TRAGEDIES OF THE SEA.

NZ Truth, Issue 132, 28 December 1907, Page 7

TRAGEDIES OF THE SEA.

LAST VOYAGE (MIR JOltN fRANKUN. The Erebus mA mtlie ltt^ic. 105 MEN StARVEIV Ta^DEATH. "And as They: Fell They Diea." >

.The Polar clouds uplift— ';• A moment and no more^v -.. . ; ., ; And through the snowy drift. We see them :on the shore >, A band of gallant hearts, « fi - Well-ordered, calm and brave; Braced for their closing parts— Their long march to the grave. Sir John Franklin, according to McClintock, was the first real discbv* erer of the North-west Passage from Europe to . China, impracticable tKbuch that passage is to navigators *• When Franklin was Governor of Tasmania, the ships Erebus and Terror were, under Sir James Ross, engaged m a voyage of research m the' Antarctic Sea, and had returned to Hobart m 1841. It was here that ; Franklin > first became acquainted with the ships that-, played so prominent a part m his later history. During the stay of the -\'cssejs;at : Hobart ■ * ' A 'BALL WAS GIVEN -— - : on board the Erebus by the-, of that ship and of the Terror^ ■'. arid . which the Government House party duly attended*-." The invitation;: card, usually so trivial is . still preserved among. the Franklin relics. No more ironic illustration of man's ignorance of his^yprklly future is possible than the light-hearted meeting of Crozier and' Franklin,, host and guest, on .the deck of the, doomed vessel which, five years later, was to bear the' elder •and accompany the younger, .to their dreary, icy, Arctic grave. •In Franklin's case 'it must have been ambition that spurred him on to his final goal, and no-fflat- • ter how one may admire the man, few persons will agree that a 'five years' residence m Sunny Tasmania,, or m Sydney cither,- living m the lap of luxury, is fit training for anyone to inure himself f.o the bitter cold and STORMY WINDS OF THE POLES. In 1845 a new expedition' was organised by the British Admiralty to make one more attempt at the 'NorthWest Passage. Captain Sir-;. JohnFranklin was placed m command, with Captain Crozier, Commander ' Fitzjjainea^ Lieutenant Fairholme, arid' other officers of experience as his ; '-su(fooi-" dinates. Crozier, while a midshipman, had passed a winter m the-Arc-tic with. Parry. : ""■ • .::■'■ C\:'i The two vessels, Erebus and Terror, hod been strengthened, auxiliary screws, engines, and fuel .provided,,' and they were provisioned for ''three years. The expedition sailed on May l'fl. and reached a point near Disco, Greenland, early m July. There a transport, which had accompanied them with stores, was despatched with letters— the last letters— from

the crews to tlieir friends ia Britain. At this time' Sir: JeM Franklin, nearly 80 years of age • was hal» and active. ■ "'■"■'- :- : ' '■" . "... ■■■„;. ■': ' : , . . : The expedition -was .last, S'eeri by a whalel" on the 26th of the same month after" wfcich nothing wa£ heard from it of a certain, nature, "till 1854, nine years : later; • Nor •vfrere even, the sad butlihes then .obtained filled m till 1859, when Mcpiihtock' forever- -; set the matteßv.at rest. 1 About 18 r months 'aftet' the expedition had been last seen, ' Sir John Ross addressed- letters to the Admiralty, m which he expressed the idea that the : ships were - frozen : m near the western, end of- Melville Island. ISToialarm w&s felt, -nevertheless . the Admiralty' called a counoil of naval officers who had served m the Arctiov^T'liey ctmsMei?ed: that no serious, need :he entertained, but- that .prepaliation!rshould'be;made^for: the "r elict of .the-- party, provided no information .should arrive that: summer. ! It .would -be- impossible to record all r the expeditions - sent out from this time forth, as the briefest account ,of. their -labors: would fill several volumes. The British Government fitted- out,7 a whole series of searching expeditions':; the Hudson's Bay 1 Coiupanv several land parties ; Laidy Franklin, spent a fortune, and private aid came from all quarters. America furnished Kane and athers, '•who-- did wonders m" the Arctic : and Prance, sent ' Bellot' and Dh Bray. Britain, at different times, sent out ho fewer than" 32 shipsj -and the United States three. . : -It was :later proved tliat the routes ordered ;by ■ the Admiralty were well devised;- yet,. -with the exception of some- . : . i : OF A WRECK purchased' fro.m the Esquimaux' by Cjapt^ijf Coljinson, and supposed jto be, parts' ,of „the Erebus or : Terror, it. was reserved for private enterprise to make the onlr real discoveries of value. .' . ; \~. , , .' Dr. John Rae was, i 1853-4, m the service of the . Hudson*. Bay Company, who, had .despatched him to Re-, pulse )3ay. •On this jp.ur'ney he ' obtained positive evidence from the Esquimaux, of/, the fate of the Erebus ; ah<( Terror parties. In the spring (--six years befbre— about .40 white men had been seen dragging a boat anfy ', sledges over the ice on the westerjhi.?ehtl of the inland. They made isigns to indicate , that tlieir ships ■hkd'- been crushed in 1 the ice; and that ■they we're tryiiig to reach a. place , where "they could find deer. All the men worked with' the sledges, except one tall, stout,* middle-aged officer-)

