Fisher, surgeon; Mr; John Jermain, purser; Messrs. Joseph Sherer, Charles Richards, William Nelson Griffiths, and Edward Bird, midshipmen; Mr. Allan M‘Laren, assistant-surgeon; and Mr. Mogg, captain’s-clerk. The total number of officers, seamen, and marines, on board both ships, was 121.
Captain Parry sailed from the Nore, accompanied by the Hecla, and a transport laden with provisions and stores, May 8th, 1821, about which period he thus expressed himself in writing to a friend:
“Every thing belonging to our equipment is as I could wish; I have not a thing left undone which has suggested itself as useful; and we go out under every circumstance, which, as far as we can see, is likely to tend With success. You will remember, however, that I am not over sanguine, and you will oblige me much in checking, by every opportunity in your power, the sanguine expectations, which are, I believe, too generally formed, of our complete success.”
Nothing of consequence happened during their passage across the Atlantic. On the 1st of July, the transport, having been cleared, was ordered to part company for England, while the Fury and Hecla stood towards the ice in Hudson’s Strait. On the 21st, having proceeded slowly to the westward, they had reached the latitude of 61° 50' 13", and longitude, by chronometers, 67° 7' 35", where they made fast to a large floe of ice, not having room to beat to windward, and were visited by a number of Esquimaux. On the 2nd of August, they came to a body of ice so closely “packed” that they could make no further progress, while the masses on the outer edge were moving so rapidly in various directions as to occasion them much trouble and many violent blows before they could get clear of those impediments. The latitude at noon was 64° 59' 24" and the longitude 79° 40'. After standing several miles to the northward, along the edge of the ice, without seeing an opening, it began to lead them so much to the eastward, that they deemed it expedient to tack and stand back to the W.S.W. to try what could be done by patience and perseverance in that quarter. On the 15th
