8 Thirty, Years 
e 
‘awaited in breathless anxiety the moment of concus- 
sion. It soon arrived—the brig, cutting her way 
through the light ice, came in violent contact with the 
main body. In an instant we all lost our footing, the 
masts bent with the impetus, and the cracking tim- 
bers from below bespoke a pressure which was calcu- 
lated to awaken our serious apprehensions.” The 
gloominess of the scene and circumstances was not 
cheered by the dolorous tolling of the ship’s great 
bell, which never sounded of itself in the roughest 
gale, but now was so swung by the violent motion of 
the ship, that its deep tones pealed forth like a death- 
knell, and the officers, fearing the awakened supersti- 
tion of the men, ordered it to be muffled. A few 
hours released the vessels from their imprisonment, 
but the “‘ Dorothea” was found to be completely dis- 
abled. A short time at Fairhaven in Spitzbergen was. 
spent in necessary repairs, and even then she was unfit 
for any further service than the voyage to England. 
Franklin volunteered to prosecute the enterprise with 
the “ Trent” alone, but the Admiralty orders opposed 
such a proceeding, and the vessels returned home in 
company. 
In 1819, Sir John Franklin—then Captain Frank- 
lin—was appointed to the command of an Expedition 
from the shores of Hudson’s Bay, to explore the 
Northern Coast of America, from the mouth of Cop- 
