Arctic Quest 1832

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Search for the North West Passage, 1829 - 1833

Additional notes & quotations.

• Commanded by Captain John Ross R.N. with Commander James Clark Ross R.N. as Second in Command.
• Purpose of the voyage was to discover the much fabled North West Passage. Failing to secure Admiralty Funds, Captain John Ross appealed to the wealthy Gin distiller Sir Felix Booth who agreed to sponsor the expedition.
• Captain John Ross led a crew of 22. Third in Command was Mr William Thom RN and the remainder of the crew consisted of a Surgeon, First & Second Engineers, Steward, Armourer, 6 'Seamen', 3 Ship's Mates, a Carpenter and Carpenter's Mate, Cook and 3 'Landsmen'.
• The 'Victory' was the first steam powered vessel to be used in an arctic voyage. Built as an 85ton wooden paddle steamer, the Victory was also one of the smallest vessels to penetrate arctic waters.
• The voyage set sail from Thames on 23rd May 1829 and, after joining their supply ship the Krusenstern, Ross departed his home on the shores of Loch Ryan (at Stranraer) and followed a then established route via Greenland to Baffin Bay, Lancaster Sound and Prince Regent Inlet.
• By September 1829 the Victory was beset in the ice of Lord Mayor Bay at 70° 12' N lat 92° 21' W close to the harbour Ross named "Felix Harbour" after Sir Felix Booth. For over a year the Victory remained paralysed by ice.

“The ice which bound us and our ship in fetters of worse than iron, which surrounded us, obstructed us, imprisoned us, annoyed us in every possible manner, and thus haunted and vexed us for ten months of the year, had long become so odious to our sight"

"Is there anyone who loves the sight of ice and snow? To us the sight of ice was a plague a torment, an evil, a matter of despair."

"The sameness of everything weighed our spirits."

(John Ross, Published Narrative 1835)

• For the next three years the expedition could progress no further than a few nautical miles by sea. In temperatures, that on occasion plummeted to -92°F, desperation began to set in: "We were locked up by irruptable chains, and had ceased equally to hope or to fear" - John Ross (published Narrative 1835)

“This wretchd prison was (not inaptly) named "Sheriffs Harbour" - This winter now set in with a severity not on record and while I am now writing you the ther (thermometer) stands 42° below the freezing point”

(Letter to Francis Beaufort, Hydrographer of the Navy from John Ross)

• By January1832 the crew was reduced in number and capacity - James Marslin died in January 1830 (consumption) and two others fell victim to frostbite (rendering one lame) and blindness. Captain Ross himself had broken both legs in a fall in 1830.
• The entire voyage was never intended to exceed two years at worst. As Ross and his crew entered third year in the arctic, abandonment of the Victory at Victory Harbour (in May 1832) was inevitable. The overland journey to Fury Beach was a series of portages in the most extreme and difficult terrain. It took 32 days and nights travelling the 300 miles - they arrived at Fury Beach with one days provisions left.

"My plan was to carry 2 of our boats 40 miles in advance and there make a depot of provisions, that is all we could spare which at ½ allowance would keep us alive until September.

We slept or rather took rest when fatigued by digging a trench in the snow, which being covered with canvas on 2 oars laid across and then snow, we crept in a the lee-end & by keeping close together prevented being frozen to death."

(letter to Francis Beaufort, Hydrographer of the Navy from John Ross)

• At Fury Beach they were saved by the stores of the Fury (wrecked in Parry's earlier expedition) Inspite of their best efforts to proceed further north and cross Prince Regent Inlet, they were doomed to endure another arctic winter.
• From their makeshift home (of wood, canvas and snow) at Fury Beach which Ross called 'Somerset House' he wrote in January 1833:

"you will excuse the bad writing for my fingers are very cold and the ink has frozen several times - where I shall conclude this sheet God only knows"

(letter to Francis Beaufort, Hydrographer of the Navy from John Ross)

• In August 1833 Ross and his remaining crew of 19, were finally able to penetrate Lancaster Sound and end their ordeal. By happy coincidence the passing whaler Isabella which came to their rescue was the very ship that Captain Ross had commanded to the arctic in 1818.
• The Rosses returned to a country stunned by the news of their survival. As no word of the expedition had been heard, it was widely believed in 1832 that they must have perished. Such was the feeling of pessimism that relief expeditions failed to find sponsorship. When finally the explorer George Back set out in, February 1833, his mission was overtaken by events.

 Achievements 

• Ross and his men were absent from home for far longer than any previous arctic expedition and indeed for far longer than nearly all subsequent ones. They lost only one man as a direct result of their hardships and the arctic conditions.
• In their encounter with the native population of Netsilik Inuit, Ross and his crew greatly advanced the knowledge of traditional customs and the importance of the Inuit diet and hunting methods in their unique adaptation to their environment.
• In 1831 James Clark Ross discovered the North Magnetic Pole. They charted some 150 miles of coast line and explored 500 miles of previously unvisited lands.

"For instead of water, they found land and that there is no north west passage south of 70° north; the eastern sea being divided from the western by an isthmus of only five leagues in breadth; which, with the true discovery of the position of the magnetic pole will hand down the name of Captain Ross to ages yet unborn, as one of the ablest navigators that ever lived." 1835 Pamphlet

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Adrian Wibrew
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Updated Tue, Aug 16, 2005