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John Franklin
15th April 1786, in Spilsby, Lincolnshire, England - 11th June 1847, not quite known where, but probably somewhere near Boothia Peninsula, (now in Nunavut) Canada
Interesting Trivia:
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Took part in the battle of Trafalgar
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He made maps of over 3000 miles of the coast line of north Canada
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Wrote: “Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea” in 1823, followed in 1828 by ” Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea”
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Got his Knighthood in 1828
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Has a park named after him in Hobart, Tasmania, also a river and even a city. His statue stands in his hometown as well as in Hobart
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The ballad "Lady Franklin's Lament" was written about his wife who did not want to give up the search for him (She used her whole fortune)
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Various songs and stories (more or less fictional) were written about Franklin’s expedition and fate
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Married to: 1st wife: Eleanor Anne Porden (she died in 1825), 1 daughter. 2nd wife: Jane Griffin in 1828 (she lived from 1791 - 1875)
His Story:
He came from a very large family, twelve children in all and like many of his fellow explorers, he joined the Royal Navy at a young age (he was 15). He was part of various historic battles in the Napoleonic and other wars. He traveled with his uncle, who was a captain on the HMS Investigator, to explore the coast of Australia.
His first expedition (1819 – 1822), took him overland to the north of Canada. He and his team explored eastwards along many miles of the coastline. This expedition was a disaster as more than half of the men in his party died. Various stories circulated of how the remaining men survived, some say they became cannibals or ate their own leather boots.
In his second expedition (1825–27), he went westward to Return Reef and Eastward to the mouth of the Coppermine (where he had been before). They explored the shores of the Beaufort Sea. This expedition was more successful as they were better prepared and equipped. When he arrived at Great Bear Lake he built a fort, which he named Fort Franklin. It was later renamed Déline.
He became the Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) and served for 6 years (1836 – 1843), when he was removed from office. His humane ideals did not fare well with the local civil servants. Also, his and his wife’s adventurous behaviour did not fit well in the so-called “upper class” society of Tasmania.
His wife worked well with him, and was responsible for the creation of the botanical gardens. She also set up a museum and a college. They were well liked by the people of Tasmania
It was the third expedition he undertook which went down in history. It was a tragic one as none of the team members ever made it back home. The expedition was to finally chart the Northwest Passage. Franklin was asked as many others had declined (among them Sir James Ross). Franklin really wanted to go, despite of his 59 years. They were to go with 2 ships, the HMS Erebus, commanded by Captain James Fitzjames and the HMS Terror, commanded by Captain Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier. Both ships had steam engines which gave them extra speed and power. They had three years worth of supplies on board in the form of preserved foods, most of them in tins. These tins proved to be extremely hazardous for the crew as lead was seeping into the contents, thus poisoning the crew slowly.
On 19th May, 1845, the Expedition left England, there were a total of 134 men party of this. The aim was to find the North-West Passage. They sailed to Greenland where they unloaded the supplies. The party then continued with 129 men left. They were last seen on 26th July, 1845 by Captain Dannett of the Prince of Wales whaling ship. They were in Melville Bay. After that, no one heard from them again. Later evidence found that Franklin's ships had been frozen in the ice between Victoria Island and King William Island. When Franklin died in 1847, Captain Crozier and the remaining men decided to leave the ships and try to get back south to civilization. None of them made it . In the years after the disappearance of the Expedition, more than 40 search parties were sent looking for them, some financed by the Admiralty and Franklin’s wife. In the end all of them came up empty, the men had perished in the harsh Artic conditions. All they found was evidence that the men had been there, they found relics of the expedition and some graves of crewmen. Francis Leopold McClintock found a note, left by left by Captain Crozier and Captain Fitzjames in May 1859, south of Back Bay, King William Island in a cairn which told more about the fate of the men. He found several bodies on the southern coast of the island.
To make it more tragic, various other ships and more men were lost trying to find Franklin and his men. Looking for the men lead to great geographical knowledge of the area as the search parties went where no European had gone before.
Te Papa Whale exhibition in Washington, DC