The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-14 00:00:00

ARCTIC DIfCOVERY.

TO THE EDITOR

THE TIMES.

Sir,—My attention has -inna:lleti
Arctic subjects which appear in the Times of the 25th
1
ult., in which some passages small
published several years ago* e quoted, in support of
e letterw huiepho upon-
which your correspon ent, Captain Inglefield, ex-
pressed at the Geographical Society, as to the state of the
Polar sea, and the direction ' which Sir John Franklin
should now he looked for, and which letter, he goes on
to say, that these passages of .no, curiously enough, sup-
tvoolsum
sup-
port all.the opinions he had ex .assed at that meeting. i
1
As nothing can be more di erent from my sentiments
than some of those opinions, Lam desirous of an oppor-
tunity of replying to the chargé.
The statements made at thy Geographical Society were
to the effect that there exists open sea all the way from
Nova Zembla-and Greenland t' Behriug's Strait, and that
it may be passt'd through in " e season ;" that there was
no ground for believing that those ever had been any packed
in
ice between Nova Zeinblit and; Spitzbergen; that Spitz-
bergen was a very habitable Countr3t ; that four seamen
left behind there amassed a fortaine, and insisted upon pay-
ing
their passage home in the vessel which discovered
them ; and, among other equally strange assertions, that
Sir John Franklin or traces of him would in all probability
be found at Spitzbergen. ' I believe, Sir, it will only be
necessary to refer to the volume from which thwabove-
mentioned quotations were taken, to satisfy the inquirer
that I entertain no such opinions, that the very reverse of
a clear Polar sea has been argued and show to be the case
throughout the book. In fact, the volume was written to
prove the reverse of a clear Polar sea, and recounts the
numerous unsuccessful attempts that have been made from
the days of Sir Hugh Willoughby to the year in which
Parry made his memorable jou ey over the Polar ice.
And as regards Sir John Fr klin., he was at the time
f
that book was written in Van iemen's Land, and conse-
quently those passages could haye ;o reference to a search
for him in the Polar regions. ado not suppose that Cap-
tain Inglefied intended those pissages to be applied to Sir
John, but he has made no disthiction in his letter. As to
the pleasure and profitableness of a residence in Spitzbergen,
enough will be found in the early attempts to settle in that
couatry-f• to show what they were • and, lest adventurers
should be tempted to seek their fortune there, and the tide
of emigration be diverted from the goldfields of Melbourne
to the shores of Spitzbergen, it may be as well to observe
that nearly all who attempted to settle in that island pe-
rished.

