Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/170

Rh fastenings, her fate was sealed. The tempestuous elements would not allow her to escape, and she was broken to pieces in the fury of the storm.

I need not say how much I grieved at the loss of my boat. To me it was irreparable and for a time I was nearly overcome by the blow; but I reasoned that all things were for the best in the hands of a good Providence, and I therefore bent submissively to His will.

The natives who had been on board of the Georgiana were on the island when I landed. They had found the sail of my boat, and turned it to account as a shelter, and now were as happy and merry as though nothing unusual had occurred.

The Rescue, when I examined her, was high and dry on the rocks, with her bottom stove in. I mounted her side (her decks were inclining to the shore at an angle of 45°); I entered her cabin, and looked into her hold, and again descended outside, going under and around her. Then as I gazed at her battered hull, grieving at the end she had come to, what a number of interesting associations crowded upon my mind. She had been of the "United States' Grinnell Expedition" in search of Sir John Franklin in 1850–1, being the consort of the Advance, in which latter vessel Dr. Kane afterward made that memorable voyage (the second Grinnell Expedition) in search of Franklin in 1853–5. The Rescue's quondam consort, after having given forth freely of its planks and timbers for the preservation and warmth of Dr. Kane and his party, was finally given up to the ices of the North which unrelentingly grasped it. The Advance was abandoned Sunday, May 20th, 1855, in Rensselaer Harbour, lat. 78° 37′ N. and long. 70° 40′ W. Five years, four months, and seven days after this occurred the total wreck of the Rescue, in a harbour named after her, situated in lat. 62° 52′ N. and long. 64° 44′ W. nearly due south of her former consort.

After well examining the Rescue, I went to the wreck of Koojesse's whale-boat, lying on the windward side of the island. This boat had been fast to the schooner's stern, and, of course, went on the rocks at the same time. She had