1773 Phipps expedition towards the North Pole

Royal Navy expedition thumb|Racehorse 1757 6 and Carcass 1759 6 stuck in the ice on 7 August 1773 The 1773 Phipps expedition towards the North Pole was a Royal Navy expedition suggested by the Royal Society and especially its vice president Daines Barrington, who believed in an ice-free Open Polar Sea. Two bomb vessels, Racehorse 1757 6 and Carcass 1759 6, were modified for greater protection against ice and sailed towards the North Pole in the summer of 1773 under the commands of Constantine Phipps and Skeffington Lutwidge. The ships became stuck in ice near Svalbard. The report of the journey, published by Phipps in 1774, contained the first scientific descriptions of the polar bear, ivory gull, and naked sea butterfly. Background In January 1773, on the initiative of the Royal Society's vice president Daines Barrington, the Society's Secretary, Matthew Maty,Williams 2002 278 sent a letter to Lord Sandwich, the First Lord of the Admiralty, suggesting a voyage to the North Pole.Savours 1984 403 Barrington had been influenced by the writings of the Swiss geographer Samuel Engel, who had suggested in his 1765 book fr Memoires et observations geographiques et critiques sur la situation des pays septentrionaux de l'Asie et de l'AmeriqueEngel 1765 the existence of a vast empty sea near the North Pole.Savours 1984 403Engel 1765 262 Engel's explanation for the sea ice found in the Arctic was that most of it came from rivers, and so would only be found close to land.Williams 2002 277 Sandwich, a friend of Daines Barrington,Williams 2002 277 proposed the expedition to King George III, "which his Majesty was pleased to direct should be immediately undertaken".Phipps 1774 10Savours 1984 404 Preparations thumb|left|upright|Portrait of Phipps by Ozias Humphry Constantine Phipps volunteered for the expedition and was appointed its commander. Goodwin 2019 32-33 For ships, the Admiralty chose bomb vessels, ships designed to carry heavy mortars that could attack coastal defences, as these had very strong hulls and were also not required during peace time.Goodwin 2019 41 The bomb vessel Racehorse 1757 6 was chosen as the expedition ship and modified at Deptford Dockyard in March and April 1773. A second bomb vessel, Carcass 1759 6, under the command of Skeffington Lutwidge since June 1771,Goodwin 2019 73 was refitted at Sheerness Dockyard, with both ships provided with additional protection against ice.Goodwin 2019 58-65 Ships HMS Racehorse (1757) HMS Carcass (1759) thumb|Original plans for HMS Carcass, 1758 Racehorse had originally been a French ship, the Marquis de Vaudreuil until she was captured by the Royal Navy during the Seven Years' War and renamed HMS Racehorse on 5 May 1757.Goodwin 2019 41 She had three masts and carried 18 guns, and was rated as a sloop.Goodwin 2019 43 In 1759, Racehorse took part in the Siege of Quebec.Goodwin 2019 44-49 In 1772, the ship was used to patrol the Strait of Dover. When the Navy Board instructed Deptford Dockyard to adapt the ship for the voyage towards the North Pole, the instructions stated she was "to be dismantled as far as necessary".Goodwin 2019 58 Extensive modifications were made: sheathing planking was installed as protection against ice, the forecastle was lengthened, the bomb beds and their support structure were removed, storerooms were built, a new deck was laid, and extra hull bracing was added to the bows.Goodwin 2019 58-62 The second ship, HMS Carcass, had been purpose built as a bomb vessel for the Royal Navy instead of being converted from a captured vessel.Goodwin 2019 51 However, the work was similarly extensive, with structures removed, the hull doubled and additional internal timber installed. The work was done remarkably quickly, perhaps by using large numbers of workers, and completed in only two days.Goodwin 2019 77–81 According to the maritime historian Peter Goodwin, the work done on both ships made them "in effect Britain's first purpose-built icebreakers."Goodwin 2019 62 Crew members of the expedition A total of 92 people sailed with Racehorse, 89 of them officers and men of the Navy.Goodwin 2019 114 Members of the expedition included Henry Harvey as first lieutenant, Charles Irving as surgeon, Israel Lyons as astronomer,Markham 1879 72-74 the Jersey-born Philippe d'Auvergne as midshipman,Goodwin 2019 123 and Olaudah Equiano as able seaman.Goodwin 2019 124 On Carcass, which carried 80 people on the voyage,Goodwin 2019 128 midshipman Horatio Nelson, not even 15 years old, served as coxswain of the ship's boats.Goodwin 2019 129,131 Two Greenland whalers each were hired as pilots for both of the ships.Savours 1984 407 Future Continental Navy captain Nicholas Biddle also participated in the expedition, having resigned as a Royal Navy midshipman to do so. Biddle became acquainted with Nelson during the expedition.McGrath 2015 2 Equipment