Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924089994952 In compliance with current copyright law, Cornell University Library produced this replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39.48-1992 to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. 2001 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE AECTIC DISPATCHES CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY IN^OETH-WEST PASSAGE Bx CAPTAIN ROBERT MACLURE Commanding H.M.S. Investigator. WITH A NARRATIVE OF PROCEEDINGS OF H.M.S. RESOLUTE, CAPT. KELLETT, C.B., AND THE DISPATCHES OF CAPT. SIR EDWARD BELCHER, C.B., CAPT. INGLEFIELD, AND COMMR. PULLEN. WITH A MAP OP THE DISCOVERIES IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS. Reprinted fmm the Nautical Magazine. LONDON: J. D. POTTER, 31, POULTRY, AND 11, KING STREET, TOWER HILL. / LONDON! WALTER SPIERS, PBINTEBj GREAT PBESCOT STREET. CONTENTS. PAGE THE NOHTH WEST PASSAGE 1 DISPATCHES OP CAPT. E. A. INGLEPIELD 5 DISPATCH OP LIEUT. CRESSWELL 16 DISPATCH OP CAPT. m'cLUEE 16 DISPATCH OP CAPT. KELLETT ] 7 DISPATCH OF CAPT. SIR EDWARD BELCHER 17 DISPATCH OP CAPT. SIR EDWARD BELCHER 1ft, DISPATCHES OF CAPT. PULLEN 25 EXTRACT FROM SIR B. BBLCHER'S ORDERS 28 COPY OF NOTICE SENT ADRIFT IN A CASK 28 STATEMENT OP WILLIAM HARVEY RELATIVE TO THE LOSS OP LIEUT. BELLOT 28 STATEMENT OF WILLIAM JOHNSON ON THE SAME 29 DAVID HOOK CORROBORATES THE STATEMENT OP JOHNSON 31 PRIVATE LETTER PROM CAPT. KELLETT TO JOHN BARROW ESQ 31 DISPATCHES OF CAPT. m'cLURE 41 ABSTRACT OF METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL 93 LETTER PROM CAPT. M'CLURE TO HIS SISTER 94 LETTER FROM CAPT. m'cLURE TO HIS UNCLE 98 LETTER FROM AN OFFICER OP THE RESOLUTE TO HIS MOTHER 100 ARCTIC TRAVELLERS 101 SIR EDW. PARRY ON THE FATE OF SIR J. FRANKLIN 102 THE LATE LIEUT. BELLOT 103 REWARDS OFFERED FOR THE DISCOVERY OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN . . 110 THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. At length the great geographical question of the North-West Pas- sage is solved. At length the oft repeated attempt of above three centuries is crowned with success. Thanks to the daring of her in- trepid seamen, England has achieved her favourite project, and that a passage by sea, north of America, between Davis and Behring Straits, is actually to be made, no longer admits of doubt. It has been per- formed by Captain M'Clure in command of the Investigator, one of whose officers. Lieutenant Cresswell, is now in England. How many of England's brave and hardy seamen have been successively repulsed in this attempt ; how many have yet penetrated beyond their prede- cessors and wrested from the barriers of eternal frost another, and yet another, small portion of geographic lore, — have braved the perils of a snow-clad ocean and this in spite of aU the terrors of the Arctic winter " That holds with icy gi-asp the Polar world " in bonds of perpetual frost ? Let the long list of names in history's page, from the times of Willoughby and Frobisher down to those of Parry and Franklin, bear faithful yet painful record. At length, we repeat, the feat is accomplished, and though all have returned and might have justly said with Baffin " I have seen what mine eyes fain would not have seen," when he reported the continuity of land at the head of Baffin Bay, yet it has been left for M'Clure to profit by the energy of Parry, and to give the final answer to the long agitated question, " There is a north-west passage." Such is the general view of the subject at the present moment. While it is placed vividly before us in the despatches which follow, let us glance over a few of its most remarkable points, both past and present. The theory of a communication by the Arctic Sea between the At- lantic and Pacific Oceans was a favourite one of old. By England's earliest navigators it was adopted with a degree of zeal and restless determination purely their own. Baffled repeatedly and foiled in their attempts to achieve by it a passage to Cathay, from the days of Eli- zabeth during each successive reign down to the present, they still returned to the work. But, perhaps, at no period since its commence- ment has it been so determinedly followed up as it has been in the course of the present peace. No sooner had war ceased in Europe and the fleets of England were left to pursue the vocations of peace B ■i THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. than the spirit of enterprize was awakened once more in the field of Arctic Maritime Discovery. Who is he that cannot associate with this subject the respected name of the late Sir John Barrow. Having himself, in his youth, been as high as the 80°th parallel his attention was naturally turned to the subject of the N.W. passage and probability of a polar basin, theories which, at the time they were promulgated, were much ridiculed. It is now thirty-five years since Sir John Barrow first recorded his opinions on this subject in the Quarterly Review. We find him there arguing against Captain Burney (who had sailed with Cook) that Behring Strait was a navigable Strait and not a Gulf, as Captain Burney and many others maintained ; — that there would be found a set of the current to the eastward, the waters of the Pacific would be found to flow through the head of Baffin Bay, and down through Davis Strait