The second Grinnell expedition went out three years later. This was commanded by a man who became almost as famous as Sir John Franklin himself, Elisha Kent Kane. Kane had been with De Haven in 1850, and thoroughly understood the work of Arctic exploration. He liked the wild, exciting life, and he had an ardent desire to find the brave men who had been lost, and to bring them home with him.
Kane’s plan was to pass up Baffin bay as far north as it was possible to drive the ship. From that point he intended to proceed by boats or sledges toward the pole, examining the coast lines along the way for traces of the lost party.
The strongly built bark Advance was selected for this journey, and Kane set sail from New York with seventeen companions, in May, 1853. After a month the Advance reached Fiskernaes, a town on the Greenland coast, inhabited chiefly by Eskimos. To these people a ship was a very unusual sight, and they swarmed upon the rocks to gaze at the strange newcomers. The Danish official who had charge of the colony welcomed Kane and his companions hospitably.
Fiskernaes, Greenland.
Kane had brought all the dried and salted provisions he could carry, but he knew that his men would need fresh meat in order to keep well in this climate. Besides, they had with them about fifty dogs for the sledge journeys which Kane expected to make when the vessel could no longer push her way through the ice. But Eskimo dogs have large appetites and need plenty of fresh meat to keep them strong; a good Eskimo hunter was needed to supply such food.
There was a boy about nineteen years of age in the town, named Hans Christian, who was known to be very skillful in the use of the kayak and the javelin. Kane called upon Hans to try his skill. Hans threw his javelin and speared a bird on the wing. Kane said, “That is the man for me,” and wished to engage him on the spot. But Hans said, “No, not until you promise to give my mother two barrels of bread and fifty-two pounds of pork.” Kane agreed, and then Hans went cheerfully on board the Advance, certain that his mother would not suffer during his absence.
Kane made one more landing on the Greenland coast, at Sukkertoppen. The natives of this place collected reindeer skins, and had just sent four thousand to Denmark. Kane bought a stock of skins for clothing, also a large supply of sealskins for boots. The party then bade farewell to the governor of the colony and put out to sea.
The ship sailed northward for several days. Every day the weather became colder and the ice thicker. One day a heavy gale arose, and the ship tossed about so among the icebergs and the floating cakes that her escape from being crushed was marvelous. Captain Kane, who was a very ingenious man, devised a method of avoiding this danger from ice crushing. His plan was to attach the vessel to an iceberg and let her float after it, for there is always open water around a berg. The plan sounded very simple, but Kane had not reckoned on the nature of icebergs. After eight hours of hard work the anchors were fastened, but before the men had time to breathe freely, a few crackling sounds were heard and pieces of ice the size of walnuts fell on the deck like hail. The sailors had just time to cast off from the berg when it fell, with a crash, into the water around them.