EXPEDITION IN SEARCH OF FRANKLIN
On Wednesday, the 23rd of May, the _Forward_ had again taken up her
adventurous navigation, cleverly tacking amongst the packs and
icebergs. Thanks to steam, that obedient force which so many of our
Polar sea navigators have had to do without, she appeared to be playing
in the midst of the moving rocks. She seemed to recognise the hand
of an experienced master, and like a horse under an able rider, she
obeyed the thought of her captain. The temperature rose. At six
o'clock in the morning the thermometer marked twenty-six degrees,
at six in the evening twenty-nine degrees, and at midnight twenty-five
degrees; the wind was lightly blowing from the south-east.
On Thursday, towards three in the morning, the _Forward_ was in sight
of Possession Bay, on the coast of America. At the entrance to
Lancaster Strait, shortly after, the crew caught a glimpse of Burney
Cape. A few Esquimaux pulled off towards the vessel, but Hatteras
did not take the trouble to wait for them. The Byam-Martin peaks,
which overlook Cape Liverpool, were sighted to the left, and soon
disappeared in the evening mists, which also prevented any
observation being taken from Cape Hay. This cape is so low that it
gets confounded with the ice on the coast, a circumstance which often
renders the hydrographic determination of the Polar seas extremely
difficult.
Puffins, ducks, and white sea-gulls showed up in very great numbers.
The _Forward_ was then in latitude 74 degrees 1 minute, and in
longitude 77 degrees 15 minutes. The snowy hoods of the two mountains,
Catherine and Elizabeth, rose up above the clouds.
On Friday, at six o'clock, Cape Warender was passed on the right side
of the strait, and on the left Admiralty Inlet, a bay that has been
little explored by navigators, who are generally in a hurry to sail
away west. The sea became rather rough, and the waves often swept
the deck of the brig, throwing up pieces of ice. The land on the north
coast, with its high table lands almost level, and which reverberated
the sun's rays, offered a very curious appearance.
Hatteras wanted to run along the north coast, in order to reach Beechey
Island and the entrance to Wellington Channel sooner; but continual
icebergs compelled him, to his great annoyance, to follow the southern
passes. That was why, on the 26th of May, the _Forward_ was abreast
of Cape York in a thick fog interspersed with snow; a very high
mountain, almost perpendicular, caused it to be recognised. The
weather cleared up a little, and the sun, towards noon, appeared for
an instant, allowing a tolerably good observation to be taken; 74
degrees 4 minutes latitude and 84 degrees 23 minutes longitude. The
_Forward_ was then at the extremity of Lancaster Strait.
Hatteras pointed out to the doctor on his map the route already taken,
and the one he meant to follow. The position of the brig at the time
was very interesting.
"I should like to have been further north," said he, "but no one can
do the impossible; see, this is our exact situation."
And the captain pricked his map at a short distance from Cape York.
"We are in the centre of this four-road way, open to every wind, fenced
by the outlets of Lancaster Strait, Barrow Strait, Wellington Channel,
and Regent's Passage; it is a point that all navigators in these seas
have been obliged to come to."
"Well," replied the doctor, "it must have puzzled them greatly; four
cross-roads with no sign-posts to tell them which to take. How did
Parry, Ross, and Franklin manage?"
"They did not manage at all, they were managed; they had no choice,
I can assure you; sometimes Barrow Strait was closed to one of them,
and the next year another found it open; sometimes the vessel was
irresistibly drawn towards Regent's Passage, so that we have ended
by becoming acquainted with these inextricable seas."
"What a singular country!" said the doctor, examining the map. "It
is all in pieces, and they seem to have no logical connection. It
seems as if the land in the vicinity of the North Pole had been cut
up like this on purpose to make access to it more difficult, whilst
that in the other hemisphere quietly terminates in tapered-out points
like those of Cape Horn, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Indian
Peninsula. Is it the greater rapidity of the equator which has thus
modified matters, whilst the land at the extremities, yet fluid from
the creation, has not been able to get condensed or agglomerated
together, for want of a sufficiently rapid rotation?"
"That must be the case, for everything on earth is logical, and
'nothing is that errs from law,' and God often allows men to discover
His laws; make use of His permission, doctor."
