INCLEFIELD'S SUMMER SEARCH FOR FRANKLIN.. THE voyage of Commander E.
A. Inglefield to the Polar Basin was a lucky one. Captain Inglefield started late in the season— on the 4th July 1852—as volunteer commander of a small screw steamer which had been provided by Lady Franklin for a search by Behring's Strait : owing to adverse winds, he arrived still later on the searching-ground ; yet he was enabled to push through Smith's Sound into the Polar Basin,' reaching the latitude of 18° 28' 21" North, and piercing by the eye about a degree further. In- stead of the narrow strait which Smith's Sound has usually been thought, Captain Inglefield found it about thirty-six miles across, expanding considerably as it extended Northward. The sea was open—that is, free from islands, except one looming in the ex- treme distance, to which the discoverer gave the name of Lotus Napoleon, having received from that personage " very flattering attentions." From appearances, the leader of the expedition con- sidered that he had reached a more genial climate than that of Baffin's Bay : instead of the eternal snow which he had left be- hind, the rocks appeared of their natural colour. There was ice indeed, and in pretty large quantities ; some of the mariners con- ceived they saw an ice-blink to the North ; but the chief consi- dered he could steam through. A gale, however, arose, which increasing in violence fairly blew them back,—perhaps providen- tially, for they were not well fitted to winter in those high lati- tudes, with the probability of being held fast for an indefinite time.
"It was deemed by every one on board madness to attempt a landing; and thus I was forced to relinquish those desires ere we bore up, which, with the heavy gale that now blew, was the most prudent step I could take. The rest of the 27th and the following day were spent in reaching under snug sail on either tack, whilst the pitiless Northerly gale drove the sleet and snow into our faces, and rendered it painful work to watch for the icebergs, that we were continually passing. On this account I could not heave the ship to, as the difficulty of discerning objects rendered it imperative that she should be • A Summer Search for Sir John Franklin ; with a Peep into the Polar Basin. By Commander E. A. Inglefield, R.N. With Short Notices by Professor fickle on the Botany, and by Dr. Sutherland on the Meteorology and Geology; and a New Chart of the Arctic Sea. Published by Harrison.
kept continually under full command of the helm. The temperature 25°, and the continual freezing of the spray as it broke over the vessel, combined with the slippery state of the decks from the sleet that fell and the ice which formed from the salt water, made all working of ropes and sails not only dis- agreeable, but almost impracticable ; so that I was not sorry when the wind moderated.
"By four a. m. of the 29th, it fell almost to a calm ; but a heavy swell, the thick fog and mist remaining, precluded our seeing any distance before us; and thus we imperceptibly drew too near the land pack off the Western shore, so that a little after Mr. Abernethy had come on deck in the morning watch, I was called up, as he said that the ship was drifting rapidly into the ice. Soon on deck, I found that there was no question on that score; for even now the loose pieces were all round us, and the swell was rapidly lifting the ship farther in to the pack, whilst the roar of the waters surging on the vast floe-pieces gave us no very pleasant idea of what would be our fate if we were fairly entrapped in this frightful chaos. The whale-boat was lowered, and a feeble effort made to get her head off shore ; but still in we went, plunging and surging amongst the crushing masses. " While I was anxiously watching the screw, upon which all our hopes were now centred, I ordered the boiler, which had been under repair, and was partly disconnected, to be rapidly secured, the fires to be lighted, and to get up the steam; in the mean time, the tackles were got up for hoisting out our long-boat, and every preparation was made for the worst. Each man on board knew he was working for his life, and each toiled with his utmost might : ice-anchors were laid out, and hawsers got upon either bow and quarter, to keep the ship from driving farther in ; but two hours must elapse before we could expect the use of the engine. Eager were the inquiries when will the steam be up ? and wood and blubber were heaped in the furnace to get up the greatest heat we could command.
"At last the engineer reported all was ready ; and then, warping the ship's
head round to seaward, we screwed ahead with great caution; and at last found ourselves, through God's providence and mercy, relieved from our difficulties. It was a time of the deepest suspense to me : the lives of my men and the success of our expedition depended entirely on the safety of the screw; and thus I watched with intense anxiety the pieces of ice as we drifted slowly past them; and, passing the word to the engineer, 'Ease her,' `Step her,' till the huge masses dropped into the wake, we succeeded with much difficulty in saving the screw from any serious damage, though the edges of the fan were burnished bright from abrasion against the ice."
Besides penetrating one hundred and forty miles further than previous navigators, and finding an open sea stretching Northwards from Baffin's Bay to at least the latitude of 80', Captain Inglefield discovered a strait in about 77-r, which he named Murchison Strait, and which forms, it is inferred, a Northern boundary to Greenland. In addition to the shores of the Polar Basin, he more accurately surveyed the Eastern side of Baffin's Bay from Carey's Islands to Cape Alexander, often remaining on deck the four-and-twenty hours round—for night there was none. He entered Jones's Sound, but was stopped by the ice ; and Captain Inglefield infers that there is no available channel from the Sound into the Polar Basin, though there is possibly some narrow frozen strait; and he draws the conclusion that Franklin must be sought forinthe direction of Wellington Channel. Up this opening he found that Sir Edward Belcher had gone when he subsequently reached the North Star, the depot vessel of the Admiralty Expedition, at Erebus and Terror Bay. The same luck attended Captain Ingle- field in his homeward as in his outward voyage ; for skill and de- termination alone are of small avail against Polar obstacles. In spite of the advancing season, he examined a considerable part of the Western coast of Baffin's Bay ; and, though sorely beset on more than one occasion, managed to get through, and reached Stromness on the 4th November—exactly four months from the date of his departure from Woolwich.
