Franklin expedition

“ Almost every one has heard of the ill-fated Franklin expedition, even though others may not be familiar. The attempts to find a northwest passage have long ceased, it{172} being indisputable that it is useless though found. The great expeditions of later years have been equipped purely from a scientific standpoint. ”

“ The failure of the expedition had left the western frontier open to the savage raids of the Indians, and Pennsylvania, owing to her unprotected condition, suffered more than the other colonies. Franklin came to the rescue with a bill to raise volunteers which was carried through the Assembly; troops were quickly organized, and the philosopher was himself appointed general. ”

“ It was not till the year 1845 that a new expedition by sea was determined on, and the command given, at his earnest request, to Sir John Franklin—an expedition over the fate of which for many long years hung a mysterious uncertainty, full of pain and anxiety. Notwithstanding the hazardous nature of the work in which they were to be engaged, numbers of officers and men eagerly pressed forward as volunteers to serve under the veteran Arctic explorer. ”

“ They related that some of their people had visited the search ships and had seen Franklin. What was more to the point, they produced a considerable number of articles that had once belonged to members of Franklin’s party. The most important were silver articles, such as spoons, forks, etc., which bore the crest of Franklin and other officers of the lost expedition. These veritable evidences of the passage of Crozier and others of Franklin’s expedition through this region were fortunately secured by Hall, and were later supplemented by many others. ”

“ Rae, en route to Mackenzie River, with two canoes, in search of Sir John Franklin,” the great Arctic explorer.
Three years before, on May 19, 1845, Franklin had left England in command of an expedition to discover what Columbus and so many other explorers had vainly sought, a sea-way to the east through the west. In his two ships, the Erebus and Terror, of the British navy, there sailed 129 officers and men. They were seen in July by a passing vessel in Baffin’s Bay, and then they vanished. Not one man ever came back. ”

“ We all suffered much inconvenience from eating animal food after our long abstinence, but particularly those men who indulged themselves beyond moderation. The Canadians, with their usual thoughtlessness, had consumed above a third of their portions that evening.”
On the 26th, the expedition reached the Copper-mine River, and encamped at the east end of Point Lake, about forty miles distant from Fort Enterprise. Here Captain Franklin commences one of the most dreadful tales of human misery on record. ”

“ Next year, while at Lisbon, he was invited to join Franklin's expedition to the Mackenzie river, and hastened to do so. In that memorable expedition he rendered Franklin signal service, especially in his dealings with the Esquimaux, and on coming home in 1827 found himself promoted to the rank of commander. His repeated applications for a ship met with no response, and he went to Italy to improve himself in the arts. At Naples he heard of the supposed loss of Captain Ross in the Arctic regions, and offered the Royal Geographical Society to go in search of him. ”

“ The government decided to adopt Franklin’s plan, and when he begged to be allowed to command this expedition, granted his request, and more than this, permitted him to make all arrangements for the expedition. He first ordered three boats to be built which should be suitable for travel on both rivers and lakes, as well as on the Arctic ocean. They must combine light weight with great strength. In 1824 Franklin sent these boats, filled with stores and provisions, to Great Bear lake in charge of the Hudson Bay Company ”

“ They remind me of the records left, by Sir John Franklin, in the Arctic; but, also, of attempts made by relief expeditions to communicate with the Franklin expedition. The lost explorers cached their records—or concealed them conspicuously in mounds. The relief expeditions sent up balloons, from which messages were dropped broadcast. Our data are of things that have been cached, and of things that seem to have been dropped——
Or a Lost Expedition from—Somewhere. ”

“ Far different was the condition of Arctic explorers now, than it had been when Franklin sailed on his fatal expedition. Then they had to depend entirely on their own resources; now, through the sagacity and forethought of those who sent them forth, depots of provisions and boats and sledges, and even huts, had been provided, to afford every possible means of escape should any disaster overtake their ships. ”

