The McClintock Arctic Expedition of 1857 was a British effort to locate the last remains of the lost Franklin Arctic Expedition. Led by captain Francis Leopold McClintock aboard the steam yacht Fox, the expedition spent two years in the region and ultimately returned with the only written message recovered from the doomed expedition. McClintock and crew were awarded the Arctic medal in recognition of their achievements.
Franklin's lost expedition was a British voyage of Arctic exploration led by Captain Sir John Franklin that departed England in 1845 aboard two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. A Royal Navy officer and experienced explorer, Franklin had served on three previous Arctic expeditions, the latter two as commanding officer. His fourth and last, undertaken when he was 59, was meant to traverse the last unnavigated section of the Northwest Passage. After a few early fatalities, the two ships became icebound in Victoria Strait near King William Island in the Canadian Arctic, in what is today the territory of Nunavut. The entire expedition, comprising 129 men, including Franklin, was lost.
The steam yacht Fox was the vessel that Francis Leopold McClintock commanded in 1857-1859 on an expedition to the Arctic in northern Canada to search for the fate of the missing expedition of Sir John Franklin.
When John Rae reported that found artifacts and Inuit testimony placed the death of final members of Franklin's lost expedition near Back's Great Fish River in 1850, Lady Jane Franklin called for an expedition to locate these remains.[1] A secondary goal was to secure any possible claim by Franklin as to discovery of the Northwest Passage. To be led by McClintock, who had participated in the Arctic explorations of Sir John Ross, Horatio Austin and Henry Kellett,[2] it was the fifth expedition privately financed by Franklin's widow, as by this time the British government had abandoned any hopes of rescue. Lady Franklin purchased the 177 ton Fox in April 1857 after other efforts to secure a vessel failed.
John Rae was a Scottish Orcadian surgeon who explored parts of northern Canada and is often credited with discovering the final portion of the Northwest Passage, the Rae Strait.
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting Inuit Nunangat, the Arctic regions of Greenland, Canada, and Alaska. The Inuit languages are part of the Eskimo–Aleut family. Inuit Sign Language is a critically endangered language isolate used in Nunavut.
The Back River is the 20th longest Canadian river and is located in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. It rises at an unnamed lake in the North Slave Region of the Northwest Territories and flows more than 974 km (605 mi) mostly through the Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, to its mouth at the Arctic Ocean in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut.
With an experienced crew of 25, the Fox set sail from Aberdeen on 1 July 1857 after extensive refitting and external sheathing suitable for Arctic service. Inuit interpreter Carl Peterson, who had served under Captain Elisha Kent Kane, was included. They quickly stocked provisions, including lemon juice to prevent scurvy. The government provided additional equipment and arms.
Aberdeen is a city in northeast Scotland. It is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 39th most populous built-up area, with an official population estimate of 196,670 for the city of Aberdeen and 228,800 for the local council area.
Elisha Kent Kane was an American explorer, and a medical officer in the United States Navy during the first half of the 19th century. He was a member of two Arctic expeditions to rescue the explorer Sir John Franklin.
They briefly put ashore to several ports on Greenland, sending home an ailing crewman and obtaining coal, dogs, provisions, and Inuit guides Anton Christian and Samuel Emanuel. They set out again in early August and soon encountered icebergs off Disco Bay, reaching Melville Bay on 12 August.
Melville Bay, is a large bay off the coast of northwestern Greenland. Located to the north of the Upernavik Archipelago, it opens to the south-west into Baffin Bay. Its Kalaallisut name, Qimusseriarsuaq, means "the great dog sledding place".
The first winter
The ice gradually closed in on the Fox in just a few days, the ship making small advancements with much effort. Some seal hunting provided sport and extended their sled dog's rations as they drifted with the pack through August. By mid-September, they were slowly drifting west among the approaching icebergs, still hoping for liberation to Upernavik, but on 18 September they began to prepare the ship for winter. Wildlife, including birds, seals, narwhal and polar bears provided hunting as the crew settled into the winter monotony. The ship's surgeon, Dr. Walker, conducted schooling for the crew, and a successful November bear hunt produced a skin that was to be presented to Lady Franklin. The seasonal darkness settled in.
An iceberg is a large piece of freshwater ice that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open (salt) water. Small bits of disintegrating icebergs are called "growlers" or "bergy bits".
Upernavik is a small town in the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland, located on a small island of the same name. With 1,055 inhabitants as of 2017, it is the thirteenth-largest town in Greenland. It contains the Upernavik Museum. It is the northern-most town in Greenland with a population of over 1,000.
