Journey of the Frozen Tears
The Journey of the Frozen Tears, otherwise simply known as 'the Journey was an 1834-5 voyage of the Nova English ship the SS. Endevour. The result of the journey was the arrival of the Endeavour's passengers on what is now known as Trinity Island and the establishment of the Commonwealth of the South Sea Islands.
The journey lasted from December 26th 1834 to May 31st 1835.
Background
Following the downfall of the Britannic the home islands (otherwise known as Madison Isle) changed hands several times, with successive waves of Batavian and Nova English occupation, amongst others. For the population of the islands the political uncertainty and economic hardship that resulted from this led to considerable discord, and in mid-1834 a former merchant sailor named Sir Nigel James Hunt began agitating for a revolt on Madison Isle.
While Hunt found considerable sympathy from parts of the islands population, there was little appetite for further political upheaval, and the dwindling population were accurately aware of their technological and numerical disadvantage when compared to the islands' occupiers.
For that reason, Hunt changed his position and began to campaign for the relocation of the islands' Britannic inhabitants to a new homeland, with the promise of enhanced political, religious and economic freedoms. While the majority of the islands' residents chose to remain, a group of around 600 islanders pledged to support Hunt's expedition.
Crucially, very few of the volunteers had any seafaring experience.
Having gained support for his proposal, Sir Nigel James Hunt appealed to the Britannic Empire's longstanding friend and ally, Nova England, for support. Having initially declined to provide direct assistance, the Nova English government later confirmed that they would provide Hunt with material support in return for a cessation of his campaign.
The SS. Endeavour
The SS. Endeavour began life as a third rate ship of the line in the Nova English navy, launched as HMNS Desire. Destined to be broken up upon retirement in 1834 after an unremarkable career, the ship was ultimately decommissioned and gifted by King Josephus I to Sir Nigel James Hunt for the purpose of evacuated beleaguered civilians from the former Britannic home islands.
Measuring 56 meters in length and with a displacement of 3,000 tonnes, the Desire's 74 canons were removed prior to decommissioning, and the ship was renamed as SS. Endeavour for civilian use.
Summary of the journey
The SS. Endeavour left Madison Isle with 600 passengers (300 men, 250 women and 50 children) on December 26th 1834, and sailed due south with the aim of establishing contact with the former Britannic residents of the Captive Sea Islands. In part due to strong winds and in part due to the crew's inexperience, the Endeavour failed to make sufficient progressive eastward, and therefore failed to reach the coast of Keltia before the route become blocked by North Island.
Knowing North Island to be home to a state hostile to Britannic populations, the Endeavour continued south before becoming ensnared in the windless doldrums doldrums. It is not recorded how long the ship was stranded by windless weather conditions, however estimates range from three to five weeks, during which time the ships' passengers improvised fishing lines and convex mirrors to desalinate seawater by evaporation and condensation. Despite these efforts, several passengers died of malnutrition and dehydration during this period.
When the wind returned the ship continued on its southward journey, however the period of stasis and the arrival of cloudy weather made navigation difficult, and the exact position of the ship was not known. When the weather cleared and navigation by the stars become possible once more, it was clear that the ship was much further south than initially thought.
The appearance of distant sea ice on the horizon confirmed this, however a number of uninhabited rocky islets in the vicinity of the sea ice convinced Hunt to continue their southward course. By this period, it was around the middle of March (southern hemisphere summer), and the isles were host to large flocks of seabirds and their young. Short on food, the Endeavour drew close to the largest nearby islet, and the passengers engaged in capturing birds and their eggs, as well as what little vegetation could be found on the rocky terrain.
Relieved at the availability of food on the islet, the Endeavour remained anchored alongside it for a number of weeks, even when the flocks of migrating birds began to depart northwards. The sudden appearance one morning of icebergs around the ship alerted Hunt to danger, but with the prevailing wind continuing to push the ship southwards and the icebergs obscuring the path northwards, the Endeavour gradually become more and more ensnared by the sea ice.
Progressively the ship became almost completely trapped by the surrounding ice, and westward progress was almost completely halted. While the arrival of winter snows provided a source of fresh water for the Endeavour's passengers, the extreme cold soon took its toll and up to one third of the ship's passengers departed of hunger and hypothermia. Those aboard the ship resorted to tearing away pieces of timber from the structure of the ship to burn for fuel to stay warm and melt snow, and the largely redundant sails were almost entirely destroyed for kindling.
While the ship was moving slowly, and not moving at all on certain days, it did continue to move westward through the icy wasteland, slowly breaking the early winter's ice.
By the moonlight early in the morning of May 31st 1835, the dark silhouette of a landmass was sighted north of the Endeavour, and the remnants of the sails were hoisted in the hope of making it towards it. The residual heat retained in the biomass of the island in early winter meant that the ice had not yet reached its shores (although it would in the weeks that followed) and the combination of wind power and manual labour by the ship's passengers allowed the Endeavour to make landfall.
The island in question became known as Trinity Island (named after Trinity Sunday, the day it was reached) and, while the island itself proved to be a challenging environment, the crew were able to survive there and establish a settlement.
The resulting settlement, Port Egmont, would become the first capital city of the South Sea Islands.
