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HECLA
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(4) |
Bomb
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Built in 1815, North Barton.
Sold in 1831. |
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- 1816 William POPHAM.
With Lord Exmouth's fleet at the bombardment of Algiers in August 1816. - 1819 Lieut. William Edward PARRY, 01/1819, Arctic Sea, in a second attempt to discover the N. W. passage.
The previous year, as commander of the ALEXANDER brig he had accompanied Capt. John ROSS to the Arctic; this time the expedition was under the sole direction of Lieut. PARRY, who was consulted on the choice of both ships and officers.
The officers and gentlemen in HECLA were Lieut. Frederick BEECHEY; Capt. Edward Sabine, Royal Artillery, astronomer; Mr John EDWARDS, surgeon; Mr William HOOPER, purser; Messrs. Joseph NIAS, William Justin DEALY, Charles PALMER, James Clark ROSS, and John BUSHNAN, midshipmen; Mr Alexander FISHER, ass.
surgeon, and Mr James HALSE, commander's clerk.
Two master mariners, John Allison and George Fife, with long experience of the Greenland whale fisheries accompanied the expedition.
The total number aboard the two vessels was 94, most of whom had sailed with ROSS the previous year.
They all received double pay.
At the same time Lieut. John FRANKLIN was sent on a land expedition to explore the coast to the east of the Copper Mine River and Lieut. PARRY was instructed to leave markers whenever he touched the mainland to keep Lieut. FRANKLIN informed. - With GRIPER, commanded by Lieut. Matthew LIDDON, she sailed on 11 May, rounded the Orkneys on the 20th., and reached the Davis Strait at the end of June to find unusual numbers of icebergs.
When they crossed the Arctic Circle on 3 July at least 50 bergs were passed during the day.
No bottom could be found with a 110 fathom line. - On the 4th. the wind dropped as HECLA entered a pack of loose ice and she was in danger of being swept on to a berg by the swell.
It took two hours hard pulling by the boats to tow her back into clear water.
PARRY reached Lancaster Sound on 28 July and the two ships ran up the sound in a fresh gale, the mastheads crowded with officers and men.
sailed across the 'Croker Mountains' which Ross had fancied he had seen at the end of a bay the previous year and named after the Secretary of the Admiralty.
Barrow's Strait, Wellington Channel and Melville Island were discovered and named.
On 4 September 1819 they crossed 110 deg. west of Greenwich which entitled them to an Admiralty reward of 5,000 pounds. A nearby headland on Melville Island was named Cape Bounty. - From the 26 September they wintered in the ice off Melville Island where the temperature fell to -55 deg on 16 February.
At first they attempted to saw away the ice around the ships, which reached 23 inches in thickness, but this had to be abandoned in the middle of November.
By 17 December the water in the ship's well froze and the pumps could no longer be used.
At about the same time they had a more serious problem when the bottles of lemon juice burst in the frost; this gave additional value to the few gallons of concentrated vinegar which had been taken along as a trial.
On 15 January they saw the only display of the Aurora Borialis that occurred during their stay.
The sun first appeared on 3 February and some of the snow on the ship's upper-works melted on 7 March.
On 17 May the operation of cutting away the ice was completed and the ships were afloat but no open water was seen until the early part of July 1820 and they were unable to stand out to sea until 1 August.
They returned to England at the end of October and Lieut. PARRY landed at Peterhead on the 29th.
Both ships entered the Thames in the middle of November and were paid off at Deptford on 21 December.
Lieut. PARRY was promoted to commander on 4 November. - The 5,000 pounds bounty was divided to give Capt. PARRY 1,000 pounds; Lieut. LIDDON 500 pounds; Lieuts BEECHEY and HOPPNER, Capt. Sabine and Messrs Allison and Fife, 200 pounds. The remainder was divided among rest of the officers and men according to rank and rating. The midshipmen were all promoted when the ships paid off.
- 1821 George Francis LYON, 01/1821, Polar Sea.
He accompanied FURY on PARRY's second voyage to the Arctic with the aim of finding an outlet to the west, north of Hudson's Bay.