The narwhal, or narwhale, is a medium-sized toothed whale that possesses a large "tusk" from a protruding canine tooth. It lives year-round in the Arctic waters around Greenland, Canada, and Russia. It is one of two living species of whale in the family Monodontidae, along with the beluga whale. The narwhal males are distinguished by a long, straight, helical tusk, which is an elongated upper left canine. The narwhal was one of many species described by Carl Linnaeus in his publication Systema Naturae in 1758.
December began with the death of a crewman, stoker Robert Scott, who succumbed to injuries following a fall down a hatchway. His remains were committed to the deep on 4 December. Temperatures averaged below −20°F while the crew practiced the construction of snow huts. The returning daylight improved morale as February 1858 progressed and the icebergs began to spread out. By mid-March, open lanes of water had begun to appear, but despite several efforts to free the ship, the Fox was held by the ice until 26 April. They had been held by the ice for 242 days.[1]
Arctic summer
Two days later, they were safely anchored at Holsteinborg, Greenland, where their health, spirits and provisions were restored until their departure on 10 May. They remained in the area of Upernavik, attempts at advancement forestalled by the remaining pack ice. With July, their progress improved as open leads in the ice presented themselves. Supplies were supplemented by regular hunting of polar bear, seal, reindeer and various birds. Meetings and barter with Inuit, emboldened by previous contact with European explorers, occurred throughout the summer. However, no information regarding Franklin was obtained, although they had some recollection of other explorers, including John Rae.
By August, the Fox was steaming towards Beechey Island, known to have been Franklin's first winter encampment in 1845–46. They arrived on 11 August, the once desolate site now including a depot house and several small boats. Letters left previously at the site were taken aboard. On Beechey, McClintock placed a stone monument to Franklin and his crew, provided by Lady Franklin and constructed by Henry Grinnell, before departing on 16 August.
Through Barrow Strait, the Fox passed the same waters that held the Enterprise and Investigator nine years earlier during the McClure Arctic Expedition. Bellot Strait was explored as the ship probed the westward ice, already anticipating the onset of winter. Caches of provisions were made on shore in anticipation of separate explorations in the coming spring. By 28 September they had pushed to their wintering place off of Point Kennedy. The ship was prepared for winter once again, and a magnetic observatory was built.
The second winter
By November, the crew had again settled into winter habits, occasionally hunting and brewing sugar beer. Dogsled exploration and depot parties braved drifting ice and temperatures of −15°F. On 7 November the ship's engineer George Brands died suddenly, presumably from apoplexy, and was buried on shore. Temperatures reached −47°F as animals became scarce and winds became fierce. No regular schooling was conducted, although several crewmembers busied themselves by studying navigation. 1859 was welcomed amid improvised celebrations below deck. By February, animals began to return with the increasing sunlight. One member of the crew came down with scurvy, as he had avoided the preserved meats.
The sled dogs were separated into three teams as land parties (McClure, Captain Allen Young and Doctor David Walker) departed to extend the search on 17 February, with temperatures no less severe. McClintock's dogs experienced much difficulty with the journey, and the planned trip was shortened. Nights were passed in snow huts. On 2 March they were surprised to encounter four Inuit returning from a seal hunt. One of them wore a naval button that came, he said, from a group of Europeans who had starved near a river – Franklin's last survivors, as confirmed by John Rae in 1854. Another had met with Rae's expedition in the same area.
The next day, the entire 45 members of this group of Inuit arrived. McClintock purchased all of the Franklin relics they possessed, mostly silverware and buttons. While none of the natives had seen Franklin's crew alive, several had seen their remains. Some told of a group of survivors from a three-masted ship crushed by the ice west of King William's Island, placing them in the same area as described by Rae. McClure's party returned to the Fox with this evidence on 14 March, having travelled some 360 miles and charting 120 new miles of the coast. Young's party had already returned to the ship without major discoveries. Doctor Walker's team, sent to retrieve cached provisions, returned without success on 25 March.
On April 2, McClintock finally set out for King William Island to followup on the Inuit reports, with a plan to divide his company into two teams to more quickly explore the island - Lieutenant W. R. Hobson would lead one party to explore the north coast of King William Island, and McClintock himself would lead one along the southern shore. On April 20, McClintock encountered another group of Inuit. In addition to providing extensive relics, they described two ships near King William's Island. One of the ships had sunk in deep water, while the other was broken upon the ice with one body aboard. They described the European survivors making for the "large river" with boats in the fall of that year, many falling on the way. The following winter, their bones had been found. Following their directions, a skeleton was located on the route on 24 May, confirmed as a crewman by the remaining garments. He appeared to have died where he fell on the journey. [1]
Final communications of Franklin
The final Franklin communication found by Hobson and McClintock in May 1859 in a cairn south of Back Bay, King William Island
Meanwhile, near Cape Jane Franklin, the sledge party led by Lt. Hobson located the first written communication recovered from Franklin's Expedition[1] inside a message cairn (note that the date of wintering at Beechey has been attributed to error):
H. M. ships 'Erebus' and 'Terror' wintered in the ice in
28 of May, 1847 lat. 70° 05' N. long. 98° 23' W.