into the Atlantic, " which bay is no bay at all," said Sir John, " but a cluster of of islands, and should be expunged from the chart;" — ^that a large polar basin was to be found to the northward, in fact, that the very coast line of America formed a part of it, is there laid down by him. When we reflect that all was a blank on the chart of those days, and, as the Edinburgh Review remarks, might have been occupied like the charts of the olden times with hideous griffins and ill shaped fishes, we think the reader will agree that the prophetic foresight of Sir John Barrow was not a little remarkable. His energy in following it up is well known. The failure of the first expedition and the opinion that no opening was to be found out of Baffin Bay did not deter him from his purpose. The ridicule, indeed, which he incurred produced no effect on his firm mind ; neither was his convic- tion, founded on a solid basis of reasoning, to be shaken by the failure. No opening might have caught the eye of the voyager, no more than it did that of Baffin, nevertheless, said Sir John, there must be one, and Lord Melville, relying on his judgment, dispatched Sir Edward Parry the following year to find it. How Sir Edward sailed through Lancaster Sound, and took his ships into Winter Harbour of Melville Island, all the world knows ; and this was half way to the Pacific Ocean. It has fallen to M'Clure to accomplish the other half; after numerous struggles in the wrong road he has hit the right one, and claims the honour for the British Navy of having discovered the North- West Passage. Although Mercy Bay, on the northern shore of Banks Island, (called Banks Land originally by Parry,) is yet some seventy miles from the nearest part of Melville Island, the North-West Passage may virtually be said to be completed, as Banks Strait, which separates them, is navigable, but for ice. And it is remarkable that Parry was about a fortnight in reaching Melville Island from Baffin Bay, while M'Clure was about three weeks reaching Banks Island from the west. The correct view which was taken of the subject by those who framed the instructions to Sir John Franklin, is also remarkable. He was advised to take the first favourable opening after passing Cape Walker to the south-west. Had he been able to do so, (for all is uncertain in ice navigation,) the strait found by M'Clure would have THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 3 led him on to Behring Strait. Failing to get to the south-west, which must have been the [case, it was left to him to take the Wellington Channel. Opinions appear to preponderate in favour of Sir John Franklin having taken his course to the west from the head of this chan- nel ; a course which if he has adopted must he fatal to him, in spite of the advocates of a Polynia. Were it not that he left no account of such intention on Beechey Island, and, above all, for certain reports about the vestiges of gardens being found there, we might subscribe to that opinion. But wintering, as he did, at the entrance of it, and with our knowledge of the sea discovered by Penny, (although Sir Edward Belcher says he saw more than he should have seen,) we cannot think that Sir John Franklin took that course, from his not having left any notice of his intention at Beechey Island — a place of all others, where, knowing he had passed one winter, we had a right to expect it. We say he passed one winter — ^who can say he did not do more than that, when vestiges of gardens are reported, in the early dispatches, to have been found, things which require a summer's sun, and time to attend to them. That some sad catastrophe has befallen Franklin's expedition, we are justified in concluding by the length of time which has elapsed since it sailed. Who can say that his ships were not driven on shore, as the North Star has been, by the ice. Erebus and Terror Bay, formed by Beechey Island, is not that sheltered place, according to Captain Ingle- field, that it was supposed to be. If the North Star lay a whole winter on shore, as she has done, the same might have happened to Franklin's ships. But, alas, never was mystery as yet more complete than that which hangs over them. We have, first, a long unaccountable absence ; we have then the discovery, five years after their departure, of where they assuredly were, but nothing to tell us whither they would next go ; we have then the rumours of distress, and ill-treatment of people by Esquimaux ; we have then deserted ships seen on ice — no phantom ships were these ; and again from the West we have rumours of a boat and her crew, and suspicious looking Indians. Were the ships those of Franklin ? Was the story of the distressed party true ? Was the boat and her crew a resolute party from him, deter- mined on penetrating to the south-west ? We could put an endless string of questions, but who can answer them ? All that we do know is, that the ships were assuredly at Beechey Island, and that nothing was found there to direct our further search for them. Mystery and mismanagement in this most important particular still hangs over the fate of the unfortunate FrankUn. Will Sir Edward Belcher clear it away ? We have little hope of that. Possibly more may be learnt from some distant Esquimaux, or some articles known to have belonged to his party by some fortuitous