488 THE FRANKLIN SEARCH— 18^8-51. 



of the " Advice "), and of the enterprising character and energetic disposition 

 of that gentleman. He had, like his brothers, received a medical training, 

 and he now resolved to make that training his passport to the north. He 

 proceeded to Dundee, had an interview with Penny and with the managing 

 owner of the " Advice," offered his services as surgeon for the summer 

 cruise, was engaged, sailed on the 17th March 1849, returned in the autumn 

 of the same year, and wrote and published "An Arctic Voyage to Baffin's 

 Bay and Lancaster Sound in Search of Friends with Sir John Franklin." 



The book named is exceedingly valuable, not on account of the results 

 of the " search," but as giving an excellent account of whaling operations 

 with modern appliances, making us familiar with the character and the high 

 professional skiU of Captain Penny, and placing before us impressions of 

 life in the far north of Baffin's Bay, which are simply delightful from the 

 facts that they were made upon a mind perfectly fresh and unhackneyed, yet 

 gifted at once with great powers of observation and of expression. A gale 

 that sprang up on the 27th March would certaitily have cut short the career 

 of the young adventurer, but for the mere accident that at a given moment 

 he happened to leave the deck and go below. In this storm, the first 

 serious incident of the voyage, two of the crew were .washed overboard. 

 Goodsir's description of the storm will commend itself to every one who has 

 been at sea in hard weather as being at once perfectly fresh and perfectly 

 true : " On the 28th it began to moderate somewhat, but a tremendous sea was 

 running. About eleven o'clock I ventured on deck, and, for the first time 

 in my life, saw what the ocean looks like in a storm. I could see nothing 

 all around but heaving mountains of water ; each succeeding wave seemed 

 as if it would swallow up the labouring vessel, but it always appeared to 

 melt away gently under us, except when one more rapid, or ' cross,' would 

 send water and spray washing over her decks and high up into the rigging. 

 The motion of the ship was not uncomfortable, being very different from the 

 short cross pitching we had experienced in the North Sea. I remained on 

 deck about a quarter of an hour, gazing about me in silent wonder and 

 admiration, little thinking that the hitherto harmless waves were upon the 

 very eve of proving their might over man's puny bolts and beams. Feeling 

 it chilly, I went below. I had just entered the cabin and taken my seat, 

 when the ship became motionless, as it were, and seemed to tremble in 

 every beam. A report like thunder, mingled with the rending and crashing 

 of timber ; sudden and complete darkness, with a rush of water through the 

 skylight, and the ship thrown on her beam ends, showed me what one has 

 to expect occasionally at sea. I scrambled on deck after the captain, as I 

 best could, scarcely knowing what had happened. Here nothing was to be 

 seen but wreck and destruction. The quarter-deck was literally swept of 

 everything, rails and bulwarks, almost all the stanchions, the binnacle, com- 



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