From the North Shore of the NORTH WEST PASSAGE

The Arctic Archipeligo of Canada's North

John Cabot, Jacques Cartier, Martin Frobisher, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Alexander Mackenzie, Sir John Franklin all searched for the North West Passage...a shortened path to get from Europe to the riches of the Orient. A means of getting goods cheaper in both directions and reduce the dependency on the African or South American roundings...and the high sea dangers that those paths possessed, remembering that the Suez and Panama canals did not exist at that time.

Sir John Franklin and John Rae had decidely different approaches

Her Majesty's Ships "Erebus" and "Terror"
of the Franklin Expedition 

That's a very short list. Many others combined overland and sea routes searching.....searching. At a time when only a compass, a sextant and the stars guided your efforts. No Loran, no weather maps...GPS did not exist, satellite radiophones had not even been thought about and at a time when you carried your food stuffs, provisions and supplies...sled dogs, boats, and anything that might provide your success. Starvation was a real possibility...frostbite and the resulting loss of digits on the feet and hands was common occurrence...if any of your party even survived.... a first winter.

The use of the local Inuit population was crucial to the survival of many of these parties...they do NOT get the credit they deserve for putting their lives on the line for the many Europeans, mostly ill-equipped and often badly prepared for their journeys. The loss of lives and explorers were blamed, not on the inept planning and head strong positions of authority these men held, but on the actions of the locals who tried, were ignored and suffered themselves as well.

Dr. John Rae, Arctic Exxplorer

The British navy had searched for over 300 years and by the 19^th century, the search for a northwest passage had become an obsession...and had to be found at all costs. By 1845 the British Admiralty had sent two lavishly equipped ships to search for the passage commanded by Sir John Franklin. They were confident in his abilities and he was positive that he would return a hero and yet, he and his 128 men were never seen again.

The disappearance of Franklin and his crew began the most expensive and illusive manhunts that the world had ever known. In six years of searching driven by his grieving widow, Lady Jane Franklin, the British, Americans, Russians, and French failed to find evidence of the ships nor their crew. Eventually it was a Hudson's Bay Company employee who unlocked a portion of the mystery.

Sir John Franklin, Arctic Explorer 

Parks Canada's continuing search and dates.
Next year could be the big discovery

John Rae's discovery happened after travelling over 13,000 miles on land and water....but his discovery and subsequent published findings were not what Victorian Britain wanted to hear. All of the naval commanders who had searched for Franklin were given knighthoods for their efforts. Arctic explorer, John Rae's report pushed him to the margins of history since the tales he recounted were more grim than what the public could have been imagined.

His final report given to the Admiralty has been dissected to the point that the information included may be some fiction mixed with fact. Having grown up in the Orkney Islands, north of Scotland, these islands were the starting point for Cabot, Hudson, Frobisher and the like during the preceding centuries. The Franklin Expedition left from these islands as well. For all, the quest had been finding the Northwest Passage.

The British Admiralty was buoyed by a report of a Sperm Whale, harpooned north of Newfoundland, that had been harvested in Alaskan water the same year. A fear that the Russians would discover the passage first drove them further despite political concerns being voiced at home.

A member of the French Navy commemorated
after losing his life searching for Franklin's group

At age 19 John Rae returned to Orkney having been accepted as a surgeon at the University of Edinburgh. His father was an agent for the Hudson Bay Company and in June...John signed on as the ship's surgeon, the “doctor on board”, for a seasonal or summer job with an adventure to travel to Canada aboard the “Prince of Wales, a Hudson Bay Company ship.

While travelling the southern portion of James Bay, the summer ended early and the ship became lodged in ice for the winter at Moose Factory. John Rae's extensive career with Hudson's Bay started that winter. Rae was firmly established with Hudson's Bay for thirteen years before the British sent out John Franklin's expedition.

The graves of some of Franklin's party

Two 340 ton ships, manned with 128 crew, and their hulls reinforced with steel were provisioned with the best that Victorian England could provide. Fine china, heavy silverware, a library of 1200 books and enough polish for their brass buttons and buckles were but a few of the items carried aboard. Provisions were enough to last several years and a steam organ aboard was to provide entertainment to the officers.

The wording of another tablet commemorating

These were self sufficient floating hotels and allowed the adventure to enter some 70,000 square miles of uncharted waters and lands. The huge size of their ships and scope of the entire expedition demonstrates, to some, an arrogance of the scope of the arctic itself. A lack of respect...for the land, for the climate and for survival.

The Hudson's Bay Company decided to mount their own expedition with John Rae at the helm. Using small craft, packing supplies, living off the land above the tree line...a small group of seasoned travellers with Inuit interpreters...mapping and surviving. In 1847, this was an entirely different approach...packing light and trusting the instincts of those who had lived for centuries at this latitude.

