214 THE SEA. 



to our leg's. As it was, we g-allantly stood our ground ; and, had the skies fallen upon us- 

 we could hardly have been more astonished than when the dark stranger called out 



"'I'm Lieutenant Pirn, late of the Herald, and now in the Resolute. Captain- 

 Kellett is in her at Dealy Island ! ' 



" To rush at and seize him by the hand was the first impulse, for the heart was 

 too full for the tongue to speak. The announcement of relief being- close at hand, 

 when none was supposed to be within the Arctic Circle, was too sudden, unexpected, 

 and joyous, for our minds to comprehend it at once. The news flew with lightning 

 rapidity. The ship was all in commotion ; the sick, forgetful of their maladies, leaped 

 from their hammocks; the artificers dropped their tools, and the lower deck was cleared 

 of men ; for they all rushed for the hatchway, to be assured that a stranger was 

 actually amongst them, and that his tale was true. Despondency fled from the ship, and 

 Lieutenant Pirn received a welcome which he will never forget/' 



Of course M'Clure immediately started to visit Captain Kellett. At first there were 

 some hopes of saving the Investigator; but the reports of both ships' surgeons on the 

 state of the crew were so unfavourable, that the men were at once transferred to the 

 Resolute and Intrepid, and the former abandoned. These also had in their turn to be 

 abandoned ; but the united crews in the end reached England in safety. A court-martial 

 was held on M'Clure, and he was, of course, honourably acquitted. In the following" 

 session a reward of 10,000 was awarded to the officers and crew of the Investigatory 

 and every one of its brave company received a medal from the Queen, which, doubtless,, 

 they have treasured as a memento of the three dreary yet eventful winters passed by 

 them on the ice.* 



Among the earlier vessels employed in the search for Franklin were the Advance and 

 Rescue, sent out from America in 1850, at the expense of H. Grinnell, Esq., a noble-hearted 

 New York merchant. Lieutenant De Haven had charge of the expedition, while the after- 

 wards celebrated Dr. Kane accompanied him as surgeon. De Haven fell in with Ross and 

 Penny, and examined the first winter quarters of Franklin's party, discovered by the latter, 

 and of which mention has been already made. He was very much hampered by the ice, 

 and at the end of the season returned to the United States from a somewhat fruitless 

 expedition. In addition to the several expeditions already briefly mentioned here, many 

 attempts, both by land and sea, to rescue Franklin's band were made between 1851 and 1855. 

 Captains Inglefield, Frederick, Sir Edward Belcher, Kellett, M'Clintock (first voyage), 

 Pullen, Maguire, Dr. Kane, and others, sought in vain for traces of the lost expedition. 

 As we shall see in our succeeding chapter, Dr. John Rae, an indefatigable and experienced 

 traveller, was more successful ; whilst the crowning discoveries, which for ever settled the fate 

 of Franklin, were reserved for the gallant M'Clintock of the ever memorable Fox expedition, 



* It will have been observed that Captain Collinson, who was to have accompanied M'Clure, was never able 

 to communicate with him. This vessel, however, passed some time in the Arctic waters, and some pieces of wreck 

 purchased by him from the Esquimaux, and supposed to have been parts of Franklin's vessels, the Erebus and Terror, 

 were the only relics which were ever obtained by any naval commander acting under Government orders. Captain 

 Parry's discoveries, however interesting in regard to the early progress of the expedition, threw no light on its fate. 



