Kellett had command of the "Resolute," and was
second in seniority to Sir Edward Belcher, who made the "Assistance" the
flag-ship. It shows what sort of man he was, to say that for more than
ten years he spent only part of one in England, and was the rest of the
time in an antipodean hemisphere or a hyperborean zone. Before brave Sir
John Franklin sailed, Captain Kellett was in the Pacific. Just as he was
to return home, he was ordered into the Arctic seas to search for Sir
John. Three years successively, in his ship the "Herald," he passed
inside Behring's Straits, and far into the Arctic Ocean. He discovered
"Herald Island," the farthest land known there. He was one of the last
men to see McClure in the "Investigator" before she entered the Polar
seas from the northwest. He sent three of his men on board that ship to
meet them all again, as will be seen, in strange surroundings. After
more than seven years of this Pacific and Arctic life, he returned to
England, in May or June, 1851, and in the next winter volunteered to try
the eastern approach to the same Arctic seas in our ship, the
"Resolute." Some of his old officers sailed with him.

We know nothing of Captain Kellett but what his own letters, despatches,
and instructions show, as they are now printed in enormous parliamentary
blue-books, and what the despatches and letters of his officers and of
his commander show. But these papers present the picture of a vigorous,
hearty man, kind to his crew and a great favorite with them, brave in
whatever trial, always considerate, generous to his officers, reposing
confidence in their integrity; a man, in short, of whom the world will
be apt to hear more. His commander, Sir Edward Belcher, tried by the
same standard, appears a brave and ready man, apt to talk of himself,
not very considerate of his inferiors, confident in his own opinion; in
short, a man with whom one would not care to spend three Arctic winters.
With him, as we trace the "Resolute's" fortunes, we shall have much to
do. Of Captain Kellett we shall see something all along till the day
when he sadly left her, as bidden by Sir Edward Belcher, "ready for
occupation."

With such a captain, and with sixty-odd men, the "Resolute" cast off her
moorings in the gray of the morning on the 21st of April, 1852, to go in
search of Sir John Franklin. The brave Sir John had died two years
before, but no one knew that, nor whispered it. The river steam-tug
"Monkey" took