299

Chapter XXVI

AN ANTARCTIC CRUISE SEVENTY YEARS AGO The United States Exploring Expedition of 1836 — Captains Wilkes and Hudson — Vessels leave Sydney for Antarctic Ocean — The ice barrier reached — Coasting along it westward — " Ice ahead ! " — A fright for Wilkes — Battle between a huge "killer" and a whale — The Peacock^ Captain Hudson, battered by ice-floes — The ice-anchors at work — Rudder broken — An avalanche of ice and snow — A small boat between two closing icebergs — In a deep ice-bay — Out again — Vessel badly shattered — The Vincennes in a region of icebergs — Men unable to go on with their work — The danger from the grinding bergs — A perilous passage between two ice-islands — A terrible night — Land seen beyond the ice barrier 311

Chapter XXVII

AN ENGLISH LADY'S VOYAGE TO THE EAST Lady Hester Stanhope — Embarks in the Jason frigate for the East — Almost wrecked off Trafalgar — Passage in the Cerberus from Gibraltar to Malta — On a Greek ship in the Sea of Marmora — A model crew ! — The Turk and his gun — A violent hurricane between Rhodes and Alexandria — Aristocrats at the buckets — Lady Hester's pluck — Vessel heels gunwale down — Long-boat launched — All land on a tiny rock — Skipper and men go off to Rhodes in the boat — Rescued from the rock — Swamped — A wretched shelter — To Alexandria in the Salsette — Tempest-driven again — Shot at by Turkish soldiers— Prisoners in a block-house — Profuse apologies . 323

Chapter XXVIII

LORD EXMOUTH'S ESCAPES Viscount Exmouth — The Indefatigable aground — Ready decision — How to deal with skulkers — An extraordinary examination of the ship — A wrecked cutter — A leap to the rescue — Wounded and in a critical position— Saving the men of the Dutton — A truly modest report — A mutiny on board the Indefatigable — Nerve and decision — Mutiny on the Impdtueux — An execution — Battle with the Droits de Vhomme — Splendid seamanship — A fearful story — Bombardment of Algiers — Marvellous daring . . . ... 333

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Catching a Tartar .

Almost nipped in the Ice

Cast adrift by Mutineers .

Attacked by Walruses

An attack by Fire-ships

The awful power of the Typhoon.

An unparalleled Scene

A narrow Escape

An astonishing Effect

A fight with Lassoes

A plucky Mother

In the teeth of a Cyclone at Samoa

Pursued by Whales .

A precarious Lodging

A risky Attempt

In danger of Foundering .

J 5

Frontispiece

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ADVENTUBES ON THE HIGH SEAS

Chapter I A Whaler's Terrible Experiences

The whaling disasters of 1836 — The Dee of Aberdeen — Unfavourable weather in Baffin's Bay — Winter sets in— No outlet from the ice — Attempts to find a passage — Allowance of food reduced — Frozen in — The Dee in a very dangerous place — Huge icebergs— Shocks and crushes — Two days of terrible exposure — A dock cut for the Dee — Dock breaks in — A second basin cut — Collapses also— Continuous night begun— The Thomas breaks up — Excellent conduct of the men — Disease — Only fifteen sound men on the Dee — Death of captain and others — Dee drifts southward — Colder weather — The open sea !— A dreadful voyage— Dee reaches Aberdeen— Forty-six deaths.

AMONGST the most thrilling of sea narratives may always be reckoned those which tell of a wintering ^ in the Polar seas, with its dangers and sufferings. There are very few stories more remarkable than those of the great Arctic explorers — a Frobisher, a Franklin, a Nansen — and certainly few that have been more widely read. No one can fail to be interested in the doings, and an admirer of the pluck, of these famous navigators. And there are other Arctic heroes, humbler perhaps, and unknown to the world at large, but whose story hardly b 17 less deserves to be told. Conspicuous among these undistinguished but still gallant seamen are the whalers who every year ply their hazardous occupation in the northern oceans, and who in times not so long gone by were still more numerous. No finer fellows ever sailed a ship than the sturdy whale-fishers of our northern and eastern coasts.

