CHAPTER XX 



The Terrible Fate of the Sir John Franklin 



Expedition 



THE records of polar expeditions are full of tales of disaster, 

 suffering and death, at times sudden, at times drawn out 

 through the long and slow agony of starvation. While the 

 later explorers, such as Nansen, Peary, Cook and others experi- 

 enced the pangs of hunger in only a minor degree, some of those of 

 earlier date passed through long-drawn sufferings of the most ter- 

 rible description. We may instance the cases of the Greely and 

 DeLong expeditions, and above all that of Sir John Franklin, the 

 mystery surrounding which enveloped it in a romantic interest, 

 which was greatly added to by the results of the many relief expedi- 

 tions sent out and the years that passed before the fearful fate of the 

 unfortunates became known. In the romance of polar research 

 the romance of terror the tale of Sir John Franklin's final expe- 

 dition stands first, and a detailed account of it comes here in order. 



On Franklin's return to England from his governorship of 

 Van Diemen's Land, in 1844, he found the Admiralty exercised on 

 the subject of a new Arctic expedition, proposed by the Royal 

 Society at the instance of Sir John Barrow. He claimed the com- 

 mand, and was appointed. On this occasion the first lord of the 

 admiralty said to Sir Edward Parry, of former Arctic fame, "I 

 see that Franklin is sixty years of age; ought we to permit him 

 to go out?" to which Parry replied, "He is the ablest man I know, 

 and if you do not send him he will certainly die of despair." 



Franklin himself said, when asked, "Can you not repose on the 



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