OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
93 
situation, it would require some time to perform, to get the Hecla, as quickly 
as possible, into the first place of security we could find, and then to march 
all hands round to the Griper, for the purpose of getting her afloat. 
Shortly after our leaving England, Lieutenant Liddon had been unfor- 
tunately attacked with a severe rheumatic complaint, which confined him to 
his cabin during our passage across the Atlantic, but of which he so far re- 
covered, soon after our making the ice in June, as to be able constantly to 
attend to his duty on deck during the rest of the summer. The harassing cir- 
cumstances, however, which had attended our exertions for the last fortnight, 
and the sensible change which had lately taken place in the temperature of 
the atmosphere, had combined to produce a serious alteration for the worse ; 
so that at the time of the Griper’s being driven on shore, he was again 
reduced to a very debilitated state. On this account I proposed to him to 
allow himself to be removed on board the Hecla, until the Griper should be 
got afloat again. To this proposal, however, he would by no means listen, 
assuring me, that he should be the last man, instead of the first, to leave 
the Griper ; and he remained seated against the lee side of the deck during 
the greater part of the day, giving the necessary orders. 
The wind continuing strong from the northward, the ice left the shore 
very rapidly in the afternoon, so that, by one P.M., there was once more a 
little clear water about the ships. Before Lieutenant Beechey left the Griper, 
they had been enabled to get the hand-lead down on the sea-side of the vessel, 
where they found between fifteen and sixteen feet water ; and, as the tide 
was now rising, we began to entertain great hopes of her coming off the 
shore without difficulty or damage. Soon after noon we perceived that 
she had righted considerably, and at two P.M., we were informed by tele- 
graph that she was afloat. A party of our hands was sent on board to assist 
in making her snug, that she might be ready for moving whenever the ice 
would permit. The wind blew hard from the northward during the night, 
with a good deal of snow ; and the thermometer was at 10|° at midnight. 
The Aurora Borealis was seen faintly in the S.S.W. quarter of the 
heavens. 
The advanced period of the season, the unpromising appearance of the 
ice to the westward, and the risk to the ships with which the navigation 
had been attended for some days past, naturally led me to the conclusion 
that, under these circumstances, the time had arrived, when it became ab- 
solutely necessary to look out for winter-quarters. Among the circumstances 
1819. 
Sept. 
