Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal - or, Eighteen Months in the Polar Regions, in Search of Sir John Franklin's Expedition

Sherard Osborn

Description

The North-West Passage had thwarted the attempts of many expeditions by the mid nineteenth century, but none were so famous as the disappearance of Sir John Franklin and his crew. After two years with no word, a £20,000 reward was offered to anyone who could find the expedition, leading to many rescue missions. One such attempt was the search mission of 1850–1 under Horatio Thomas Austin, which Naval officer Sherard Osborn (1822–75) took part in. In this 1852 work, Osborn gives a vivid account of the hardships they endured on his expedition, which succeeded in determining that Franklin had not been lost in Baffin Bay. An incredible chronicle of death-defying feats in the Arctic, “Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal” is highly recommended for those with an interest in the famous Franklin expedition and historical exploration in general. Contents include: “Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal”, “Departure”, “Plan of Search”, “The Atlantic—Greenland”, “Whale-Fish Islands”, “The Esquimaux”, “An Arctic Night”, “Godhaab”, “Herr Agar”, “Leave Disco”, “The Ships”, “The Screws”, “Uppernavik”, “A Check”, “Towing the Ships”, etc. Read & Co. History is republishing this classic memoir now in a brand new edition complete with an introductory biography by John Knox Laughton.

Sujets

• Arctic exploration
• Franklin's lost expedition

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 06 mai 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528792608
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

STRAY LEAVES FROM AN ARCTIC JOURNAL
OR, EIGHTEEN MONTHS IN THE POLAR REGIONS, IN SEARCH OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN'S EXPEDITION
By
SHERARD OSBORN

First published in 1852



Copyright © 2021 Read & Co. History
This edition is published by Read & Co. History, an imprint of Read & Co.
This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing.
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DEDICATED TO LADY FRANKLIN


Contents
SIR J OHN FRANKLIN
By John K nox Laughton
DEDICATION
PREFACE
STRAY LEAVES FROM AN AR CTIC JOURNAL
DEPARTURE
PL AN OF SEARCH
THE ATLANT IC—GREENLAND
WHALE- FISH ISLANDS
T HE ESQUIMAUX
AN ARCTIC NIGHT
GODHAAB
HERR AGAR
LEAVE DISCO
THE SHIPS
THE SCREWS
UPPERNAVIK
A CHECK
TOWI NG THE SHIPS
CAP E SHACKLETON
A BEAR HUNT
ARC TIC SPORTING
MELVILLE BAY
AN OLD WHALEMAN
DOCKIN G IN THE ICE
TRACKIN G AND TOWING
FAVOURA BLE PROSPECT
NARWHALES
ANXI ETY AND HOPE
DISSOLUTION O F AN ICEBERG
"PIO NEER" NIPPED
LIEUT. HA LKETT'S BOAT
CHAR GING THE ICE
DETENTION O FF CAPE YORK
TH E WEST WATER
LAN CASTER SOUND
ICEBERGS AND GLACIERS
A GALE IN BAR ROW'S STRAIT
STEAMING UP BA RROWS STRAIT
TRACES OF SIR J OHN FRANKLIN
TRACES OF THE LOS T EXPEDITION
FRANKLIN'S WIN TER QUARTERS
GRAV ES OF SEAMEN
BE ECHEY ISLAND
S LEDGE TRAILS
WELLIN GTON CHANNEL
THE WHITE WHALE
CROSSING WELLIN GTON CHANNEL
ALL THE VESSELS MEET
THE COMING ON OF WINTER
THE AMERI CAN SQUADRON
GO INTO WIN TER QUARTERS
LIEUTENANT MECHAM 'S ADVENTURE
RUINS ON CORNW ALLIS ISLAND
A WINT ER'S EVENING
AUTUMNA L TRAVELLING
AN A RCTIC PRAYER
WINTER OCCUPATIONS
WI NTER SCENERY
OPEN WATERS IN BAR ROW'S STRAIT
CHRISTMAS- DAY ON BOARD
AURORAS AND CLO UDLESS SKIES
WINTER EMPLOYMENTS
MASK BALLS
ROCK ETS—BALLOONS
CARRIER-P IGEONS—KITES
DESULTORY OCCUPATIONS
PREPARATIONS FO R TRAVELLING
NORTH-WE ST DISCOVERY
ENGLISH N.W. DISCOVERIES
NORTH-WE ST DISCOVERY
ADVANTAGE OF WINTERIN G IN HARBOUR
SLED GE EQUIPMENT
SCALE OF PROVISION
GRAND SOU THERN SEARCH
DIVISION S OF SLEDGES
SLEDGES RE ADY TO START
TRAVELL ING BY NIGHT
COLD AND FROST-BITES
INJURY TO THE EYES
ZEA L OF THE MEN
PLE ASING DREAMS
CONCLUSIO N OF JOURNEY
LIEUTENANT M'CLIN TOCK RETURNS
DISAPPEA RANCE OF ICE
ASSIST ANCE HARBOUR
BARROW'S STRAIT CLEAR OF ICE
STEAMING FOR ASSIST ANCE HARBOUR
DEPARTURE FOR J ONES'S SOUND
STOPPED B Y ICE-FIELDS
ERECTIO N OF A CAIRN
EASTERN SIDE OF BAFFIN'S BAY
VISIT FR OM ESQUIMAUX
GALE IN THE PACK
FORCING THRO UGH THE PACK
ESQU IMAUX TRACES
SEARCH FOR TH E "INTREPID"
OPINION OF FRIENDS AN D THE PUBLIC
CHANCES OF FU TURE SUCCESS


