Notable Voyagers Part 42

This mixture of royal and mercantile naval commands gave rise to some unfriendly feelings, but Captain Penny succeeded in finding many traces of Franklin's crews, and the tombs of those who had died in 1846. Many most useful surveys and some geographical discoveries were made, but beyond the traces found by Ommaney and Penny nothing of the fate of the Franklin expedition was discovered.

In 1852 Sir E. Belcher sailed on the same errand. Lady Franklin also dispatched the _Isabel_. Doctor Rae in 1854, however, discovered, through the information afforded by the Esquimaux, that some white men had been seen in King William's Land a few years previously, "dragging boats across the ice," and "looking thin." The Hudson's Bay Company then sent Mr Anderson, in accordance with a request of the English Government, to explore the district; and on Montreal Island he found the remains of a boat, and obtained from the Esquimaux many relics of Franklin's expedition, with articles which had belonged to the crews.

This intelligence decided Lady Franklin to make another attempt to learn the actual fate of her brave husband.

Before Doctor Rae had returned with the intelligence he had gained concerning the Franklin Expedition, a very important Arctic Expedition had been undertaken by Doctor Elisha Kane. To this we must turn our attention in a new chapter, as he went out to the limits of the Arctic Zone in search of Sir J. Franklin, and accomplished a most adventurous journey.

CHAPTER THIRTY.

DR KANE'S VOYAGE TO THE POLAR REGIONS.

American exploration--The "open Polar Sea"--Dr Kane's voyage in the _Advance_--Sledge-work--The _Advance_ in winter quarters--Incidents of the winter--Abandonment of the ship--Terrible suffering--Drifting-- Rescued.

The Americans had already sent out an expedition to search for Franklin, which was commanded by Lieutenant De Haven. These vessels were the _Advance_ and _Rescue_, and the expedition, which we have referred to as the "Grinnell Expedition," was accompanied by Doctor E.K. Kane as "surgeon, naturalist, and historian." In the spring of 1853, when more search expeditions were being sent out, Mr Grinnell, Mr Peabody, and other gentlemen, dispatched Doctor Kane as leader of this important undertaking.

Doctor Kane had minutely studied the Arctic problem, and he entertained the idea that around the Pole is open water--a theory afterwards acted on by Doctor Hayes, and set forth in a pamphlet by Captain Bent, called "Gateways to the Pole," which sustains the belief that the Gulf Stream, by its warm water, keeps the northern channel free from ice, and by following the Gulf Stream the Pole may be reached.

But this is a digression. Doctor Kane had accepted the conduct of the expedition, and at once embarked upon it. He went upon the supposition of the "open Polar Sea," and sailed in the _Advance_ from New York, on the 30th of May, 1853. He had determined to penetrate as far up "Smith's Strait" as possible, and by it enter the Polar Sea. His party consisted of eighteen officers and men, including Doctor Hayes.

At Saint John's, Newfoundland, they paused to embark some dogs for sleigh-hauling, and steered thence for Baffin's Bay. Early in July the ship entered Frikernaes, in Greenland, where the people received the crew gladly. On the 16th the promontory of Swartchuk was pa.s.sed; and, later, icebergs were met with in considerable numbers, under one of which they were nearly swamped, the warning fragments only giving the ship time to cast off her icy moorings. Melville Bay was however navigated, and by the 3rd of August the North Water, through which Kane wished to reach Smith's Strait (or Sound), was opening to their view.

The "Red Snow," or Crimson Cliffs mentioned by Sir John Ross, were safely pa.s.sed, and then doubling Alexander Cape, Smith's Sound was fairly entered. When Littlebow Island was at length reached, Doctor Kane determined to form a store depot there, and leave a boat, in view of future contingencies. Stones, and sand, and water were placed and poured upon the covered stores, blankets, etcetera. This _cache_ was soon frozen solid, and thus preserved from the weather and the Polar bears. The boat was left near what proved to be an old Esquimaux camp.

When these far-seeing preparations had been made, Doctor Kane endeavoured to press on, but all attempts were defeated by the ice which pressed upon the vessel; so an advance along the coast was tried. A storm arose, and the bergs came dashing along before the wind. The brave Kane determined to utilise his threatening foes, and, making fast to one fine iceberg, the _Advance_ was towed along, while the storm lasted, through the ice which the drifting berg cleared away merrily.

