CAPTAIN COLLINSON
The sledge parties sent out by Sir Edward Belcher’s squadron, though numerous and extended, had succeeded in finding no trace of Franklin or his crews; thus the winter of 1853-1854 passed. The following April, Lieutenant Mecham found in Prince of Wales Strait and, later on, Ramsay Island, records bearing the date of August 27, 1852, giving full intelligence of Captain Collinson, since his separation from the Investigator. All that Collinson knew of the position of M’Clure after parting with him in 1850 in the Pacific Ocean, was a report from the Plover that the Investigator had been seen, steering northward, off Wainwright Inlet.
To verify certain rumours connected with this report, Captain Collinson ordered a young officer, Lieutenant Barnard, and certain members of the crew to land at a Russian settlement in northwest America. The result was a sad tragedy; Barnard was brutally murdered by Indians in February, 1851, at a post called Darabin, near Norton Sound.
By the last of July, 1851, Collinson had rounded Point Barrow, and had steered up Prince of Wales Strait. On Princess Royal Island, he discovered a depot deposited by M’Clure and a cairn containing information of the Investigator’s movements up until June 15, 1851. Collinson proceeded in exactly the course taken by the Investigator, and to his surprise found at Cape Kellett, on September 3, another record of M’Clure placed there on August 18.
Collinson now found it necessary to seek winter quarters. These he secured toward the eastern side of the entrance to Prince of Wales Strait.
As conditions would allow, he pursued his explorations in the vicinity of Banks Land, Albert Land, Wollaston Land, and Victoria Land, gaining much valuable geographical information, but no trace of Franklin, except for the finding in the possession of the Eskimos a piece of an iron doorway or hatch frame which might have belonged to the Erebus or Terror. This was found at Cambridge Bay, in Wollaston Land, where Collinson wintered in 1852-1853.
Collinson’s sledge parties explored the west side of Victoria Strait, but, owing to lack of coal, Captain Collinson decided not to try to force a passage through the channel, but to return the way he had come. He did not get round Barrow Point, however, without passing a third winter in the northern coast of America.
The best part of the summer of 1853 was passed by the Resolute and Intrepid with their crews and that of the Investigator shut up in the ice at Dealy Island. Every preparation was made to advance at a moment’s notice should the ice favour the opportunity, and at last, on the 18th of August, they got under way, a strong gale from offshore having disruptured the ice.
Hardly were officers and men congratulating themselves that at last they were homeward bound, when they were arrested by the pack off Byam Martin Channel, where they lay, unable to make Bathurst Island and thence to Beechey Island. Winter was advancing; the situation was disheartening; day after day passed without the prospect of escape. The men occupied themselves with securing game, against the possible detention of the ships for another gloomy winter. Ten thousand pounds of meat, principally musk-ox, was obtained and frozen. By the 9th of September, newly formed ice surrounded them in such quantities that they were fairly beset and drifted at the mercy of the pack until the 12th of November, when, to the joy of all, the ships were at rest at a point due east of Winter Harbor, Melville Island, in longitude 101° W. Here the long winter months passed slowly by, with no greater casualty than the death of one officer, and the spring of 1854 found Captain Kellett planning to continue the search, while M’Clure and his crew departed April 14, with sledges, for Beechey Island.
While engaged in preparations for his proposed sledge journeys, Captain Kellett received a communication from Sir Edward Belcher, admiral of the squadron, suggesting that rather than run the risk of passing another winter in the Arctic, he should abandon his ships and meet Sir Edward at Beechey on or before August 26. To this Captain Kellett remonstrated, stating that his ships were in a favourable situation for escape, that the health of the crew was excellent, and they had provisions in plenty, and that those concerned in deserting ships under such circumstances “would deserve to have the jackets taken off their backs.” To this strong appeal came positive orders for the abandonment of the ships.