_Hecla_ and _Fury_,
1824--Accompanied by the _William Harris_ transport--Call off Lievely--
Reach Lancaster Sound--Are frozen up in Port Eowen--Masquerades--Good
conduct of the men--Progress in the school--Expedition on shore--Ships
get out of harbour--In fearful danger--The _Fury_ wrecked and
abandoned--The _Hecla_ refitted, sails homeward, and safely reaches
England--Remarks on Admiral Sir Edward Parry.

From the days of Edward the Sixth, and even before that period, attempts
have been made to discover a passage eastward along the northern shores
of Europe and Asia to India from the westward, and from the Atlantic
into the Pacific, as well as to reach the north pole.

Among the gallant men who commanded these expeditions the names of Sir
Hugh Willoughby, Richard Chancellor, Sir Martin Frobisher, Barentz,
Henry Hudson, and Baffin stand out pre-eminently. Captain Cook, as we
have seen, made attempts to penetrate from the Pacific into the
Atlantic, and at the same time Captain Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave,
accompanied by Nelson, then a midshipman, was engaged in an attempt to
reach the north pole along the coast of Spitzbergen. For some time
after this the interest in arctic discovery died away, but was at length
revived in the year 1818 by the reports of the state of the ice, which
was said to have broken away from the coast of Greenland in places where
it had been attached to the shore for centuries. In that year four
ships were fitted out--two, the _Isabella_, commanded by Captain John
Ross, and the _Alexander_ by Lieutenant Parry, to explore the north-west
passage, and the _Dorothea_, commanded by Captain Buchan, and the
_Trent_, by Lieutenant John Franklin,--for the purpose of attempting to
reach the north pole. Many of the officers who subsequently became well
known as arctic explorers were employed in these expeditions; among
others were Mr Beechy and Mr Hoppner, both sons of eminent artists,
and themselves excellent draughtsmen.

Neither of the expeditions was successful. Captain Ross sailed up
Davis's Straits into Baffin's Bay, passing the entrances to Smith's and
Lancaster Sounds, across both of which he was persuaded that a lofty
range of mountains extended. These he called Crocker Mountains. The
openings, he was convinced, were merely the mouths of deep inlets.
Lieutenant Parry differed entirely from his commanding officer, and deep
regret was expressed by many on board that an opening, by examin