In speaking of the voyage, the word luck must be used with limitation. Opposed to the commotion of icebergs, or what is perhaps worse, the vis inertice of an interminable and impenetrable "pack," human resources are powerless. No navigator can make his way without a favourable season ; but a favourable season is useless without decision and promptitude to take advantage of op- portunity, a resolution to push through difficulties, a judgment to "win the way by yielding to the tide," and a zeal which can tri- umph over fatigue and exhaustion. These qualities will be found indicated in Captain Inglefield's unaffected narrative of his autumn rather than his "summer search." It may also be recommended as a brief, plain, and spirited account of an interesting voyage ; in which, if there is little that is absolutely new to those acquainted with North Pole literature, there are many striking descriptions, —lively incidents at the Danish settlements and with Esquimaux, nautical difficulties, dangers boldly overcome, and a spirit of active hopefulness animating the whole.
Some of the scientific results of the voyage are presented in an appendix ; the most popular of which is an essay by Dr. Sutherland, the surgeon of the expedition, and previously engaged in Arctic voyages, on the geology or physical geography of Baffin's Bay. In this paper will be found a very interesting sketch of the origin, launching, voyage, and decomposition of icebergs, with their pro- bable effects upon the shores and bottom of the sea, their means of transporting earthy and animal substances to distant regions, and their use in maintaining the present state of the world, while as- sisting in preparing for future continents. We extract some Passages.
" In Greenland, [the glaciers,] after descending to the sea through the rallies, they retain their hold of the parturient womb beyond until the buoyant properties of ice come into operation, and then they give birth to icebergs of sometimes inconceivable dimensions. The constant rise and fall of the tide exerts great power in detaching these floating ice-islands. By it a hinge-like action is set up as soon as the glacier comes within its influence, and is carried on although the surface of the sea for many leagues around is covered with one continuous sheet of ice. After summer has set in and ad- vanced somewhat, the surface-ice either drifts or melts away, and we have winds prevailing in a direction contrary to what they had been during the cold season of the year, and the result of these winds is a great influx of wa- ter into Davis Straits, causing tides unusual for height at other seasons of the year, and thus setting at liberty whole fields of icebergs, which then commence their slow Southward course. In August 1850, the number set free in a deep fiorde, near Omenak, North-east Bay, so occupied the navi- gable passage out of the harbour at that settlement, that the Danish ship, which had but a month previously entered the harbour with perfect safety, was in danger of being detained for the winter. In the same month of 1852, the whole of the coast Southward of Melville Bay to Uppernavik, extending over a space of 180 miles in length, and probably twelve to fifteen in breadth, was rendered perfectly unnavigable by any means whatever ; and when we sailed along this portion of the coast, about the middle of the month, we were astounded, not disagreeably, by the constant booming sounds that issued from the whole fields of these wonder-working agents while undergoing their frolicsome revolutions. To me there appeared to be a remarkable change in this locality ; for, two years previously, in the months of June and July, a whole fleet of large ships occupied and navigated the very place which now we could no more enter and navigate with the ship than navigate her through the city of London, half submerged in the sea, and all the houses tumbling about and butting each other as they would do in an earthquake. At Cape York, this season, in a semicircle of twelve miles, one could count nearly two hundred icebergs, all apparently newly detached from the glacier. And in the top of Wolstenholme Sound, the icebergs that had come off from the three protruding points of the glacier entering it, were so dose)), planted together that it was not without sonic difficulty and danger that we advanced among them, although aided by steam.
" In addition to such varied materials as we have indicated, this new formation of 'till' will contain abundant remains of animals of a much higher order. Of all parts of the ocean, the Polar are those moat frequented by the cetacea and the seals. The numbers of the former are very great, and that of the latter almost beyond comprehension. In the Greenland seas, especially during the months of March and April, in the vicinity of the is- land of Jan Mayen, I am informed that for hundreds of miles the fields of ice are studded with seals, which in the case of the young ones are so tame as to be approached with a ' sealing' club, with which they are killed. The bones of these animals must be strewed plentifully on the bottom ; and thus they will become constituents of the growing deposit, if they do not undergo decomposition. It may also contain the enduring remains of other mam- malia. Every Arctic traveller is aware of the fact that Polar bears are seen on the ice at a great distance to sea, and quite out of sight of land; and my own experience bears testimony to the fact, that not unfrequentiv they are found swimming in the sea when neither ice nor land is in sight. The Arctic fox, and l believe also the wolf—animals not generally known to talcs the wa- ter—are often set adrift upon the ice, and are thus blown out to sea, where they perish when the ice dissolves, if they have not previously died oistarvation ; and cases are known, although perhaps not recorded, in which human beings have been blown away from the land upon the ice and were never heard of. Two persons of my knowledge have disappeared in this manner from the coast of West Greenland: one of them, however, reached the opposite side of the straits, where he spent the remainder of his life among his less civilized brethren. And the ships engaged in the whaling on the West side of this strait sometimes have to discharge a deed of humanity by taking up from the drifting floes a group of natives whose avocations had proved too decoying to be safe. So much as allusion has not been made to the remains of rein- deer, and the other ruminant inhabitants of these regions ; for the reason that, I believe, they frequent the ice much less than the others, and conse- quently are much less liable to be drifted away."
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