On May 15th, Lord Palmerston granted an audience to an influential deputation, headed by the Right Honorable Milner Gibson, M.P., and four other members of the House of Commons, to solicit the assistance of Government in sending out ships and officers to make the necessary official survey for ascertaining the practicability of the proposed route. The Premier appeared fully to appreciate the advantages of the north-about scheme, and in a very short time the Admiralty were directed to send out an expedition for the purpose of making the required survey. The Admiralty selected for this duty Captain M'Clintock, R. N.,[52] an officer of great experience in the navigation of the Arctic seas, and H.M.S. Bulldog was placed under his command. This distinguished officer was directed to take the deep-sea soundings, and he sailed from Portsmouth on his mission in June, 1860. In the meantime, the promoters of the enterprise purchased the Fox, the steam-yacht formerly employed in the successful search for the remains of the Franklin expedition, and fitted her out for the purpose of making surveys of the landing-places of the respective cables. The Fox was placed under the command of Captain Young,[53] of the mercantile marine, an officer well known for his distinguished labors under M'Clintock in the Franklin search. At the same time, Dr. John Rae, F.R.G.S., an intrepid Arctic explorer, volunteered his services to join the Fox, and take charge of the overland expeditions in the Faroe Isles, Iceland, and Greenland. Colonel Shaffner, as concessionaire--besides two delegates on the part of the Danish Government, Lieutenant von Zeilau and Arnljot Olafsson--also accompanied the Fox expedition, to take part in the necessary surveys. Before the departure of the Fox, which sailed on July 18, 1860, her Majesty Queen Victoria, the Prince Consort, and other members of the royal family, honored the enterprise by a visit to that vessel, while lying off Osborne, and showed a lively interest in the details of the expedition. On the return of the expedition, Sir Leopold M'Clintock wrote a full report to Sir Charles Bright, the consulting engineer of the project. In this, Sir Leopold favored the route as perfectly practicable, pointing out that the ice would not really prove a difficulty, and strongly approving of the original intention of a land-line across Iceland to Faxe Bay, "as by so doing you will avoid the only part of the sea where submarine volcanic disturbances may be suspected."