Clinging with the “tenacity of a bosom-friend” to the ice-floe to which they were secured, “it conveyed us,” continues M’Clure, “to our farthest northeast position, latitude 73° 7´ north, longitude 117° 10´ west, back round the Princess Royal Islands, passed the largest within five hundred yards to latitude 72° 42´ north, longitude 118° 42´ west, returning along the coast of Prince Albert’s Land, and finally freezing in at latitude 72° 50´ north, longitude 117° 55´ west, upon the 30th of September, during which circumnavigation we received many severe nips, and were frequently driven close to the shore, from which our deep friend kept us off. To avoid separation, we had secured with two stream-cables, one chain, two six, and two five hawsers. As our exposed position rendered every precaution necessary, we got upon deck twelve months’ provisions, with tents, warm clothing, etc., and issued to each person a pair of carpet-boots and a blanket-bag, so that in the event of any emergency rendering it imperative to quit the vessel, we might not be destitute. On the 8th of October, our perplexities terminated with a nip that lifted the vessel a foot, and heeled her 4° to port, in consequence of a large tongue getting beneath her, in which position we quietly remained.” Here the Investigator passed the winter of 1850-1851, during which season a journey was made over the ice to the shores of Barrow Strait, which they found connected with the strait in which they wintered, thus establishing the fact of a northwest passage.
The journey undertaken on the morning of October 21, 1850, came near proving fatal to Captain M’Clure. On the return trip a week later about 2 P.M. one afternoon, having seen the Princess Royal Isles and knowing the position of the ship, he decided to leave his sledge and push ahead, that a warm meal might be made ready for the rest of the party upon their arrival at the ship. Night overtook him when still at least six miles from the vessel, and a dense mist, accompanied by heavy snow, obscured every object.
“I now,” writes M’Clure, “climbed on a mass of squeezed-up ice, in the hope of seeing my party, should they pass near, or of attracting the attention of some one on board the vessel by firing my fowling-piece. Unfortunately, I had no other ammunition than what it was loaded with; for I had fancied, when I left the sledge, that two charges in the gun would be all I should be likely to require. After waiting for an hour patiently, I was rejoiced to see through the mist the glaring of a blue light, evidently burnt in the direction in which I had left the sledge. I immediately fired to denote my position; but my fire was unobserved, and, both barrels being discharged, I was unable to repeat the signal. My only hope now rested upon the ship’s answering, but nothing was to be seen; and, although I once more saw, at a greater distance, the glare of another blue light from the sledge, there seemed no probability of my having any other shelter for the night than what the floe afforded. Two hours elapsed; I endeavored to see the face of my pocket compass by the light of a solitary lucifer match, which happened to be in my pocket; but in this hope I was cruelly disappointed, for it fizzed and went out, leaving me in total darkness. It was now half-past eight; there were eleven hours of night before me, a temperature of 15° below zero, bears prowling about, and I with an unloaded gun in my hands. The sledge-party might, however, reach the ship, and, finding I had not arrived, search would be made, and help be sent; so I walked to and fro upon my hummock until, I suppose, it must have been eleven o’clock, when that hope fled likewise. Descending from the top of the slab of ice upon which I had clambered, I found under its lee a famous bed of soft, dry snow; and thoroughly tired out, I threw myself upon it and slept for perhaps three hours, when, upon opening my eyes, I fancied I saw the flash of a rocket. Jumping upon my feet, I found that the mist had cleared off, and that the stars and aurora borealis were shining in all the splendor of an Arctic night. Although unable to see the islands or the ship, I wandered about the ice in different directions until daylight, when, to my great mortification, I found I had passed the ship fully the distance of four miles.”
Sledge journeys along the shores of Baring Island and Prince Albert Land were undertaken, but no trace of Franklin or his party was discovered. Traces of Eskimos were found, but only one party met with; however, deer, musk-oxen, and bears were encountered. A bear was killed, and, when opened, its stomach was found to contain raisins, tobacco, pork, and adhesive plaster! This extraordinary medley led Captain M’Clure to the conclusion that the Enterprise was in the vicinity, and a diligent search was instituted, but the only result was the discovery of a preserved meat canister, which contained similar articles, probably the same from which the bear had obtained his unusual meal. By the 13th of June, 1851, all the sledge parties having returned in safety to the ship, everything was made ready to set sail the moment the huge barriers of ice should permit.
