'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From December 1854 to March 1856. (New Issue.) Edited by the Secretary. Volume XII.' [‎28] (139/258)

28
DR. G. BUIST
they became entitled to the £ 5000 promised to the first shipwhich touch
ed this meridian in these latitudes. During the next ten months scarcely
any thing was effected by him, and the expedition returned to England in
October 1820, without having succeeded in the great object in view, but having
at the same time attained so large a measure of success as to lead to a second
expedition under the same command : only one man had died on board during
their absence. The ships on this occasion consisted of the Hecla and the Fury,
—the latter of these being placed under the command of Captain Lyon,—an offi
cer who had distinguised himself as a geographer on the African coast. They
sailed in May 1821 : on reaching Hudson’s Straits they were surrounded by
such masses of ice that it took them nineteen days to traverse seventy miles.
After numberless toils and perils they returned to England in October 1823,
having spent two winters in the ice : the discoveries once more made by them
were deemed well worthy of the expedition. Two of the attempts that had
been made to penetrate beyond Lancaster Sound had each to a certain extent
proved successful—each had been eminently promising, and each productive
of a large amount of secondary fruit. The spirit of the country had been
awakened on the subject, and the public were anxious to push on in a career
of discovery which at this time seemed so promising. In 1824 accordingly a
third expedition under Captain Pany was dispatched, with the old ships Hecla
and Fury —the latter, in the absence of Captain Lyon from the country, was
placed under the command of Lieutenant Hopner. They left in May, but
from the obstacles to be contended with, did not reach Lancaster Sound till
September, and here they resolved to winter. They were able to warp out
and put to sea in July ; when, in Lat. 72 ° 42’, Long. 91 ° 50’, the Hecla
became disabled during a storm, and required to be abandoned. This
necessarily put an end to the expedition. The Fury returned to England
with the officers and crews of both ships. The Admiralty had at length
become wearied of Polar adventure, and when applied to by Captain
Ross, declined to afford assistance from the public purse to promote an
expedition meant to remedy the errors committed by him in that of 1818, and to
retrieve the reputation that had then been injured. A private merchant, Sir
Felix Booth, came forward to perform that which the authorities declined, and
in 1829 a steamer of 150 tons, called the Victory, was purchased, fitted up and
placed at his disposal ; and with this in the month of May he and his nephew
(aftenvards Sir James) started on their journey. The vessel seems in every
way to have been ill suited for the service : her steam machinery proved useless
and she lost her mizen mast and was nearly wrecked before reaching Green
land. Near the Danish settlement of Holsteinborg, lat. 66 ° 8 5 , long. 53 ° 54’,
they found the wreck of a London whaler, from which they were able to repair
to sea :■
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