152 Arctic and Antarctic Exploration [part i 
resolved to get command of an Arctic expedition, it 
was through Briggs that he obtained the patronage of Sir 
Thomas Roe, the ambassador, who had returned from India. 
In 1631, with the help of the Trinity House, Luke 
Foxe, full of intense eagerness, secured his heart's desire. 
He was allowed to have H.M.S. Charles, an old gunboat 
of 70 or 80 tons, which had seen much service, and had 
been ordered to be sold. The Master, whose name is 
never given, and the mate Yourin or Hurin, were not of 
his choosing, having been appointed by the Trinity House. 
Of the Master, Foxe says he was "the most arrogant bull 
calf that ever went or came as Master and the most 
faint-heartedest man." The crew consisted of 20 men 
and 3 boys, and the ship was provisioned for 18 months. 
Foxe was against the use of tobacco as "a thing good for 
nothing," but all the men smoked. 
The Charles sailed from Deptford on the 5th of May, 
1631, going north about, instead of down channel. 
Another expedition had sailed from Bristol nearly at the 
same time and with the same object, under the command 
of Captain James. He sighted Greenland encompassed 
about with ice, and worked continually to keep clear of it. 
Passing down Hudson Strait and between Nottingham 
Island and Cape Digges, Captain James, as we shall see, 
met the Charles in Hudson's Bay on the 29th August. 
Foxe first came to Lumley Inlet on the west coast of 
Davis Strait, really Frobisher Strait, which Davis did not 
realise. Davis named it after Lord Lumley who had 
" built the pier of that distressful poor fisher town 
Hartlepool at a cost of £2000, and was a great favourer 
of Davis." In Hudson Strait the progress of the Charles 
was much impeded by ice from the 23rd June to the 4th 
July. Foxe describes the ice and also mentions the use 
of log and line for registering the ship's run 1 . 
1 This is the first place in which I have found the use of log and line 
mentioned, although it had been known for at least 60 years; indeed 
an obscure passage in Pigafetta seems to suggest its use by Magellan. 
Bourne, in his Regiment of the Sea, published in 1573, describes the 
log-ship as so made that it remains where it falls into the water, while 
the line runs out during a fixed interval by a minute glass. The intervals 
between the knots on the log line are to a minute as a mile is to an hour. 
In Bourne's Inventions or Devices, No. 21, published in 1578, the inventor 
of the log and line is said to be Humphrey Cole of the Mint in the Tower; 
the maker of the instruments for Frobisher's first and second voyages 
bought in 1576. 
