Lady Franklin had unbounded confidence in Captain M’Clintock, and gave him a perfectly free hand. She set aside £20,000 of her own fortune for the voyage, and there were subscriptions to the amount of £3000, with which she purchased the _Fox_, a steam yacht of 177 tons. The expedition was fitted out at Aberdeen, and the public departments were allowed to give some help. Lieut. W. R. Hobson, who had served in the _Plover_, got leave to go as senior executive. Captain Allen Young of the mercantile marine, young, active, energetic, and full of zeal, entered as Master and contributed £500. Dr David Walker went as surgeon, and a very great acquisition was Carl Petersen, the Dane who was Penny’s dog-driver and who knew Greenland and its seas so well. The whole number of souls on board the _Fox_ was twenty-four, and fifteen had served in former search expeditions. William Harvey, the chief petty officer, was Captain Austin’s boatswain’s mate in the _Resolute_, and afterwards in the _North Star_, a thorough seaman and a first-rate sledge traveller. One great advantage to M’Clintock was that Captain Austin was at Deptford and could give him much assistance. On July 1st, 1857, the _Fox_ was well on her way to Greenland. Ten dogs were obtained at Lievely, and two young Eskimos were engaged as seal hunters and dog-drivers. M’Clintock had already been through Melville Bay three times, but 1857 was the worst ice year on record. Constant south-east winds kept the ice closely packed. The _Fox_ had made 110 out of the 170 miles required to cross the bay, and there was hope if only a northerly wind would spring up. September came, however, and M’Clintock soon realised that their fate was inevitable--a winter in the drifting pack. It was a perilous position. The vessel drifted southwards for 1194 geographical miles in 242 days, and was liberated in April, 1858, under appalling circumstances. On the 24th the approach to the edge of the ice became evident from the swell. The ice fragments dashed against each other and against the ship. Sail was made and the _Fox_ slowly bored her way through. Next day the swell had become a heavy sea, the waves thirteen feet high, dashing huge fragments of ice against the ship. Pieces of iceberg 60 or 70 feet high were dispersed through the pack, and one blow from any of them would have been instant destruction. At length, towards night, the brave little vessel ran through straggling pieces into an open sea.