circumstance coming to hght. Such may hereafter lead to the discovery of their fate. Let us, however, turn from the sad picture ; but not without paying our tribute of heartfelt respect to the memory of the gallant Bellot. His indeed was a perilous undertaking, and he, poor feUow, became another martyr in the cause of Arctic discovery. Our own personal knowledge of him can realize easily all the noble sentiments which 4 THE NOBTH-A¥EST PASSAGE. Captain Pullen has expressed ; those qualifications of the mind whicil constituted him the officer and the man, the beloved friend and faithful companion in enterprize and danger ! Alas, poor Bellot ! * But is there no one else to engage our sympathy ? What has be- come of CoUinson ? WiU Sir Edward Belcher tell us something of him ? From his expressed opinion of the icy sea to the N. W. of his position in Northumberland Sound, we have little hope there. And yet to the West we must look for him. All we know of him at pre- sent is, that he passed the Strait (Behring) in 1851. One summer sufficed for M'Clure to reach Banks Island. But two summers have not sufficed for Collinson — and here is a third ia which we are still looking for the intelligence of his presence anywhere to reach us. How long must we wait for an answer ? — another and another year ? Has he taken the ice to the Northward ? the report of Sir Edward Belcher on that subject awakens all our fears for him. But had be been to the Southward why have we not heard of him ? Again we must submit to suspense and look now for further intelligence from the North, when our anxious inquiries will not only be for vestiges of Sir John Franklin's party, but also is Collinson safe ? The reader of our collection of the Arctic dispatches is referred to the little chart from the hand of our first of geographers Arrowsmith. It will place him in possession of the relative situations of the main features of the question. With the information that Behring Strait is about as far West of Banks Island (Land) as the East side of Baffin Bay is East of it, he will have a sufficiently clear conception of the whole Arctic Sea in question. But there is a very remarkable coincidence, we will call it, in one part of it to which we cannot help aEuding. On the 24th of May, 1851, an officer of Captain M'Clure's ship, Mr. Win- niett, was at his furthest East position, and on the 23d of May, 1851, Lieut. (Cora.) Sherard Osborn, of Capt. Austin's expedition, was at his furthest West position. Thus the two expeditions, one from the West and the other from the East, approached each other within about 70 miles, and that, too, only a day apart. A similar occurrence took place with Pullen and M'Clure, being close to each other, in 1850 without knowing it; and another in 1826, when Capt. Beecliey's party and Sir John Franklin himself turned back from each other in opposite directions about 140 miles apart at the same time. These are however, among the curiosities of the arctic regions. We now proceed with the dispatches ; and first that of Captain Inglefield, who brought us the rest of the interesting letters which accompany them. * We find by the following, which appears in the Daily News, that it is intended to raise a monument to his memory : — MoNUMBNT TO THE LATE LIEUTENANT Bellot. — Lord John Rnssell and the Earl of Ellcsmere have requested Sir Roderick Murchison to place their names on the list of the committee, for the purpose of procuring the erection of a monument to the memory of the late gallant French officer. Lieutenant Bellot, and have authorized him to announce that they are ready to contribute liberally to the laudable object. THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 5 H.M. steam-ship Phoenix, off Thurso, Oct. 4. Sib, — I have the honour to report to you, for the information of my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, my arrival from the Arctic regions, bringing with me the important intelligence of the safety of the Investigator, and the discovery of the North- West Passage, though, unhappily, vsrithout finding the slightest traces of the missing expe- dition, either by this route, or on the field of search occupied by the squadron under Sir Edward Belcher's command. I am the bearer of dispatches from that officer and Captain Kellett, and Lieut. Cresswell, of the Investigator, whom I appointed from the North Star as supernumerary to this ship, is charged with the letters and journals of Commander M'Clure. As his journal is of considerable length, I will endeavour to acquaint you with the substance of it, that their lordships may thus be early informed of the leading features of the Investigator^ s discoveries ; but, ere I enter into tlii'^ matter, I deem it to be my duty to acquaint their lordships of the result of the expedition I have the honour to command, and though I have carried out their lordships' instructions to the letter, and, I trust, to their entire satisfaction, it has not been without great difficulty, considerable peril to the safety of this vessel, and the total loss of the Breadalbane transport, without the loss of a single life. This unfortunate event, which occurred on the morning of the 2 1st of August, ofi" Beecbey Island, no human power could have averted ; and my own vessel, which at that time had the transport actually in tow, barely escaped