The situation in which the ships were now placed, when viewed in
combination with the shortness of the remaining part of the
season, and the period to which our resources of every kind could
be extended, was such as to require a more than ordinary
consideration, in order to determine upon the measures most proper
to be pursued for the advancement of the public service, and the
security of the ships and people committed to my charge. Judging
from the close of the summer of 1819, it was reasonable to
consider the 7th of September as the limit beyond which the
navigation of this part of the Polar Sea could not be performed,
with tolerable safety to the ships or with any hope of farther
success. Impressed, however, with a strong sense of the efforts
which it became us to make in the prosecution of our enterprise, I
was induced to extend this limit to the 14th of September, before
which day, on the preceding year, the winter might fairly be said
to have set in. But even with this extension our prospect was not
very encouraging: the direct distance to Icy Cape was between
eight and nine hundred miles, while that which we had advanced
towards it this season fell short of sixty miles.

By Mr. Hooper's report of the remains of provisions, it appeared
that, at the present reduced allowance (namely, two thirds of the
established proportion of the navy), they would last until the
30th of November, 1821; and that an immediate reduction, to half
allowance, which must, however, tend materially to impair the
health and vigour of the officers and men, would only extend our
resources to the 30th of April, 1822; it therefore became a matter
of evident and imperious necessity, that the ships should be
cleared from the ice before the close of the season of 1821, so as