The Press.
London, England, 1857-08-29 00:00:00

850

The Eventful Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ship
Resolute to the Arctic Regions in Search
of Sir John Franklin and the Missing
Crews of IL if. Discovery Ships Erebus and
Terror, 1852, 1853,1854. To which is added
an Account of her being fallen in with by
an American Whaler after her;A.bandonment
in Barrow Straits, and of her Presentation
to Queen Victoria by the Government of the
United States. By George F. M`Dougall,
Master. London: Longmans.
Sum is the somewhat cumbrous titlepage of
Mr. G. F. M`Dougall's private journal while
on board the Resolute, and which he has now
given to the public, accompanied by a state-
ment, that but for the recent events connected
with the restoration of that vessel, his journal
would not have emerged from its original
seclusion. Possibly this would not have been
a source of deep regret to the reading public ;
for the staple adventures of the Resolute are
by no means more eventful than those of the
Prince Albert, Pioneer, Investigator, or any
other ship engagel in a voyage of Arctic
discovery from the days of Parry to those of
Belcher; and Mr. M'Dougall does not possess
the literary skill of Sherard Osborn, without
which even the discovery of the North-West
Passage might have somewhat lost in interest.
Moreover, to those who read books on Arctic
subjects more for amusement than for any
more serious causes, any two voyages are
much alike. The ship always strikes against
a certain proportion of brash ice—a certain
quantity of bay ice is always being formed—a
bear is always seen on sotn,3 flue—auroras and
paraselend are always visible—and it's always
very cold. These are the facts that compose
an Arctic journal, unless the journalist is
gifted with the vivacity and observation of
Lord Dufferin, and has the advantage of
cruising where he likes in the Foam, instead
of perforining the onerous and wearisome
duties of master of the Resolute.
The very circumstances, however, which
tend to render Mr. M`Dougall's volume less
amusing than such a hook should be for
that important individual the General Reader,
render it valuable as a scientific record
to all whose sympathies are more closely
bound up with Arctic adventure. The pre-
cisi of a ship's lug is traceable through-
out. The events of the voyage are always
related in a careful detail, made graphic by
diagrams and more than merely correct illus-
trations, which are lithographed from the
author's sketches, and make ample amends
for any deficiencies in literary style.
The Resolute formed one of the Arctic squad-
ron that left Greenhithe on Wednesday, April
21, 1852, under the command of Sir Edward
Belcher. We need not trace her voyage north-
wards, which passed evenly enough, with the
accompaniments of some few heavy gales, and
of alarms about " washing pieces " of ice that
float level with and many feet below the
surface of the sea, and thus are not easily dis
tingnished on a dark night from the foam-
crests of the waves ; and many were the terrible
" yarns " told by the icemasters of the dangers
of those seas. Hero is one, par exemple
The Shannon of Hull, when outward bound, fell in with
a gale of wind, about 200 miles N.W. of Cape Fare.
well. At midnight the ship was under snug sail, but the
dark masses of heavy clouds, driving across a wild-lookin,,
sky, cast a dense shadow on the heaving sea, relieved only
by the snowy crest of the toppling waves.
The watch had just been relieved, when a fearful crash
tild the awful tale.—the ship had struck a " washing
piece !" the bows of the ill-fated ship were stove in instan-
ttneonsly, and, horrible to relate, the men of the watch
below, who had just lain down, were crushed to death by
the ice, whose progress was at length arrested by the
foremast.

The men on deck rushed to the rigging, but the ship
commenced filling; and falling over un her broadside,
launched the men on that side of the rigging into eternity.
Few only now survived, and they were in momentary ex-
pectation of the ship sinking ; fortunately she did not, but
they remained in this fearful state of suspense for many
days, and were obliged to have recourse to sucking their
own and each other's blood to sustain life. They were
eventually rescued by a Danish vessel, and landed at
Elsinore, where my informant then was.
Strange to say, the captain of the Danish vessel had for
several nights dreamt some dreadful catastrophe had be-
fallen a ship, in a certain latitude and longitude, and this
vision had such an effect on his mind as to induce him to