ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS. 
CHAPTER X. 
ORGANIZATION—PLAN OP OPERATIONS—COMPLEMENT—EQUIPMENT 
—st. John's. 
In the month of December, 1852, I had the honor 
of receiving special orders from the Secretary of the 
Navy, to “ conduct an expedition to the Arctic seas in 
search of Sir John Franklin.” 
I had been engaged, under Lieutenant De Haven, in 
the Grinnell Expedition, which sailed from the United 
States in 1850 on the same errand; and I had occu¬ 
pied myself for some months after our return in ma¬ 
turing the scheme of a renewed effort to rescue the 
missing party, or at least to resolve the mystery of its 
fate. Mr. Grinnell, with a liberality altogether cha¬ 
racteristic, had placed the Advance, in which I sailed 
before, at my disposal for the cruise; and Mr. Pea¬ 
body, of London, the generous representative of many 
American sympathies, had proffered his aid largely 
toward her outfit. The Geographical Society of New 
York, the Smithsonian Institution, the American Phi- 
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