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Our Sailors; Gallant Deeds of the British Navy during Victoria's Reign, a non-fiction book by William H. G. Kingston |
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Chapter 16. Voyage Of The Fox |
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_ CHAPTER SIXTEEN. VOYAGE OF THE FOX None of the numerous expeditions sent forth to discover traces of Sir John Franklin's expedition afford matter of greater interest than that of the little yacht the _Fox_, while it has surpassed all in successfully clearing up the mystery which for ten long years or more hung over the fate of that gallant Arctic explorer and his brave companions. The _Fox_, a screw-steamer of 177 tons, was the property of Lady Franklin, and the command of her was confided to Captain McClintock, RN, who had already made several Arctic voyages. He had as officers, Lieutenant Hobson, RN, and Captain Allan Young, a noble-minded commander of the mercantile marine; with Dr Walker as surgeon, and Mr Carl Petersen as interpreter. She was prepared at Aberdeen for her arduous undertaking, and sailed 1st of July 1857. She entered Baffin's Bay, and had got as far north as Melville Bay, on its north-west shore, when she was beset by the ice early in September, and there blocked up for the winter. Soon after midnight on the 25th of April 1858, she was once more under weigh, and forcing her way out from among huge masses of ice thrown in on her by the ocean swell. Repeatedly the frozen masses were hurled against the sharp iron bow, causing the vessel to shake violently, the bells to ring, and almost knocking the crew off their feet. On one occasion the ice stopped the screw for some minutes. Anxious moments those--"After that day's experience I can understand how men's hair has turned grey in a few hours," says Captain McClintock. Touching at the Danish settlements to refit, and at Pond's Bay, the little _Fox_, narrowly escaping destruction, at length reached Beechey Island on the 11th of August. Here a tablet was erected to the memory of Sir John Franklin and his officers and crew, and the _Fox_, having filled up with stores and coals from the depot there, left again on the 16th. On the 18th she had run twenty-five miles down Peel's Straits, the hopes of all raised to the utmost, when a pack of ice appeared, barring their farther progress. Putting about, she visited the depot at Port Leopold, where boats and an abundant supply of all sorts of articles were found, which, in case of the destruction of their own vessel, would afford the explorers a fair prospect of escape. Far different was the condition of Arctic explorers now, than it had been when Franklin sailed on his fatal expedition. Then they had to depend entirely on their own resources; now, through the sagacity and forethought of those who sent them forth, depots of provisions and boats and sledges, and even huts, had been provided, to afford every possible means of escape should any disaster overtake their ships. Captain McClintock, on leaving Leopold Harbour, sailed north down Prince Regent's Inlet, but in vain attempted to force a passage through any channel to the east. At last he returned some way north to Bellot's Straits, discovered by Mr Kennedy, and called after his unfortunate companion, Lieutenant Bellot, of the French navy, who lost his life when belonging to Sir Edward Belcher's expedition. He passed some distance through Bellot's Straits, and the _Fox_ was finally beset, on the 28th September, in a beautiful little harbour in them, to which the name of Kennedy Harbour was given. Depots were now established by travelling parties to the north-east, some eighty miles or more from the ship, and all preparations made for prosecuting their interesting search in the spring. This commenced the winter of 1858-59, the second passed by the _Fox_ in the ice. On the 17th February, Captain McClintock started with Mr Petersen and one man, Thompson, on a long pedestrian expedition, with two sledges drawn by dogs. Lieutenant Hobson set off about the same time, as did also Captain Young,--all three expeditions in different directions, towards the south; the first two accomplished several hundred miles to King William's Island. Great indeed were the trials and hardships they underwent in these expeditions. Day after day they trudged on, employed for two hours each evening, before they could take their food or go to rest, in building their snow huts, exposed to biting winds, to snow and sleet, and often to dense fogs. On one occasion one man alone of a whole party escaped being struck by snow-blindness; and he had to lead them with their packs, and to guide them back to the vessel. How terrible would have been their fate had he also been struck with blindness! On the west coast of King William's Island, which is separated by a broad channel from the mainland of America, they fell in with several families of Esquimaux, among whom numerous relics of the Franklin expedition were discovered. The most interesting were purchased. Farther north, on the west coast, a cairn was found, within which was a paper with the announcement of Sir John Franklin's death, and with the sad statement, written at a subsequent period, that it had been found necessary to abandon the ships and to proceed to the southward. A boat on runners also was found with two skeletons in her, and another skeleton at a distance--all too plainly telling a tale which shall be narrated hereafter. The Esquimaux also said that they had seen men sink down and die along the shore; and that one ship had gone down crushed by the ice, and that another had been driven on shore. With this terrible elucidation of the long-continued mystery, only partly cleared up before by Dr Rae, they began their return journey. On the 19th of June Captain McClintock reached his ship, the ice having begun to melt with the increased warmth of the weather. August arrived, and the explorers began to look out anxiously for the breaking up of the ice. At last, on the 10th, a favourable breeze drove the ice out of the bay, and the trim little _Fox_, under sail and steam, merrily darted out of her prison, and hurried north towards Barrow's Straits. She reached Baffin's Bay, and, touching at the Danish settlements, arrived in the English Channel on the 20th of September, having made the passage under sail in nineteen days from Greenland.
