Three men died during the winter, but on the whole the explorers must have emerged from their winter-quarters full of hope and bright anticipations. The water was making fast in the offing. A canal was cut to the edge of the ice, and at last the good ships were free. A record was certainly left in the cairn, but it was never found. We do not know whether any attempt was made to push westward from Cape Walker, in accordance with the instructions. If so, the impracticable character of the ice would soon have been discovered. Then the explorers would turn for a passage to the east of Cape Walker. Parry had seen this cape as a distant land to the south. Probably he saw a coast as well, which led him to call it a cape rather than an island. Nothing was known between the north coast of North Somerset and Cape Walker. It was evidently a very open season. The ships sailed on without hindrance, making discoveries of land on either side, all on board full of excitement and hope. At length they reached the latitude of Ross’s magnetic pole. Then the fatal choice was made.
It was all open to the south. If they had continued on their southerly course the two ships would have reached Bering Strait. There was the navigable passage before them. But alas! the chart-makers had drawn an isthmus (which only existed in their imagination) connecting Boothia with King William Land. So the explorers thought that the only way was round the western side of King William Land. They altered course to the west, and were lost. For they were soon beset in that mighty ice-pack which flows down from the great polar ocean and impinges on the north-west coast of King William Land. The ships were in a precarious position, yet they must still have been full of hope that they would reach the coast of North America in the next navigable season. They were drifting very slowly to the west.
In the spring of 1847 travelling parties were organised. Fitzjames provided them with records in tin cylinders to be deposited in cairns. The records were as follows:
H.M. ships Erebus and Terror
Wintered in the ice in
Lat. 70° 5′ N. Long. 98° 23′ W.
28 May 1847.
Having wintered in 1846–47[126] at Beechey Island in Lat. 74° 43′ 28″ N. Long. 91° 39′ 15″ W. after having ascended Wellington Channel to Lat. 77° and returned by the west side of Cornwallis Island.
Sir John Franklin commanding the expedition,
All well.
Party consisting of 2 officers and 6 men left the ships on Monday 24th May 1847.
Gm Gore, Lieut.
Chas. F. Des Voeux, Mate.