North Cornwall Research Articles

Water Contamination in North Cornwall: A Retrospective Cohort Study into the Acute and Short- Term Effects of the Aluminium Sulphate Incident in July 1988

IN JULY 1988 the drinking water supply of part of Cornwall was contaminated with 20 tons of aluminum sulphate solution. Emergency measures ensured that aluminum sulphate levels in most parts of the water distribution system were rapidly reduced, but residents were supplied with water containing raised concentrations of aluminum and other metals for at least a few days. A retrospective cohort study compared 480 individuals in the exposed area with 532 individuals resident in an area served by a different water supply. The exposed group were more likely to complain of all 18 symptoms in the questionnaire enquiry. They had a significantly higher relative risk of experiencing painful joints. These symptoms were reported by less than a quarter of the respondents exposed to contaminated water. This may represent a previously unrecognised acute effect of water contamination with aluminum sulphate, but the study does not exclude the possibility that the threshold for symptom reporting was lowered by anxiety and by the publicity associated with the incident. The overall response rate of the study was low (45%) and reflects the difficulties in both carrying out and interpreting environmental epidemiological studies of acute incidents.

Discussion on a reappraisal of the facing confrontation in north Cornwall: fold-or thrust-dominated tectonics?

Discussion on a reappraisal of the facing confrontation in north Cornwall: fold-or thrust-dominated tectonics?

The Padstow Confrontation, north Cornwall: a reappraisal

The Gravel Caverns section, New Polzeath, north Cornwall, shows clear evidence of multiphase deformation. Tight F1 folds with axial planar S1 slaty cleavage are reported for the first time. These are deformed by north-verging F2 folds with a south-dipping spaced cleavage. The fold and fabric relationships are inconsistent with the widely accepted model of structural confrontation previously described for the region. This model is reassessed.

A reappraisal of the facing confrontation in north Cornwall: fold- or thrust-dominated tectonics?

The problem of conflicting fold or thrust solutions to the interpretation of the structure of north Cornwall is discussed via new detailed mapping of the coastal sections. In addition to facing evidence, shear criteria have been extensively applied in order to sustain new interpretations. The facing confrontation at Polzeath is confirmed but the high strain zone centred upon Tintagel is ascribed to later superimposed northwards directed ductile shearing. Peak metamorphism was synchronous with this event. Subsequent northwards displacement became confined to discrete thrust planes dismembering the south-facing structures which developed during an intermediate phase of backthrusting. The major structures are thrust-dominated, though large recumbent folds were generated during the early ductile phases. The facing confrontation is probably allochthonous having been carried northwards on a blind thrust. It is suggested that the important Rusey Fault Zone is the roof thrust to a triangle zone in which the lower grade rocks of the Culm Basin are uplifted over an underlying antiformal stack.

Discussion

E. B. Selwood & J. M. Thomas write: Although we agree with many of the direct structural observations of Andrews et al. and can accept that opposed facing is present in north Cornwall, our objection to the confrontation model of Roberts & Sanderson (1971) basically stemmed from stratigraphic analysis. In their reaffirmation of this model Andrews et al. have correctly perceived that it is essential to maintain the presence of a D1n overfold north of the confrontation (for clarity we use the notation of Andrews et al .). To retain a normal succession in the long limb of the overfold, they assert ‘The fact that the Jacket's Point Formation is younger than the Tredorn Slate Formation, and that the change from one to another is gradational within thesame nappe is critical our to overall interpretation’.Not only does palaeontological evidence deny this ‘fact’, in that the Jacket’s Point Slate Formation is of Frasnian and the Tredorn Slate Formation of mid to late Famennianage, but also these formations belong to different successions. The Jacket’s Point Slates occur in an inverted conformable succession with the Polzeath Slate Formation (Upper Frasnian-Middle Famennian), whereas theTredorn Slates young into Lower Carboniferous slates (Selwood & Thomas 1986). In the cliffs north of Jacket’s Point, the flat-lying contact between the Tredorn Slates above, and the inverted Jacket’s Point Slates below, cannot be stratigraphic. We reaffirm its faulted nature and equate it with the Trekelland Thrust (Stewart 1981). It follows from the field observations of Andrews et al. south

