Island. By a desperate effort this haven might be reached and escape made possible. To stay was certain death to many, perhaps to all. The abandonment of the ships was determined upon. An attempt would be made to reach Beechy Island on foot and by sledge over a perilous stretch of ice-floes one hundred and eighty miles in extent. The scene of final departure from the ships is touchingly described by their commander in an account published several years later:

"It was the full moon of the 25th of August, 1854, at six in the morning, when the crews were all assembled in traveling order on the floe-that of the Resolute, the Assistance, the Pioneer, the Intrepid, and the Investigator, the latter having been now five winters in the ice. The decks of the vessels had been clean swept; the hatchways were calked down; the colors, pendant and Jack, were so secured that they might be deemed nailed to the mast, and the last tapping of the calker's mallet at my companion hatch found an echo in many a heart as if we had encoffined some cherished object. We passed silently over the side; no cheers, indeed, no sounds, were heard. Our hearts were too full. Turning our backs upon our ships, we pursued our cheerless route over the floe, leaving behind us our homes, and seeking for aught we knew merely a change to the depot at Beechy Island." A laborious journey brought these heroes safely to their destination. An embarkation of all the crews on board the North Star was effected, and after an uneventful voyage they arrived safely in England in September, 1854.

To those familiar with the gigantic forces at play in the breaking up of the Arctic ice-floe, speedy and utter destruction of the deserted vessels seemed only the question of a few brief months. Enwrapped in shrouds of snow and ice, they awaited the inevitable crush—and a burial. One, however, the stanch, teak-ribbed old Resolute, was marked for a higher destiny. Built without regard to cost, for the service of humanity, twice sailed in the spirit of generous and self-sacrificing rivalry for rescue of many livesshe was appointed to escape from her environment, and to play a distinguished part in the comity of nations.

The return of the survivors of this great expedition, upon which so many hopes had centered, fell like a pall over the prospects of rescue for Sir John Franklin and his men. One strong heart alone resisted the seemingly inevitable conclusion to which it pointed, like the finger of Fate. This was the undaunted wife of Sir John. She omitted no effort, still devoting her energies and her now shattered fortune to the continued prosecution of the search. Meanwhile, as time passed, the abandoned ships were remembered only as landmarks among the many hopes, which each suc

ceeding year gave place to newer hope with fainter promise of fulfillment; when in September, 1855, during the cruise of the American whaleship George Henry in latitude 67 north, surrounded by fields of ice, a vessel was one morning descried in the distance, and upon nearer approach it was found firmly imbedded in an immense ice-floe and apparently deserted. A toilsome journey of several miles over the uneven surface of the floe confirmed this supposition, and proved the vessel to be the Arctic ship Resolute of Sir Edward Belcher's expedition, left eighteen months before, more than a thousand miles distant from where she was now discovered, and to which she had been safely navigated by the unaided forces of nature. The vessel was still stanch and sound, and well filled with valuable stores. Everything on board gave evidence of sudden and utter abandonment. Across the cabin table lay a couple of swords and a commander's epaulets, as if flung down at the moment of departure; maps, logs, books, and musical instruments left as if but for an hour. All on board told the same story of rapid flight, without the means of carrying away cherished mementos or badges of distinction. Although deeply imbedded in the immense mass of ice which had accumulated around and upon it, it was determined by the captain of the whaler to abandon his fishing, and extricate and bear the Resolute home as a prize. This, after weeks of perilous labor, was accomplished, and Captain Buddington, of the George Henry, sailed his treasure trove into the harbor of New London in March, 1855.

The government of Great Britain was at once informed of the discovery of the Resolute, and the circumstances attendant upon her release; whereupon an official surrender of all claims upon her was promptly and generously accorded to her salvors.

