Resolute by Martin W. Sandler

stated that he was very much alive.
    IT HAD BEEN an extraordinary journey. Despite four years of entrapment, despite prolonged periods of near starvation, despite being battered by almost everything the Arctic could present, Ross was returning with all but one of his twenty-three-man contingent still alive.

    THE WHALING VESSEL
Isabella
of Hull rescues John Ross and his men. That Ross was saved by the very same vessel that he had commanded during his first Arctic adventure was but one of a number of ironic incidents and developments that characterized the entire saga of the long search for the Northwest Passage and the dramatic events that followed.
    They had penetrated the Arctic further south than any other explorers. They had come tantalizingly close to linking up with the Polar Sea. And John Clark Ross had discovered the Magnetic North Pole.
    Although it was a private expedition, Ross felt that there were important lessons that the navy could learn from his experiences. Chief among them, Ross believed more than ever, was the necessity of seeking the passage with as small a contingent as was necessary. Would the Inuit have been able to hunt for enough food to supply a much larger party than Ross’s during his first winter in the ice? Would a larger party have been able to make its way back and forth to Fury Beach and then survive for so long on such a short supply of rations? And would a larger number of boats than Ross’s three small vessels have been able to make their way to rescue? Ross thought not.
    But the navy did not listen. The next great passage-seeking expedition would be larger than ever. And, to the dismay of all England, its members would not be as fortunate as Ross.

CHAPTER 6.
All Hopes Rest on Franklin
    â€œThere appears to be but one wish among the whole of
the inhabitants of this country, that the enterprise in which
the officers and crew are about to be engaged may be
attended with success.”
— RODERICK MURCHISON , president of the
Royal Geographical Society
    B Y THE MID -1840s, Barrow, despite all the setbacks his explorers had experienced, was more confident of success than ever. He still believed that there was an Open Polar Sea. Much of the Arctic coastline had been mapped. Straits, inlets, bays, and islands had been discovered. Possible links to the prized route had been spotted. The discovery of the passage was at hand. It had to be. He was now eighty-two and he knew that the next search he launched would be his last.
    British technological advances would allow Barrow to send out ships that would be marvels of their age. All of the new expedition’s officers and crew would be handpicked. But—and it was a vital concern—whom should he trust to command his largest and most important expedition?
    Parry, who was still Barrow’s favorite, was his first choice. But after three expeditions, Parry had had enough of the Arctic, and he politely refused. The next choice was James Clark Ross, who had recently returned from a South Pole-seeking expedition. Although he had not made the Pole, he had had planted the English flag further south than any explorer had previously traveled. But Ross had recently married and had promised his new wife that his days in the Arctic were over. Because Barrow was planning to rely on steam power to assure the expedition’s success, his third choice was Commander James Fitzjames who, while lacking any Arctic experience, had worked successfully with steam engines. But the Admiralty turned Fitzjames’s appointment down. He was, they told Barrow, simply too young to command so vital an enterprise. George Back was also a contender, but despite the heroics he had displayed during John Franklin’s first overland expedition, Barrow felt Back was too argumentative to lead such an important expedition. Captain Francis Crozier also seemed a logical choice. He had made five successful Arctic voyages and had served James Clark Ross well as