1853 – 2026
In the Footsteps of Bedford Pim
Expeditions from Dealy Island to Mercy Bay
Wind, ice, and time. In the spring of 2026, a ski expedition will retrace the route followed by Bedford Pim in 1853, linking Dealy Island to Mercy Bay across more than 500 km of Arctic terrain. Between memory and fieldwork, this journey seeks to revisit the sites of a historic rescue and to confront the narratives of the 19th century with the reality of today.
1845. The First Disappearance
The great British expedition led by Sir John Franklin pushes deep into the Arctic. Three years later, no news has returned. The crews of the Erebus and the Terror, 129 men in total, have vanished without a trace.
A vast search effort, the largest of the century, is set in motion, driven in part by another ambition: to finally uncover the Northwest Passage. Two islands emerge as strategic footholds, Beechey in the east, Dealy in the west.
Dozens of ships trace the coastlines, sound the channels of the Canadian High Arctic, and winter in the ice. Yet they too must face the forces of the North: shifting pack ice, crushing isolation, and the long polar night.
1853. The March to Mercy Bay
One of these ships, HMS Investigator, which entered from the west in 1850 under the command of Robert McClure, has not been heard from for three years. Concern deepens. Relief expeditions are organized.
On March 10, 1853, Bedford Pim, lieutenant aboard HMS Resolute, wintering at Dealy Island, leaves the ship and sets out westward. With a small party, he hauls his sledge across the sea ice, determined to find the missing crew of the Investigator.
He follows the stark shores of Melville Island, retracing the route taken by Edward Parry in 1819. He passes through Winter Harbour, camps near Parry Rock, then continues toward Cape Dundas. From there, he presses southward across the ice, advancing toward Banks Island.
April 6, 1853. The Rescue
On a storm-lashed morning, Lieutenant Pim appears at Mercy Bay. Before him, HMS Investigator lies trapped in the ice. Her commander, Robert McClure, has just buried his first man.
What follows becomes one of the most remarkable rescues in Arctic history: thanks to relief arriving from the east, the entire surviving crew is ultimately brought home¹.
¹ Discover the full story in For Glory, Not Gold by Hubert Sagnières (Flammarion, 2025).
Since 1853, no one has traversed this route in its entirety.
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March–June 2026.
This spring, Mike Beedell, Bertrand Delapierre, and Hubert Sagnières set out to retrace Bedford Pim’s route, for the first time since: 500 km on skis, hauling their sledges in full autonomy, from Dealy Island to Mercy Bay.
One hundred and seventy-three years later, what remains of the wintering sites, cairns, shelters, depots, and the places once visited and described by Parry, McClintock, McClure, Kellett, and Pim?
Guided by original 19th-century maps, sketches, and journals, the expedition will travel across these locations, some rarely visited since.
The ultimate objective: to reach the site of HMS Investigator, now resting some ten meters beneath the waters of Mercy Bay, exactly where Pim found her trapped in the ice, with a crew awaiting rescue.
To observe, to understand, and to pass on.
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