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Advance

Post by shipstamps » Wed Sep 24, 2008 12:21 pm



Brigantine. No info USA SG2224

aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

Re: Advance

Post by aukepalmhof » Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:53 pm

Built in 1847 as a wooden hulled merchant vessel in the New Kent County, Delaware, not a yard or owner found.
If she was build on orders of Mr. Henry Grinnell I can not find but he loaned her to the US Navy on 07 May 1850 under the name ADVANCE but when renamed is a mystery..
Launched as the AUGUSTA.
Tonnage 144 tons, dim 88 x 21.9 x 8.5ft.
Brigantine rigged.

The American stamp is designed based upon a sketch made by Dr Kane titled “Raising the brig ADVANCE” made when the crew raised her higher on the ice by means of ropes and slings from a capstan to the maintop. Two men stand atop a berg astern of the ship. The route of the expedition appears on the left of the stamp.

Loaned to the Navy on 7 May 1850 by Mr. Henry Grinnell to participate in the search for Sir John Franklin's arctic expedition which had been
stranded in the frozen north since 1847. After last-minute preparations, the ADVANCE,under command of Lt. Edwin J. De Haven and in
company with RESCUE, put to sea from New York on 23 May 1850. Storms
battered the two ships on the initial leg of the voyage and separated
them. However, both safely reached Disko Island, located off the west
coast of Greenland where Davis Strait gives way to Baffin Bay. ADVANCE
arrived on 24 June, and RESCUE pulled into port three days later. On
the 29th, the two ships headed into Baffin Bay, bound for Lancaster
Sound located north of Baffin Island and south of Devon Island. Off
Haroe Island on 1 July, ADVANCE encountered pack ice. A week later, she
and her consort were caught in the pack just north of Upernavik. For the next three weeks, the two ships fought their way through the ice. On the 29th, they cleared the pack and continued their voyage across Melville Bay to Lancaster Sound. The two ships entered the sound on 19 August and, that same day, encountered two British vessels engaged in the same mission as the Americans.

That evening, a storm blew up and separated ADVANCE and RESCUE. The next day dawned "thick and foggy," but the wind had abated. ADVANCE began searching for her companion. By 25 August, she was off Cape Riley on Devon Island where she put ashore a landing party to search for clues to the whereabouts of the Franklin expedition. While the searchers ashore were discovering the former campsite of some unidentified party, ADVANCE was run aground by a strong current. The British ship PRINCE ALBERT offered assistance, but RESCUE showed up at about the same time.
Moreover, ADVANCE lightened her load and succeeded in hauling off by her own efforts.

On 26 August, the two ships attempted the passage of Wellington Channel
to search the area north of Cape Spencer. Soon however, they found the
way north blocked by a solid mass of pack ice and prudently returned
south to the vicinity of Point Innes. There, the Americans again
encountered the British, along with positive evidence of the Franklin
party having camped nearby. Heartened by that find and by a favorable
change in weather conditions, they headed back toward Wellington Channel. At Beechy Island, all the search vessels gathered in a cove
(now called Union Bay) to plan a coordinated search. While the leading
officers were so engaged, a party sent ashore discovered three graves and "other unmistakable evidences of the missing expedition(Franklin's)
having passed its first winter here." At that point she and RESCUE
entered Wellington Channel to pursue the search, but the pack ice
quickly closed in upon the two ships. Though they tried to escape the
clutches of the pack, abysmal weather foiled their attempts, and RESCUE
suffered a damaged rudder. By mid-September, they were caught fast in
the floating

For the duration of the winter, ADVANCE and RESCUE were at the mercy of
the drifting floe. For what remained of September and most of October,
they drifted in Wellington Channel, discovering the northern peninsula
of Devon Island which they named Grinnell in honor of the expedition's
benefactor. During November, changing winds carried them back and forth
past Beechy Island. In December, the floe made the transit of Lancaster
Sound and, on 14 January 1851, they reentered Baffin Bay. Their
imprisonment, however, did not end until early June. They had passed
Davis Strait in May, and the floe began to break up near the end of the
first week in June. RESCUE-repaired-cleared the pack on 7 June 1851.
ADVANCE followed the next day.

The expedition replenished at Disko Bay and sought to renew the search.
However, the ice proved heavier than in the previous year; and prudence
dictated that the mission be abandoned for the time being. Therefore,
the two ships headed back to the United States. ADVANCE arrived in New
York on 30 September 1851, and RESCUE reached that port on 7 October.
Both ships were returned to Mr. Grinnell, and he immediately began
outfitting ADVANCE for another Arctic expedition.

Preparations for the second Franklin rescue expedition took about 20
months. ADVANCE finally departed New York on 30 May 1853, Passed
Assistant Surgeon Elisha Kent Kane in command. The expedition stopped at Upernavik, Greenland, to purchase supplies and, most importantly, sled dogs for searches ashore and on the solidly frozen floes. Continuing north, ADVANCE passed the length of Baffin Bay reaching Smith Sound-the northern terminus of Baffin Bay-by 7 August. Near the end of August, she reached her northernmost point-about 78-43 north latitude-in Kane Basin,named for the ship's commanding officer, Passed Assistant Surgeon Kane.

At that point, Kane decided to pass the winter among a group of islets
near the Greenland coast rather than to return south to some safer harbor. By 10 September, ADVANCE was imprisoned in the ice. The interior of the ship underwent extensive preparations for wintering farther north than any previous expedition. When that was complete, the crew began expeditions across the frozen wastes both on the Greenland shore and the frozen pack. Kane and his officers also established a scientific station to observe climatic conditions and to make astronomical calculations.
Their expeditions on foot, however, were hampered by the loss of almost
all their sled dogs to disease. In the absence of animal transport, the
men themselves carried out the searches and explorations on foot,
serving as beasts of burden to manhandle caches of supplies to points
which would allow for more distant searches in the future.

