A fourth time Parry tried to make the northwest passage, by way of Regent inlet. This attempt was terminated by the shipwreck of the Fury, commanded by Captain Hoppner. With great forethought, Parry caused all the provisions to be landed from the wreck and safely housed on Fury beach, where they were subsequently found by Ross, and were the means of rescuing his crew from starvation.
During the time that Parry was making his important discoveries by sea, Lieutenant John Franklin was employed in tracing the northern shores of the American continent. From 1819 to 1822 Franklin was engaged in leading an expedition overland from Hudson bay to the Arctic shores, in the vicinity of the Coppermine river. The Admiralty, who planned the expedition, knew practically nothing about the conditions for travel through the regions that it purposed exploring, and depended for aid solely upon the Hudson’s Bay Company. Unfortunately, at this time the quarrel between the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North-west Company was at its height, and the resources of both were consequently greatly crippled. The North-west Company were far stronger in the Mackenzie river valley, and their rivals, who were to help Franklin, were unable to give him very efficient aid, or to supply him with a large stock of provisions; in consequence, he started from the outposts with almost no food, determining to trust to his hunters for the provisions required for his party. This finally led to disaster, and on the retreat from the Arctic sea, over one-half of the party, including Lieutenant Hood, died of starvation. Franklin left England in the Hudson’s Bay Company’s ship, accompanied by Lieutenants Back and Hood, Dr. Richardson and one seaman. They arrived at York Factory, and there met four of the leading partners of the North-west Company, who were held prisoners by their rivals. As these men had spent a number of years in the Mackenzie river country, Franklin obtained much valuable information from them. After a few days at York, the party proceeded by canoes from there, 650 miles to Cumberland House, on the Saskatchewan river, where the first winter was passed. The following summer the party, reinforced by a number of Canadian voyageurs, started northward in canoes, and reached Fort Chipewyan, on Great Slave lake, before the ice had melted. The expedition, now consisting of twenty-five persons, started away from Fort Chipewyan with one day’s supply of provisions and a totally inadequate amount of ammunition. Travelling to the north side of the lake, the party was further increased by a band of the Copper Indians, and all journeyed to Fort Enterprize, which was built near the edge of the barren lands, in latitude 64° 30´ N. The total distance travelled during this season was 1,350 miles. Venison was plentiful during the winter, but the supply failed in the spring, so that a start was made over the barrens without any food except such as fell to the hunters from day to day. The distance from Fort Enterprize to the mouth of Coppermine river is 334 miles. The first 120 miles were made by tramping with canoes and outfit over the snow; the remainder was made in canoes, and the mouth of the river was reached on the 21st of July. Turning eastward, the shores of Bathurst inlet and Coronation gulf were surveyed to Point Turnagain, in latitude 68° 19´ N. and longitude 109° 25´ W. The canoes were detained here for several days by a snowstorm, and a retreat was necessary as soon as the weather moderated. The course along the coast was therefore retraced to Hood river, and that stream was ascended for a short distance. The equipment was reduced to the smallest compass, and a course was shaped overland for Fort Enterprize, the travelling being through deep snow. Game was very scarce, and the hardships soon began to tell on the weaker members of the party, with the result, as before stated, that half the number succumbed to cold and starvation. The survivors were succoured by Indians on the 7th of November, and reached the Hudson’s Bay post on Great Slave lake on the 11th of December, and England in October, 1822.
In 1825-27, Captain Sir John Franklin resumed his exploration of the Arctic coasts of America in much happier circumstances. The rival fur companies had now amalgamated, forming one powerful company, with full control over the natives, and capable of rendering valuable assistance to an exploring party in the far north. Franklin, profiting by his former sad experience, had a large supply of pemmican prepared in advance, and stored at Fort Chipewyan. The journey from England was made by way of Montreal and the great lakes. After passing a winter at Great Bear lake, Franklin descended the Mackenzie to its mouth, and then surveyed the coast westward to Return reef, passing the northern end of the Rocky mountains, leaving only 160 miles of unsurveyed coast between his farthest point and Point Barrow, reached the same year by Captain Beechey in boats from Bering straits.
