[6]
In consequence of Captain Ross having penetrated into Baffin's Bay, an
object only accomplished once before by Baffin himself, and which for two
hundred years had been frequently again fruitlessly attempted, the
Greenland ships which left England during the season immediately following
Captain Ross's return, were induced, in order to reach a fresh and unfished
sea, to pursue the course that he had opened for them. The circumstance
that fourteen of them were wrecked, proves, unless the season had been
uncommonly tempestuous, that Captain Ross must have conducted his
expedition with considerable care and skill, notwithstanding he missed an
excellent opportunity of either discovering a north-west passage, or of
adding one more opening to those which were proved not to contain it.
The second sea expedition, to which we have already alluded, was under the
direction of Captain Parry, who had sailed along with Captain Ross in the
first expedition; he was therefore possessed of much knowledge and
experience, which would prove essentially useful and directly applicable to
the object he was about to undertake. Two ships were fitted out with all
necessary preparations for such a voyage, the Hecla bomb, and Griper
gun-brig, and they sailed from the Thames early in the month of May 1819.
Of the high importance and value to navigators of the chronometer, Captain
Parry had a striking and undoubted proof in the early part of his voyage.
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