The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1924-05-16
CAPTAINS OF
ADVENTURE
BY ROGER POCOCK
pohh
BY ROGER POCOCK
Robbs-Merriil Company

their ives 10 their me OlSclpllne.
A few days later the Joy grounded
in labyrinth of shoals, and was
caught aground by storm which lift
ed and bumped her until the false
keel was torn off. The whole of the
| deck load had to be thrown overheard.
The only hope was to sail over the
rocks, and with all her canvas set she
| charged, smashing from rock to rock
until she reached the farther edge of
| the reef which was nearly dry. THE
spray and sleet were washing over the
vessel, the mast trembled, and the
Joy seemed to pull herself together
for a last final leap. She was lifted
up and flung bodily on the bare rocks,
bump, bump, with terrific force.
In my distress sent up q honestly
confess it) an ardent prayer to the
Almighty. Yet another bump worse
than ever, then one more, and we
slid off,
The shock had lifted the rudder
SO that it rested with the pintles on
| the mountings, and she would not
steer then somehow the pins dropped
back into their sockets, the steersmen
regained control and the Joy was
saved, after journey across rocks
which ought to have smashed any ship
afi0at She did not even leak.
Near the south end of King Williams
Land pocket harbor was found, and
named Joy Haven. There the stores
were landed, cabins were built, the
ship turned into a winter house, and
the crew became men of science. For
two years they were hard at work
studying the magnetism of the earth
beside the Magnetic Pole. /
During the first winter the thermom-
eter dropped to seventy-nine degrees
below zero, which is pretty near the
world record for cold, but as long as
one is we'll fed, with bowels in work
| ing order, and has Eskimo clothes to
wear, the temperature feels much the
same after forty below zero. Below
| that point the wind fails to breath
less calm, the keen dry air is refresh
ing as champagne, and one can keep
up a dog-trot for miles without being
winded. 1t is not the winter night
that people dread, but the summer day
with its horrible torment of mosqui-
toes. Then there is in spring and au-
tumn, a hot misty glare upon the snow
fields which causes blindness.
The greatest event of the first year
was the finding of an Eskimo hunter
to carry letters, who came back in
the second summer, having found in
Hudson's bay an exploring vessel of
the Royal Northwest Mounted Police
of Canada Major Moody, also the
captain of the Arctic, and the Master
I Of an American whaler, sent their
greetings, news Of the outer world,
some useful charts, and a present of
husky dogs.
The second summer was over. The
weather had begun to turn cold before
| a northerly gale smashed the ice, and
sea lanes opened along the Northwest
passage On August thirteenth the
Joy left her anchorage, under sail and
steam, to pick her way without com
| pass through binding fog, charging
and butting through fields of ice, d0dg-
| ing zigZag through shoals, or squeez-
ing between ice-fields and the shore
There was no sleep for anybody during
| the first three nights, but racking anXi-
| ETY. and tearing overStrain until they
reached known waters, channel
charted by the old explorers. They met
an American whaler, and afterward
| had clear open water as far as the
mouths of the Mackenzie river. A few
miles beyond that the ice closed in
from the north and piled upshore so
that the passage was blocked and once
more the Joy went into winter quar-
tiers. But not alone. Ladies must have
corsets ribbed with whalebone from
the bowhead whale. Each whale is
worth two thousand pounds, so fleet
of American whalers goes hunting in
the Arctic Their only port of refuge
| is Herschel island off the Canadian
| coast, so there is an outpost of the
/ Northwest Mounted Police, a mission
station and village of Eskimos.
The Joy came to anchor thirty-six
miles to the east of Herschel island,
beside stranded ship in charge of
her Morse mate, and daily came pas
sengers to and fro on the Fort Mac
pherson trail. From that post runs
dog-train service of mails connecting
the forts of the Hudson's Bay COM
pany all the way up the Mackenzie
valley to Edmonton on the railway
within two thousand miles. The crew
Of the Joy had company news, letters
from home, and Captain Amundsen
went by dog-train TO the mining camps
| on the Yukon, where at Eagle City he
sent kilograms.
| At last in the summer of 1906 the
| JOY sailed on the final run of her great
voyage, but her crew of seven was
now reduced to six, and at parting
| she dipped her colors TO the cross on
| lone grave. The ice barred her
massage, but she charged, smashing
her engines, and charged again, losing
her peak which left the mainsail use
! less. So she won past Cape Prince OF
Wales, completing the Northwest pas
sage. and, entering Bering sea. called
at Cape Nome for repairs. There
thousand American gold miners well
coined the sons of the vikings with an
uproarious triumph, and greeted Cap
tain Amundsen with the Morse national
anthem.
III TO Victoria In 1887 the royal