officer; it could be borne on the shoulders of six men, and was found, on trial, to be capable of carrying three tons weight, in addition to the crew. The others were each 21 feet long, 4½ broad, and capable of receiving five rowers, a steersman, and an officer, with an additional weight of 5600 pounds.
Captain Franklin and his officers, with four marines as attendants, embarked at Liverpool, on board the American packet-ship Columbia, Feb. 16th, 1825; and about the same period, the Blossom 24[errata 1], was commissioned at Woolwich by Commander F. W. Beechey, and ordered to proceed round Cape Horn, for the purpose of meeting the western branch of the expedition in Behring’s Strait, and conveying that party either to the Sandwich Islands or Canton, as might seem most advisable to Captain Franklin, who was instructed to take a passage to England in any merchant ship that he might find about to sail for Europe. The eastern branch was to return overland from the mouth of the Copper-mine River to Great Bear Lake, where alone a sufficient supply of fish could be procured for the support of so many persons.
When Captain Franklin left London to proceed on this expedition, he had to undergo a severe struggle between the feelings of affection and a sense of duty; his wife then lying at the point of death, and, with heroic fortitude, urging his departure at the very day appointed – entreating him, as he valued her peace and his own glory, not to delay a moment on her account. She expired on the sixth day after his embarkation, leaving a daughter, eight months old. Previous to her union with Captain Franklin, this amiable lady had published two poems, one entitled “The Veils, or the Triumph of Constancy;” and the other, “The Arctic Expedition.” She subsequently published a very spirited “Ode on the Coronation of His Majesty George the Fourth;” and a poem in sixteen cantos, entitled, “Coeur de Lion, or the Third Crusade.” Her father was the architect who erected the King’s stables at Brighton, and other buildings which placed his name high in the line to which he belongs.
The boats of the expedition, accompanied by Augustus
Errata:
- ↑ Correction: 24 should be amended to sloop
