Narrative of a boat expedition up the Wellington channel in the year 1852, under the command of R. M'Cormick, R.N., F.R.C.S., in H.M.B. 'Forlorn Hope,' in search of Sir John Franklin.

  • M'Cormick, Robert, 1800-1890.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Narrative of a boat expedition up the Wellington channel in the year 1852, under the command of R. M'Cormick, R.N., F.R.C.S., in H.M.B. 'Forlorn Hope,' in search of Sir John Franklin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Friday, 20th August. The spot on which we encamped last night is a little to the northward of Lovell Point, all around a snowy waste, save and except the narrow shingle ridge on which the tent stood, and that was bare. The northern sky looked black and threatening, not that peculiar dark horizon indicating the presence of open water, and hence technically called a water-sky, but the lurid appearance preceding bad weather; the thermometer during the day rose no higher than 31° Fahrenheit. We saw four large flocks of geese all flying at a considerable height in their usual angular-shaped phalanx, shaping their course for the south, a sure sign of winter’s near approach. Saw also many dovekies and kittiwakes, and two seals. On emerging from our felt-bags this moiming at six o’clock, in which, chrysalis-like, we had been incased during the night, and quitting the confines of the tent, we found that but little change had taken place in the scene around us : both ice and weather bore much the same aspect. On the outer edge of the ice a heavy surf was still breaking, and large floe-pieces had been stranded on the beach by the heavy pressure in the night. The atmosphere looked gloomy, overcast, and threatening ; the thermometer had fallen below 29°, and young ice formed to the thickness of an inch. After our breakfast of cold bacon and biscuit, with chocolate, I took a rough sketch of the encampment, and walked for about a mile along the beach to the northward, in search of a more promising part in the belt of ice for embarkation, but found none, even so practicable for the purpose as the place of our encampment. On my return, therefore, the boat was once more launched upon the floe-pieces, which, from the wind drawing round more to the westward, had been packed closer together in shore ; and at 10 A.M., by dint of great exertion, we at last succeeded in gaining the outer margin ; but it was noon before everything was got into the boat, having to make three sledge trips from the shore with the provisions and other things. We now launched her into the sludgy surf, where, from her being so deep in the water, although with only a month’s provisions on board, and this she could barely stow, her situation was for a few minutes a very critical one, from the risk of being swamped, till by a few lusty strokes of the oars, we were swept fairly out of this vortex of sludge and water into the open channel, and made sail with a fresh breeze for Cape Bowden, going at the rate of about five knots an hour. In doubling Cape Bowden we had to make a considerable detour, to avoid a long stream of ice extending from it to the distance of several miles ; and in running through the heav}' swell and sludge which skirted it, carried away our rudder, through one of the pintles giving way, which, on examination, vras found to have been defective, and the rudder altogether badly fitted. In short, the boat was an old one, which had been knocked about in the late expeditions, and not well adapted for such an enterprise as this. This accident, together with a freshening breeze accompanied by thick weather, snow, and sleet, compelled us to lower the sail, at 5 p.m. I no\v looked out for a spot to beach the boat, under Cape Bowden, a perpendicular cliff, rising to the height of upwards of five hundred feet above the level of the sea ; but the extremely narrow strip of shingle beach at its base was so thickly studded with stranded hummocks and berg-pieces of