746 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



It consisted of two vessels, the Erebus and Terror, both previously tried in Arctic seas, 

 and each now fitted up with a small steam engine and a screw propeller. If by sail 

 and oar alone so much had been done, what might not be hoped when steam was at 

 hand to be used in case of need ? Franklin was in immediate command of the Ere- 

 bus, and Capt. F. M. R. Crozier of the Terror. The vessels left England May 19, 

 1845, accompanied by a tender with additional stores, which were to be taken on board 

 in Davis's Straits. The tender parted with them July 12th, bringing back the first 

 and only dispatches ever sent. On the 26th a passing whaler caught sight of them 

 moored fast to an iceberg near the center of Baffin's Bay, apparently awaiting an op- 

 portunity of entering Lancaster Sound. The orders from the admiralty were that he 

 should push westward about latitude 74° 15' to longitude 98<^ W., thence southward and 

 westward to Bering's Strait ; for the long line of surveys and explorations which have 

 been noted, when joined together showed that there was a continuous water passage 

 skirting the northern shore of the continent ; and there was, moreover, fair ground 

 for the belief that there was no permanent obstruction by ice. It was expected that 

 the expedition would return in about two years, in 1847 or 1848, by way of Bering's 

 Straits, where another expedition was to be in waiting to convoy them home. All told 

 there were rated on the ships' books 138 men; but of these, as afterwards ascertained, 

 nine had deserted, so that in all when they parted from their convoy there were 129. 

 Of these not one was ever seen alive by civilized man, and not a spar or rope of either 

 vessel, after that 26th of July, 1845. Toward the close of 1847, no tidings having 

 been received, apprehensions began to prevail that some misadventure had occurred, 

 and during the next twelve years numerous expeditions were fitted out for the discov- 

 e/y and relief of the missing men. The narrative of these relief expeditions constitutes 

 by far the most interesting chapter in the history of Arctic exploration. Little by lit- 

 tle isolated facts were brought to light, the sum of all being that after entering Lan- 

 caster Sound the expedition wintered in the ice, on the shore of Barrow's Strait, in lat- 

 itude 70^ 5', longitude 98° 23'. In the summer of 1846 they ascended Wellington 

 Channel to latitude 77°, returned by the west side of Cornwallis Island, and wintered 

 in 1846-7 at Beechcy Island, off the east shore of Cornwallis Island. Why Franklin 

 deviated from his general orders to push on to the west must remain forever unknown ; 

 we can only conjecture that the passage through Barrow's Strait into Melville Sound 

 was blocked up by ice. A paper found in 1859, near a cairn on Prince William's 

 Island, just south of latitude 70°, bearing date May 28, 1847, gives these particu- 

 lars, and adds that all were well. Around the margin of this scrap of paper, but in 

 a different hand, and bearing date April 25, 1848, was written, " Sir John Franklin 

 died June 11, 1847. The ships Erebus and Terror were deserted April 22, 1848, 

 five leagues N.N.W. of this, having been beset since September 12, 1846. The 

 total loss by death, up to this date, has been nine officers and sixteen men. The 

 officers and crews, under command of Capt. F. M. R. Crozier, landed here, latitude 

 69° 37', longitude 98° 4' 15", and start to-morrow, April 26, 1848, for Back's 

 Great Fish River." This is the only written record made by any of the party of 

 this ill-fated expedition. From September 12, 1846, to April 22, 1848, the vessels 

 seem to have drifted in the ice about 350 miles, through the narrow channels leading 

 southward among islands southward from Barrow's Straits. How and where Frank- 

 lin died, only a fortnight from the day when all were well, must probably remain for- 



