Polar exploration had been neglected since the return of Captain Phipps owing to the protracted European war, which came to an end in 1815. But the duty of prosecuting it had never been forgotten, and the authorities, being educated and patriotic men, were quite ready to consider suggestions favourably. The country is indebted for those suggestions to William Scoresby. In 1817 he found that the Spitsbergen seas were unusually clear of ice between 74° and 80° N., and he represented to Sir Joseph Banks what a favourable time there appeared to be for expeditions of discovery. Sir Joseph brought Scoresby’s letter to the notice of Sir John Barrow, the Secretary of the Admiralty, who strongly represented the advisability of despatching expeditions to discover the connection of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans north of the American continent. One was to proceed by way of Spitsbergen and the North Pole, the other by Davis Strait and the bay supposed to have been discovered by Baffin.

Four whalers were purchased by the Admiralty and strengthened for special service in the ice—the Isabella, 385 tons, and Alexander, 252 tons, for Baffin’s Bay; the Dorothea, 370 tons, and Trent, 250 tons, for the North Pole. Captain Buchan, R.N., who had recently been employed on the Newfoundland coast and had made an important journey into the interior of that island, received command of the Dorothea in the Spitsbergen and North Pole expedition, with Lieutenant John Franklin as his second, on board the Trent. Buchan’s first Lieutenant was Arthur Morell, with Charles Palmer and William J. Dealy as mates, George Fisher as astronomer, and Cyrus Wakeman as clerk. In the Trent with Franklin were Lieutenant F. W. Beechey, son of the artist Sir William Beechey, Andrew Reid and George Back, mates, and Alexander Gilfillan as surgeon.

This expedition left the Thames in April, 1818, and was at Lerwick on the 1st of May. The Trent was leaking badly, and every effort to find the place, while they were at Lerwick, failed. It was a serious matter, as half the watches were occupied in pumping, which entailed a great amount of extra labour, when the ordinary work was almost as much as they could do.

On entering the icy region Buchan’s expedition was met by a furious gale, and took refuge in Magdalena Bay. The expedition was fortunate in its historian, for Morell, the first Lieutenant of the Trent, was a man of high literary attainments as well as an accomplished artist. The attack on one of the boats of the Trent by walrus is as admirably described by his pen as it is portrayed by his pencil. He also relates the ascent of “Rotche Hill,” 2000 feet high, and describes the little-auks or ‘rotches’ flying in such crowds that thirty came down in one shot. It was calculated that 4,000,000 were on the wing.

When the two ships again put to sea they were driven into the pack-ice north of the north-east point of Spitsbergen. There was a heavy swell, and the huge masses of ice were crashing and grinding together, breaking in pieces, and covering the sea with brash ice for miles. All night they were striving to keep the ships’ heads to the sea, while the leak in the Trent increased, and all hands were at the pumps. Pressing along a lead to the north of Cloven Cliff, they were stopped by the ice, and laid out ice anchors. Here they were beset for 13 days.

The leak on board the Trent had long been a serious drawback to her efficiency, indeed ever since she left the Thames. At last its position was discovered. Old Sir George Back used to tell the story. The Assistant Surgeon, when lying half asleep in his berth, thought he heard water flowing into the ship below the deck. He listened and feeling sure, he reported. The spirit room was cleared, and it was found that a bolt-hole had been left open. A remedy was at once applied and, to the great joy of all on board, the work at the pumps was no longer necessary.

While the ships were beset a party was sent to reach the shore. A dense fog came down, and the men could not find their way back, being on the verge of perishing before they could be rescued, after 18 hours’ exposure. Meanwhile the ships were pushed southward, and at length reached open water. Great efforts had been made to attain a high latitude, and they advanced to 80° 34′ N., but the ships were exposed to great pressure, the Trent being raised four feet out of the water and some of the Dorothea’s beams were sprung. After the ships were released, Captain Buchan gave up all idea of trying the state of the ice by the Seven Islands to the eastward, and determined to examine the prospect in the direction of Greenland.

When the two ships were sailing along in sight of the main pack on the 30th of July a furious gale sprang up and the Dorothea bore up to seek shelter within the ice. The Trent could find no opening. Huge masses were broken up and tossed up and down on the waves, the ship being in such violent motion that the bell tolled incessantly until it was muffled. It was as if they were surrounded by battering rams. When the wind went down it was found that the Dorothea was very seriously injured, beams being sprung and timbers broken. The two ships took refuge in Fairhaven. By the end of August the repairs were finished so far as was possible, but it was considered necessary that the Dorothea should return, and that the Trent should keep with her. The two vessels arrived in the Thames on the 22nd October, 1818; all on board eager to volunteer again for Arctic service.

Buchan’s expedition was doomed to failure, for it was an impossible route, as Phipps and Scoresby had already shown. It is hopeless to struggle against the great Arctic drift with no land floe to hold on by. Still there was gain. The experience of ice navigation at its worst, acquired by several zealous naval officers, was a gain. Beechey’s excellent narrative, illustrated by his own graphic pencil, is one of the very best Arctic books113.

We must now turn to the story of the companion expedition. The Isabella and Alexander were well strengthened, and destined for more important Arctic work. Owing to the suppression of Baffin’s log book and map by Purchas, the existence of Baffin’s Bay had come to be considered doubtful. On the map in Daines Barrington’s book, as already stated, there is printed over the site of Baffin’s Bay “according to the relation of W. Baffin in 1616, but not now believed.” It was accordingly resolved by the Admiralty that the expedition should proceed up Davis Strait, verify the discovery of Baffin, and seek a passage.

