First voyage to the Arctic Inglefield set out from Britain on his search in July 1852, commanding
Lady Franklin's private steamer , seven years after Sir John Franklin had left on his ill-fated search for the fabled
Northwest Passage. Once Inglefield had reached the Arctic, a search and survey of Greenland's west coast was made;
Ellesmere Island was resighted and named in honour of the president of the
Royal Geographical Society. Smith Sound was penetrated further than any known records;
Jones Sound was also searched; and a landing was made at
Beechey Island in Lancaster Sound. No sign, however, of Franklin's expedition was found. Finally, before the onset of winter forced Inglefield to turn homewards, the expedition searched and charted much of
Baffin Island's eastern coast. Despite finding no traces of the Franklin expedition, Inglefield was fêted on his return for the surveying his expedition had achieved. The
Royal Geographical Society awarded him its 1853
Patron's Medal "for his enterprising survey of the coasts of Baffin Bay, Smith Sound and Lancaster Sound."
Subsequent Arctic voyages Inglefield made two further voyages to the Arctic in , to supply the search for the Franklin expedition overseen by Sir
Edward Belcher. He returned from the first of these in 1853, bringing with him the first officer to have traversed the Northwest Passage,
Samuel Gurney Cresswell of . The
Investigator had also been sent to
join the search for the Franklin expedition, but starting from the
western side of northern Canada. Arriving back in the Arctic the following year, 1854, Inglefield found Belcher's ships abandoned, save one to which the crews had retreated. Most of these men returned with Inglefield to Britain. == Later life ==