a similar fate, receiving a severe nip, which rose the stern several feet, and arched the quarter-deck, destroying the rudder and screw ; one of the beams forward was sprung, and the port bow partially stove, breaking one of the riders and forcing in the planking. The latter damage, there is some doubt, may have been sustained in a heavy gale on the morning of the 1 8th of August, when the ship was severely nipped off Cape Riley. The icemaster is of opinion it was received in Melville Bay, while forcing a passage under full steam through some heavy ice ; however this may be, I have little doubt but that for the solid nature of the stowage of our hold, and the strengthenings fitted in England, we must have shared the same fate as the unfortunate Breadalbane. By the Diligence their lordships will have been informed of my proceedings up to the time of my arrival at Disco. I will, therefore, now briefly state what we have since done, and then, in obedience to the fifth clause of their lordships' orders, relate what information I have obtained with reference to the expedition, and the discoveries which have been made. On leaving Disco I proceeded, with the Breadalbane in tow, to Upernavik, there to obtain dogs, and to communicate with the In- spector of North Greenland concerning the disposal of the Rose of Hull. On the afternoon of the 14th of July we reached this place, and the ships heading off while I landed, in two hours we proceeded up the coast. The following day, passing Cape Shaldeton in a calm, I took ad- vantage of the fine weather to obtain some looms from the Rookery for fa THE NOKTH-WEST PASSAGE. the use of the Arctic ships, and in three hours we obtained a sufficient quantity to give each of our own vesseb a day's fresh meat, reserving enough to supply the North Star's crew with provisions for ten days, independent of the sheep we brought from Ireland. On the 16th of July we entered Melville Bay, and found it packed with ice, in some places very heavy, from recent pressure, and the land floe unfortunately broken away, thus depriving us of the advantage of its edge for docking the vessels, in case of a threatened nip. On the 11th of July, owing to damage sustained in the ice, it became necessary to shift the screw, and this was done while beset among heavy floes, almost out of sight of land. From the mast-head no land could be seen at mid-day, or, indeed, any water but the pool in which the ships were afloat, but at midnight we proceeded along a narrow lane which opened away to the northward. Thick fogs and southerly winds, which closed the ice up, prevented our getting through Melville Bay till the 25th of July, when we stretched away from Cape York for Cape Warrender. Fog prevented our taking observations while crossing over, and experiencing a strong southerly set we found, on the weather clearing, that the ship was within two miles of Cape Liverpool, though we had steered for Cape Warrender with due allowance for currents. Reaching over to the north shore, (which we then kept close on board,) we steered up Lancaster Sound, passing large floes which were driving to the westward. On the morning of the 29th of July we found a barrier of ice stretching from shore to shore, and which evidently had never broken away this season. We followed its edge for several miles in the hope of finding a lane through, but were eventually obliged to bear up for Dundas Harbour (in Croker Bay) there to await a change. In coasting towards this anchorage we were surprised at beholding several tents pitched on a point six miles to the westward of Cape Warrender, but shortly found them to be the habitations of a party of Esquimaux, who had come over from Pond Bay. Among these people I found many preserved meat and potato tins, the former bearing Mr. Goldner's name, candle-boxes, some spars, and other government stores, which led me to fear that they had visited the depot at Wol- laston Island. In Dundas Harbour we lay for eight days anxiously awaiting the breaking up of the ice ; and on the 6th of August, hoping that I might be able to examine, and if necessary remove, the stores from WoUaston Island, we got under way and stretched across in that direction ; but heavy hummocky ice prevented our even sighting it, and we were forced to bear up again for the north shore. By this time a light north-westerly wind had eased off the ice, and I determined to push on as far as practicable under steam. The wind holding for forty- eight hours, we were fortunate enough to reach Beechey Island on the 8th of August. In many cases the ice opened just as we reached a block, which would otherwise have stopped our progress ; and we were told by the officers of the North Star that no water was to be seen THE NOKTH-WEST PASSAGE. 