"Unfortunately, I shall not be able to take much advantage of it,"
said the doctor, "but the wind here is something dreadful," added
he, muffling himself up as well as he could.
"Yes, we are quite exposed to the north wind, and it is turning us
out of our road."
"Anyhow it ought to drive the ice down south, and level a clear road."
"It ought to do so, doctor, but the wind does not always do what it
ought. Look, that ice-bank seems impenetrable. Never mind, we will
try to reach Griffith Island, sail round Cornwallis Island, and get
into Queen's Channel without going by Wellington Channel.
Nevertheless I positively desire to touch at Beechey Island in order
to renew my coal provision."
"What do you mean?" asked the astonished doctor.
"I mean that, according to orders from the Admiralty, large provisions
have been deposited on that island in order to provide for future
expeditions, and although Captain McClintock took some in 1859, I
assure you that there will be some left for us."
"By-the-bye," said the doctor, "these parts have been explored for
the last fifteen years, and since the day when the proof of the loss
of Franklin was acquired, the Admiralty has always kept five or six
cruisers in these seas. If I am not mistaken, Griffith Island, which
I see there on the map, almost in the middle of the cross-roads, has
become a general meeting-place for navigators."
"It is so, doctor; and Franklin's unfortunate expedition resulted
in making known these distant countries to us."
"That is true, captain, for since 1845 expeditions have been very
numerous. It was not until 1848 that we began to be uneasy about the
disappearance of the _Erebus_ and the _Terror_, Franklin's two
vessels. It was then that we saw the admiral's old friend, Dr.
Richardson, at the age of seventy, go to Canada, and ascend Coppermine
River as far as the Polar Sea; and James Ross, commanding the
_Enterprise_ and _Investigation_, set out from Uppernawik in 1848
and arrived at Cape York, where we now are. Every day he threw a tub
containing papers into the sea, for the purpose of making known his
whereabouts. During the mists he caused the cannon to be fired, and
had sky-rockets sent up at night along with Bengal lights, and kept
under sail continually. He wintered in Port Leopold from 1848 to 1849,
where he took possession of a great number of white foxes, and caused
brass collars, upon which was engraved the indication of the
whereabouts of ships and the store depots, to be riveted on their
necks. Afterwards they were dispersed in all directions; in the
following spring he began to search the coasts of North Somerset on
sledges in the midst of dangers and privations from which almost all
his men fell ill or lame. He built up cairns in which he inclosed
brass cylinders with the necessary memoranda for rallying the lost
expedition. While he was away his lieutenant McClure explored the
northern coasts of Barrow Strait, but without result. James Ross had
under his orders two officers who, later on, were destined to become
celebrities--McClure, who cleared the North-West passage, and
McClintock, who discovered the remains of Sir John Franklin."
"Yes; they are now two good and brave English captains. You know the
history of these seas well, doctor, and you will benefit us by telling
us about it. There is always something to be gained by hearing about
such daring attempts."
"Well, to finish all I know about James Ross: he tried to reach
Melville Island by a more westerly direction, but he nearly lost his
two vessels, for he was caught by the ice and driven back into Baffin's
Sea."
"Driven back?" repeated Hatteras, contracting his brows; "forced
back in spite of himself?"
"Yes, and without having discovered anything," continued the doctor;
"and ever since that year, 1850, English vessels have never ceased
to plough these seas, and a reward of twenty thousand pounds was
offered to any one who might find the crews of the _Erebus_ and
_Terror_. Captains Kellett and Moore had already, in 1848, attempted
to get through Behring's Strait. In 1850 and 1851 Captain Austin
wintered in Cornwallis Island; Captain Parry, on board the
_Assistance_ and the _Resolute_, explored Wellington Channel; John
Ross, the venerable hero of the magnetic pole, set out again with
his yacht, the _Felix_, in search of his friend; the brig _Prince
Albert_ went on a first cruise at the expense of Lady Franklin; and,
lastly, two American ships, sent out by Grinnell with Captain Haven,
were drifted out of Wellington Channel and thrown back into Lancaster
Strait. It was during this year that McClintock, who was then Austin's
lieutenant, pushed on as far as Melville Island and Cape Dundas, the
extreme points attained by Parry in 1819; it was then that he found
traces of Franklin's wintering on Beechey Island in 1845."
