After the Lost Franklin Expedition by Peter Baxter

Author:Peter Baxter [Baxter, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Adventurers & Explorers, History, Maritime History & Piracy, Europe, Great Britain, Victorian Era (1837-1901)
ISBN: 9781526727381
Google: I-_gDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
Published: 2019-01-30T00:45:09+00:00

Part IV

Heroic Failure

Chapter 1

Sir John Richardson’s instructions from the Admiralty covered several pages of tightly scripted text, detailing the route he was to follow and the objectives that he was to keep in mind. From some crypt in the extravagant interior of the Admiralty, wherein the Lords resided, a small corps of junior bureaucrats pored over the known maps of North America. In congress, they determined the means and direction by which Richardson and Rae would negotiate more than 4,000 miles, to examine a predetermined tract of territory defined on their behalf. The document ended with an admission that the instructions given could not be expected to meet every contingency, and so Richardson was at liberty to deviate from them at his discretion, and even alter the objective if he chose.

Upon these plans, when they were published, Doctor Richard King heaped his customary scorn, questioning whether the objective mooted had science or humanity in view. The essence of his argument was that, while ocean exploration had its place in geographic advancement, no ship could achieve on the Arctic Archipelago what men travelling overland could. To prove this, he pointed to the fact that more had been accomplished by a handful of overland expeditions in mapping Arctic coast than all of the maritime expeditions combined – and with typical spite, he could not contain the observation that an overland expedition would never have stumbled over the Croker Mountains.

With the benefit of hindsight, it is extraordinary how astute and accurate King was in his assessment of the situation. In a long and detailed letter written to Earl Grey, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, dated 10 June 1847, he notes that Rae and Richardson’s proposed route was pointless. If the lost expedition was stranded somewhere in the region of Banks Island or Wollaston Land, the westernmost land masses of the Archipelago, they would hardly head south to a sterile coast, but east, as Rae also assumed that they would. This they would do in search of the whaling fleet, and to find the provisions left years before on Fury Beach.

‘It is to the western land of North Somerset.’ He insisted. ‘That we must direct our attention – to that spot we must bend our course.’

He also made the point that it would be much easier at that moment for an overland rescue party from the mainland to reach Franklin, than it would be for Franklin to make his way overland south to the mainland. There were now only two ways to practically provide assistance, and these were to convey provisions to the stranded party or carry the stranded party to provisions. Sending ships into the Archipelago simply invited more ships to be frozen in, and more mariners stranded. It was an absolute waste of time to send ships. Far better to authorise a second overland expedition, in support of Rae and Richardson, but this time navigating down the Great Fish River. At Chantry Inlet, if the stranded crews were not already there, provisions could be laid for the moment they would be.

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