The Franklin Conspiracy
Page 30
Today we would call it a camera.
EXPEDITIONS
1818
John Ross, aboard the Isabella, sails in search of the Northwest Passage, with William Edward Parry accompanying in the Alexander. Ross enters Lancaster Sound, but turns back “as if some mischief was behind him.”
1819
William Edward Parry commands his own expedition, his first of three. He nearly makes it through the Northwest Passage, but is stopped by the ice stream in Viscount Melville Sound.
1821-1823
Parry makes a second attempt at the Passage aboard the ships Fury and Hecla. He enters the Arctic farther south and is stopped by ice in Fury and Hecla Strait.
1824-1825
Parry’s third attempt at the Passage, again in the Fury and the Hecla, results in the Fury being abandoned at Fury Beach on the east coast of Somerset Island, along with a cache of supplies. In later years, there is no sign of the Fury.
1829-1833
John Ross undertakes his second (this time private) expedition in search of the Passage. Aboard the Victory, he is trapped on the coast of Boothia Peninsula for three years, then escapes to the supply cache at Fury Beach, where he spends a fourth year before being rescued by whalers. His nephew, James Clark Ross, accompanies him and sledges to Victory Point on King William Island.
1833
Richard King and George Back travel overland to explore the Great Fish River.
1836-1837
George Back, in command of the Terror, enters the Arctic through Hudson’s Strait. In Repulse Bay, the Terror is battered by ice and barely makes it back across the ocean, grounding on the Irish coast with only hours to spare.
1837-1839
Thomas Simpson and Peter Warren Dease are sent overland by the Hudson’s Bay Company to map the southern Passage. Thomas Simpson visits the south shore of King William Island where he builds a cairn. He subsequently dies under mysterious circumstances.
1845-?
Sir John Franklin commands 128 men in the Erebus and the Terror in a final push to complete the Northwest Passage. The ships are equipped with the most up to date technology, including desalinators, internal heating and screw propellers driven by steam engines. No expense is spared, but the expedition meets with disaster.
1846-1847
Dr. John Rae is dispatched by the Hudson’s Bay Company to map the east coast of Boothia and to determine if there is a passage through it. He finds no sign of a passage and concludes, rightly, that Boothia is a peninsula.
1848-1849
James Clark Ross commands the Investigator and the Enterprise in the first search for the lost Franklin expedition. He searches Somerset Island using man-hauled sledges and visits Fury Beach, but no sign of the expedition is found. Francis Leopold McClintock commands the sledge-teams.
1848-1851
Dr. John Rae takes part in a naval expedition led by John Richardson travelling overland in search of Franklin. Rae reaches the east coast of Victoria Island across the water from Victory Point but is unable to cross.
1850-1851
William Penny, a whaling captain, is hired by Jane Franklin to command the Lady Franklin and the Sophia in the search for her husband. When the Navy offers to pay expenses, she hands the expedition over to them. Penny accuses the naval searchers of “suppressing” records left by Franklin.
1850
Charles Codrington Forsyth is hired by Lady Jane Franklin to command the Prince Albert and to search for Franklin on Somerset Island and Boothia Peninsula. A civilian, Parker Snow, goes along as the ship’s doctor. Forsyth returns to England because of heavy ice with vague news of the discovery of Franklin’s camp on Beechey Island.
1850-1851
Horatio T. Austin commands a four-ship naval flotilla which discovers Franklin’s camp on Beechey Island. The Assistance is commanded by Ommanney who visits Cape Walker but finds no record left there by Franklin.
1850-1851
John Ross commands a private expedition aboard the Felix (with the tender Mary) claiming he thinks Franklin is to be found in the ice stream in Viscount Melville Sound. His Inuit interpreter, Adam Beck, hears a story about naval ships attacked and burned on the Greenland coast, but no evidence is found to support the story.
1850-1851
Elisha Kent Kane is surgeon aboard the Advance, one of two American ships (the other being the Rescue) sent in search of Franklin. Trapped in an ice pan for eight months and twenty-four days, the ships are carried from Wellington Channel through Lancaster Sound and out into Baffin Bay.
