Page 42 - All About History 55 - 2017 UK

Terror on the Ice

Some of Franklin’s men died
by their boats from hunger,
exhaustion or the cold. Others
passed away in their tents

charged with finding a peacetime purpose for
the large number of ships and officers the British “They should have had enough
Navy had amassed. provisions to last seven years”
Barrow sent the navy north to map every inlet
of the Canadian Arctic, with the first expeditions
setting off in 1818 — the same year Mary Shelley and HMS Terror. While these were warships, they Greenland five days later. Anchored in Baffin Bay,
published Frankenstein. Over the next 27 years, had been adapted for polar exploration for James they took on even more provisions, transferred
naval explorers made several unsuccessful attempts Clark Ross’ expeditions to Antarctica in 1840. from the supply ship Barretto Junior, which put
to solve the enigma of the Northwest Passage, but Both vessels had 25-centimetre belts of Erebus and Terror significantly overweight. Two
they did build up detailed maps of many miles of timber, sheet iron on their bows to cut through British whalers encountered the ships, still in Baffin
Arctic coastline. Armed with these charts, Barrow sea ice and to take the strain of being trapped Bay but preparing to head east into Lancaster
was certain the route would soon be within their in it, and beams protecting the hull. They also Sound, on 26 July. They were the last Europeans to
reach. In an 1844 letter to Lord Harrington, first lord benefitted from tubular boilers and steam ever see the explorers alive.
of the Admiralty, Barrow opined, “The discovery, or apparatus, which provided hot water and heating. When a year passed and there was no word from
rather the completion of the discovery, of a passage A 25-horsepower locomotive engine was fitted Franklin, the Admiralty were initially unconcerned.
[…] ought not to be abandoned, after so much has into the Erebus, purchased from the London and They believed the lack of communication meant
been done, and so little now remains to be done.” Greenwich Railway, and Terror was fitted with a success as the captain had told them to only expect
Barrow decided to mount a major expedition 20-horsepower engine. him back when provisions had been exhausted. By
deep into the Arctic Circle. Captain John Franklin Erebus and Terror boasted a library of 2,900 1847, the Admiralty were sending communiqués
was chosen to lead the voyage – but only after books and journals between them, while their food to Hudson’s Bay Company traders and whaling
several candidates were either ruled out or stores were packed with 15,099 kilograms of tinned ships to keep an eye out for signs of the Franklin
declined. Franklin was 59 years old and had been meat, 4,036 kilograms of preserved vegetables and expedition. Others back home were growing
retired for 18 years, having served as governor of 11,628 litres of concentrated soup. They also housed concerned, but the Admiralty refused to act. In
sunny Tasmania for the last seven. However, in 4,286 kilograms of chocolate, 3,215 kilograms of March 1848, they eventually offered 100 guineas to
his prime, he had been to the Arctic three times tobacco, 910 litres of wine and 4,218 kilograms of any whalers with news to share regarding Erebus
and was a deeply respected explorer. He achieved lemon juice to fight scurvy. They should have had and Terror. Franklin’s wife, Jane, too, had drummed
nationwide fame after his first expedition, in which enough provisions to last seven years. up £2,000 reward money for information.
half of his crew died of starvation, earning him the On 12 May, the ships were towed down the Ross was issued orders on 9 May 1848, to find
nickname ‘the man who ate his boots’ after he was Thames from Woolwich to Greenhithe, Kent, where out what had become of the expedition. He would
forced to literally eat boot leather to stay alive. final preparations were undertaken and gunpowder take off in HMS Enterprise for Lancaster Sound,
Franklin proposed to tackle the passage via Cape and magnetic instruments were brought aboard. Barrow Strait and the Wellington Channel, sea ice
Walker and Bank’s Island. If that proved impossible, The departure date was 15 May but they were permitted. HMS Investigator, the other ship in the
he would head north through the Wellington delayed. On 19 May, the screw steamer HMS Rattler search party, would go and look for Franklin along
Channel and go north of the Barrow Strait (named finally towed the ships into the North Sea. the Boothia Peninsula and Prince Regent Inlet.
in honour of John Barrow). In May 1845, he set off On 25 June, they crossed the Arctic Circle and Ross’ team arrived in the Whale Fish Islands and
with a 128-man crew and two ships: HMS Erebus arrived in the Whale Fish Islands off western discovered that Baffin Bay was impenetrable due
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