Next44. McDougall, George F.
The Eventful Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ship Resolute to the Arctic Regions in Search of Sir John Franklin. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1857.
Sledge parties departing from the Resolute and Intrepid, from George McDougall, The Eventful Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ship Resolute, 1857.
"Amusements on the ice", from George McDougall, The Eventful Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ship Resolute, 1857.
"Sawing through the ice", from George McDougall, The Eventful Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ship Resolute, 1857.
McDougall was sailing master on the Resolute as part of Belcher’s “Arctic Squadron” of 1852-54. The commander of the Resolute was Henry Kellett, but Kellett did not write a narrative of the expedition, so McDougall filled the void with his own account.
The book is quite well illustrated with a number of color plates, the most arresting being the depiction of the launch of the sledge expeditions in April 1853.
The men hauling the sledges seem to be pressed together by the wind. But the most delightful illustrations in The Eventful Voyage are some small wood engravings depicting everyday events.
One shows a cricket match, improbably staged on the ice during the ships’ winter imprisonment. Another depicts a less entertaining activity, cutting through the ice with an icesaw.
On many occasions miles of channels had to be sawn by hand to free ships from the grip of the ice. And even then, as in the case of the Resolute, it didn’t always do the job.
