The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Volume 1 (of 2) by James Harrison
page 24 of 343 (06%)
page 24 of 343 (06%)
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so fully satisfied him he was not unqualified for the task, that the
worthy captain at length, kindly consented to receive him in this capacity; and, though the Carcass, when fitted, being found too deep in the water to proceed to sea with safety, was constrained to put part of her guns on shore, and reduce her complement to eighty men, the young coxswain felt himself already too firmly fixed in his captain's favour to dread being one of the dismissed number. On the 30th of May 1773, Captain Lutwidge, in the Carcass, joined Captain Phipps, in the Racehorse, at the Nore: but, being delayed, by the easterly winds, till the 4th of June, his majesty's birth-day, at six o'clock that morning, both ships weighed; and Captain Lutwidge, having received his orders from Captain Phipps, they immediately sailed on the expedition. The journal of this important voyage, during which so much was seen and suffered, Captain Phipps published soon after his return, in a respectable quarto volume, which contains a large fund of scientifical and professional information. Our young hero had recently felt the enervating effects of a burning sun, in the torrid regions of the west; he had now speedily to encounter the benumbing influence of a frozen atmosphere, in the torpid confines of the north. On the 13th of June, in the evening, land was first seen by the Carcass: it was light enough to read on deck all night; and, the next day, some Shetland boats came on board with fish. After proceeding along the coast of Spitsbergen, and ranging between |
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