USS Rescue (1850)

History
Name:	USS Rescue
In service:	1850
Out of service:	1851
Fate:	Returned to owner
General characteristics
Tonnage:	91 long tons (92 t)
Complement:	16

The first USS Rescue was a brig in service with the United States Navy.

The brigs Rescue and Advance, specially reinforced and fitted out for Arctic service, were offered on loan to the U.S. Government by Henry Grinnell in 1850 for use in a rescue mission tracing the ill-fated expedition which, in May 1845, had sailed from England under Sir John Franklin seeking a northwest passage. Two years later the Admiralty dispatched relief expeditions. Since there was still no news of the expedition by 1 May 1850, the U.S. Congress authorized the President to accept Mr. Grinnell's offer. In accordance with the wishes of both Congress and Mr. Grinnell, both ships were manned by volunteers from the U.S. Navy.

On 22 May, the expedition, commanded by Lt. Edwin De Haven, sailed from New York with Rescue's captain, Acting Master Samuel P. Griffin, second in command. Sailing independently the first days out, the two ships rendezvoused at the Whalefish Islands in Disko Bay, Greenland, and on 29 June headed for Melville Bay and the northern route across Baffin Bay to Lancaster Sound. On 1 July they encountered their first pack ice off Haröe Island. On the 8th, they were caught in the ice north of Upernavik and spent the next 21 days forcing their way through the ice.

Free on the 29th, the brigs continued through the heavy floes of Melville Bay into August. On the 19th, they entered Lancaster Sound. By the 23d, Rescue was off Cape Riley, Devon Island. There, Griffin and others from his crew joined searchers from a British squadron in the discovery of a campsite previously occupied by an unknown Royal Navy party.

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