might visit the place. Again, from the 1st to the 25th of
September, the vessels were so closely beset with ice, that it was
feared they might be compelled to spend another winter in those regions,
even should they escape being crushed to fragments. Happily they got
clear, after drifting into Baffin's Bay, and reached England in
November.

The _North Star_, an old twenty-six-gun frigate, of 500 tons, had in the
meantime, in the spring of 1849, been despatched with provisions for Sir
James Ross, under command of Mr J. Saunders. Having got blocked in by
the ice for sixty-two days, she was compelled to winter in Wolstenholme
Sound, on the western coast of Greenland.

Immediately on the return of the _Enterprise_ and _Investigator_ they
were re-commissioned, and placed under the command of Captain B.
Collinson, with directions to proceed to Behring's Straits, to resume
the search in that direction. HMS _Plover_, Commander Moore, was
already there, employed in surveying the north-western coasts of the
American continent.

The following were the officers appointed to them:--

"_Enterprise_."

Captain, R. Collinson; Lieutenants, G.A. Phayre, J.J. Barnard, and
C.T. Jago; master, R.T.G. Legg; second master, Francis Skead; mate,
M.T. Parks; surgeon, Robert Anderson; assistant surgeon, Edward Adams;
clerk in charge, Edward Whitehead. Total complement, sixty-six.

"_Investigator_."

Commander, B.J. McClure; Lieutenants, W.H. Haswell and S.G.
Cresswell; mates, H.H. Saintsbury and R.J. Wyniatt; second master,
Stephen Court; surgeon, Alexander Armstrong, MD; assistant surgeon,
Henry Piers; clerk in charge, Joseph C. Paine. Total complement,
sixty-six.

Mr Miertsching, a Moravian missionary, who had spent five years on the
coast of Labrador, was appointed to the _Enterprise_ as interpreter.
The vessels sailed from Plymouth on the 20th of January 1850, and
reached the Sandwich Islands on the 29th of June. Meantime the
_Herald_, Captain Kellet, had been ordered up from Oahu to Behring's
Straits, to assist in the search. At Petropaulski she met the Royal
Thames Yacht Club schooner _Mary Dawson_, owned by Mr Shedden, who had
come along the Chinese coast to Behring's Straits, also in search of Sir
John Franklin. After exploring for some time in company, they were
compelled by the ice to leave the Straits; but the _Plover_ wintered
there, while Lieutenant Pullen led a boat expedition of a most arduous
nature