Four years afterwards Captain John Ross, anxious for further work in the north, started in search of the passage by the same route. After some years of effort he had succeeded in organising an expedition, the expenses of which to the amount of over £17,000 were borne by Felix Booth, with the exception of over £2000 added by Ross himself. It was a memorable voyage in many respects, and for one thing in particular that is frequently passed unnoticed. This was the introduction of steam into Arctic navigation. The _Victory_ was an old Isle of Man packet-boat of eighty-five tons, which, by raising her sides five feet, Ross increased to one hundred and fifty tons. Taking out her old paddles, he replaced them with a pair of Robertson's patents, hoistable out of water in a minute, so as to clear the ice. The engine was also a patent, by Braithwaite and Ericsson, who built the Novelty that appeared at Rainhill. But neither Braithwaite nor Ericsson was any happier in this production. Its great feature was the doing away with the funnel, no flue being required owing to the fires being kept going by artificial draught derived from two bellows of unequal sizes—"the bellows draught," in fact, like that of the Novelty which broke down in the great locomotive contest won by the Rocket. Had not Ross been a man of enterprise he would never have ventured to sea with such an experimental arrangement; but he did, and he suffered for it. [Illustration: THE "VICTORY"] The "execrable machinery," as he inadequately called it, went wrong from the first. On the way from Galleons Reach to Woolwich, part of it became displaced, causing a delay for repairs. At Woolwich, Sir Byam Martin, the Comptroller of the Navy, and Sir John Franklin went on board and said uncomplimentary things about it, as also did the Duke of Orleans (afterwards King Louis Philippe) and the Duke of Chartres, though the Frenchmen were more gentle in their phrases. From Woolwich to Margate this remarkable engine, aided by the sails, took the _Victory_ in just over twelve hours, the boiler leaking so much that the additional forcing pump had to be kept working by hand all the time. Passing the Lizard, the piston-rod was found to be so much worn on one side by friction against the guide-wheels that a piece of iron had to be brazed on to it. Then the keys of the main shaft broke and the substitutes made on board broke one after the other. "The boilers also continued to leak, though we had put dung and potatoes in them by Mr. Ericsson's directions." The air-pump drew quantities of water; the feeding pump was insufficient to supply the boiler. The big bellows nearly wore out; so did the small one. Off the Mull of Galloway the stoker fell into the machinery and had his arm crushed and nearly severed above the elbow. Then the teeth of the fly-wheel of the small bellows were shorn off, and the boiler joints gave way, and the water, or rather the potato soup,