Commander Francis R. M. Crozier, Lieut. Archibald M'Murdo, Lieut.
Charles G. Phillips, Lieut. Joseph W. Kay, Master Pownall P. Cotter
(acting), Surgeon John Robertson; Clerk in charge, George H. Mowbray;
Mates Peter A. Scott, Thomas E. L. Moore, and William Molloy,
Assistant-surgeon David Lyall, Second Master John E. Davis.
The complement of each ship amounted in all to 54 persons.
With crews in high health and spirits, the two ships sailed from the
Thames on the 29th September 1839; and having encountered a heavy
gale in the Channel, when they behaved very well, they touched at
Madeira and other places, and reached St. Helena the last day of
January 1840. The voyage was undertaken for certain scientific
objects, and these, by the talent and perseverance of the officers,
were fully attained; but in our account we shall dwell chiefly on the
difficulties and dangers encountered and overcome in the attainment
of those objects.
Having established a permanent magnetic observatory at St. Helena,
and landed the officers and instruments connected with it, the
expedition sailed on the 9th of February for the Cape of Good Hope,
which was reached on the 17th of March, various magnetic observations
and experiments on the temperature and gravity of the sea being made
by the way. After establishing a magnetic observatory at the Cape,
they sailed again from Simon's Bay on the 6th of April, encountering
a succession of violent squalls and thunder-storms, during which the
two ships lost sight of each other. They met again at Kerguelen
Island, which, when discovered in 1772 by M. Kerguelen, a lieutenant
of the French navy, was conjectured to form part of the great
southern continent, which the philosophers of that time considered
must exist to maintain the balance of our earth, till Captain
Fourneaux dispelled the illusion by crossing the meridian of the
island, 50 miles to the southward. The expedition entered Christmas
Harbour at the north of the island on the 15th of May, and, having
sedulously continued the system of magnetic observations,
particularly on the 29th, the day previously fixed for simultaneous
observations in various parts of the world, sailed again on the 20th
of July, having the whole of the time experienced a gale of wind,
with storms of rain and snow. The tempestuous weather allowed but a
scanty survey of the island, in which extensive beds of coal were
discovered, which may at some future time be found serviceable for
steam navigation. After meeting with continued gales and hurricanes,
the expedition reached Van Diemen's Land on the 26th of August, and,
with the co-operation of Sir J. Franklin, then governor established
the magnetic observatory at Hobart Town.[1]
Captain Ross, becoming here acquainted with the result of the French
expedition to the southern seas under Captain D'Urville, and of that
of the United States under Lieut. C. Wilkes, determined to alter his
route from that previously agreed on, according to the discretionary
power left him, and, avoiding the track of former navigators, to take
a more easterly meridian on which to penetrate to the southward, and,
if possible, to reach the magnetic pole.
[1] At a subsequent period this observatory was for seven years under
the charge of Lieut. Alexander J. Smith, who, as mate, and afterwards
lieutenant of the 'Erebus,' was noted throughout the expedition for
his zeal, activity, and scientific knowledge, and has seen a long
course of active service, including an expedition to the Arctic Seas.