7 from Cape Riley the day before we arrived. Thus their lordships will perceive that no time was lost in reaching our destination. Erebus and Terror Bay was full of heavy hummocky ice. of great thickness, impervious to the saw or the blasting cartridge, and too rough and too much inundated with deep fresh-water pools to admit the possibility of landing the stores on Beechey Island, or putting them on board the North Star, (a mile and a half distant,) according to my orders. I had, therefore, no choice but to place them in what I deemed the most convenient and practicable position, and, in my capacity as senior officer at Beechey Island, determined on Cape Riley as the fittest spot, and even more accessible than the island. Accordingly on the following morning we commenced our work, and having secured the transport in a bight of the land ice, immediately abreast of the steep cliff, the people were now set to work, watch and watch, night and day. To expedite the service, I ordered all hands to be sent from the Noith Star, with their hammocks, and desiring them to be victualled from our ship. The time was thus saved which would have been lost by their going and returning to their vessel, upwards of two and a half miles distant. The steamer lay with her fires banked up, and her hawsers in, ready, at a moment's warning, to take the transport off-shore, in case of the ice closing ; and now, everything being set forward systematically, and 130 tons of coal landed in the first thirty hours, I determined to proceed myself up Wellington Channel, by boat and sledge, in search of Captain Pullen, who had been absent from the North Star a month ; and, as his provisions must have been expended, there was some appre- hension as to his safety. I had the double motive of desiring to convey to Sir Edward Belcher his dispatches, as it would only be by such means he could possibly learn of my arrival until next season, unless he should return to Beechey Island. I started in my whale-boat, with a month's provisions, at 9 a.m. on the 10th of August, leaving written orders with the First Lieutenant, a copy of which I enclose, marked " M 1," in case of any unforeseen casualty preventing my return to the ship by the time the transport was cleared, to run no risk of the ships being caught for the winter, but to proceed to England without me. Wellington Channel was then fuU of ice, and so rough with large cracks and pools that it defied sledging, excepting with a strong party. Landing, therefore, on Cornwallis Island, a little above Barlow Creek, we made an attempt to carry a small punt over the ice ; but this proved ineffectual, and I determined at last to proceed with Mr. Alston, mate of the North Star, and two men, by land, to Cape Rescue. Each carried a blanket bag, with a fortnight's provisions, and reached, with much exertion, the Cape, at 5 p.m. of the 13th of August. A piece of open water off Helen Haven prevented our proceeding further, and here we learnt by notice of Captain PuUen's return to his ship, and his having communicated with Sir Edward Belcher. 8 THE NORTH-AVEST PASSAGE. Depositing in the cairn duplicates of ;their lordships' dispatches for that officer, we commenced our return, and reached the tent on the fifth day of our absence, footsore and much exhausted with this new mode of journeying in the Arctic regions, having travelled 120 miles; sleeping without shelter on the bare beach, at a temperature several degrees below freezing point, was a trial for all, more especially as we could not eat the pemmican, and subsisted wholly on biscuit and tea, with the exception of a few dovekies which I shot. Up till the 12th of August Wellington Channel was blocked with ice as far as the eye could reach. The plan marked "01" shows its position at this date, and the alteration I have made in the coast line of the western shore. It is remarkable that we traced and followed, for many miles, the dog-sledge tracks of Mr. Penny, as fresh upon the sandy beach as though they had been made the day previous, and it must be remem- bered that these were originally upon ice. I returned to the ship on the afternoon of the 15th of August, and found that wind and changes in the ice had obliged the first lieutenant to move the transport away from Cape Riley, and that the process of unlading had been carried on but slowly by means of sledges ; 856 packages had, however, been transported to the North Star by these means. On the 17th of August a heavy gale from the south-east set the ice on to the Cape so suddenly and with such violence that both ships narrowly escaped being lost. The Phcenix was severely nipped, the ice bearing down upon her with such force that the six hausers and two cables laid out were snapped like packthread, and the ship forced against the land ice, lifting her stern five feet, and causing every timber to groan. The hands were turned up to be ready in case the ship should bteak up, though there would have been small chance, in such an event, of saving a man, as the wind blew so violently, with snow, that it was impossible to face it, and the ice in motion around the ship was boiling up in a manner that would have defied getting a safe footing to the most active of our crew. The plan marked " C 2 " will show the manner in which we were driven continually away from Cape Riley by pressure from ice until the 20th of August, when the Breadalbane was carried out among some floe pieces and set into the Straits. I pushed out under steam into the pack, and then only with considerable difficulty. Having once more got her alongside the derrick, we commenced to clear with all hands, as I intended to finish the work without cessation if we laboured all night. While thus employed, I received by an official letter from Captain Pullen, a copy of which I enclose, marked " L 1," a report of the melancholy intelligence of the death of M. Bellot, who had been sent by Captain