Arctic exploration

In no way deterred by the terrible dangers which he had encountered in his first journey, Franklin had scarcely returned home when he laid before the Government a scheme for a second expedition which was, according to his idea, to proceed “overland to the mouth of the Mackenzie River and thence, by sea, to the north-western extremity of North America, with the combined object, also, of surveying the coast between the Mackenzie and Coppermine Rivers.” It was hoped at the same time that, if Parry’s party succeeded in winning through to the Polar Sea, the two expeditions might prove of mutual service to one another.

Franklin’s plan found favour in the eyes of the Government, and he was immediately appointed to the command of the new expedition with authority to make such preparations as seemed proper to him. Warned by his previous experiences, he resolved to run no risks, and accordingly arranged a system of supplies which would remove all possibility of starvation, and superintended the construction of a number of boats which would be better able to withstand the ardours of navigation in the Polar Seas than the birch-bark canoes which he had previously employed.

The boats were four in number. Three of them varied from twenty-four to twenty-six feet in length, while the fourth, which was called the Walnut Shell, was nine feet by four feet four and only weighed eighty-four pounds, being so constructed that it could be taken to pieces and made up into five or six parcels.

The party consisted of Franklin, Lieutenant Back, Dr Richardson (assistant-surveyor), and Mr Thomas Drummond (assistant-naturalist), with four mariners; and their plan of campaign was to be as follows: They were to sail to New York, and thence they were to make their way by a series of lakes and rivers to the Great Bear Lake, where they were to take up their quarters for the winter. As soon as the open season began they were to divide into two parties, one of which was to travel westward from the mouth of the Mackenzie, and, if possible, was to round Icy Cape and meet H.M.S. Blossom in Kotzebue’s Inlet. The other was to turn eastward from the Mackenzie, and to explore the coast as far as the mouth of the Coppermine. Having reached that river, it was to return to the Great Bear Lake overland.

The first part of the journey was accomplished without misadventure, and on August 7, 1825, Franklin found himself at Fort Norman on the Mackenzie, near which point a tributary stream joins the river with the Great Bear Lake. The season was still so open that he decided to examine the river between Fort Norman and the sea before retiring into winter quarters, so he sent the main body of the expedition to the lake, with orders to erect the necessary buildings, while he and Mr Kendall set off downstream.

They raced along with the stream at a great pace, and on August 16 they reached Ellice Island, lat. 69° 14′, long. 135° 56′. They were now on the very shore of the Polar Sea, and to their indescribable delight they found the ocean absolutely free from ice, and, to all appearances, perfectly navigable.

At this point a somewhat touching incident took place. In 1823 Franklin had married a Miss Eleanor Purdon, to whom he was absolutely devoted. While he was making the preparations for his journey his wife fell ill, and to while away the hours of her sickness she made him a small silken Union Jack which she gave him with injunctions never to unfurl it until he planted it on the shores of the Polar Sea. A few days after he set sail she died, and he received the news of his bereavement soon after he reached America. The story of the unfurling of her flag may be told in his own words:—

“The men,” he wrote, “had pitched the tent, and I caused the silk Union Jack to be hoisted, which my deeply lamented wife had made and presented to me as a parting gift, under the express condition that it was not to be unfurled before the expedition reached the Polar Sea. I will not attempt to describe my emotions as it expanded to the breeze—however natural, and, for the moment, irresistible, I felt that I had no right, by the indulgence of my own sorrows, to cloud the animated countenances of my companions. Joining, therefore, with the best grace that I could command in the general excitement, I endeavoured to return, with corresponding cheerfulness, their warm congratulations on having thus planted the British flag on this remote island of the Polar Sea.”

Extra grog was served out to the men, and Franklin and Kendall prepared to celebrate the event in a little brandy which they had reserved for the occasion. Unfortunately, however, the Canadian guide, Baptiste, had, in the excitement of the moment, provided them with salt water instead of fresh, and they had to use the brandy in the more classical form of a libation poured on the ground.

Franklin then erected a flag-staff, and deposited under it a letter containing information concerning the nearest station of the Hudson Bay Company for the use of Parry, in the event of his reaching the mouth of the Mackenzie. This done, he set out on the return journey to the Great Bear Lake, which he reached on September 4.

He found that the winter quarters had been completed during his absence, and that they had already been named Fort Franklin in his honour. The party had been increased to fifty by fresh arrivals, and, as they would have to depend largely upon fish for their food supply during the winter months, and it was useless to expect to catch sufficient for so many mouths at any one spot, two additional houses were erected, four and seven miles away. At the Fort itself fifteen to twenty nets were kept in constant use, and fish were so plentiful that the catches averaged from three hundred to eight hundred a day during the summer and winter.

Only once, towards the end of the winter, was the food supply in any danger of failing, and it was found necessary to put the party on short rations for a while. Fortunately, however, at the critical moment the deer put in an appearance, and Franklin was relieved from all further anxiety. Otherwise the winter was quite uneventful, and the party lived together in complete harmony, which was not a little surprising considering that they consisted of such mixed nationalities as Englishmen, Highlanders, Canadians, Eskimos, Chipewyans, Dog-ribs, Hare Indians, and Crees.

