ILL-FATED PARTY.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXX, Issue 11195, 2 May 1930, Page 7

ILL-FATED PARTY.

FR AN KLIN’S EX PEDIT JON. AYRAPPED IN AIYSTERY. For over three-quarters of a century the fate of Sir John Franklin, and ol the 128 officers and men of his expedition, has been wrapped in mystery, says a Canadian publication. Events of the past- few months have given ri;se to the hope that additionai light may be shed upon the detains oi that heroic adventure, by the aid of documents and sketches which the Hon. diaries Stewart, Minister oi the Interior, has acquired for the use Oj the Department, alter an investigation by Air. 0. S. Finnic, Director of the North-west Territories and Yukon Branch. Sir John Franklin’s expedition sailed into the Arctic in 184-5 in the two ships, Erebus and Terror. The ships were seen by a whaler near the entrance to Lancaster ■'jouncl. on 2Gth July in that year and from that tune neither the ships nor any members or their crews were seen again by white men. In 1854 Doctor .John Rue. an officer of the Hudson's Bay Company, lound a band of Eskimos who said they had seen white men travelling painfully southwa d along the shore ol King William Island and that these men had all died. In 185 b Captain Leopold M'Clintock found in a cairn at Yictory Point, near the north-west angle of King William Island, a printed Admiralty form on the margin of which was written, over the signatures of Captains Grozier and Eitzjames, the commanders of the two ships, a few terse but very expressive sentences. these conveyed the information that Sir John Franklin had passed away on lltli June, i&4<. that eight other officers and fifteen men had died, that the ships had been abandoned, and that the remainder of the expedition, 105 persons in ail. would start the following morning (2Ctii April, 1348) for Back River on the mainland. Although many othei expeditions have sought Franklin this is the only record that lia- been found of the dilated party. RECORDS BURIED WITH LEADER. It lias always been held by authorities on exploration that important records of the expedition must have been deposited by the survivors before the effort to reach civilisation by way of Black River was begun, and that the most probable place was in the grave of the leader. The Department of tlie Interior would not at this late date, be justified in equipping and sending out an expedition to search for the grave of Sir John Franklin, but with the development of Canada’s northland, departmental officers concerned with the care of the native population, are continually patrolling through that portion oi tlie Arctic and it would be an inexpensive matter for them to devote a little time to searching for records which would be of the greatest value to Canada and to the Empire. Therefore, when a shorttime ago, tiie Hon. Charles Stewart was appraised that documents were in existence which purported to give the location of Franklin’s grave, ho directed that the matter bo carefully investigated, and as a result the papers and maps have been purchased for the Department. TO SEARCH FDR GRAVE. These papers consist of a lengthy manuscript accompanied by maps prepared, many years ago. from the statements of a member of the expedition headed by the United States explorer. (diaries F. Hall. This expedition spent the period from 1864 to 1869 in tlie North engaged in the search for Franklin. According to the statement, Hall's expedition broke up in disorder owing to internal troubles and on that account this valuable information was lost to the head of the expedition. Explorers of the Department of the Interior have frequently visited King William Island in the course of their regular Julies but in practically every case they have heen therein winter when everything is covered with ice and snow and, besides, . the documents indicate that tlie graves are in a locality which is not ordinarily traversed by departmental officers, or others. The study of these documents is being continued, and at the first opportunity when an explorer of the North-West Territories and Yukon Branch is in that part of the Arctic he will be instructed to make a search for tlie grave of the famous explorer.