“ But none could be found, and one after another the explorers came back, their only report being that the ice had swallowed all traces of the English captain and his vessels. At length the last of the expeditions sent out by the English Government returned, and the world decided that the mystery would never be solved. But brave Lady [256] Franklin, the wife of Sir John, urged still other men to seek for news, and at last explorers found that all of Franklin's expedition had perished in their search for the Northwest Passage. ”

“ Funds having been provided by Henry Grinnell and a number of other men who were interested in the project, he set sail in the barque George Henry with a crew of thirty officers and men, including an interpreter. His object was to proceed direct to Boothia, and there to spend three years among the natives, living with them as one of themselves, and completing the history of the Franklin expedition. ”

“ Other traces of the sad end which overtook the expedition were also found. In a boat were discovered two skeletons; and amongst other books a Bible, numerous passages in which were underlined, showing that these gallant men in their last hours had the comfort of God's Word to support them when earthly hopes had passed away.
The object for which Sir John Franklin had sailed, viz., the discovery of the North West passage, had been attained, but no single man of the expedition, alas, lived to enjoy the fruits of the discovery. ”

“ Franklin’s plan found favour in the eyes of the Government, and he was immediately appointed to the command of the new expedition with authority to make such preparations as seemed proper to him. Warned by his previous experiences, he resolved to run no risks, and accordingly arranged a system of supplies which would remove all possibility of starvation, and superintended the construction of a number of boats which would be better able to withstand the ardours of navigation in the Polar Seas than the birch-bark canoes which he had previously employed. ”

“ Sir John Franklin died on the 11th June 1847; and the total loss by deaths in the expedition has been to this date 9 officers and 15 men.” The handwriting is that of Captain Fitzjames, to whose signature is appended that of Captain Crozier, who also adds the words of chief importance, namely, that they would “start on to-morrow 26th April 1848 for Back’s Fish river.” A briefer record has never been told of so tragic a story.
All the party had without doubt been greatly reduced through want of sufficient food, and the injurious effects of three winters in these regions. ”

“ The expedition was then composed of Lieutenant Franklin, Dr. Richardson, Messrs. Back, Hood, and Wentzel, John Hepburn, sixteen Canadian voyageurs, one Iroquois, and two interpreters, – three women accompanied their husbands, in a small canoe, for the purpose of making shoes and clothes for the whole party, at the winter establishment; and there were also three children belonging to two of these women: – total 31 persons, old and young. ”

“ Perhaps no subject engaged the mind of the British people more sympathetically and powerfully than the fate of the brave men who formed the great Arctic expedition. Sir John Franklin was popular, and eminently deserved to be so ”

“ On the 29th of July, Lieutenant Franklin and his party reached Fort Providence, in lat. 62° 17' 19" N., long. 114° 9' 28" W., which was the last station of the N.W. Company, and exclusively occupied by them; the Hudson’s Bay Company having no settlement to the northward of Moose-Deer-Island, where the expedition had halted for two days, and obtained a small supply of dried meat. ”

“ But in spite of all his sufferings, Captain Franklin explored no less than five thousand five hundred and fifty miles of the hitherto unknown coast of North America!"
"He was indeed a man of energy," added Mrs Barnett; "and he gave proof of his great qualities in starting on a fresh Polar expedition after all he had gone through."
"Yes," replied the Lieutenant; "and he met a terrible death in the land his own intrepidity had discovered. It has now been proved, however, that all his companions did not perish with him. Many are doubtless still wandering about on the vast ice-fields. ”

“ Lieutenant Franklin now began to make some arrangements respecting the obtaining of men, and the stores he should require for their equipment, as well as for presents for the Indians; but he learnt with regret, that in consequence of the recent lavish expenditure of the Companies’ goods, in support of a determined commercial opposition, their supply to the expedition would, of necessity, be very limited. The men, too, were backward in offering their services, especially those of the Hudson’s Bay Company, who demanded a much higher rate of wages than he considered it would be proper to grant. ”

