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[Illustration: The 'Fox' steaming out of the Rolling Pack.]




                   IN THE
                ARCTIC SEAS.

                A NARRATIVE
                   OF THE
 DISCOVERY OF THE FATE OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN
            AND HIS COMPANIONS.

                     BY
      CAPTAIN M'CLINTOCK, R.N., LL.D.

        WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

               PHILADELPHIA:
              PORTER & COATES,
            822 CHESTNUT STREET.




        AUTHOR'S EDITION

            [Device]

 CAXTON PRESS OF SHERMAN & CO.,
         PHILADELPHIA.




DEDICATION.


MY DEAR LADY FRANKLIN,

There is no one to whom I could with so much propriety or willingness
dedicate my Journal as to you. For you it was originally written, and to
please you it now appears in print.

To our mutual friend, SHERARD OSBORN, I am greatly obliged for his
kindness in seeing it through the press--a labor I could not have
settled down to so soon after my return; and also for pointing out some
omissions and technicalities which would have rendered parts of it
unintelligible to an ordinary reader. These kind hints have been but
partially attended to, and, as time presses, it appears with the mass of
its original imperfections, as when you read it in manuscript. Such as
it is, however, it affords me this valued opportunity of assuring you of
the real gratification I feel in having been instrumental in
accomplishing an object so dear to you. To your devotion and
self-sacrifice the world is indebted for the deeply interesting
revelation unfolded by the voyage of the 'Fox.'

                           Believe me to be,

              With sincere respect, most faithfully yours,

                                                     F. L. M'CLINTOCK.

_London, 24th Nov., 1859._




LIST OF OFFICERS AND SHIP'S COMPANY OF THE 'FOX.'


 F. L. M'CLINTOCK,      Captain R.N.
 W. R. HOBSON,          Lieutenant R.N.
 ALLEN W. YOUNG,        Captain, Mercantile Marine.
 DAVID WALKER, M.D.,    Surgeon and Naturalist.
 GEORGE BRANDS,         Engineer, died 6th Nov. 1858, (Apoplexy).
 CARL PETERSEN,         Interpreter.
 THOMAS BLACKWELL,      Ship's Steward, died 14th June, 1859, (Scurvy).
 WM. HARVEY,            Chief Quartermaster.
 HENRY TOMS,            Quartermaster.
 ALEX. THOMPSON,              "
 JOHN SIMMONDS,         Boatswain's Mate.
 GEORGE EDWARDS,        Carpenter's Mate.
 ROBERT SCOTT,          Leading Stoker, died 4th Dec. 1857, (in
                          consequence of a fall).
 THOMAS GRINSTEAD,      Sailmaker.
 GEORGE HOBDAY,         Captain of Hold.
 ROBERT HAMPTON,        A. B.
 JOHN A. HASELTON,        "
 GEORGE CAREY,            "
 BEN. POUND,              "
 WM. WALTERS,           Carpenter's Crew.
 WM. JONES,             Dog-driver.
 JAMES PITCHER,       } Stokers.
 THOMAS FLORANCE,     }
 RICHARD SHINGLETON,    Officers' Steward.
 ANTON CHRISTIAN,     } Greenland Esquimaux, discharged in Greenland.
 SAMUEL EMANUEL,      }




OFFICIAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE SERVICES OF THE YACHT 'FOX.'


                                                    ADMIRALTY, LONDON,
                                                    _24th Oct. 1859._

SIR,

I am commanded by my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to acquaint
you, that, in consideration of the important services performed by you
in bringing home the only authentic intelligence of the death of the
late Sir John Franklin, and of the fate of the crews of the 'Erebus' and
'Terror,' Her Majesty has been pleased, by her order in Council of the
22nd instant, to sanction the time during which you were absent on these
discoveries in the Arctic Regions, viz., from the 30th June, 1857, to
the 21st September, 1859, to reckon as time served by a captain in
command of one of Her Majesty's ships, and my Lords have given the
necessary directions accordingly.

              I am, Sir,
                   Your very humble servant,
                                    W. G. ROMAINE,
                                         _Secretary to the Admiralty_.
 Captain Francis L. M'Clintock, R.N.




PREFACE.


