CHAPTER XXIV 
DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH COAST OF AMERICA. 
FRANKLIN— RICHARDSON— BACK— DEASE— SIMPSON— RAE 
Hitherto the northern coasts of North America had 
remained completely unknown save for the work of 
Hearne and Mackenzie, and it was felt that something 
should be done to fill up the large area of blank on the 
map. The Secretary of State for the Colonies now re- 
solved that, with the co-operation of the Hudson's Bay 
Company, the coast-line should be discovered and sur- 
veyed. 
The officer selected for this arduous duty was Lieu- 
tenant John Franklin, who had just returned from the 
command of the Trent in the Spitsbergen seas. Few 
officers of his age had seen so much service. A Lincoln- 
shire lad, born at Spilsby and educated at Louth Grammar 
School, Franklin entered the navy at the age of 14, and 
in his very first ship, the Polyphemus, he was at the 
battle of Copenhagen and closely engaged. Next he 
joined the discovery ship Investigator under his relative 
Captain Flinders 1 , and was for two years engaged in the 
survey of the coast of the great island to which Flinders 
gave the name of Australia. At last the old Investigator 
was found to be no longer seaworthy. She was con- 
demned, and her captain, officers, and crew were embarked 
on board H.M.S. Porpoise for a passage to England. 
Entangled among the reefs off the coast of Queensland, 
the Porpoise ran on shore, became a wreck, and young 
Franklin found himself one of 94 souls on a sandbank. 
Flinders went in an open boat to Port Jackson, 750 miles 
off, and returned with help, and eventually Franklin got a 
passage in a vessel bound for Canton, with the object of 
returning home in one of the East India Company's ships. 
He was taken on board the Earl Camden, Commodore Dance, 
1 Or rather connection. The step-mother of Flinders was Franklin's 
aunt on the mother's side. 