thumb|Charles Irving's apparatus for distilling seawater The ships were equipped with extensive scientific equipment.Fjågesund 2008 82 For navigation, Racehorse was equipped with a Larcum Kendall K2 chronometer and Carcass with a John Arnold chronometer.Goodwin 2019 93-94 Other new technology on board included Pierre Bouguer's improved logSavours 1984 407 and Irving's apparatus for distillation of seawater.Savours 1984 410-411 The ships carried boats large enough to transport the whole crew.Savours 1984 404 Journey thumb|Chart of the courses of Racehorse 1757 6, from Phipps' 1774 book, land masses filled in for contrast The Admiralty's instructions for Phipps from 25 May 1773 stated he should sail north from the Nore (a sandbank in the Thames Estuary) and then, "[...] passing between Spitzbergen and Greenland, proceed up to the North Pole or as far towards it as you are able, carefully avoiding the errors of former navigators by keeping as much as possible in the open sea, and as nearly upon a meridian to the said Pole as the ice or other obstructions you meet with will admit of. If you arrive at the Pole and should even find the sea so open as to admit of a free navigation on the opposite meridian you are not to proceed any further but [...] you are to return to the Nore [...]"Savours 1984 409 thumb|The Racehorse and Carcass forcing through the ice, watercolour by John Cleveley the Younger, 1774 The ships sailed north from the Nore on 4 June 1773. Spitsbergen was sighted on 28 June, and the ships sailed further north while observing and surveying the coast.Savours 1984 411-412 From Hakluyt's headland at the northern end of Amsterdam Island, they continued northwest, starting to encounter ice. From 8 July, the ice made movement very difficult, and the ships had to be towed with smaller boats.Goodwin 2019 164-167 As the ice to the north seemed impenetrable, Phipps turned east to determine whether the ice was joined with Spitsbergen. The expedition made further attempts to sail north while going east along the coast and surveying and studying various islands. On 27 July they reached their furthest point to the north at 80°48'N.Savours 1984 414-415 On 30 July, on one of the Seven Islands, Phipps and Lutwidge climbed a hill and could see that the sea was completely frozen over to the east. On their return, the ships were completely surrounded by ice.Savours 1984 416-417 Over the next few days, Phipps was ready to abandon ships and the crew started hauling the boats over the ice. However, on 10 August, the ships broke free of the ice and into the open sea and returned west to Fairhaven.Savours 1984 418-420 After a final attempt to sail northwest on 19 August, they started the journey home.Savours 1984 421 The ships were separated by storms, and on 18 September, Carcass reached Yarmouth Roads and Lutwidge sent news of the expedition to the Admiralty.Goodwin 2019 248-249 The ships reunited on 26 September and returned to docks on the Thames on 30 September.Goodwin 2019 256-258 Publications The first book about the journey was an anonymous narrative that appeared in February 1774.Newbery 1774An earlier report by an anonymous "Officer of the Squadron" was published in The Westminster Magazine, or, The Pantheon of Taste in OctoberAn Officer of the Squadron 1773a and November 1773.An Officer of the Squadron 1773b According to Ann Savours, the most likely author was the surgeon on board the Carcass, William Wallis.Savours 1984 426 Phipps' own book, A voyage towards the North PolePhipps 1774 then appeared in the late summer of 1774. It contained 70 pages of narrative as well as a lengthy appendix with the scientific results of the journey.Savours 1984 421 A description of the scientific instruments carried and their function forms a major part of the report.Fjågesund 2008 83 Phipps' book contained engravings depicting the ships in the ice based on watercolours by John Cleveley the Younger. These were in turn based on midshipman Philippe d'Auvergne's sketches.Savours 1983 A French translation of the book appeared in 1775 and a German translation in 1777.Savours 1984 421 The journey also features in Olaudah Equiano's 1789 autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, and another eyewitness account, that of midshipman Thomas Floyd, was compiled by his family and published in 1879.Goodwin 2019 309Markham 1879 81-208 Legacy thumb|Nelson and the Bear (Richard Westall, 1809) The failure of the expedition to get through the ice to the North Pole did not convince Barrington or Engel that this was impossible.Savours 1984 422 Barrington's interest turned towards the Northwest Passage,Williams 2002 279 and a British attempt at its discovery was soon made during the 1776–1780 third voyage of James Cook.Williams 2002 282–284 Scientific results of Phipps' journey include the first scientific descriptions of the polar bear and the ivory gull.Savours 1984 421 