The Book of the Blue Sea by Henry Newbolt

Author:Henry Newbolt [Newbolt, Henry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781411452435
Publisher: Barnes & Noble
Published: 2017-02-16T00:00:00+00:00

John Franklin's most interesting adventures came at the beginning and end of his life; his fighting days ended in 1815, when he was twenty-nine years old, and his most famous voyage was undertaken in 1845, when he was just fifty-nine. In the thirty years between he had a mixed career, containing a whole bookful of adventures; but about these I can only tell you just enough to show how his natural love of exploration grew stronger and stronger, so that in spite of all set-backs and cross-currents it showed itself at every possible opportunity, and brought him at last to a heroic death.

First, in 1818 the Admiralty, having no war to think of, turned their attention to discovering unknown seas. Two ships, under Captain Ross and Lieutenant Parry, were to try to reach the North Pole; and two others, the Dorothea and the Trent, were to sail by a different route, and whether they reached the Pole or not, they were to search for the North-West Passage, which has always been believed to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Captain Buchan was to command the Dorothea, and Lieutenant Franklin was selected to take the Trent. These two ships were very small; the Trent leaked, and both were damaged in a heavy gale. They sailed in April and came back unsuccessful in October, after being stuck for some time in the ice pack.

In the following year two fresh expeditions were sent; Parry with two ships went again to Baffin's Bay, and Franklin was given the command of an overland party, with orders to explore the northern coast of Arctic America. This expedition was away three-and-a-half years, and failed to meet Parry and his ships, as they had been ordered to do. They returned to England in October 1822, and though they had been unsuccessful, great admiration was felt for their courage and endurance, for they had faced death by cold, treachery, drowning and famine, and had never despaired. Franklin was made a post-captain, and became also a Fellow of the Royal Society and a most popular character.

In 1823 he married, but immediately planned a fresh expedition, and in February 1825 he started again for North America. His wife consented to his going, but she was very ill, and died only six days after he sailed. This expedition too was a failure, and returned to England in September 1827. In 1828 Franklin married again; in 1829 he was knighted. Then for a time he seemed to be slipping back into his old profession, for in 1830 he was appointed to command H.M.S. Rainbow, under the command of Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm in the Mediterranean. There he spent three dull but happy years—the sailors called the ship "the Celestial Rainbow," and described her as "Franklin's Paradise." After that came another complete change: Sir John was appointed Governor of Van Diemen's Land, now called Tasmania. He was there till 1844, and though the people liked him, governing a colony was evidently not what he could do best.

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