ROBERT SHEDDEN "A NOBLE HEARTED MAN"

Rescue missions after Franklin filled not only the Arctic during the years after his dissapearance but newspapers and narratives of the time as well. 

The short and sad story of one of the Captains which sailed voluntarily after Franklin appears in almost all Franklin related books in the form of not more than three or four pàragraphs, but his name is not as well known as the name of others and he didn´t hardly appear in newspapers nor shared any visible glory though he accomplished certain things.

All stories I have read tell more or less the same thing, that Robert Shedden, thirty years old  by then (*), while staying in Hong Kong heard about Captain´s Kellet searching expedition which was launched by the Admiralty in 1849. He, on board his private Yacht the Nancy Dawson, volunteered to join the HMS Herald and HMS Plover in that eastern attempt to find the two Franklin´s ships. They were supposed to appear in the east side of the northwest passage in 1848 thing that we know now they didn´t.

(*) some sources say wrongly that he was 28

The Schooner Yacht Nancy Dawson
http://prints.rmg.co.uk/art/508850/the-schooner-yacht-nancy-dawson

When in June 1849 HMS Herald arrived at Petrovpavlosk, in Kamchatka peninsula, its crew saw with surprise how in the harbour, among some American whaleships, there was a British Yacht of the Royal Thames Yacht club. What was doing that ship that far ?

Yes, what was doing Robert Shedden there has not being enterily clear to me till I read "The Frozen zone and its explorers" and other documents. Though a former Navy man, for that time, Robert had become a tradesman. He had departed from Leith at the end of 1848 with a ship well loaded with provisions.

Was his original intention joining the searching expeditions or was he in the middle of a trade trip which he delayed for a while? It seems that he was in the coast of China before resuming his travel towards Siberia. According with the book above mentioned and those other papers,  he was in the course of a pleasure trip to circunnavigate the world though at the same time it seems that he had stated somehow his predisposition to join searching parties.

Both ships departed together on July 14 to join HMS Plover which was in Chamisso Island in Kotzebue Sound. From there, they sailed north beyond Point Hope, while sailing surrounded by bowhead whales and American whalers, to reach Wainwright inlet. Four years had elapsed since the Franklin expedition had departed and it was this place which the Admiralty thought it could be the farthest point the missing expedition could have reached.

From point Barrow on, waters were unknown. Previous expeditions (Dease and Simpson, Franklin himself, etc.) had assured that those waters were very shoal. Kellet then decided not to go on with his two ships.  It was then when William Pullen, a lieutenant appointed to HMS Plover, was sent ahead with four boats and 25 men. His goal was reaching the mouth of the McKenzie river and return if possible before the winter fell over their heads. In case they couldn´t retreat to the ships they should ascend the McKenzie river towards any trading fort. It seems that Pullen already knew before departing, according with the amount of provisions they carried, that they weren´t going to be able to return to the ships on time.

Pullen had sailed within just 10 miles of Point Barrow when he was stopped by the ice. For his surprise they saw how Nancy Dawson came following them. Robert Shedden wasn´t under Kellet´s command and he decided to give it a try. A risky decission taken into account that his crew had been creating problems from the very beginning of the expedition. As his ship was substantially smaller than the heavy Navy ships, he culd manage to advance further than them. When Shedden reached the boats Pullen went on board the Nancy Dawson to meet Robert, opportunity of which his mates took advantage for strengthening relations with local women.

Ice broke and the four boats and ship resume their trip. They passed Point Barrow, and here comes one of the achievements accomplished by Robert Shedden. His ship was the first on rounding the point by ship. From this place he had to come back, in part because sea conditions and in part because he had to confront the beginning of a mutiny provoked by men who were aggressively reluctant to winter in the north. Surely his health condition didn´t help too much neither in the decission process. He left some stores on shore and sailed back west under a rain of threats provided by his crew. Things were so serious that HMS Plover had to held three men  from Nancy Dawson under custody, in chains.

The brave Robert Shedden, sadly, was so sick of consumption that he died during their return journey the day 16th of november of 1849. He died three days after having reached Matzatlan, in the west coast of Mexico, despite the efforts made by the medical Navy officer. He was buried in a protestant cemetery leaving a widow. Robert was aware he was quite sick even when he decided to join the searching expedition. That decission speaks lots about his character. Perhaps that was the reason why he decided to join the searching, to perform some honorable achievement before departing to the other world. Likely we will never know. HMS Herald´s master, James Hill, was appointed by Kellet to drive Nancy Dawson back to England from Matzatlan.

But this, is the story which relate him with the Franklin expedition, and this is the story which surely made him famous, but, who was actually Robert Shedden? There is not too much written about him, there are no data available in Wikipedia nor in the Canadian Biographical Dictionary. I have been able only to gather some pieces of information here and there to rebuilt his story with the highest number of details I could find. The bigger number of details about his life comes from Mariner´s Mirror. Thanks Peter Carney for your support here!.

Robert Shedden was born in 1819, son of William Shedden of Wimpole street in Southsea. His father William, veteran of Napoleonic wars, was one of the partners of Haworth and Shedden, West India merchants. William died only a year after his son was born.

Robert had belonged previously to the Royal Navy before sailing after Franklin and left it as mate. He was a veteran of Chinesse wars where he was severely wounded. His last appointment was in the Victory. In 1841 he enroled as master of the merchant James Lyon and years after, in 1847, he bought  the yacht Nancy Dawson, a schooner of 163 tons built by  Camper of Gosport yard.

It seems that Rober Shedden was an exceptional good man, he assisted the four boats during the days they sailed eastward together and escorted the two which were sent back towards the Navy ships. Lieutenant Hooper called him "A noble hearted man" and he was not the only one who praised his attitude and kindness, examples of this appear in all accounts.

Only a geographical feature bears his name, Point Shedden. The place is located where he had landed to leave a caché of provisions for the Franklin expedition at the mouth of a small inlet called Refuge inlet, some miles south of Barrow point.

Point Shedden
http://mapcarta.com/24093432/Gallery

It seems that his premature departure provoked the making of several memorials. As I have read in the church of Weston Underwood in Buckinghamshire there was once a plaque which it seems it is no longer existing. But there is another memorial which still survives in St Mary´s church of Hardmead. As both towns are quite close, I tend to believe that there must be some sort of mistake about the location of the former and surely the only ever existing one must be the latter.

