CHAPTER XXVII 
THE SEARCH FOR FRANKLIN. I. 
The sad fate of Sir John Franklin and his gallant 
companions is rendered still more melancholy by the 
reflection that some at least of them might have been 
saved. When no news arrived in 1846 prompt measures 
should have been taken, but the Admiralty asked advice 
and did nothing. 
Dr King, who accompanied Sir George Back down 
the Great Fish River in 1833, made earnest and repeated 
appeals to the Admiralty and to the Colonial Office in 
1847 to send a relief party down that river, and he pointed 
out quite correctly the position where the Erebus and 
Terror had been beset. His letters were not even an- 
swered. For Sir James Ross told them there was not 
any reason for anxiety and gave a strongly expressed 
opinion that the crews of the Erebus and Terror would 
never under any circumstances make for the Great Fish 
River. Other authorities concurred. This sealed their 
fate. Admiral Beechey alone thought that a boat should 
be sent down that river. 
The year 1848 arrived, but no news reached England. 
Sir John Richardson was accordingly sent out to examine 
the coast between the Mackenzie and Coppermine rivers, 
but not to extend his voyage to the mouth of the Fish 
River, where even then he might have saved a few. 
Two ships, the Enterprise and Investigator, were also 
fitted out to go to the relief of the lost expedition, and 
Sir James Ross received the command. He was on 
board the Enterprise, and his old Antarctic first lieutenant 
Bird, who had been his companion in three of Parry's 
voyages, was Captain of the Investigator. But Sir James 
went in the full conviction that he would meet the 
Erebus and Terror, or that they would pass him and that 
he would find them in the Thames on his return. 
In his ship were M'Clure, who had been with Back in 