Eventually, a consensus agreed that this party would over winter on land. Four men were set with the task of gathering stones to make a stone house, the same mistake of many explorers. There were no trees to provide fuel for fires...no coal. What little oil for their lamps came from the seals. They faced starvation should insufficient food be available.

After observing that the Inuit travellers in their party were toasty warm, they switched to the Iglu as their shelter. Fishing and hunting provided additional sources of food.

Current Winter can do this to an over wintering vessel even today!
Looking south to the passage!

After two years and no word of the Franklin party, Lady Franklin began to question the admiralty. There had been no copper tubes passed onto whalers, not a word. They were well provisioned for up to five years...so those funding were not worried at this point. Eventually she sponsored a 10,000 Pound reward for information leading to locating the captain and crew. Today, that would be the equivalent of over a Million Pounds Sterling. In its day, the reward was quite substantial.

While researching for this edition, I've been mired in the controversy, myself. Hence the delay in this edition. There is so much information, I wish I had started much earlier. While John Rae's final report to the admiralty was shocking in its conclusion of cannibalism amongst the remaining crew, the Lady Franklin empowered Charles Dickens, to publicly counter such revelations.

“Englishmen eating englishmen” was not accepted in London and Rae's accounts of the Inuit's stories providing a more realistic account of gathering of 35 men disorientated, travelling in the snow without supplies was more realistic, but the blame turned in London against the aboriginals. Franklin's death during the second winter was mere rumour. His statue in London depicts an image showing his burial, with one of the “natives” holding a bow and arrow.

In the Arctic, the Inuit never used bows and the land area they were traversing was not easily dug...a cairn of rocks might cover his body and mark his grave. Yet, they were then blamed for any hint that cannibalism had taken place. Death due to starvation would not have been concurrent but in varying stages....so the questions are more...not less.

My first weekend here, on the second floor of a local hotel...in their North West Passage room, I found a document...in a frame...hung on the wall. I re-visited last Saturday and dictated the contents, which I have transcribed and are available at the end of this edition.

The whole story is one of ambition, pride, and obsession and the pitfalls that had come from them all. Although they carried enough provision for three years, little light has been shed on solving the mysteries...but there is much speculation.  The search for the truth continues to be shrouded in controversy.

Last summer, one of his ships, the H.M.S. Erebus was located not far from here in less than 11 meters of water in the upright position. In the mid-eighties the bodies of three crew were discovered on Beechey Island. They included John Torrington, John Hartnell and William Braine, all who died in 1847.

After last summers discovery, the assorted recovered objects were displayed at the main dock of Cambridge Bay for the local residents to view and rumours abound that they may have recovered human remains at that time as well.

The "find" of my 2016 adventure in Cambridge Bay

One of my patient's told me...."They'll find the other boat closer to here (Cambridge Bay)". We'll all be listening for more information from the planned explorations of next summer. The North West Passage still packs charisma, even at -37 degrees Celsius....The text of my discovery lies below.

FROM THE WALL

The 10 x14 inch framed document, with several water marked stains on it, begins in cursive hand writing:

“H.M. Ships Erebus and Terror wintered in the ice in 28^th of May 1847 Latitude 70 degrees 5 minutes North, Longitude 98 degrees 23 minutes West having wintered in1846 at the Beechey Island in Latitude 74 degrees 43 minutes 28 seconds North, Longitude 91 degrees 39 minutes 15 seconds West after having no...(indistinguishable)....Wellington Channel to Latitude 77 degrees and returned by the west side of Cornwallis Island. John Franklin manned the expedition...all well.

The document reads in printed text.

“Whoever finds this paper is requested to forward it to the Secretary of the Admiralty London with a note of the time and place at which it was found or, if more convenient, to deliver it for that purpose to the British Consul at the nearest port.”

The above paragraph is written in many languages French, Spanish, German, probably Norwegian, and then possibly, Swedish or Danish.

The handwriting continues written landscape style, along the left side of the document going along the border from the bottom to the top of the page for several lines and then continues for several lines in the sames direction on the right side of the document.

The writing begins:

“1848 HM Ship Terror and Erebus were desserted on the 22 April, 5 leagues NNW of this ???

has been set since 12 Sept 1846. The officers and crew consisting of 105 souls under the command was formed by Lt. Knowing under the cairn supposed to name has been built by Sir James Wrought in1831 were it has now been deposited by the late Commander Gore in May June 1847. Sir James Rope (Rope's Pillar) has not, however, been found and the paper has been transferred to this position which is that in which Sir J. Rope ...was erected. Sir John Franklin died on 11^th June 1847 and the total of deaths in the expedition has to this date been 9 Officers and 15 Men. James Fitzjames, Captain of the Erebus...Captain and Senior Officers and just tomorrow 26 in for barks fish...(????)

Party consisting of 2 Officers and 6 men left the ships on Monday 24^th May 1847. Lt. Gore and First Mate????

When the ice is gone this summer...what will be found?