544 THE FRANKLIN SEA EC ff— 1850-54:. 



down with all sails set, upon the " Investigator," and summoned M'Clure to 

 bring his ship to anchor, and wait for forty-eight hours for the " Enterprise." 

 M'Clure's signal in return, as his ship bore away into the deepening twilight, 

 was, " Important duty. Cannot, on my own responsibility." It was the old 

 story of Nelson over again. He raised a telescope to his blind eye to look 

 at the admiral's signal to retire from action, but, not being able to see it, 

 fought on — and won. 



On the morning of the 2d August, the " Investigators " sighted the 

 first ice extending across ahead, in lat. 72° N., and as they advanced towards 

 it, the sea, with its fantastically shaped ice-islands floating on towards them, 

 presented a novel and a fascinating appearance to many of them. " Large 

 pieces," says Armstrong, " coming in our course, were cleft by the ship, pro- 

 ducing a slight shock, a grating noise, and an equally strange sensation 

 amongst us, as the fragments, having been partially submerged, were dashed 

 on either side, while the breeze bore us steadily along. The main pack soon 

 became visible ; and chilling as was its aspect," continues the enthusiastic 

 doctor, " I am not sure that we did not hail it with a cheer." The main 

 pack was reached at noon on the 2d., in lat. 72° 1' N., long. 166° 11' W. 

 Lofty in itself, its height seemed magnified by the refracting power of the 

 atmosphere, and it formed an impenetrable barrier, extending across the 

 ship's path from north-west to south-east. 



For the next few days M'Clure sailed eastward along the edge of the 

 pack, in the hope of being able to turn its southern extreme, and then make 

 his way to the northward. On the 5th August he was off" Wainright Inlet, 

 and thence he made rapid progress along the well-known coast toward Point 

 Barrow. During the night of the 5th he kept away to the north-north-east, 

 well off the land, sailing among loose ice, and helped on his course by a 

 northward flowing current. By meridian observation, on the following day, 

 he found himself in lat. 71° 35' N., long. 155° 12' W. "We were thus," says 

 Armstrong, " farther to the northward of Point Barrow than we intended to 

 go, and, to our great joy, had successfully rounded this hitherto much 

 dreaded point of coast, the alleged unpracticability of which (for ships) we 

 had then fully refuted. The ' Investigator ' then floated in strange waters, 

 where no ship had ever preceded her, and commenced the navigation of a 

 hitherto imknown and unexplored sea." Having thus reached a sea hitherto 

 untraversed by any ship, and having practically turned their bow eastward, 

 towards home, it was intensely annoying to find that at mid-day on the 6th, 

 the wind entirely deserted them, and they lay becalmed in the middle of 

 loose ice, with every probability of being beset, unless a breeze should spring 

 up. When we think of M'Clure thus powerless, and chafing under his 

 enforced idleness, one cannot help thinking how much he might have accom- 

 plished had his vessel been a screw steamer. As it was, the " Investigator " 



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