Wilson - John Franklin

John Wilson

Trained as a geologist, John Wilson is now a full-time writer. After an Honours degree from St. Andrews University in Scotland and fifteen years as a research geologist, he began freelance writing in 1989. He has published five young adult novels. His first novel for children, Weet, a fantasy of time travel and dinosaurs, was published in 1995 (Napoleon). With the addition of Weets Quest (Napoleon, 1997), and Weet Alone (Napoleon, 1999), it has grown into a trilogy. Drawing on a long-standing interest in history, Wilson wrote Across Frozen Seas (Beach Holme, 1997), a story set during the tragic Franklin Expedition of 1845. This theme expanded into an adult work, North With Franklin: The Lost Journals of James Fitzjames (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1999), a fictionalized journal of one of Franklins officers. He returned to historical fiction for young adults with a book set during the Spanish Civil War (Lost in Spain, Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2000). Wilson has also written a biography of Norman Bethune (Norman Bethune: A Life of Passionate Conviction, XYZ Publishing, 1999), Book 1 in The Quest Library collection.

Wilson teaches courses at Malaspina-University College in Nanaimo, and he tours to schools and conferences giving readings and workshops. He also writes reviews of both adult and childrens books for The Globe and Mail and Quill & Quire. John Wilson lives with his family in Lantzville, British Columbia. Comments on his books may be sent to John at johnwilson-author@home.com

THE QUEST LIBRARY
is edited by
Rhonda Bailey

The Editorial Board is composed of
Ven Begamudr
Lynne Bowen
Janet Lunn

Editorial correspondence:
Rhonda Bailey, Editorial Director
XYZ Publishing
P.O. Box 250
Lantzville BC
VOR 2HO
E-mail: xyzed@telus.net

In the same collection

Ven Begamudr, Isaac Brock: Larger Than Life.

Lynne Bowen, Robert Dunsmuir: Laird of the Mines.

Kate Braid, Emily Carr: Rebel Artist.

William Chalmers, George Mercer Dawson: Geologist, Scientist,

Explorer.

Stephen Eaton Hume, Frederick Banting: Hero, Healer, Artist.

Betty Keller, Pauline Johnson: First Aboriginal Voice of Canada.

Dave Margoshes, Tommy Douglas: Building the New Society.

Raymond Plante, Jacques Plante: Behind the Mask.

Arthur Slade, John Diefenbaker: An Appointment With Destiny.

John Wilson, Norman Bethune: A Life of Passionate Conviction.

Rachel Wyatt, Agnes Macphail: Champion of the Underdog.

John Franklin

Copyright 2001 John Wilson and XYZ Publishing.

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisher or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency is an infringement of the copyright law.

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

Wilson, John, 1951-

John Franklin: traveller on undiscovered seas

(The Quest Library; 10).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-9688166-1-4

1. Franklin, John, Sir, 17861847. 2. Canada, Northern Discovery and exploration. 3. Explorers Great Britain Biography. I. Title. II. Series: Quest library; 10.

FC396l.l.F73W54 2001 917.1904l092 C2001-940384-4
F1090.5W54 2001

Legal Deposit: Second quarter 2001

National Library of Canada

Bibliothque nationale du Qubec

XYZ Publishing acknowledges the support of The Quest Library project by the Canadian Studies Program and the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) of the Department of Canadian Heritage. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the Government of Canada.

The publishers further acknowledge the financial support our publishing program receives from The Canada Council for the Arts, the ministre de la Culture et des Communications du Qubec, and the Socit de dveloppement des entreprises culturelles.

Chronology and Index: Lynne Bowen
Layout: discript enr.
Cover design: Zirval Design
Cover illustration: Francine Auger
Photo researcher: Marilyn Mattenley
John Franklins signature: National Archives of Canada, Reel A-1026

Printed and bound in Canada

For my father

No; there are no more sunny continents no more islands of the blessed hidden under the far horizon, tempting the dreamer over the undiscovered sea; nothing but those weird and tragic shores, whose cliffs of everlasting ice and mainlands of frozen snow, which have never produced anything to us but a late and sad discovery of depths of human heroism, patience, and bravery, such as imagination could scarcely dream of.

Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine,
November, 1855.
(Quoted in Frozen in Time by Owen Beattie and John Geiger).

Contents

Trying to stay alive. Gathering Tripe de Roche for supper at an encampment in the Barren Lands, 1821.

Thats the man who ate his boots!

L ieutenant John Franklin is sitting like a pathetic Buddha on the bare wooden boards of an almost-empty room in a makeshift fort thousands of miles from his home. Around him the wind howls unimpeded over a frozen eternity of ice and snow, a barren emptiness that uncaringly kills those who challenge it unprepared. The journey here has been long, but it is almost over. The days are darkening into winter, a winter Franklin cannot survive. Life has apparently fled this harsh landscape fled to the south where there is food and warmth, or into hibernation where neither is necessary. Franklin cannot flee, he is too weak, and if he sinks into hibernation he will never arise from it.

Perhaps he is dreaming of the friendly fields of his English home and regretting he did not follow his fathers footsteps to become a comfortable provincial businessman. More likely he is dreaming of food, for John Franklin is starving to death. His skin is pale beneath the dirt that has not been washed off for weeks. His clothes are filthy and in tatters and they hang from his skeletal frame as if made for a much larger man. Franklin is only occasionally in touch with reality and is so weak he cannot stand without assistance. His eyes drift in and out of focus as they wander around the room. In the corner lie the bodies of two men. They have been dead for several days and are beginning to smell, but no one living has the strength to drag the dead outside. Beside Franklin lies a third man. He is not dead yet, but it is hard to tell by looking at him. His breathing is so shallow as to be unde-tectable, and the only signs of life are the occasional grunts that he emits in response to whatever fevered dream is passing through his brain. It will be only a matter of hours before he joins the two in the corner.