XXIV. On hourly observations of the magnetic declination made by Captain Rochfort Maguire, R. N., and the officers of H. M. S. ‘Plover,' in 1852, 1853 and 1854, at Point Barrow, on the shores of the polar sea

• Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 1857
• Subjects: Mackenzie River; Maguire; Pacific; The Spit; Mackenzie river; Point Barrow
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1857.0025; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstl.1857.0025

Amongst the measures adopted for the relief of Sir John Franklin’s expedition, H. M. S. 'Plover,’ commanded by Captain T. E. L. Moore, R. N., was despatched from England in 1848, and stationed until 1852 in Behring Strait, having on board supplies of provision for the ‘Erebus’ and ‘Terror,’ in the event of their succeeding in effecting a passage, or for their crews in case they should be obliged to abandon the ships and should attempt a retreat by the western route. The ‘Plover’ was annually communicated with and provisioned afresh by one of the vessels of the Pacific squadron. In 1852 Captain Moore was succeeded in the command of the ‘Plover’ by Captain Rochfort Maguire, R. N., and several other changes in the officers and seamen were made. It was also directed that the ‘Plover’ should take up a more advanced position than she had occupied in the preceding years. She was accordingly moved in September 1852 to a small harbour adjoining Point Barrow, the most northerly point of the American Continent between Behring Strait and Mackenzie River, in lat. 71° 21' N., long. 156° 15' W., where she was made secure for the winter by the middle of October, and where she remained until the summer of 1854. A more uninviting and apparently uninteresting situation for a two years’ residence cannot well be imagined. It is thus described by Mr. Thomas A. Hull, the second master, in a letter which I received from him at the end of the first year, dated August 1853:—“ Point Barrow might well be called the World’s End; the coast for more than 100 miles both east and west of it has not a rise above 40 feet, and the Spit of Point Barrow is but 15 feet above the sea in the highest part, and in most places it is not above 5. The islands to the eastward are still lower, some of them being overflowed by a rise of 3 feet occasioned by a gale in December.” Point Barrow seems, however, to have been admirably chosen for the objects for which the ‘Plover’ was employed. It would have been scarcely possible for boats or parties of men ...