Having wintered in 1846–7 at Beechey Island in lat. 74° 43' 28" N.; long. 91° 39' 15" W., after having ascended Wellington Channel to lat. 77° and returned by the west side of Cornwallis Island.
Sir John Franklin commanding the expedition.
All well.
Party consisting of 2 officers and 6 men left the ships on Monday, 24 May 1847.
Gm. Gore, Lieut.
Chas. F. Des Voeus, Mate.
Handwritten around the margin of this communication was the following:
25th April 1848
HMShips Terror and Erebus were deserted on the 22nd April 5 leagues NNW of this having been beset since 12th Sept 1846.
The officers and crews consisting of 105 souls under the command of Captain F. R. M. Crozier landed here — in Lat. 69°37’42’’ Long. 98°41’
This paper was found by Lt. Irving under the cairn supposed to have been built by Sir James Ross in 1831 — 4 miles to the Northward — where it had been deposited by the late Commander Gore in May June 1847.
Sir James Ross’ pillar has not however been found and the paper has been transferred to this position which is that in which Sir J. Ross’ pillar was erected.
Sir John Franklin died on the 11th of June 1847 and the total loss by deaths in the Expedition has been to this date 9 officers and 15 men.
[signed] F. R. M. Crozier Captain & Senior Offr
And start on tomorrow 26th for Backs Fish River
[signed] James Fitzjames Captain HMS Erebus
Signed by Captains Crozier and Fitzjames, it also states "and start (on) to-morrow, 26th, for Back's Fish River," and documents the position of original placement at Sir James Ross's pillar. At this point, Franklin's crews were likely retreating for their lives. McClintock, a few days behind Hobson, continued searching the area for additional clues, which included the discovery of a large boat that had been prepared for river use, fastened to a large sledge. The boat contained the skeletal remains of two men and an extensive collection of objects that would have little value in an Arctic crossing. In exploring Back Bay into June, Hobson also found a cairn with a second note left by Lieutenant Gore in May 1847, its content similar to the first. More abandoned equipment surrounded the cairn, the most interesting of which were taken. These sites appear to have been untouched by the natives, and no part of a ship was seen.
Amid melting ice, McClintock reached the Fox on 19 June. Hobson had arrived five days earlier, unable to walk from his ordeal, but recovered on ship. Young had also returned earlier, similarly impaired by the harsh conditions, but had set out again. A few members of the crew had developed signs of scurvy, and Thomas Blackwell, the man who first contracted the disease, had perished of it before McClintock's return. Young returned again on 27 June, having mapped Peel Sound, but finding no traces of Franklin.
Preparations for departure were made in July, and a cairn containing detailed records of their efforts was constructed. On 9 August the ice allowed them to begin steaming out, and despite the loss of their two engineers and dangerous ice, open seas were soon reached. The port of Godhavn on the west coast of Greenland was reached on 29 July, where their Inuit guides were paid and discharged. The Fox made port in London on 21 September 1859, having lost three members of her crew.
Legacy
McClintock and Hobson discovered the last written communications from the last survivors of the Franklin expedition, confirming elements of the history maintained by local Inuit as well as the date of Franklin's own death.
McClintock provided the first survey of the west coast of King William's Land.[1] In recognition of his services, he was knighted, and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1865.[2] McClintock and members of his crew were awarded the Arctic Medal as well.
McClintock's observations of persistent pack ice in Victoria Strait confirmed the hopelessness of Franklin's attempts to push south through the unexplored passage.[3] A separate channel to the east of King William Island through James Ross Strait and Rae Strait, sheltered from the pack by the island but unknown to Franklin, might have provided a safe passage to his ships. Roald Amundsen would ultimately achieve the first complete navigation of the Northwest passage via these straits in 1903-06.
The Northwest Passage (NWP) is a sea route from the northern Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.
Sir John Ross was a British Royal Navy officer and Polar explorer. He was the uncle of Sir James Clark Ross, who explored the Arctic with him, and later led expeditions to Antarctica.
