, and that pity for the malicious,
which you have so pre-eminently displayed, may yet, by God's help, one
day reap its reward in the accomplishment of your wishes, is the
fervent prayer of

SHERARD OSBORN.

PREFACE.

I fear with the many of my cloth, my crime in writing a book will be an
unpardonable one; the more so, that I cannot conscientiously declare,
that it has been at the urgent desire of my friends, &c., that I have
thus made my debut.

My motive is twofold: to tell of the doings of a screw steam-vessel,
the first ever tried in the Polar regions, and by a light, readable
description of incidents in the late search for Sir John Franklin, to
interest the general reader and the community at large upon that
subject. Without fear, favour, or affection, I have told facts as they
have occurred; and I trust have, in doing so, injured no man. A journal
must necessarily be, for the most, a dry narration of facts; I have,
therefore, thrown in here and there general observations and remarks
founded upon such facts, rather than a dry repetition of them.

To the officers and men serving under my command, I can offer no higher
compliment than in having thus placed their severe and zealous labours
before the public; and no professional reader who reads these "Stray
Leaves," can fail, I am certain, to perceive how heavily must have
fallen the labours here recounted upon the men and officers of the
steam tenders, and how deep an obligation I their commander must be
under to them for their untiring exertions, by which this, the first
and severe trial of steam in the Arctic regions, was brought to a
successful issue.

The "Resolutes," no doubt, will object to the round terms in which I
have growled at the bluff-bowed vessel it was my fate and now my pride
to have towed so many miles in the Frozen Zone; but on second thoughts,
I doubt not they will acquit me, for they will remember the joke was
once on their side; and if I do not love their _ship_, at any rate I
liked _them_.

To Lieutenant W. May and Mr. M'Dougal, I am much indebted for their
faithful sketches. I fear my letter-press is unworthy of the
companionship.

To those who may accuse me of egotism in confining my remarks so much
to the achievements of my own vessel, I have merely to say, that in
doing so, I was best able to be truthful; but that I am fully aware
that to the other screw steamer, the "Intrepid," and my gallant friend
and colleague, Comman