 This one shows an intense inscription:

"WILHELMINA, THE BEREAVED MOTHER, ERECTS THIS MONUMENT TO THE MEMORY OF HER ONLY AND WELL BELOVED SON ROBERT SHEDDEN. HE BUILT AND FITTED OUT HIS R.T.C. SCHOONER YACHT, THE 'NANCY DAWSON,' AND IN THIS FRAIL BARK HE BRAVELY EXPLORED THE FROZEN OCEAN IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS, IN A DISINTERESTED SEARCH AFTER THE LONG MISSING SIR JOHN FRANKLIN, AND HIS GALLANT BAND IN VAIN, DISAPPOINTED IN HIS GENEROUS HOPE, AND WORN DOWN BY ANXIETY, AND SLEEPLESS WATCHING HE DROOPED AND DIED, AS HE WISHED ON THE DARK BLUE SEA. HE EXPIRED ON BOARD HIS YACHT, ON 16TH NOVEMBER 1849 AGED 30 YEARS. HIS NOBLE REMAINS ARE INTERRED NEAR THE WILD WAVES OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN, IN THE PROTESTANT BURIAL GROUND AT MAZATLAN. HIS PRECIOUS SOUL RESTS WITH HIS FATHER AND HIS GOD. RESURGAM'"

http://www.friendsoffriendlesschurches.org.uk/CMSMS/index.php?page=hardmead

But those, or that, weren´t his only memorials. Without any doubt the most beautiful tribute to him was the one his aunt Margaret Robertson dedicated to him. She bought two fields in the council of Kelso to built a park named after her favourite nephew Robert the Shedden Park which still can be visited. Two cannons from Nancy Dawson were taken and placed to guard the keeper´s house door. Sadly they are no longer in its place. Will  they be in some local museum? The only certain thing is that the building is in a deplorable condition, the roof has collapsed and there is a warning signal besides its front door which prevent people to get close.

Keeper´s lodge
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1886919

The initiative was so welcome by the population that in return, people of Kelso, raised funds to built an arch to homage Mrs Robertson. The arch still presides the park.

Shedden park gate
http://www.kelso.bordernet.co.uk/history/images/12.html

Picture  by Nikk Watt´s 
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/tags/sheddenpark/interesting/

I thought at the beginning that perhaps people from Kelso surely would be unaware of the origins of the name of the park and the reason for his construction, but to my surprise I have found that in an astounding and at the same time beautiful homage, people from Kelso built this original playground not to many years ago:

Nancy Dawson, bespoke Galleon, Shedden Park, Kelso
http://www.externalworksindex.co.uk/entry/112584/Setter-Play/Bespoke-commemorative-play-ship-Shedden-Park-Kelso/

Kelso cuncil received a lottery grant with which they decided to build this playground ship in 2011. The shape of the ship imitates the original ship and details were copied from the only known picture of it to be incorporated to its design. There are panels at its sides which helps to follow the expedition performed by the ship and there are a compass and a weather game too. Who knows how many future generations of explorers this playground will turn up among the little children who are playing and will play in it ...

To end with the number of memorials Robert Shedden inspired, I would like to end with this rare pictura. It exists only a single painting of the ship which you can admire in the National Maritime Museum website, that´s true, but it exists also a litograph based in that painting.

Tnthed litograph based on the only known painting of Nancy Dawson

Its inscription in the top part of the painting which is sold for only 1.500 $ reads the following:

"Presented as a mark of esteem to Dr Francis Douglas MD from Mrs Robertson of Ednam House, in mournful remembrance of her beloved nephew 'The Philanthropic Shedden', who died on board his yacht in his generous search for Sir John Franklin and his [indecipherable] Companions!! Most deeply lamented!!'."

"Most deeply lamented", indeed. Said not only for one but for many. It seems that we are in front of a big lost, the lost of a philanthropic man, as the inscription above says, who could have done many things in favour of his society if he had had the opportunity of doing so. His soul left such print in the memory of his loved ones that it still last till these days in the shape of an original and lovely playground ship which is inmerse in the  waves of the innocent laughs of the children who nowadays play there. A playground ship which proudly bears the name of the first yacht which gave a tour all over the world and which sails are everyday filled by the gusts of imagination of those little kids which take its steer wheel. What better homage could he and his ship have deserved? 

Thanks to Peter Carney for his unconditional support and to Jonhatan Dore and Regina Koellner too for his goodwill.

Sources:
-  Furs and Frontiers In the Far North
- The Marine´s Mirror Volumen 44, Issue 2, 1958
- The Frozen zone and its explorers
- Arctic Hell ship 
- Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW : 1843 - 1893)
- http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/bucks/vol4/pp362-366 
- https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/1267713393
- https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/621057214
 - http://blogs.rmg.co.uk/memorials/m2493/

AMUNDSEN - SCOTT: DUELO EN LA ANTARTIDA, CAMBIAMOS DE HEMISFERIO POR UN MOMENTO

Como es el caso de muchos otros entusiastas de historias relacionadas con la exploración polar, mi aventura personal se inició hace muchos años cuando leí por primera vez un libro sobre la mítica carrera por la conquista del Polo Sur. Aunque ahora mis intereses se centran en un lugar diametralmente opuesto del globo y en un periodo concreto de la historia, hubo un día en el que devoraba aquellos libros que contaban las hazañas de aquellos hombres que sitiaron uno de los puntos geográficos mas inhóspitos e inaccesibles del planeta.

Ha sido Javier Cacho quien a través de su libro, me ha llevado a echar una mirada atrás y recordar toda aquella literatura que ya había engullido años ha. Como ocurre cuando volvemos a ver una de nuestras películas favoritas en la televisión de las que conocemos algunas frases de memoria, he revivido de nuevo la trágica historia de Scott y la también trágica, a su manera, historia de Amundsen. La emoción me sigue embargando cuando comienzo a leer un libro sobre esta expedición. Como un jovenzuelo ingenuo todavía pienso que Scott se va a poder librar de su condena a muerte. Pienso que el final que todos conocemos va a cambiar de algún modo y que esta vez el pobre hombre se las va a arreglar para sobrevivir, pero claro, al final nunca lo hace.

Amundsen-Scott: Duelo en la Antártida
Editorial Fórcola

Con Duelo en la Antártida no solo he revivido esos días en los que me iniciaba en la exploración polar en papel, sino que también he leído algunos detalles sobre ambas expediciones que no conocía y sobre todo y quizás mas importante,  he disfrutado muchísimo con su lectura.

Duelo en la Antártida no es un libro, es un torrente turbulento el cual, una vez pones un pie dentro, te arrastra con fuerza a través de sus páginas de manera que ya no puedes parar de leer. Avanzamos a través de sus capítulos con la misma ansiedad con la que Scott y Amundsen avanzaban por el hielo y la nieve para encontrar sus anhelados depósitos de provisiones. Éstos se suceden de forma fluida trenzando suave y ordenadamente las historias de sus diferentes protagonistas de una manera que no había visto hasta ahora. Con su relato, Javier te conduce inexorablemente hacia el Polo Sur transportado por ambas expediciones de forma simultánea de tal manera que llegaremos a leer el Epílogo del libro con la misma curiosidad y emoción con la que los compañeros de Scott llegaron a leer su congelado diario.

Entre sus páginas no he encontrado las reflexiones partidistas que castigan y condenan a uno de los exploradores aquí y vanaglorian y justifican al otro allá. Un impulso al que parecen haber sucumbido otros escritores que han sido seducidos por hipnóticos cantos de sirena y que podemos encontrar en multitud de libros sobre este tema en cuestión.