Sir John Franklin was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer of the Arctic. Franklin also served as Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land from 1837 to 1843. He disappeared while on his last expedition, attempting to chart and navigate the Northwest Passage in the North American Arctic. The icebound ships were abandoned and the entire crew died, from causes such as: starvation, hypothermia, tuberculosis, lead poisoning, zinc deficiency, and scurvy.
HMS Erebus was a Hecla-class bomb vessel designed by Sir Henry Peake and constructed by the Royal Navy in Pembroke dockyard, Wales in 1826. The vessel was the second in the Royal Navy named after Erebus, the dark region of Hades in Greek mythology. The 372-ton ship was armed with two mortars – one 13 in (330 mm) and one 10 in (254 mm) – and 10 guns. The ship took part in the Ross expedition of 1839-1843, and was abandoned in 1848 during the third Franklin expedition. The sunken wreck was discovered by the Canadian Victoria Strait Expedition in September 2014.
HMS Resolute was a mid-19th-century barque-rigged ship of the British Royal Navy, specially outfitted for Arctic exploration. Resolute became trapped in the ice and was abandoned in 1854. Recovered by an American whaler, she was returned to Queen Victoria in 1856. Timbers from the ship were later used to construct the Resolute desk which was presented to the President of the United States and is currently located in the White House Oval Office.
King William Island is an island in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, which is part of the Arctic Archipelago. In area it is between 12,516 km2 (4,832 sq mi) and 13,111 km2 (5,062 sq mi) making it the 61st-largest island in the world and Canada's 15th-largest island. Its population, as of the 2016 census, was 1,279, all of whom live in the island's only community, Gjoa Haven.
Admiral Sir Edward Belcher was a British naval officer, hydrographer, and explorer. Born in Nova Scotia, he was the great-grandson of Governor Jonathan Belcher. He was briefly married to Diana Jolliffe, stepdaughter of Captain Peter Heywood, that marriage ending upon her application for legal separation for his having infected her with venereal disease.
Admiral Sir Francis Leopold McClintock was an Irish explorer in the British Royal Navy, known for his discoveries in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. He confirmed explorer John Rae's controversial report gathered from Inuit sources on the fate of Franklin's lost expedition, the ill-fated Royal Navy undertaking commanded by Sir John Franklin in 1845 to be the first to traverse the Northwest Passage.
Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier was an Irish officer of the Royal Navy and polar explorer who participated in six expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. In May 1845, he was second-in-command to Sir John Franklin and captain of HMS Terror during the Franklin expedition to discover the Northwest Passage, which ended with the deaths of all 129 men.
Sir Richard Collinson was an English naval officer and explorer of the Northwest Passage.
Sir James Clark Ross was a British Royal Navy explorer known for his exploration of the Arctic with Sir William Parry and Sir John Ross, his uncle, and in particular, his own expedition to Antarctica (1839-1843).
North Star Bay, also known as Thule Harbor and Wolstenholme Bay, is a bay off the mouth of Wolstenholme Fjord, Greenland.
The McClure Arctic Expedition of 1850, among numerous British search efforts to determine the fate of the Franklin's lost expedition, is distinguished as the voyage during which Robert McClure became the first person to confirm and transit the Northwest Passage by a combination of sea travel and sledging. McClure and his crew spent three years locked in the pack ice aboard HMS Investigator before abandoning it and making their escape across the ice. Rescued by HMS Resolute, which was itself later lost to the ice, McClure returned to England in 1854, where he was knighted and rewarded for completing the passage.
The Rae–Richardson Polar Expedition of 1848 was an early British effort to determine the fate of the lost Franklin Polar Expedition. Led overland by Sir John Richardson and John Rae, the team explored the accessible areas along Franklin's proposed route near the Mackenzie and Coppermine rivers.
Vice-Admiral William John Samuel Pullen was a Royal Navy officer who was the first European to sail along the north coast of Alaska from the Bering Strait to the Mackenzie River in Canada. His 1849 journey was one of the many unsuccessful expeditions to rescue Sir John Franklin and explore the Northwest Passage.
Wolstenholme Island is an island in Baffin Bay, in the Avannaata municipality, off northwestern Greenland.
Thomas Abernethy was a Scottish seafarer, gunner in the Royal Navy, and polar explorer. Because he was neither an officer nor a gentleman, he was little mentioned in the books written by the leaders of the expeditions he went on, but was praised in what was written and was awarded five Arctic Medals. He was in parties that, for their time, reached the furthest north, the furthest south (twice), and the nearest to the South Magnetic Pole. In 1831, along with James Clark Ross's team of six, Abernethy was in the first party ever to reach the North Magnetic Pole.
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