304 ROSS. -PENNY. 



mand cf the Resolute, Captain E. Ommaney of the 

 Assistance, and Lieut. Sherard Osborne of the Pioneer. 

 Multitudes of officers nobly vied as volunteers to obtain 

 the subordinate appointments ; and some of the most 

 experienced whale-fishers were obtained for the fore- 

 castle. The instructions given were similar in scope 

 and spirit to those of the Behring's Strait expedition, 

 and differed chiefly in adaptation to the different route. 

 The expedition sailed in the spring of 1850. 



An expedition under the command of the veteran Sir 

 John Ross was equipped by a public subscription, 

 toward which the Hudson's Bay Company contributed 

 five hundred pounds. This consisted of-a schooner- 

 rigged vessel of one hundred and twenty tons (which 

 Sir John called the Felix, in honor of his late patriotic 

 friend, Sir Felix Booth), and of a small tender, of twelve 

 tons, called the Mary. They were provisioned for 

 eighteen months, and they set sail in the latter part of 

 April. Sir John was in excellent spirits, as full of fire 

 and daring as in his younger years ; and he enlisted in 

 his service an old expert Esquimaux interpreter. His 

 plan was to proceed as quickly as he could to Barrow's 

 Strait to commence operations at Cape Hotham, on the 

 west side of the entrance of Wellington Channel ; to 

 examine all the headlands thence to Banks's Land, and 

 then, if still unsuccessful, to leave the Mary there as a 

 vessel of retreat, and to push the search in the Felix 

 alone during another year. 



An expedition also was equipped at the instance of 

 the devoted Lady Franklin, wholly by her own zeal, and 

 mainly at her own expense. This was put under the 

 command of Mr. Penny, formerly master of the Advice 

 whale-ship, and consisted of a fine ship of two hundred 

 and twenty-five tons, called The Lady Franklin, and a new 

 clipper-brig of one hundred and twenty tons, named the 



