384 FRANKLIN'S LAST AND FATAL EXPEDITION— 18i5. 



ingp his love for the profession in which he had earned his fame. He 

 accordingly returned to England in 1844, in time to find the service full of 

 enthusiasm about the new Polar expedition. No enterprise is so popular 

 in the English naval service as that of exploration amid the icy wastes of 

 the north ; and on this, as on former occasions, so general was the eager 

 desire to be in the north-going ships that the " Erebus " and " Terror " might 

 have been whoUy manned by lieutenants. A number of the ablest ofl&cers 

 in the service had secured appointments, — among them Crozier, Graham 

 Gore, Fairholme, Hodgson, and Des Vceux. Commander James Fitzjames, 

 who had seen two years' service in the China war, and had earned a reputa- 

 tion for distinct naval genius, for indomitable energy and scientific acquire- 

 ment, was said at one time to have been selected by Government to com- 

 mand the expedition. Arrangements, however, were subject to modification ; 

 and when Franklin, on his arrival in England, was heard to say that, as 

 senior Arctic explorer, he considered the command of the expedition a post 

 to which he had the first natural claim, the Admiralty, delighted to obtain 

 the services of an explorer of his experience, were at once prepared to accept 

 him. Lord Haddington, then First Lord of the Admiralty, in the most 

 kindly spirit, suggested that Frankhn, who, he believed, was now sixty 

 years of age, might with perfect honour content himself with the fame he 

 had already earned, and spend the remainder of his life at home. " I might 

 find a good excuse for not letting you go. Sir John, in the rumour that tells 

 me you are sixty years of age," said Lord Haddington. " No, no, my lord," 

 exclaimed Franklin; "/ am only fifty-nine V' In this reply there was the 

 true, living spirit of the fearless navigator ; and its enthusiasm swept away 

 the last shred of objection to Franklin's appointment. 



On the 5th May the veteran explorer received his official instructions 

 from the Admiralty. He was directed to proceed with all despatch to 

 Lancaster Sound, and, passing through it, to push on to the westward, in 

 the latitude of 74° 30', without losing any time in examining any openings 

 to the northward, as the object of the expedition was to find a sea-way south- 

 ward to the shores of America. When he should reach the longitude of 

 Cape Walker — about 98° W. — he was to use every effort to penetrate to the 

 southward and eastward of that point, and to pursue as direct a course for 

 Behring Strait as circumstances might permit. He was cautioned not to 

 attempt to pass by the western extremity of Melville Island (where Parry's 

 progress was stopped by a tremendous, and apparently an everlasting, ice- 

 pack), unless his progress southward was closed by a permanent barrier of 

 ice ; but in the event of being unable to penetrate either to the southward 

 or westward on account of ice, he was to go northward up Wellington 

 Channel in the second summer. 



H.M.S. "Erebus" (370 tons), and H.M.S. "Terror" (340 tons), were 



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