While Franklin was thus engaged with one-half of his party, the other half, under the command of Dr. Richardson and Lieutenant Kendall, were exploring the coast between the mouths of the Mackenzie and Coppermine rivers. These surveys carried the exploration from Bering strait to Coronation gulf, with only a break of 160 miles between Return reef and Point Barrow, or through sixty degrees of longitude. The eastern end of these surveys was overlapped six degrees in longitude by the discoveries of Parry to the northward, and only a channel running north and south was required to connect them, and so complete the long sought northwest passage.
Captain John Ross, being anxious to remove the reproach of his former failure, and having been provided by Sir Felix Booth with a well-fitted ship, the Victory, of 150 tons, sailed, in 1829, with the intention of seeking a passage through Regent inlet. The ship was set fast in the ice, and finally abandoned in Victoria harbour, on the west side of Regent inlet, nearly opposite Fury and Hecla strait. The expedition was remarkable for the number of winters spent within the Arctic circle, three of them on the Victory and the fourth at Fury beach, where the provisions thoughtfully housed by Parry were the means of saving the crew from starvation. They at length escaped from the ice in their boats, and were picked up by a whaler in Lancaster sound. Sir John Ross surveyed the shores adjoining his winter quarters, and named the lower part of Regent inlet the Gulf of Boothia.
The chief discoveries were made by Lieutenant James Clark Ross, who, by several long sled journeys, traced a part of the shores of King William island, and of the west side of the peninsula of Boothia, up to the Magnetic Pole; also the shores of Lord Mayors bay and its vicinity in the Gulf of Boothia. During the retreat to Fury beach, Brentford bay was crossed several times without notice being taken of Bellot strait.
Considerable anxiety was felt in England, after two winters had passed without any tidings of the Victory, and Captain Back was outfitted by public subscription to descend the Great Fish river to its mouth, and there if possible, with the help of natives, succour the crew of the Victory. Back spent the winter of 1834 at Great Slave lake, and the following summer crossed the height-of-land and descended Great Fish river to its mouth in a heavy boat. Having been informed, by an express from England, of the safe return of Ross, he confined himself to geographical work, and traced the estuary of the river to Cape Britannia on the one side and to Point Richardson on the other, leaving only a short distance between his northern termination and the southern point of James Ross’ southern sled journey. The result of this journey left only 160 miles to the west of the Mackenzie, and thirteen degrees of longitude between Franklin’s Point Turnagain and the Gulf of Boothia to complete the northwest passage.
The Hudson’s Bay Company undertook to fill these gaps of unsurveyed coast-line, and sent an expedition under the direction of Peter Warren Dease and Thomas Simpson, an expert surveyor. The western section was first completed in 1837. In 1838-39 the eastern portion between Point Turnagain and the estuary of the Great Fish river was surveyed by the same intrepid explorers, without any loss of life to their party, and without other hardships than those incidental to travel in the Arctics. The boat voyages, by which these surveys were completed, were the longest ever undertaken in arctic waters, and embraced sixty-two degrees of longitude between Point Barrow and Castor and Pollux river, the most eastern point of Simpson. While surveying the coast to the eastward, Simpson charted the south side of Victoria island and the south side of King William island.
Unfortunately the advanced state of the season would not permit Simpson to connect the mouth of Great Fish river with Regent inlet, or with King William sea. This the Hudson’s Bay Company resolved to complete, and in 1845 selected Dr. John Rae for the work. Dr. Rae sailed in boats from Churchill to Repulse bay, where he passed the winter, supporting his party mainly by his own skill in hunting. The following spring he portaged his boats, by a number of lakes, across the Rae isthmus to the bottom of Committee bay, and surveyed the southern part of the Gulf of Boothia to Fury and Hecla strait on the east side, and to Lord Mayors bay on the west side, thus proving that land having the width of four degrees of longitude intervened between the Gulf of Boothia and the eastern bay of the sea explored by Dease and Simpson. Dr. Rae returned in his boats to York factory in the autumn of 1847, without losing a man of his party.
In 1824 Captain Lyon, in the Griper, made an unsuccessful attempt to continue the work of Parry and himself in Fox channel. He left England on the 20th of June, rounded Southampton island on the 30th of August, and stood up Roes Welcome, where excessively bad weather was met with. He reached Wager inlet on the 12th of September, and when riding out a gale lost his last two anchors, while the ship was rendered very leaky. In such a state he was unable to anchor, and was obliged to return home immediately.