runs west from
Lancaster Sound.
Melville Island is the westernmost yellow-and-pink island on the north side. .
Melville Peninsula on the west between
Frozen Strait (south) and
Fury and Hecla Strait (north) '') by
Caspar David Friedrich, 1823–4, was inspired by Parry's account from the 1819–1820 expedition. The harsh nature (e.g. the shipwreck) and radical composition, however, caused it to remain unsold until the death of the artist in 1840. &
Griper Cutting into Winter Harbour, 26 Sept. 1819". An engraving from the journal published in 1821. by
Jean-Baptiste Henri Durand-Brager 1818: Baffin Bay In 1818 he received command of the brig in the Arctic expedition under Captain
John Ross. This expedition followed the coast of
Baffin Bay without making any new discoveries.
1819: Halfway across the Arctic Parry and many others thought that Ross was wrong to turn back after entering
Lancaster Sound at the north end of Baffin Island. Partly as a result, Parry was given command of a new expedition in , accompanied by the slower under Matthew Liddon. Others on the expedition were
Edward Sabine, science officer and
Frederick William Beechey. For protection from ice the ships were clad with oak, had iron plates on their bows and internal cross-beams. They also carried food in
tin cans, an invention so new that there were as yet no
can openers. Instead of taking Ross's route anti-clockwise around Baffin Bay (which Ross was charting) he was able to cross the bay straight to Lancaster Sound. Fighting his way through ice he reached clear water on 28 July and entered Lancaster Sound. He passed Ross's farthest west and kept going. Blocked by heavy ice, they went south for more than into
Prince Regent Inlet before turning back. Continuing west they passed 110° W (about west of Lancaster Strait) which entitled them to a £5,000 award offered by Parliament. Finally blocked by ice they turned back to a place Parry called Winter Harbour on the south shore of
Melville Island, somewhere near 107- or 108° W. Cutting their way through new ice the ships reached anchorage on 26 September. Here they were frozen in for the next 10 months. There were three months of total darkness and in the new year the temperature dropped to . The men were kept busy with regular exercise while the officers put on plays and produced a newspaper. The first case of
scurvy was reported in January and by March fourteen men were on the sick list, about half with mild scurvy. Parry carried
mustard and cress seeds and planted them in his cabin. The leaves seemed to help. There was some excitement in early March when the first melt water appeared, but by the end of the month the ice was still thick. In June Parry led a group of men dragging a wooden cart to the north shore of the island which he named
Hecla and Griper Bay. It was the first of August before the ships were able to float out of the harbour. They got as far west as 113°46'W before turning back. It was too late in the season and new ice was already beginning to form. They reached England in October 1820 having lost one man. Parry's voyage, which had taken him through the
Parry Channel three-quarters of the way across the
Canadian Arctic Archipelago was probably the single most productive voyage in the quest for the
Northwest Passage. Luck was on their side; 1819 was unusually ice-free and no ship was able to travel so far west until
Edward Belcher's expedition in 1850. A narrative of the expedition, entitled
Journal of a Voyage to discover a North-west Passage, appeared in 1821, publisher
John Murray paying 1,000
guineas for it. Upon his return Lieutenant Parry received promotion to the rank of commander. He was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society in February 1821.
1821: West side of Foxe Basin In April 1821 he again left for the Arctic commanding accompanied by under
George Francis Lyon. Others with him were
George Fisher, scientist and chaplain, William Hooper, purser and diarist, lieutenant
Henry Parkyns Hoppner and then midshipmen
Francis Crozier and
James Clark Ross. Experience from the previous voyage led to improvements. The two vessels were nearly identical since
Gripper had not been able to keep up with
Hecla, and all the equipment was made to be entirely interchangeable. They had cork insulation, cork plugs for the portholes and an improved heating system,
coal-burning stove, placed in the lowest deck to deal with cold and condensation. The men were issued better clothing and lemon juice was stored in kegs rather than glass bottles. The goal this time was to find a passage near the northwest end of Hudson Bay. After working slowly through the ice of
Hudson Strait he headed directly west to
Frozen Strait which
Christopher Middleton had found impassable in 1742. He passed Frozen Strait in a fog and found himself in
Repulse Bay which he re-checked and found land-locked. He then ran northeast and mapped the coast of the
Melville Peninsula and wintered at the southeast corner of
Winter Island. From the Inuit he learned that northward the coast turned west. In March and May Lyon led two sledging expeditions into the interior. Freed from the ice in July they then went north and found the
Fury and Hecla Strait, which was ice-filled. They waited for the ice to clear, but it did not. In September Lieutenant Reid trekked west along the Strait to the ice-filled
Gulf of Boothia, the north end of which Parry had approached in 1819. When new ice began to form they went a short distance southeast and wintered at
Igloolik. The ship was not freed from ice until 8 August. Since it was late in the season and there were signs of scurvy, Parry turned for home and reached
Shetland in mid-October 1823. During his absence, he had been promoted to post rank in November 1821, and shortly after his return he was appointed acting
Hydrographer of the Navy. His
Journal of a Second Voyage, &c., appeared in 1824.
1824: Loss of Fury at Prince Regent Inlet and
HMS Fury enter
Baffin Bay during the 1824 expedition In May 1824 he left London in the
Hecla accompanied by
Henry Parkyns Hoppner in the
Fury. With them were
Horatio Thomas Austin,
James Clark Ross,
Francis Crozier and William Hooper. The goal this time was
Prince Regent Inlet at the west end of Baffin Island where he had been blocked by ice in 1819. It was a bad year for ice and he did not reach Lancaster Sound until 10 September. He entered Prince Regent Inlet but after of ice he was forced to winter at a place he called Port Bowen on the eastern shore. In late July 1825 they freed themselves from the ice, but further south they were caught by wind and ice and the
Fury was driven against the western shore and damaged by the ensuing pressure. After 48 hours work on the pumps they made an attempt to deliberately beach the ship for repairs. Stores were unloaded, but by 25 August it was clear that the keel was broken and the advancing ice forced them to abort further efforts. Most of the stores were left on the beach and the crew taken on board the
Hecla which reached England in October 1825. Parry thought he could see open water south of the wreck site. He published an account of this voyage in 1826. The wreck site, Fury Beach, near where the coast turns west became an important landmark.
Sir John Ross reached it in 1829. He found the hulk gone and many stores,
Furys boats and anchors piled on the beach. When his ship was frozen in further south he depended on those stores before being rescued. In 1850,
Charles Codrington Forsyth reached it but was blocked by ice.
Farthest North record In the following year Parry obtained the sanction of the
Admiralty for an attempt on the
North Pole from the northern shores of
Spitsbergen at
Sjuøyane. On , Parry married Isabella Louisa Stanley, daughter of
John Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley, before undertaking the expedition. In 1827, he reached 82°45′N, which remained the highest latitude attained for the next 49 years. He published an account of this journey under the title of
Narrative of the Attempt to reach the North Pole, &c.. == Later career ==