Thus, after considerable peril from storm and ice, the vessel lay at rest in temporary shelter under another iceberg, which, fortunately, protected them from the hurricane.

They had come fully ten miles in the track of the convenient iceberg; and, when the storm abated--which it did on the 22nd--the crew took the _Advance_ in tow, but made little progress along the ice-belt. Doctor Kane was too impatient to stay with the vessel, so, with a few followers, he hurried on in front to survey the coast in a boat, somewhat unpleasantly named the _Forlorn Hope_, which, however, they soon abandoned for a sleigh.

The journey in this conveyance was neither so easy nor so rapid as perhaps may be expected, but some progress was made, though eight miles a day does not come up to our European notions of sledge-travelling.

Finding the ice more and more difficult the sleigh was in its turn quitted, and the party advanced on foot. In this manner, in not very cold weather, they proceeded rapidly. They pa.s.sed Cape Thackeray, which they named, and reached Cape George Russell; whence they viewed the great Humboldt Glacier, Cape Jackson, and Cape Barrow, all ill.u.s.trious t.i.tles in the archives of the world.

When Doctor Kane had made a search for a harbour, and found none so convenient as the place he had left the _Advance_, he made his way back again, satisfied that he had as good winter quarters as he could reasonably expect to find. But he, perhaps, overlooked the fact that had he discovered a convenient inlet in the ice fifty miles from the ship, how was the _Advance_ to be brought into it over an ice-pack, where a boat or a sleigh could not travel? So, perhaps, all things considered, it was fortunate that he did not find a better shelter.

Doctor Kane and his men returned to the _Advance_, and had her warped in between two islands for the winter, which was then rapidly approaching.

Soundings were taken in seven fathoms, and when all had been made snug, the vessel was secured, laid-up in harbour--a shelter which she was destined never to quit--at any rate, not as a "commissioned" ship.

Preparations were made for sleigh journeys. The dogs were trained, sleighs were constructed, while an observatory was also erected. Some of the party made excursions during the winter, and found their course barred by an immense glacier four hundred feet high. Varied means were resorted to to kill the usual monotony of the Arctic winter. A newspaper was started, "hare and hounds" was practised, and perhaps amateur plays were acted, beside the "Frozen Deep." They did get up a fancy ball, and enjoyed it very much.

A fire on board ship varied these more interesting proceedings. It occurred while an experiment was being made to kill rats with carbonic acid gas. The chief immediate effects were to nearly suffocate Doctor Kane and three others, a considerable fire, and some discomfort. Then some dogs went mad in consequence of the depression induced by darkness and the intense cold. The explorers encountered many dangers in their excursions, also in falling into creva.s.ses, etcetera. Some dogs died owing to want of sunlight.

Never had any explorers wintered in such high lat.i.tudes before, excepting perhaps in Spitzbergen. We cannot picture to ourselves the intense Egyptian darkness which prevails in such places as Kane and his companions wintered. The thermometer was more than 100 degrees _below freezing_ point. This was in February, 1854, and the "madness" of the dogs, though not harmful to their masters, was evidently attributable to the terrible cold, which affected the air pa.s.sages, and to the continued absence of light.

At length Doctor Kane went with a selected party to meet the sun. He set off to find the light for which all were perishing. The sun was sighted, and the news was quickly followed by the orb, which revived the half-frozen crew and the remaining dogs, of which only six were alive, the rest had died mad--"mentally" afflicted--not with "hydrophobia," but with "brain" disease. As for the effect on the men, we may quote Doctor Kane, who says, "An Arctic night and an Arctic day age a man more harshly than a year anywhere else in all this weary world."

Doctor Kane had made preparations for his sledge expedition to the north, and a small party was sent ahead on the 19th of March to establish a depot of stores. But by the 31st of the month three men returned, swollen, haggard, and scarcely able to articulate. Four men had been left frozen in the ice in a tent, perfectly disabled. Even the direction in which they lay was uncertain, but Kane and nine men started to the rescue. They nearly relinquished the search in sheer despair until some footprints were discovered which gave them the clue. They reached the tent after a continued search of twenty-one hours.

