When Captain Austin’s expedition returned the people of England were as determined as ever that the search should continue. But the advisers of the Admiralty in Committee were quite convinced that Franklin’s ships were not where they had passed two winters and were lost, and that the region where our lost countrymen had suffered and died need not be visited. A majority of them held to the fatuous notion that Franklin had gone up Wellington Channel, and was far to the north. Under these circumstances it was, they considered, really quite useless to continue the search. But the father of Lieut. Cresswell pointed out that the Enterprise and Investigator had not been heard of, that there was cause for anxiety, and that one or both might need succour.
It will be remembered that the Enterprise and Investigator, accompanied by the Plover, had been sent to attack the problem from the western side. Captain Collinson took the Enterprise through Bering Strait and made his first winter quarters in Prince Albert Sound on the west coast of Victoria Island, the Plover being stationed permanently as a depôt ship near Cape Barrow. In the spring Collinson himself explored the east coast of the long and narrow Prince of Wales’s Strait, being absent from the ship for 51 days. Murray Parkes, a mate of the Enterprise, reached the northern mouth of the strait, crossed the channel, and leaving the sledge owing to heavy ice, arrived at Melville Island on foot and thus discovered a second North-West Passage. His remarkable journey had occupied 74 days. Collinson’s second winter was in Cambridge Bay in Dease Strait. He thence made a journey of 49 days to Gateshead Island, where he was almost in sight of the Erebus and Terror off Cape Victory.
The Investigator had parted company. Captain M’Clure, who on October 20th had sighted Melville Island, wintered off the Princess Royal Isles in Prince of Wales Strait in 1850–51. The following summer the ship passed round the south of Banks Island, worked her way with great difficulty up the west coast, and wintered in a harbour on the north coast which M’Clure named the Bay of God’s Mercy. From this haven she was destined never to move, the winters of 1851–2, 1852–3, being passed there. Banks Land had only been sighted by Parry at a great distance. M’Clure’s discovery of the great island was an achievement of the first rank. These proceedings of Collinson and M’Clure were of course unknown in England when it was resolved to despatch the four ships again, the Assistance and Pioneer to go up Wellington Channel, the Resolute and Intrepid to press onwards to Melville Island. The Franklin search could in no way be furthered by sending in directions he could never have taken, but the relief of the Investigator proved to be a service of the utmost importance.
Common sense pointed to M’Clintock and Sherard Osborn as the proper leaders for the two divisions. Both possessed unequalled recent Arctic experience, both were men of tried ability, liked and respected by all who had served under them. The Admiralty, however, preferred an old officer with bad health, no Arctic experience, and the reputation of being the most unpopular man in the navy, Sir Edward Belcher. It would have been enough that he should bring misery, disaster, and failure on his own division, but both were under his orders. Sherard Osborn was with him in command of the Pioneer. The officer to command the second division, Captain Kellett, was also old and inexperienced, but fortunately very unlike Belcher. He had been a distinguished surveying officer in his time, and now he wisely left things to his staff. Hearty, joyous, with a charming manner, Captain Kellett gave pleasure wherever he went. M’Clintock commanded the Intrepid, Mecham was Kellett’s first lieutenant, Vesey Hamilton was Mecham’s friend and supporter—the very cream of the rising Arctic generation.
Critical position of H.M.S. Investigator on the North Coast of Baring Island, Aug. 20th, 1851
The expedition left the Thames April 15, 1852, and M’Clintock acquired great skill in handling the Intrepid in the ice of Melville Bay, where the Resolute received a very severe nip, and was raised 8 feet out of the water, being for some time in great danger. The squadron reached Beechey Island August 14th, where the North Star was to remain as a depôt ship. Next day the two divisions parted company. The Assistance and Pioneer proceeded up Wellington Channel to winter in a harbour in 77° 52′ N., while the Resolute and Intrepid went on to Melville Island with little difficulty, where they found winter quarters in a bay sheltered by Dealy Isle, so named after a midshipman of the Hecla, in 74° 56′ N.
We must pause here for a moment to record a modest but successful expedition carried out in the same season of 1852 by Captain Inglefield, who in the little Isabel, piloted by wonderful old Abernethy, went for a summer cruise up Baffin’s Bay. He reached the entrance of Smith Sound and saw that it was an important channel leading to the polar ocean—really Smith Channel. To the land on the west side, which was discovered by Baffin but not named by him, he gave the name of Ellesmere Island.
M’Clintock decided upon a system of autumn travelling for laying out depôts on a much larger scale than in the previous expedition. This time he was absent 40 days, and went over 260 miles. Four other autumn travelling parties laid out depôts, Mecham doing 212 miles in 25 days, Vesey Hamilton 84 miles in 16 days. Mecham made a very important discovery. He found a record left by Captain M’Clure of the Investigator on Parry’s sandstone rock, in the spring of 1852. M’Clure gave the position of the ship in the Bay of Mercy, and added that if the Investigator was not again heard of, she would probably have been carried into the polar pack west of Melville Island, in which case any attempt to succour him would be useless—a very noble thing for a man in his position to have written.
The plan for sledge travelling in the spring was that M’Clintock was to explore as far as possible to the north and west, Mecham to the west, and Vesey Hamilton to the north. On March 10th a sledge was sent to communicate with the Investigator in the Bay of Mercy, a distance of 160 miles.