CAPT. PHIPPS EXPEDITION. 
65 
James, and other subsequent navigators, to excite the attention 
of either the government of the country, or of private adventurers. 
It was however, in the year 1773, that an application was made 
to the Earl of Sandwich by the Royal Society, who laid before his 
majesty George the third, a proposal for the equipment of an 
expedition for the purpose of investigating how far the naviga¬ 
tion to the North Pole was practicable. The king hesitated not 
to comply with the wishes of the Royal Society, and immediately 
issued his commands that every assistance should be given to 
wards the promotion of the enterprise. 
Capt. Phipps, afterwards the Earl of Mulgrave, was entrusted 
with the command of the expedition, and the Carcass and Race¬ 
horse bombs were selected as the most proper vessels to be em¬ 
ployed. On the 19th April, 1773, Capt. Phipps received his 
commission for the Racehorse, and Capt. Lutwidge for the Car¬ 
case, and on the 4th June they sailed. The result of this expe¬ 
dition by no means fulfilled the general expectations. The high¬ 
est latitude which Capt. Phipps reached was 80° IT latitude, 
longitude 18° dS'. He however made some curious observations 
respecting the formation of the icebergs, and which appear to 
have escaped the notice of all preceding navigators. He says, 
“ during the time that we past among the Seven Islands, we had 
frequent opportunities of observing the irresistible force of the 
large-bodies of floating ice ; we have often seen a piece of seve¬ 
ral acres square, lifted up between two much larger pieces, and 
as it were becoming one with them, and afterwards this piece 
so formed acting in the same manner upon a second and third, 
which would probably have continued to be the effect, till the 
whole bay had been so filled up with ice, that the different 
pieces could have had no motion, had not the stream taken an 
unexpected turn, and sent the ice out of the bay.” 
Capt. Phipps arrived in England in the month of September 
with the firm conviction that the navigation to the North Pole 
was not practicable higher than 81° of latitude. 
K 