After a brief rest--some sleeping in the small tent by turns, while the rest walked about outside to keep themselves from freezing--they set out on their homeward journey, but quickly became aware of their rapidly failing energies. They were still nine miles from home, and some men wanted to lie down and sleep, another was frozen stiff, and another lay down in the snow. A halt was necessary.

The tent was pitched: no fire could be lighted, as no one could hold the materials for striking the flame. The worst patients were put inside the tent, and then Kane and G.o.dfrey pushed on to the camp for food.

They could only keep themselves awake by incessant talking all the way, and Doctor Kane states they were neither of them entirely in their right senses during this trying walk. They remember a bear which tore a "jumper" that one of the men had thrown off on the previous day; however, the animal did not mind the explorers at all. But Bruin had upset the tent, and it was with much difficulty Kane and his companion raised it. They then went to sleep, and Kane's beard was frozen to the buffalo skin, so he had to be "cut out." By the time they had made preparations, the remainder of the party arrived, and they all made for the brig.

The remainder of the journey was scarcely accomplished with life. Many ate snow, and their mouths swelled fearfully. Nearly all were exhausted. At length they became delirious, and only reached the _Advance_ by instinct, for they were all staggering along blindly when Peterson and Whipple met them with some restoratives. This expedition cost two men amputation, and two others died.

During the short summer some expeditions were organised, as the _Advance_ remained immovable. Some discoveries were made, but the expeditions ended in disaster. The Humboldt Glacier and Tennyson Monument--the latter a column of ice, like an obelisk four hundred and eighty feet high, on a pedestal--were visited. But nothing resulted from the excursions but blindness, privation, and suffering. An attempt was made to communicate with Sir E. Belcher on Beachey Island, but it failed, and another winter in the ice had to be faced. Some men preferred to leave the ship, but they returned after a while.

The winter pa.s.sed drearily, amid privations which brought the men almost down to the lowest pitch of despair but employment fortunately kept them from the last depth, and preparations for a spring excursion cheered them up. The Esquimaux were friendly, and a treaty was entered into with them, which proved useful.

At last summer appeared. The 17th of May was fixed for the start; the _Advance_ was to be abandoned. The day was Sunday. Prayers were read, and then Doctor Kane addressed his men, hopefully pointing out their duty, and encouraging them to proceed, unselfishly helping the sick and behaving like men. The flags were then hoisted and struck; then the _Advance_ was abandoned, and the retreat commenced to Littleton Island first, and thence to Danish Settlements.

It was Tuesday, the 19th of June, when the party took a last leave of the Esquimaux and put to sea; that first night a boat was swamped. The _Eric_ went down in the ice; the _Faith_ and _Hope_ remained. On the 22nd, Northumberland Island was reached in a blinding snowstorm; but fresh provisions were fortunately procured.

They then succeeded, by dragging the boats over the ice, with occasional rowing, in crossing the Murchison Channel, and encamped for the night on the land ice-floe. Thus they proceeded, amid tremendous difficulties, on scanty food--bread-dust and a lump of tallow about the size of a walnut--and tea when they could procure water. At length they found the loads heavier, and came to the sad conclusion that their energies were giving way. Nothing in view, "we were sorely disheartened," says Doctor Kane.

No wonder! Utterly at the mercy of the ice, which at times broke up, and fell down, threatening to carry them to destruction with it, or bury them amid the hummocks. Hemmed in, and in imminent danger of death, they nevertheless clung to the ice until the rising tide should float them up and enable them to scale the icy cliffs into comparative shelter--"Weary Man's Rest."

There they remained till the snow had abated, and then they struggled on amid ice and "sludge" until checked by a glacier. They had doubled Cape Dudley Digges, and after a survey, decided to wait in the ice at "Providence Halt." After a week's rest they again continued their way, past the "Crimson Cliffs," and into more cheerful regions. They were, however, nearly starving, but managed to secure a seal, which saved them for the time; their feet were badly swollen, and they had no desire to sleep. They were now drifting in the open bay (in the Atlantic "ice-drift") in leaky boats, a position sufficiently perilous, even without the accompaniments of hunger and sleeplessness.

