A summary made shortly after the search ended, gives the length of coast-line examined by the various searching parties as follows: Sir James Ross, in 1849, explored 990 miles of coast-line on the eastern side of Peel strait, in Lancaster sound and in Regent inlet; Captain Austen traced 6,087 miles; Sir Edward Belcher and Captain Kellett, 9,432 miles; Sir Robert M’Clure, 2,350 miles; Captain Collison in his voyage to Cambridge bay, and Dr. Rae on the same coasts, 1,030 miles, making in all, 21,500 miles of coast-line examined, of which 5,780 miles were previously unknown. From this summary the search of the American expeditions is omitted, as well as those of Lady Franklin’s private expeditions, all of which would add greatly to the total. Admiral Sir F. L. M’Clintock has estimated the amount of money expended by the British government on Arctic research, including the outfitting of the Erebus and Terror, at £272,000, and on the relief and search expeditions, £675,000; to this must be added the money subscribed for private expeditions, amounting to £35,000. The expeditions fitted out in the United States, mostly by private subscriptions, cost over $250,000. Admiral M’Clintock has further estimated that the number of miles traversed by sled expeditions only, over ice and land, is about 43,000 miles. His views as regards the economic and scientific value of the Arctic explorations are as follows:
‘The benefits, doubtless, have been very great; to whaling commerce it has opened up all to the north and west of Davis strait and Hudson strait; also to the north of Bering strait. The value of these fisheries alone amounts to very many millions sterling into the pockets of English and American traders. The scientific results are very varied, and ample in almost every department, and peculiarly so in magnetism, meteorology, the tides, geographical discoveries, geology, botany and zoology, as shown by the general advance in each branch. Upon naval impulse the influence has been truly great; we could man an expedition with English naval officers.’
The exploration of Smith sound, the northern inlet to Baffin bay, was commenced during the search for Franklin. In 1852, Captain Inglefield left England, in the screw schooner Isabel, with the intention of searching the deep northern inlets of Baffin bay for traces of Franklin, and with the hope of reaching the open Polar sea through Smith sound. Cape Farewell was sighted on the 30th of July, and Cape York on the 21st of August where a number of natives were seen in the vicinity. At North Omenak native caches of meat and winter clothing were found. On the 26th Cape Alexander, the farthest point seen by Baffin, was passed, with an open sea to the northward. On the 27th he reached latitude 78° 21´ N. one hundred and forty miles beyond any previous navigator. He was forced by a strong northerly gale and low temperature to retreat south, and on his way entered Jones sound, which he explored to latitude 76° 11´ N. and longitude 84° 10´ W. He then entered Lancaster sound, and visited Beechey island, after which, turning homeward, he did not cross the Arctic circle until the 12th of October.
In 1853, Dr. Elisha Kent Kane left New York in the brig Advance, fitted out by Henry Grinnell and George Peabody, to assist in the search for Franklin. The Advance entered Smith sound on the 7th of August, and, after considerable danger and trouble with ice, was moored in Rensselaer bay, from which she never emerged. This wintering place was about 120 miles north of any previously attained, being in latitude 78° 38´ and longitude 70° 40´. Kane confined his explorations to the Greenland side of the sound, and personally reached the southern edge of the great Humboldt glacier, while Dr. Hayes, surgeon to Kane, crossed Kane basin to the neighbourhood of Cape Fraser, and William Morton, on the Greenland coast, passed the Humboldt glacier and attained latitude 80° 35´ in the vicinity of Cape Constitution, where from an elevation of 500 feet he saw open water in Kennedy channel extending to the north as far as the eye could reach. In July, 1854, the ice being still firm, Kane attempted to reach Beechey island, where he knew that assistance could be obtained, but had to return before reaching Cape Parry. At the end of August, Hayes and eight others of the crew left the ship with the intention of reaching the Danish settlement of Upernivik; they returned in December, nearly dead of starvation and cold. The vessel was formally abandoned on the 20th of May following, and on the 17th of June the boats were launched in open water near Cape Alexander. Cape York was doubled on the 21st of July, and the greatly reduced party reached Upernivik on the 6th of August.
Dr. I. I. Hayes was the next to attempt to reach the supposed open sea, by way of Smith sound. He left Boston, in the schooner United States, on the 7th of July, 1860, and on the 12th of August reached Upernivik, where he added six natives to his crew, bringing the total number up to twenty-one. Meeting with a succession of northerly gales off Cape Alexander, Hayes was obliged to winter south of Littleton island, in Foulke fiord, in latitude 78° 18´ N. He first tried to explore the Greenland coast, but was obliged to abandon the attempt on account of the very rough ice. He then determined to cross Kane basin and follow the west coast northward. Thirty-eight days were occupied in crossing the seventy miles between the ship and Cape Hawkes, after which he claims that six days’ travel brought him to Cape Lieber, situated 170 miles beyond Cape Hawkes; this is evidently a mistake. The ship was released on the 10th of July, and the passage north being barred by solid ice, Hayes crossed to the west side, and explored the coast southward from Cape Sabine to Cape Isabella before returning home. He was thus making good the claim of being the first white man to tread the shores of Ellesmere island.
