NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 53 



to the death of this excellent officer, who was sincerely regretted by us 

 all. His zeal, ability, and quiet unassuming manner made him, indeed, 

 beloved. 



The ice closing again obliged us to quit Cape Kiley before midnight, 

 and, in endeavouring to push the ship into a bight in the land floe, the 

 Phcenix touched the ground ; but came off again immediately without 

 damage. Thew^hole night was spent in struggling to get the ships into 

 a place of security ; but the ice drove both vessels fast to the westward, 

 when at 3"30 a.m. of the 21st of August, the ice closing all round, both 

 vessels were secured to a floe edge, but with steam ready to push 

 through the instant the ice should loosen. 



Shortly, however, a rapid run of the outer floe to the westward 

 placed the Phcenix in the most perilous position. I ordered the hands 

 to be turned up, not that aught could be done, but to be ready in case 

 of the worst to provide for their safety. The ice, however, easing off, 

 having severely nipped this vessel, passed astern to the Breadalbane, 

 which ship either received the pressure less favourably, or was less 

 equal to the emergency, for it passed through her starboard bow ; and 

 in less than fifteen minutes she sunk in thirty fathoms of water, 2:ivino; 

 the people barely time to save themselves, and leaving the wreck of a 

 boat only to mark the spot where the ice had closed over her. Antici- 

 pating such a catastrophe, I got over the stern of the Phoenix, as soon 

 as the transport was struck, and was beside her when she filled, and 

 can unhesitatingly state that no human power could have saved her. 

 Fortunately, nearly the whole of the Government stores had been 

 landed. 



Having taken on board the shipwrecked crew, every precaution was 

 used with regard to the safety of Her Majesty's steam-vessel ; but it 

 was not till the morning of the 22nd of August that we succeeded in 

 getting her to a safe position in Erebus and Terror Bay, where the ship 

 was again secured to the land floe. 



On the 24th of August, Captain Inglefield left Beechey Island for 

 England ; but was shortly forced by a fog to take shelter in a little 

 harbour he discovered, and which he named Port Graham. Here he 

 lay during a violent gale from the eastward, which, he says, was so 

 furious in its gusts, that though the ship lay under the lee of a lofty 

 hill, she drove, with two anchors, ahead. From the vast bodies of ice 

 driven up by the gale, he had a narrow escape from being frozen in for 

 the winter ; but with the aid of steam and sail, he succeeded, on the 

 1st of September, in getting out through a narrow opening, — clearing 

 Lancaster Sound on the 3rd, arriving at Disco on the 9th instant, and 

 at Thurso on the 4th of October. — (Captain Inglefield proceeds to say :) 



At Lieveley I obtained information of a coal mine about 26 miles 

 from the harbour, on the southern shore of the island, and I am told 

 that the coal to be obtained here is in such quantities that a ship might 

 take 1,000 tons. For burning in stoves, it is preferred by the Danes 

 to English coal. I obtained a sufficient quantity of an inferior sort to 

 make trial in our boilers. A. copy of the chief engineer's report I 

 enclose, marked " L 7," and I have retained on board four casks of this 

 fuel for their lordships' disposal. 



I have now, in concluding the intelligence gained concerning the 

 Arctic searching squadrons, to acquaint their lordships of the dangerous 



