LOST EXPLORER.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18166, 3 November 1930, Page 2

LOST EXPLORER.

FRANKLIN MYSTERY. CLUES FOUND AT LASTInterest in Sir John Franklin’s expedition, which left/ the Thames in 184 a in search of the north-west passage to India, has been revived through the discovery by two aviators —Major Burwash'and Mr W. B. Gilbert—of the remains of the men who set out in 1848 to walk from the ice-beset ships to Back’s Fish River; Northern Canada (writes H. A. Davies in the Melbourne Age). The expedition proved the existence of the northwest passage, but all the 138 officers and men died. Further lives were lost in expeditions which went in search of them. No fewer than forty expeditions were fitted out with the object of rescuing Franklin and his men, should any be found to survive, or of bringing home relics or records which might throw some light upon the circumstances of their last days Franklin had just returned from Tasmania, wffiere he had spent six years as Governor, when he found the ships Erebus (370 tons) and Terror (340 tons) being fitted for' an Arctic voyage. As an experienced polar explorer he was given command of the vessels, and he left the Thames in May, 1845. The Erebus was under the command of 'Franklin, with James Fitzjames as commander. Captain F R. M. Crozier was in command of the Terror. Leaving Disco, Greenland, on 12th July, the vessels sailed to l the west. On 20th. July a whaler saw the vessels moored to an iceberg near Melville Bay, waiting for a favourable opportunity to enter Lancaster Sound. They were never seen again. Disturbed: A year and a half after the departure of the expedition some uneasiness began to he feit and arrangements were made to send out three search expeditions in 1847, one to go by way of Baffin Bay, one by way of the Behring Strait, to meet Franklin if he had made the passage, and the third overland from Northern Canada. None of these met with any success. In May, 1849,- the ship North Star (Captain Saunders) entered Lancaster Sound, and wak long imprisoned in the ice. Four members of the crew died of scurvy, and the whole ship’s company suffered severely from the same disease. The next expedition, financed

By Lady Franklin, left in 1850 in two whalers, Lady Franklin and Sophia, under'the command of Captain Penny, an experienced whaling' master. These entered Lancaster Sound in July, and there they met two small American schooners, the Adventure and the Rescue, which had been dispatched by sympathisers in the United States to search for the lost expedition. Captain Penny reached Wellington Channel, near- the entrance to which he found an old camp site of the Franklin expedition and three graves'; but there'was nothing-to show in what circumstances the expedition had been there, Soon afterwards Captain Penny met the Felix under the veteran explorer Sir John Ross, who 'also 1 had come to join in the search. M'Clure’s Great Voyage. Search by Way of Behring Strait was renewed in 1850, when the Enterprise and the Investigator were dispatched under Captain Collinson and Commander M’Clure. M’Clure, who parted from Collinson in the South Pacific, achieved the object for which British navigators had been' striving . since the 15th century—the discovery of the north-west passage. In the In- ■ vcstigator he reached a point known to be only thirty miles from Barrow Strait and the end of the north-west passage, but the ice closed in and Lie vessel prepared to spend the winter in the pack. A sledging'party, however, went along the ice of Prince Edward Strait and entered Barrow Strait, thus proving that a waterway existed from east to> west. In the" spring sledging parties were sent out, but no traces of Franklin were found. The Investigator remained fast in the ice for three winters. Just when liope had been abandoned and preparations were being made to l walk COO miles into - Canacla, Lieutenant Pirn, of the who was in charge of a sledging party, visited the Investigator. He had been sent to the ship as the result of the finding of a record left by M’Clure at Winter Harbour on one of his sledging trips the previous year. Abandoned. ‘ The Investigator was abandoned and ' the crew, several members of which 7 had already died from scurvy, slowly marched over'the ice to the Resolute, which was one of the vessels of Sir Edward Belcher’s expedition.. This ■ expedition consisted of the Assistance (Belcher), Resolute (Kellett), North Star (Pullen), Intrepid (M’Clintock), and Pioneer (Sherard Osborn). It was then found impossible to release Sir Edward Belcher’s vessels from the ice. They were accordingly abandoned in 1854, and the crews joined other vessels, in which they were taken to England. The Investigator’s crew had spent five winters in the ice. .The Resolute two years later was found by Captain Buddington, of the United States whaler George Henry, drifting in open water in the south part of Davis Strait. She had been carried a distance of 1100 miles through Lan- ' caster Sound and down Baffin Bay. ’ ' She was refitted, sailed to England, and presented by the United States to the British Government. Traces of Franklin were found by Dr. Rae, who made a sledge journey overland from Canada. He was informed by Eskimos that in 1850, while they were hunting on King William Land, they saw a “party of white men travelling south and dragging with them a boat and sledges. The men purchased some seal meat from the Eskimos. Later in the same season the Eskimos said that they found the corpses of some 30 persons and several graves. Discovery of Record. Definite news of the lost explorers and the fact that they had succeeded in proving the existence of the North-West Passage was obtained by . an expedition, financed partly by Lady Franklin and partly by public subscription, which was • sent in the Fox, a screw yacht of 177 tons, under the command of Captain M’Clintock, in 1857. With Rae’s discoveries to guide him, M’Clintock, Lieutenant Hobson, and Captain Young set out • with sledges to encircle King William 1 Land. Here Eskimos informed them of haying seen Franklin s men on their last jdurney. "They dropped and died as they marched along,” said the Eskimos. Near Cape llerschel in May, 1859, Hobson found in a cairn a sheet of paper, which contained the record , sought for so long. Portion was writ- ' ten by Lieutenant Gore in May, 1847, and around the margin Captain Ciozjer and Captain Fitzjames had continued the narrative in June, 18a8. Gore’s communication read: "Wintered {.Continued in next cqUw**>

in 1846-47 at Beechey Island after having ascended Wellington Channel as far as 77deg. north, and returned by the west side of the Cornwallis Island. Sir John Franklin commanding the expedition. All well.” The marginal writing by Crozier and Fitzjames reads: "25th. April, 1848, H.M. ships Erebus and Terror were deserted on 22nd April, 5 leagues N.N.W. of this, having been beset since 12th September, 1846. The officers and crews consisting of 165 souls, under the command of F. R. M. Crozier, landed here. Sir John Franklin died 11th June, 1847, and the total loss by deaths in the expedition has been to this date pine officers and 15 men (signed), F. R. M. Crozier, captain and senior officer; James Fitzjames, -captain I-I.M.S. Erebus.- Then there was another marginal note: “And -start tomorrow 26th for Back’s Fish River.” Prosecuting the search, M’Clintock found a skeleton, a large boat, a great, quantity of clothing, -some arms, 'cutlery, and tins which had contained food. The spot where the ships were beset showed that they had reached water which was knowp to be navigable to the west, so that the object of the expedition had beep achieved—but at a terrible- cost.