Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/757

 FRANKLIN 721 previous to that date were couched in language of cheerful anticipation of success, while those received from his officers expressed their glowing hope, their admiration of the sea man-like qualities of their commander, and the happiness they had in serving under him. Franklin s instructions were framed (in conjunction with Sir John Barrow and upon his own suggestions) by the eminent explorers with whom his former work had closely connected him. The experience of Parry made it evident that a fresh attempt to force ships through the heavy ice seen by him to the south-west of Melville Island would be futile, as his sinca been fully proved. On the other hand, Franklin s surveys of tha north coast of America had long before satisfied him that a navigable passage existed along it, from the Fish lliver to Behring s Strait. He was there fore directed to pursue a course towards the coast after he had approached the longitude of about 98 W., and was allowrl the single alternative of previously examining Wellington Channel if the navigation were open. An explicit prohibition was given against a westerly course beyond the longitude of 98 W. In 18 U, though there was no real public anxiety as to the fate of the expedition, preparations began to be made for ths possible necessity of succouring the explorers. As time passed, however, and no tidings of the expedition reached England, the search began in earnest ; expedition after expedition was despatched in quest of them in 1848 and succeeding years, regardless of cost or hazard. In this great national undertaking Sir John s heroic wife took a pirt which will ennoble her name for all time Between 1818 and 1854 about fifteen expeditions were sent out by England and America in the hope of rescuing, or at least finding traces of, the missing explorers. The details ^f tho work done by those expeditions will be given in the article on POLAR REGIONS ; here we shall confine ourselves to the results, so far as the search for Franklin was con cerned. Lady Franklin s exertions were unwearied ; she exhausted her private funds in sending out auxiliary vessels to quarters not comprised in the public search, and by her pathetic appeals she roused the sympathy of the whole civilized world. Traces of the missing ships were dis covered by Ommanney and Penny in August 1850, ar.d were brought home by the &quot; Prince Albert,&quot; fitted out by Lady Franklin with the especial object of following to the southward the route which would be almost cer tainly taken by Franklin in carrying out his instruc tions. It wa&amp;gt; thus ascertained that the first winter had been spent behind Beechey Island, where they had remained at least as late as April 1846, No further tidings were obtained until the spring of 1854, when Dr Rae, then conducting an exploring party of the Hudson s Bay Com pany from Repulse Bay, was told by the Eskimo that (as was inferred) in 1850 white men, to the number of about forty, had been seen dragging a boat over the ice near the north shore of King William s Island, and that later in the same season, but before the breaking up of the ice, the bodies of the whole party were found by the natives at a point a short distance to the north-west of Back s Great Fish River, where they had perished from the united effects of cold and famine. Tho latter statement was afterwards disproved by the discovery of skeletons upon the presumed line of route; but indisputable proof was given that the Eskimo had communicated with members of the missing expedition, by the various articles obtained from them and brought homy by Dr Rae, who, on his return to England, claimed, and succeeded in obtaining, the reward of 10,000 offered by the Admiralty in 1849, &quot;to any party or parties who, in the judgment of the Board of Admiralty, shall, by virtue of his or her efforts, first succeed in ascertaining&quot; the fate of the missing expedition. On account of the in formation obtained by Dr Rae, a party in two canoes under Messrs Anderson and Stewart was in 1855 sent by Govern ment down the Great Fish River, and they succeeded in obtaining from the Eskimo at the mouth of the river a considerable number of articles which Lad evidently belonged to the Franklin expedition ; and many others were picked up on Montreal Island, articles evidently belonging to a boat which, it was reported, had been cut up by the Eskimo. This expedition was unable to make so thorough a search as was desirable, but it was clear from the results obtained by it, and from the examinations which had been made by the many other expeditions of all straits and inlets and coasts except the region to tho north of Great Fish River, that King William s Island,^the west coast of Boothia, and the neighbouring sea were tho fields likely to yield the most satisfactory results. It was clear that a party from the &quot; Erebus &quot; and &quot; Terror &quot; had endeavoured to reach by the Fish River route tho settlements of the Hudson Bay Company, and equally evident that the expedition in making a southerly course had been arrested within the channel into which the Great Fish River empties itself. At this time Government was wholly taken up with the events in the East, and when the war was over, it was deemed useless to spend any more money and risk any more lives in what was regarded as a hopeless quest. But Lady Franklin s pious devotion to the memory of her noble husband prompted her to make one last effort to ascertain his fate ; to this object she dedicated all her available means, aided, as she had been before, by the subscriptions of sympathizing friends, her judgment being confirmed by the opinion of all those best able to form one as to the hopefulness as well as the feasi bility of such an attempt. Accordingly she purchased and fitted out the little yacht &quot; Fox,&quot; which sailed from Aber deen in July 1857 ; the command was accepted by Captain (afterwards Sir) Leopold M Clintock, whose high reputation had been won in three of the Government expeditions sent out in search of Franklin. Having been compelled to pass the first winter in Baffin s Bay, it was not till the autumn of 1858 that the expedition passed down Prince Regent s Inlet, and the &quot;Fox&quot; put into winter quarters at Port Kennedy at the eastern end of Bellot Strait, between North Somerset and Boothia Felix. In the spring of 1859 three sledging parties went out, Captain (now Sir) Allen Young to examine Prince of Wales Island, Lieutenant (now Captain) Hobson the north and west coasts of King William s Island, and M Clintock the east and south coasts of the latter, the west coast of Boothia, and the region about the mouth of Great Fish River. The search was successful so far as ascertaining the course and fate of the expedition is con cerned. From the Eskimo in Boothia many relics were obtained, and reports as to the fate of the ships and men ; all along the west and south coast of King William s Island remains of articles belonging to the ships were discovered, and skeletons that told a terrible tale of disaster. Above all, in a cairn at Point Victory a precious record was dis covered by Lieut. Hobson that briefly told the history of the expedition up to April 25, 1848, three years after it set out full of hope. In 1845-6 the &quot;Erebus&quot; and &quot; Terror &quot; wintered at Beechey Island on the S.W. coast of North Devon, in lat. 74 43 28&quot; N.,long. 91* 39 15&quot; W., after having ascended Wellington Channel to lat. 77 and returned by the west side of Cornwallis Island. This state ment was signed by Graham Gore, lieutenant, and Charles F. Des Vceux, mate, and bore date May 28, 1847. These two officers and six men, it was further told, left the ships on May 24, 1847, no doubt for an exploring journey, at which time all was well. The success of the first year s work, thus briefly stated, was greater than has been since attained within any one IX. 91