1850-1854
Robert McClure, in command of the Investigator, enters the Arctic from the west hoping to complete the Northwest Passage, but is stopped by the ice stream near Banks Land and is forced to complete the Passage on foot. He is rescued by Henry Kellett in the Resolute.
1850-1855
Richard Collinson enters the Arctic from the west aboard the Enterprise. He reaches the east coast of Victoria Island across the water from Victory Point where he discovers three cairns. Against the advice of his officers, he ignores evidence that Franklin has met with disaster in the area.
1851-1852
William Kennedy, a former Canadian fur-trader, and Joseph-René Bellot, a French Lieutenant, reach Prince Regent Inlet aboard Lady Franklin’s Prince Albert. They search Somerset Island and Prince of Wales Island, going over the same ground as Ommanney’s naval searchers.
1852-1854
Sir Edward Belcher commands a five-ship naval flotilla to search Wellington Channel and Melville Island. The Resolute is commanded by Henry Kellett and is caught by ice in Viscount Melville Sound. Belcher, also caught by ice, orders four ships abandoned and returns to England, leaving Collinson who is still somewhere in the southern Arctic.
1853-1855
Elisha Kent Kane commands the second American expedition which searches Smith Sound.
1853-1854
Dr. John Rae is sent by the Hudson’s Bay Company to explore the west coast of Boothia Peninsula up to Bellot Strait. He encounters Inuit at Pelly Bay who tell him about many dead men in the mouth of the Great Fish River south of King William Island. He returns to England with relics and stories of cannibalism.
1855-1856
Chief Factor James Anderson is dispatched by the Hudson’s Bay Company to travel overland to the mouth of the Great Fish River to check out Rae’s stories. He lacks an Inuit interpreter or suitable boats. On Montreal Island, he finds evidence of Franklin’s expedition but no sign of bodies or records, and is unable to cross over to King William Island.
1857-1859
Francis Leopold McClintock sails in the Fox to King William Island. Bodies are at last discovered, a final record is retrieved from Victory Point and Simpson’s Cairn is found to have been looted of whatever it contained.
1860-1869
Charles Francis Hall, an American, lives for nine years among the Inuit before finally reaching King William Island and spending four days searching for relics of the lost expedition. Of more importance are the stories he hears from his Inuit hosts, including stories of survivors.
1879
Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka, of the United States Army, searches King William Island and Adelaide Peninsula. He interviews the Inuit, discovers a complete skeleton at Victory Point and names Starvation Cove.
1903-1905
Roald Amundsen, aboard the Gjoa, is the first to successfully sail through the Northwest Passage.
1981, 1982
Owen Beattie, a physical anthropologist with the University of Alberta, and James Savelle search King William Island. They recover some bones and discover the first evidence of lead poisoning.
1984, 1986
Owen Beattie exhumes three bodies from the lost expedition buried on Beechey Island. He finds further evidence of lead poisoning.
1992, 1993, 1994
Barry Ranford, a photographer and Franklin scholar, finds bones and relics on King William Island.
1993, 1994
Anne Keenleyside, an archaeologist, and Margaret Bertulli, a physical anthropologist, recover bones from King William Island. They identify cut marks on the bones which they believe supports the stories of cannibalism.