Discussion on the three-dimensional morphology of arrays of echelon and sigmoidal, mineral-filled fractures from north Cornwall

N. S. Meadows writes: In a recent paper, Nicholson & Ejiofor (1987) discuss the morphology of sigmoidal quartz-filled veins forming en echelon arrays within lithologically homogeneous cobbles of sandstone derived from the Crackington Formation of north Cornwall. The authors cast some doubt on the previously accepted hypothesis that such arrays are the result of simple shear in the plane of the array ( Ramsay 1967 , pp. 88–91; Beach 1975 , 1977 ). They ascribe the formation of these particular veins to dilatation resulting from the effects of intruding hypothermal fluids. Work on apparently similar arrays of sigmoidal veins in the Lochalsh district of northwest Scotland has also shown that a ductile simple shear model alone is unlikely to account for both the formation and the propagation of such veins. In this case, however, simple shear does appear to be a major contributor in the development of en echelon vein arrays. It is unfortunate that the host rocks for the veins studied by Nicholson and Ejiofor do not possess any significant pre-vein fabric so that there is no marker by which any displacement across the vein arrays can be measured. The en echelon vein arrays, that are abundant on the Lochalsh peninsula, occur within Torridonian sandstones of the Diabaig Group. These rocks exhibit a regional penetrative grain fabric related to large-scale ductile shearing which pre-dated the initiation of the vein arrays. The deflection of this grain fabric can be seen as it passes through individual vein arrays and, in favourable outcrops, the amount

The three-dimensional morphology of arrays of echelon and sigmoidal, mineral-filled fractures: data from north Cornwall

Arrays of mineral-filled, echelon, sigmoidal fractures in cobbles of sandstone from the Crackington Formation of north Cornwall were examined by cutting serial sections. In three dimensions each array consists of a set of blade-like, mineral-filled fractures. These blades project as a fringe from the single but composite fracture that forms through their linkage. Linkage takes place as the strips of rock (bridges) between blades fail through cross-fracture. Cross-fractures give rise to the steps that mark the margins of the composite fractures so formed. Bridges show little penetrative deformation. Arrays are not zones of high ductile strain. Displacement is a consequence of dilatation. Echelon fractures were formed and opened by intruding hydrothermal fluid.

Frederick Stratten Russell, 3 November 1897 - 5 June 1984

Frederick Stratten Russell’s father, William Russell, was an accomplished man who had read classics at Oxford after winning a scholarship to Exeter College. His family had lived mostly around London and many of them were musical, some earning their living as music-wire drawers, and others were schoolteachers. After graduation William became a schoolmaster and taught classics and music in Forest School, Walthamstow. Following his marriage to Lucy Binfield Newman, many of whose family had been dentists, he moved to Bridport on the south coast of Dorset and founded St Andrew’s, a small preparatory school. It was in Bridport that Frederick Stratten Russell was born on 3 November 1897 (the name Stratten being a family name that he shared with his uncle, George). Frederick had one sister, who died when she was quite young, and a brother, William, who was later killed in the Battle of the Somme in World War I. In 1903, when Frederick was about six years old, his father decided, on account of his wife’s health, to move to Newquay in North Cornwall and to establish there a new St Andrew’s School. In Newquay the Russells lived on East Pentire Head, and nothing makes this period seem so remote to those now living in Cornwall as Frederick’s memory that there were then only four houses on the headland and that the Russells generally had the Fistral Beach entirely to themselves. Soon after arriving in Newquay his father became organist at Crantock Church. The journey to Crantock from Newquay entailed crossing the Gannel estuary, and William did this twice on every Sunday. Freddie had vivid recollections of accompanying his father when crossing the Gannel at high tide in a rowing boat on dark and stormy winter nights, journeys on which he was allowed to carry the paraffin hurricane lamp.

Cypridopsis bamberisp. nov., a new species of ostracod (Crustacea: Podocopida) from England

A new species of ostracod, Cypridopsis bamberi sp. nov., is described from a small freshwater spring in North Cornwall, England.

