The first USS Rescue was a brig

Brig

A brig is a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and manoeuvrable and were used as both naval warships and merchant vessels. They were especially popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries...

 in service with the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

.

The brigs Rescue and , specially reinforced and fitted out for Arctic

Arctic

The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...

 service, were offered on loan to the U.S. Government by Henry Grinnell

Henry Grinnell

Henry Grinnell was an American merchant and philanthropist.-Career:In 1818, Grinnell moved to New York City where he became a clerk in the commission house of H.D. & E.B. Sewell. He married Sarah Minturn in 1822. In 1825, Henry joined his brother Joseph Grinnell in Fish, Grinnell & Company...

 in 1850 for use in a rescue mission

First Grinnell Expedition

The First Grinnell Expedition of 1850 was the first American effort, financed by Henry Grinnell, to determine the fate of the lost Franklin Polar Expedition. Led by Lieutenant Edwin De Haven, the...

 tracing the ill-fated expedition which, in May 1845, had sailed from England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 under Sir John Franklin

John Franklin

Rear-Admiral Sir John Franklin KCH FRGS RN was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. Franklin also served as governor of Tasmania for several years. In his last expedition, he disappeared while attempting to chart and navigate a section of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic...

 seeking a northwest passage. Two years later the Admiralty dispatched relief expeditions. Since there was still no news of the expedition by 1 May 1850, the U.S. Congress

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

 authorized the President

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 to accept Mr. Grinnell's offer. In accordance with the wishes of both Congress and Mr. Grinnell, both ships were manned by volunteers from the U.S. Navy.

On 22 May, the expedition, commanded by Lt. Edwin De Haven

Edwin De Haven

Edwin Jesse De Haven was a United States Navy officer and explorer of the first half of the 19th century.He was born in Philadelphia and became a midshipman at the age of 10, serving until 1857...

, sailed from New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 with Rescue's captain, Acting Master Samuel P. Griffin, second in command. Sailing independently the first days out, the two ships rendezvoused at the Whalefish Islands in Disko Bay

Disko Bay

Disko Bay is a bay on the western coast of Greenland. The bay constitutes a wide southeastern inlet of Baffin Bay.- Geography :To the south the coastline is complicated with multiple waterways of skerries and small islands in the Aasiaat archipelago...

, Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

, and on 29 June headed for Melville Bay

Melville Bay

Melville Bay , is a large bay off the coast of northwestern Greenland. Located to the north of the Upernavik Archipelago, it opens to the south-west into Baffin Bay. Its Kalaallisut name, Qimusseriarsuaq, means "the great dog sledding place"....

 and the northern route across Baffin Bay

Baffin Bay

Baffin Bay , located between Baffin Island and the southwest coast of Greenland, is a marginal sea of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is connected to the Atlantic via Davis Strait and the Labrador Sea...

 to Lancaster Sound

Lancaster Sound

Lancaster Sound is a body of water in Qikiqtaaluk, Nunavut, Canada. It is located between Devon Island and Baffin Island, forming the eastern portion of the Northwest Passage. East of the sound lies Baffin Bay; to the west lies Viscount Melville Sound...

. On 1 July they encountered their first pack ice off Haröe Island. On the 8th, they were caught in the ice north of Upernavik

Upernavik

Upernavik is a small town in the Qaasuitsup municipality in northwestern Greenland, located on a small island of the same name. With 1,129 inhabitants as of 2010, it is the thirteenth-largest town in Greenland. Due to the small size of the settlement, everything is within walking distance...

 and spent the next 21 days forcing their way through the ice.

Free on the 29th, the brigs continued through the heavy floes of Melville Bay into August. On the 19th, they entered Lancaster Sound

Lancaster Sound

Lancaster Sound is a body of water in Qikiqtaaluk, Nunavut, Canada. It is located between Devon Island and Baffin Island, forming the eastern portion of the Northwest Passage. East of the sound lies Baffin Bay; to the west lies Viscount Melville Sound...

