A - Arctic Expedition: June-September 1773
In the summer of 1773 the 14-year old Nelson took part in an expedition to the Arctic, which came close to ending his naval career almost before it had begun.
The purpose of the expedition was to find if there was a navigable passage north-about between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and it was supported by the Royal Society and by King George III. Two bomb vessels HMS Racehorse and Carcass were fitted out and strengthened under the command of Captain Hon. Constantine Phipps.
The expedition failed in its main object. It was an unusually cold summer in the Arctic that year and as a result the ships became locked in ice when they were still in distant sight of Spitzbergen. Despite strenuous efforts, the ships were unable to cut their way out. At one point, it appeared that the crews might have to abandon the ships and attempt to reach land by dragging the ships' boats over the ice. But on the very day they were to set out on this desperate journey, the wind changed and the ice began to break up. The ships were extricated and returned home.
Nelson was given command of one of the smaller boats of the ships, a four-oared cutter manned by twelve seamen. In this he helped to save the crew of a boat belonging to the Racehorse from an attack by a herd of enraged walruses.
He also had a more famous encounter with a polar bear, going out one day with a companion to attempt to obtain a bear skin as a present for his father. They found their bear but Nelson's musket misfired, and despite his friend's entreaties, he was apparently preparing to cross the chasm dividing them from their prey, intending to attack it with the butt end of his gun, when they were spotted from the ship. A gun was fired, frightening the bear away, and a sulky Nelson returned to the Carcass to explain himself to an angry Captain Lutwidge. Inevitably, this exploit later became part of the Nelson legend but in the various paintings, the chasm and the companion were always omitted, showing Nelson eyeball-to-eyeball with the bear – and alone.
Part of the Nelson A to Z, Edited extracts taken from The Nelson Encyclopædia by Dr Colin White, Chatham Publishing London, 2002.