A Fate as Terrible as the Imagination can Conceive

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A Fate as Terrible as the Imagination Can Conceive. By Roderick Eime It was unthinkable. A complete expedition; 128 men and two of the Royal Navy’s most robust and capable vessels had simply vanished without trace.

The tale of Captain Sir John Franklin and naval force be, at any one time, but more his disastrous attempt to find the Northwest especially in time of profound peace, more Passage remains one of the most gripping honourably or more usefully employed than tales of exploration and adventure of all time, in completing those details of geographical even if just for its abject failure. Depending and hydrographical science of which the on who’s account you favour, Franklin was grand outlines have been sketched by Cook either a heroic frontiersman who died in the and others of your countrymen?” So wrote service of King and country or a bumbling, John Barrow (later Sir John) in 1816, then arrogant fool. Either way, the Northwest Second Secretary to the Admiralty.

Passage, the disappearance of Franklin and the Over the next forty years, Barrow and his many arduous search and rescue expeditions Lords would concoct a massive campaign that followed spawned innumerable books, of exploration and discovery for the glory inquiries, diaries, songs and documentaries. of Britain and its navy. But Barrow’s plans So many, in fact, it’s impossible to isolate any weren’t entirely altruistic. Without grand one as a definitive account as each raises its own theories and spectres as to the fate of the massive expedition.

In more recent times, the Northwest Passage is again figuring in the scientific and popular media. With the world’s changing climate and the diminishing polar ice cap, the once impenetrable sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans is again being considered as a viable trade corridor for vessels sailing between Europe and Asia. The savings in fuel and sailing time would be enormous and the expensive Panama Canal could be avoided altogether.

In the meantime, the adventure traveller’s growing demand for more exciting and enriching sea voyages makes the Northwest Passage an obvious choice for those wishing to add to their brag bag of heroic journeys. I’ve joined One Ocean Expeditions’ vessel, the Finnish-built polar research ship, Akademik Ioffe, in an attempt to retrace the path of the valiant men who forged this harsh frontier 150 years ago.

Northwest Passage, Late August 2009 Our expedition crew includes men and women skilled in the arts of both science and recreation while the complement of 60-odd passengers are a motley mix of seasoned travellers, battles to be fought and won, the ambitious academics, travel professionals and dilettante navy men needed other heroic tasks to adventurers like myself. Germans, French, conquer in order to advance their careers.

Brits, Canadians, Australians, Americans and There was, however, no intention to share Japanese form the main national groups that honour with anyone outside the ranks. while our ship’s crew is predominantly Experienced sealers and whalers, brave Russian and Filipino. Our harmonious and capable privateers and much less any multinational group flies in the face of the ‘murderous savages’ were not going to dilute staunch nationalism prevalent in Franklin’s the perceived invincibility and reputation of time. After the triumphant British victory over Her Majesty’s Royal Navy. the Napoleonic scourge in 1815, there was Barrow’s protracted campaign began nothing the now greatest empire couldn’t do. awkwardly, but not without promise. First, But with a fleet of almost 800 ships and a John Ross (1818), followed by William Parry massive, now idle navy, the Admiralty needed (two journeys between 1819 and 1823) a new agenda. make inroads into uncharted territory but are “To what purpose could a portion of our thwarted by heavy ice. Franklin makes his first

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appearance in this theatre in 1819 with an overland expedition but ends in disaster and the loss of more than half his men.

Professor Gillen Wood, a fellow native of Adelaide (with an uncanny resemblance to John Barrow) and passenger aboard Ioffe, is preparing his own book, Frankenstein’s Weather, for release next year. It will examine the Arctic warming precipitated by the eruption of Mt. Tambora in 1815.

“The temporary global climatic event of Mt Tambora’s eruption caused catastrophe in many regions but allowed a brief window for Arctic explorers like Parry and Ross to make unusual headway in exploration of this normally frozen region. But by 1845, when Franklin set out, that window was well and truly closed.”