On board HECLA were Lieuts HOPPNER and Charles PALMER; Mr Fife, Greenland master; Mr Alexander FISHER, surgeon; Mr John JERMAIN, purser; Messrs. Joseph SHERER, Charles RICHARDS, William GRIFFITHS and Edward BIRD, midshipmen.
The total number on the two ships was 121.
They sailed from the Nore on 8 May 1821, accompanied by a transport with provisions and stores.
The transport was ordered home on 1 July and they stood towards the ice in Hudson's Bay, which, by the 2 August, had become so closely packed that they could make no further progress.
They spent the rest of the season determining that there was no passage to the westward through Repulse Bay or from any of the openings to the eastward.
From 8 October the formation of ice stopped further exploration and they passed the first winter in the ice at Lyon's Inlet.
On 1 January 1822 the temperature dropped to -22 deg and on the 18th. a momentary alarm was caused when a stove pipe caught fire.
Contact was made with some Eskimos on 1 February.
At the beginning of July they were able to move but the flood tide loaded with ice swept down on them and un-shipped HECLA's rudder. - On 12 July, exploring in the boats, Capts.
PARRY and LYONS, found a river, which they named after Mr Barrow of the Admiralty, with a magnificent 90' waterfall. - They discovered Fury and Hecla Strait between the Melville Peninsular and Baffin Island and spent an unexpectedly long second winter in the ice from 24 September 1822 until 8 August 1823.
They were near an Eskimo encampment and were visited daily throughout the winter.
A canal over 1,000 yards long had to be cut to extricate the ships.
Capt. PARRY had decided to sent HECLA home and spend another season of exploration with FURY, and stores were transferred from HECLA for that purpose, but symptoms of scurvy began to appear in FURY's crew and Capt. LYON advised that they should both return home.
They started on 12 August but did not escape from the ice until 17 September, having been beset for 24 days out of 26 and covering more than 400 miles.
They anchored in Lerwick on 10 October and were paid off in Deptford on 14 November 1823.
Capts.
PARRY and LYON and Lieut. HOPPNER were promoted as were the midshipmen. - 1824 Capt. PARRY, 01/1824.
His third voyage, accompanied by Capt HOPPNER in FURY, was an attempt to reach the sea beyond the Fury and Hecla Strait.
They sailed from Deptford on 8 May 1824, entered the ice in Baffin's Bay on 17 July and reached Lancaster Sound on 10 September.
HECLA and FURY wintered on the eastern shore of Prince Regent Inlet between 28 September and 20 July 1825.
On the night of 30 July the ice forced FURY on the ground but she was hove off at high water.
On 1 August HECLA also struck and remained immovable for some hours.
A few days later FURY was bilged and had to be abandoned.
All her store had to be left as every spare corner of HECLA was required to accommodate the extra officers and men.
HECLA returned home about the middle of October 1825. - 1827 Capt. PARRY, 11/1826, his fourth voyage.
This was an attempt to reach the North Pole using two 20 foot boats on runners from a base on the north coast of Spitzberg Gen. HECLA left the Nore on 4 April 1827 and reached Hammerfest on 19 April where eight reindeer were loaded.
After a gale off Hakluyt's Headland HECLA was run into the ice and on 18 June a secure harbour was found on the north Spitzbergen coast.
PARRY and Lieut. James ROSS sailed in the two boats (ENTERPRISE and ENDEAVOUR) on 21 June and depots were set up at Low and Walden Islands.
On the 24th. they were stopped by ice at 81deg 12min north.
The way forward was over ice floes separated by narrow stretches of water which meant continual launching and recovery of the boats.
After struggling against an opposing ice drift they reached 82deg 45min North before PARRY decided to return and they reached open sea on 11 August.
HECLA had been forced on shore on 7 July but had been got off safely.
The boat parties finally arrived at the ship on 21 August after covering some 1100 miles without loss. - HECLA returned to the Thames on 6 October 1827 and was paid off at Deptford on 1 November.
- 1827 Thomas BOTELER, 12/1827, African survey.
In November Lieut. Francis HARDING became acting commander following the death of Capt. BOTELER and most of his crew from fever.
He brought her home with the few hands that were left before promoted to the command of JASEUR. - 1830 Edward BELCHER, 03/1830, survey.
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