On the 1st of August, however, they had reached familiar waters. Two days later a cry was heard, ending in a "hullo." Men were coming, in a small boat. "It is the Upernavik oil-boat," said Petersen. He was right. From the men they learned the news of the Crimean War, and the discovery of the remains of Franklin's party a thousand miles south of the places they had explored.

Next day they gained Upernavik in safety, after eighty-four days'

travelling; in the open air all the time. In Upernavik they remained until the 6th of September, and then embarked for the Shetland Isles.

On the way they fell in with some American vessels which had been dispatched to search for them, and they were soon welcomed in New York.

From a scientific point of view Doctor Kane's expedition had most important results in the discovery of a large channel to the north-west, and in many other discoveries and surveys of the American and Greenland coasts.

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.

THE "FOX" EXPEDITION.

Expeditions in search of Franklin--The _Fox_ commissioned by Sir L.

McClintock--The search by Hobson--Relics found--The fate of Sir John Franklin's expedition--The North-West Pa.s.sage discovered.

While Doctor Kane was away in 1853 the North-West Pa.s.sage had been demonstrated by Captains McClure and Collinson, who it may be remembered went on in 1850 in the _Investigator_ and _Resolute_ to carry out the "Behring Strait Expedition." In 1853 Lady Franklin sent out the _Rattlesnake_ and _Isabel_ to find McClure. Captain Inglefield also went out, as already stated, to aid Sir E. Belcher in Barrow Strait. It was on this voyage that Lieutenant Bellot was lost (August, 1853).

Belcher found no traces of Franklin, but they found McClure and his ships' company, who had been in the ice for three years. They had gone in by Behring's Strait and returned by Baffin's Bay, which established the fact of the so long doubted pa.s.sage parallel with the American coast between these pieces of water. In 1854 the ships _a.s.sistance_, _Resolute_, _Pioneer_, _Intrepid_, and the _Investigator_ were all abandoned. The crews were taken on board the _Talbot_, _Phoenix_, and _North Star_, and reached England in 1854 without having found any true trace of Franklin, though it had been ascertained that he wintered upon Beachey Island in 1845-6.

The crews of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ were given up. War was threatening in Europe, and the relics of Franklin were obscured in the smoke of the Crimean battles. Nevertheless, the idea that Sir John Franklin and his devoted followers were in the Arctic regions, and still alive, was entertained by a good many people. The Admiralty declined to inquire farther, but Lady Franklin again found means to equip and dispatch a fourth expedition. In 1857 the preparations were made.

Captain McClintock, who had commanded former expeditions, undertook the post of leader. The _Fox_ was purchased, and on the 1st of July, 1857, the search again was entered upon.

After an interesting voyage, the _Fox_ arrived off Upernavik, and procured some dogs for the sleighs. On the 6th of August letters were sent home, and the yacht bore away for Baffin's Bay. Ice in quant.i.ties was encountered; and the ship was then steered along the "pack," till on the 12th of August the _Fox_ was moored to an iceberg. On the 16th, the floes began to move off; but the vessel was soon beset by the floes again after a short progress; and on the 7th of September the _Fox_ was quite hemmed in, and had to remain where she then was until the 17th of April, 1858. Then ensued the terrible silence and darkness of the winter, and the monotonous, weary cycle of the days, while drifting helplessly in the ice.

On the 26th of February daylight superseded the candles, and in March the ice showed symptoms of breaking up. The disruption at length came.

The _Fox_ was in imminent danger from the closing up of the ice, and the force with which the floes come together cannot be estimated by any who have not witnessed the scene. The dogs were alarmed, and many were lost. The _Fox_ drifted and sailed on, was again beset, and in danger.

At length the ice broke up, the vessel was put under steam, and before the wind; she pushed her way out, and on the 28th of April the _Fox_ dropped anchor in Holsteinberg harbour, in Greenland, where the crews met with a warm and cheerful reception.

After many struggles and escapes Cape York was reached on the 26th of June, and then many places were visited, but no traces nor information concerning the lost expedition could be obtained. So, in August, the _Fox_ sought Beachey Island, and erected a tombstone over the remains of those who lay there, close to Bellot's monument. Many days were occupied in endeavouring to pa.s.s Bellot's Strait, but again and again were carried back by tides and ice-drift. Some land expeditions were made and surveys taken, but at the end of September the strait was quitted, and a refuge sought within Kennedy Harbour.