The “Rescue” in Melville Bay
A warm welcome awaited the lost ones, when a few days later they reached the ship.
“With our return to the vessel,” writes Mr. Kennedy, “may be said to have closed all our operations, as far as the ship was concerned, in the Arctic seas for the year 1851. There remained now only to make our arrangements for the vessel passing the next six or eight months where we were, and for preparing for our own winter journeys.”
Preparations were completed by January 5, 1852, and the morning of that day the men on snow-shoes, with dogs dragging the sledges, started off amid the cheers of their comrades and the yelping and barking of the dogs.
“The first object of the journey,” continues Mr. Kennedy, “was, of course, to ascertain whether Fury Beach had been a retreating point to any of Sir John Franklin’s party since it was visited by Lieutenant Robinson, of the Enterprise, in 1849. A secondary object, should our expectations in this respect not be realized, was to form a first depot of provisions here, with the view of carrying out a more extended search as soon as circumstances would permit. It was desirable at the same time to ascertain the state of the roads, by which, of course, I mean the yet untrodden surface of the snow or ice, in the direction in which we meant to go, before commencing any transport, on a large scale, between the ship and Fury Beach; and it was thought advisable, therefore, to go comparatively light. A small supply of pemmican was all we took with us in addition to our travelling requirements, consisting of a tent and poles, blanketing and provisions for a week, some guns and ammunition, fuel, and a cooking apparatus, in all weighing from two hundred to two hundred and fifty pounds.”
From the outset the travelling was difficult and arduous. “... not infrequently after toiling to the top of an incline, a lurch of the sleigh would send us careening in a very lively and unexpected manner to the bottom. Here follows an incident in our first day’s journey, which caused us some amusement at the time, and carried a lesson with it, whenever we had to encounter any of these obstacles afterward.
“We had got about halfway up one of those villainous steeps, when our entire cortège gave unmistakable signs of a tendency to seek a sudden descent. There was just time for us to cast off the traces, all but poor Mr. Bellot, who was not sufficiently alert in disengaging his, when away went the sleigh and dogs, and Mr. Bellot after them into an abyss at the bottom, where the only indication of the catastrophe that could be seen was some six inches of Mr. Bellot’s heels above the surface of the snow. We dug him out ‘a wiser and a better man’ for the rest of the journey, whenever any of these pestilent slopes had to be encountered thereafter.”
CAPTAIN KENNEDY—BELLOT
On the 8th, the distance to Fury Beach being very short, Mr. Kennedy decided to leave the sledge and two of the men, and press on with Mr. Bellot, and one man unencumbered.