None of the numerous expeditions sent forth to discover traces of Sir
John Franklin's expedition afford matter of greater interest than that
of the little yacht the _Fox_, while it has surpassed all in
successfully clearing up the mystery which for ten long years or more
hung over the fate of that gallant Arctic explorer and his brave
companions.
The _Fox_, a screw-steamer of 177 tons, was the property of Lady
Franklin, and the command of her was confided to Captain McClintock, RN,
who had already made several Arctic voyages. He had as officers,
Lieutenant Hobson, RN, and Captain Allan Young, a noble-minded commander
of the mercantile marine; with Dr Walker as surgeon, and Mr Carl
Petersen as interpreter. She was prepared at Aberdeen for her arduous
undertaking, and sailed 1st of July 1857. She entered Baffin's Bay, and
had got as far north as Melville Bay, on its north-west shore, when she
was beset by the ice early in September, and there blocked up for the
winter.
Soon after midnight on the 25th of April 1858, she was once more under
weigh, and forcing her way out from among huge masses of ice thrown in
on her by the ocean swell. Repeatedly the frozen masses were hurled
against the sharp iron bow, causing the vessel to shake violently, the
bells to ring, and almost knocking the crew off their feet. On one
occasion the ice stopped the screw for some minutes. Anxious moments
those--"After that day's experience I can understand how men's hair has
turned grey in a few hours," says Captain McClintock.
Touching at the Danish settlements to refit, and at Pond's Bay, the
little _Fox_, narrowly escaping destruction, at length reached Beechey
Island on the 11th of August. Here a tablet was erected to the memory
of Sir John Franklin and his officers and crew, and the _Fox_, having
filled up with stores and coals from the depot there, left again on the
16th.
On the 18th she had run twenty-five miles down Peel's Straits, the hopes
of all raised to the utmost, when a pack of ice appeared, barring their
farther progress. Putting about, she visited the depot at Port Leopold,
where boats and an abundant supply of all sorts of articles were found,
which, in case of the destruction of their own vessel, would afford the
explorers a fair prospect of escape.
Far different was the condition of Arctic explorers now, than it had
been when Franklin sailed on his fatal expedition. Then they had to
depend entirely on their own resources; now, through the sagacity and
forethought of those who sent them forth, depots of provisions and boats
and sledges, and even huts, had been provided, to afford every possible
means of escape should any disaster overtake their ships.
Captain McClintock, on leaving Leopold Harbour, sailed north down Prince
Regent's Inlet, but in vain attempted to force a passage through any
channel to the east. At last he returned some way north to Bellot's
Straits, discovered by Mr Kennedy, and called after his unfortunate
companion, Lieutenant Bellot, of the French navy, who lost his life when
belonging to Sir Edward Belcher's expedition. He passed some distance
through Bellot's Straits, and the _Fox_ was finally beset, on the 28th
September, in a beautiful little harbour in them, to which the name of
Kennedy Harbour was given.
Depots were now established by travelling parties to the north-east,
some eighty miles or more from the ship, and all preparations made for
prosecuting their interesting search in the spring. This commenced the
winter of 1858-59, the second passed by the _Fox_ in the ice.
On the 17th February, Captain McClintock started with Mr Petersen and
one man, Thompson, on a long pedestrian expedition, with two sledges
drawn by dogs. Lieutenant Hobson set off about the same time, as did
also Captain Young,--all three expeditions in different directions,
towards the south; the first two accomplished several hundred miles to
King William's Island.
Great indeed were the trials and hardships they underwent in these
expeditions. Day after day they trudged on, employed for two hours each
evening, before they could take their food or go to rest, in building
their snow huts, exposed to biting winds, to snow and sleet, and often
to dense fogs.
On one occasion one man alone of a whole party escaped being struck by
snow-blindness; and he had to lead them with their packs, and to guide
them back to the vessel. How terrible would have been their fate had he
also been struck with blindness!
On the west coast of King William's Island, which is separated by a
broad channel from the mainland of America, they fell in with several
families of Esquimaux, among whom numerous relics of the Franklin
expedition were discovered. The most interesting were purchased.
Farther north, on the west coast, a cairn was found, within which was a
paper with the announcement of Sir John Franklin's death, and with the
sad statement, written at a subsequent period, that it had been found
necessary to abandon the ships and to proceed to the southward.
A boat on runners also was found with two skeletons in her, and another
skeleton at a distance--all too plainly telling a tale which shall be
narrated hereafter. The Esquimaux also said that they had seen men sink
down and die along the shore; and that one ship had gone down crushed by
the ice, and that another had been driven on shore. With this terrible
elucidation of the long-continued mystery, only partly cleared up before
by Dr Rae, they began their return journey.
On the 19th of June Captain McClintock reached his ship, the ice having
begun to melt with the increased warmth of the weather. August arrived,
and the explorers began to look out anxiously for the breaking up of the
ice.
At last, on the 10th, a favourable breeze drove the ice out of the bay,
and the trim little _Fox_, under sail and steam, merrily darted out of
her prison, and hurried north towards Barrow's Straits. She reached
Baffin's Bay, and, touching at the Danish settlements, arrived in the
English Channel on the 20th of September, having made the passage under
sail in nineteen days from Greenland.