518 THE FRANKLIN SEARCH— 184:8-51. 



txj seaward of which we continued to flirt. The ' Intrepid ' and ' Pioneer ' 

 were now to be seen trying their bows upon every bit of ice we could get 

 near without getting into a scrape with our commodore, and from the ease 

 with which they cut through the rotten stuff" around our position, I already 

 foresaw a fresh era in Arctic voyaging, and that the Jlne bows would soon 

 beat the bluff's out of the field." 



On the 1st July, Captain Austin signalled the screw steamers to " take 

 ships in tow." There was a lane of open water leading northward, " and," says 

 Osborn, " with a leaping heart we entered the lead, having the ' Resolute ' 

 fast by the nose with a six-inch hawser. What looked impassable at ten 

 miles distance," continues the commander of the steamer, " was an open lead 

 when close to. Difficulties vanish when they are faced, and the very calm 

 which rendered the whalers unable to take advantage of a loose pack was just 

 the thing for steamers. Away we went past berg, past floe, winding in and 

 out quietly yet steadily, and the whalers were soon astern. Penny, the inde- 

 fatigable, was seen struggling along the shore with his boats ahead, towing, 

 and every stitch of sail set to catch the slightest cat's-paw ; we soon passed 

 him too. The water ahead increased as we advanced, and we found, as is 

 well known to be the case, that the pack-edge is always the tightest part of 

 it." The neighbourhood of Devil's Thumb was reached on the 4th July, 

 and on Sunday the 7th, Lieutenant Osborn entertained Captain Stewart of 

 the whaler "Joseph Green," to dinner in the "Pioneer." Captain Stewart, 

 father of the commander of the " Sophia " in Penny's expedition, was a most 

 interesting personage in the eyes of the officers of the " Pioneer." His racy 

 sketches of life on board a whaler were in no small degree fascinating to 

 his naval hearers, and it was not without a certain degree of awe that they 

 gazed upon a man who assured them that " he had not seen corn grow, nor 

 eaten fresh gooseberries, for thirty years ! although he had been at home 

 every winter." He was now advanced in years, yet he spoke with the enthu- 

 siasm of youth about the excitement and the perils of his calling. " We are 

 the only people," he said, " who follow the whale and kill him in spite of the 

 ice and cold." Osborn was proud to recognise a brother seaman in such a 

 hardy and gallant old sportsman of the deep. " This worthy old Scottish 

 fisherman," Osborn informs us, " perished next year off" Spitsbergen. His 

 ship was caught between two fields of ice, and as she was sinking, he rushed 

 down to save a sick sailor, and sank with the ship that had so long been his 

 home." 



The power and value of steam in ice-navigation was clearly demonstrated 

 for the first time in the expedition under consideration. When the whalers 

 found it impossible to advance, Osborn and Cator, in the " Pioneer " and 

 " Intrepid," were always able to make some progress. They charged floes six 

 inches thick, and pushed, without apprehension, into old and decayed ice of 



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