BELCHER AND THE FRANKLIN SEARCH
We now come to one of the strangest chapters in the whole history of
the Franklin search. That Sir Edward Belcher’s expedition, the last,
and in every way the most complete equipped by the Government, was a
fiasco it is quite impossible to deny. At the time public feeling ran
very high about it, and Belcher became the object of much opprobrium,
more, probably, than he actually deserved. The fact, however, that
five valuable ships had been abandoned, apparently unnecessarily,
that not a single trace of Franklin had been found, and that the
search was given up, although its field had been so narrowed down
that the direction which the missing expedition had taken was
practically a matter of certainty, naturally rankled in the breasts
of the British taxpayers. Belcher himself, too, added fuel to the
fire by writing a singularly fatuous account of his travels which is
largely composed of stories illustrative of his own preternatural
sagacity.
We do not propose to dwell at very great length upon Belcher’s
monumental work, much of which, indeed, is absolutely unintelligible
to the average mind; but it contains one or two gems which ought to
be preserved.
He imagined himself to be the happy possessor, among other things, of
a marvellous gift of prophecy, very nearly, as he naïvely remarks,
approaching to sorcery. In support of this claim he mentions the
following incident in his diary.
“To-day I felt so perfectly satisfied that a sledge was due from
Kellett (if he existed), that I fully intended when the master
reported noon, to desire him to send a person to look out on the
hill. It escaped me, being then engaged on other matters; but my
clerk coming in, reporting, ‘A dog sledge nearly alongside, sir!’
my reply, instigated by what was then passing in my mind, was very
short, and without emotion, ‘I know it,’ which somewhat astonished
him.” Parenthetically, we may remark that this is a very fair example
of the author’s style as well as of his gift of prophecy.
Here, too, is a delicious passage which contains several bulls of the
finest dimensions. “I ascended the hill, where I had ordered a cairn
to be built; possibly it was deemed too steep for younger blood;
we built three, _one was a house_, the two others were constructed
by myself—the last being on the _inaccessible_ summit of True Star
Bluff—and unattended. I must say that I would not have _ordered it
to be done by any but a volunteer_.” The italics are our own; the
English, however, is entirely Sir Edward Belcher’s.
But we must return to the expedition itself, resisting the temptation
to quote further examples of its leader’s unconscious humour. The
Government was evidently disposed to leave no stone unturned to
make it as complete as possible. The active work of the search was
to be pushed on from four ships, the _Assistance_, Commander G. H.
Richards; the _Resolute_, Captain Henry Kellett; the _Pioneer_,
Lieutenant Sherard Osborn; and the _Intrepid_, Commander F. L.
M’Clintock. In addition to these, the expedition was provided with
a depôt ship, the _North Star_, commanded by Lieutenant Pullen. The
plan of campaign was to be as follows: On reaching the western end
of Lancaster Sound the squadron was to divide into two parts. The
_Assistance_ and its tender, the _Pioneer_, were to devote their
attention to Wellington Channel, while the _Resolute_ with its
tender, the _Intrepid_, was to visit Melville Island and explore the
Parry Islands. For some reason known only to themselves, the Arctic
committee had decided that it would be useless to pursue the search
south of these regions.
The rendezvous at Beechey Island was reached without misadventure,
and the two divisions immediately set off in their several
directions, leaving the _North Star_ behind. Kellett, with the
_Resolute_ and _Intrepid_, sailed direct for Winter Harbour, which he
had intended to make his headquarters. He was disappointed, however,
to find it entirely blocked with ice, and he was compelled, in
consequence, to moor his ships in a bay between Dealy Island and the
mainland, which was found to answer his purpose admirably. No sooner
were the preparations for the winter completed than the work of
sending out sledge parties began. He was fortunate in having several
excellent officers under his command, among them being Lieutenants
Mecham, Bedford Pim, and Hamilton, the mate, Mr Nares, who commanded
the great Polar expedition of 1875, and De Bray, a French volunteer.
The brief autumn days were spent not in the serious work of the
search, but in forming depôts of provisions at points where it was
thought that they would be most useful on the long spring journeys,
and it was during one of these that Mecham visited Winter Harbour and
found the paper that M’Clure had left there during the spring of the
same year, recording the detention of the _Investigator_ in Mercy Bay
and the discovery of the North-West Passage.
The winter passed uneventfully enough, but as soon as the first
signs of the advent of spring appeared, the ship was alive with
preparations for the sledge journeys. One of the first to be sent
out was that which Lieutenant Bedford Pim conducted in search of
the _Investigator_, but as we have already dealt with that, it is
unnecessary to dwell upon it again here. Nor is there very much to be
said concerning the parties led by M’Clintock of the _Intrepid_, and
Mecham and Hamilton of the _Resolute_. By exploring the Parry Islands
thoroughly they added greatly to the world’s store of knowledge
concerning those regions, but one sledge journey in the Arctic
regions bears a very strong family likeness to another, and these
differed from their predecessors in no important essentials. Some
idea of the vigour with which the work was pushed forward, however,
may be gathered from the following figures. During the autumn and
spring M’Clintock, the greatest of all Arctic sledgemen, covered 1661
miles in 145 days, Mecham, 1375 miles in 117 days, Roche, 1039 miles
in 79 days, Nares, 980 miles in 94 days, Domville, 739 miles in 77
days, and De Bray, 642 miles in 62 days. Altogether, the various
parties covered about 8558 miles, most of which had never been
traversed by a white man before.