Some islands in Svalbard are named after expedition members: Nelsonøya, Phippsøya (the largest of the Seven Islands), and Waldenøya.Norsk Polarinstitut Starting in 1800, a story about Horatio Nelson chasing a polar bear began to circulate, including Nelson's alleged response to a reprimand from Lutwidge, "I wished, Sir, to get the skin for my father." After Nelson's death, the story was expanded in his biographies, and included claims that Nelson had tried to attack the bear with his broken musket, wielding it like a club, a scene immortalised in a painting by Richard Westall.Lewis-Jones 2005 The Norwegian professor of British literature Peter Fjågesund no described the Phipps expedition as "an Arctic expedition representing a watershed in polar exploration, adding to the discovery of land and natural resources a new dimension, namely that of scientific investigation".Fjågesund 2008 78 References Notes Citations 22em Bibliography yes October 1773a The Polar Expedition, being the Journal of a Voyage towards the North Pole The Westminster Magazine, or, the Pantheon of Taste 1 An Officer of the Squadron http://archive.org/details/sim_westminster-magazine-or-the-pantheon-of-taste_1773-10_1 English W. Goldsmith London 573–578 November 1773b The Polar Expedition, being the Journal of a Voyage towards the North Pole The Westminster Magazine, or, the Pantheon of Taste 1 An Officer of the Squadron http://archive.org/details/sim_westminster-magazine-or-the-pantheon-of-taste_1773-11_1 English W. Goldsmith London 623–625 Engel Samuel Samuel Engel Memoires et observations geographiques et critiques sur la situation des pays septentrionaux de l'Asie et de l'Amerique, d'apres les relations les plus recentes. Auxquelles on a joint un Essai sur la route aux Indes par le nord, & sur un commerce tres vaste & tres riche a etablir dans la mer du Sud. Avec deux nouvelles cartes dressees conformement a ce systeme. Par Mr. *** 1765 https://books.google.com/books?id=Tbg31dcKecMC Chez Antoine Chapuis, imprimeur fr 2021-05-16 Fjågesund Peter 2008 When Science Came to the Arctic : Constantine Phipps's Expedition to Spitsbergen in 1773 http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-43270 Journal of Northern Studies 2 77–91 Goodwin Peter Peter Goodwin (maritime author) Nelson's Arctic Voyage: The Royal Navy's first polar expedition 1773 2019-05-16 https://books.google.com/books?id=V2yQDwAAQBAJ Bloomsbury Publishing en 978-1-4729-5416-9 2021-05-14 Lewis-Jones Huw W.G. Huw Lewis-Jones Nelson and the bear: the making of an Arctic myth October 2005 https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0032247405004675/type/journal_article Polar Record 41 4 335–353 en 10.1017/S0032247405004675 2005PoRec..41..335L 202156909 2021-05-18 subscription Markham Albert Hastings Albert Hastings Markham Northward Ho! 1879 https://books.google.com/books?id=IZQBAAAAYAAJ Macmillan en The Journal of a Voyage undertaken by order of his present Majesty, for making discoveries towards the North Pole, by the Hon. Commodore Phipps, and Captain Lutwidge, in his Majesty's sloops Racehorse and Carcase. To which is prefixed, An Account of the several Voyages undertaken for the discovery of a North East Passage to China and Japan. A different work from that written by C. J. Phipps, under the title of "A Voyage towards the North Pole," etc 1774 https://books.google.com/books?id=_rBgAAAAcAAJ Newbery Francis F. Newbery en 2021-05-20 Francis Newbery (publisher) Norsk Polarinstitut Place names in Norwegian polar areas https://placenames.npolar.no/Phipps%25C3%25B8ya/Svalbard 2022-01-16 placenames.npolar.no en Phipps Constantine John Constantine Phipps, 2nd Baron Mulgrave https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/15240 A voyage towards the North Pole : undertaken by His Majesty's command, 1773 1774 Printed by W. Bowyer and J. Nichols for J. Nourse 978-0-665-28500-4 London Savours Ann 1983-01-01 The Younger Cleveley and the Arctic 1773–4 https://doi.org/10.1080/00253359.1983.10655927 The Mariner's Mirror 69 3 301–304 10.1080/00253359.1983.10655927 0025-3359 subscription Savours Ann Ann Savours Shirley 1984 "A Very Interesting Point in Geography": The 1773 Phipps Expedition towards the North Pole Arctic 37 4 402–428 10.14430/arctic2224 40510304 0004-0843 free Williams Glyndwr Glyndwr Williams http://archive.org/details/voyagesofdelusio0000will Voyages of delusion : the Northwest Passage in the Age of Reason 2002 HarperCollins 978-0-00-257181-4 McGrath Tim I Fear Nothing https://www.usni.org/magazines/navalhistory/2015-08/i-fear-nothing Naval History 29 4 United States Naval Institute August 2015 External links Full text of Phipps' Voyage towards the North Pole, from a 1775 edition combined with Hawkesworth's Account Category:Expeditions from the Kingdom of Great Britain Category:Arctic expeditions Category:1773 in Great Britain Category:18th-century history of the Royal Navy