Upper Palaeozoic successions and nappe structures in north Cornwall

For many years the geology of north Cornwall has been interpreted in terms of a south-facing overfold model, which predicts a major confrontation at Padstow with the north-facing structures of south Cornwall. New evidence indicates the existence of contrasting successions separated by flat-lying thrusts. In upward succession the Port Isaac, Tredorn and Boscastle nappes are identified; the first appears to have been emplaced by gravity sliding in late Viséan times, followed by the Tredorn and Boscastle nappes in the early Namurïan. Strata represented in the inverted limb of the Port Isaac Nappe, not previously distinguished, are described as the Jacket's Point Slate Formation. Throughout the nappe pile there is consistent evidence of north-facing and northward transport for distances measured in tens of kilometres. Not more than 3 km of south-facing strata may now exist at the Padstow confrontation, and this feature is unlikely to be of great regional significance. The allochthon extends northwards to the Rusey Fault Zone where the autochthon was locally backfolded over the allochthon in late Westphalian times; this appears to be the only significant confrontation of facing directions in north Cornwall.

The stratigraphy and structure of the Devonian rocks around Liskeard, east Cornwall, with regional implications

A formal stratigraphy based on new macrofaunal evidence is proposed for a little-known area of slates, thin limestones, and volcaniclastic rocks of Lower Devonian to early Upper Devonian age around Liskeard, between South Devon and north Cornwall. Open shallow marine shelf conditions persisted from the Emsian until the onset of basinal sedimentation in the Frasnian, with the local development of pillow lavas and pillow fragment breccias during Eifelian and Givetian times. Regional stratigraphic correlations identify a Middle Devonian axial ridge which runs from Tor Bay to Bodmin, and separates a redefined Trevone (north Cornwall) Basin from the south Cornish Basin. A moderate to steeply dipping slaty cleavage (Dl) dips southward throughout the area and is associated with early E–W major folds, inferred to be north- or upward-facing, which plunge gently east. A penetrative, closely spaced crenulation cleavage (D2) is developed in a zone, >0.7 km thick, which trends E–W and dips at 15º to 30º south. This fabric, previously misidentified as the D1 slaty cleavage, is associated with major D2 folds which have near horizontal, east–west trending axes; structures of this age and geometry have not been reported from elsewhere in the region. The Portwrinkle Fault has been traced NW–SE across the area and passes west of Liskeard; it shows a large dextral strike-slip displacement and may have developed early in the history of the thrust belt.

Tectonics of the Bude Formation, north Cornwall—the recognition of northerly directed décollement

The Upper Carboniferous Bude Formation of North Cornwall and Devon underwent deformation, beginning shortly after its deposition, which resulted in a complex geometry of folding and thrusting. The deformation initially exploited slumped beds as décollement horizons and resulted in a significant northerly translation of thrust sheets. The development of chevron folds, for which the area is famous, commenced at this stage but continued, causing folding of thrust planes and cleavages. During the deformation the dominant sense of thrust movement switched from a northerly to a southerly direction and this is interpreted as the effect of backthrusting associated with the northwards migration of the deformation front.

The modification of chevron folds by simple shear: examples from north Cornwall and Devon

This contribution considers the effect of a horizontal simple shear deformation on an initially upright chevron fold pair using geometrical models. The models utilize an initial fold geometry based on structures observed in the coastal sections of north Cornwall and Devon, and consider various mechanisms by which the simple shear could be accommodated. Due to their different initial orientations the limbs of the chevron folds rotate at different rates during simple shear, and this is accommodated by the modification of the fold structure. Possible modification structures include: normal faulting in the opposite direction to the sense of shear on either the axial planes or the limbs of the folds; and folding on the limb which dips in the same general direction as the sense of shear. The results of the modelling can be used to interpret the structures observed in the studied sections. It is shown that a southerly-directed simple shear deformation acted in discrete zones resulting in the local modification of certain chevron folds. This deformation is in the opposite direction to the main Variscan movements in SW England. Nevertheless, it is argued that the simple shear is an integral component of the main deformation and represents an analogous process to the mechanism of backthrusting present in most thrust belts.

