CH. XI] 
John Davis 
99 
Sunshine sprang a leak which could only be kept under 
by 500 strokes of the pump during each watch, and the 
Ellen was such a bad sailer that she had to be towed. 
On the 16th June, in spite of these drawbacks, the three 
vessels came to anchor in Gilbert Sound. Davis was so 
anxious that the expedition should pay its expenses that 
he determined to despatch both the Sunshine and the 
Elizabeth to the fishery, and to continue his voyage of 
discovery in the little pinnace Ellen of barely 20 tons. 
Then John Churchward reported that the Ellen had 
sprung a leak and that it required 300 strokes of the 
pump every watch to keep her clear of water. In this 
wretched little craft the explorers were to hazard their 
lives. All felt the crisis to be serious. Some hesitated. 
John Davis considered the matter, and his decision was 
worthy of him. He told his people that it would be 
better to end their lives with credit than to return with 
infamy and disgrace. The crew accepted his words as 
final and resolved to live and die together. 
At midnight therefore on the 21st June all sailed from 
Gilbert Sound, the two barks for the fishing voyage, and 
Davis in the pinnace to continue the work of discovery. 
Proceeding northward along the west coast of Greenland, 
to which he gave the name of the London Coast, Davis took 
an observation on the 30th which showed the pinnace to be 
in 72 0 12' N. A lofty perpendicular cliff, in reality one 
of several small islands off the coast, was named after 
the friend and chief promoter of the expedition " Sanderson 
his Hope," for here it was that there seemed to be the 
chiefest hope of a passage. Sanderson his Hope rises to 
the height of 850 feet above the sea, perpendicular save 
for narrow ledges on which myriads of looms and kitti- 
wakes rear their young. 
Davis was now obliged to alter course to the west 
owing to a strong northerly wind, and ran for 40 leagues 
in that direction without sighting land. Throughout the 
voyage he paid close attention to the phenomena of 
terrestrial magnetism, and did his best to increase the 
data for studying the properties of the magnet during 
all his voyages. The observations for variation at 
London have been continuous since 1580, and Davis 
had studied the work of another Arctic navigator, William 
7—2 