The following narrative of the bold adventure which has successfully
revealed the last discoveries and the fate of Franklin, is published at
the request of the friends of that illustrious navigator. The gallant
M'Clintock, when he penned his journal amid the Arctic ices, had no idea
whatever of publishing it; and yet there can be no doubt that the reader
will peruse with the deepest interest the simple tale of how, in a
little vessel of 170 tons burthen, he and his well-chosen companions
have cleared up this great mystery.

To the honor of the British nation, and also let it be said to that of
the United States of America, many have been the efforts made to
discover the route followed by our missing explorers. The highly
deserving men who have so zealously searched the Arctic seas and lands
in this cause must now rejoice, that after all their anxious toils, the
merit of rescuing from the frozen North the record of the last days of
Franklin, has fallen to the share of his noble-minded widow.

Lady Franklin has, indeed, well shown what a devoted and true-hearted
English woman can accomplish. The moment that relics of the expedition
commanded by her husband were brought home (in 1854) by Rae, and that
she heard of the account given to him by the Esquimaux of a large party
of Englishmen having been seen struggling with difficulties on the ice
near the mouth of the Back or Great Fish River, she resolved to expend
all her available means (already much exhausted in four other
independent expeditions) in an exploration of the limited area to which
the search must thenceforward be necessarily restricted.

Whilst the supporters of Lady Franklin's efforts were of opinion, that
the Government ought to have undertaken a search, the extent of which
was, for the first time, definitely limited, it is but rendering justice
to the then Prime Minister[1] to state, that he had every desire to
carry out the wishes of the men of science[2] who appealed to him, and
that he was precluded from acceding to their petition, by nothing but
the strongly expressed opinion of official authorities, that after so
many failures the Government were no longer justified in sending out
more brave men to encounter fresh dangers in a cause which was viewed as
hopeless. Hence it devolved on Lady Franklin and her friends to be the
sole means of endeavoring to bring to light the true history of her
husband's voyage and fate.

Looking to the list of Naval worthies, who, during the preceding years,
had been exploring the Arctic Regions, Lady Franklin was highly
gratified when she obtained the willing services of Captain M'Clintock
to command the yacht 'Fox,' which she had purchased; for that officer
had signally distinguished himself in the voyages of Sir John Ross and
Captain (now Admiral) Austin, and especially in his extensive journeys
on the ice when associated with Captain Kellett. With such a leader she
could not but entertain sanguine hopes of success when the fast and
well-adapted little vessel sailed from Aberdeen on the 1st of July,
1857, upon this eventful enterprise.

Deep, indeed, was the mortification experienced by every one who shared
the feelings and anticipations of Lady Franklin when the untoward news
came, in the summer of 1858, that, the preceding winter having set in
earlier than usual, the 'Fox' had been beset in the ice off Melville
Bay, on the coast of Greenland, and after a dreary winter, various
narrow escapes, and eight months of imprisonment, had been carried back
by the floating ice nearly twelve hundred geographical miles--even to
63-1/2 deg. N. lat. in the Atlantic! See the woodcut map, No. 1.

But although the good little yacht had been most roughly handled among
the ice-floes (see Frontispiece), we were cheered up by the information
from Disco, that, with the exception of the death of the engine-driver
in consequence of a fall into the hold, the crew were in stout health
and full of energy, and that provided with sufficient fuel and
provisions, a good supply of sledging dogs, two tried Esquimaux, and the
excellent interpreter Petersen the Dane,[3] ample grounds yet remained
to lead us to hope for a successful issue. Above all, we were encouraged
by the proofs of the self-possession and calm resolve of M'Clintock, who
held steadily to the accomplishment of his original project; the more so
as he had then tested and recognized the value of the services of
Lieutenant (now Commander) Hobson, his able second in command; of
Captain Allen Young, his generous volunteer associate;[4] and of Dr.
Walker, his accomplished Surgeon.

Despite, however, of these re-assuring data, many an advocate of this
search was anxiously alive to the chance of the failure of the venture
of one unassisted yacht, which after sundry mishaps was again starting
to cross Baffin's Bay, with the foreknowledge, that when she reached the
opposite coast, the real difficulties of the enterprise were to
commence.

Any such misgivings were happily illusory; and the reader who follows
M