Arctic searching expedition : a journal of a boat-voyage through Rupert's Land and the Arctic Sea : in search of the discovery ships under command of Sir John Franklin / by Sir John Richardson.
- John Richardson
- Date:
- 1852
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Arctic searching expedition : a journal of a boat-voyage through Rupert's Land and the Arctic Sea : in search of the discovery ships under command of Sir John Franklin / by Sir John Richardson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![accessible. Commander Fitzjames, in a letter dated January, 1845, says: The northwest passage is certainly to be gone through by Barrow's Straits, but whether south or north of Par- ry's Group remains to be proved. I am for going far north, edg- ing northwest till in longitude 140° W., if possible. Mr. John Barrow, to whom this letter was addressed, appends to it the fol- lowing memorandum : Captain Fitzjames was much inclined to try the passage to the northward of Parry's Islands, and he would, no doubt, endeavor to persuade Sir John Franklin to pursue that course, if they failed to get to the southward. My own opinion, submitted to the Admiralty in compliance with their commands, was substantially the same with that of Sir James Clark Ross, though formed independently ; and I further suggested that, in the event of accident to the ships, or their abandonment in the ice, the members of the expedition would make either for Lancaster Sound to meet the whalers, or Mackenzie River, to seek relief at the Hudson's Bay posts, as they judged either of these places most easy of attainment.* After deliberately weighing these and other suggestions, and fully considering the numerous plans submitted to them, the Ad- miralty determined that, if no intelligence of the missing ships arrived by the close of autumn, 1847, they would send out three several searching expeditions—one to Lancaster Sound, another down the Mackenzie River, and the third to Beering's Straits. The object of the first, and the most important of the three, was to follow up the route supposed to have been pursued by Sir John Franklin; and, by searching diligently for any signal-posts he might have erected, to trace him out, and carry the required relief to his exhausted crews. Sir James Clark Ross was ap- pointed to the command of this expedition, consisting of the En- terprise and Investigator; and, as his plan of proceeding bears upon my own instructions, I give it at length : As vessels destined to follow the track of the expedition must, neces- sarily, encounter the same difficulties, and be liable to the same severe [* Since the publication of the English edition of this work, the return of the American Arctic Expedition (Oct., 1851), has brought intelligence proving that Sir John Franklin's expedition was at Beechy Cape, at the Entrance of Wellington Sound, from January 1, to April 3, 1846, at least. The graves of three members of his party, bearing these dates, were dis- covered at that spot.—Am. Pub.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21074458_0030.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