A wild but sociable dolphin off Portreath, north Cornwall

A wild but sociable dolphin off Portreath, north Cornwall

Upper Palaeozoic sediments and structure in north Cornwall—a reinterpretation

Inland from the north Cornwall coast, from Boscastle to Rusey Cliff, shallow water sandstones (Boscastle Formation and Laneast Quartzite Formation) and slates (Buckator Formation) of Upper Devonian to Namurian age are recognised for the first time. They form the northwestern part of a major nappe which under-thrusts the Upper Carboniferous flysch basin of central Southwest England. Substantial northward displacements are suggested. The problem of conflicting tectonic transport directions in the area is resolved.

Stratigraphy of the Upper Devonian argillite successions in north Cornwall

AbstractSome 880 m of grey, green and purple argillites are estimated to be present in complexly deformed Upper Devonian successions which occur in several overlapping coastal sections. Four lithostratigraphical formations are formally defined, in order of decreasing age: the Marble Cliff Limestone; Longcarrow Cove Slate; Harbour Cove Slate; and Polzeath Slate Formations. Improved correlation and biostratigraphical control is available for the two younger formations which are studied in detail. The formations range in age from lowest Frasnian to mid Famennian. Despite the intense deformation there are no major structural breaks in the successions.

An interpretation of the Variscan tectonics of SW Britain

Summary The structure of SW Britain is interpreted in terms of thin-skinned tectonics, producing a NNW verging fold and thrust zone. In south Wales the thrusts involve high level imbricate stacks showing some 20–40% shortening with a shallow floor thrust in Namurian-Westphalian strata, cut to the south by deeper level folds and thrusts with a basal decoupling zone in or below the Lower Palaeozoic rocks. In Devon and Cornwall the Upper Palaeozoic rocks show a gently dipping, widespread and locally intense cleavage related to the progressive development of large thrust sheets and associated inclined to recumbent folds. In north Cornwall these northward verging structures have been redeformed and often completely overprinted by a large south verging backthrust. Some of this backthrust movement may be offset, by a lateral ramp, to a much lower decoupling zone, producing a major backfold in south Devon. The thrust transport direction is to the NNW as determined from mineral lineations, maximum extension directions, fold and thrust traces and tear faults. Fold hinges are generally normal to the transport direction but are locally rotated into the NNW trend in more intensely deformed zones. In north Devon and south Wales, the folds are oblique suggesting a component of differential movement. Considering SW Britain and southern Ireland the fold trends are arcuate and there is often extension parallel to the fold axes. These phenomena are interpreted as due to the obliquity of the thrusting and the Variscan front. Pre-tectonic facies changes along the front hinder lateral fault propagation giving sticking points at lateral tips which become poles of rotation. Deformation affected only the upper crust; there was no major crustal thickening during Variscan tectonics though the crust has been locally thinned probably by a factor of 2 before onset of compression in Devonian times. Deformation was diachronous with a slow displacement rate. Sedimentation occurred in an advancing series of fore-deeps ahead of the deformed and thickened zone. Estimates of shortening across the thin-skinned zone are about 50%, that is 150 km across SW England. The crust beneath the thin skin must extend back beneath the English Channel and northern France.

