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Page 40
Early in May, 1850, just at the time we now know that brave Sir John
Franklin and the remnant of his crew were dying of starvation at the
mouth of Back's River, the "Resolute" sailed first for the Arctic seas,
the flag-ship of Commodore Austin, with whose little squadron our own De
Haven and his men had such pleasant intercourse near Beechey Island. In
the course of that expedition she wintered off Cornwallis Island,--and
in autumn of the next year returned to England.
Whenever a squadron or a man or an army returns to England, unless in
the extreme and exceptional case of complete victory over obstacle
invincible, there is always dissatisfaction. This is the English way.
And so there was dissatisfaction when Captain Austin returned with his
ships and men. There was also still a lingering hope that some trace of
Franklin might yet be found, perhaps some of his party. Yet more, there
were two of the searching ships which had entered the Polar seas from
Behring's Straits on the west, the "Enterprise" and "Investigator,"
which might need relief before they came through or returned. Arctic
search became a passion by this time, and at once a new squadron was
fitted out to take the seas in the spring of 1852. This squadron
consisted of the "Assistance" and "Resolute" again, which had been
refitted since their return, of the "Intrepid" and "Pioneer," two
steamships used as tenders to the "Assistance" and "Resolute"
respectively, and of the "North Star," which had also been in those
regions, and now went as a storeship to the rest of the squadron. To the
command of the whole Sir Edward Belcher was appointed, an officer who
had served in some of the earlier Arctic expeditions. Officers and men
volunteered in full numbers for the service, and these five vessels
therefore carried out a body of men who brought more experience of the
Northern seas together than any expedition which had ever visited them.
Of these, Captain Henry Kellett had command of the "Resolute," and was
second in seniority to Sir Edward Belcher, who made the "Assistance" the
flag-ship. It shows what sort of man he was, to say that for more than
ten years he spent only part of one in England, and was the rest of the
time in an antipodean hemisphere or a hyperborean zone. Before brave Sir
John Franklin sailed, Captain Kellett was in the Pacific. Just as he was
to return home, he was ordered into the Arctic seas to search for Sir
John. Three years successively, in his ship the "Herald," he passed
inside Behring's Straits, and far into the Arctic Ocean. He discovered
"Herald Island," the farthest land known there. He was one of the last
men to see McClure in the "Investigator" before she entered the Polar
seas from the northwest. He sent three of his men on board that ship to
meet them all again, as will be seen, in strange surroundings. After
more than seven years of this Pacific and Arctic life, he returned to
England, in May or June, 1851, and in the next winter volunteered to try
the eastern approach to the same Arctic seas in our ship, the
"Resolute." Some of his old officers sailed with him.
We know nothing of Captain Kellett but what his own letters, despatches,
and instructions show, as they are now printed in enormous parliamentary
blue-books, and what the despatches and letters of his officers and of
his commander show. But these papers present the picture of a vigorous,
hearty man, kind to his crew and a great favorite with them, brave in
whatever trial, always considerate, generous to his officers, reposing
confidence in their integrity; a man, in short, of whom the world will
be apt to hear more. His commander, Sir Edward Belcher, tried by the
same standard, appears a brave and ready man, apt to talk of himself,
not very considerate of his inferiors, confident in his own opinion; in
short, a man with whom one would not care to spend three Arctic winters.
With him, as we trace the "Resolute's" fortunes, we shall have much to
do. Of Captain Kellett we shall see something all along till the day
when he sadly left her, as bidden by Sir Edward Belcher, "ready for
occupation."
With such a captain, and with sixty-odd men, the "Resolute" cast off her
moorings in the gray of the morning on the 21st of April, 1852, to go in
search of Sir John Franklin. The brave Sir John had died two years
before, but no one knew that, nor whispered it. The river steam-tug
"Monkey" took her in tow, other steamers took the "Assistance" and the
"North Star"; the "Intrepid" and "Pioneer" got up their own steam, and
to the cheers of the little company gathered at Greenhithe to see them
off, they went down the Thames. At the Nore, the steamship "Desperate"
took the "Resolute" in charge, Sir Edward Belcher made the signal
"Orkneys" as the place of rendezvous, and in four days she was there, in
Stromness outer harbor. Here there was a little shifting of provisions
and coal-bags, those of the men who could get on shore squandered their
spending-money, and then, on the 28th of April, she and hers bade good
by to British soil. And, though they have welcomed it again long since,
she has not seen it from then till now.
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