66 A rctic and Antarctic Exploration [part i 
entrusted to Charles Jackman of Poplar, with a crew of 
five men and a boy. Nicholas Chancellor, perhaps one 
of the two sons of Richard, who caused him so much 
anxiety when he sailed into the unknown with Sir Hugh 
Willoughby, sailed with Pet as merchant. They were 
supplied with letters from the Queen. Sailing directions 
were drawn up by William Burrough, with instructions 
for observing ; a paper of advice was written for them 
by Dr Dee, and a note on the commercial aspects of 
the enterprise by Richard Hakluyt. Under these ex- 
cellent auspices the two tiny little vessels set out on the 
voyage to Cathay by the north-east. 
Leaving Harwich on the 30th May, 1580, the two 
boats rounded the North Cape, and arrived at Vardo 
on the 23rd June. When they put to sea again the 
William was obliged to stop at Kegor for repairs, while 
the George continued her easterly course until she came 
in sight of the coast of Novaya Zemlya. Here she was 
beset in the ice, and, having been extricated with some 
difficulty, she reached the Bay of Petchora, and sighted 
Waigatz on the 18th July. Six days afterwards the 
William joined company again ; but her stern post was 
broken, her rudder was hanging loose, and she would 
not steer. The combined crews set to work to remedy 
the damage by passing hawsers round the stern of the 
William and hauling them taut at a capstan, and they 
were again able to steer her. 
Captain Pet discovered the strait between Waigatz 
and the mainland, and the two boats passed through it 
and made several attempts to bore through the ice, 
sometimes entering the pack, and occasionally making 
slight progress by sailing along lanes of water left between 
the grounded ice and the shore. In August, when they 
found it impossible to penetrate the ice, they gave up the 
attempt. Passing the shoals of Kolguev Island, the 
William again parted company in a fog on the 22nd 
August. Captain Pet brought the little George safely 
back into the Thames on the 25 th of September. Jackman 
was less fortunate. The William wintered in the Trond- 
hjem fjord, sailed in company with a Danish vessel bound 
for Iceland in the spring, but was never heard of more. 
The fearless audacity of these gallant seamen in at- 