Pullen on his return during my absence, to acquaint me of the same, and to carry on the original dispatches to Sir Edward Belcher. This unfortunate occurrence took place on the night of the gale, when M. Bellot with two men were driven off from the shore T&E NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 9 on a floe ; and shortly after, while reconnoitering from the top of a hummock, he was blown off by a violent gust of wind into a deep crack in the ice, and perished by drowning. The two men were sa\ned by a comparative miracle, and, after driving about for thirty hours without food, were enabled to land and rejoin their fellow-travellers, who gave them provisions, and then all returned to the ship, bringing back in safety the dispatches, but three of them fit subjects only for invaliding. A separate letter will give their lordships further information rela- tive to the death of this excellent officer, who was sincerely regretted by us all. His zeal, ability, and quiet unassuming manner, made him, indeed, beloved. The ice closing again obliged us to quit Cape Riley before midnight, and, in endeavouring to push the ship into a bight in the land floe, the Phcenix touched the ground, but came off again immediately with- out damage. The whole night was spent in struggling to get the ships into a place of security, but the ice drove both vessels fast to the west- ward, when at 3.30 a.m. of the 21st of August, the ice closing all round, both vessels were secured to a floe edge, but with steam ready to push through, the instant the iee should loosen. Shortly, however, a rapid run of the outer floe to the westward placed the Phanix in the most perilous position. I ordered the hands to be turned up, not that aught could be done, but to be ready in case of the worst to provide for their safety. The ice, however, easing off, having severely nipped this vessel, passed astern to the Breadalbane, which ship either received the pressure less favourably, or was less equal to the emergency, for it passed through her starboard bow, and in less than fifteen minutes she sunk in thirty fathoms of water, giving the people barely time to save themselves, and leaving the wreck of a boat only to mark the spot where the ice had closed over her. Anti- cipating such a catastrophe, 1 got over the stern of the Phomix, as soon as the transport was struck, and was beside her when she filled, and can unhesitatingly state that no human power could have saved her. Fortunately, nearly the whole of the government stores had been landed. Enclosed, a list marked " L 2 " sets forth the quantity and kind of stores that were landed at Cape Eiley and Beechey Island ; also what were lost in the transport. Having taken on board the shipwrecked crew, every precaution was used with regard to the safety of Her Majesty's steam-vessel ; but it was not till the morning of the 22nd of August that we succeeded in getting her to a safe position in Erebus and Terror Bay, where the ship was again secured to the land floe. I now resolved to lose no time in getting to England ; but, that I might have the advantage of the latest intelligence from the Arctic squadron, I determined upon taking the opinion of the icemaster as to the latest date he considered I could safely remain at Beechey Island. Enclosed, marked " L 3." is a copy of this report, and now I must beg to refer their lordships to the general orders from the senior ofii- C 10 THE NOKTH-WEST PASSAGE. cer,* delivered to me by Captain Pullen on his return from Sir Ed- ward Belcher, and while their lordships will readily understand how awkward was the position in which I thus became placed, stiU it was not without very serious deliberation, the written opinion of Captain Pullen upon the subject, a copy of which I enclose, marked " L 4," and the authority as granted to the senior officer at Beechey Island by their lordships' memorandum. May 11, 1853, that I replied to Sir E. Belcher's order by a letter, the copy of which, marked " L 5," I en- close, and which I acted on ; delaying to the last moment (and two days after my icemaster advised our departure) with the hope of Sir Edward Belcher's arrival. Their lordships will, I trust, bear me out in the steps I have taken, and though I feel how serious is the responsibility I have thus incurred, it has been done with the single motive of the public good, and acting up to the full spirit of my instructions. On the 24th of August I sailed from Beechey Island, but was shortly forced to take shelter in a little harbour we discovered, and were obliged to run into in a fog. This harbour, eight miles east of Cape Fellfoot, a plan of which I enclose, marked " C 3," I named Port Graham, and it is a well sheltered position, with good anchorage and frash water ; many hares were seen, and nine shot. Here we lay during a violent gale from the eastward, which was so furious in the gusts that, though the ship lay under the lee of a lofty hill, she drove with two anchors ahead, until she brought up in forty fathoms of water. The gale set vast bodies of ice up the Straits, until it came to a dead stand, doubtless from it having filled up the'whole channel to Beechey Island, and most fortunate was it that we got away when we did. For two days not a spoonful of water could be seen from the neighbouring hill ; and the temperature falling