Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-07-03
THE INVESTIGATOR.
Frozen Into Arctic Ice For Sixty
Years.

Frozen Into Arctic Ice For Sixty
Years.
The latest story from the far nortf
caps the romance of Arctic exploration
with an incident which, but for it!
suggestions of cold and hardship
would read like fairy tale. 1t Is the
story, not Of a phantom ship sailing
on summer seas, but of a world-famous
vessel which, since the year 1850, has
been firmly locked in the embrace OF
the Ice foes, and is now, after nearly
sixty years Of exile in the far north
, to be returned to daylight and to CIV
ilization.
Six years ago some hyperborean ma
tives caught glimpse Of the strange
craft perched high up in its shroud OF
ice. Saturated with religious teachings
and familiar with the scriptures, they
hurried back and reported that they
had found Noah's Ark.
1.-The earth hath bubbles, as the
water hath" muttered the missiona-
ries, and nothing was done to verify
the information.
But last summer Capt. Jarvis Of the
Royal Northwest mounted police heard
the story and paid visit to the mys-
terious apparition. 1t proved to be
none other than the good ship Inves-
tigator in which Captain afterwards
Sir) Robert John lie Mesurier Mcclure
discovered the Northwest passage.
Jarvis went on board the vessel
made thorough inspection Of its con.
tents, and, to his surprise, found In
excellent condition many Of the instru-
ments and supplies which had been
abandoned with the ship more than
half a century before. The report
which he has sent to the British ad-
miralty will in all probability lead to
the return Of the Investigator to Eng
land, the vessel having been floated for
the first time since its Imprisonment by
the warm weather Of last summer.
The fame Of the Investigator will
always be inseparably associated with
that of its gallant captain, whose feat
turned a theory into fact and added
an achievement of imperishable glory
to the annals Of Arctic exploration.
Mcclure was of Irish birth, the son
of captain in the seth regiment. Born
on January 2S, 1907, he passed his ex-
animation as a lieutenant, entered the
service of the British admiralty and
served as a midshipman on board Mel
sons flagship, the Victory.
In 1846 he Joined the twelfth expe-
dition which had been fitted out for
the rescue of Sir John Franklin and
the discovery Of the Northwest pas
sage. Mcclure went out as lieuten-
ant, and on the return Of the party
in 1848, without having accomplished
it's object, the young officer was pro-
NOTED to the rank of commander for
the able part he had taken In the en-
terprise. The instructions received by
the explorers were to proceed by the
Pacific to Bering Strait, and then. II
practicable, to Melville Island. The
two vessels sailed from Plymouth on
January 20, provisioned for three
years, each with a crew Of sixty-six
men. Their plan, as outlined in ad-
vance by the admiralty, was to press
forward to the Sandwich Islands, re-
fit there, and then use all diligence to
pass Bering Strait and reach the ice
together by August l. But big gale
in the Straits Of Magellan decided 9TH
erwise. It parted the two ships so
effectively that they never met again.
Capt. Mcclure had to proceed alone
to the Sandwich Islands.
He rehtted there, sailed northward
toward the ice, rounded Cape Barrow
at midnight on August 6, and in a
month had reached Cape Bathurst and
Cape Parry.
Here for a while the Investigator
had to grope and grapple its way
along the shore. Then 1t struck up
northward into the polar ocean until
high land, some fifty miles off, came
into view All that day and night the
vessel worked to windward, and by
morning touched the south headland
rising up perpendicularly for 1000
feet.
Landing here, Mcclure called his
discovery "Barings Island" Behind
1t he found an extensive country with
| fine rivers, lakes and ranges of hills
from 1000 to 5000 feet high.
Then, resuming the journey, the In
vestigator sailed up a strait until but
twenty-five miles separated them from
Barrows Straits and from the Atlantic
ocean.
The great prize for which they had
toiled now seemed easily within their
reach. But Unexpectedly northwest
wind set the whole mass Of Ice drifting
to the east, and this obstacle effectual-
ly barred them out from Barrows
straits. At this point an ice foe six
miles long came rushing along and
grazed the sides of the Investigator,
which for a time was in imminent
danger of being crushed.
On the night Of September II, the
crew secured the ship, by means Of
cables and hawsers, to a foe eight
fathoms deep. To this, for safety,
they clung for ten months, drifting
down the straits some miles with the
CONCEALED mass. Finally, on Septem-
ber 80, just two months after it first
entered the ice, the Investigator was
solidly frozen in at the end Of what
Sir Edward Parry called 1.-The most
magnificent piece of navigation ever
performed in a single season, and
which the whole course Of Arctic dis
covery can show nothing to equal"
This compliment to Mcclure was
rendered all the more deserved on Oc-
tober 81. The polar winter had then
already set it, and for ten months It
buried them as in a living tomb. as
soon as the spring sun began to skirt
the horizon search parties were or
ganized and many interesting geo.
graphical discoveries made.
The spring came to an end, but
there was no sign of movement in the