XI.]

ITS ACCURACY.

229

The Admiralty, in order to show their appreciation of the work performed by this expedi tion, were pleased on its return to promote Commander Lutwidge of the Carcass to the rank of captain, and Mr. Harvey, the first lieutenant of the Racehorse, was raised to the rank of commander.

voyage,

From a careful comparison of the foregoing narrative with the official account of the published the year after their return to England by Captain Phipps, and also considering it in connection with the journals of the officers of the expedition, which, through the courtesy of the Admiralty I was enabled to examine at the Public Record Office of that department, I find it to be substantially correct in all its details, describing more fully and graphically the various little incidents of an interesting nature, SO inseparable to Arctic enterprise, than does the rather ponderous and less vivacious narrative published by the leader of the expedition.

In some places, however, Mr. Floyd allows

230

DIFFICULTY OF WRITING.

[CHAP.

his imagination to wrestle with, and triumph over, facts and common sense.

Notably is this the case at page 204, where he pictures the dreadful hardships and sufferings they would have been exposed to had the idea of abandoning the ships been carried out; also at page 227, in his thrilling account of the terrible storm experienced during their homeward voyage.

With these exceptions, the account of the cruise bears undeniably the stamp of veracity, and it may very fairly claim to take its place amongst other published works relating to

Arctic research.

The circumstances under which it was written must not be lost sight of, nor the age of the writer forgotten. A midshipman's berth, even in the present day, is hardly the most desirable or convenient place in which to gather up one's scattered thoughts for the purpose of committing them to paper with a view to publication. How much worse then must it have been in a small vessel, fitted out

XI.]

A GOOD EXAMPLE.

231

for Polar exploration, where the officers' accommodation must have been extremely limited, and where no less than eleven were crammed into a midshipman's berth, the size of which would have been about eight feet by six?

Taking all these circumstances into consideration, it cannot but be acknowledged that the production of this, the only private account of Captain Phipps' voyage, is highly creditable to the writer, and fully deserving of publication.

I trust that the young officers of the present day may, by a perusal of it, be inclined to follow the example set them by one of their own cloth more than a hundred years ago, and by application and observation, be able, on their return from foreign service, to present as accurate and as glowing a description of their travels to their friends, as Mr. Floyd has here done.

CHAPTER XII.

VOYAGE OF BUCHAN AND FRANKLIN.

1818.

IN the year 1776, a reward was offered by Act of Parliament, of 5,000l. to the person who should first reach the 89th degree of latitude.

This offer appearing to have little or no effect upon the lethargic nature of our countrymen, was made more tempting in 1818, by offering proportionate rewards for partial success.1 Thus the ship that first sailed to Lat. 83° N. was to get 1,000l.; to 85° N. 2,000l. ; to 87° N. 3,000l.; to 88° N. 4,000l. ; and to 89° N., or the Pole, 5,000l.

The prospect of obtaining these prizes would, it was thought, stimulate the captains of whale

Act 58 Geo. III., cap. 20.

CH. XII.] A FAVOURABLE CHANGE.

233

ships, and others, to take advantage of any favourable opportunities that might be presented, of pushing northwards through the ice, and thereby enhance our geographical knowledge of the northern extreme of the globe.

But what tended, more than anything else, to revive the desire for Arctic exploration, were the accounts brought to England by the whalers in the years 1816 and 1817, of a favourable change that, they averred, had taken place in the Polar pack, by which they believed ships would be able to attain a higher latitude than had hitherto been reached.

Icebergs and large ice-floes had, it was reported, been seen, in the Atlantic, further south than usual, which led the "knowing ones' to predict that an extraordinary disruption of the Polar ice had occurred.

Sir John Barrow, then Secretary of the Admiralty, a gentleman who must always be regarded as one of the greatest promoters of Arctic enterprise during this century, carefully collected all these reports, and being supported