194 BOOTHIA 



for further work in the north, started in search of the 

 passage by the same route. After some years of effort 

 he had succeeded in organising an expedition, the ex- 

 penses of which to the amount of over 17,000 were 

 borne by Felix Booth, with the exception of over 2000 

 added by Ross himself. It was a memorable voyage 

 in many respects, and for one thing in particular that 

 is frequently passed unnoticed. This was the intro- 

 duction of steam into Arctic navigation. The Victory 

 was an old Isle of Man packet-boat of eighty-five tons, 

 which, by raising her sides five feet, Ross increased 

 to one hundred and fifty tons. Taking out her old 

 paddles, he replaced them with a pair of Robertson's 

 patents, hoistable out of water in a minute, so as to 

 clear the ice. The engine was also a patent, by Braith- 

 waite and Ericsson, who built the Novelty that appeared 

 at Rainhill. But neither Braithwaite nor Ericsson was 

 any happier in this production. Its great feature was 

 the doing away with the funnel, no flue being required 

 owing to the fires being kept going by artificial draught 

 derived from two bellows of unequal sizes "the bellows 

 draught," in fact, like that of the Novelty which broke 

 down in the great locomotive contest won by the 

 Rocket. Had not Ross been a man of enterprise he 

 would never have ventured to sea with such an ex- 

 perimental arrangement ; but he did, and he suffered 

 for it. 



The " execrable machinery," as he inadequately 

 called it, went wrong from the first. On the way from 

 Galleons Reach to Woolwich, part of it became dis- 

 placed, causing a delay for repairs. At Woolwich, Sir 

 Byam Martin, the Comptroller of the Navy, and 