SOURCE NOTES
Prologue: The Vanishing Ships
Prelude to Disaster
1. Pierre Berton, The Arctic Grail: The Quest for the Northwest Passage and the North Pole, 1818-1909, p. 31.
2. Samuel M. Schmucker, Arctic Explorations and Discoveries During the Nineteenth Century, p. 43.
Victory Point Revisited
1. Ibid., 160.
2. David C. Woodman, Unravelling the Franklin Mystery: Inuit Testimony, p. 15.
The Fury Vanishes
1. S.M. Schmucker, Arctic Explorations, p. 132.
2. Ibid., 136.
3. D.C. Woodman, Unravelling, p. 17.
4. P. Berton, The Arctic Grail, p. 88.
5. D.C. Woodman, Unravelling, p. 77.
6. Noel Wright, Quest For Franklin, p. 228.
7. Ibid., 229.
Never To Return
1. P. Berton, The Arctic Grail, p. 114.
2. Ibid., 141.
A Second 1824
1. William Gibson, “Sir John Franklin’s Last Voyage,” The Beaver (June 1937), p. 48.
2. Ibid., 46.
3. Paul Fenimore Cooper, Island of the Lost, p. 145.
4. P. Berton, The Arctic Grail, p. 146.
The Ghost and Lady Franklin
1. S.M. Schmucker, Arctic Explorations, p. 211.
2. P.F. Cooper, Island of the Lost, p. 148.
3. Roderic Owen, The Fate of Franklin, p. 288.
The Deception of James Clark Ross
1. Ibid., 261.
2. Ibid., 258.
3. Ibid., 247.
4. Ibid., 258.
5. Ibid., 267.
6. S.M. Schmucker, Arctic Explorations, p. 283.
7. Ibid., 284.
8. R. Owen, The Fate of Franklin, p. 271.
9. P. Berton, The Arctic Grail, p. 164.
10. Ibid.
11. R. Owen, The Fate of Franklin, p. 270.
12. S.M. Schmucker, Arctic Explorations, p. 285.
13. P. Berton, The Arctic Grail, p. 166.
14. R. Owen, The Fate of Franklin, p. 276.
15. Ibid., 268.
16. S.M. Schmucker, Arctic Explorations, p. 325.
The Turning of Captain Forsyth
1. Ibid., 331.
2. R. Owen, The Fate of Franklin, p. 276.
3. Ibid., 289.
4. Ibid.
5. S.M. Schmucker, Arctic Explorations, p. 321.
6. R. Owen, The Fate of Franklin, p. 297.
7. P. Berton, The Arctic Grail, p. 192.
8. R. Owen, The Fate of Franklin, p. 289.
9. S.M. Schmucker, Arctic Explorations, p. 353.
10. R. Owen, The Fate of Franklin, p. 310.
The Deception of John Ross
1. S.M. Schmucker, Arctic Explorations, p. 323.
2. P. Berton, The Arctic Grail, p. 31.
3. N. Wright, Quest For Franklin, p. 182.
4. Leslie H. Neatby, The Search For Franklin, p. 129.
The Dead of Beechey Island
1. Owen Beattie, and John Geiger, Frozen in Time: Unlocking the Secrets of the Lost Franklin Expedition, p. 23.
2. Ibid., 52.
3. Ibid., 102.
4. Ibid., 106.
5. Ibid., 122.
6. Ibid., 117.
7. Ibid., 139.
8. Ibid., 140.
9. Ibid., 142.
10. Ibid., 118.
11. Ibid., 153.
The Cashmere Gloves
1. R. Owen, The Fate of Franklin, p. 302.
Penny Versus Austin
1. Ibid., 312.
2. L.H. Neatby, The Search For Franklin, p. 138.
3. Ibid.
4. P. Berton, The Arctic Grail, p. 190.
5. N. Wright, Quest For Franklin, p. 142.
The Canadian and the French Lieutenant
1. R. Owen, The Fate of Franklin, p. 314.
2. S.M. Schmucker, Arctic Explorations, p. 468.
3. L.H. Neatby, The Search For Franklin, p. 153.
4. R. Owen, The Fate of Franklin, p. 327.
5. Ibid., 320.
6. Ibid.
Captain Collins and the Enterprise
