Josh. Edwards and John Preston, Ice-pilots.

"" 29.

The complements of the ships were altered from the establishments they would otherwise have received as ordinary men-of-war. The number of officers was increased, whilst effective men were entered in lieu of the usual number of boys. The complement for the Racehorse was as follows:

One Captain.

Three Lieutenants.

One Master.

One Surgeon.

One Surgeon's Mate.

One Purser.

Three Master's Mates.

Six Midshipmen.

One Astronomer.

One Captain's Clerk.

One Gunner.

One Boatswain.

One Carpenter.

One Cook.

Two Quarter Masters.
One Quarter Master's Mate.

It is a very curious fact that both Captain Phipps and Commander Lutwidge, although officers of different ranks, were in receipt of the same amount of pay. This can only be accounted for by the supposition that they were paid at a special rate, irrespective of rank.

Both ships were fitted with the latest description of chain pumps, whilst they were also supplied with Dr. Irving's1 apparatus for distilling water. This was, I think, the first time that condensed water was ever used in the Royal Navy!

The provisions, spirits, wine and clothing

1 This gentleman was serving as surgeon on board the Racehorse.

76

INDIFFERENCE TO ARCTIC SERVICE. [CHAP.

with which the expedition was provided, were of the best quality, and were supplied in a most liberal manner.

The ships were commissioned on the 15th of April, 1773, but, as Mr Floyd tells us, they had some little difficulty at first in, obtaining crews, The men were not, as in these days, so eager and enthusiastic for Arctic service; there was no prize money to be gained in the vicinity of the North Pole, and they preferred taking their chance of obtaining some in a more temperate climate. It is a curious fact that although all the men who joined these ships were volunteers, in the short space of time they were being fitted out, the Racehorse, out of a complement of about seventy seamen, lost no less than twentyone by desertions, whilst the Carcass lost three!

Perhaps this may be attributable to the severity of the discipline kept up in those days, and which was probably not relaxed on board the exploring ships, although they were about to engage in service of such an exceptional nature.

The punishments inflicted too, were often

very severe, not unmixed with a degree of novelty, for in the log of the Carcass we read "Richard Dingle was punished for theft by being made to run the gauntlet!"

that one,

Be this as it may, in about six weeks' time from commissioning, the necessary preparations had been completed, and the ships reported ready for sea.

On the 23rd of May, the Earl of Sandwich, accompanied by the French Ambassador, paid the vessels a visit, and was cheered on leaving.

On the 30th, the Clerk of the Cheque went on board, and paid the men their bounty, and on the 4th of June the two ships sailed from the Nore.

Mr. Floyd's narrative, which forms the main feature of this little book, enters so fully into the details connected with the fitting out of this expedition, and describes so fully its proceedings from the day of leaving England until within a few days of its return, that I have considered it unnecessary here to make more than a brief allusion to it, leaving his narrative to tell its own tale.

78

GOD-FEARING MARINERS.

[CHAP.

It may be, however, as well for me to remark here that Mr. Floyd's relation is fully corroborated by the official account of the expedition, published by Captain Phipps,1 and it may therefore be relied on as a trustworthy and veracious account.

There is one great contrast, which I cannot omit mentioning, between this expedition of the eighteenth century, and all those that had been despatched during the Elizabethan era. In reading the various accounts of those brave men who set out in frail barks, for the exploration of unknown and dangerous seas, in the latter end of the sixteenth century, we cannot but be struck with the strong, and reverent, feeling that pervaded their hearts, and the firm trust and reliance that they evinced in the power of an all-seeing and beneficent Providence to protect them from all dangers; nor can we fail to observe that when preserved from any sudden and unlooked-for calamity, their thoughts

1 A Voyage towards the North Pole, undertaken by His Majesty's Command, 1773. By Constantine John Phipps. Dedicated to the King.