Después de leer Duelo en la Antártida seguramente, aquellos para los que esta historia no es nueva, no cambiaremos de opinión sobre si seguimos estando del lado de Scott o de Amundsen. Sabemos bien que inevitable y tristemente, las circunstancias que condujeron a estos dos pesos pesados a coincidir en el tiempo y en el espacio en la Antártida para acometer algo que históricamente ha sido considerado como una carrera, hará que estas dos expediciones sean siempre consideradas por el gran público como dos grandes equipos de fútbol antagonistas. Equipos de fútbol a los que solo se puede apoyar despreciando al oponente. A través de las palabras de Javier lo que obtendremos, sin embargo, no son juicios de valor, sino una información objetiva y meticulosa que nos permitirá disponer de las herramientas necesarias sacar nuestras propias conclusiones.

No suelo resistir la tentación de comprar cualquier libro sobre exploraciones polares que aparece ante mis ojos. Resisto menos todavía si los libros han sido escritos por paisanos nuestros, ya que estos ejemplares escasean tanto como las palmeras en la Antártida, pero la tentación que si que no puedo soportar y que me llevó hace un mes y medio a entrar bailando a una librería, como atraído por el sonido de la flauta de Hamelin, es que uno de estos libros haya sido escrito por un veterano científico español que ha pasado largas temporadas en el continente helado.

Duelo en la Antártida es un libro que no puede faltar en tu biblioteca polar, además, que demonios, ¡su formato es de lo mas atractivo!

LIEUTENANT WILLIAM ROBERTSON, RESCUING A SUPPORTING ACTOR

Not all the officers which participated in the siege of the Northwest Passage earned a vacancy in its explorers hall of fame. Mostly, they had to open their own gates fighting for recognition and had to struggle to take a position in subsuquent expeditions.

Some of those officers, like George Back, succedded on doing that and their names will forever be known because they had the opportunity to command a ship in Arctic waters. Others were known only because they die under sad circunstances, but many others were condemned to stay in the shade of some corner of the history, waiting for some historian, waiting till they pointed them with his torch when they were attracted for the noise of some outstanding naval career or perhaps just by chance.

What is certain is that they, definitely, are not known for the general public as those who can be counted among the heavyweights of polar exploration. This, is the case of William Robertson, first lieutenant of the HMS Isabella under the command of John Ross during his first expedition of 1818 to Baffin bay. A misterious man in several aspects.

William joined the Navy the 9th of june of 1803 and his naval career since he enroled till he died was really impressive. I don´t have too many details about his personal life, not even ablout which was his birth place. The only personal fact I have been able to get is that he got married in 1838 with a woman called Elizabeth Pater in a small village called Bath not far from Bristol. However, from "A Naval Biographical Dictionary" I have obtained details of his achievements in the Navy.

His first appointment was as midshipmen in the 74 gun ship Defence. Almost two years after, HMS Defence was assigned to form part of the British force which would participate in the Battle of Trafalgar under the orders of Captain George Hope .  

Rear Admiral George Hope
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Johnstone_Hope

HMS Defence was one the last ships in the Royal Sovereign´s column, the ninth ship behind the Bellephoron. However, in the heart of the battle, HMS Defence engaged the Spanish ship San Idelfonso not too far from where Bellephoron fighted against the ship San Juan Nepomuceno.

William´s appointment in HMS Defence not only would lead him to participate in the Battle of Trafalgar but somehow indirectly would lead him to participate in John Ross´s expedition, as we soon will see why. His role in the battle should have left some sort of impression in George Hope because he asked for him time after when George gained the command of the ship Theseus in 1807. This time he came on board as Master mate.

Not long time after, he participated in the battle for Cophenagen in 1807, where he was taken prisoner. He escaped in november of 1809 and was appointed to HMS Victory again under Hope´s orders during the Baltic campaign to defend British trade in the area.

At the end of his career he had served in approximately 18 ships and had participated in important events like the Battle of Trafalgar, the second Battle of Copenhagen, and the supply of troops to support the Portuguese constitutionalist in 1826. A whole life inside his own life.

But, how ended William Robertson being Lieutenant of HMS Isabella? Perhaps we could find the answer in the fact that George Hope had been rewarded with a position as Lord of the Admiralty in 1812 after the end of Napoleonic wars. He occupied that charge for six years and was the man  who sent the letter which arrived at Stranraer, Scotland, at the hands of a surprised John Ross.

The letter asked Ross to participate in the expedition which would condemn him to ostracism by the Almiranty for ever. Was Robertson chosen by Hope? Ross´s orders said that he was going to be accompanied by a man of science. Was William that man? If William was chosen by George Hope, surely in the mind of the later, were those years of faithful service during which they served together.

George Hope died the evening of 2 of may of 1818 fourteen days after HMS Isabella and HMS Alexander departed for the North. This makes me think that before Hope passes away, perhaps he wanted to give William a good opportunity to progress. Due to his position perhaps George Hope knew the race for the Northwest passage was about to begin and he wanted his friend  to take part of it.

We can´t obtain too much information about Robertson from the narrative of Ross´s voyage. He is only mentioned seven or eight times. Specially important is a note which appears in an appendix  of the book were it is described the geology of Four point island. The passage says  the following:

"Liutenant Robertson informs me that he here saw columns resembling those of Arthur´s seat in Edinburgh, resting on a thick bed of clay as bright as bright as vermilion."

From it, should we assume he likely was of Scottish procedence?

But the merit of William Robertson not only lies on being the second in command of HMS Isabella, he fulfilled the meteorological log which almost two hundred years later would be used by modern scientist to ascertain the future of the ice shelf of the Arctic. That´s  the reason why I think perhaps was him the misterious science man appointed by Hope to form part of the crew of HMS Isabell. In the list of crew members a strange "(b)" appears together his name, what could this mean?

HMS Isabella crew
From: A voyage of Discovery

To ratify my guessing, additional orders for the expedition were issued as follows:

"All objects of natural history, geology and mineralogy are (if possible) be brought on board and if any cannot be removed on account of their size, sketches and drawings are to be taken of them."

To perform this task again Lieutenant Rabertson was appointed together with a team of men which included the assistant surgeon and a young James Clark Ross. He was too in charge of taking observations of Aurora Borealis. If you asked me, in my opinion, William Robertson was Hope´s science man.

William Robertson and William Parry were those who were appointed by Barrow to watch from the top of the main mast when they sailed from Cape Clarence to Cape Saumarez in the northern end of Baffin bay. They failed to find any passage to the north on that part. That was another failure to add to the list of failures John Ross made in that expedition. Particularly to the more known one, when he understood that Lancaster sound was not a strait but a bay, and placed, confident, the nonexistent Croker mountains at its bottom.

