October 05, 2004
LONG FORGOTTEN ARCTIC GRAVE OF FRANKLIN EXPEDITION SEARCH SHIP REVEALED
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
A team of documentary film making divers are releasing images of a forgotten shipwreck off the Arctic coast of Greenland that gained fame as the ship that returned from the Arctic in 1859 with definitive proof of the death of explorer Sir John Franklin and the tragic end of his expedition, which had vanished while searching for the Northwest Passage in 1845. The steamer Fox, sent into the Arctic by Franklin’s wife, Lady Jane Franklin, in 1857, made international headlines when it returned two years later with relics of the lost explorers and the only written record to emerge from the catastrophe, a brief recounting of ice-trapped ships and a desperate abandonment and march south that ended in the death of the entire expedition.
In August of this year, the team traveled to the remote port of Qeqertarsuaq on Greenland’s west coast as part of the National Geographic International and History Television series “The Sea Hunters,” produced by Eco-Nova Productions of Halifax and hosted by best selling author Clive Cussler and the team’s archaeologist, James Delgado. Delgado, who also serves as the executive director of the Vancouver Maritime Museum, home of the Arctic ship St. Roch, previously led an expedition to the north to dive and document the wreck of Maud, the last command of Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen.
The wreck of Fox has never before been investigated in its forgotten and isolated northern grave, covered by ice most of the year and submerged in -2° waters. Working with experienced divers Mike and Warren Fletcher of Port Dover, Ontario, who also star in “The Sea Hunters,” Delgado and the team surveyed and filmed the wreck of Fox in a series of frigid dives. They have just now returned with images and the story of a ship that once commanded the world stage with the last words of the most famous Arctic expedition in history. “The wreck of Fox is badly broken up, shattered by decades of ice,” noted Delgado. “She is slowly returning to the elements, a fitting fate for an explorer whose remains rest in the waters where she labored and gained fame.” Mike Fletcher, dive coordinator for the series, notes “Far beyond her intended life as a yacht, Fox would become one of the most famous ships in Arctic exploration. I’m glad to see that she lived her days out in Greenland and now lies off the beautiful community of Qeqertarsuaq.”
Fox sailed from England in 1857 on a private expedition to determine the fate of Lady Jane Franklin’s husband and the 128 men under his command, more than a decade after they disappeared in the Canadian Arctic. In 1845, Sir John Franklin, in command of the ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, sailed from England to complete what most people at the time felt was the “last link” in the three century quest for an oceanic shortcut across the top of the world.
Instead of quickly transiting the Northwest Passage, Franklin, with a highly trained crew, many of them Arctic veterans, two well equipped ships, and all the best technology that Britain could assemble, vanished in the far north. Over the next decade, 31 separate expeditions ventured north into the Arctic to search for Franklin. In those searches, even more ships and men were lost, convincing the British government to give up the expensive and dangerous efforts to find out what had happened to Franklin. But Franklin’s wife would never give up. After pressuring the British government to help her, writing to Lord Palmerston, Britain’s Prime Minister, that “the final and exhaustive search is all I seek on behalf of the first and only martyrs to Arctic discovery in modern times, and it is all I ever intend to ask.,” Jane Franklin raised the funds to privately finance her own expedition.
In June 1857 Lady Franklin purchased the small steam yacht Fox from the estate of a deceased English Lord. Placing Fox under the command of Captain Francis Leopold McClintock, a veteran of two previous Arctic expeditions in search of Franklin, Lady Franklin instructed McClintock to rescue any survivors and then recover “the unspeakably precious documents of the expedition, public or private, and the personal relics of my dear husband and his companions.”
Fox sailed for the Arctic in the summer of 1857, only to be trapped in the ice of Baffin Bay. The next year, they sailed from the Danish port of Gødhavn, today known as Qeqertarsuaq, and headed into the Canadian Arctic. Following Franklin’s presumed trail, McClintock moored Fox in the ice off the Boothia Peninsula near Bellot Strait and headed south on foot with sledges to King William Island. Carl Peterson, a Greenland Inuit interpreter with McClintock had learned from the local Inuit that two ships had sunk near King William Island. Relics that McClintock bought from the Boothia Inuit were from the Franklin expedition, so he pushed on in the harsh winter to King William Island to link up with another sledging party from Fox, led by Lieutenant William Hobson.
