FRANKLIN DISCOVERS THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE
The whole coast-line of North America had now been charted, but the
famous North-West Passage, for which so many lives had been laid down,
had yet to be found. Sir John Barrow, "the father of modern Arctic
discovery," Secretary to the Admiralty, now decided to dispatch
another expedition to forge this last link and to connect, if possible,
the chain of all former discoveries.
Many were the volunteers who came forward to serve in the new Arctic
expedition. But Sir John Franklin claimed the command as his special
right.
"No service," he declared, "is nearer to my heart."
He was reminded that rumour put his age at sixty, and that after a
long life of hard work he had earned some rest.
"No, no!" cried the explorer; "I am only fifty-nine!"
This decided the point, and Franklin was appointed to the _Erebus_
and _Terror_, recently returned from the Antarctic expedition of Sir
James Ross. The ships were provisioned for three years, and with a
crew of one hundred and twenty-nine men and several officers, Sir John
Franklin left England for the last time on 19th May 1845. He was never
seen again!
All were in the highest spirits, determined to solve the mystery of
the North-West Passage once and for all! So certain were they of success
that one of the officers wrote to a friend: "Write to Panama and the
Sandwich Islands every six months."
On 4th July the ships anchored near the island of Disco on the west
coast of Greenland. After which all is silence. The rest of the story,
"one of the saddest ever told in connection with Arctic exploration,"
is dovetailed together from the various scraps of information that
have been collected by those who sailed in search of the lost expedition
year by year.
In 1848, Sir James Ross had sailed off in search of his missing friend,
and had reached a spot within three hundred miles of the _Erebus_ and
_Terror_ four months after they had been abandoned, but he returned
with no news of Franklin.
Then Sir John Richardson started off, but found no trace! Others
followed. The Government offered 20,000 pounds, to which Lady Franklin
added 3000 pounds, to any one who should bring news of Franklin. By
the autumn of 1850 there were fifteen ships engaged in the search.
A few traces were found. It was discovered that Sir John Franklin had
spent his first winter (1845-46) at Beechey Island. Captain McClure
sailed along the north coast of America and made his way from the
Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean--thus showing the existence of a
north-west passage, for which he and his men were highly rewarded,
for at this time no one knew that Franklin had already found a passage
though he had not lived to tell the story of triumph and success. But
it was not till after years of silence that the story of the missing
expedition was cleared up. Lady Franklin purchased and fitted out a
little steam yacht, the _Fox_, of one hundred and seventy-seven tons.
The command was given to Captain McClintock, known to be an able and
enthusiastic Arctic navigator. He was to rescue any "possible survivor
of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_, and to try and recover any records of
the lost expedition."
[Illustration: ESKIMOS AT CAPE YORK WATCHING THE APPROACH OF THE _FOX_.
From McClintock's _Voyage in Search of Franklin_.]
The 12th August found the little _Fox_ in Melville Bay made fast to
an iceberg, and a few days later she was frozen firmly into an ice-pack.
For two hundred and forty-two days she was beset, drifting all through
the long, bitter winter with the ice, till on 25th April 1858, after
having been carried over a thousand miles, she was released.
McClintock, undaunted by danger, turned northwards, and by May he had
reached Melville Bay. Thence up Lancaster Sound, he reached Beechey
Island in August and found there three lonely graves of three sailors
from the _Erebus_ and _Terror_. Here the English commander erected
a tablet sent out by Lady Franklin.
[Illustration: THE THREE GRAVES ON BEECHEY ISLAND. From McClintock's
_Voyage in Search of Franklin_.]
On the morning of 16th August, McClintock sailed from Beechey Island,
but the short summer was passing quickly and they had no fresh news
of the Franklin expedition. Half-way through Bellot Strait the _Fox_
was again icebound, and another long winter had to be faced. By the
middle of February 1859 there was light enough to start some sledging
along the west coast of Boothia Felix. Days passed and McClintock
struggled on to the south, but no Eskimos appeared and no traces of
the lost explorers were to be found. Suddenly they discovered four
men walking after them.
A naval button on one of the Eskimos attracted their attention.
"It came," said the Eskimo, "from some white people who were starved
upon an island where there are salmon, but none of them had seen the
white men."
Here was news at last--McClintock travelled on some ten miles to Cape
Victoria, where the Eskimos built him a "commodious snow-hut in half
an hour." Next morning the entire village of Eskimos arrived--some
forty-five people--bringing relics of the white men. There were silver
spoons, part of a gold chain, buttons, knives made of the iron and
wood of the wrecked ships. But none of these people had seen the white
men--one man said he had seen their bones upon the island where they
died, but some were buried. They said a ship "having three masts had
been crushed by the ice out in the sea to the west of King William's
Island." One old man made a rough sketch of the coast-line with his
spear upon the snow; he said it was eight journeys to where the ship
sank.
