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‘The North-west Passage, or voyage finished’: a polar play and musical entertainment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

Daniel Claustre
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Extract

Among the collections of the Scott Polar Research Institute is the manuscript of the New Georgia Gazette, a newspaper completed on board ship during William Edward Parry's first expedition in search of a North-west Passage, 1819–20. The expedition stimulated much interest at home partly for its achievement in discovering half of the North-west Passage, and for its novelty as the first expedition deliberately to spend a winter in high Arctic latitudes. It is thus no great surprise that, after the expedition's return home, a printed version of the Gazette was published, for it provides a vivid insight into life on board ship during that unprecedented Arctic winter. However, at the back of the original manuscript of the newspaper is a play written during the expedition under the title, The North-west Passage, or voyage finished, which was not included in the publication. The reason for its exclusion is not given, but it cannot have been due entirely to the dissatisfaction of Parry, who was happy enough to refer to it in his narrative of the expedition (Parry, 1824, p 127), or to its lack of success, since it was most favourably reviewed at the time of its performance. Nor was the play ever entirely forgotten. In Jules Verne's novel, Les aventures du Capitaine Halteras (1861, part 2, p 426) Dr Clawbonny comments ‘Parry composa lui-meme pour les fetes de Noel une comedie tout a fait en situation; elle eut un immense succes et était intitulee Le Passage du Nord-Ouest ou la Fin du Voyag’. Paul-Emile Victor (1968, p 223) also mentions the play's existence, but it was only very recently that this full text of the play was rediscovered at the back of the original Gazette.The manuscript of the play is neatly handwritten in an unknown hand and occupies 19 pages measuring about 20×32 cm.

Type
Articles
Information
Polar Record , Volume 21 , Issue 131 , May 1982 , pp. 95 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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References

Notes

1. ‘One of our men is reading Othello, and I am surprised to find that all the seamen talk to me about Shakespeare; one prefers Macbeth, another Hamlet…‘Google Scholar.

2. The original manuscript carries the title The New Georgia Gazette and Winter Chronicle, but in the published version the word ‘New’ has been changed to ‘North’. ‘North Georgia’ was Parry's name for the islands discovered during his voyage, now known as the Parry Islands. It seems that Parry may originally have named the islands ‘New Georgia', but then changed his mind after his returnGoogle Scholar.

3. ‘Parry himself had written for Christmas a play well-suited to the circumstances; it was a great success, and was entitled The North-West Passage or Voyage Finished”Google Scholar.

4. In 1818 an Act of Parliament offered a scale of rewards for progress towards the discovery of a North-west Passage, rising from £5 000 for the first ships to pass the meridian of 110°W within the Arctic Circle to £20 000 for the completion of the Passage. There are several references in the play to these rewards, which Parry clearly regarded as very valuable inducements to his men to offer their best services. By the time the play was performed the expedition had already gained the first reward of £5000, but they failed to win any moreGoogle Scholar.

5. ‘A small boat used for carrying vegetables, fruit, and provisions to ships lying in harbour’ (The Oxford companion to ships and the sea, 1976, p 118)Google Scholar.

6. ‘The carcass of a whale after the blubber has been removed; the flesh of a dead whale’ (Oxford English dictionary)Google Scholar.

7. ‘Pronounced stunsail, an additional sail, set only in fine weather, with the wind abaft the beam, outside the square sails of a ship’ (The oxford companion to ship and the sea, 1976 p.839)Google Scholar

8. Cribb, Tom (1781–1848), otherwise known as the ‘Black Diamond’, champion pugilist in the period 1805–11. He was still champion at the time of Parry's expedition, but by then he had not received a challenge for over eight years. On 24 January 1821 it was decided that he ought not be expected to fight any more, and he was permitted to hold the title of champion for the remainder of his life (Dictionary of National Biography, Vol 13, 1888, p 84–85)Google Scholar.