178 VOYAGE AND DEATH OF FRANKLIN 



the passage. 'I believe it is possible to reach the pole over the ice by winter- 

 ing at Spitzbergen and going in the spring before the ice breaks up/ he 

 said before starting, and no one would have been surprised had he returned 

 in the three years with a record of the journey. Public interest was thor- 

 oughly aroused in the enterprise, and when the two vessels set sail from 

 Greenhithe on May 19, 1845, they had a briUiant send-off. On June i they 

 arrived at Stromness in the Orkney Islands, and on July 4 at Whale Fish 

 Island, off the coast of Greenland, where the dispatch boat Barreto Junior 

 parted company with them to bring home Franklin's dispatches to the Admir- 

 alty, reporting 'AH Well.' Later on came the news that Captain Dannett, of 

 the whaler Prince of Wales, had spoken them in Melville Bay." 



This was the last direct news from Franklin's ships for many years, — 

 in fact, the last ever seen of the voyagers by any eye save that of Eskimos. 

 From what was learned later, however, it appears that the ships managed 

 to reach Beechy Island at the entrance of Wellington Channel, and then pro- 

 ceeded to Barrows' Strait, nearly 100 miles west of the channel entrance. At 

 this point the ships made anchorage, and the men faced the first winter with 

 plenty of supplies, with the best of health, and without fear of the future. 



"The first Christmas festival of the voyage was kept up with high revel. 

 If fresh beef was not available, venison was, and there was plenty of material 

 for the manufacture of the time-honoured 'duff.' The officers and men, clad 

 in their thick, heavy fur garments, clustered together as the simple religious 

 service was read, and over the silent white covering of sea and land the 

 sound of their voices rolled as they sang the hymns and carols which were 

 being sung in their native land. Then came the merry-making and the feast- 

 ing in cabins decked with bunting, for no green stuff was available for deco- 

 rating. 



"The first New Year's Day was saddened by the death of one of their 

 comrades, and the silent ice fields witnessed another impressive sight when 

 the crews of both vessels slowly marched ashore to the grave dug in the 

 frozen soil of Beechy Island. The body, wrapped in a Union Jack, was borne 

 by the deceased man's messmates, the members of his watch headed by their 

 officers following, and after them the remainder of the officers and crew. The 

 bells of each ship tolled as the cortege passed over the ice, the crunching of the 

 crisp snow under foot being the only other sound till the grave was reached. 

 There the solemn and impressive service of a sailor's funeral was said, the 

 rningled voices as they repeated the responses passing as a great hvirn through 



