Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-11-30
FORGOITGN ARCTIC EXPLORERS ).
Some or the Projects Set Forth NeB rs
ly Three Centuries Ago OF Dis
cevcry In Northern Seas.

In the year Of our lord 1907, Henry Hud-
son was set forth at the. charge OF certain
wOrshiptul merchants of h1n1on to discover
& passage BY the north pole to Japan and
Chine, de sailed from GIavesend on May
Gay in the ''ship" Hopewell, his crew con
sisting of ten men and boy, and from the
strength of his crew, the size OF his ship may
be inferred. His expedition, go far as dis
covering northwest passage was concerned,
OF course, was failure. The highest point
to which he attained was eighty degrees,
twenty-three seconds, and from here, he
says, 81 saw land, by reason Of the cfearncss
of the weather, stretching far inte eighty
two degrees, and by the boring and showing
of the sky, mitch further, which, when | first
saw. hoped to have had free sea between
the land and the ice, and meant to
have compassed this land by the
north, but now, 2indIng it was impossI-
bic by means of the abundance of
ice comprising US about 10y the north and
Joining to the land, and seeing God did bless
US with wind, we returned, b1sT;3g up the
helm" As spmntoning up of the result of
the voyege, ne adds: "And this | can as
sure at this present, that between seventy
eight degrees anu half and eighty two de-
grees, by this way there is no passage"
But this decided expression Of opinion on the
part of Herr Hudson does not seem to have
carried conviction with it, for tteo years later
a voyage was sent forth BY the Right Wor-
shipfGl Sir Thomas Smith and the rest of the
Muscovy company to Cherry island, and for
a further discovery to be made toward the
north pole, for the likelihood of a trade or
passage that way. III the ship called the
Amity, of burden seventy tons, in which Jo
mas Poole was master, having fourteen men
and one boy" The Amity weighed from
Blackwell March l, 1909, ard after a very
rough and cold passage, made the south
part of Spitzbergen on the sixteenth of May,
On the twenty being then near Fair
Foreland, Master Poole sent one Of the ships
officers ashore tc explore the country. The
officer brought back somewhat long winded
account of mis- expedition, from which and
his own observations, Poole concluded:
Moreover, ] wes certified that all the ponds
and lake3 were unfrozen, there be fresh wa
ter, which putteth me IN hope of mild
summer here after so sharp beginning as |
had, and my opinion Is such, and | assure
myself it Is so, that passage may be as soon
attained this way by the pole as by any I'M
known way whatsoever, by. reason the sun
doth give great heat In this climate, and
the Ice q mean that freezeth here) Is nothing
so huge as | have seen In the seventy-three
degrees But this hops full view of the mat
ter Master Poole eventually discovered to be
untenable. After twice attempting and
twice failing to get beyond seventy-nine de-
grees fifty minutes north latitude, on the
twenty nrsG OF June ne stood to
the northward and engaged in the
inglorious occupation of fishing,
and, having caught q large cargo" re-
turned to London. In 1911, however, he
made another venture in the Elizabeth, a
bark of fifty tons, and succeeded in getting
as far north as eighty degrees, when further
progress was barred by the ice. After coast
ing along the ice field to the southwest for
one hundred aud twenty leagues or more, in
the hope Of finding an opening to the north
ward, he finally abandoned the attempt and
retreated to Spitzbergen for the purpose of
engaging in the fisheries. This time he did
not catch "a large cargo;" on the contrary,
he lost his ship in gale, and this misfortune
seems to have quencbed all remaining desire
on the part Of the Right Worshipful Sir
Thomas Smith and the rest of the Muscovy
company" to engage in scientific discove-
ries, for by them no other expedition was set
forth toward the north pole.