Lord Melville was the First Lord of the Admiralty, and his colleagues, Sir J. S. Yorke, Sir George Hope, and Sir Graham Moore, were enlightened and accomplished naval officers. For the command of the expedition Sir George Hope recommended his old shipmate, John Ross, as zealous and energetic and a thorough seaman. This officer, born in 1777, was the fourth son of the Rev. Andrew Ross of Ballaroch in Wigtonshire, by Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Corsane, Provost of Dumfries. Entering the navy at a very early age, he served for four years, and was then in the merchant service for some years. Returning to the navy he served under Sir James Saumarez in the Baltic and the White Sea, where he fixed the longitude of Archangel by occultation of Jupiter’s satellite. In 1812 he became a commander. He was in three actions, and was wounded in every one. After his promotion he had command of the Briseis.

The selection of Ross was very carefully made, and his second in command was Lieutenant Edward Parry, on board the Alexander. The two first Lieutenants were Robertson in the Isabella and Hoppner, a son of the artist, in the Alexander. The younger aspirants for Arctic fame, all to be heard of again, were A. M. Skene, J. Bushnan, Joseph Nias, and the Commander’s nephew James C. Ross. Drs Edwards, Beverley, and Fisher were the surgeons. Captain Sabine, R.E., joined the Isabella for magnetic observations. An Eskimo interpreter was also secured in the person of John Sacheuse, who had found his way from Greenland to Leith. He was recommended as a useful member of the expedition by Captain Basil Hall, R.N.

The expedition sailed in April, 1818, proceeded up Davis Strait, and. reached Hare Island off the north-west cape of Disco I. on June 17th. Here 45 whalers were found waiting to go north, and Ross received the excellent advice from the captain of the whaler Larkin to “stick to the land floe.” The reason why all the attempts by the Spitsbergen route failed is that there is no land floe to stick to. On July 2nd the Isabella and Alexander were off Sanderson’s Hope, the further point of Davis, and entering upon Baffin’s work. Up to this time the whalers had never been north of 75° 10′.

The formidable ice-encumbered sea to the north received from Ross the name of Melville Bay. Here they were beset, pressure raised the ships out of the water, and they had to track through narrow lanes in the ice. The point at the north end of Melville Bay, so well known in after years, received the name of Cape York. Between Cape York and Cape Dudley Digges the crimson snow was seen from the ships, and Mr. Beverley landed on August 17th, and Ross’s nephew on the 18th, to collect specimens of it114.

It was on the 9th of August that people were first seen, coming over the ice in dog sledges. Sacheuse was sent out to meet them, but found that they spoke a different dialect from his own. Afterwards several were induced to come on board. A most interesting people had been discovered, for they had been isolated, possibly, for centuries. Captain Ross took great pains to collect information about them. He minutely described their persons, clothing, and weapons, and careful drawings were made of a dog sledge, narwhal-horn spear, and a knife made of thin circles of meteoric iron fixed into a bone handle. The iron was said to come from a place near called Sewallik. Ross and Sacheuse also collected 38 words, 24 of which had the same meaning as in the Greenland Eskimos’ language. Sacheuse declared that the tradition of his people was that they came from the north and pointing to the newly-discovered men, exclaimed, “These are our fathers.” Captain Ross gave them the name of Arctic Highlanders, and called the heights at the back, from Wolstenholme Sound of Baffin to Melville Bay, the Duneira Mountains.

The expedition then proceeded northwards, re-discovering Wolstenholme and Whale Sounds, and the Cary Islands. But here Captain Ross began to make fatal mistakes. He passed too far south of Sir Thomas Smith’s Sound of Baffin to ascertain whether it was a channel, though he named the two points at the entrance after his two ships. It was the same with Sir Francis Jones’s Sound. He entered and advanced some distance up Sir James Lancaster’s Sound, but unfortunately he fancied that he saw high land across it, which he named the Croker Mountains after the Secretary to the Admiralty. He then sent Lieut. Parry, Captain Sabine, and a party on shore at a point on the south side of Lancaster Sound, which he named Cape Byam Martin, to take possession and make collections. This practically brought their work to an end, and a homeward course was set. On his return Captain Ross wrote in the highest terms of the correctness of Baffin’s latitudes, and quite restored the good name of that illustrious navigator.

The mistakes of Captain Ross may well be forgiven, for his expedition was in many ways most fruitful in results. Among other researches, he took special pains to obtain specimens from great depths. For this purpose he invented a very ingenious contrivance which he called a deep sea clam, and on the 1st of September, 1818, in 73° 37′ N. he brought up a beautiful Caput medusae in 1000 fathoms. It was the first time any animal was brought up from anything approaching this depth. A new and very interesting gull was also discovered by Captain Sabine on an island in Melville Bay, the Xema sabinii, usually found associated with the Arctic tern.

The most important results of Ross’s expedition, however, were the restitution of Baffin’s good name as a navigator and discoverer, the discovery of the Arctic Highlanders, and the training of several young naval officers in ice navigation. The greatest practical result was that his voyage showed the way to the whalers, and that by reaching the north water of Baffin’s Bay they would find another very lucrative whale fishery. It was another example of the use of Arctic enterprises in furthering the commercial prosperity of the country which encourages them.

On the return of Ross’s expedition there was an outcry about the supposed closing of Lancaster Sound, as some of the officers believed it to be a wide channel leading westward. Lieut. Parry was decidedly of that opinion. Sir John Barrow strongly represented the doubt to the Board of Admiralty, and it was decided that another expedition should be despatched in 1819.