“The first indication of open water,” writes Captain M’Clure, “occurred to-day (July 7th) extending some distance along the shore of Prince Albert’s Land, about a mile in width; the ice in every direction is so rapidly decaying, being much accelerated by sleet and rain, with the thermometer standing at 45°, that, by the 14th, that which for the last few days had been slightly in motion, with large spaces of water intervening, suddenly and noiselessly opened around the vessel, leaving her in a pond of forty yards; but seeing no possibility of getting without its limits, we were compelled to secure to the floe which had for ten months befriended us, and, with the whole of the pack, gradually drifted to the southward, toward the Princess Royal Islands, which we passed on the eastern side within half a mile.
“Upon the 17th, at 10 A.M., being among loose ice, we cast off from the floe and made sail, with the hope of getting upon the western shore where the water appeared to be making, but without shipping the rudder, in consequence of being in the vicinity of several large floes, and at 2 P.M. again secured to a floe between the Princess Royal and Baring islands (we passed over a shoal having nineteen fathoms). On the 20th, at half-past eleven A.M., a light air sprang up from the southwest, which, slacking the ice, gave hopes of making progress to the northeast, in which direction I was anxious to get for the purpose of entering Barrow Strait, that, according to circumstances, I might be enabled to carry out my original intentions of proceeding to the northward of Melville Island, as detailed in my letter to the secretary of the Admiralty, of July 20, 1850; or, should such not be practicable, return to England through the strait. After most persevering efforts to penetrate into Barrow Strait, Captain M’Clure was obliged to abandon the attempt. On the 16th of August he determined to coast round the western shores of the island and make the passage, if possible, to the northward of Banks Land.
“At 4 P.M. on the 18th,” he writes, “being off a very low spit of sand (Point Kellet) which extended to the westward for about twelve miles, in the form of a horseshoe, having a seaside thickly studded with grounded ice, while the interior was exempt from any, I sent Mr. Court (second master) to examine it, who reported an excellent and commodious harbour, well sheltered from north-west to south, carrying five fathoms within ten yards of the beach, which was shingle, and covered with driftwood. A set of sights was obtained, and a cask, containing a notice, was left there. Upon the morning of the 19th, we left this low coast, and passed between two small islands lying at the entrance of what appeared a deep inlet, running east-south-east, and then turning sharp to north-east. It had a barrier of ice extending across, which prevented any communication. Wishing to keep between the northernmost of these islands and the mainland, to avoid the pack, which was very near it, we narrowly escaped getting on shore, as a reef extended from the latter to within half a mile of the island. Fortunately, the wind being light, we rounded to with all the studding-sails set, and let go the anchor in two and a half fathoms, having about four inches to spare under the keel, and warped into four, while Mr. Court was sent to find a channel in which he succeeded, carrying three fathoms, through which we ran for one mile, and then continued our course in eight, having from three to five miles between the ice and land. At 8 P.M., we neared two other islands, the ice resting upon the westernmost, upon which the pressure must have been excessive, as large masses were forced nearly over its summit, which was upwards of forty feet. Between these and the main we ran through a channel in from nine to fifteen fathoms, when an immediate and marked change took place in the general appearance and formation of the land: it became high, precipitous, sterile, and rugged; intersected with deep ravines and water courses, having six-five fathoms at a quarter of a mile, and fifteen fathoms one hundred yards from the cliffs, which proved exceedingly fortunate as the whole pack, which had apparently only just broken from the shore, was within half a mile, and, in many places, so close to it, that to avoid getting beset, we had nearly to touch the land; indeed, upon several occasions, the boats were compelled to be topped-up, and poles used to keep the vessel off the grounded ice; which extends all along this coast; nor could we round to, fearful of carrying the jib-boom away against the cliffs, which here run nearly east and west. The cape forming its western extreme I have called Prince Alfred, in honour of his Royal Highness. On the morning of the 20th, our further progress was impeded by finding the ice resting upon a point, which formed a slight indentation of shore, and was the only place where water could be seen. To prevent being carried away with the pack, which was filling up its space, we secured to the inshore side of a small but heavy piece of