Dianne Leggatt guided the Shellback Club in the viewing of a couple of YouTube videos on the ill-fated Franklin expedition, supplemented with some further recommendations. Hunt For The Arctic Ghost Ship - Channel 4 Documentary (47:22 minutes) https://youtu.be/qSno3quGH_U Franklin's lost expedition was a British voyage of Arctic exploration led by Captain Sir John Franklin that departed from England in 1845 aboard two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. A Royal Navy officer and experienced explorer, Franklin had served on three previous Arctic expeditions, the latter two as commanding officer. His fourth and last, undertaken when he was 59, was meant to traverse the last unnavigated section of the Northwest Passage. After a few early fatalities, the two ships and their crews, a total of 129 officers and men, became icebound in Victoria Strait near King William Island in the Canadian Arctic, in what is today the territory of Nunavut. After being icebound for more than a year, Erebus and Terror were abandoned in April 1848, by which point Franklin and nearly two dozen others had died. The survivors, now led by Franklin's deputy Francis Crozier and Erebus' captain James Fitzjames, set out for the Canadian mainland, and were never seen alive again. Pressed by Franklin's wife, Lady Jane Franklin, and others, the Admiralty launched a search for the missing expedition in 1848. Prompted in part by Franklin's fame and the Admiralty's offer of a finder's reward, many subsequent expeditions joined the hunt, which at one point in 1850 involved eleven British and two American ships. Several of these ships converged off the east coast of Beechey Island, where the first relics of the expedition were found, including the graves of three crewmen. Expeditions led by such explorers as John Richardson and John Rae in 1848-54, Francis McClintock in 1857-59, Charles Francis Hall in the 1860s, and Frederick Schwatka in 1878-80 found relics from the expedition, including the remains of two of its men that were returned to Britain. A series of scientific studies in the late 20th and early 21st centuries suggested that the men of the expedition did not all die quickly. Hypothermia, starvation, lead poisoning or zinc deficiency,and diseases including scurvy, along with general exposure to a hostile environment whilst lacking adequate clothing and nutrition, killed everyone on the expedition in the years following its last sighting by Europeans in 1845. Cut marks on some of the bones recovered during these studies also proved allegations of cannibalism reported by Rae in 1854. In 2014, a Canadian search team led by Parks Canada located the wreck of Erebus in the eastern portion of Queen Maud Gulf. Two years later, the Arctic Research Foundation found the wreck of Terror south of King William Island. Research and dive expeditions at the wreck sites, now protected as a combined National Historic Site, are currently ongoing. The Victorian media portrayed Franklin as a hero despite the expedition's failure and the reports of cannibalism. Songs were written about him, and statues of him in his home town of Spilsby, in London, and in Tasmania credit him with discovery of the Northwest Passage, although in reality it was not traversed until Roald Amundsen's 1903–1906 expedition. Franklin's lost expedition has been the subject of many artistic works, including songs, verse, short stories, and novels, as well as television dramas and documentaries. Saints Who Never Existed: Relics of Franklin's Lost Arctic Expedition (23:00 minutes) https://youtu.be/wOH_m7mJDWY In 1845, the British Royal Navy sent two discovery vessels, complete with a crew of 129 men under the command of Sir John Franklin, into the Canadian Arctic in search of a northwest passage through to the Pacific Ocean. None survived. This paper focuses on one particular relic of the Franklin expedition, a series of fragmentary private documents known as the Peglar Papers. Saints Who Never Existed: Relics of Franklin’s Lost Expedition & the Archaeology of a Queer Narrative – written and developed for Indiana University’s 18th Annual Interdisciplinary Conference, hosted by the Department of English, “How to Do Things with Worlds,” April 16-17, 2021. Parks Canada Guided Tour Inside HMS Terror (7:07 minutes) https://youtu.be/OxyTZ3F7mkA Over seven days, under exceptional weather conditions, the interior spaces of the wreck of HMS Terror were scientifically and systematically explored for the first time. Parks Canada’s Underwater Archaeology Team conducted seven ROV dives and explored 20 cabins/compartments on the ship, in search of uncovering a better understanding of the fate of the Franklin expedition. The team obtained clear images of over 90 per cent of the lower deck of the ship, which includes the living quarters of the crew. Parks Canada explores the wreck of HMS Erebus and collects new artifacts (5:31 minutes) https://youtu.be/H33xOPlqrWQ Watch as the Underwater Archaeology Team explores the wreck of HMS Erebus and collects an array of interesting artifacts. Dive into the fascinating world of the Franklin Expedition through the latest work of Parks Canada in collaboration with Inuit! Michael Palin: Tracking the HMS Erebus (31:57 minutes)
https://youtu.be/WsGrDcgfaOk In 2014, a Canadian High Arctic expedition team discovered the remains of Royal Navy flagship the HMS Erebus; a ship sent to find the Northwest Passage but instead would become part of the worst disaster in British naval history. The Agenda welcomes comedy legend Michael Palin to discuss his book, "Erebus: One Ship, Two Epic Voyages, and the Greatest Naval Mystery of All Time".
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorThe Shellback Club will make occasional posts on this blog. If you want something added in a blog post. let us know. Categories
All
|