IN SEARCH OF THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXI, Issue 288, 9 June 1909, Page 6

IN SEARCH OF THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE.

On February 16, 1825, John Franklin, the great Arctic explorer, a native of Lincolnshire, sailed from Liverpool on one of his expeditions in .search of a passage to the North. Pole. When we consider the ■difficulties of such an attempt at- a, period when canned meats, stored electricity, and many other modern appliances were unknown, we may well wonder at the indomitable pluck of the wonderful adventurer, whose .whole life was spent in enduring hardships in the cause of knowledge. He set out for the third and last time with H.M.S. tho Erebus and Terror, in 1845, and from that fateful voyage never returned. Lady Franklin spent many thousands in sending ships to the Arctic regions in sea-reh of her husband? but' it was not until the year 1859 that a tin can was discovered containing an account of the death of Sir John on June 11, 1847. This pathetic document, written by the surgeon, who probably only survived him a. few days, with , all the relics of the brave party, were conveyed to Greenwich Hospital, and a grant of £10,000 was made to the intrepid ex- : plorers who thus settled the vexed questions as to whether franklin was alive or dead.