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Page 41
The "Desperate" steamer took her in tow, she sent her own tow-lines to
the "North Star," and for three days in this procession of so wild and
weird a name, they three forged on westward toward Greenland,--a train
which would have startled any old Viking had he fallen in with it, with
a fresh gale blowing all the time and "a nasty sea." On the fourth day
all the tow-lines broke or were cast off however, Neptune and the winds
claimed their own, and the "Resolute" tried her own resources. The
towing steamers were sent home in a few days more, and the squadron left
to itself.
We have too much to tell in this short article to be able to dwell on
the details of her visits to the hospitable Danes of Greenland, or of
her passage through the ice of Baffin's Bay. But here is one incident,
which, as the event has proved, is part of a singular coincidence. On
the 6th of July all the squadron, tangled in the ice, joined a fleet of
whalers beset in it, by a temporary opening between the gigantic masses.
Caught at the head of a bight in the ice, with the "Assistance" and the
"Pioneer," the "Resolute" was, for the emergency, docked there, and, by
the ice closing behind her, was, for a while, detained. Meanwhile the
rest of the fleet, whalers and discovery ships, passed on by a little
lane of water, the American whaler "McLellan" leading. This "McLellan"
was one of the ships of the spirited New London merchants, Messrs.
Perkins & Smith, another of whose vessels has now found the "Resolute"
and befriended her in her need in those seas. The "McLellan" was their
pioneer vessel there.
The "North Star" of the English squadron followed the "McLellan." A
long train stretched out behind. Whalers and government ships, as they
happened to fall into line,--a long three quarters of a mile. It was
lovely weather, and, though the long lane closed up so that they could
neither go back nor forward,--nobody apprehended injury till it was
announced on the morning of the 7th that the poor "McLellan" was nipped
in the ice and her crew were deserting her. Sir Edward Belcher was then
in condition to befriend her, sent his carpenters to examine her,--put a
few charges of powder into the ice to relieve the pressure upon
her,--and by the end of the day it was agreed that her injuries could be
repaired, and her crew went on board again. But there is no saying what
ice will do next. The next morning there was a fresh wind, the
"McLellan" was caught again, and the water poured into her, a steady
stream. She drifted about unmanageable, now into one ship, now into
another, and the English whalemen began to pour on board, to help
themselves to such plunder as they chose. At the Captain's request, Sir
Edward Belcher put an end to this, sent sentries on board, and working
parties, to clear her as far as might be, and keep account of what her
stores were and where they went to. In a day or two more she sank to the
water's edge and a friendly charge or two of powder put her out of the
way of harm to the rest of the fleet. After such a week spent together
it will easily be understood that the New London whalemen did not feel
strangers on board one of Sir Edward's vessels when they found her
"ready for occupation" three years and more afterwards.
In this tussle with the ice, the "Resolute" was nipped once or twice,
but she has known harder nips than that since. As July wore away, she
made her way across Baffin's Bay, and on the 10th of August made Beechey
Island,--known now as the head-quarters for years of the searching
squadrons, because, as it happened, the place where the last traces of
Franklin's ships were found,--the wintering place of his first winter.
But Captain Kellett was on what is called the "western search," and he
only stayed at Beechey Island to complete his provisions from the
storeships, and in the few days which this took, to see for himself the
sad memorials of Franklin's party,--and then the "Resolute" and
"Intrepid" were away, through Barrow's Straits,--on the track which
Parry ran along with such success thirty-three years before,--and which
no one had followed with as good fortune as he, until now.
On the 15th of August Captain Kellett was off; bade good by to the party
at Beechey Island, and was to try his fortune in independent command. He
had not the best of luck at starting. The reader must remember that one
great object of these Arctic expeditions was to leave provisions for
starving men. For such a purpose, and for travelling parties of his own
over the ice, Captain Kellett was to leave a depot at Assistance Bay,
some thirty miles only from Beechey Island. In nearing for that purpose
the "Resolute" grounded, was left with but seven feet of water, the ice
threw her over on her starboard bilge, and she was almost lost. Not
quite lost, however, or we should not be telling her story. At midnight
she was got off, leaving sixty feet of her false keel behind. Captain
Kellett forged on in her,--left a depot here and another there,--and at
the end of the short Arctic summer had come as far westward as Sir
Edward Parry came. Here is the most westerly point the reader will find
on most maps far north in America,--the Melville Island of Captain
Parry. Captain Kellett's associate, Captain McClintock of the
"Intrepid," had commanded the only party which had been here since
Parry. In 1851 he came over from Austin's squadron with a sledge party.
So confident is every one there that nobody has visited those parts
unless he was sent, that McClintock encouraged his men one day by
telling them that if they got on well, they should have an old cart
Parry had left thirty-odd years before, to make a fire of. Sure enough;
they came to the place, and there was the wreck of the cart just as
Parry left it. They even found the ruts the old cart left in the ground
as if they had not been left a week. Captain Kellett came into harbor,
and with great spirit he and his officers began to prepare for the
extended searching parties of the next spring. The "Resolute" and her
tender came to anchor off Dealy Island, and there she spent the next
eleven months of her life, with great news around her in that time.
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