PART X. 



DISCOVERY OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



CHAPTER I. 



SEARCH BY BEHRING STRAIT RESUMED — EXPEDITION UNDER CAPTAINS COLLINSON 

 AND M'CLURE — VOYAGE OF THE " INVESTIGATOR." 



On the return of the unsuccessful expedition, consisting of the " Enterprise " 

 and " Investigator/' under the command of Sir James C. Ross, in 1849, 

 Government, having already provided for the prosecution of the Franklin 

 search in Lancaster Sound, Wellington Channel, etc., by fitting out the 

 squadrons to be conducted to these waters by Penny and Austin, resolved 

 to re-equip the newly-returned vessels and despatch them to continue the 

 search by Behring Strait. The " Enterprise " and " Investigator " were 

 accordingly re-docked, thoroughly repaired, and provisioned for the long 

 voyage round Cape Horn, across the Pacific, and into the Polar Sea by its 

 western entrance. The command of the " Enterprise " — and of the expedi- 

 tion — ^was entrusted to Captain Richard CoUinson, C.B., while Commander 

 Robert J. Le Mesurier M'Clure was appointed to the "Investigator." 

 CoUinson entered the navy in 1823, and had served with distinction on the 

 West Coast of Africa and during the first China War ; while M'Clure, who 

 sailed as mate in the " Terror " with Sir George Back in 1836-37, had just 

 returned with Sir J. C. Ross, under whom, in the " Enterprise," he had held 

 the rank of first lieutenant. Of the officers, the latter. Commander M'Clure, 

 was destined, in the expedition now under consideration, to achieve the 

 object for which British navigators had been striving ever since the close of 

 the fifteenth century — ^the discovery of a North- West Passage ; and it will 

 therefore be necessary, in our narrative of the incidents and results of this 

 expedition, to follow closely the fortunes of his vessel, the " Investigator." 



The vessels sailed from the Thames on the 10th January 1850 ; but did 

 not finally leave the British shores tiU the 20th. On the 20th February the 



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