ice, grounded in twelve fathoms seventy-four yards from the beach—the only protection against the tremendous Polar ice (setting a knot per hour to the eastward before a fresh westerly wind), which at 9 P.M. placed us in a very critical position, by a large floe striking the piece we were fast to, and causing it to oscillate so considerably, that a tongue which happened to be under our bottom, lifted the vessel six feet; but, by great attention to the anchors and warps, we succeeded in holding on during the conflict, which was continued several minutes, terminating by the floe being rent in pieces, and our being driven nearer the beach. From this until the 29th, we lay perfectly secure, but at 8 A.M. of that day, the ice began suddenly to move, when a large floe, that must have caught the piece to which we were attached under one of its overhanging ledges, raised it perpendicular by thirty feet, presenting to all on board a most frightful aspect. As it ascended above the foreyard, much apprehension was felt, that it might be thrown completely over, when the ship must have been crushed beneath it. This suspense was but for a few minutes, as the floe rent, carrying away with it a large piece from the foundation of our asylum, when it gave several fearful rolls, and resumed its former position; but, no longer capable of resisting the pressure, it was hurried onward with the drifting mass. Our proximity to the shore compelled, as our only hopes of safety, the absolute necessity of holding to it; we consequently secured with a chain, stream and hemp cable, three, six, and two five-inch hawsers, three of which were passed round it. In this state we were forced along, sinking large pieces beneath the bottom, and sustaining a heavy strain against the stern and rudder; the latter was much damaged, but to unship it at present was impossible. At 1 P.M., the pressure eased, from the ice becoming stationary, when it was unhung and laid upon a large floe piece, where, by 8 P.M., owing to the activity of Mr. Ford, the carpenter, who is always ready to meet any emergency, it was repaired, just as the ice began again to be in motion; but as the tackles were hooked, it was run up to the davits without further damage.” Continuing his exciting narrative, Captain M’Clure writes:—
“We were now setting fast upon another large piece of a broken floe, grounded in nine fathoms upon the débris formed at the mouth of a large river. Feeling confident that, should we be caught between this and what we were fast to, the ship must inevitably go to pieces, and yet being aware that to cast off would certainly send us on the beach (from which we were never distant eighty yards), upon which the smaller ice was hurled as it came in contact with these grounded masses, I sent John Kerr (gunner’s mate) under very difficult circumstances, to endeavor to reach it and effect its destruction by blasting; he could not, however, find a sufficient space of water to sink the charge, but remarking a large cavity upon the sea face of the floe, he fixed it there, which so far succeeded, that it slightly fractured it in three places, which, at the moment was scarcely observable, from the heavy pressure it was sustaining. By this time, the vessel was within a few feet of it, and every one was on deck in anxious suspense, awaiting what was apparently the crisis of our fate; most fortunately, the stern post took it so fairly, that the pressure was fore and aft, bringing the whole strength of the ship to bear, a heavy grind, which shook every mast, and caused beams and decks to complain, as she trembled to the violence of the shock, plainly indicated that the struggle would be but of short duration. At this moment, the stream-cable was carried away, and several anchors drew; thinking that we had now sufficiently risked the vessel, orders were given to let go the warps, and with that order I had made up my mind that in a few minutes she would be on the beach; but, as it was sloping, conceived she might still prove an asylum for the winter, and possibly be again got afloat; while, should she be crushed between these large grounded pieces, she must inevitably go down in ten fathoms, which would be certain destruction to all; but before the orders could be obeyed, a merciful Providence interposed, causing the ice, which had previously weakened, to separate into three pieces, and it floated onward with the mass, our stern still tightly jammed against, but now protected by it. The vessel, which had been thrown over fifteen degrees, and risen bodily one foot eight inches, now righted and settled in the water; the only damage sustained was several sheets of copper ripped off and rolled up like a sheet of paper, but not a fastening had given way, nor does any leakage indicate the slightest defect. By midnight, the ice was stationary, and everything quiet, which continued until the 10th of September; indeed, from the temperature having fallen to sixteen degrees, with all appearance of the setting in of the winter, I considered our farther progress stopped until next year.”