The private journal of Captain G.F. Lyon of HMS 'Hecla' during the recent voyage of discovery under Captain Parry
Author: Lyon, George Francis, Publication details: London, John Murray, 1824, Call number: 910.4(987)”1821/1823”:094, PBC5025
HMS Hecla, a Hecla-class bomb vessel, was designed for war and launched in 1815. However, it became apparent that the 19th century was to herald a period of relative peace, and as a result HMS Hecla was used for voyages of exploration. The heavy construction of HMS Hecla made her ideally suited to such voyages. By 1820 Captain William Edward Parry had traversed half of the North-West Passage in the vessels HMS Hecla and HMS Griper.
Captain George Francis Lyon commanded HMS Hecla under Captain Parry, on an expedition from England in a second attempt to find the North-West Passage. The expedition left in 1821 with Hecla's sister ship HMS Fury. Captain Lyon and his crew entered the Arctic region through Hudson’s Strait and travelled to Repulse Bay and the Melville Peninsula before stopping for the winter at Winter Island, eastward of the Frozen Strait. The following summer saw HMS Hecla and HMS Fury travel further north and enter Fury and Hecla Strait. They were forced to turn back and winter at Igloolik before returning home to England in 1823 because of severe ice in Hecla and Fury strait, and the onset of scurvy.
During his trip, Captain Lyon kept a journal, which includes personal details and minute observations that are not recorded in the 'official’ account by Parry.
When wintering at Igloolik, Lyon was enthralled by his encounters with Inuit people, whom he referred to in his preface as 'a people entirely separated from the rest of the world’. Lyon noted their characters and habits and how amazed he was to witness a seaman dancing with natives. Other amusing anecdotes are recounted: for example, Lyon records that arrangements were made to perform theatrical plays during the winter to amuse the seamen. He notes that those 'ladies' who had grown beards and whiskers as a defence against the climate 'generously agreed to do away with such unfeminine ornaments’ for the productions.
HMS Hecla was to undertake a third expedition in 1824, when she left for the Canadian Arctic, and was taken was taken north by Parry in 1827 in an unsuccessful attempt to reach the North Pole. The vessel was subsequently withdrawn from Arctic service and became a survey vessel to the coast of West Africa until she was sold in 1831.
See also:
Call number: 910.4(987)”1819/1825”:094
Author: Parry, William Edward
Title: Journals of the First, Second and Third Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in 1819, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, in His Majesty’s Ships 'Hecla', 'Griper' and 'Fury'.
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