William Battersby - James Fitzjames: The Mystery Man of the Franklin Expedition

The Mystery Man of the Franklin Expedition

WILLIAM BATTERSBY

DUNDURN PRESS

TORONTO

This book is dedicated to the memory of the late Major G.L. Dean, BA, Intelligence Corps, retired. In his old age, Admiral E.P. Charlewood described Captain James Fitzjames as my dearest friend. Guy was mine.

Copyright William Battersby, 2010

Published in the UK by The History Press 2010

First published in North America in 2010 by Dundurn Press, Ltd.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Battersby, William, 1958

James Fitzjames: the mystery man of the Franklin Expedition / by William Battersby.

ISBN 978-1-55488-781-1

1. Fitzjames, James, 1813-ca. 1849. 2. Sailors--Great Britain--Biography. 3. Explorers--Great Britain--Biography. 4. Franklin, John, Sir, 1786-1847. 5. Arctic regions--Discovery and exploration--British. 6. Northwest Passage--Discovery and exploration--British. I. Title.

FC3961.1.F58B38 2010 917.1952041092 C2010-901498-7

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

J. Kirk Howard, President

www.dundurn.com

Typesetting and origination by The History Press

Printed in Great Britain

On 24 March 1845, Commander James Fitzjames, RN, sat down in his cabin on board the newly commissioned HMS Erebus in Woolwich Docks and began to write:

Captain Fitzjames presents his compliments to Mr OBrien and sends him as long since requested a rough summary of his services.

For further details of the services of himself, Commander E.P. Charlewood (now superintendent of Dover Railway) and Lieut. Henry Eden (now commanding HMS Lizard) he would refer him to the Supplementary Report on Steam Navigation to India, in 1838, which gives Col. Chesneys dispatches on the subject.

HMS Erebus
Woolwich

24 March 1845

The Mr OBrien (actually OByrne) to whom Fitzjames was writing was compiling a complete Naval Biography of every serving Royal Navy officer and he had sent Fitzjames a detailed questionnaire. This questionnaire was the rough summary of his services which Fitzjames was struggling to complete before his ship sailed. He detailed with care every ship he had served on, even down to short, detached duties of a few months. He completed the questionnaire meticulously, squeezing his writing small where necessary to fit all the information into the correct boxes on the form. His responses overflowed onto an extra page and a half, which he carefully attached to the original form. But he left blank the second box on the front of the form, which asked: Dates of Birth and Marriage, name of Wife, and number of children? If possessing any Relatives in the Service? Their names?

Why?

Six weeks after posting the partially completed questionnaire, James Fitzjames completely and quite unexpectedly disappeared. For ever. This book was written to answer a simple question: who was this man who hid all reference to his family and background?

I started the research which led to this book simply because I was interested in the Franklin Expedition and wanted to know where and when each member of it was born. I found that it was easy to get that information for most members of the expedition, but material on James Fitzjames was incredibly difficult to pin down. I had to go back to contemporary sources to establish anything and by the time my research was complete I had, in effect, written an entire book on this remarkable man.

Although most of what appears here is based on my own research, I have been helped by many other people. So many that it is difficult to list them all here, so to anyone who helped me and who does not appear now, I can only apologise. My thanks must first go to Glenn M. Stein FRGS, one of todays finest polar historians, and to Martin Crozier who is, of course, related to Captain Francis Crozier, captain of HMS Terror. Both have been enormous sources of strength and encouragement. I would also like to thank Simon Hamlet, my publisher at The History Press, for all his support.

Many librarians and curators have helped me and must have been puzzled by the strange twists and turns of my research as I hounded the shades of Captain James Fitzjames through dusty byways of the worlds archives. Thanks to everyone at The National Archives in Kew, the British Library, the Royal Geographical Society archive, the National Maritime Museum, the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge, the National Library of Australia, the Hoare and Company archive, the Bank of England archive, the National Gallery archive, the Derbyshire Record Office in Matlock, the Hertfordshire archives at Hertford and the Wirral Archives Service at Birkenhead. Since, in many cases, I never knew your names, please do not be offended if I do not thank you in person, but I would especially like to record my thanks to Heather Lane, Naomi Boneham and Lucy Martin of the SPRI and Pamela Hunter of Hoare & Co. Many people at the National Maritime Museum have been generous with their time including Barbara Tomlinson, Virginia Llado-Buisan, Bernie Bryant, Doug McCarthy and Melissa Viscardi. I also much appreciate the kind help of Bruno Pappalardo at The National Archives. Others to whom I owe a debt of thanks include David Woodman and Ann Savours, William Wills, the great-grand-nephew of Lt Le Vesconte of HMS Clio and HMS Erebus, Dr Michael Bailey of the Newcomen Society and the indefatigable Russell Potter, Professor of English at Rhode Island University. Professors Russell Taichman and Richard Simons have also been helpful in sharing their opinions and insights. Several descendants or relatives of people mentioned in the book have been most generous including Professor Robin Coningham, Georgina Naylor-Coningham and Marilyn Hamilton. Im most grateful to Jack Layfield, Jennifer Snell and Carol Holker for showing me at first hand so much of Sir John Barrows life at Ulverston. I would like to thank Captain (then Commander) James Morley, RN, then captain of HMS Lancaster, and the officers and company of that beautiful ship for their hospitality when I spent several days on board some years ago and experienced a little of life in the Royal Navy.

Lastly, but by no means least, several friends and relatives have been a great source of help and encouragement, including my old friend and drinking partner from the Institute of Archaeology, Julian Bowsher, and Dr Michael Michael. I should particularly like to thank my friends and family for much help, especially my parents Celia and Brian Battersby and my friend Rainer, Baron von Echlin, for rigorous proof reading and comments on the later drafts of the book, and my wife Julia for extremely insightful analysis of the opening sections of the book. My children Maddie, Hannah and Jamie should especially be mentioned for their initiative in baking me a fiftieth birthday cake decorated with the face of Captain Sir John Franklin and a representation of the headless skeletons in the ships boat at Erebus Bay undoubtedly a first in Franklin studies.