he Tudors tried to
improve English mining techniques, partly by importing German
expertise in the form of scientific treatises (such as that by
Agricola) and German metallurgists to
oversee mining projects. Thus, in the case of the Baffin mines,
Jonas Schutz and Burchard Kranich
played key roles.
However, English miners of the sixteenth century were low on first-hand
experience in mining hard rocks such as found in the Baffin Island
region. Their experience was limited mostly to working shallow
surface mines to extract soft rock such as limestone, shale, and
slate, which could be broken with picks, sledgehammers, and chisels.
Gunpowder was not used to break apart rock until the seventeenth
century. Mining techniques likely to have been used in the Arctic
include pick-and-hammer, plug-and-feather, and possibly fire-setting.
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Miners at work in Austria
From Der Ursprung gemeynner Berckrecht wie die lange Zeit von dem
Alten erhalten worde, printed by Johann Haselberger, between 1515 and
1538
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The pick-and-hammer method required a single-tined pick, which has
a head resembling a hammer at one end and a point at the other. This
pick, used like a chisel, was held against the rock with one hand
and struck into the rock with a hammer in the other hand. This
technique would be used to crack the hardest veins. Under heavy
use, the pick would stay sharp for about one hour, at which point
it was either resharpened by a blacksmith or thrown away. There is
evidence that this method was used on Kodlunarn Island. Narrow
grooves can be seen in one wall
of the "Ship's Trench". They are irregular marks formed by the
pick being hammered into the rock.
The plug-and-feather technique was employed to split rock with an
obvious grain or fracture. Into an existing fracture or crevice -
or one made using a pick - two iron plates (or
"feathers") were inserted; an iron wedge was then
driven between the plates. Placing several sets of feathers into the
grain and hammering the wedges between them eventually forced the
rock to break. Included in the inventory of mining tools taken to
Meta Incognita are plates, wedges, chisels, and picks. This suggests
that Frobisher's miners may have used the plug-and-feather method.
Fire-setting involved heating a rock surface and then pouring cold
water onto it so that it shattered. This method was commonly used
on hard, brittle rocks such as those containing quartz. It would
not have been very effective with the more flexible
"black ore" which was taken from
Meta Incognita.
Frobisher's mines in the Baffin area were shallow surface trenches
from which extremely hard rock was removed. Once the rock was broken
from the surface, it was carried in baskets
or pulled on sleds to small boats. The boats with their heavy loads
then had to be rowed out to the ships.
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This was all tiring work. There were few labour-saving devices
available to miners in the sixteenth century. Beginning in the
1500s, sailors on ships used a jumper rig to lift and to weigh
heavier objects. A jumper rig could lift a wicker basket filled
with ore from the smaller boats to the ships. Nonetheless, mining
and transporting was very hard work and the demanding schedule of
the Arctic expeditions - the aim being to extract and load as much
ore as possible before the short Arctic summer ended and the fleet
had to return to England - resulted in many expedition members
suffering hernias, back problems, sciatica, and limb fractures.
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Photograph: Steven Darby
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