INTRODUCTION. 
Ill 
As an encouragement to the officers, seamen, and marines, who 
were desirous of being employed on this service, the Lords Commis- 
sioners of the Admiralty were pleased to grant to every individual 
engaged in the Expedition, double the ordinary pay of His Majesty’s 
Navy. The ships were speedily manned with a full complement of 
excellent seamen ; nearly the whole of those who had served on the 
former Expedition having again volunteered their services, besides 
numerous others who were anxious to be employed on this occasion. 
The mode of fortifying or strengthening the ships was principally the 
same as that adopted on board the Isabella and Alexander in 1818 *. 
The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty were pleased to direct 
the Navy and Victualling Boards to furnish every thing which the 
experience of the former voyage had suggested as necessary, and 
during the whole progress of our fitting, I received the greatest 
attention and assistance from those Boards, who most readily com- 
plied with every wish expressed by me for the more complete 
equipment of the ships. 
The mode of rigging the vessels was that of a barque, as 
being the most convenient among the ice, and requiring the 
smallest number of men to work them ; a consideration of no 
little importance, where it was a material object to sail with 
as few persons as possible, in order to extend our resources 
to the utmost. The Hecla’s mizen-topsail was, therefore, taken 
away, and the mizen-mast, top-mast, gaff, and driver-boom length- 
ened, so as to make up, by a large driver and gaff-topsail, nearly the 
same quantity of after-sail as before ; the foremast and mainmast 
remaining the same as on the former establishment. By this al- 
* See the Narrative of the former Voyage. 