. By the 23d, Rescue was off Cape Riley, Devon Island. There, Griffin and others from his crew joined searchers from a British

British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

 squadron in the discovery of a campsite previously occupied by an unknown Royal Navy party.

On the 26th, the American expedition attempted to enter Wellington Channel

Wellington Channel

The Wellington Channel is a natural waterway through the central Canadian Arctic Archipelago in Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut. It runs north/south, separating Cornwallis Island and Devon Island....

 and search to the north of Cape Spencer

Cape Spencer Light

The Cape Spencer Light is a lighthouse in Alaska,United States, next to the entrance to Cross Sound and Icy Strait. The light is still an active aid to navigation...

. Meeting another British ship, they learned that positive evidence of the Franklin party had been found between the Cape and Point Innes. Ice, however, blocked further progress to the north, through the channel, and to the west, into Barrow Strait

Barrow Strait

Barrow Strait is a shipping waterway in Northern Canada's territory of Nunavut. Forming part of the Parry Channel, the strait separates several large islands including Cornwallis Island and Devon Island to the north, from Prince of Wales Island, Somerset Island, and Prince Leopold Island to the...

.

On the 27th, the search vessels, British and American, gathered in a cove, later named Union Bay, at Beechey Island

Beechey Island

Beechey Island is an island located in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago of Nunavut, Canada, in Wellington Channel. It is separated from the southwest corner of Devon Island by Barrow Strait...

 to plan coordinated searches. As the commanders made their plans, a shore party discovered three graves on the island, across from Cape Riley. Franklin's first winter quarters had been found.

From that time on, however, little progress was made in the search, even though sledge parties were sent out. One such party, from Rescue, followed traces of a similar journey by a party from one of Franklin's ships, or , almost to Cape Bowden. Continuing past that point, they discovered a bay which now bears Griffin's name.

During early September further attempts were made to penetrate the ice barrier to the west. On the 12th, Rescue's rudder post was split in a storm off Griffith's Island, and on the 13th the two ships, Advance towing Rescue, turned east in hopes of returning to the United States that season. On the 14th, however, they were caught, frozen, midway across the entrance to Wellington Channel. A winter of drifting began.

During September and October they drifted in the Wellington Channel, discovering in the process the northern peninsula of Devon Island

Devon Island

Devon Island , claimed to be the largest uninhabited island on Earth, is located in Baffin Bay, Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is one of the larger members of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, the second-largest of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, Canada's sixth largest island, and the 27th...

 which they named after Grinnell. In November they oscillated with the winds and currents near Beechey, and in December they drifted down Lancaster Sound. On 14 January 1851, they were carried into Baffin Bay. At the end of May, their imprisoning floe neared Davis Strait, and on 5 June, the ice began to break up. Rescue, repaired, parted company with Advance. On the 7th, she was free. On the 8th, Advance cleared the ice.

Both ships replenished in Disko Bay and into August attempted to renew their search. But the ice was heavier than the previous year, and neither ships nor men could have lasted through another winter. Scurvy had struck, but no one had died. A second winter in northern Baffin Bay would have brought a return of the disease and disaster.

The ships turned south. Advance reached New York 30 September 1851. Rescue followed her into port on 7 October. Both ships were subsequently returned to Mr. Grinnell, and Advance was prepared for a second Arctic expedition

Second Grinnell Expedition

The Second Grinnell Expedition of 1853 was an American effort, financed by Henry Grinnell, to determine the fate of the Franklin's lost expedition. Led by Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, the team explored areas northwest of Greenland, now called Grinnell Land...

.

The Rescue was later sold and became the schooner Amaret, tender to the barque George Henry at the time Charles Francis Hall

Charles Francis Hall

Charles Francis Hall was an American Arctic explorer. Little is known of Hall's early life. He was born in the state of Vermont, but while he was still a child his family moved to Rochester, New Hampshire, where, as a boy, he was apprenticed to a blacksmith. In the 1840s he married and drifted...

 went to the Arctic on his first expedition in 1860. Amaret was driven ashore in a gale at Holsteinborg Harbour, Greenland on September 27, 1860, and became a total wreck.