On one such expedition in late March 1854, four of the party suffered
so severely from frostbite that they had to be left behind under the care of a fifth man while the remaining members of the party-too physically exhausted to do more than drag their own persons across the frozen wastes-headed back to the brig for help. The leader of that group, upon returning to the brig, volunteered to return with the rescue party as a guide. However, his own ordeal caused him to fall victim of a temporary mental disorder and prevented him from rendering any real help. It was only good luck-first in finding the advanced party's trail and then in sighting a canvas tent at the site of the disabled men's "encampment" and their own Herculean efforts that allowed the rescue party to complete their mission. Even that success however, was marred by the fact that two of the rescued men later succumbed to their infirmities.
Fatigue and illness of all associated with the rescue expedition
prevented Kane from undertaking further searches until the end of April.
During that interlude, Eskimos arrived in the area, and Kane bartered
with them for additional sled dogs. The four animals he thus obtained
allowed him to fit out a single seven-dog team which greatly extended
the range of their searches. In his own words, The value of these
animals for Arctic ice-travel (sic) can hardly be over-estimated(sic)."

Through the ensuing summer search parties ranged the far northern coasts of Greenland and the eastern coast of Ellesmere Island searching for evidence of Sir John Franklin's party and making notes on geography and climate.

ADVANCE's crewmen passed the second winter in a state of near hibernation. The difficulties of the previous year had sapped their
strength, and their provisions were too scant to restore it. Scurvy-that dread disease of the sea-riddled their ranks to the point that Kane and one other man ". . . only remained to attend upon the sick, and carry on the daily work of the ship, if that name could still appropriately designate the burrow which we inhabited." The sun returned late in February 1855, and wild game followed it in March. Reasonably adequate food and the sunlight slowly brought the men back some semblance of full strength. At that point, Kane decided to abandon the ship-still frozen solidly in the floe-and make it across the ice to the Danish settlements of southern Greenland. Shortages of fuel and food, as well as the weakened condition of the crew, made that decision inescapable.

Preparations for the journey were multifaceted and complicated. Those
capable of work prepared two 25-foot whaleboats and a 13-foot dinghy by
mounting them on iron-shod wooden runners and then loading them with
provisions. Meanwhile, Kane took the dog sled and team out to an
abandoned Eskimo hut located some 35 miles from the brig. There, he
established an advanced depot to store provisions for the actual
journey. During April and the first half of May, he made several trips
carrying supplies to his makeshift way station. On 15 May 1855, he began transporting the incapacitated members of the crew to the way station.
Two days later, the main group began its torturous trek across the ice
hummocks with the three boat-sleds. The main party, without the
assistance of dogs, managed a snail's pace of only some three and one-
half miles a day. While the main group inched its way, Kane continued
his more rapid trips-facilitated by the dogs-both back to the brig and

to an Eskimo camp located about 75 miles south of the ship. In this
manner, he moved the sick to the way station, brought additional
supplies from the ship, and returned from the Eskimo camp with fresh
game. He last visited the ship on 8 June 1855 and, by the middle of that month, all the sick gradually joined the main party then nearing
Littleton Island. The mode of travel again was Kane's dog sled. During
the journey south toward Cape Alexander, the party suffered numerous
breaks through the ice as the spring thaw arrived. At least one man,
Acting Carpenter Ohlsen, died from exposure resulting from such an
incident.

By 18 June, the entire party reached open water at the edge of the floe
near Cape Alexander. The journey had netted them only 81 miles in 31
days, but the numerous cutbacks and detours necessitated by the ice
hummocks, resulted in an actual trek of over 300 miles. From that point, they took to the boats. During the next phase of the journey, they alternated between runs across open water under sail and marches across frozen ice hummocks when necessary. By 21 July 1855, the men reached Cape York, the point at which they would begin the transit to Upernavik.

There, they erected a rock monument in which they left information
regarding their planned movements, a list of provisions on hand, and a
brief summary of the expedition's findings. That project completed, Kane and his crew started out across Melville Bay. On 6 August, Kane led his exhausted party into Upernavik. They took passage from Upernavik in the Danish brig MARIANNE to Disko Island where they were met by the relief
expedition made up of ARCTIC and RELEASE under the command of Lt.
Hartstene. The two relief ships brought the survivors into New York on
11 October 1855. Presumably, the pack ice eventually crushed and sank
the abandoned ADVANCE.
Marshall Islands2009 42c sg?, scott?

Dictionary of American Fighting Ships, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisha_Kane
Attachments
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hindle

Re: Advance

Post by hindle » Sat May 08, 2010 9:32 pm

Henry Grinnell (1799-1874) was born in New Bedford, Massacheucetts. He was the son of the shipbuilder and seafarer Cornelius Grinnell. With his two brothers, he founded a shipping company. Therefore it is highly likely that the Advance was built in his father's shipyard. He retired, a very rich man, in 1850 and devoted himself to philanthropic causes and funded the expeditions of De Haven and Kane in the search for John Franklin.

He helped found and presided over the American Geographical and Statistical Society.

Source: The Encyclopedia of Exploration 1850-1940, The Oceans, Islands and Polar Regions. ISBN 1-875567-41-0

richard. A. Hindle.

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