220 AKCTIO SEAS. 



On the 26th of May, 1845, Sir John Franklin sailed 

 from England in command of her Majesty's ships the 

 Erebus and Terror, already well tried in the expedition 

 to the Antarctic Ocean under Sir James Ross. He was 

 accompanied by Captain Crozier, whose experience in 

 the Arctic Seas had been gained under Parry and Boss, 

 and by a picked body of officers and men, numbering in 

 all 134 persons. 



His orders were to endeavour to force his way through 

 Lancaster Sound and Barrow's Strait to the longitude of 

 Cape Walker, and thence to seek a passage to Behring 

 Strait in a southerly direction ; or, in the event of the 

 ice not permitting him to adopt this route, to explore the 

 great opening to the north, called Wellington Channel, 

 and endeavour to pierce westward in a higher latitude. 

 The naval service had none better fitted for so responsible 

 and arduous a post. 



The courage and the nerve of Franklin had been tried 

 in the actions of Copenhagen and Trafalgar. His integrity 

 and fitness for command, besides the power of gaining the 

 affections of all with whom he came in contact, had been 

 displayed in his administration under circumstances of 

 no ordinary difficulty of the governorship of Tasmania. 

 In former days he had earned from the sailors for his 

 vessel the title of Franklin's Paradise. Already, too, he 

 had, on three different occasions, conducted once as 

 second in command, once in conjunction with Sir John 

 Richardson, and once as leader expeditions to the 

 Arctic Sea and to the northern shores of America. In 