Baffin bay according to John Ross´s voyage in 1818

William would never join again any Arctic expedition after returning from John Ross´s one, but however, he left some legacy in those regions. At least one geographical feature was named after him by John Ross during his first voyage to the Arctic regions, Its name is Cape Robertson and it is located in the northwest coast of Greenland. 

TWO FROZEN SHIPS: IF THEY WEREN´T EREBUS AND TERROR WHO WERE THEY THEN?

In a cold morning of April of 1851, like a ghost vision, a huge iceberg was seen from a ship which was sailing north ninety miles east off the shores of Newfoundland. Nothing strange till here, all the ships that followed that route, which were many, came frequently along with massive icebergs which sailed south from Davis strait towards the open sea.

The brig "Renovation" of 325 tons was sailing north the "morning" of the 22 th of april from Limerick, Ireland to Quebec. They sailed at a speed of eight or nine knots when they saw five miles away a big iceberg which was carrying a very strange load, two three masted ships which were apparently deserted. One of the ships was standing upright while the other was slightly inclined towards one of its sides.

The brig renovation sights two ships

Those two ghost ships and the five miles long iceberg which were carrying them were in sight during three quarters of an hour. Apparently all the Renovation´s crew and passengers could take a look at them. Though by that time, the Admiralty had announced that there was a huge sum of money offered as reward for those who could bring news about the whereabouts of the Franklin expedition ships and its members, it seems that anybody on board the Renovation was aware of this fact. Surely most of the people on board, if not all, was  unaware that the Franklin expedition had dissappeared. They surely didn´t even know about their existence. If they had had knowledge of this situation perhaps things would have happened differently.

Here, there are two different versions about what happened during those crucial moments. One of them tells the story that Captain Coward of the Renovation, who was ill lying in his bunk, was asked by the acting captain, the mate Robert Simpson, about what to do. According with this version Coward ordered not to approach the iceberg and  to continue the route. The second version says that, Robert Simpson, didn´t ask what to do and that he simply went ahead because he wasn´t familiar with sailing among ice floes or icebergs.

What would have they found on those misterious ships if they had approached them is something that unfortunately we will never know.

http://www.futilitycloset.com/2008/06/21/high-and-dry-3/

The ship Renovation reached her destiny time after, and it wasn´t after a letter was written a month later by one of the passengers, John Supple Lynch, that this events reached the public and attracted some attention. The incredible story was corroborated not only by Robert Simpson, but for other crew members like James Silk. By then, the idea that the ships on the iceberg were Erebus and the Terror began to take shape.

Lynch´s letter was published in The "Limerick Chronicle" but it wasn´t before a year that the shock wave reached London and the Admiralty. When news arrived, the Admiralty convulsed. Well, in fact it was public opinion which set fire on their trousers, people wanted to know. A frenetic activity mobilized the whole world. News not only filled newspapers of the time but also newspapers of almost one hundred years after, like this piece of news of the Argus from Melburne published in 1942 or this other published in 1937.

Erasmus Ommanney, the Arctic veteran, was appointed by the Admiralty to clarify the story. He was sent to Limerick to gather further information. Robert Simpson, as I said above, corroborated the story and even drew a sketch showing the position of the ships in the iceberg. The sketch showed the ships lying over the water line of the iceberg and completely dry. There were other sightings which confirmed the fact, another German brig,  Kneip, had seen the ships too.

Five miles is not a long distance, it is more or less the distance ships begin to dissapear under the line of the horizon. If you have ever seen this phenomenon, you know well you can distinguish a ship from anything else at such distance.

How could the men who saw the iceberg be wrong then on identifying without any doubt that the there were actually two big ships with three masts in it? Robert Simpson and John Lynch explored the ships with a telescope and they took notice of close details about their general state. One of the ships was well embedded in ice, all their masts were complete even with some of the yards still hanging from them. The masts of the other, the one which was inclined, was hanging over the sea and only their lower parts stood. This ship was placed in such position that it was showing her deck entirely to the eyes of the people who was looking at it from the Renovation. The ice which embedded the ships was said to be three years old. They were empty and there were no boats. Whoever had manned the ships had fled on board all their boats.

Captain Ommanney had no doubt about the authenticity of the sighting, but, a question still floated in the air: which ships were those? answering that incognita was a very different question.

The Admiralty produced an extensive report called “Vessels in the North Atlantic: copies of communications between the Admiralty and any Public Authorities at home and abroad, in reference to certain vessels observed on an ice-berg in the North Atlantic in 1851, and supposed to have been abandoned.” which seems to be still in the archives of the National Maritime Museum. I have obtained this particular piece of information from Russell´s Potter blog (infinite source of knowledge). There, he shares a paper written by Joe O, Farrell which deserves a reading.

The role of this report is studied in this paper together with other considerations. Though part of the content of Farrel´s paper is currently out of date, mainly because of the finding of Investigator and Erebus, it is still interesting the reading of his analisys about the sea currents in the part of the Arctic archipielago where Erebus and Terror dissapeared.

The bottom line about the content of the Admiralty report is that it ended without any conclusion. -This is mainly due because the authors dismissed the possibility that a ship could travel such long distances dragged by the ice. The estimated impossible that a ship could travel 2.000 miles from the heart of the arctic archipielago to the east shores of Newfoundland.

It wasn´t till 1855 that the ship Resolute would be found after having traveled the inmense distance of 1.000 miles after scaping her icy prison. Farrell rightly wonders what would have happened if the Resolute had been found some years before. I suppose that perhaps a fleet of Royal Navy ships would have been sent to look for Franklin all around the Atlantic Ocean instead of looking for him in the Arctic.

That those ships were not Erebus and Terror is something we already know. Erebus was found last year at the bottom of the sea west of Adelaide Peninsula, and it is expected that Terror will appear sooner than later too somewhere in front of the west coast of King William Island. So then, which ships are those which rode south on that immensive iceberg?

If you have reached this point and want to know my opinion, I think that more likely, those two ships could have been two whalers. If you have read something about the whaling history in Davis Strait you will soon realise how dangerous that business was. The impressive number of casualties occurred during whaler´s expeditions makes the Franklin expedition tragedy looks like a joke. Tens of ships were lost from the end of the mid eighteen to the twenty century. Hundreds of whalers drowned or perished by scurvy, hunger or cold in the frozen waters of Davis strait. As a sample you can check the list, which appears in the book Arctic Whalers by Basil Lubbock, of whaler´s shipwrecks happened in the Arctic from 1746 to 1907  (I definitely have to read this book).

From Arctic Dreams, Barry Lopez´s book, I learnt that in 1777 some whalers were trapped in the ice. 350 souls tried to reach safety wandering on the sea ice but only 140 survived. In 1830 other whalers were also trapped in Melville bay. This time 1.000 men saved miracously their lives. Years after, in 1835 and 1836 other ships were lost and again the number of casualties grew. A dangerous life which equals or even exceeds the risks assumed by our  always beloved arctic explorers.

