Adrift in the Arctic Ice Pack - From the History of the First U.S. Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin

IT was in the summer of 1845 that Sir John Franklin undertook his fourth voyage into the Arctic regions, in search of a northwest passage, and disappeared forever in that icy waste.Franklin’s two ships, the Erebus and the Terror, were supposed to be provisioned for three years. When this interval had passed without word of the daring navigator there was grave fear that he had met with disaster. Then began an unparalleled series of search and relief expeditions, public and private, English and American: five separate ones in 1848, three in 1849, ten in 1850, two in 1851, nine in 1852, five in 1853, two in 1854, one in 1855, and one in 1857.Among the earliest of these was one from the United States, known as the first Grinnell expedition, which left New York in May, 1848. Lady Franklin had appealed to the President of the United States to enlist his countrymen as a “kindred people, to join heart and hand in the enterprise of snatching the lost navigators from a dreary grave.” Accordingly a bill was introduced in Congress to fit out an expedition for this purpose; but the process of legislation was too slow to provide vessels and equipment in the short time that was left for such a venture.At this juncture a New York merchant, Henry Grinnell, outfitted two of his own vessels for the service and proffered them gratuitously to our government. They were at once accepted under a joint resolution of Congress, and the President was authorized to detail officers and men from the navy to man the ships.

In 1845, British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin (1786–1847) embarked on his third and final expedition into the Canadian Arctic to force the Northwest Passage. After two years with no word, a £20, 000 reward was offered to anyone who could find the expedition, leading to many rescue attempts. Two such attempts were undertaken by Elisha Kent Kane (1820–1857), American explorer and United States Navy medical officer. Despite contracting scurvy and suffering greatly during his 1853 attempt, he continued on and went further north than any other explorer had managed. Kane was eventually forced to relinquish the icebound brig "Advance" on May 20, 1855 and spent the next 83 days marching to Upernavik carrying the invalids—losing but one man on the perilous journey. "Adrift in the Arctic Ice Pack" contains Kane's personal account of his courageous but ill-fated rescue mission, detailing the perilous conditions they had to endure and how they were able to survive against all odds in the Arctic wasteland. Highly recommended for those with an interest in Arctic exploration and history in general. Read & Co. History is republishing this classic memoir now in a brand new edition complete with an introductory biography by John Knox Laughton.