BOATS AMONG THE ICE
FROM A DRAWING BY CAPTAIN BACK

In the meanwhile Austin was pushing on his work with tremendous vigour, and to him and to his able junior officer, M’Clintock, must belong the credit of bringing the art of sledging to a higher pitch of perfection than had ever been attained before. The autumn was spent in establishing depots of provisions along the routes which were to be followed in the spring, and in examining the southern shores of Cornwallis Land in the hope that some traces of Franklin might be found there. It was in the middle of April that two great sledge parties started out under Ommaney and M’Clintock to pursue the search to the south and east. Ommaney discovered and explored the northern shores of Prince of Wales’ Land, which lay in the route where Franklin had been instructed to seek for the North-West Passage. He found, however, that the sea was so shallow and the ice so old that by no possibility could the Erebus and Terror have approached the shores. During his sixty days’ absence from the ship he covered 480 miles and explored 205 miles of new coast. M’Clintock’s objective was Melville Island, which had not been visited since Parry wintered there, but, though he covered 770 miles during his eighty-one days’ absence, he found no trace of the explorers. Other parties sent out from the ships made important geographical discoveries, but, so far as the main object was concerned, their efforts were as fruitless as were those of the two big sledge expeditions.

As soon as the ice broke up, Penny approached Austin with a suggestion that one of his steam tenders should explore the northern half of Wellington Channel. Austin, however, did not think that any useful purpose would be served thereby, and, as he was not prepared to spend another winter in the ice the whole squadron returned home.

In the same summer the Prince Albert, which, it will be remembered, had sailed for home with tidings of the discovery of Franklin’s first winter quarters, set out once more under the command of Captain Kennedy, with a French volunteer, Lieutenant J. R. Bellot, as second in command. It was while he was examining the northern shores of Prince Regent’s Inlet that Kennedy’s career was very nearly brought to an untimely close, for, with four companions, he became separated from the ships, and for a long time there seemed no prospect of his being able to rejoin her. Fortunately, he found that the stores which Ross had left at Somerset House in 1832 were in good condition, and there he and his companions remained for six weeks, at the end of which time Bellot succeeded in rescuing them. In the spring the two officers made a brilliant sledge journey, in the course of which they discovered that Brentford Bay was really a strait—which Kennedy promptly named after his companion—and travelled round the whole coast of North Somerset. In spite of their efforts, however, they did not light upon a single trace of Franklin and his men.

CHAPTER XV
THE VOYAGES OF COLLINSON AND M’CLURE

It will be remembered that, in organising the Franklin search, the Government determined to send out expeditions from three points of the compass, east, west, and south. The first group was to follow in Franklin’s tracks, the second was to attempt to meet him by way of Behring Strait, and the third was to search the North American coast in the hope that he might have found his way thither. As we have seen, the Herald and Plover had already been sent to Behring Strait, but the authorities felt that there was ample room for another expedition in that direction, so in 1849 they refitted the Enterprise and Investigator, and, putting them under the command of Captain Richard Collinson, C.B., and Captain J. Le Mesurier M’Clure, they despatched them on this hazardous service. Though Collinson was nominally leader of the expedition, M’Clure actually became its central figure, and it is with his doings that we shall have principally to deal.

M’Clure was a fine seaman and a man of indomitable courage, but, as we shall see presently, he possessed almost more than his fair share of that peculiarly British quality of never knowing when he was beaten, and he came near, in consequence, to sacrificing the lives of every member of his expedition.

The two ships set sail from the Thames on January 10, 1850, but early in February they parted company, and did not meet again till they reached Magellan Bay, though, curiously enough, they had crossed the line on the same day. On the evening of the day on which they left the Bay they were separated by a gale, never to meet again.

The Investigator was rather the better ship of the two, and she entered Behring Strait considerably in advance of her companion. Here M’Clure fell in first with the Plover under Commander Moore, by whom he sent a message home to England saying that he was making for Banks Land and was provisioned for three years, and later with the Herald. Kellett, who commanded the latter ship, told him that nothing had yet been heard of the Enterprise, and ordered him to await her arrival in accordance with his official instructions. This plan, however, by no means commended itself to M’Clure, so, signalling back “Important duty; cannot on my own responsibility,” he sailed on his way. Kellett ought, no doubt, to have insisted on M’Clure obeying orders, but he was very awkwardly situated. He knew that the Investigator was on its way to succour Franklin, and that a winter’s delay might ruin its chances of success, and, naturally enough, he did not like to incur the grave responsibility of stopping her in her work of humanity.

The main pack was sighted on August 2, but M’Clure was fortunate enough to find open water to the south of it, and he was soon round Point Barrow and sailing in waters which had never been travelled by a ship before. Navigation was very far from easy, for the sea was covered with detached floes which, driven onward by the wind, came charging down upon the ship with tremendous force, setting her aquiver from stem to stern, and often endangering the safety of her masts.