The Express.
London, England, 1847-01-23 00:00:00

THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE.

Had Sir John Franklin been able to accomplish the
north-west passage in the course of last summer, we should,
ere this, have received intelligence of his ..ecess from the
Sandwich Island, rhi Mexico. There is no cause for &pre-
hension or disappointment in the non-arrival of such intelli-
gence, for all who are familiar with the earratives of earlier
voyages in the region he has to traverse know how impro-
bable that, even with all Sir Jc hn'r local knowledge and
acquaintance with the reasons, he will be able to effect. the
passage in one or two summers. The expedition under Sir
John Franklin's command, consisting, our readers will re-
collect, of the Erebus, commanded by hims,ll, and the
Terrer, under Capt. Crozier, was to proceed through Lan-
caster Sound and Barrow's Strait, by the southern coast of
Melsille Isl rod. to the furthest point reached by Parry in his
first voyage in 1819. Having proceeded no far, Sir John is
instructed to put his ships into the drift ice, and trust to its
earning hint along the channel. In connection with this
naval expedition, is the overland one, organised by the
Hudson's Bay Company, under the command of Dr. Rae,
and destined to complete by a shore survey in boats, the dis-
coveries so intelligently and daringly prosecuted by Messrs.
Dear and Simpson. Comparatively few dangers attend
on Dr. R ie's expedition the success of Sir John Frank-
Bees, though, as yet, there is no came for despondency,
is mote problematical. Even assuming the existence
of a passage by Melvfile's Island and Behring's Straits,
the probability of Sir John's being able to navigate it
with the vessels under his command may fairly be ques-
tioned. To commit any vessels to the embrace of two fields of
ice, and allow them to bo carried along as a past of the frozen
mans, in utter helplessness. anhject to the action of changeful
currents, in seas where flocsand bergs are often harrie together
with frightful collision, and the soundings of which arc en-
tirely unknown, is at best a dangerous experiment; but the
peril in much me re imminent in the case of such ships as the
Erebus and Terror, than with vessels of less burden. They
are not d. festive in point of construction, for the great blun-
der of ISIS, choosing wall-rid wl whalers instead of vessels
with conical bottoms. has been avoided. But another mis-
take equagy great, exposed by Sir John Ross in the introduc-
tion to the narrative of his second voyage, has been persisted
in : the Erebus and Terror have too great a draught of water.
The visible are by no means the only or most serious perils
that a ship has to encounter in the Arctic seas. The
vessel beset behind, drifting rapidly onwards, moving with
the mass, and incapable of either arresting or changing her
roams, is often swept over s..nken rocks and unseen shoals.
If when this happens the imprisoned vessel draws more
water than the he which enclosas her, the ship's bottom is
the first p .rt of the moving moss to receive a shock from
reefs, ov; r which a vessel drawing no more water than the
field or pack of ice would be carried with comparatively little
danger of receiving serious injury. Each of the vessels under
the command of Sir John Franklin is of 430 tons burden,
drawing 18 feet water; while the average thickness of the
field ice amongst which he has to sail is but 10 feet,
and of this only eight fret would be below the water. The
depth of the vessel below the ice must therefore be about 10
feet. The fate of the Fury in Parry's third voyage allows
that the danger here suggested is not merely speculative.
That vessel being suddenly %met with ice, was carried
irre-
sistably along, until atrikinz several times against the
ground. and subsequently on the grounded ice beneath, it
received so much injury from the collision as to be incapable
of repair. Yet neither the Heels nor the Fury was of so
great burden so the Erebus and Terror; the former was of
377, the latter of 375 tons. Bylet and Baffin, the most sue-
cewful Arctic navigators prior to 1818, circumnavigate.;
Baffin's Bay in a vessel of only 30 tons burden.
We are anxious nut to be misunderstood. The dangers
we apprehend imply only the frustrating of the passage, not
the necessary lose of the gallant men engaged in the enter-
prise. Immediate and inevitable destruction is not to
lie apprehended. If Sir John Franklin had adopted
a suggestion made to him previous to his de-
parture—that h. should at apecified places leave
depots of stores and provision., his crews may, in case
of misadventure, survive till some vessel arrives to an,
them home.