THE FATE OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN'S EXPEDITION. The last intelligence which had been received of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ was from the whalers in July 1845, at Melville Bay. Thence the expedition passed on through Lancaster Sound to Barrow's Straits, and entered Wellington Channel, the southern entrance to which had been discovered by Sir Edward Parry in 1819. Up by it the ships sailed for 150 miles, when, being stopped by the ice, they returned south by a new channel into Barrow's Straits, and passed the winter of 1845-46 at Beechey Island. In 1846 they proceeded to the south-west, and ultimately reached within twelve miles of the north entrance of King William's Land. Here they spent the winter of 1846-47, as far as can be known, in the enjoyment of good health, and with the intention and hope of prosecuting their voyage to the westward through the only channel likely to be open along the northern shore of America, and from the known portion of which they were then only ninety miles distant. On Monday the 24th May 1847, Lieutenant Gore, with Mr Des Voeux, mate, and a party of six men, left the ship, and proceeded for some purpose to King William's Island, where, on Point Victory, he deposited a document stating that Sir John Franklin and all were well. This document was afterwards visited by Captain Crozier, and a brief but sad statement of after events written on it. In less than three weeks after that time, the brave, kind, and well-beloved commander of the expedition, Sir John Franklin, had ceased to breathe, as Captain Crozier states that he died on the 11th of June 1847. Who can doubt that his life was taken by a merciful Providence before he could become aware of the dreadful doom about to overtake his gallant followers? Probably Lieutenant Gore returned from that journey of exploration, as Captain Crozier speaks of him as the late Commander Gore, showing that on the death of their chief he had been raised a step in rank; but not long to enjoy it--he having among others passed away. The command of the expedition now devolved on Captain Crozier; but who can picture his anxiety and that of his officers and men, as the summer of 1847 drew on--the sea open to the north and south, but the ships immovably fixed in the vast mass of ice driven down upon them from Melville Sound? How bitter must have been their grief and disappointment when August and September passed away, and they found that they must pass another winter, that of 1847-48, in those regions! We know, too, that the ships were only provisioned up to 1848. Painfully that dreary winter must have passed away, and sad must have been the feelings of Captains Crozier and Fitzjames when they came to the resolution of abandoning the ships, by which a high sense of duty had induced them hitherto to remain. Up to 22nd April 1848, the total loss by deaths had been nine officers and fifteen men. On the 22nd April 1848, Captains Crozier and Fitzjames, with their officers and crews, consisting of 105 men, abandoned their ice-bound ships, and landed on the 25th on King William's Island, and started the following day for Back's Fish River, which runs through the Hudson's Bay territories from the south. Their hope was that they might, voyaging up that river, at length reach some of the Hudson's Bay Company's trading posts. That they reached the mouth of Fish River we have melancholy evidence. Here they probably encamped, and, when the season advanced, proceeded some way up, but, finding the difficulties of the navigation insurmountable, they returned to the mouth of the river, with the intention perhaps of proceeding along the coast to the westward through the North-West Passage, which they now knew for a certainty to exist. Before, however, they could do this, it was necessary to send to the ships for stores and any provisions which might have remained on board. For this purpose a strong party must have been despatched with a boat on a sledge, showing that they started rather early in the summer season, before the Straits were frozen over, or late in the spring, when they might expect to have to return by water. They greatly overrated their strength. When still eighty miles from the ships, they left the boat with two or more invalids in her, and a variety of valuables, hoping to reach the ships more speedily, and to return to her. One or more of those left with the boat attempted to follow, and dropped by the way. Some, perhaps, reached the ships, and attempted to regain the boat; but the greater number, overcome with hunger, disease, and cold, fell on their northward journey, never to rise again. Two skeletons were found in the boat; and one, supposed to be that of a steward, between her and the ships. Of the ships, one was seen by the Esquimaux to go down, while the other drove on shore with one body only on board, probably that of a person who had died during the final visit. Certain it is that no one regained the boat on their return journey to the south. Plate and vast quantities of clothing were found along the route, showing that on leaving the ships the hapless men considered themselves capable of considerable exertion; and as they carried a large amount of powder and shot, they undoubtedly hoped to maintain themselves by means of their guns. In vain did the main body at the mouth of Back's Fish River wait the return of their shipmates. Week after week, month after month, passed by--they did not appear. How long they remained encamped on this bleak and barren coast it is difficult to determine. If the account received by Dr Rae is to be credited, it was not till the spring of 1850 that the survivors of that gallant band made a last desperate attempt to push their way inland, and sank down, as had their companions in suffering many months before them. Thus perished the whole of that gallant band of true-hearted seamen, who, with high hopes and spirits, had left England five years before in the prosecution of an undertaking which they had every reason to believe would so greatly redound to the honour and glory of England, and to their own high renown. The task was accomplished; a knowledge of the North-West Passage was obtained. Their lives were sacrificed in the attainment; but they won names imperishable in English naval history, and gave another example of the undaunted courage, hardihood, and perseverance of British seamen. _ |
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