STORY OF AN ABANDONED SHIP

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 July 1908, Page 1

STORY OF AN ABANDONED SHIP

A story of the greatest interest is told by the Daily Telegraph concerning the reappearance of the long lost H.M.S. Investigator. In the autumn of 1851 Her Majesty’s ship Investigator was frozen in the ice in the Bay of God’s Mercy, in the Far North, while endeavoring to find traces of Sir John Franklin and his courageous companions. Now all the memories of those anxious, heroic times have been once more revived by the report that whalers have found the abandoned ship and hope it may bo possible to free her from the ice-grip after the lapse of fifty-six years. Our New York correspondent has suggested that the old man-of-war may bo sufficiently sound to be navigated across the Atlantic to hci old home country. “Packed away in the frozen North, she lias been practically a refrigerator, maintaining her youth and the stout heart of her venerable timbers, while in less frigid zones the world has been getting older and older ; sails have been superseded by steam; wood, has been replaced by steel; the old salt of Captain Marryat’s novels has had to make way for the modern sailor mechanic. In the lore of the sea everything has been changed since Her Majesty’s ship Investigator began her long rest in the ice. If she is really rescued, she will be the Rip Van Winkle of the world’s fleets. She will need to be refitted, of course, at some Canadian or other British port on the other side of fhe Atlantic, and then, under sail, with the White Ensign and the Union Jack battling with the breeze, she should make her furrow once more across the water to her long lost home. “Practically all who sailed in her have gone, though Admiral Sir Vcsoy Hamilton, who was the mate of the companion ship, Assistance, is still alive to tell the story of the struggle with the elements over 50 years ago (His brother was a pioneer settler in the Canterbury district and became part owner of the Lyttelton Times). The Investigator was commanded by one of the heroes of Arctic exploration —the late Vice-Admiral Sir Robert John 1,0 Mcsurier McClure, who was born at Wexford fifteen months after the battle of Trafalgar. “In 1848 he was offered, and accepted, an appointment as first lieutenant in Her Majesty’s ship Investigator—the Rip Van Winkle of the British fleet. She had been purchased from the merchant service, and was about to leave England to make the first of many efforts to pierce the veil ; which hid from the world’s view all traces of Sir John Franklin and his companions. England at that moment was in a fever of nervous excitement; all eyes were on the pathetic, but courageous, figure of Lady Franklin, hoping against hope, and prepared to risk her all on the faint chance of rescuing her husband from death, or at least finding some traces of him. Sir James Clark Rosa was the captain of Her Majesty’s ship Investigator. This officer, bis first lieutenant, and Admiral Sir Leopold McClintock, one of his most 'daring assistants, have all passed away. The Investigator, in company with the Enterprise, went out by way of Lancaster Sound, and wintered at Leopold Island, near the north-east point of North Devon. The two ships made a fruitless search and in the following year came back.

“By tins time the Government and the whole nation were in a state of reckless determination to solve the mystery; it had to he solved. Plans for a renewed effort wore immediately settled. Captain Coll inson were given the command, with the Enterprise as the •senior officer’s ship, and McClure, who had shown himself well fitted for the post by his rosourcefullness and energy, was given the command of tire companion vessel, the old Investigator. The expedition also included the Assistance, in which Admiral Hamilton served, and the Resolute; but the latter ships had a more or less independent commission, under Captain Austin ; they wore to search the Barrow Strait. Our concern is with McClure and the Investigator and the Enterprise. The vessels sailed from Plymouth on January 20th, 1850, and since that eventful day no one in England has cast eyes on the former little man-of-war—she is only 500 or 600 tons displacement. Ultimately the Investigator was forced into what was proved to bo half a century’s banishment in an inlet on the northern shore of Banks Land, McClure had been so buffeted about that he accepted this fate with some amount of satisfaction, because his lot might have been worse. In the feeling of relief ho named the inlet ‘The Bay of God’s Mercy,’ and there the Investigator has lain, absolutely frozen up, underging frigeration for upwards of half a century. “From September, 1851, until the following summer, the frozen ship was McClure’s headquarters. At last the situation began to assume a grave aspect. Food was running short, and the crew were suffering from illness. There was no prospect of relief. McClure at last decided that he had no course but to abandon the little vessel to her fate, and seek safety for himself and his companions, it such wore to be found anywhere in those silent wilds. He had come to this determination when Lieutenant Bedford Pirn appeared on the scene by chance. He had come across from the Resolute, which by this time had got into Melville Sound. McClure found all his doubts come to life once more. His hopes were centred on waiting to save the Investigator, and he thought of getting stores from the Resolute and seeing the incident out to a finish. Before coming to a final decision, he went across to the Resolute, whore ho conferred with Captain Kellot. By this time the illness among his men had increased, and lie had no alternative but to leave the Investigator to her fate, and convey his men across the ice to the Resolute. “Thus it came about that the Investigator was loft in the ice pack, while her captain and crew took passage in the Resolute. They were afterwards transferred to the North Star, and reached England on 28th September, 1854, after an absence of four years and eight months. It was an eventful voyage, and now the homecoming of the Investigator, after half a century, will prove an appropriate sequel to the discovery of the NorthWest Passage.