“I in April, 1826,” writes Captain Parry, “proposed to the Right Honorable Viscount Melville, the first lord commissioner of the Admiralty, to attempt to reach the North Pole by means of travelling with sledge-boats over the ice, or through any spaces of open water that might occur. My proposal was soon afterward referred to the president and council of the Royal Society, who strongly recommended its adoption; and an expedition being accordingly directed to be equipped for this purpose, I had the honour of being appointed to the command of it; and my commission for his majesty’s ship the _Hecla_, which was to carry us to Spitzbergen, was dated the 11th of November, 1826.
“Two boats were constructed at Woolwich, under my superintendence, after an excellent model suggested by Mr. Peake, and nearly resembling what are called ‘troop-boats,’ having great flatness of floor, with the extreme breadth carried well forward and aft, and possessing the utmost buoyancy, as well as capacity for storage. Their length was twenty feet, and their extreme breadth seven feet. The timbers were made of tough ash and hickory, one inch by half an inch square, and a foot apart, with a ‘half timber’ of smaller size between each two. On the outside of the frame thus formed was laid a covering of Mackintosh’s water proof canvas, the outer part being covered with tar. Over this was placed a plank for fir, only three-sixteenths of an inch thick; then a sheet of stout felt; and over all, an oak plank of the same thickness as the fir; the whole of these being firmly and closely secured to the timbers by iron screws applied from without.”
“On each side of the keel,” continues Captain Parry, “and projecting considerably below it, was attached a strong ‘runner’ shod with smooth steel, in the manner of a sledge, upon which the boat entirely rested while upon the ice.” Two wheels were also attached, but soon discarded as useless, owing to the unevenness of the ice.
Two officers and twelve men were selected for each boat’s crew. The _Hecla_, acting as transport for the adventure, sailed March 27, 1827, and made Hakluyt’s Headland by the 13th of May, where she was shortly beset by an ice-floe which carried her off to the eastward, causing both delay and vexation. For the safety of the _Hecla_ it was found necessary to return to Spitzbergen and secure anchorage in a safe harbour. This Parry accomplished and, finding a convenient recess, which he named Hecla’s Cove, made ready for the main object of the expedition.