502 THE FRANKLIN SEA ECH— 18^8-51. 



CHAPTER 11. 



CAPTAIN penny's SEARCH IN THE " LADY FRANKLIN " AND " SOPHIA.' 



The ships of the two Barrow Strait expeditions — the " Enterprise " and 

 " Investigator/' under Sir James Clark Eoss, and the " North Star," under 

 Commander Saunders — had been caught in the drifting pack in 1849-50, and 

 had, owing to that circumstance, been disabled for further efforts in the 

 interests of the missing expedition. No such misfortune, however, had 

 befallen any of the whalers during the same year. To the relatives and 

 friends of Sir John Franklin this seemed a surprising and suggestive fact. 

 Could it be that the freedom and security with which the whalers sailed the 

 Polar seas was due to the thorough knowledge of ice navigation acquired by 

 many years' experience of the winds, currents, and general hydrographical 

 conditions which usually prevail within the Arctic circle 1 This indeed 

 seemed to be the case, and the Admiralty, having resolved to send out an- 

 other expedition in the spring of 1850, for the purpose mainly of searching 

 the shores of Wellington Channel, decided to give the command of it to a 

 whaling captain of ability and ample experience. Captain William Penny, of 

 the " Advice " of Dundee, was the navigator appointed as being best qualified 

 to take the command of the new expedition. 



Acting on the instructions of the Admiralty, Penny purchased two new 

 clipper-built vessels; one of 200 tons, built at Aberdeen, and which he 

 named the " Lady Franklin," the other, of 100 tons, built at Dundee, and 

 named the " Sophia," after Miss Sophia Cracroffc, niece of Sir John Franklin. 

 Mr R. A. Goodsir sailed as surgeon in the " Lady Franklin," and Mr P. C. 

 Sutherland in the same capacity in the " Sophia," which was under the com- 

 mand of Mr J. Stewart. The two ships were towed out from Aberdeen 

 harbour, where both had been equipped, on the 13th of April 1850. The 

 voyage across the Atlantic was rapid and favourable, and on the night of 

 May 2d, Leively, the Danish settlement on the south shore of the island of 

 Disco, was reached. On June 3d, after prolonged detention among the 

 land-ice of the Greenland coast, the ships had advanced northward to within 

 a few miles of Sanderson's Hope. Here an Eskimo came alongside in his 



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