Osborn - Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal - or, Eighteen Months in the Polar Regions, in Search of Sir John Franklins Expedition

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DEDICATED TO
LADY FRANKLIN

By John K nox Laughton

DEDICATION

PREFACE

STRAY LEAVES FROM AN AR CTIC JOURNAL

DEPARTURE

PL AN OF SEARCH

THE ATLANT ICGREENLAND

WHALE- FISH ISLANDS

T HE ESQUIMAUX

AN ARCTIC NIGHT

GODHAAB

HERR AGAR

LEAVE DISCO

THE SHIPS

THE SCREWS

UPPERNAVIK

A CHECK

TOWI NG THE SHIPS

CAP E SHACKLETON

A BEAR HUNT

ARC TIC SPORTING

MELVILLE BAY

AN OLD WHALEMAN

DOCKIN G IN THE ICE

TRACKIN G AND TOWING

FAVOURA BLE PROSPECT

NARWHALES

ANXI ETY AND HOPE

DISSOLUTION O F AN ICEBERG

"PIO NEER" NIPPED

LIEUT. HA LKETT'S BOAT

CHAR GING THE ICE

DETENTION O FF CAPE YORK

TH E WEST WATER

LAN CASTER SOUND

ICEBERGS AND GLACIERS

A GALE IN BAR ROW'S STRAIT

STEAMING UP BA RROWS STRAIT

TRACES OF SIR J OHN FRANKLIN

TRACES OF THE LOS T EXPEDITION

FRANKLIN'S WIN TER QUARTERS

GRAV ES OF SEAMEN

BE ECHEY ISLAND

S LEDGE TRAILS

WELLIN GTON CHANNEL

THE WHITE WHALE

CROSSING WELLIN GTON CHANNEL

ALL THE VESSELS MEET

THE COMING ON OF WINTER

THE AMERI CAN SQUADRON

GO INTO WIN TER QUARTERS

LIEUTENANT MECHAM 'S ADVENTURE

RUINS ON CORNW ALLIS ISLAND

A WINT ER'S EVENING

AUTUMNA L TRAVELLING

AN A RCTIC PRAYER

WINTER OCCUPATIONS

WI NTER SCENERY

OPEN WATERS IN BAR ROW'S STRAIT

CHRISTMAS- DAY ON BOARD

AURORAS AND CLO UDLESS SKIES

WINTER EMPLOYMENTS

MASK BALLS

ROCK ETSBALLOONS

CARRIER-P IGEONSKITES

DESULTORY OCCUPATIONS

PREPARATIONS FO R TRAVELLING

NORTH-WE ST DISCOVERY

ENGLISH N.W. DISCOVERIES

NORTH-WE ST DISCOVERY

ADVANTAGE OF WINTERIN G IN HARBOUR

SLED GE EQUIPMENT

SCALE OF PROVISION

GRAND SOU THERN SEARCH

DIVISION S OF SLEDGES

SLEDGES RE ADY TO START

TRAVELL ING BY NIGHT

COLD AND FROST-BITES

INJURY TO THE EYES

ZEA L OF THE MEN

PLE ASING DREAMS

CONCLUSIO N OF JOURNEY

LIEUTENANT M'CLIN TOCK RETURNS

DISAPPEA RANCE OF ICE

ASSIST ANCE HARBOUR

BARROW'S STRAIT CLEAR OF ICE

STEAMING FOR ASSIST ANCE HARBOUR

DEPARTURE FOR J ONES'S SOUND

STOPPED B Y ICE-FIELDS

ERECTIO N OF A CAIRN

EASTERN SIDE OF BAFFIN'S BAY

VISIT FR OM ESQUIMAUX

GALE IN THE PACK

FORCING THRO UGH THE PACK

ESQU IMAUX TRACES

SEARCH FOR TH E "INTREPID"

OPINION OF FRIENDS AN D THE PUBLIC

CHANCES OF FU TURE SUCCESS

Arctic explorer, the twelfth and youngest son of Willingham Franklin of Spilsby in Lincolnshire, was born on 16 April 1786. It had been intended to bring him up for the church, but a holiday visit to the seashore excited a strong desire to go to sea, which his father vainly endeavoured to overcome by sending him for a voyage in a merchant vessel as far as Lisbon. On his return he entered the royal navy on board the Polyphemus, then just sailing for the Baltic, where she played a leading part in the battle of Copenhagen. Two months later Franklin was appointed as a midshipman to the Investigator, under the command of his cousin, Matthew Flinders , and on the point of sailing for Australia. While in the Investigator Franklin distinguished himself by his remarkable aptitude for nautical and astronomical observations; he was employed at Sydney as assistant in a little observatory which Flinders established, and won the notice of Captain King, the governor, who used to address him familiarly as Mr. Tycho Brahe. When the ship's company was broken up after the wreck of the Porpoise, Franklin accompanied Lieutenant Fowler to China in the Rolla, and, taking a passage home in the East India Company's ship Earl Camden, was with Commodore Dance in his extraordinary engagement with Linois (15 Feb. 1804), on which occasion Fowler commanded on the lower deck and Franklin took charge of the signals. On arriving in England Franklin was appointed to the Bellerophon, in which he was present in the battle of Trafalgar, again having charge of the signals, and being one of the few on the Bellerophon's poop who escaped unhurt. Two years later he joined the Bedford, and, continuing in her after his promotion to lieutenant's rank (11 Feb. 1808), was employed on the home station till the peace in 1814, when the ship was ordered to North America, to form part of the expedition against New Orleans. In a boat attack on some gunboats in Lac Borgne Franklin was slightly wounded; and he had besides a full share in the laborious duties of the campaign. Its failure may account for the fact that no attention was paid to the strong recommendation of Sir John Lambert, in command of the troops with which he had been serving, and that he remained a lieutenant, serving on board the Forth frigate, with Sir William Bolton, Nelson's nephew. With Franklin's appointment in January 1818 to command the hired brig Trent, fitting out to accompany Captain Buchan in the Dorothea, Franklin's career as an Arctic explorer commenced. Their instructions were to pass between Spitzbergen and Greenland, use their best endeavours to reach the pole, and thence, if possible, to shape a course direct for Behring's Straits. The two ships sailed on 25 April, sighted Spitzbergen on 26 May, and passed without difficulty along its western coast; they were then stopped by the ice, and, being driven into the pack on 30 July, the Dorothea received so much damage as to be in momentary danger of foundering. They got into Dane's Gat, where such repairs as were possible were executed, but it was still very doubtful whether she could live through the passage home, and further contact with the ice was clearly out of the question. Buchan's instructions fully authorised him in this contingency to move into the Trent and send the Dorothea home; but he was unwilling to appear to desert his shipmates in a time of great danger. The Dorothea's state was such as to forbid her being sent home unattended, and Franklin's request that he might be allowed to go on rendered the task of superseding him the more disagreeable. So Buchan judged rightly that his proper course was to take the Dorothea home, with the Trent in close attendance on her. They arrived in Englan d on 22 Oct.