An account of the Bering Strait approach to the Franklin Search with Collinson’s Enterprise and McClure’s Investigator.
p. 15, among the orders for Collinson from the Admiralty was item 17: We have desired that you be furnished, not only with a copy of the orders under which Commander Moore is now acting, but also with copies of all the orders which from time to time have been given to Captain Kellett…. You will further be supplied with all the printed voyages or travels in those northern regions; and the memoranda and instructions drawn up by Sir John Richardson, as to the manners and habits of the Esquimaux, and the best mode of dealing with that people (a copy of which is also sent to you), will afford a valuable addition to the information now supplied to you. Item 18 emphasizes the need for McClure and Collinson to stay together and keep each other informed [which never happened]. (Orders are from the Arctic Blue Book, Arctic Expedition, 1850.
p. 16, item 22: On your reaching England, you will call on every person, in both vessels, to deliver up their logs, journals, charts and drawings, but which, they may be informed, shall be returned to them in due time.
[Barr shows Collinson to be an accomplished navigator but a hopeless commander—by the end of three winters he had arrested all his officers and relied mostly on his mates. The title however seems overstated, and the prose has a woodenness out of key with the title. The real interest seems to lie with McClure and the Investigator.