They were much reduced m flesh, and were EVIDENTLY HALF-STARVED.. At a later period of the same year, the corpses of some 30 persons and some graves were discovered by the natives on the maialand, and five other b,odies on an island close to it, about a; day's journey north-west of Back's Great Fish River. Many of them had died m their tents ; one, supposed to have been as officer, was described as lying on his doublebarrelled gun, with his telescope yet strapped to his shoulders. Dr. Rae's report, m addition to the . relics brought by him from the natives, pieces of silverplate and other articles known to have been m the possession of the officers, was considered sufficient proof of the entire loss of the Franklin expedition. Rae and his party, therefore, received the long offered reward of £10,000, promised to anyone who should bring first intelligence of their fate. All this, though, did not satisfy Lady Franklin, and she urged the Government to make one more effort. Her appeal failed, but she immediately set about fitting out the yacht Fox, of 117 tons only, and guided by private subscriptions and volunteers, the expedition was speedily organised. Captain Leopold McClintock, who was afterwards knighted, Lieutenant Hobson, Captain A. W. Young, of the merchant marine, and Mr David Walker, offered their services free. The Fox left London late m June, 1857, but m attempting to cross Baffin's. Bay became beset m the middle pack of ice, and did hot gi^t out • of it for 242 days, being . HELPLESSLY DRIFTING about the whole while, with the prospect of being crushed to pieces at any time. She got free on April 24, 1858, and, proceeding north, she touched atr Greenland. After general examinations of Eclipse Sound, Pond's Bay, Peel Strait, Regent's Inlet, and Ballot Strait, the Fox was laid up for the winter. On November 7 the only engineer, Brand, died from apoplexy > and McClintock himself had to turn engineer when necessary. : On Christmas Day the thermometer stood at 47^ degrees beloW zero, and their rum, at first thick like treasle, required thawing. A snow hut was built every night. On March 1, almost exactly at the magnetic pole, some natives were met, and McClintock noticed a naval button on one of their dresses. On May 28 Hobson and McClintock parted, the first making direct for Cape Felix, whilst McClintock took a more southerly -course m King William's Land. Here several relics, of the ILL-STARRED FRANKLIN and his men were obtained from the natives. Shortly after midnight, on i May 25, when walking slowly along a gravel ridge near, the beach, they came across a human skeleton, perfectly bleached, and lying upon its face. ;'.An old Esquimaux woman, who j said she had been to a wreck, had told McClintock that "many of the white men dropped by the way as they went j to the Great River ; that some were buried and some were not," and finding the skeleton was evidence that she had spoken truthfully. . About twelve miles from Cape Herschel McClintock' found a small cairn, built by Hobson's party, containing a note. He had not seen the wreck or any natives, but had discovered the long-soug'ht-for record of the Franklin expedition at Point Victory, on the north-west coast of King William's Land. "That record," says McClintock, "is indeed a sad and touching relic of our lost friends, and to simplify its contents, I will point out separately the double story it so briefly tells. In the first place, the record paper was one of the printed forms usually supplied to discovery ships for the purpose of being enclosed m bottles, and thrown overboard at sea, m order to ascertain the set of the currents, blanks being left for the date and position ; any person finding one of these records is requested to forward it to • the Secretary of the Admiralty, with a note of time . &vk place ;. and . this request is printed upon it m . ; ■ SIX DIFFERENT LANGUAGES. Upon it was written, apparently by Lieutenant Gore, as follows — "• "28th of May, 1847, H.M. Ships . Erebus . and Terror wintered m the ice m lat. 70.05 N., long. 98.23 W. ■ Having wintered m 1846-7 at Beer chey Island m iat. 74.43.28 N., long. 91.39.15 W., after having as- - cended . Wellington Channel to lat. 77, and returned by the west side of Oornwallis Island. Sir John : Franklin commanding the expedition. All wejl. Party consisting of two officers and six men left the ships on Monday, 24th May, 1847. G. -Gore, Lieutenant ; Charles F. Des Veux, mate." An obvious error was discovered m the dates of 1846-7, which McClintock points out should have been 1845-6. Around the margin of the same paper another hand had subse-. fluently written the following words : "April 25, 1848.— H.M. Ships Terror and Erebus were deserted on the 22nd April, 5 leagues N.W. of this, having been beset since 12th September, 1846. The officers and crews, consisting of 105 souls, under the command of F. R. M. Crozier, .landed here m lat. 69.37.42 N., I long. -9.8.41. W. . Sir John- Franklin died oh the 11th June, 1847, and the total loss by death m the ex- , pedition has been to this -date" nine officers and 15 men. (Signed) F. -, R. M. Crozier, Captain and Senior Officer. (Signed) James Fitzjames, Captain H.M.S. Erebus. And start to-morrow, 26th, for Back's Fish River." Says McClintock :— <"ln the short space of 12 months how mournful had become the history of Franklin's expedition. How changed from the cheerful "All well" of Graham Gore. The spring of 1847 found them within 90 miles of the known sea off the coast of America \ and to men who had already, iif two seasons, sailed over 500 miles of previously unexplored waters, how confident must they then have felt that the forthcoming navigable season of 1847 would see their ships pass over so short an intervening space. IT WAS RULED OTHERWISE. .Within a month after Lieutenant Gore placed the i;efonl on Point Victory, \ ! the Ifaric, Sir .John V\ .■<>*. klui, was! j dead, and the following spring found |