“ That no time might be lost in procuring relief. Captain Franklin immediately despatched Mr. Back, with three men to search for the Copper-Indians, directing him to go to Fort Enterprise, where it was expected they would be, or where, at least, a note from Mr. Wentzel would be found to direct him in his search for them. Junius, the Esquimaux, had previously strayed in search of the remains of animals, and never rejoined the expedition. The remainder of the officers and men went supperless to bed.
“Showers of snow fell frequently during the night. ”

“ What was accomplished with the help of French soldiers, sailors, officers, money, and supplies, is known to all the earth. "All the world agree," exultantly wrote Franklin from Paris to General Washington, "that no expedition was ever better planned or better executed. ”

“ The boats of the expedition, accompanied by Augustus and another Esquimaux interpreter, named Ooligbuck, had advanced from York Factory into the interior, 1200 miles, before they were joined by Captain Franklin and Dr. Richardson; whilst the latter, from taking a more circuitous route, by New York and Upper Canada, travelled 2800 miles, to reach the same point. This junction took place on the 29th of June, 1825, in the Methye River, which is almost at the head of the waters that run from the north into Hudson’s Bay. ”

“ We think of messages that were showered upon this earth, and of messages that were cached in mounds upon this earth. The similarity to the Franklin situation is striking. Conceivably centuries from now, objects dropped from relief-expedition-balloons may be found in the Arctic, and conceivably there are still undiscovered caches left by Franklin, in the hope that relief expeditions would find them. It would be as incongruous to attribute these things to the Eskimos as to attribute tablets and lettered stones to the aborigines of America. ”

“ He was very much hampered by the ice, and at the end of the season returned to the United States from a somewhat fruitless expedition. In addition to the several expeditions already briefly mentioned here, many attempts, both by land and sea, to rescue Franklin’s band were made between 1851 and 1855. Captains Inglefield, Frederick, Sir Edward Belcher, Kellett, M’Clintock (first voyage) , Pullen, Maguire, Dr. Kane, and others, sought in vain for traces of the lost expedition. As we shall see in our succeeding chapter, Dr. John Rae, an indefatigable and experienced traveller, was more successful ”

“ Apart from the evidence afforded by the expedition that, if Braddock had been as able a general as Franklin was a commissary, its result would have been different, its chief interest to the biographer of Franklin [Pg 181] consists in the light that it sheds upon the self-satisfied ignorance of American conditions and the complete want of sympathy with the Americans themselves which subsequently aided in rendering the efforts of Franklin to secure a fair hearing in London for his countrymen so difficult. ”

“ On the morning of the 27th, Lieutenant Franklin held a consultation with his officers, when all agreed that the descent to the Polar Sea this season could not be attempted, without hazarding a complete rupture with these Indians; and it was resolved that they should content themselves with making an excursion to the head of the Copper-mine river, in Point Lake, about 60 miles to the northward of their present resting place, merely to satisfy themselves of its size and position.
“During our little expedition,” says Lieutenant Franklin, “Mr. ”

“ Hall, Charles Francis, Arctic explorer, born at Rochester, New Hampshire; the mystery surrounding Franklin's fate awakened his interest in Arctic exploration, and during 1860-62 he headed a search party, and again in 1864-69; during the latter time he lived amongst the Eskimo, and returned with many interesting relics of Franklin's ill-fated expedition; in 1871 he made an unsuccessful attempt to reach the North Pole, and died at Thank God Harbour in Greenland ”

“ We embarked at ten, and, aided by a favourable breeze, made good progress until six p.m., when the threatening appearance of the clouds induced us to put on shore, and we had but just covered the baggage before heavy rain fell, that continued throughout the night. Four Hare Indians came to the encampment, to whom dried meat and ammunition were given, as they were in want of food from being unable to set their nets in the present high state of the water. These were the only natives seen since our departure from Fort Norman ”