ly for their accommodation and convenience. I now felt
more sensibly than ever the necessity I have elsewhere pointed out, of
both ships employed on this kind of service being of the same size,
equipped in the same manner, and alike efficient in every respect. The
way in which we had been able to apply every article for assisting to
heave the Fury down, without the smallest doubt or selection as to size
or strength, proved an excellent practical example of the value of being
thus able, at a moment's warning, to double the means and resources of
either ship in case of necessity. In fact, by this arrangement, nothing
but a harbour to secure the ships was wanted to complete the whole
operation in as effectual a manner as in a dockyard; for not a shore, or
outrigger, or any other precaution was omitted, that is usually attended
to on such occasions, and all as good and effective as could anywhere
have been desired. The advantages were now scarcely conspicuous in the
accommodation of the officers and men, who in a short time became little
less comfortable than in their own ship; whereas, in a smaller vessel,
comfort, to say nothing of health, would have been quite out of the
question.

A breeze from the northward freshening up strong on the 27th, we
stretched over to the eastern shore of Prince Regent's Inlet, and this
with scarcely any obstruction from ice. We could, indeed, scarcely
believe this the same sea which, but a few weeks before, had been loaded
with one impenetrable body of closely-packed ice from shore to shore,
and as far as the eye could discern to the southward. Having a great
deal of heavy work to do in the restowage of the holds, which could not
well be accomplished at sea, and also a quantity of water to fill for
our increased complement, I determined to take advantage of our fetching
the entrance of Neill's Harbour to put in here, in order to prepare the
ship completely for crossing the Atlantic. I was desirous also of
ascertaining the depth of water in this place, which was wanting to
complete Lieutenant Sherer's survey of it. Finding the harbour an
extremely convenient one for our purpose, we worked the ship in, and at
four P.M. anchored in thirteen fathoms, but afterward shifted out to
eighteen, on a bottom of soft mud. Almost at the moment of our dropping
the anchor, John Page, seaman of the Fury, departed this life: he had
for several months been affected with a scrofulous disorder, and had
been grad