His splendid reputation and ability as an organizer made him, though now fifty-nine years of age, the unanimous choice of the government for the most elaborate arctic expedition it had prepared in many years.

Franklin's fame and experience, and that of Crozier and his other lieutenants, who had seen much service in the north, his able ships, the _Terror_ and the _Erebus_, which had just returned from a voyage of unusual success to the Antarctic, and his magnificent equipment, aroused the enthusiasm of the British to the highest pitch and justified them in their hopes for bringing the wearying struggle for the Northwest Passage to an immediate conclusion.
For more than a year everything prospered with the party.

By September, 1846, Franklin had navigated the vessels almost within sight of the coast which he had explored twenty years previously, and beyond which the route to Bering Sea was well known.

The prize was nearly won when the ships became imprisoned by the ice for the winter, a few miles north of King William Land.

The following June Franklin died; the ice continued impenetrable, and did not loosen its grip all that year.