Next10. Parry, William Edward, Sir (1790-1855)
Journal of a Third Voyage for the Discovery of a North-west passage, from the Atlantic to the Pacific: Performed in the Years 1824-25, in His Majesty's Ships Hecla and Fury, under the orders of Captain William Edward Parry. London: John Murray, 1826.
“Heaving down the Fury,” from William Edward Parry, Journal of a Third Voyage, 1826.
The Fury grounded on Fury Beach, from William Edward Parry, Journal of a Third Voyage, 1826.
Although his voyage to Foxe Basin in the Hecla and Fury was not very successful (see item 7 and item 8), Parry was selected to take the same ships back through Lancaster Sound, which he had crossed so successfully on his first voyage, and this time head south through Prince Regens Inlet, to see if a Northwest Passage might lie in that direction.
The ships did not get very far down the inlet, which was filled with pack ice. They spent one winter on the eastern shore, at a point called Port Bowen, and the next year, as they tried to probe further, the Fury was beset, and eventually it ended up on a beach on Somerset Island on the west side of the Inlet, a place known thereafter as Fury Beach. The Fury was given up for lost, and most of the provisions were off-loaded onto the shore.
In hindsight, this was a propitious move, since several later Arctic expeditions would survive only because they found food, supplies, and boats on this remote icy beach. (See item 15 and 39).
