 For the remainder of his life he corresponded regularly with Lady Jane Franklin and others interested in solving the mystery, as well as promoting and funding several expeditions.The first of these expeditions was in 1850, when he purchased and loaned to the United States Navy the brigs "Rescue" and "Advance" to search the Arctic under the overall command of Lieutenant Edwin De Haven.After these vessels returned unsuccessful, he funded a second expedition with the "Advance" under Elisha Kent Kane which explored the region named Grinnell Land off the north-western coast of Greenland between 1853 and 1855, when the vessel, hopelessly beset in the ice, was abandoned.