The Franklin Arctic Expedition.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XII, Issue 588, 15 February 1881, Page 7

The Franklin Arctic Expedition.

We take from a late issue of the New York Herald the following remarks by Commander Cheyne on the true cause of the annihilation of Franklin’s expedition : —“Franklin’s companions were starved to death by the contractor who supplied preserved meats—or, rather, preserved filth—to the Erebus and Terror. This statement I make upon clear undeniable grounds as follows The contractor who supplied Sir John Franklin’s expedition also supplied the first searching expedition under Sir James Clarke Ross with preserved meat. What was our experience ? In very many instances eight pound tins labelled * roast beef’ and 1 roast mutton’ were found to contain nothing but bones. Meat tins contained rotten vegetables, but never the reverse. The public will hardly credit the statement when I say that the whole of the animals were preserved in tins excepting the horns, hoofs, and hides ; the very entrails and contents were preserved for our subsistence during an A retie voyage, when no other provisions could be procurable. Often were we, in the midshipmen’s mess of Her Majesty’s ship Enterprise, compelled to hold our noses while we ate our dinners so great was the stench, and often also when the daily rations served out were taken on the quarter-deck for survey and condemnation, Sir James Ross’s answer would be, 1 If I condemn those I might condemn half the provisions in the ship and then we should starve.’ As one of the victims of that contractor’s greed for money I feel the necessity of making these facts public. Now, what happened on board Her Majesty's ship Plover, another Arctic ship sent in search of Franklin ? On one day in the Arctic regions 10,570 pounds weight of preserved meats from the same contractor were found to be in a pulpy,

putrid state, and were condemned and thrown overboard as unfit for food. What happened at Malta and at Deptford ? Tint others supplement this letter by details of the survey held upon his abominable meats at those places. What large quantities of his provisions were thrown overboard from Her Majesty’s ship Herald in the Arctic regions, doubtless Captain Bedford Kim nan and will disclose. Sufficient for mo. to say that when serving in Her Majesty’s ship Resolute on Captain Austin’s expedition, my eyes lighted upon the contractor’s name on the empty t;us lying about the beach at Beachy Island, the first winter quarters of Franklin, I knew at once that starvation must have done its work, and that Franklin’s party fell victims, not to the severity of an Arctic climate, but to this man’s cupidity. Thank God the remains of Lieutenant Irving, one of Franklin’s officers, as known by a Royal Naval College medal found in his open grave, have been brought away by Lieutenant Schwatka, commanding the American searching expedition, so that 1 trust a thorough investigation of all the circumstances will be demanded by the public, if only in common gratitude to those brave men who fell, one by one, in the service of their country. I give the following extract from a second cablegram received by me from Lieutenant Schwatka, 17.5. A.: —‘ Again I have got to thank you for your kind compliments. If Franklin’s men can be taken as a judge, they did all that mortal men could do and even more, if I could be taken as a judge, as these bravest of all brave men, dropping down in their very tracks halted to place a little sand over their comrades.’ To Commander Cheyne, R.N.— Sir, with the publication of this extract I ask the Press to do its utmost to expose the true cause of the utter annihilation of Franklin’s party.—John P. Cheyne, Rear Commander, R.N., and an officer of three Franklin starch expeditions. London Central Arctic Committee Rooms, No. 107, Fleet-street, Loudon, E.C., October 6th, 1880.