Even though Franklin partially redeems himself in 1825 with a two year expedition that maps 1000 miles of new coastline, he is controversially chosen to lead the Admiralty’s most ambitious - and expensive - expedition ever. The popularly acclaimed commander who had “eaten his boots” on an earlier voyage, personally oversees the outfitting of the two state-of-the-art vessels, Erebus and Terror. The latest navigation aids are installed along with steam engines to assist the passage through ice. Ever the man of the noble establishment, Franklin includes in his inventory all the comforts and accoutrements of a Victorian gentleman; a 1700 volume library, musical instruments, fancy silverware, fine china and a chandelier.

Australian, Ray McMahon, is one of the expedition crew. A salty and wellseasoned polar hand, Ray has spent more than 50 years voyaging to the extremes of the Earth, a victim of the ‘polar virus’ as he puts it, in service of the navy, Australian Antarctic Division and private operators. We stand silently observing the mute grave sites on Beechey Island and in typical Australian fashion, Ray is blunt and forthright with his views on Franklin.

“If you ask me Franklin was a dill. A political appointee, he was totally unprepared and unqualified for the job. If you look at his resume, it should have discounted him immediately, but he had friends in high places and a vociferous wife who was just relentless in promoting her husband’s opportunities.

He broke all the rules of exploration too. He left no trace of his whereabouts and ignored the Inuit methods for Arctic survival. Plus he ventured out too late in a season that

Schraembl Map of the Northwest Passage

was already one of the worst of the previous century for ice conditions. Franklin is a tragic monument to British arrogance.”

If there was an upside to Franklin’s total evaporation in the Arctic wilderness, it was that the subsequent rescue missions went a long way to completing the original objective, even if it was to conclude that the Northwest Passage was a treacherous and capricious channel that could not be reliably employed as a trade route.

Diminutive Katie Murray is aboard Ioffe to lecture on polar history. Hailing from the Scottish Orkneys, her last posting was to the Grytviken Museum on South Georgia. An unabashed supporter of fellow Orcadian, Dr John Rae, she believes Rae was denied proper recognition because he discovered the unpalatable truth about the fate of Franklin and his men.

“John Rae was a Hudson Bay Company man with vast experience in the Arctic and didn’t recoil at the squeamish practice (in the eyes of the Admiralty at least) of following local traditions and methods of survival. He travelled light with small groups and lived off the land. He searched for Franklin almost constantly for five years and discovered the last remains of his men in 1854 after speaking to natives who had witnessed

Without grand battles to be fought and won, the ambitious navy men needed other heroic tasks to conquer in order to advance their careers. their final futile struggle. Unfortunately Rae brought unwelcome news back to England, news that did not sit well with the Admiralty and Lady Franklin who was more interested to perpetrating the heroic myth of her lost husband than facing the catastrophe of his mission.”

Rae’s impassive and confidential report had somehow found its way into The Times via a leak at the Admiralty. The words horrified Victorian England.

“From the mutilated state of many of the corpses and the contents of the kettles, it is evident that our wretched countrymen had been driven to the last resource as a means of prolonging existence.”

The use of the term ‘last resource’ was as shocking as it was unambiguous. Royal Navy men resorting to cannibalism? God forbid. Lady Franklin and her voluminous, eloquent champion, Charles Dickens, began a campaign to discredit the ‘savage and ignorant’ Inuit witnesses and pillory poor Dr Rae who had so nobly and conscientiously conducted his search.

While the bumbling, scheming navy men got their rewards, knighthoods and promotions, Dr Rae spent the rest of his days trying to correct history, one only now widely acknowledged.

Reading list Barrow’s Boys by Fergus Fleming. 1998.

Granta Books London.

Franklin – Tragic Hero of Polar Exploration by Andrew Lambert. 2009. Faber and Faber.

Fatal Passage – The Story of John Rae by Ken McGoogan. 2001. Avalon Publishing. # A Fate as Terrible as the Imagination Can Conceive – from Dr John Rae’s report published in The Times, 23 Oct 1854

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