CHAPTER XXIX 
DISCOVERY OF THE FATE OF FRANKLIN 
The Crimean War broke out in 1854, and public 
attention was absorbed by it. On March 23rd of that 
year the names of Sir John Franklin and his officers were 
removed from the Navy list, but not without a protest 
from Lady Franklin. Suddenly, only four months later, 
some startling news arrived. Dr Rae of the Hudson's Bay 
Company reported on July 19th that, during a journey 
to survey the west coast of Boothia, he met some Eskimos 
in Pelly Bay who said that, some years before, they had 
seen about thirty men dragging a boat southward over 
the ice, and that later the bodies of several men were 
found on an island near the mouth of a great river. They 
had several articles belonging to officers of the Franklin 
Expedition, including nine pieces of plate and Sir John's 
Guelphic Order. 
Public attention being occupied elsewhere, the Ad- 
miralty considered it enough to ask the Hudson's Bay 
Company to send someone down the Great Fish River 
to Montreal Island, which lies at its mouth. Mr Anderson 
was sent, without an Eskimo interpreter, reached Montreal 
Island, found some fragments of a boat and various 
articles, and then returned. The Admiralty thought that 
sufficient had been done. 
Lady Franklin petitioned the Prime Minister, urging 
that 135 officers and men of the British Navy had laid 
down their lives after sufferings of unexampled severity 
in the service of their country, as truly as if they had 
fallen in action. "Surely," she added, " I may plead for 
such men that the bones of the dead be sought for, that 
their records be unearthed, that their last written words 
be saved from destruction. It is a sacred mission, and 
this final search is all I ask." The reply was a cold refusal, 
and Lady Franklin realised that, if anything was to be 
done, she must depend upon her own resources. She did 
