Inuit Oral Stories Could Solve Mystery Of Franklin Expedition

The Gazette ^ | 6-25-2008 | Randy Boswell

[blam]

Inuit oral stories could solve mystery of Franklin expedition

Randy Boswell, Canwest News Service
Published: Wednesday, June 25

More than 150 years after the disappearance of the Erebus and Terror - the famously ill-fated ships of the lost Franklin Expedition - fresh clues have emerged that could help solve Canadian history's most enduring mystery.

A Montreal writer set to publish a book on Inuit oral chronicles from the era of Arctic exploration says she's gathered a "hitherto unreported" account of a British ship wintering in 1850 in the Royal Geographical Society Islands - a significant distance west of the search targets of several 19th- and 20th-century expeditions that have probed the southern Arctic Ocean for Canada's most sought-after shipwrecks.

Dorothy Harley Eber, author of the forthcoming Encounters on the Passage: Inuit Meet the Explorers, says the new details about Sir John Franklin's disastrous Arctic voyage in the late 1840s emerged from interviews she conducted with several Inuit elders at Cambridge Bay, Nunavut.

A painting by Julius Payer shows what might have happened in the final throes of the doomed Sir John Franklin expedition.

The Inuit account - passed down from 19th-century ancestors who witnessed the British expedition's failed attempt to find the Northwest Passage - describes "an exploring vessel" that anchored off the Royal Geographical Society Islands during the winter of 1850 because "they were iced-in and had no choice."

Evidence of the expedition's presence on the islands, according to Inuit oral history captured by Eber, can still be seen during the summer months in greasy deposits along the shore where "the ground is soiled by rendered seal oil blubber" used by stranded crewmen to fuel fires for cooking and warmth.

"When I recorded it, and first heard the information, I didn't have a map with me and I wasn't actually quite sure what I was hearing," Eber told Canwest News Service on Wednesday. "But I later had the material translated two or three times and I realized it was very important."

The Royal Geographical Society Islands lie between Victoria Island and King William Island where the Victoria Strait reaches the Queen Maud Gulf north of mainland Nunavut.

The location of the iced-in ship described by the Inuit is nearly 100 kilometres to the northwest of a stretch of water between O'Reilly and Kirkwall islands - close to King William Island and the mainland Adelaide Peninsula - that has emerged as the prime search area for Franklin shipwreck hunters.

University of Toronto Press, which is publishing Eber's book this fall, is billing the book as a must-read for Franklin aficionados, in which "new information opens up another fascinating chapter" on the tragic Arctic voyage.

Franklin himself died in June 1847, with the two ships at his command frozen in sea ice somewhere west of King William Island. The 105 surviving crew members battled bitter cold and ice-choked seas before succumbing to hunger and disease over the following few years.

A series of searches in the 1850s gripped the British nation and its Canadian colonies, and much of the Arctic archipelago was mapped and claimed for the British Empire as a result.

Various artifacts from the Franklin Expedition and the remains of several crewmen have been discovered over years, but the ships have eluded searchers - including those on a major Canadian government-sponsored expedition in the 1990s.

The man who headed that search - Robert Grenier, chief of marine archeology for Parks Canada - said he discussed the new account of the Franklin ship earlier this week with Eber, calling the Montreal author's findings "very interesting."

[blam]

GGG Ping.

[Rebelbase]

I've always been intrigued by the Franklin Expedition tragedy.

[Thebaddog]

Didn’t they find graves of the poor souls still intact?

[PLMerite]

The phrase “tastes like chicken!” isn’t going to be in there anywhere, is it?

[pj_627]

I have a really good book in my library, “Frozen in Time”, by Owen Beattie and John Grieger, that documents the discovery of the bodies of three seamen from the expedition. There are several really good color pictures of the condition of the body of one of the men. Made me shiver with cold just looking at his poor face. Gonna have to read through it again. Fascinating, and tragic.

pattyjo

[Portcall24]

Last Feb I was working at National Training Center at Fort Irwin, CA. In the PX I found a copy of The Terror which is a long fictional book about what might have happened. It is fabricated horror/fiction but you'll sleep with a light on! A great read.

[AnAmericanMother]

Saw those same pics. They were also published in Smithsonian magazine.