1. P. Berton, The Arctic Grail, p. 298.
2. Ibid., 299.
3. Ibid.
4. N. Wright, Quest For Franklin, p. 200.
5. Ibid., 203.
6. Ibid., 204.
A Study in Contrasts
1. R. Owen, The Fate of Franklin, p. 333.
How to Lose a Flotilla
1. L.H. Neatby, The Search For Franklin, p. 214.
2. R. Owen, The Fate of Franklin, p. 340.
3. Ibid., 352.
4. Ibid.
5. L.H. Neatby, The Search For Franklin, p. 218.
6. R. Owen, The Fate of Franklin, p. 352.
The Ghost Ship
1. Ibid., 373.
John Rae
1. Peter C. Newman, Company of Adventurers, p. 305.
2. P. Berton, The Arctic Grail, p. 162.
3. P.C. Newman, Company of Adventurers, p. 411.
4. Ibid., 414.
Cannibalism and Other Relics of the Lost
1. R. Owen, The Fate of Franklin, p. 355.
2. Ibid., 350.
3. P. Berton, The Arctic Grail, p. 266.
4. W. Gibson, “Franklin’s Last Voyage”, p. 56.
5. R. Owen, The Fate of Franklin, p. 355.
6. P.C. Newman, Company of Adventurers, p. 394.
7. R. Owen, The Fate of Franklin, p. 365.
8. Ibid., 366.
Lady Franklin’s Decision
1. L.H. Neatby, The Search For Franklin, p. 249.
2. R. Owen, The Fate of Franklin, p. 376.
3. Ibid.
The Voyage of the Fox
1. Ibid., 377.
2. Sir Francis Leopold McClintock, The Voyage of the ‘Fox’ in the Arctic Seas: A Narrative of the Discovery of the Fate of Sir John Franklin and his Companions, p. 208.
3. L.H. Neatby, The Search For Franklin, p. 258.
4. Sir F.L. McClintock, Voyage of the ‘Fox’, p. 11.
5. Ibid., 251.
The Other Shoe Drops
1. Ibid., 226.
2. Ibid., 227.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid., 238.
6. Ibid., 237.
7. Ibid., 239.
8. O. Beattie, and J. Geiger, Frozen in Time, p. 35.
9. Ibid., 36.
10. Sir F.L. McClintock, Voyage of the ‘Fox’, p. 251.
Whodunit?
1. Ibid.
2. Ibid., 253.
3. Ibid., 254.
4. Ibid.
5. R. Owen, The Fate of Franklin, p. 359.
6. Ibid., 360.
7. P.C. Newman, Company of Adventurers, p. 417.
8. R. Owen, The Fate of Franklin, p. 356.
9. Ibid., 359.
10. Ibid.
11. L.H. Neatby, The Search For Franklin, p. 246.
12. P.C. Newman, Company of Adventurers, p. 418.
13. Ibid.
14. P. Berton, The Arctic Grail, p. 267.
15. Ibid., 268.
16. L.H. Neatby, The Search For Franklin, p. 245.
17. P.C. Newman, Company of Adventurers, p. 422.
18. Ibid., 424.
Two Bodies and a Note
1. Sir F.L. McClintock, Voyage of the ‘Fox’, p. 255.
2. D.C. Woodman, Unravelling, p. 87.
3. P. Berton, The Arctic Grail, p. 331.
4. Sir F.L. McClintock, Voyage of the ‘Fox’, p. 264.
5. Ibid., 265.
6. O. Beattie, and J. Geiger, Frozen in Time, 39.
7. Sir F.L. McClintock, Voyage of the ‘Fox’, p. 264.
A Trail of Bones
1. W. Gibson, “Frankli
n’s Last Voyage”, p. 63.
2. Ibid., 24.
The Victory Point Record Explained
1. D.C. Woodman, Unravelling, p. 94.
2. Ibid., 104.
3. Ibid., 18.
4. P. Berton, The Arctic Grail, p. 331.
The Final March
The Second Winter at Beechey Island
1. D.C. Woodman, Unravelling, p. 70.
2. Sir F.L. McClintock, Voyage of the ‘Fox’, p. 257.
3. R. Owen, The Fate of Franklin, p. 306.
The Passage From Beechey Island
1. Ibid., 390.
2. Stephen Leacock, Adventurers of the Far North, p. 125.