It was on June 20 that the two parties set off from the Fort on their voyages of discovery. It had been arranged that Franklin and Back, with thirteen men and the Eskimo interpreter, Augustus, should man the Lion and the Reliance, and should explore the coast westwards, while Dr Richardson and Mr Kendall, with ten men, should survey the land between the Mackenzie and the Coppermine. They dropped down the river together till, on July 4, they parted company and started off on their respective ways.

On the 7th Franklin reached the mouth of the river, and there he came upon a party of Eskimos encamped upon an island, with whom he attempted to open negotiations. Things went very smoothly until the receding tide left the boats aground. Then, however, the Eskimos, having discovered that the boats had on board a store of wonderful goods, the like of which they had never set eyes on before, decided that it would be more to their advantage to lay hands on these at once than to await the possible advantages of future trade. Consequently, they began a spirited attack upon the boats which lasted for several hours, and during the course of which they possessed themselves of a considerable portion of the expedition’s property. In warding off the attack, Franklin and his men were at a serious disadvantage, for they knew perfectly well that if they used their fire-arms they would eventually pay the penalty with their lives. Fortunately, however, they were able to prevent the loss of any of their more valuable property, such as their sails, oars, and astronomical instruments, and early on the next morning they succeeded in getting the boats out into deep water again.

Having at last shaken off their unwelcome visitors, Franklin and his party continued their journey westward. On the following day they fell in with another party of Eskimos, who proved to be more friendly than the last, and provided Franklin with a quantity of information concerning the coast along which he was about to travel. In the main, they were discouraging, for they told him that, though in the immediate neighbourhood the ice might be expected to drift away from the shore if a southerly wind arose, further to the westward it frequently adhered to the land throughout the whole summer, and even if he were so fortunate as to find any channels, navigation could not be very safe, as the ice was continually tossing about. They expressed their surprise that the explorers had not brought with them dogs and sledges for use when the sea route proved impossible. In later years, of course, it was found that the plan suggested by the Eskimos was the only one by which any material advance could be made in the Polar regions.

Franklin, however, was not inclined to pin too much faith upon the Eskimos’ information, as he learnt that, during the summer months, they never wandered far from the Mackenzie, and could not, in consequence, know very much about the condition of the more westerly seas. So, a southerly wind springing up and carrying the ice away from the shore, he pressed forward with such speed as the somewhat variable conditions would allow. During the course of the next few days he discovered and named Points Sabine and King, Herschell Island, Canning River, and Flaxman’s Island, and on August 10 he reached Foggy Island. On this unattractive spot the party was doomed to remain till the 16th, for a fog came down upon them and refused to clear away again. Fog, of course, is one of the most dangerous enemies of the Arctic navigator, for, when his course is obscured by it, he may be wrecked by an ice-floe before he is aware of his danger. Consequently there was nothing for them to do but to kick their heels on Foggy Island until more favourable weather allowed them to proceed.

This untimely delay deprived the expedition of all hope of success. Had they not lost those six valuable days they might very well have succeeded in joining the advance party sent out from H.M.S. Blossom in Kotzebue’s Inlet. As it was, they had no choice but to turn back to the Great Bear Lake, which they reached on September 21.

On arriving at Fort Franklin they found that Dr Richardson, Mr Kendall and their party had already returned, having brought their expedition to a successful conclusion. They, too, had had some difficulties with the Eskimos, but, apart from this, they had met with no adventure worth recording. They had sailed steadily along the coast, naming its principal features as they passed them. Liverpool Bay, Cape Bathurst, Franklin Bay, Cape Parry, Dolphin and Union Strait, and Cape Krusenstern, all owe their names to this expedition.

It was at the last of these, which is in lat. 68° 23´, long. 113° 45´ W., and stands at the western extremity of Coronation Gulf, that they connected the discoveries of the voyage with those made by Franklin on his former expedition. On the following day (August 8) they reached the mouth of the Coppermine, and there they found the remains of the fire which Franklin’s previous expedition had made before setting out on its journey. The river was so shallow that it was impossible to navigate it in the boats that they were now using, so, after dragging them out of reach of any flood and stowing away any stores which they did not require in the tents, they began the return journey on foot. They reached Fort Franklin on August 18 “after an absence of seventy-one days, during which period we had travelled by land and water 1709 geographical or 1980 statute miles.”

The winter passed without any particular incident, except some remarkably severe frosts. Some idea of the intense cold may be gathered from the fact that on January 24, 1827, when the temperature was at 52° 2´ below zero, Mr Kendall froze some mercury in the mould of a bullet and fired it from his pistol. This, however, was not the coldest weather that they experienced, for on February 7 the thermometer stood at 58° below zero.

During the summer of 1827 the party returned to England after an expedition which, if it had not absolutely fulfilled the purpose with which it had started, had certainly acquired some most valuable information.