"Yes," answered Hatteras, "three of his sailors had been buried
there--three men more fortunate than the others!"
The doctor nodded in approval of Hatteras's remark, and continued:
"During 1851 and 1852 the _Prince Albert_ went on a second voyage
under the French lieutenant, Bellot; he wintered at Batty Bay, in
Prince Regent Strait, explored the south-west of Somerset, and
reconnoitred the coast as far as Cape Walker. During that time the
_Enterprise_ and the _Investigator_ returned to England and passed
under the command of Collinson and McClure for the purpose of
rejoining Kellett and Moore in Behring's Straits; whilst Collinson
came back to winter at Hong-Kong, McClure made the best of his way
onward, and after being obliged to winter three times--from 1850 to
'51; from 1851 to '52; and from 1852 to '53--he discovered the
North-West passage without learning anything of Franklin's fate.
During 1852 and '53 a new expedition composed of three sailing vessels,
the _Resolute_, the _Assistance_, the _North Star_, and two steamers,
the _Pioneer_ and _Intrepid_, set sail under the command of Sir Edward
Belcher, with Captain Kellett under him; Sir Edward visited
Wellington Channel, wintered in Northumberland Bay, and went over
the coast, whilst Kellett, pushing on to Bridport in Melville Island,
explored, without success, that part of the boreal land. It was at
this time that news was spread in England that two ships, abandoned
in the midst of icebergs, had been descried near the coast of New
Scotland. Lady Franklin immediately had prepared the little screw
_Isabelle_, and Captain Inglefield, after having steamed up Baffin's
Bay as far as Victoria Point on the eightieth parallel, came back
to Beechey Island no more successful than his predecessors. At the
beginning of 1855, Grinnell, an American, fitted up a fresh expedition,
and Captain Kane tried to penetrate to the Pole----"
"But he didn't do it," cried Hatteras violently; "and what he didn't
do we will, with God's help!"
"I know, captain," answered the doctor, "and I mention it because
this expedition is of necessity connected with the search for Franklin.
But it had no result. I was almost forgetting to tell you that the
Admiralty, considering Beechey Island as the general rendezvous of
expeditions, charged Captain Inglefield, who then commanded the
steamer _Phoenix_, to transport provisions there in 1853; Inglefield
set out with Lieutenant Bellot, and lost the brave officer who for
the second time had devoted his services to England; we can have more
precise details upon this catastrophe, as our boatswain, Johnson,
was witness to the misfortune."
"Lieutenant Bellot was a brave Frenchman," said Hatteras, "and his
memory is honoured in England."
"By that time," continued the doctor, "Belcher's fleet began to come
back little by little; not all of it, for Sir Edward had been obliged
to abandon the _Assistance_ in 1854, as McClure had done with the
_Investigator_ in 1853. In the meantime, Dr. Rae, in a letter dated
the 29th of July, 1854, and addressed from Repulse Bay, which he had
succeeded in reaching through America, sent word that the Esquimaux
of King William's Land were in possession of different objects taken
from the wrecks of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_; there was then not the
least doubt about the fate of the expedition; the _Phoenix_, the
_North Star_, and Collinson's vessel then came back to England,
leaving the Arctic Seas completely abandoned by English ships. But
if the Government seemed to have lost all hope it was not so with
Lady Franklin, and with the remnants of her fortune she fitted out
the _Fox_, commanded by McClintock, who set sail in 1857, and wintered
in the quarters where you made your apparition; he reached Beechey
Island on the 11th of August, 1858, wintered a second time in Bellot's
Strait, began his search again in February, 1859, and on the 6th of
May found the document which cleared away all doubt about the fate
of the _Erebus_ and the _Terror_, and returned to England at the end
of the year. That is all that has happened for fifteen years in these
fateful countries, and since the return of the _Fox_ not a single
vessel has returned to attempt success in the midst of these dangerous
seas."
"Well," replied Hatteras, "we will attempt it."