SIR JOHN FRANKLIN
By John Knox Laughton
Arctic explorer, the twelfth and youngest son of Willingham Franklin of Spilsby in Lincolnshire, was born on 16 April 1786. It had been intended to bring him up for the church, but a holiday visit to the seashore excited a strong desire to go to sea, which his father vainly endeavoured to overcome by sending him for a voyage in a merchant vessel as far as Lisbon. On his return he entered the royal navy on board the Polyphemus, then just sailing for the Baltic, where she played a leading part in the battle of Copenhagen. Two months later Franklin was appointed as a midshipman to the Investigator, under the command of his cousin, Matthew Flinders , and on the point of sailing for Australia. While in the Investigator Franklin distinguished himself by his remarkable aptitude for nautical and astronomical observations; he was employed at Sydney as assistant in a little observatory which Flinders established, and won the notice of Captain King, the governor, who used to address him familiarly as Mr. Tycho Brahe. When the ship's company was broken up after the wreck of the Porpoise, Franklin accompanied Lieutenant Fowler to China in the Rolla, and, taking a passage home in the East India Company's ship Earl Camden, was with Commodore Dance in his extraordinary engagement with Linois (15 Feb. 1804), on which occasion Fowler commanded on the lower deck and Franklin took charge of the signals. On arriving in England Franklin was appointed to the Bellerophon, in which he was present in the battle of Trafalgar, again having charge of the signals, and being one of the few on the Bellerophon's poop who escaped unhurt. Two years later he joined the Bedford, and, continuing in her after his promotion to lieutenant's rank (11 Feb. 1808), was employed on the home station till the peace in 1814, when the ship was ordered to North America, to form part of the expedition against New Orleans. In a boat attack on some gunboats in Lac Borgne Franklin was slightly wounded; and he had besides a full share in the laborious duties of the campaign. Its failure may account for the fact that no attention was paid to the strong recommendation of Sir John Lambert, in command of the troops with which he had been serving, and that he remained a lieutenant, serving on board the Forth frigate, with Sir William Bolton, Nelson's nephew. With Franklin's appointment in January 1818 to command the hired brig Trent, fitting out to accompany Captain Buchan in the Dorothea, Franklin's career as an Arctic explorer commenced. Their instructions were to pass between Spitzbergen and Greenland, use their best endeavours to reach the pole, and thence, if possible, to shape a course direct for Behring's Straits. The two ships sailed on 25 April, sighted Spitzbergen on 26 May, and passed without difficulty along its western coast; they were then stopped by the ice, and, being driven into the pack on 30 July, the Dorothea received so much damage as to be in momentary danger of foundering. They got into Dane's Gat, where such repairs as were possible were executed, but it was still very doubtful whether she could live through the passage home, and further contact with the ice was clearly out of the question. Buchan's instructions fully authorised him in this contingency to move into the Trent and send the Dorothea home; but he was unwilling to appear to desert his shipmates in a time of great danger. The Dorothea's state was such as to forbid her being sent home unattended, and Franklin's request that he might be allowed to go on rendered the task of superseding him the more disagreeable. So Buchan judged rightly that his proper course was to take the Dorothea home, with the Trent in close attendance on her. They arrived in Englan d on 22 Oct.
Early in the following year Franklin was appointed to the command of an exploring expedition to be sent out with the general idea of amending the very defective geography of the northern part of America, and with more particular instructions ‘to determine the latitudes and longitudes of the northern coast of North America, and the trendings of that coast from the mouth of the Coppermine River to the eastern extremity of that continent.’ The details of the route from York Factory, named as a starting-point, were left to Franklin's judgment, guided by the advice he should receive from the agents of the Hudson's Bay Company, who would be instructed to co-operate with the expedition, and to provide it with guides, hunters, clothing, and ammunition. The small party, including Dr. (afterwards Sir John) Richardson, Hood and Back, midshipmen, the last of whom had been with Franklin in the Trent, two seamen, and four Orkney boatmen, landed at York on 30 Aug. 1819, and started on 9 Sept. The scheme was, with portable boats or canoes, to follow the line of rivers and lakes, beginning with the Nelson and Saskatchewan, and ending with the Elk, Slave, and Coppermine. At Cumberland House, a long-established station on the Saskatchewan, it was found that further progress that season was impossible. One of the seamen and the Orkneymen were sent back, and, leaving Hood and Richardson to bring on the boats when the way should be open, Franklin and Back started on foot for Fort Chipewyan on the shore of Lake Athabasca, which they reached on 26 March 1820. It was Franklin's intention to make all arrangements for an onward march as soon as the boats should arrive. He now found that owing to the rivalry, amounting almost to war, between the two trading companies which disputed the territory, no supplies were available; and, when the boats came on, the expedition left Fort Chipewyan on 18 July with little more than one day's provisions and with a scanty supply of powder. On 2 Aug. they left Fort Providence on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, the party consisting, what with Canadian voyageurs and interpreters, of twenty-eight men, besides three women and three children. The next day they were joined by a large party of Indian hunters, under a chief Akaitcho. The progress was very slow, and the winter came on earlier than usual. By 25 Aug. the pools were beginning to freeze, and, though Franklin was anxious at all hazards to push on to the sea and establis