PREFACE

Summary

At the request of several kind friends, who were of opinion that my private Journal would not be wholly uninteresting, from its giving a detailed account of the “Prince Albert's” remarkable cruise in the Arctic Seas, I have ventured, though with great timidity and hesitation, to send it forth upon the wide waters of public opinion. What to say about it I really know not. Rough and ready, there it is just as I wrote it, sometimes after a day's toil, and sometimes after many days' cessation from it, when the mind, wearied and distressed about other things, resorted to the pen for relief. No elegance of language nor polished style must be expected. I have merely given expression to a series of facts and feelings, and perhaps have troubled the reader with too many of them. If so, I must plead in excuse that my heart was, is, and always will be most deeply interested in the cause which led to our voyage.

With reference to myself, I may be permitted to observe, that I came over from America (where I was residing) at three days' notice, especially to join in any expedition going out under Lady Franklin's auspices to the Arctic Seas, in search of her gallant husband, having volunteered my humble services for that purpose.