The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-05-29 00:00:00

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THt ARCTIC EXPEDITION.
(From Monday's Standard.)
Exactly three centuries and a quarter ago, or, to
be precise, on Monday, the 23rd of May, 1553, in
the seventh and last year of the reign of the young
King Edward .VL, the City of London and the sea-
faring population inhabiting the banks of the Thames
assembled to say "God speed" to the officers and crews
of three small and insignificant ships which were about
to essay the formidable task of finding a north-east
passage to Cathay through the icyregions of the Arctic
circle. It was the first Arctic expedition which ever
left the English shores, for though, 36 years before,
Sebastian Cabot had tried to follow up the discovery
of Newfoundland, with which his name is associated,
by sailing further north, the jealous interference of his
fellow leader of the expedition, Sir Thomas Pert, pre-
vented the brave old navigator from fulfilling the object
he had in view. We have some reason to believe that
in 1517 English keels ploughed the waters of Baffin's
Bay, the highway through which the Alert and the
Discovery hope to find their way to the North Pole
itself.
It was no earnest zeal for the promotion of science
which led Englishmen in the sixteenth century to seek
a new path to India and to Cathay, as China was then
called. English merchants perceived that commerce
was the road to prosperity and wealth. Spain and
Portugal were enriched by the trade they carried on
in the markets they had established by their enter-
prises in the new as well as the old world, whilst Eng-
lish goods and commodities were lower in price and in
less demand than their wont. The youthful King had
granted the veteran navigator, Cabot, the handsome
stipend of 500 marks a year as pilot major of England.
Cabot had during the supineness of England, carried the
flag of Spain into many harbours on the golden shores of
the South American continent, why should not he do
something equally as great for the benefit of his native
land? English merchants and kingly courtiers were
alike ready to assist him. "The Mystery, Company,
and Fellowship of Merchant Adventurers for the Dis-
covery of Unknown lands" was the result; and when
this company was incorporated, Sebastian Cabot was
made governor, and it was resolved under the grave
advice of a "senate or company" chosen to con-
duct the affairs of the company, to fit out three
ships "for the search and discovery of the northern
part of the world, to open a passage for our, men
to new and unknown kingdoms." Each man will-
ing, to join the company was to pay £25, and in this
manner £6,000 was raised, which was devoted to the
purchase, fitting, and victualling- of three ships, the
Bona Esperanza, 120 tons, the Edward Bonaventure,
160 tons, and the Bona Con fidcntia of only 90 tons
burden... -The - vessels were victualled for eighteen
months, for, it wag supposed that they would make the
i
voyage n ax months and six months to return; the
-remainink.provisions were to guard against the severity
of the winter should the ships be detained in the ice.
Tilts contractors in those' days 'do not seem to have had
more of the virtue of honesty than their descendants,
as the adventurous navigators soon discovered.
- The most minute and quaint instructions were
drawn up for the guidance of the expedition. In the
thirty-three articles of these instructions Christian
principles were declared the source of duty. They
were to have morning and evening prayers; there were
to be "carding, dicing, or '
other di.velish ga_asaes but
they.were'toindtine thb pedpld they met to get -drunk,
so that the secrets of their hearts might ooze out. If
they Met any people wearing " lyons or beares
haying long bows and arrowes," they were not to be
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