To Mr. Richard Baker, Jr., the energetic chairman of the Boston Committee, (aided by a sub-committee consisting of Mr. Warren Sawyer, Mr. John Stetson, Mr. O. W. Peabody, and Mr. J. D. W. Joy,) was intrusted the selection and purchase of such a craft as would best compromise between the services to be performed and the state of our finances; and the duty was accomplished with characteristic sagacity. When I reached Boston, a few days after the purchase had been made, I found the vessel lying at a wharf, heavily laden with a cargo brought from the West Indies. She was a strong, snug, jaunty looking craft, and appeared to be well adapted for the peculiar service to which she was destined. Her "register" quaintly set forth that she was "A 1," that she measured one hundred and thirty-three tons burden, that she was a fore-and-aft schooner, drew eight feet of water, and was named Spring Hill. For this name we at once substituted United States, which change was, upon my memorial, subsequently confirmed by act of Congress.
The season was now growing very late. Before the vessel had been purchased it was fully time that I should have been upon my voyage, and every day's delay added to my anxiety lest I should be unable to penetrate the Baffin's Bay ice, and secure a harbor before the winter had shut out all access to the land. It was therefore with no small degree of satisfaction that I saw the schooner on the ways in the shipyard of Mr. Kelly in East Boston, and the work of refitting her going rapidly forward.
As a protection against the wear and pressure of the ice, a strong sheathing of two and a half inch oak planking was spiked to her sides, and the bows were cased with thick iron plates as far aft as the fore-chains. Internally she was strengthened with heavy beams, crossing at intervals of twelve feet a little below the water-line, which, as well as the deck-timbers, were supported by additional knees and diagonal braces. For convenience of working; among the ice, her rig was changed from a fore-and-aft to a foretop-sail schooner.
PREPARATION.
Owing to many unavoidable delays, the month of June had almost passed before the schooner was brought to the wharf in Boston to receive her cargo. Much of this cargo was made up of voluntary gift offerings, "in the cause of science," and came from various places, and, as these "offerings" arrived irregularly, there was naturally much confusion in the storage. It will not therefore appear surprising that our departure was several days delayed. One month was indeed a short time, even under the most favorable circumstances, to fit a vessel, purchase and store a complicated cargo, construct and get together sledges, boats, and other equipments for travelling, obtain instruments and all the requisite materials for scientific exploration,—in short, to accumulate the various odds and ends necessary for so unusual and protracted a voyage. It was a busy month, and into no equal period of my life did I ever crowd so much labor and anxiety.
The selection of my ship's company gave me not a little concern. Of material from which to choose there was quite an ample supply. In numbers there were indeed enough to have fitted out a respectable squadron; but it was not easy to find those whose constitutions and habits of life fitted them for the service. The greater number of the volunteers had never been to sea, and most of them were eager "to serve in any capacity,"—a declaration which, too often on this, as on other occasions, I have found to signify the absence of any capacity at all.
I esteemed myself fortunate in securing the services of my former companion and friend in the Grinnell Expedition, Mr. August Sonntag, who early volunteered to join me from Mexico, in which country he was engaged in conducting some important scientific explorations. He even proposed to me that he should abandon the work upon which he was then employed, in order to aid me in the preliminary preparations. Returning to the United States in 1859, he was appointed to the Dudley Observatory, Albany, and, to accompany me, he sacrificed the fine position of Associate Director of that institution.
OFFICERS AND CREW.
My party, when at length completed, numbered fourteen persons all told, as follows:—
| August Sonntag, | Astronomer, and second in command. |
| S. J. McCormick, | Sailing Master. |
| Henry W. Dodge, | Mate. |
| Henry G. Radcliffe, | Assistant Astronomer. |
| George F. Knorr, | Commander's Secretary. |
| Collin C. Starr, | Master's Mate. |
| Gibson Caruthers, | Boatswain and Carpenter. |
| Francis L. Harris, | Volunteer. |
| Harvey Heywood, | Volunteer. |
| John McDonald, | Seaman. |
| Thomas Barnum, | Seaman. |
| Charles McCormick, | Seaman. |
| William Miller, | Seaman. |
| John Williams, | Seaman. |