During the search for Franklin, a party led by Robert McClure traversed the Northwest Passage from west to east in the years 1850 to 1854, partly by ship and partly by sledge. McClure's ship was trapped in the ice for three winters near Banks Island, at the western end of Viscount Melville Sound. Finally McClure and his party – who were by that time dying of starvation — were found by searchers travelling by sledge from one of the ships of Sir Edward Belcher's expedition, and returned with them to Belcher's ships, which had entered the sound from the east.