On King William Island, the sledge parties from Fox discovered scattered skeletons, discarded equipment, a ship’s boat filled with provisions and equipment and the bodies of two of Franklin’s men. But Hobson made the single greatest discovery. A stone cairn on the shores of the island yielded a note sealed in a tin canister that told, in the briefest of notes, what had happened. Erebus and Terror, stuck in the ice for eighteen months, were abandoned by the Franklin expedition on April 25, 1848 after 24 of the crew had died – including Captain Sir John Franklin. The last note, from Captain Francis R.M. Crozier, now the senior officer of the expedition, told how the 105 survivors had landed at the site of the cairn where Hobson found the note, and were heading south the next day, presumably to find food and make their way to safety. Instead they found death, leaving a trail of bodies and discarded equipment strewn across hundreds of miles of tundra and ice.
The harsh conditions of the Arctic weakened McClintock’s crew, and Fox left the north with two men dead and others, including Hobson, stricken with scurvy. Fox returned to England with a number of “personal relics” of Franklin and his fellow explorers and the only written note from the doomed expedition at the end of its days. Lady Franklin at last abandoned her years of searching, as did the British government. McClintock and his men were rewarded for their valiant and difficult expedition, McClintock ending his days as a knight and an admiral.
Fox subsequently passed into Danish ownership and worked the west coast of Greenland for 55 years as a supply vessel until its final abandonment. Partially sunk in Gødhavn harbour in 1912, the vessel broke up in or around 1940, passing into obscurity as it disintegrated and finally sank nearly a century after its famous voyage in search of Franklin. Forgotten by the world, its broken remains are a reminder of the quest for the Northwest Passage, of a wife’s unfailing devotion, and of a heroic sailor and his crew who spent two years under extreme circumstances at the top of the world to tell the world at last about the fate of Franklin.
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND IMAGES CONTACT:
James Delgado, Executive Director
Vancouver Maritime Museum
(604) 257-8301
jpdelgado@vancouvermaritimemuseum.com
Susan MacDonald
Production Assistant
Econova
(902) 423-7906
susan.econova@ns.sympatico.ca
Backgrounder
The Fox expedition retrieved a note, sealed in a tin canister buried in a rock cairn on the shores of King William Island that remains the only written account of what happened to the Franklin expedition:
25th April 1848. H.M. Ships Terror and Erebus were deserted on the 22nd April, 5 leagues NNW of this, having been beset since 12th Sept. 1846. The officers & crew consisting of 105 souls under the command of Captain F.R.M. Crozier, landed here.
Sir John Franklin died on the 11th June, 1847 and the total loss by deaths in the expedition has been to this date 9 officers & 15 men.
F.R.M. Crozier
Captain & Senior Officer
And start on tomorrow 26th for Back’s Fish River
James Fitzjames
Captain H.M.S. Erebus
Posted by victoria at 08:51 AM | Comments (0)
August 24, 2003
Last Day on Disko Island
The Sea Hunters departed Disko Island and arrived safely in Aasiaat where they will spend the night. Tomorrow they head back home to Canada.
Posted by victoria at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)
August 23, 2003
Diving the Fox: Dive 2
On today's dive the team recorded dimensions and surveyed the surrounding area. This will be the second arctic wreck to be archeologically documented.
The water was clear and the dive went well. The Fox appears to be flat, 2 dimensional. Jim believes the Fox has been pressed into the seabed after years of pressure from the ice and harsh elements.
However, he tells us that the large features, like the frame timbers and boiler are evident.
Posted by victoria at 04:28 PM | Comments (0)
August 22, 2003
Diving the Fox: First Dive
The first dive on the Fox went well. Although arctic conditions, it was a shallow dive causing the suits not to decompress, keeping the team warm. From the visuals obtained today Jim believes it will take archaeology to figure out just what happened to the Fox. Jim will plan out the targets for the next dive based on what was seen today.
Posted by victoria at 12:22 PM | Comments (0)
August 21, 2003
Delgado Explores on Land
While Mike and Warren were out on a dive Jim got to explore Qeqertarsuaq. As Executive Director of the Vancouver Maritime Museum Jim's first stop was to The local Museum.
Qeqertarsuaq Museum
The building that houses the Qeqertarsuaq Museum served as the Inspector’s home for over a hundred years. It has filled many roles in this small community such as: office, trade depot, meeting room and reception hall.
In 1950 the Inspectorate position was eliminated and the building became the doctor’s house, and later a standard family home, until 1992 when it was made into the museum it is today.
