The Corvette (39 page)

The delay in the sailing of the Hull ships is my own fiction but it is based on the fact that in 1802, during the Peace of Amiens, the government removed some of the press-exemptions extended to the officers of whalers in anticipation of further hostilities. It is therefore not difficult to excuse the whale-ship masters their suspicions. There were indeed plans of Hull and the Humber discovered en route to France in early 1803 and this forms the basis for Ellerby's treachery. In addition he was not only acting traitorously but illegally, since he had breached an oath required of whaler captains that they would not profit from any activity in the Arctic Seas than that of whaling.

The extraordinary opening in the ice corresponds roughly to that found by Scoresby in 1806. It was however 1822 before the eponymous Scoresby discovered the great fiord, an inlet of which forms Nagtoralik Bay. Of Scoresby Sound the Admiralty Sailing Directions say ‘This ice-free land consists mainly of rugged mountains but . . . near the open sea the vegetation is luxuriant and game is plentiful.' It is also ‘considered to be the most easily accessible part of the coast of East Greenland.'

Drinkwater's reasons for suppressing his discovery are clear. When
Beaufort was appointed Hydrographer to the Navy his habit of personally scrutinising all surveys combined with the remoteness of the locality to delay the publication of a spurious and anonymous survey of ‘Nagtoralik Bay and its surroundings'. By this time, of course, Scoresby's name had become firmly connected with the area.