But there were more shipwrecks years after, some of them happened not long time before the sighting of the two ships. The18th of June of 1849, James Saunders, was commanding the ship North Star in his way north to carry supplies for James Clark Ross´s expedition. They found near Upernavik some whale boats which were sailing south. The boats belonged the whaler Lady Jane, an old veteran from Newcastle which had shipwrecked in the north.  It took Saunders a month finding a way north among the ice, then, he encountered two more whaling boats traveling south. These boats came from the whaler Prince of Wales, an old good friend of some Arctic explorers.

So at least, two ships had been abandoned in 1849 in the ice three years before the brig Renovation found her icy floating treasure. Were those two the only ones left in the ice? If we read about the whaling history of Tyne we learn that at the same time that the whaler Lady Jane was crushed by ice  three ships more were abandoned:

"On 12 June 1849 she (Lady Jane) was crushed in the ice of Melville Bay with three other ships and lost without trace. News of the tragedy did not reach Newcastle until 5 October. Patterson, with a crew of 50, secured the seven boats belonging to the ship and trekked 500 miles across country to the Danish settlement of Proven, without loss of life."

The ships lost in Melville Bay were:

-  Lady Jane from Newcastle, crushed
- Superior from Peterhead,crusshed
- Mary from Aberdeen lost with all hands
- Prince of Wales, wrecked.

If those four ships were close to each other when they were abandoned is something I can´t assure here, but from what I have read and from what I have seen in old paintings of the time, it seems that usually, whalers, stayed close to each other in order to be assisted by their neighbours in case of danger and necessity. Specially when they were surronded by ice floes.

Ships rescuing 32 whaling ships that were lost in the ice off Point Barrow.

Apparently those four ships were crushed by the ice. This doesn´t coincide with the description of the ships seen over the iceberg which apparently were in good shape. But, cannot a crushed ship be lifted by the pressure of the ice and eventually avoid sinking at least for a while?.

The class of the watched ships could perfectly match the class of the whalers which usually hunt in the arctic. Both kind of ships usually had three masts. They were robust ships which could easily be confused with exploration ships. Sometimes exploration´s ships were used as whalers, Don´t you remember that Isabella, the ship on which John Ross sailed in search of the Northwest passage in his expedition of 1818, was also the whaler which rescued him in 1833 near Port Leopold?.

Isabella and Alexander, 1818.

Analysing the list of shipwrecks from the book "Arctic Whalers" we realise that only two years before the tragedy of 1849, three more whalers were "lost in ice", the ships were: Bon Accord, Caledonia and Alfred.  Could be two of these  our ships?

Those same years 1847 and 1849, William Penny, the Peterhead whaling master, somehow, tried while conducting his whaling trips to ascertain too the fate of the Franklin expedition. He entered Lancaster sound in 1847 with the whaler Saint Andrew and attempted to get into it again in 1849 with the whaler Advice. He was lucky and succeded in returning home safely, he even gain the command of one of the exploration ships sent after Franklin sometime after. Perhaps the rest the whalers which were lost those same years were pushing their own luck trying to find any trace about the Franklin expedition too.

I could be digressing here forever and ever but the truth is that we will never know which were the ships trapped on that iceberg. They must be by now somewhere in the bottom of the Atlantic ocean at the latitude big icebergs melt but of a thing I am quite certain now, and this is that our frozen ships were two of those whalers abandoned in the ice during one of those two cold summers of 1847 or 1849.


 

LEAVE HIS BODY REST IN PEACE AND UNDISTURBED - PORT LEOPOLD'S GRAVES

Several have been the expeditions which reached the shores of Port Leopold during the nineteenth century, time before and after the last Franklin expedition had departed. But only one of them left an indelible print on it. There, one of the biggest graveyards was deployed during the long winter of 1848-49.

The Arctic again shows us what kind of toll he charges to those who dare to get into him. Not for nothing Barry Lopez describes in his book "Arctic Dreams" the northern American Arctic of 1823 in this way:

"...as distant as fable, inhabited by remarkable animals and uncontacted people,... A landscape of numinuous events, of a forgiving benediction of light, and a darkness so dunning it precipitated madness, of a cold that froze vinegar, that fractured whatever it penetrated, including the stones. 

It was uncharted, unclaimed territory, and Europeans had perished miserably in it ...gangrenous with frostbite, poisoned by polar bear liver, rotted by scurvy, dead of exposure on the ice beside the wreckage of a ship burned to the water line for the last bit of its warmth" 

Port Leopold is a perfect natural harbour which mouth faces south. It is located at the mouth of Prince Regent inlet in its west shores. Together with its simetrical brother located northward, Rodd´s bay, they form an istmus which leads to a small peninsula called Cape Clarence. On it there is a flat hill whose steep slopes dominate the bay. McClintock describes it as a  astonishing bare land more barren than Beechey island.

There is no better way to find detailed information about the geography of these remote locations than consultating the "Canmaps" website:

Clarence Peninsula, Port Leopold, Rodd´s bay. http://www.canmaps.com/topo/buy-topo-maps/waterproof-paper/50k/058d14.htm

The hill forms an excellent viewpoint over Barrow strait. According to some accounts of the time, Beechey Island, located 100 km northwest, could have been even visible in clear days. Randall Osczevsky, suggests that big cairns built over the hill on Beechey Island could have served for mapping and triangulation from Port Leopold. This has sense since Ross sent sledges parties to the north shore of Barrow strait, if they reached it or if they didn't itis not clear to me . It could be. Anyway, lots of cairns were built over the hill on Cape Clarence. Some of them carried messages inside, the content of a particular one was quite surprising as we soon will see.

A distinct geographical feature makes of Por Leopold an unusual propicious harbour for wintering. At its entrance a strip of land called Whaler point closes part of the mouth of the harbour protecting it from the fury of the sea ice, but, it is this same particular distinction which makes of Port Leopold a capricious harbour which offers its gates some times open some times closed. Through its doors some expeditions found a providential place to winter, others were simply forced to do it.

During the second voyage of John Ross from 1829 to 1833, the crew of the abandoned Victory waited here unsuccessfully to be rescued the summer of 1832 and again, this time succesfully, a year after in 1833. John Ross called this place South Leopold Island, surely unaware that the port and cape Clarence were part of the big Sommerset island, in fact for Ross it should have formed part of the mainland, given that he had missed Bellot strait during the expedition. John Ross describes what was seen from the top of the hill:

"From the summit of the lofty mountain on the promontory we could see Prince Regent´s inlet, Barrow´s strait and Lancaster sound which presented an impenetrable mass of ice just as I had seen in 1818"

Whaler's point - Picture by Wolfgang Opel

From Trimaris blog post: Retreat at Whaler's point.

