Robert McClure - Across The Northwest Passage

Across The Northwest Passage

After he returned from the first Franklin search expedition, a new search expedition was launched in 1850, with Richard Collinson commanding the Enterprise and McClure, as his subordinate, given the command of Investigator. The two ships set out from England, sailed south on the Atlantic, navigated through the Strait of Magellan to the Pacific Ocean with the assistance of steam-sloop HMS Gorgon, where they became separated and had no further contact for the rest of their respective journeys.

The Investigator sailed north through the Pacific and entered the Arctic Ocean by way of Bering Strait, and sailing eastward past Point Barrow, Alaska to eventually link up with another British expedition from the north-west. Although the Investigator was abandoned to the pack ice in the spring of 1853, McClure and his crew were rescued by a party from the HMS Resolute (one of the ships under the command of Sir Edward Belcher that were sailing from the East) after a journey over the ice by sledge. Subsequently he completed his journey across the Northwest Passage. Resolute itself did not make it out of the Arctic that year; it was abandoned in ice, but later recovered. The wood from that ship became quite famous later.

Thus, McClure and his crew were the first both to circumnavigate the Americas, and to transit the Northwest Passage - considerable feats at that time. The Enterprise, meanwhile, having arrived at Point Barrow in 1850 a fortnight later than the Investigator, had found its passage blocked by winter ice and had had to turn back and return the following year; it conducted its own Arctic explorations, but credit for the Northwest Passage already belonged to McClure.

On his return to England, in 1854, McClure was court martialed for the loss of the Investigator, but following an honourable acquittal, was knighted and promoted to post-rank, his commission being dated back four years in recognition of his special services. McClure and his crew shared a great monetary reward (for that time) of £10,000 awarded them by the British Parliament. He subsequently was also awarded gold medals by the English and French geographical societies.

McClure's account of this voyage, Discovery of the north-west passage, consists of excerpts of his journals from that time as edited by Captain Sherard Osborn. As this account significantly glosses over several elements of the cruise which cast McClure in a somewhat unfavourable light, historians generally prefer the straightforward account rendered by the Investigator's surgeon, Sir Alexander Armstrong.