Terrible to die so far away from home. The body being so well preserved just makes it worse.

[pj_627]

Yes. In the book I referenced, there are also several pictures of the surrounding landscape. The word that immediately pops into my head is ‘forlorn’, almost featureless. The young seaman I mentioned was only 20 years old when he died. So young and, like you said, so very far away from his home and family.

pattyjo

[JRandomFreeper]

So young and, like you said, so very far away from his home and family.

That is the nature of heroic young men.

God bless them.

/johnny

[proxy_user]

“It was homeward bound one night on the deep
Swinging in my hammock I fell asleep
I dreamed the dream and I thought it true
Concerning Franklin and his gallant crew

With a hundred seamen he sailed away
The frozen ocean in the month of May
To seek a passage around the pole
Where we poor seamen do sometimes go

Through cruel hardships the mainly strove
Their ship on mountains with ice was drove
Only the Eskimo in his skin canoe
Was the only one that ever came through

In Baffin Bay where the whalefish blow
The fate of Franklin no man may know
The fate of Franklin no tongue can tell
When Franklin along with his sailors do dwell

And now my burden it gives me pain
For my long lost Franklin I’d cross the main
Ten thousand guineas would I freely give
To say on earth that my Franklin do live

[Peter Libra]

I remember a documentary on the redoubtable researchers who had unearthed for us much more information. It was the first known casualty who was John Torrington. Something we can as a group of human beings appreciate, their work and interest.

I am indebted to:

www.mummytombs.com
Franklin.

Old friend. Wikipedia.
Franklin Expedition.

I was particularly interested in the fact that the lowest tender was given to a company who canned foods. Such was the novelty of a new break through in preserving foods, that the Victorians were slap dash in some ways. Cans were found and analyzed. The cans were soldered on the inside. This accounted for the amount of lead in the system of young John Torrington.

Of interest also is the fact that the commanders did it right initially. They built a stone shed and even had a practice firing range. A speculation is that the lead poisoning set in and a boat was dragged by some of the survivors. It was not equipped for survival, it is said.

We may never know, but had they stayed put, they might have stood a chance. Well- who knows? Torrington has living relatives, we are informed.

[Aglooka]

Thank you for posting this.

Her book is due out on Nov 1 2008.

Check this website out for recent Franklin search expeditions links to other Franklin websites.

http://www.ric.edu/faculty/rpotter/SJFranklin.html

[Aglooka]

More crew remains were found on King William Island in the early 1990s. (Not the same island where the three frozen guys were exhumed).

It appears that a good portion of the dying occurred at a place now called Erebus Bay. A web search should turn up a forensic report on the cannibalized bones found in this area.

There is a well known story of a group of Inuit who got on board one of the ships after it was deserted.

[kalee]

Lady Franklin’s Lament

We were homeward bound one night on the deep

Swinging in my hammock I fell asleep

I dreamed a dream and I thought it true

Concerning Franklin and his gallant crew

With a hundred seamen he sailed away

To the frozen ocean in the month of May

To seek a passage around the pole

Where we poor sailors do sometimes go.

Through cruel hardships they vainly strove

Their ships on mountains of ice were drove

Only the Eskimo with his skin canoe

Was the only one that ever came through

In Baffin’s Bay where the whale fish blow

The fate of Franklin no man may know

The fate of Franklin no tongue can tell

Lord Franklin with his sailors do dwell

And now my burden it gives me pain

For my long-lost Franklin I would cross the main

Ten thousand pounds I would freely give

To know on earth, that my Franklin do live.

(alternate: To know Lord Franklin and where he is.)

[Rebelbase]

**Graphic Warning**

Franklin Expedition members bodies exhumed 130+ years later

[infowarrior]

Didn’t they find graves of the poor souls still intact?

I recall seeing a photograph in, as I recall a National Geographic magazine, sometime in the late 70's, maybe early 80's of the body of a British seaman, believed to be one of the Franklin expedition's crew, but as far as an large number, or a mass grave, no, I've never heard of such a find...

the infowarrior

[pankot]

Also, checkout the recent book “The Terror”. A fictionalized account but will keep you cold on hot Summer nights.

[SunkenCiv]

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[Noumenon]

Yes, The Terror was an excellent book. Dan Simmons is at the top of his form with that one.