What John Ross doesn´t mention in his narrative is that he left on the top of the hill a tin case under a pile of stones with a poem on it. The poem was never found so it may perfectly be still there. A transcription of it was forwarded by him to Barrow. The poem reads as follows:

"Far as the eye can reach and all around

Is one vast icy solitude profound

On snow-clad ground in silent stillness, sleep

The weary crew, no shooting vapours steep

The rocks with freshness, not an herb is there,

Nor shrub, nor bush, but, desolate and bare,

It seems as if these regions, by the will

Of Heaven transfix´d, had all at once stood still;

And the proud waves, beneath the fatal blow,

Had spread into a field of lifeless snow".

John Ross sept 1832

John Ross, the man who survived four winters in the Arctic, the man who amputated the arm of his engineer, was a poet too. The eventful journey of John Ross during all those years didn´t leave any grave on that place, the only thing he buried there was some poetry. However, James Ross's expedition of 1848-49 in the ships HMS Enterprise and HMS Investigator, which reached this place fifteen years after and which counted with the presence of famous explorers like Leopold McClintock and Robert McLure, left a very different mark on those remote grounds. No less than six graves, one belonging to an officer and the others to five men. 

Remarkable Appearance in the Sky Always Opposite the Sun during the Arctic Expedition of Her Majesty's Ships Enterprise and Investigator

By: William Henry Browne

Who could have told Ross´s nephew he was going to beat all the records regarding  of Arctic expedition's casualties. James C. Ross have been praised here and there specially when compared with his uncle. James C. Ross was more able, cleverer, stronger and of course more handsome, thaat could be true but James lost seven men in a single winter (six of them buried in Leopold Island, another during the homeward journey) while John Ross lost only three men in four winters. To me mathematics wins. This was not his only indeleble mark in the place, he also left a permanent signature which still last:

h

Picture taken by Roger B. Swanson http://www.sailingbreezes.com/sailing_breezes_current/articles/July06/intoice4.htm

 Again arctic exploration history reminds us how fragile is the balance between death and life. I have read and listen in books and documentaries how some historians amaze about the high rate of casualties of the Franklin expedition during its first winter. It has been demonstrated that those who assert this have not taking into account the whole picture. The four graves from James Saunder´s expedition dug during the 1849-50 winter in North Star Bay is enough proof by itself, but if even so, someone is still exceptic, the six graves of Port Leopold should make the things clearer.

It is from the book "A whaling cruise to Baffin´s bay and the gulf of Boothia" by A.H. Markham, (thanks Peter Carney for this reference), where we can find a description and some detail about this, not so tiny, graveyard. On it are described the six graves at the head of the harbour. The precise location is not mentioned but we could assume they must be located not too far from the cabin which James Ross built during that winter. The graves likely must be located at the foot of the steep slopes of the hill in Cape Clarence, in the east side of the bay.

The officer buried there was Henry Mathias, assistant surgeon of the Enterprise, he died the 15th of june of 1849, aged 27. According with the official accounts he died from consumption combined with some other disease that had deeply rooted his constitution even before leaving England. Always the same tale and that could be all for explaining his death  but, in this case, from another source, the life of Admiral Sir Leopold McCLintock, I could gather some extra information which put some more light to the event of his death.

Henry Mathias participated in an apparent inoffensive race organised to see the returning sun the day 27th of february. A short but steep ascent of 800 ft (234 m)  to the summit of the hill in Cape Clarence.

Terraces in Port Leopold - Picture by Mechtild Opel
From Trimaris blog post: Retreat at Whaler's point.

The race was won by Mr. Court who carried a scraper in each hand, so imagine how steep was the slope, the temperature was -49 F. According with the reference, that was a cheering event which was soon shadowed by the fact that Mathias began to split blood and to lose strength. Though there was no official published account about this expedition, from McClintock´s journals some last words dedicated to this poor man have survived:

"In him, I have lost such an excellent friend as I can hardly hope to meet with again. He possesed a very rare combination of ability of the highest order, with sound practical sense and knowledge of the world. He was well read on many subjects, and he was so full of good nature that he was at all times ready to assist, explain, or impart knowledge to those who sought his aid. As a companion he was most animated and agreeable, and he was ageneral favourite on board."

McClintock words rescue a character from the expedition who would have been otherwise forgotten forever, as it usually happens with the tens of men who participated in such expeditions but survived to tell their story. Death is the common price you have to pay for being remembered with kind words as some sort of martyr, though this is not an infallible rule.

Though likely these two mentioned diseases were the actual reason which killed Henry, it surely was the effort made during the race which provoked the final and fatal collapse. Knowing as they knew he was a sick man, Why did Henry participate on that race?, the possible answer is beyond my understanding. Being ill as he was, and being assistant surgeon as he was does even more difficult to understand why he took such decission and what is more why the rest of the officer staff let him run. I guess that this will be one mistery more to add to our pile of Arctic expedition's related mysteries.

The graves of the rest of the men buried in Leopold Harbour belong to: James Grey, David Jenkins and Erward Binskin, all of them seamen from the Enterprise. The two remaining belong to William Grundy (or Cundy) and Thomas Coombs from the Investigator. Only the death of David Jenkins must be attributted to an accident, a fall, the rest were provoked both for consumption or for scurvy. The inscriptions were engraved on brass plates nailed to their head boards, but it is the grave of Thomas Coombs, who belonged the carpenter´s crew, which will attrack our attention over the rest and which will make us shiver a bit. At the foot of his grave, there was a bottle with a paper inside with these words on it:

"Near this spot lay the remains of Thomas Coombs, ..., who died on board that ship (Investigator) on the 27 th day of October, 1848, after a lingering illness of three months, which he bore with Christian fortitude. And I sincerely hope, should any Christian dall in with this, that he will leave his body rest in peace and undisturbed, and oblige his late chum and messmate Charles Harris, A.B."

Leave his body rest in peace and undisturbed, curious selection of words for a final farewell. Why mentioning particularly this? Was a general practice of the participants on Arctic expeditions violating or spoiling graves, I seriously doubt it. Was a general practice digging graves to practice authopsies in corpses of other expeditions? With what purpose? The only case I know, and which has sense, was that one performed concealed during the night by one of the surgeons of one of the 1850's rescue expeditions after Franklin in one of the graves of Beechey island.

Why then remarking such obscure point in that note? Was it a warning for what could happen in a far future?. This warning is especially distressing taking into account that men were buried wearing only a shirt and perhaps with some luck a pair of trousers, (as was demonstrated by the possesions found together with the three men buried in Beechey Island). Besides, according with one of the crew member´s,  (W. Brett), journal, Thomas Coombs belongings were sold after his death as it was common practice:

"October 27th Thomas Coombs, a Young Man belonging to the Carpenters Crew died after a long Illness.

Novr 6th Employed as on Saturday fetching Gravel and in afternoon Sold by auction the Effects of Tho Coombs Issued Soft bread for the first time which will continue during... "

William Kennedy´s account of his voyage in the Prince Albert during the years 1851 and 1852 , doesn´t offer further details about these six men, he only describes the state of Ross´s cabin and the contents of the cilinders left there. As there is not official account from Saunders from the North Star expedition of 1850, we can't know if they stumbled upon these six graves. Lady Franklin and Sophia ships arrived here too but the same happens. McClintock returned ten years after in 1858, but, despite his kind words produced during the 1848 expedition, this time, he didn't waste a single phrase in his account "The voyage of the Fox in the Arctic seas"about neither Mathias nor about the graves.

