USS Advance (1847) - Second Expedition

Second Expedition

Preparations for the second Franklin rescue expedition took about 20 months. Advance finally departed New York on 30 May 1853, Passed Assistant Surgeon Elisha Kent Kane in command. The expedition stopped at Upernavik, Greenland, to purchase supplies and, most importantly, sled dogs for searches ashore and on the solidly frozen floes. Continuing north, Advance passed the length of Baffin Bay reaching Smith Sound — the northern terminus of Baffin Bay — by 7 August. Near the end of August, she reached her northernmost point — about 78°43' north latitude — in Kane Basin, named for the ship's commanding officer, Passed Assistant Surgeon Kane.

At that point, Kane decided to pass the winter among a group of islets near the Greenland coast rather than to return south to some safer harbor. By 10 September, Advance was imprisoned in the ice. The interior of the ship underwent extensive preparations for wintering farther north than any previous expedition. When that was complete, the crew began expeditions across the frozen wastes both on the Greenland shore and the frozen pack. Kane and his officers also established a scientific station to observe climatic conditions and to make astronomical calculations.

Their expeditions on foot, however, were hampered by the loss of almost all their sled dogs to disease. In the absence of animal transport, the men themselves carried out the searches and explorations on foot, serving as beasts of burden to manhandle caches of supplies to points which would allow for more distant searches in the future.

On one such expedition in late March 1854, four of the party suffered so severely from frostbite that they had to be left behind under the care of a fifth man while the remaining members of the party — too physically exhausted to do more than drag their own persons across the frozen wastes — headed back to the brig for help. The leader of that group, upon returning to the brig, volunteered to return with the rescue party as a guide. However, his own ordeal caused him to fall victim of a temporary mental disorder and prevented him from rendering any real help. It was only good luck — first in finding the advanced party's trail and then in sighting a canvas tent at the site of the disabled men's "encampment" — and their own Herculean efforts that allowed the rescue party to complete their mission. Even that success, however, was marred by the fact that two of the rescued men later succumbed to their infirmities.

Fatigue and illness of all associated with the rescue expedition prevented Kane from undertaking further searches until the end of April. During that interlude, Eskimos arrived in the area, and Kane bartered with them for additional sled dogs. The four animals he thus obtained allowed him to fit out a single seven-dog team which greatly extended the range of their searches. In his own words, "The value of these animals for Arctic ice-travel (sic) can hardly be over-estimated (sic)." Through the ensuing summer, search parties ranged the far northern coasts of Greenland and the eastern coast of Ellesmere Island searching for evidence of Sir John Franklin's party and making notes on geography and climate.