The second American expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, fitted out by Mr. Henry Grinnell, of New York, and Mr. Peabody, an American resident of London, in command of Doctor Kane, had now been absent more than two years. A growing anxiety was felt lest Kane also should have met the fate of those he sailed to rescue. An expedition, composed of the bark Release, and the steam-brig Arctic, under the direction of Commander Henry J. Hartstene, of the United States Navy, was dispatched May 26, 1855, to their discovery and rescue.

This expedition made a brilliant passage into the Polar Seas, reaching nearly 80 degrees north latitude, and finally met with traces of the missing men. It was found that after two winters of great hardships the intrepid Kane had been forced to abandon his vessels and had made his way over the ice towards the Danish settlement at Upernavik. This place he reached with the shattered remnant of his company, exhausted

THE ARCTIC DISCOVERY SHIP Resolute AS SHE APPEARED WHEN FOUND IN THE ICE AFTER DRIFTING NEARLY 1200 MILES. [From an engraving in possession of Dr. Fesse den N. Otis.]

and starving. Captain Hartstene overtook them at Upernavik, and brought them all safely to New York, arriving October 11, 1855, having being absent less than five months, and making the first completely successful Arctic voyage on record.

The relations between Great Britain and the United States at this period were not altogether satisfactory. The official course of Sir Henry Crampton, the last resident minister to the United States from the Court of St. James, had given much dissatisfaction; so much, indeed, that diplomatic relations were suspended, and his recall had been effected, in pursuance of a direct request of the United States government to that effect. In connection with this trouble and the somewhat summary proceedings in regard to it, the Hotspurs of politics and diplomacy had, through the public journals, created much bitterness of feeling in both countries, and in extreme circles war was considered not improbable. The return of the Resolute, followed quickly by that of the Arctic expedition under Commander Hartstene-bringing Doctor Kane and his men, up to this time mourned by many as lost-caused a diversion in public sentiment. The latent forces of kinship and kindred relations, which had sprung into action at the first call for aid in prosecuting measures for the rescue of Sir John Franklin and his lost company, now demonstrated their abiding influence by renewed manifestations of sympathy with the British nation in the fate of their lost explorer. This sentiment found a definite expression, during the following session of Congress, when it was determined to purchase of her salvors, and return to her British Majesty's government the ship Resolute, as a gift from the American people. This proceeding and the motives which prompted it, will be best appreciated by citation of the Act of Congress, passed August 28, 1856, thus: "Whereas it has become known to Congress that the ship Resolute, late of the navy of her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, on service in the Arctic seas in search of Sir John Franklin and the survivors of the expedition under his command, was rescued and recovered by the officers and crew of the American whaleship, George Henry, after the Resolute had been necessarily abandoned in the ice by her officers and crew, and after drifting more than one thousand miles from the place where so abandoned; and that the said ship Resolute, having been brought to the United States by the salvors at great risk and peril, had been generously relinquished to them by Her Majesty's government. Now in token of the deep interest felt in the United States for the service in which Her Majesty's said ship was engaged when thus necessarily abandoned: and the sense entertained by Congress of the act of Her Majesty's government in surrendering said

ship to her salvors: Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be and is hereby requested to cause the said ship Resolute-with all her armament and equipment and the property on board, when she arrived in the United States, and which have been preserved in good condition-to be purchased of her present owners, and that he send the said ship with everything fully repaired and equipped at one of the navy yards of the United States, back to England, under the control of the Secretary of the Navy; with a request to Her Majesty's

government, that the United States may be allowed to restore the said ship Resolute to Her Majesty's service; and for the purchase of said ship and her appurtenances the sum of forty thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be required, is hereby appropriated, to be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. Approved August 28, 1856."

In pursuance of the foregoing action of Congress, the vessel was purchased and taken to the navy yard in Brooklyn, Long Island, where she was thoroughly overhauled, repaired, and refitted, in a style fully equal to her original equipment. The rigging, which had been exposed for so long a time to the action of the elements, was much dilapidated, and required almost entire renewal; but below decks, aside from a great accumulation