As I said before, there are no official accounts about this journey, only a couple of articles, this piece of news from Geelong Advertisement and the references you can find in other narratives of the time. Interestingly in "The English at the North Pole" Jules verne review quickly which expeditions stopped in the desolated beaches of Port Leopold, a privileged index to follow in case of needing further information.

There are graves in Port Leopold but surely they belong to whalers, trappers or trade men from the Hudson Bay Company. I want to think that graves usually call other graves, so perhaps not far from the buried men who appears in the picture below, are buried the remains of the main characters of this blog post, so, therefore, perhaps, they wouldn't be lost forever.

 http://www.umanitoba.ca/libraries/archives/exhibits/taylor/graves.html

Trappers graves at Port Leopold, Somerset Island

If you Google Port Leopold or Whaler's point you don't find hundreds of pictures. I am grateful on counting with a couple of friends who not only were there but they took very nice pictures of the place too. They have allowed me to share them here to dress a bit my post. You, reader, shouldn't miss their blog. Thanks Wolfgang and Mechtild.

Acknowledgement: Jonhathan Dore, Peter Carney, Mechtild and Wolfgang Opel, Randall Osczevsky.

FUTURE VOYAGES MAY FIND THE LONELY GRAVE OF MALCOM

There is in the Arctic archipielago another island which wears mournfully another grave. How many more do I have to find? 

In the process of making my inventory of deaths happened in the Arctic in the nineteenth century I have stumbled upon a new one which occurred during an expedition which I had missed while searching in the numerous narratives about arctic expeditions of the time. This time the turn corresponds to the Horatio Austin expedition of 1850-51. An able seaman, George S. Malcom, died because he suffered from severe frostbites in his feet during a sledge trip during the spring of the year 1851. He belonged HMS Resolute and was buried in Griffith Island, south of Cornwallis land, not too far from Beechey Island.

Griffith Island is a barren land closely related with Horatio Austin´s expedition because they spent many months close to it while trapped in the ice. During that time the island was festooned with numerous cairns, it seems that men found little thing to do there but to pile stones and building snow walls. A particular big one was placed over a prominence which it is said could be seen from many leagues, I wonder if that cairn still exists. 

Griffith Island
http://www.canmaps.com/topo/nts50/orthoimage/058f12.htm

In the narrative of the HMS Resolute and HMS Intrepid journey during the years 1852 to 1854, two years after Horatio Austin expedition, George Frederick McDougall, then master of the Resolute but who was second master in the same ship during the 1850-51 expedition, reflects about this small piece of land which he knows well: 

"The sight of Griffith Island afforded a peculiar interest to those who, forming a part of the expedition under Captain Austin, had spent eleven months frozen up in its inmediate neighbourhood. Every point, hill, and ravine was connected with some little incident, during our rambles over its desolate and uniteresting surface." 

But what island of that archipielago is not desolate and which don´t have an uninteresting surface? We have already analyised some of them and all those small points of the Canadian arctic shows few, if any, geographical interesting features: Dealy Island, Beechey Island, King William Island, and so on. All of them are horrid places to lie dead but all of them have dead men lying men under their surface.

McDougall continues with a little homage to his old companion:

"Nor did we fail to remember with kindly feelings the sad fate of that brave seaman of the Resolute, George Malcom, who fell victim to the intense cold, and extreme hardships, he had to encounter in the cause of humanity. His remains are interred on the east side og the island. May he rest in peace!"

The source of this last new finding has been this interesting web site where I have found not only a drawing of the grave of the able seaman but also a letter which talks about its death, both performed by Charles Ede, assistant surgeon of HMS Assistance, ship which accompanied HMS Resolute during the expedition of 1850-51.

Grave of George S. Malcom
http://labs.eeb.utoronto.ca/dickinson/EEB299Y_2004/Collectors/collector-%20Charles%20Ede.html

The text under the picture says the painting was addressed from Charles Ede to Adam White and that the cause of the death of Malcom was frostbite in the feet. There were at least eighteen cases of frostbite among the men who participated in the spring and summer sledge parties. According to Sherard Osborn´s account of that journey John Malcom (John?) had been "delicate from the outset, having fainted on his road to the place of inspection and depature in april 1851".

Sherard Osborn from the HMS Pioneer hardly writes some words about the death of this man, he even mention his name wrongly. Perhaps he hardly knew him, after all that expedition was formed by four ships.  

But who was Charles Ede? It would be unfair to jump over him after having found this letter and drawing without dedicating him some lines. Charles Ede, as we have seen, was the Assistant surgeon in the Assistance during the expedition of 1850-51. He was the statuary and sculptor of the expedition...sculptor?. He was the author of an arctic theatrical play called "Zero, or Harlequin Light" and acted in several plays as Mr Crank in Did you ever send your wife to Camberwell, Mrs Wiffles in Done on both sides and Adam Brock in Charles XII. As an explorer, he led a sledge party to Cape Walker and finally retired from the Navy in 1852 to open his own private consultation.

There is no mention to his burial nor to his precise date of death, we only know he died during the spring of 1851, likely in april after his sledge trip. I am tempted to think that, as it is said the grave is located in the east part of the island and facing N.N.E. his remains could be located at any place in Dobel point, the only significant geographical feature of that part of the rock and where the steep slopes of the east coast seems to be flatter.  More details however can be found about the death of this man  in the letter here linked and in the Narrative of the subsequent journey of the HMS Resolute. 

Griffith Island, topographic map
http://www.canmaps.com/topo/buy-topo-maps/waterproof-paper/50k/058f12.htm

Anyway, I wanted to copy here some of the lines from the Charles´s letter which could show the atmosphere breathable on such sad days. Atmosphere of sadness, of course, but also of recognition and love from his mates:

"Situated on the ice bound and desolate shore of Griffiths .../... future voyages may find the lonely grave of G.S. Malcolm. 

Here where the unbroken stillness give a sacredness to the spot, his journying companions erected a tablet to the memory of one who too jealously expressed himself in the great cause of humanity.

While travelling along the southern shores of Parry Gulf at about fifty miles from the ships he was severely frostbitten in both feet and recklessly jepordizing his own saftey in a noble fear of hindering the search became at last unable of proceeding further. Placed upon the sledge protected from the cold by buffalo robes he was born back to the ships but after the first or second day became delirious. 

The officers and men cheerfully sacrificed their own comfort to the wants of their brave and unfortunate comrade. after seven days hard travelling they reachesd the Resolute to which he belonged. He then became sensible and expressed his satisfaction at being on board. Too soon however he collapsed and died without much suffering." 