McClintock hastened back to the ship with his news--he had by his
sleigh-journey added one hundred and twenty miles to the old charts
and "completed the discovery of the coast-line of Continental
America."
[Illustration: EXPLORING PARTIES STARTING FROM THE _FOX_. From
McClintock's _Voyage of the_ "Fox" _in Search of Franklin_.]
On 2nd April more sledge-parties started out to reach King William's
Island--the cold was still intense, the glare of the sun painful to
their eyes. The faces and lips of the men were blistered and cracked;
their fingers were constantly frostbitten. After nearly three weeks'
travelling they found snow-huts and Eskimos at Cape Victoria. Here
they found more traces of Franklin's party--preserved meat tins, brass
knives, a mahogany board. In answer to their inquiries, they heard
that two ships had been seen by the natives of King William's Island;
one had been seen to sink in deep water, the other was forced on shore
and broken up. "It was in the fall of the year (August or September),"
they said, when the ships were destroyed, that all the white people
went away to the large river, taking a boat with them, and that in
the following winter their bones were found there.
McClintock now made his way to the opposite coast of King William's
Island. Here he found Eskimos with pieces of silver-plate bearing the
crest and initials of Sir John Franklin and some of his officers. They
said it was five days' journey to the wreck, of which little now
remained. There had been many books, said the Eskimos, but they had
been destroyed by the weather. One woman volunteered a statement.
"Many of the white men," she said, "dropped by the way as they went
to the Great River. Some were buried and some were not. Their bodies
were discovered during the winter following." Moving onwards,
McClintock reached the Great Fish River on the morning of 12th May.
A furious gale was raging and the air was heavy with snow, but they
encamped there to search for relics. With pickaxes and shovels they
searched in vain. No Eskimos were to be found, and at last in despair
the little party of explorers faced homewards. McClintock was slowly
walking near the beach, when he suddenly came upon a human skeleton,
lying face downwards, half buried in the snow. It wore a blue jacket
with slashed sleeves and braided edging and a greatcoat of
pilot-cloth.
The old woman was right. "They fell down and died as they walked along."
And now the reward of the explorers was at hand. On the north-west
coast of King William's Island was found a cairn and a blue ship's
paper, weatherworn and ragged, relating in simple language, written
by one of the ship's officers, the fate of the Franklin expedition.
The first entry was cheerful enough. In 1846 all was well. His Majesty's
ships, _Erebus_ and _Terror_, wintered in the ice--at Beechey Island,
after having ascended Wellington Channel and returned to the west side
of Cornwallis Island. Sir John Franklin was commanding the expedition.
The results of their first year's labour was encouraging. In 1846 they
had been within twelve miles of King William's Island, when winter
stopped them. But a later entry, written in April 1848, states that
the ships were deserted on 22nd April, having been beset in ice since
September 1846--that Sir John Franklin had died on 11th June 1847,
and that Captain Crozier was in command.
Then came the last words, "And start to-morrow twenty-sixth for Back's
Fish River." That was all.
After a diligent search in the neighbourhood for journals or relics,
McClintock led his party along the coast, till on 30th May they found
another relic in the shape of a large boat, with a quantity of tattered
clothing lying in her. She had been evidently equipped for the ascent
of the Great Fish River. She had been built at Woolwich Dockyard; near
her lay two human skeletons, a pair of worker slippers, some watches,
guns, a _Vicar of Wakefield_, a small Bible, New Testament, and Prayer
Book, seven or eight pairs of boots, some silk handkerchiefs, towels,
soap, sponge, combs, twine, nails, shot, and cartridges, needle and
thread cases, some tea and chocolate, and a little tobacco.
Everything was carefully collected and brought back to the ship, which
was reached on 19th June. Two months later the little _Fox_ was free
from ice and McClintock reached London towards the end of September,
to make known his great discovery.
The rest of the story is well known. Most of us know the interesting
collection of Franklin relics in the United Service Institution in
London, and the monument in Waterloo Place to "the great navigator
and his brave companions who sacrificed their lives in completing the
discovery of the North-West Passage."
It was acknowledged "that to Sir John Franklin is due the priority
of discovery of the North-West Passage--that last link to forge which
he sacrificed his life."
And on the marble monument in Westminster Abbey, Tennyson, a nephew
of Sir John Franklin, wrote his well-known lines--
"Not here, the white north hath thy bones, and thou,
Heroic Sailor Soul,
Art passing on thy happier voyage now
Towards no earthly pole."