52 WHALING 



east-northeast and reached the ''north water" some days after. 

 In Pond's Bay — it was the middle of August — fine weather 

 awaited them, and whales were plentiful: the Friendship, of 

 Dundee, had already taken fifteen when the Dee arrived. The 

 Dee took four in the next fortnight and picked up three dead 

 ones. But by September the season was well advanced, the 

 whales were getting scarce, and Captain Gamblin thought it 

 the part of prudence to start homeward. Prudence it was, but 

 he was already too late! 



They soon fell in with the Grenville Bay, whose captain re- 

 ported all passage to the east impracticable because of the ice, 

 and together with the Grenville Bay and the Norfolk they at- 

 tempted the north passage. Meanwhile, they had gone on 

 short allowance of rations. They reached latitude 75° and were 

 within sight of Cape Melville, but the bay ice was ''making too 

 strong" for them and on the twentieth they bore away south. 

 By the twenty-third they had reached 71°, with heavy bay ice 

 around them, and there they found two more of their fleet, the 

 Thomas and the Advice, of Dundee, who had also attempted 

 the Northeast Passage and had found on an iceberg the marks 

 of eight anchors. That night all five whalers anchored like- 

 wise to big blocks of ice — sconce-pieces, they were called — that 

 they might keep together, and the next day they tried for 

 an opening to the south. And the next, and the next. They 

 were surrounded by ice. The allowance was cut again and,' 

 after a consultation of the captains, they all bore away to the 

 north, but by October 1st, they had run into very rugged 

 weather, an east-northeast wind, snow, strong ice, and a heavy 

 swell. Resigning themselves to that from which there was no 

 escape, they decided to get as far south as they could for the 

 winter. But yet more irony was waiting for them: the wind 

 failed, they could make no progress and by October 8th, within 

 sight of each other, all five vessels were locked fast in the ice. 



Then began their winter. They were in latitude 73° 12', at 

 the mouth of Baffin Bay. Fuel was scarce — they had thought 

 to be in Scotland again by November — so that the beds were 

 cold and damp. There was, of course, little or no "ship's 