rapidly, with the pros- pect of an early winter, I began to fear we had found our winter quar- ters : indeed, it was a matter dependent entirely on the wind whether we should get out this season. A watch was set to report the state of the ice ; the icemasters and officers frequently visiting the look-out- hill; on the morning of the 31st of August the ice commenced to move out of the harbour, and, carrying the ship with it, we narrowly escaped being driven into the pack, which was only prevented by slipping the cable (with a hawser attached) and forcing the vessel under steam, through a crack in the floe. The hawser was cut through by the ice in endeavouring to recover the anchor, which was thus lost. I now deemed it advisable for the safety of the vessel to proceed to the inner bight of the harbour, which, lying behind a shallow spot, perfectly secured her from ice driving in or out, and, should we be unable to get away this year, would prove a good position for winter quarters. I was ill-prepared for such a contingency, as we had not left on board sufficient provisions for our now much increased crew having * Marked " M 2." THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 1 1 the people of the three other vessels of my squadron with me, besides supernumeraries and invalids. In the evening a small crack along the north shore to the eastward was observed, and we immediately shipped the anchor and steamed up, but it closed ere we could reach it ; we therefore returned for the night ; but in the morning I was glad to find it again opened, and we proceeded under full steam and sail, with a light northerly wind, to- wards the eastward. Nothing but a powerful steamer could have ef- fected her escape at that period ; and now, with one or two slight de- tentions for a couple of hours, we made out of the Straits, passing Cape Warrender on the morning of the 2d of September ; and here I beg you will call their lordships' attention to this position as one well applicable for a dispatch rendezvous. During my stay at Port Dundas, (which is immediately under the cliffs forming Cape Warrender,) I ordered a large cairn to be built on a remarkable rocky peninsula at its entrance. This cairn is upwards of 16 feet in height, 20 feet in circumference, and painted red with a white cross. Its position is such that a vessel sighting Cape Warren- der must perceive it, and as nearly all the whalers every year sight this cape, I conceived it to be an admirable position (should their lord- ships desire to send any dispatches to Sir Edward Belcher next year by the whalers) for these dispatches to be deposited. For sailing marks I have made sketches of the coast in two positions. Among the drawings are three views, marked " D 1 and 2," duplicates ' of which I have left with Sir E. Belcher ; and I believe it to be Capt. PuUen's intention, unless directed otherwise by his senior, to have an officer and jjarty ready to receive any communication next year, and, in return, to forward his intelligence by the same opportunity. Should a government vessel be sent out from England, she would of course carry the party on to Beechey Island. With light winds we succeeded in getting out of Lancaster Sound on the 3d of September, the ice proving unfavourable for examining the depot at WoUaston Island, which I had intended doing. We arrived at Lievely, Disco, on the 9th of September, and imme- diately commenced coaling. The barometer threatening a southerly gale, induced me to pass through the Waigat to escape it, and in the darkness of night, running under full sail and steam, we were nearly going- stem on to an iceberg 100 feet in height, to avoid which we rounded to within half pistol-shot of a rock awash at the entrance of the Moligate, and which, though not laid down in the charts, we sup- posed the ship was well clear of; a strong set through the channel to the northward must have caused this deception. While the coaling was being completed I made arrangements with the inspector of North Greenland concerning the disposal of the hull and spars of the stranded whaler Rose. For the more convenient disposal of her remains I blew her up, and having landed, and placed under charge of the governor, the masts and spars, with a list of their prices, (a copy of which, marked " L 6," I enclose,) we took^on board for firewood such of the debris of the hull 12 THE KOKTH-WEST PASSAGE. as would otherwise have been appropriated by the Esquimaux, leaving the remainder convenient firewood for vessels touching there, to be obtained at 14s, a fathom, the price to be received by the governor, and remitted by the Danisli government to the British Admiralty for the benefit of the underwriters. Having completed these arrangements, coaled, watered, and refitted, we were detained two days longer, by a strong N.E. gale ; but on the morning of the 17th of September, proceeded to sea. At Lieveley I obtained information of a coal mine about 26 miles from the harbour, on the southern shore of the island, and I am told that the coal to be obtained here is in such quantities that a ship might take 1,000 tons. For burning in stoves it is preferred by the Danes to English coal. I obtained a sufficient quantity of an inferior sort to make trial in our boilers. A copy of the chief engineer's report I en- close, marked " L 7," and I