Early in August, 1853, the ice began to loosen, and Kellett,
realising that nothing further could be done in these regions so
far as the Franklin search was concerned, decided to sail for
Beechey Island. He was not destined, however, to get very far, for
on September 9th the ships were caught in the pack, and were soon
so firmly embedded in it that there was no prospect whatever of
escape during that season at any rate. The outlook, however, was
not unpromising, for the ice, after drifting eastward for a while,
soon became stationary, and Kellett found himself in a position
which pointed to an early escape during the following summer. It
was disappointing, of course, especially for those members of the
_Investigator’s_ crew who were on board, but, as they had been so
fortunate as to obtain an ample supply of game, there was no prospect
of starvation.
[Illustration: FAST IN THE ICE
FROM A SKETCH BY LIEUT. BEECHEY]
Early in the spring of 1854 Kellett decided to send out three
sledge parties, one under Krabbe, to report on the condition of the
_Investigator_, another under Hamilton to open up communications
with Sir Edward Belcher, and the third under Mecham to explore
Princess Royal Islands, in Prince of Wales’ Strait. Of these three
the last was by far the most remarkable. In the face of immense
difficulties, Mecham and his men made their way to Princess Royal
Islands, and there they found records left by Captain Collinson of
the _Enterprise_, which, it will be remembered started out with, but
was soon separated from the _Investigator_. From these records
they learnt that Collinson had passed up the strait as far as Point
Peel, had turned back and had passed the winter of 1851-52 in lat.
71° 36′ N., long. 117° 41′ W. The records went on to say that the
north and south shores of Prince Albert Land had been thoroughly
explored, that several parties had visited Point Hearne, on Melville
Island, and that the ship had left with a view to exploring a passage
which, it was supposed, separated Prince Albert Land from Wollaston
Land. Having obtained this intelligence, Mecham resolved to return at
once to the _Resolute_. On reaching Dealy Island, however, he found
orders to make for Beechey Island, which he accordingly proceeded to
do, arriving there on June 12, after an extraordinary journey of 70
days during which he and his men had covered 1336 miles.
It is now time to return to the fortunes of Sir Edward Belcher and
the _Assistance_. It will be remembered that when Kellett sailed
away westward, Belcher and his two ships turned northwards with the
intention of exploring Wellington Channel. Fortune favoured them and
they passed without difficulty first up Wellington and then through
Queen’s Channel to Northumberland Sound, on the west side of Grinnell
Peninsula. Belcher soon found himself at the entrance to the Polar
Sea, and his voyage resulted in the discovery of Belcher Channel,
which links up Queen’s Channel with Jones’ Sound. He did not push
his explorations very far, however, for, having received dispatches
telling him of the rescue of the _Investigators_, he suddenly
turned back presumably with the intention of intercepting Kellett
at Beechey Island. He did not succeed in reaching his proposed
destination, for, when about fifty miles from the mouth of Wellington
Channel the _Assistance_ was caught in the ice.
Early in September Sherard Osborn set out with dispatches for Beechey
Island. On his return he brought news of the arrival of H.M.S.
_Phœnix_, commanded by Captain Inglefield, and of the sad death of
Lieutenant Bellot who had volunteered for service on the _Phœnix_,
which was sent out with supplementary stores for the _North Star_.
Bellot, it appeared, had started off for the _Assistance_ with a
number of official letters for Sir Edward Belcher. On the way, while
travelling over the ice, he had suddenly and completely disappeared,
and it was supposed that he had met his death by slipping down into a
crevice between two hummocks.
During the winter Belcher indulged in another fit of prophecy, in the
course of which he foresaw that he would shortly receive orders from
England to abandon his ships and make the best of his way home. He
accordingly decided to anticipate these commands, and immediately set
about making preparations for quitting the vessels in the spring. His
orders came upon his officers like a bolt from the blue. Having no
idea that he contemplated any such step, they had carefully husbanded
their provisions, and, as their men were, on the whole, in excellent
health, they could see no reason why an attempt to extricate the
ships should not be made during the summer. Belcher, however, secure
in his faith in his prophetic instinct, was as adamant, and nothing
that they could say could move him from his purpose. Accordingly,
early in May the four ships were put in order and the crews,
regretting bitterly the step which they were compelled to take, bade
them a last farewell. In accordance with Belcher’s orders, they met
on the _North Star_ at Beechey Island, and there they were eventually
found by the two transport ships, the _Phœnix_ and the _Talbot_.
The abandonment of these five vessels created much unpleasant feeling
in the country. Not only did it entail a serious financial loss,
apparently unnecessarily, but it also discouraged the Government
from taking any further steps towards the discovery of the fate
of Franklin and his expedition. In the middle of October, a court
martial was held with a view to sifting the matter thoroughly.
M’Clure and Kellett were first tried on the charge of abandoning the
_Investigator_ and the _Resolute_, but they were naturally enough
acquitted, as they were able to show that they were acting under the
orders of their superior officer. Their swords were returned to them
with sundry graceful compliments by Admiral Gordon, the president of
the court. Sir Edward Belcher was also acquitted, but with an implied
rebuke, a rebuke which was pointed by the return of his sword in dead
silence.
Most of the ships were never seen again. The _Resolute_, however,
drifted 1000 miles through Barrow Strait, Lancaster Sound and
Baffin Bay, and was eventually found off Cape Dyer by Captain J. M.
Buddington, an American whaler. Buddington brought the ship safely
to the United States’ port of New London, where she was promptly
purchased by the American Government for $40,000. She was then
refitted, the ship’s stores, flags, officer’s libraries and her
other appointments were restored to their original positions and she
was presented to the Queen and the people of Great Britain as a token
of goodwill on the part of the American nation.