Some of the words of this letter will sound us familiar to those wriotten by McDougall in the narrative. Surely they were taken from Ede´s letter. As we don´t know, and perhaps ever will know , what was carved in his lonely tombstone, we could assume that this kind words could shape his non written epitaph from now on.

Apart of what I have just posted above, I am happy to announce here and now that further researching to complete the Arctic Graveyard will be based on the Clements Markham´s book "The Arctic Navy list" where a thorough list of officers and ships related with Arctic missions is presented. 

The ship´s list shows on which expeditions each ship participated and how many men died on any of them. I wish I had find this jewell before, it would have save me some precious time. On it, I am sure, you will find too valuable information for your own investigations. On the copy linked below have been scanned pieces of news from the time which, though they hide part of the original texts, offer an added value because they give you further information about some of these men.

Clements Markham´s book" The Arctic Navy list"

If Markham is right, there only remain ten men to be identified:

- Three men who died in the Fox in the McClintock expedition of 1857-59

- Three men who died in the James C. Ross expedition of  1848-49 (the fourth has been already identified).

- Three men who died in the Collinson expedition of 1850-54

- One man who died during the Belcher expedition of 1852-54 from the Resolute.

There are, however, some little inconsistencies on Markham´s list which I have to investigate deeper.

If this inventory is correct the Northwest Passage had taken the life of 61 men besides the lives of the 129 men from the Franklin expedition. I will prepare a dedicated blog post when I finish the inventory. There are still lot of blanks to fill in the data base and some work to do.   But, if you are so eager than you can´t wait, here you can consult the list as it is right now.

SAMUEL HEARNE, A NECESSARY STOP IN THE WORMHOLE OF POLAR EXPLORATION

Like many others my interest in the Polar regions comes first from the south. Everybody knows the sad story of Scott and the amazing feat achieved by Shackleton. But those stories are not more than the tip of the iceberg. Once you begin to dig around them you realised you can´t stop digging, because each thing you find carries you to get deeper  and deeper into the black hole which is the polar exploration. This is so serious than I have been even accused of having read more books about polar exploration than about Spanish history. Shame of me, but it is fairly true and yet I am an ignorant who is only scratching the surface of this massive mountain of ice.

Well, let´s continue. It was the Antarctic duel between Scott and Amundsen which took me investigate to further on Amundsen. Amundsen led me to the North Pole, to Nobile and Nansen and to the Northwest Passage too.  Amundsen was to me a sort of Caronte who linked with his life two very different worlds, the North and the South Poles.

Nobile made me take a look to the tragic Andree´s expedition, to the north duel among Peary and Cook and to other explorers of that time. The Northwest Passage, yes, that poisoned yellow brick road, showed me that there was a third Pole to conquer, one which I was unaware of. A death trap which would produce hundreds of books and the death of many people and which still has a story to tell, we will see. It was then that I found myself right on the other side of the gates of the nineteenth century after having crossed the frozen desert of the beginning of the twentieth, 

By then I though I was reading stories old enough, but, ...how wrong I was. Through that door I could see a maremagno of expeditions full not only of tragedy, love and death but of determination and courage too. I looked at the right and to the left and I saw the Franklin expedition getting lost forever, the Rosses reaching the Antartida. I saw Barrow leading his herds from one place to another failing here and there. I saw how an incredible battle was taking place and I saw how the siege to the Northwest Passage was closing its circle. 

Digging and digging and digging a bit more I reached the Franklin expedition to the mouth of the  Coppermine river, and then, accompanying him, I reached the tragic place of Bloody Falls. 

Bloody Falls by The Bug Geek
http://thebuggeek.com/2010/07/11/bloody-falls/

That place is not only the old stage of a massacre, it is also a window, a time gate which transports you 50 years before, from 1821 to 1771. There, between broken skulls and a terrible story of death and blood I discovered Samuel Hearne. An English officer who left the Navy to join the Hudson Bay Company and who was the first european on reaching the shores of the Polar sea. A man who did it in a time where those areas where only populated for a combination of Indian tribes and wild animals.

Samuel Hearne is, like Amundsen and Franklin, a bridge between two times, two different centuries. 

You only have to take a look into his  portrait and the portrait of those men contemporary of him, to realise you are reaching the bottom of the time tunnel. 

Samuel Hearne
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Hearne

We are speaking of a time when the American colonies where struggling to get their independence, when the French took the Bastille and began to behead people all over the place. Is that a time past enough? It is not. Samuel Hearne is going to be the guide who will lead you  another 50 years further back in time to the tragic story of James Knight and we could continue so for a while till reaching Henry Hudson and Barents...and who knows who more!

But I came here to speak of Samuel. Few times during these last years my wife has told me that I was so enthralled with the reading of a book  that I looked as if I was going to get into it. Eyes wide open, body rigid, nervous movement of a foot, scratching my bald and failing breath at some points. That´s the effect Ken McGoogan book about Hearne provoked me this last week. Samuel Hearne accompanies you through the life in the Royal Navy of the eighteen century and lodges you in the remote forts propierty of the Hudson Bay Company when they were stone walls with no more than a handful of cabins with only tens of Europeans living inside. 

Prince of Wales Fort
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Wales_Fort

One of the other books which haunted me that much was the expedition to the mouth of the Coppermine river performed by Franklin. There is something on that Barren Lands which makes me shiver.  The 1819-22 Franklin expedition is a tragic story which you can´t stop reading because you are not certain how it is going to end, but Samuel Hearne story and life gives you a much more complete picture and his tale, through Ken and Hearne´s own words you enjoy and suffer equally because his story it is a a story of success but also of overcoming hardships and tragedy. 

Samuel made a radiography of the land, people, customs and wild life of the region, his curious nature left an essential legacy for others which came after.

Samuel died young, too young indeed. He died even too soon to witness how his own narrative of the journey was  published, the narrative which carried him to the fame. His love story is the kind of you want to see in the cinema with your girlfriend, the kind of story which would make your mother cry. Through Ken´s steps you can follow easily, very easily, the track of this man. In "Ancient Mariner" you will find the gate you need to go down to the next floor in the basement to keep digging into its ground and to get inmersed in the shadows of the time where the days were colder, the life harder and the northern world was just a black stain on maps which swalloved explorers untiringly.

When I read "Fatal passage", a book which tells the story of John Rae, also by McGoogan, I said to my myself:

 -John Rae deserves a movie

After reading Ancient Mariner I said: 

- Samuel Hearne deserves a movie

This time, thankfully Virginia Barter, the historical writer and filmmaker, thought like me and took some steps forward making a short movie of nine minutes telling part of his story:

http://www.virginiabarter.ca/

http://www.virginiabarter.ca/?page_id=51

A whole TV serie could be made to tell it and still surely there would be details about his life which would stay out of the script. 

Surely Ken´s writting style has a lot to do with this feeling. His books are like movie scripts and he adds the necessary dramatic climax to keep you engaged to the reading till the point that words become people and pages become scenes.