Experiments With Early Techniques for Making Whole Shells into Beads

Previous articleNext article No AccessExperiments With Early Techniques for Making Whole Shells into BeadsPeter Francis, Jr.Peter Francis, Jr. Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Current Anthropology Volume 23, Number 6Dec., 1982 Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/202925 Views: 40Total views on this site Citations: 19Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1982 The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological ResearchPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Micka Ullman, Lena Brailovsky, Heeli C. Schechter, Lior Weissbrod, Roni Zuckerman-Cooper, Michael B. Toffolo, Valentina Caracuta, Elisabetta Boaretto, Steve Weiner, Julia Abramov, Daniella E. Bar-Yosef Mayer, Vladimir Wolff Avrutis, Shlomo Kol-Ya'kov, Amos Frumkin The early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B site at Nesher-Ramla Quarry, Israel, Quaternary International 624 (Jun 2022): 148–167.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2021.04.019Danny Rosenberg, Inbar Ktalav, Iris Groman-Yaroslvski, Florian Klimscha Unique Theodoxus jordani shell beads from the Middle Chalcolithic site of Tel Tsaf (ca. 5200–4700 cal BC), Jordan Valley, Israel, Archaeological Research in Asia 29 (Mar 2022): 100349.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ara.2021.100349Carey J. Garland, Brandon T. Ritchison, Bryan Tucker, Victor D. Thompson A preliminary consideration of craft production and settlement expansion on Ossabaw Island, Georgia, USA, The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 2 (Oct 2021): 1–18.https://doi.org/10.1080/15564894.2021.1962436Inbar Ktalav, Yotam Tepper, Gil Gambash, Sina Lehnig, Guy Bar-Oz Long-distance trade and consumption of mollusks in the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods in the Negev Desert, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 37 (Jun 2021): 102927.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.102927Heeli C. Schechter, Nimrod Getzov, Hamoudi Khalaily, Ianir Milevski, A. Nigel Goring-Morris, Daniella E. Bar-Yosef Mayer Exceptional shell depositions at PPNB Yiftahel, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 37 (Jun 2021): 102944.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.102944Catarina Guzzo Falci, Jacques Cuisin, André Delpuech, Annelou Van Gijn, Corinne L. Hofman New Insights into Use-Wear Development in Bodily Ornaments Through the Study of Ethnographic Collections, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 26, no.22 (Sep 2018): 755–805.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-018-9389-8Elena-Cristina Nițu, Marin Cârciumaru, Adrian Nicolae, Ovidiu Cîrstina, Florin Ionuț Lupu, Marian Leu, Marco Peresani Mobility and social identity in the Mid Upper Paleolithic: New personal ornaments from Poiana Cireșului (Piatra Neamț, Romania), PLOS ONE 14, no.44 (Apr 2019): e0214932.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0214932Emma L. Baysal, Cevdet Merih Erek Material Movement in the Near Eastern Epipalaeolithic: Implications of the Shell and Stone Beads of Direkli Cave, Turkey, Journal of Field Archaeology 43, no.88 (Nov 2018): 591–603.https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2018.1529506Ben Shaw, Michelle C. Langley Investigating the development of prehistoric cultural practices in the Massim region of eastern Papua New Guinea: Insights from the manufacture and use of shell objects in the Louisiade Archipelago, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 48 (Dec 2017): 149–165.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2017.07.005Catarina Guzzo Falci, Annelou Van Gijn, M. Magdalena Antczak, Andrzej T. Antczak, Corinne L. Hofman Challenges for microwear analysis of figurative shell ornaments from pre-Colonial Venezuela, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 11 (Feb 2017): 115–130.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.11.029Michelle C. Langley, Sue O'Connor, Elena Piotto 42,000-year-old worked and pigment-stained Nautilus shell from Jerimalai (Timor-Leste): Evidence for an early coastal adaptation in ISEA, Journal of Human Evolution 97 (Aug 2016): 1–16.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.04.005Lino André, Nuno Bicho Perforation techniques and traces of use on the Mesolithic adornments of the Trench Area at Cabeço da Amoreira Shellmidden (Muge, central Portugal), Comptes Rendus Palevol 15, no.55 (Apr 2016): 569–580.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crpv.2015.10.003Daniella E. Bar-Yosef Mayer Nassarius shells: Preferred beads of the Palaeolithic, Quaternary International 390 (Dec 2015): 79–84.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.05.042Robert G. Bednarik The Significance of the Earliest Beads, Advances in Anthropology 05, no.0202 (Jan 2015): 51–66.https://doi.org/10.4236/aa.2015.52006Frederico Tátá, João Cascalheira, João Marreiros, Telmo Pereira, Nuno Bicho Shell bead production in the Upper Paleolithic of Vale Boi (SW Portugal): an experimental perspective, Journal of Archaeological Science 42 (Feb 2014): 29–41.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2013.10.029Robert G. Bednarik Beads and Cognitive Evolution, Time and Mind 1, no.33 (Nov 2013): 285–317.https://doi.org/10.2752/175169708X329354Anthony P. Graesch Modeling ground slate knife production and implications for the study of household labor contributions to salmon fishing on the Pacific Northwest Coast, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26, no.44 (Dec 2007): 576–606.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2007.07.001Jan Light Dog Cockle Shells as Occasional Finds in Romano-British Shell Middens from Newquay, North Cornwall, UK, Environmental Archaeology 8, no.11 (Jul 2013): 51–59.https://doi.org/10.1179/env.2003.8.1.51Zarine Cooper Shell Artefacts from the Andaman Islands, Australian Archaeology 26, no.11 (Jun 2020): 24–41.https://doi.org/10.1080/03122417.1988.12093140