Capitain Crozier, upon whom the command had devolved, at King William.'s Land- endeavoring to save his starving men, 105 m all, from a ter-r rible death; by, retreating' to the Hudson Bay territories up the Back or Great Fish River. \<\ "A sad tale was* never told m fewer words. There, is something deeply touching m their extreme simplicity, and they show m the strongest manner that both, the leaders of this retreating party were actuated by the loftiest sense. of -duty j, and met with, calmness and decision, the fearful alternative of a last bold .struggle for life, rather than 'perish without effort on board their ships, for the Erebus and Terror were only provisioned up to July, 1848.", Hobson found many relics of the party. McPlintock was still on his homeward journey when, on May 30, ; he camped alongside a deserted boat of considerable size, where he found ANOTHER. NOTE FROM HOBSON. j 4. large quantity of tattered clothing was near it, and portions of two. human skeletons. . Five or six small books,, one being "The Vicar pt , Wakefield,','. fivewatches Were lying alongside, one of the skeletons. The sledge party; of the searchers reached the Fox safely, and by June 16, the yacht was ready for sea. When the open water, within -three or four hundred yards of ' the vessel, was reached, McClintock assembled the men and thanked them for their exertions. "Our labors," said he, "have determined the exact position of the extreme northern promontory of America, to which I. have affixed the name Murcbison, after, the President of the Royal Geographical Society, the strenuous advocate. for this further search." On August 10 the ice was clear, and the Fox steamed out of the harbor, McClintock having to manage the engines for 24 hours at a stretch. On the 2i)th they touched at Godhavn, Greenland, where they received their letters, after the lapse of two years. On September 20 the Fox reached the English Channel, and their troubles weie over. All things considered, the smallne^s of the vessel and equipment, this was the most remarkable and sue/A'SsUil Arctic voyage ewi made.