The next expedition to Smith sound was commanded by Charles F. Hall, in the Polaris. Hall had previously spent two years among the natives at Frobisher bay, the charting of which is due to his efforts. On his return from this first trip he went, in a whaler, to Roes Welcome, where he again lived with and like the natives, in an attempt to recover the logs and other records of the Erebus and Terror. He remained in the country for four winters before he succeeded in reaching the southern shores of King William island; he was unsuccessful in his quest. Hall throughout his journeys kept a voluminous journal; he took meteorological observations and observations for his position. His instruments appear to have been not of the best, and Hall seems to have had a great faith in the statements of the natives, a faith that was often abused; in consequence, much of his information from that source is quite unreliable.
To return to the Polaris expedition, fitted out by the United States government, with the object of reaching the North Pole. She left New York on the 29th of June, 1871, with a crew of twenty-three, which was increased by ten Greenlanders. Melville bay was crossed in thirty-four hours, and Smith sound being free of ice, an almost uninterrupted passage was made through Kane basin and Kennedy channel, so that the Polar ocean was reached on the 31st of August in latitude 82° 11´, to the northwest of Repulse harbour, where heavy, ancient, arctic ice stopped further progress. Returning southward, the Polaris went into winter quarters at Thank God harbour. Hall, in October, reached Cape Brevoort, but died suddenly shortly after his return, and this calamity put a stop to further efforts to reach the Pole. Some explorations were made in the early spring before it was decided to return home. On the way south the ship was caught in the ice in Kennedy channel, on the 14th of August, and remained fast in the pack until the 15th of October, when a furious gale broke up the pack, in sight of Northumberland island, after nearly destroying her in the process of disruption. When this occurred several of the party who were on the ice landing stores were left, and drifted southward 1,500 miles on the ice, being rescued by the Tigress, off the coast of Labrador, on the 30th of April, 1872. The vessel was beached at Life Boat cove, and the remainder of the crew passed the winter in safety in a house built from the wreck. During the winter two boats were built, in which the party started to retreat on Upernivik, but were fortunately rescued by a relief steamer in the vicinity of Cape York.
The British Government, in 1875, fitted out an expedition with Captain George Nares in command of the Alert, and Captain Stephenson, second in command, on the Discovery, while the complete crews numbered one hundred and thirty officers and men, with three native dog-drivers. The instructions, which were to proceed up Smith sound, indicated that the primary object of the expedition was to attain the highest northern latitude, and, if possible, the North Pole, including explorations to the adjacent coasts from winter quarters. The ships left England on the 29th of May, and Cape York was reached on the 25th of July, after very little trouble with the ice. Here the first of a series of caches of provisions was established, to provide for the safety of the crews in case they were obliged to abandon the ships and retreat southward over the ice. These caches were not used, and being left for future explorations were the means of preserving life in the survivors of Greely’s party some years later.
From Cape York the passage northward was a constant struggle with immense floes of heavy ice, so that it was the 25th of August before the Discovery anchored for the winter in Discovery harbour. The Alert pushed on, and reached Floeberg beach, in latitude 82° 25´ N., and longitude 61° 30´ W., where further progress was barred by the heavy ancient ice of the Polar sea, to which Nares has given the name paleocrystic, to distinguish it from the ice of more southern waters, which is formed annually. Here the Alert was moored for the winter, exposed to the crushing action and movement of these solid floes, in a latitude far north of that before attained by any ship. Depots of provisions were established during the autumn by sledging parties for use in the following spring. On the 3rd of April seven sleds, manned by fifty-three men and officers, left the Alert for northern explorations. One party, under Commander Markham, was to push northward over the frozen ocean; the other, under Lieutenant Aldrich, to explore the north coast of Grinnell land. Markham, after great toil and hardships, hauling heavy sledges and boats over exceedingly rough ice, and with five of his eighteen men helpless from the effects of scurvy, succeeded in reaching a point on the ice in latitude 83° 20´ 26´´, the farthest north to that date. The health of the men became worse on the return journey, and if Lieutenant Parr had not, by a forced march of twenty-four hours, reached the ship for assistance, all would probably have been lost; as it was, one died and eleven others had to be dragged to the ship.
Lieutenant Aldrich surveyed two hundred and twenty miles of new coast, reaching, on the 18th of May, Point Albert, in 82° 16´, and 85° 33´ W. His party, also attacked by scurvy, would not have reached the ship without assistance.