have retained on board four casks of this fuel for their lordships' disposal. On the 18th of September I put into Holsteinbourg to obtain sights, to complete our meridian distances, and satisfy me as to the rates of our chronometers. In this harbour (a complete survey of which, made by Mr. Stanton, the master, during our first visit, and which is marked C 4) we found the Truelove, Captain Parker, which had put in the day previously with her bow stove ; she had received this damage among the ice in the gale of the previoiis Wednesday. I rendered her every assistance, with a carpenter and stores, and towed him to sea at daylight, on the morning of the 20th of September, carrying him out to an offing of 60 miles. He reports that all the whalers were caught among the ice in that gale, and he much feared they had received some damage, but, upon his acquainting me they were all in such close company that the crews of any disabled vessels would surely escape to the others, I did not deem it ne- cessary to delay my return to England by going over to the fishing- ground. Since rounding Cape Farewell, a succession of strong northerly an(J westerly winds have favoured our return,, and we sighted land on the 3rd instant. And now. Sir, I beg to relate, in a summary manner, the intelligence gleaned from the searching squadrons ; and first, with reference to Sir Edward Belcher, I have little else to say but that he wintered in a spot he had named Northumberland Sound, in lat. 76° 52' N., and long. 97° W., near the position now marked in the charts of Wellington Channel as Cape Sir John Franklin. From Captain Pullen I learnt that not the shghtest traces of the missing expedition had been met with, either by this or the western branch of the searching squadron and that it was evidently the intention of Sir Edward Belcher to return to Beechey Island as soon as possible. For the rest, Sir Edward's disr patches will convey all further information. Captain Kellett wintered at Dealy Island, Melville Island. He had a narrow escape of losing his ship on the night of his departure from Beechey Island ; she grounded off Cape Colbourn, and- was only got THE NOKTH-WEST PASSAGE, 13 off after the ice had set down upon her, casting her over on her broad- side, and with the loss of sixty feet of her false keel. It was a party from his vessel that discovered the dispatch of Captain M'Clure at Winter Harbour, and was thus led to the Investigator's position, a brief account of the voyage and discoveries of which vessel I will now relate. Their lordships will remember that it was on the 6th of August, 1850, that the Investigator was last seen running to the north- eastward with studding sails set. They roimded Point Barrow with much difficulty. At the River Colvile, in 150° W., they were detained some days, and then thick weather, fogs, and contrary winds set in, the latter proving rather an advantage to us, as it kept the ice open, and the necessity of working to windward between the polar pack and the gradually sloping shore gave them the means of avoiding dangers. On the 26th of August they reached the mouth of the Mackenzie, the pack at this part being upwards of ninety miles distant. On the 30th they were off Cape Bathurst. When at Cape Parry open water to the northward induced Captain M'Clure to push for Banks Land, and when about sixty miles from this cape they fell in with an unknown coast, which was named Baring Island. Passing up a strait between this island and a coast that was called Prince Albert Land, they reached the latitude of 73°, where ice impeded their further progress. The season suddenly changing, the ship was beset and forced to winter in the pack. Drifting to the southward, they were ultimately frozen up in lat, 72° 40' N., and long. 117° 30' W. The travelling parties in the spring found no traces of the missing expedition, but discovered and laid down much of the adjacent coasts. On the 14th of July, 1851, the ice broke up, and, freeing the ship, an endeavour was made to push to the northward towards Melville Island, but an impenetrable pack in lat. 75° 35'!^., long. 115° W., precluded their completing what their autumn travelling parties had proved to be the north-west passage. An attempt was now made to round the southern shore of Baring Island, and proceed up the west side : and with great peril to the vessel they succeeded in reaching as far as lat. 74° 6', and long. 117° 12', where they were frozen in on the 24th of September, 1851, and have never since been able to move the ship. Their record was deposited at Winter Harbour the year fol- lowing Commander M'Clintock's visit, while employed on Captain Austen's expedition. There are two remarkable discoveries mentioned in Capt. M'Clure's journal, viz., some smoking hillocks and a petrified forest. He also states that during his intercouse with the natives he only once met with any hostile demonstrations. This occurred at Point Warren, near the Mackenzie, where, on attempting to land, two natives, with threatening gestures, waived them off; it was not without much diffi- culty that they were pacified, and then they related that all their tribe but the chief and his sick son had fled on seeing the ship, alleging as a 14 THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. reason that they feared the ship had come to revenge the