Modern carbonate marine-sands in estuaries of southwest England

SummaryLarge deposits of marine-sand occur in the Taw, Camel and Hayle estuaries of north Devon and Cornwall. Total carbonate concentrations reach 67% in the Hayle, 62% in the Camel, and 40% in the Taw. Well mixed, the sands contain modern skeletal debris of consistent composition, which persists up to 18 km and 12 km landward from the mouths of the Taw and Camel estuaries. Although primarily a molluscan sand, remains of barnacles, bryozoans, echinoids, foraminifera, sponge spicules, decapods and coralline algae are common. Carbonate mineralogy provided by these components (on a 100% carbonate basis) consists of 45% aragonite, 38% low Mg-calcite and 17% high Mg-calcite. Two estuaries of the southeast coast of Devon (the Exe and Teign) contain smaller carbonate concentrations of up to 9 and 14%. Values are low there owing to dilution by readily eroded cliff-talus from local exposures of New Red Sandstone. These Permo-Triassic sediments provide carbonate lithoclasts, however, which supplement the modern biogenic supply. Strontium values have been used to estimate the extent of carbonate lithoclasts supplied to the Exe and Teign. The present source of marine-sand of estuaries in southwest England is considered to be mostly near-shore detritus supplemented by eroded cliff-talus, derived largely from local outcrops. Once this material enters the estuarine regime it is available as a supply of sediment for further up-estuary transport.

Edward Belcher (1799-1877)

Prominent in the important but routine survey work undertaken by the British Navy around the globe after the Napoleonic wars, a spectacular failure as an arctic explorer, and most unpopular officer in the fleet, Sir Edward Belcher remains today in relative, perhaps deserved, obscurity. ... In February 1837, he replaced the ailing Captain Beechey on a survey of the Pacific Coast. Taking command at Panama of H.M.S. Sulphur and Starling, he sailed to the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands, thence to Prince William Sound and along the south coasts of Russian America (Alaska), and from there south to San Francisco and again to waters off Central America. In 1839 he retraced the same route. During the two voyages he surveyed many ports and islands, fixed the position of Mount St. Elias, and made the first scientific survey of Nootka Sound, settling questions outstanding since the voyages of Cook and Vancouver. However, these achievements were marred by Belcher's consistent bad temper, caprice, and malice, which made him detested by his officers and men. ... In 1852, in spite of his poor reputation as a commander and his lack of experience handling vessels in ice, Belcher was placed in charge of the largest in the series of expeditions which the British government sent out to seek Sir John Franklin. Five ships were given him for the task: the Assistance (Belcher, and Commander G.N. Richards), the steam tender Pioneer (Osborn), the Resolute (Kellett), the Intrepid (M'Clintock), and the North Star (Pullen). Leaving the North Star at Beechey Island as a base, Belcher sent the Resolute and the Intrepid westward to Melville Island, while he took the Assistance and Pioneer northward up to Wellington Channel. As it turned out, they were too far north to find traces of Franklin, but Belcher and Osborn discovered Belcher Channel, explored the north coast of Bathurst Island, and Belcher himself discovered and visited North Cornwall Island. Belcher and Osborn spent the winter of 1852-1853 in Northumberland Sound, while the Resolute and the Intrepid, under Kellett, wintered at Melville Island. In the course of long sledge expeditions, Kellett and his men completed the exploration of Melville and Prince Patrick islands, and found and rescued the men of a previous expedition on the Investigator (McClure), locked in the ice of Mercy Bay. In the summer of 1853, both divisions failed to extricate themselves, so had to spend a second winter in the ice. By the summer of 1854, Belcher had had enough. Convinced of the impossibility of getting free, unwilling to risk yet a third winter, he disregarded the protests of his subordinates, and ordered the four ships to be abandoned. He and his men made it to the base vessel North Star, and in August set out on the return voyage to England. Court-martialled, Belcher was able to prove that he had acted within his orders. ... He was cleared, but his sword was handed back to him in silence. ... He passed his remaining years in literary and scientific amusements, and died on 18 March 1877.