In continuation, I beg to observe that the quotations
made use of by Captain Ingiefield were written for a very
different purpose than that to which they have been ap-
plied ; they were penned at a time when the approach to
the Polo was considered a project worthy of a further trial
by members of the Government then in office, and when
the screw propeller was newly introduced. Under these
circumstances, and a conviction that a greater advance to
the northward might be made than we had hitherto been
able to accomplish, I embodied those remarks in the con-
cluding part of the narrative of Buchan's voyage, and re-
commended the screw. Franklin adopted the recommen-
dation, and I feel confident it would havo aided him in time
of need, for whenever its advantages in Polar navigation
have been put to the test, its utility has been acknow-
ledged. It is with great regret I now find those passages
have been so misemployed as to appear that I favour a
voyage to Spitzbergen, or by way of the Pole, in search of
Sir John Franklin—a project, in my opinion, as visionary
as it is calculated to disturb needlessly the feelings of those
persons who have the misfortune to be nearly connected
with the crews whose probable fate we so greatly deplore.
As I have been written to by some of those persons to
learn whether I really think an expedition to Spitzbergen
would be attended with any beneficial result, and as it has
been rumoured that a lady whose heroic conduct is so well
known to the world is willing to advance money towards
such a project, I am anxious that nothing which I have
written should be made to appear as if 1 in any way de-
sired to promote such an undertaking.
It is stated that the probability of finding Sir John
Franklin at Spitzbergen rests upon the supposition of his
having passed into the Polar basin, and, that meeting with
some obstruction towards Behring's Strait, he has sailed
about, and either got wrecked upon the Siberian coast, and
then made his way in his boats to Spitzbergen, or that he
has intentionally taken that island in his way home, and
that his having been there is supported by the fact of rein-
deer having been found at Spitzbergen with their ears slit.
Admitting, for the purpose of argument, that there is
such an anomaly of nature as a Polar basin (of course a clear
basin is meant)—a belief repainted, if I mistake not, by all
the most experienced Polar officers—and that Sir John
Franklin has reached it through Wellington or some other
channel, it is extremely improbable that, whatever may
have happened to him, he would have attempted to find his
way home by Spitzbergen. He has had sufficient practical
experience of the difficulties which beset that route, and had
he been able, by any chance, to reach Siberia, and have been
there cast away, he would certainly have preferred seeking
the Russian settlements upon that coast to undertaking a
long and hazardous voyage in open boats, through a sea
encumbered with heavy ice, to Spitzbergen. But, take
Captain Inglefield's argument, and suppose he had reached
the shores of Spitzbergen, it is quite clear to any mind that
he would, iu such a case, have been home long before this
time ; for he would have communicated with the Russians
resident at that place. He is fully aware of the hunters'
cottage near Magdalena, Bay, which he and I entered to-
gether some years ago ; and its inmates would have di-
rected him where to meet the vessel that is periodically
sent from Russia to communicate with these men ; or he
would certainly have reached Magdalena pay or Smuren,
burg harbour by the means which brought him to the
island— places which heknows to be tho common resort of
such whaling vessels as touch at the island ; and, as we
have been informed that one of such vessels has actually
been at Spitzbergen in the last summer, ho would cer-
tainly have been in England with that vessel had he been
there. We cannot believe that Sir John Franklin could
have missed these opportunities and have preferred
catching reindeer and setting them adrift with their
ears slit. Nor is it likely that he would have quitted
Spitzbergen in his boats, if he had once arrived there
by that moans ; and there certainly is no other way by
which ho could get there, unless by his own ships, for
Captain Inglefield will not allow that there is any ice by
which ho could approach it ; and then, if by his ships, of
course, why not come home in them ? It appears to me,
therefore, that the proposed plan is the most unlikely of
all the suggestions that have been made to lead to the dis-
covery of any traces of our missing countrymen.
But I have not given my reasons why I differ from Cap-
tain Inglefield in believing that he could accomplish this
search for Sir John Franklin and get to Behring's Strait
in a single season by means of his open sea between Nova
Zembla and Greenland. The reason, then, is simply be-
cause I do not believe there is an open sea for him to steam
along, but, on the contrary, one encumbered with heavy
ice, which I do not think he will get through. If it be
otherwise, there must either have been some extraordinary
convulsion of nature, or we must pronounce the voyages
of Phipps, Buchan, Scoresby, and Parry, to be fictions,
and believe that no such voyages as those of Barentz, Hud-
son, Ryp, Baffin, Poole, Wood, and others, and lastly,
of Lutke as recently as 1824, were over performed , and
that Purchas, Hakluyt, Muller, and a host of other writers,
only penned fables to amuse the people of the day. If these
things were so, then, indeed, we might believe with the
gallant officer that there was no authority for differing in
opinion from him; but when we know that on every occa-
sion of that sea, and of all other openings into the Polar ice
basin being attempted, they have been found impracti-
cable, that no satisfactory advance has ever been made
except by means of the narrow lanes of water which occur
between the land and the ice, when we know that on the
Behring's Strait side, also, the attempts which have been
made there have always been attended with the same un-
successful result (M'Cluro having advanced only by the
beforementioned narrow channels long the land) ; and
when it is clear, that had there been such a clear sea, Col-
linson would have been home long ago and outrivalled the
gallant M'Clure in the brilliancy of his exploit. I say,
when we put all these things together, it is impossible to
deny that the conclusion of your correspondent is most
extraordinary and quite unauthorized.
To advocate an attempt to reach a high northern latitude
with the aid of modern inventions and modern appliances,
is fair enough—such expeditions have been acknowledged
to have had their uses. In addition to the extension of
scientific and geographical knowledge, they elevate the
character of our naval service; they bring forward talents
which might otherwise have lain dormant, and they have
been pronounced honourable to the nation. On such
grounds any person has a right to urge whatever may
most promote the undertaking, and I will do Captain
Inglefiold the justice to believe that he would cre-
ditably acquit himself of any such duty that he might
undertake. He is one of those enterprising, sanguine
officers, who occasionally become the bright orna-
ments of their profession, and we can quite for-
give the feeling, if not carried too far, of indiffer-
ence as to the dangers and difficulties in prospect, so long
as he can but have an opportunity of testing them. But
to advocate an expedition in that direction, under the
idea that Sir John Franklin is to be found there, is surely
wounding unnecessarily the feelings of those whose happi-
ness may be wrapped up in the fate of their missing
friends, for it can only have the effect of uselessly reviving
feelings which time and resignation may have begun to
alloy and temper down to a tender recollection of the
past; and at a time when the mind may have begun to
experience consolation from the bright hope of at length
meeting in those bright regions of eternal happiness where
the weary spirit shall be at rest and where the mourner's
grief shall be for ever stayed.—l am, Sir, your humble
servant, F. W. BEECHEY, Captain R.N.
December 5.
P.S.—Much time has elapsed since the appearance of
Captain Inglefield's letter in your paper, and it was not
my intention at first to offer any reply through the me-
dium of your journal, as you had so ably and conclusively
dealt with the subject in your leading article ; but cir-
cumstances now render it desirable that I should adopt
that course. F. W. B.