CAPTAIN KELLET
It will be remembered that Captain Kellett of Sir Edward Belcher’s squadron had sailed the previous August to Melville Island with relief supplies for the Investigator and Enterprise, in case these vessels or members of their crews should have succeeded in making their way from Behring Strait to that place. Upon reaching Winter Harbour, they at once discovered a notice deposited there the beginning of the year by Captain M’Clure, conveying the assurance of the safety of the Investigator and its crew in Mercy Bay. It may be imagined with what enthusiasm such news was received by Captain Kellett and his crew, and immediately preparations were made for an expedition to let them know that aid was at hand.
The unique meeting of Captain M’Clure from the west, and Lieutenant Pim from the east, with a party from the Resolute, is graphically described in a private letter from Captain Kellett.
“This is really a red-letter day in our voyage, and shall be kept as a holiday by our heirs and successors forever. At nine o’clock of this day, our lookout man made the signal for a party coming in from the westward; all went out to meet them, and assist them in. A second party was then seen. Dr. Domville was the first person I met. I cannot describe my feelings when he told me that Captain M’Clure was among the next party. I was not long in reaching him, and giving him many hearty shakes—no purer were ever given by two men in this world. M’Clure looks well, but is very hungry. His description of Pim’s making the Harbour of Mercy would have been a fine subject for the pen of Captain Marryat, were he alive.
“M’Clure and his first lieutenant were walking on the floe. Seeing a person coming very fast towards them, they supposed he was chased by a bear, or had seen a bear. Walking towards him, on getting onwards a hundred yards, they could see from his proportions that he was not one of them. Pim began to screech and throw up his hands (his face as black as my hat); this brought the captain and lieutenant to a stand, as they could not hear sufficiently to make out his language.
“At length Pim reached the party, quite beside himself, and stammered out, on M’Clure asking him,—
“‘Who are you, and where are you come from?’
“‘Lieutenant Pim, Herald, Captain Kellett.’
“This was the more inexplicable to M’Clure, as I was the last person he shook hands with in Behring’s Strait. He at length found that this solitary stranger was a true Englishman—an angel of light. He says: ‘He soon was seen from the ship; they had only one hatchway open, and the crew were fairly jammed there, in their endeavor to get up. The sick jumped out of their hammocks, and the crew forgot their despondency; in fact, all was changed on board the Investigator.’