1859 FIRST NEWS OF THE FRANKLIN DISASTER McCLINTOCK FOX ARCTIC EXPEDITION

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Year Printed:1859
Topic:Franklin Search Expedition
Binding:Newspaper Wraps
Subject:Exploration & Travel
Original/Facsimile:Original
Special Attributes:First Edition,Illustrated

* * * Read all about it ~ First News of Franklin’s Fate ~ A Relic of the Great Franklin Mystery! * * * THE LAST ARCTIC EXPEDITION [as reported in:]HARPER’S WEEKLY. A JOURNAL OF CIVILIZATIONVol III, No. 148 Original First Edition Published in New York by Harper’s & Brothers, Saturday, Oct. 29, 1857 Contents * Complete folio-sized issue (14″ x 16″) Pages 689-704. * Long 3-Column article, “The Last Arctic Expedition” on Page 690 * Full front-page engraving: “FACSIMILE OF THE LAST RECORD OF THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION, FOUND BY LIEUTENANT HOBSON ON KING WILLIAM’S LAND.” * Spectacular double-page engraving (14″ x 32″) Pages 696-697: “DISCOVERY OF THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION BOAT ON KING WILLIAM’S LAND BY LIEUTENANT HOBSON.” Condition Excellent, crisp copy removed from bound volume with stitching holes on the left-hand side; supple, clean, off-white pages with a hint of aging in the outer edges; no tears, no creases, no foxing, and no owner marks or signs. Description In May of 1845 Capt. Sir John Franklin set out from England in H.M. Ships “Erebus” and “Terror” with over a hundred officers and men, the very flower of the British Navy, to discover the fabled Northwest Passage. They never returned from the icy, arctic seas into which they had sailed. For ten years the Admiralty launched expedition after expedition into the labyrinthine, torturous channels of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago in search of the lost explorers. Relics and various objects of the doomed expedition were found in 1850, but no direct communications from the missing ships turned up. Franklin’s wife, Lady Jane, in constant distress over her absent husband and his crew, dispatched her own privately financed expeditions, and when the Admiralty finally gave up the search, she did not. Eskimo reports from out of the Frozen North were carried home by Hudson Bay Company explorer John Rae, saying, in effect, that disaster had overtaken the missing vessels and men near King William’s Land, not far north of the American arctic main. In 1857 Lady Jane fitted out the “Fox,” a small steam yacht, and offered command to the gallant Captain Francis Leopold McClintock. She had faint hope that Franklin or some of his men might still be alive, living among the Eskimos, and directed McClintock to scour the shores of King William’s Land, or King William Island, as it is now known. * * * Long article on page 690 bears the first news regarding McClintock’s search expedition of 1857-59 which resulted in the discovery of Franklin’s fate, and that of his men, along with summaries and interesting particulars on the history of the search for the Northwest Passage and previous Franklin search expeditions. Read all about it with all the garish details and illustrations just as it was presented to the public back in 1859. With a brave crew and fellow officers Lieuts. Allen Young and W. R. Hobson, McClintock sailed the Fox through Baffin Bay, Lancaster Sound and Prince Regent’s Inlet, then anchored his ship in Bellot Strait, about 150 miles north of King William Island. In the spring of 1859 he, Hobson, and some others set out with sledges and dogs and traced the eastern coast of the Boothian Peninsula, then turned west and reached the site of the Magnetic Pole, near Rae Strait. They were in the vicinity where the Franklin expedition was believed to have perished. Here, the party split up. McClintock headed south towards the mouth of the Back, or Great Fish River, while Hobson went up the eastern shore of King William Island. THE FRANKLIN RECORD The latter, coming around from the island’s northern extremity to the west shore, stumbled upon a stone cairn at Victory Point containing the Franklin Record, a printed document with fill-in blanks called by mariners a “bottle-paper.” The main part of the record said: “H. M. Ships Erebus and Terror wintered in the ice in 28 of May 1847, Lat. 70 deg. 5 min. N., Long. 98 deg. 23 W. Having wintered in 1846—7 at Beechey Island in Lat. 74 deg. 43 min. 28 sec. N., Long. 91 deg. 39 min. 15 sec. W. after having ascended Wellington Channel to Lat. 77 deg. and returned by west side of Cornwallis Island. Sir John Franklin commanding the expedition. All well.” But hand-written notations in the paper’s margins outlined the tragic events that followed—the death of Franklin in 1847; the death of nine of his officers and fifteen men; and the abandonment of the ships in 1848. The document was signed by Lt. Graham Gore, First mate Charles Des Voeux, Capt. James Fitzjames, and senior Capt. F .R. M. Crozier who added a final note: “And start on tomorrow 26th, for Back’s Fish River.” It was the first and only scrap of intelligence from the Erebus and Terror that ever came to light, discounting the letters dispatched from Greenland before the ships entered the ice. The record was reproduced in facsimile in McClintock’s narrative, The Voyage of the Fox, published in London in 1859 shortly after the explorer’s return. The engraving on the front page of this issue of Harper’s is the first facsimile of the record printed in America. It is the next best thing to owning the original record itself. The original record, now a priceless relic, was given to Lady Franklin who deposited it along with all the other artifacts obtained by McClintock in the Royal United Service Institution, London, from where they were eventually moved to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. THE SKELETON BOAT On King William Island’s western shore Hobson found scattered remains of some of Franklin’s men and one of Franklin’s lifeboats, 28 feet long and 7 and a half feet wide, which was probably intended for the ascent of the Great Fish River. Two skeletons were aboard, frozen to the bulwarks, partly covered with ice. It was a horrific find. McClintock made his way up the island’s west shore after Hobson was gone and was stunned by the grisly scene. Out of sympathy for Lady Franklin, and in deference to British sensibilities, it was not illustrated in McClintock’s book. To behold what had become of the 129-man Franklin expedition, the flower of the British Navy, was disheartening, and deeply disturbing, like a scene from one of the tales of Edgar Allen Poe. The man in the street had to be spared. But in America, where Indian massacres, lynchings, and the like were rather common, the public was not so squeamish. Illustrated newspapers were in vogue, yellow journalism was in its infancy, and disaster meant bread and butter to journalists. Accordingly, Harper’s had the skeleton boat scene engraved as a huge, double-page spread on pages 696-97 of this issue. It is one of the most ghastly, lurid, emotionally appalling images of the entire Victorian era. No English newspaper publisher of the day would touch it. Indeed, the image was censored throughout the British empire. Smaller versions of the scene can be found in some contemporary arctic books, but they have not the same impact, nor do they elicit that feeling of pity, sorrow and horror inspired by the huge, striking tableau as published in Harper’s. The engraving is said to have prompted artist Thomas Smith’s famous painting. “The End is Near,” aka “The Death of Franklin,” which was more in keeping with conservative British taste, and now hangs in the National Maritime Museum. 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