Few misfortunes in the ice-bound regions have more keenly agitated the country than those met with by the Dee, Aberdeen whaler, and her companions the Norfolk, the Advice, and the Grenville Bay, in the years 1836-7. The Dee was commanded by Captain Gamblin, with a crew of thirty- three men and officers. The ship was fortunate enough to carry a surgeon of an excellent type, Mr. Littlejohn. At Stromness, in the Orkneys, sixteen more hands were shipped, and then the Dee was steered for Davis Strait and the whaling district, which was reached on May 15th.

The preparations for the commencement of the fishing were considerably interfered with by unfavourable weather ; and besides this, icebergs began to appear, greatly hindering navigation. This state of things continued for two or three weeks, the weather not improving, and the icebergs becoming ever more numerous. No whales were seen as yet, though by this time latitude 66° N. had been reached, and the vessel was headed for North-East Bay and the Frow Islands. It being found impossible to make progress towards the west, as Captain Gamblin had desired, the course was changed to north-east, and after nearly a week of fairly good sailing, the open waters of the north were reached. By this time the Dee had eleven other vessels for company.

The first whale was secured in Pond's Bay, an inlet on the western shore of Baffin's Bay, and soon the fish appeared in plenty. No great amount of success fell to the Dee, but some of the other whalers made extraordinary catches. The season was now, however, somewhat advanced — it was by this time the month of September — and winter seemed to be setting in early. Already the ice was beginning to be troublesome, and Captain Gamblin determined to start for home. So far there had been nothing much out of the usual course of whaling experiences.

But Gamblin was presently a good deal perturbed by a report from the captain of the Grenville Bay, a ship he fell in with, to the effect that, so far as could be ascertained, there was no outlet from the Polar Sea. Another vessel, the Norfolk ; now joined the company, and the three skippers resolved to keep together, so far as they might be able. The master of the Dee, fearing that his stock of provisions might not hold out through the long winter, should it be their ill-fortune to be ice-bound, put his men on reduced allowance. It had been the passage to the east that the Grenville Bay had attempted in vain, and accordingly the three captains now tried that to the north, and in due course a point as high as 75° was reached. Leaving the neighbourhood of Cape Melville, where the ice was becoming too troublesome, an attempt was made to wear south, and with difficulty latitude 71° was attained. By the end of September the whalers had fallen in with two more vessels, the Advice and the Thomas, both of Dundee. Strenuous efforts were at once made to find a clear passage out, but to no purpose. It was ascertained, moreover, that many other ships had been in the same plight, no fewer than eight anchor marks being observed on the ice in different spots. The efforts to escape from the ice-bound sea were redoubled.

The only piece of open water now to be seen stretched away to northward, strange to say, and, after a conference, the five skippers resolved to steer in that direction once more. The weather became wretched and the vessels had to be anchored to huge pieces of ice for safety. By this time it had become certain that the winter would have to be spent out in the frozen seas, and the allowance of provisions to the men was still further reduced. All that was left to the captains was to seek the best available place for a winter station, and the ships moved away for that purpose. A calm came on, however, and the vessels were frozen in, within sight of each other. The position was the mouth of Baffin's Bay, in latitude 73°, or thereabouts. The day was October 8th, 1836. The ice was almost at once strong enough to admit of the men passing from one ship to another.

Unfortunately for the Dee, to which vessel we may now give our chief attention, the spot where she lay seemed to be subject to special disturbances below the surface, and the dangers from the movements of the ice were consequently greater than those that threatened the companion vessels. The result was an increase in the anxieties and sufferings of her crew. Indeed, as it happened, the men of the Dee were fated to undergo greater hardships than the rest of the whalers, and their peculiar difficulties began from this time. A main cause of trouble was the scarcity of fuel, and no coal was used save that needed for the bare cooking operations. Exercises of all kinds had to be invented to keep the sailors warm, amongst them being the unshipping of the rudder and the unbending of the sails, all of no actual use, of course. But useful or useless, such things had to be done or the men would have frozen. Still worse, the beds grew