The museum’s permanent collection covers two floors, and stretches outside in the summer months. The upper floor holds the Greenlandic Christmas customs exhibit, library and study room, while the ground floor focuses on Greenlandic hunting traditions. The hunting exhibit includes a traditional whaling sloop and kayak. In addition the museum also exhibits traditional utensils and other items of archaeological importance to the area.
Posted by victoria at 02:12 PM | Comments (0)
Diving a Whaler: The Wildfire
Today Mike and Warren had a rare experience. On the advice of locals they set off to find another shipwreck the Wildfire. The Sea Hunter couldn't come all this way and not explore. After an initial dive by Warren, confirming the Wildfire was there, Mike joined him in the water. They were probably the first people to ever dive this vessel.
Posted by victoria at 01:00 PM | Comments (0)
August 20, 2003
Whaling
Prior to the demand for whale oil created by the Europeans, the natives of Greenland hunted whales for food, using everything including the baleen and bone. Whale products were an important means of trade for the indigenous peoples of Greenland. They held a great respect for the animals that provided them with nourishment and emphasized the importance of showing respect for the whales to ensure a safe and successful hunt.
During the 17th and 18th centuries European whalers pushed the right whale to the brink of extinction. The colonial settlers held little regard for Inuit beliefs and traditional methods. With the considerable economic value of these products, this species gained its name because whalers considered it the 'right' whales for their industry. They were easy to approach, lived close to shore, floated when they were dead, and provided large quantities of valuable oil, meat, and whalebone.
Posted by victoria at 08:58 AM | Comments (0)
August 19, 2003
Arrival
After flying out of Iqaluit at 6:30am the Sea Hunters arrived at the Aasiaat Airport in Greenland. With no time to waste, they went right into town to obtain a vessel to take them to Disko Island. After trouble with the initial vessel they proceeded to catch a ride with Shrimper, Mr. West.
At last contact they had arrived on Disko Island.
Posted by victoria at 07:51 PM | Comments (0)
Greenland
Greenland is located in Northern North America. It is the world's largest non-continental island situated in the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean, northeast of Canada.
Roughly three times the size of Texas, the terrain is flat with slight sloping icecap covering all but a narrow, mountainous, desolate, rocky coastline.
The people of Greenland are dedicated to the protection of the arctic environment. They have been able to preserve their Inuit traditional way of life, including the both whaling and seal hunting.
Posted by victoria at 08:50 AM | Comments (0)
August 18, 2003
Onward to Greenland
The Sea Hunters are on the move. Diver Mike Fletcher left Halifax at 6:45am to meet up with Warren Fletcher and Jim Delgado in Ottawa. From there the team will spend the night in Iqaluit and then onward to Greenland.
Posted by victoria at 10:32 AM | Comments (0)
August 17, 2003
The Franklin Expedition Calls Adventurers to the North Once Again
The Sea Hunters are about to head north to find the Fox a hearty arctic ship with over 50 years of service including being the vessel solved the mystery of Sir John Franklin.
Who was Sir John Franklin?
In a time when the water ways of the North were uncharted and dangerous John Franklin set out to change that. Franklin’s long naval career had been highlighted with adventure and exploration. In 1819 he was given command of an expedition from Fort York (now modern day Toronto) to the North. They reached the Arctic coast three years later traveling over a thousand kilometers in near impossible conditions. Not all members of the expedition made the return, nine men perished from either starvation or the harsh conditions. A tenth man was killed by the group when they believed him to be a cannibal. Franklin and the remaining survivors were later rescued by the area natives.
However there would be more triumphant adventures in the north for Franklin. In 1825 he set off for the Arctic once again but this time the expedition was a success. He and his team mapped over 800 kilometers of previously uncharted territory and upon his return to Britain, Franklin was knighted.
Over the next twenty years Sir John Franklin would write two books chronicling his adventures in the north but they would not be his last. Following seven years as Governor of Tasmania, Franklin would return to the northern hemisphere one last time. He would be given command of an expedition that was to map out a trade route through the North West passage. On May 19th, 1845 he left England with a crew of 134 men on two ships, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror, and never returned.
And through the drifts the snowy clifts
Did send a dismal sheen :
Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken--
The ice was all between.
The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around :
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound !
From Samuel Taylor Coleridge “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” published 1798
The search for the North West passage from Europe to Asia had long been a goal of man. The desire can be traced back to Victorian attempts to obtain a geographical understanding of remote areas and to Elizabethan explorers and their attempts to circumnavigate the globe.
Posted by victoria at 08:37 AM | Comments (0)
