xx FOREWORD 



Erebus, which had just returned from a voyage of 

 unusual success to the Antarctic, and his magnificent 

 equipment, aroused the enthusiasm of the British to 

 the highest pitch and justified them in their hopes 

 for bringing the wearying struggle for the Northwest 

 Passage to an immediate conclusion. 



For more than a year everything prospered with 

 the party. By September, 1846, Franklin had navi- 

 gated the vessels almost within sight of the coast which 

 he had explored twenty years previously, and beyond 

 which the route to Bering Sea was well known. The 

 prize was nearly won when the ships became impris- 

 oned by the ice for the winter, a few miles north of 

 King William Land. The following June Franklin 

 died; the ice continued impenetrable, and did not 

 loosen its grip all that year. In July, 1848, Crozier, 

 who had succeeded to the command, was compelled 

 to abandon the ships, and, with the 105 survivors who 

 were all enfeebled by the three successive winters in 

 the Arctic, started on foot for Back River. How far 

 they got we shall probably never know. 



Meanwhile, when Franklin failed to return in 1848 

 — he was provisioned for only three years — England 

 became alarmed and despatched relief expeditions by 

 sea from the Bering Sea and the Atlantic and by land 

 north from Canada, but all efforts failed to gather 

 news of Franklin till 1854, when Rae fell in with some 

 Eskimo hunters near King William Land, who told 

 him of two ships that were beset some years previous, 

 and of the death of all the party from starvation. 



In 1857 Lady Franklin, not content with this bare 

 and indirect report of her husband's fate, sacrificed 



