WOULD YOU CHOOSE A HEAVY SHIP OR ON THE CONTRARY A LIGHT SHIP?

It was always been said that little ships were better suited to cross the shallow and treacherous waters of the Northwest Passage, there were several explorers who affirmed that thing (Hall, Hood, among others), but of course the Admiralty was thinking on a different way, because they persevered on sending to the NWP heavy expeditions. 

William Edward Parry: From: WahooArt.com

What have surprised me is that William Parry, a man already experimented in the arctic hazards, said this on the narrative about his first Voyage: 

"On the 5th, it was necesary to pass through some heavy streams of ice, in order to avoid the loss of time by going round to the eastward. On this, as many other occasions, the advantage possessed by a ship of considerable weight in the water, in separating the heavy masses of ice, was very apparent. 

In some of the streams, through which the Hecla passed, a vessel of a hundred tons less burthen must have been immoveably beset. The Griper was on this, and many other occasions, only enabled to follow the Hecla by taking advantage of the openings made by the latter. "

He thought, and likely correctly, that the weight of the ships could help them on saving time ,while sailing on a straight line breaking the ice, as the heavy ice breakers currently does, pushing the ice and climbing slightly over the borders of the floes to break it with their weight.  But Parry had been beset before by the ice, he should have known the dangers of sailing in icy waters with such heavy ships. He should have known by then that the seas on those latitudes are not always covered by thin ice but for thick ice which can trap easily a heavy ship. A more maneuverable ship could have helped him to sail closer to the shores when the waters would be impracticable and a smaller and lighter ship could take the advantage of using whatever lead opened in the ice, no matter the smaller the lead could have been. He should have known or deduced that.

Ivan Constantinovich Aivazovsky - Ships in a Storm From Wikimedia Commons

Wasn´t Parry wrong on their appreciations? Was he only refering to the kind ship which could be best suited for navigation on open waters or he meant what kind of ship could be suitable for the whole expedition? Did he change his mind?

 I have read several original narrations about arctic expeditions and I don´t remember that any of their commanders would propose the use of lighter ships. It is true, on the other hand, that previously to these expeditions of the nineteenth century, there were several cases of small  ships, which were accompanying others of a bigger size, which capsized during storms, sometimes even before reaching the shores of America.

ROBERT SPINKS, ANOTHER SECONDARY ACTOR OF THE FRANKLIN´s ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS

Time ago I wrote several posts about John Hepburn, the sailor who accompanied John Franklin on his expedition to the mouth of the Coppermine river and who played a very important role on their final survival. John Hepburn even took part together with Joseph René Bellot in one of the rescue expeditions after Sir John Franklin disappeared, but there is another man, another sailor whose behaviour and mood gain for him an outstanding place on the oficial journals of some of the first expeditions performed by John Franklin.

Robert Spinks is the actor of a funny, though dangerous, anecdote in the expedition towards the North Pole of 1818 commanded by David Buchan and described by Frederick William Beechey here. 

While some of the men of the crew were on shore in Spitzbergen, Robert Spinks trying to descend the first of all to the ships he tried to go down by a steep glacier. He slipped and fell thousands of feet in an apparently uncontrolled way. 

Fortunately for him, the fallen resulted in no hurt for him and the anecdote was such that it resulted worthy of being published on the oficial account when it was finally published. The funny thing was that, after being able of stopping the dangerous fallen, he had broken the pair of trousers he was wearing and, as Beechey describes, "something more". Spinks, stood up laughing heartily and the rest of the men who were attending the spectacle joined him. This scene could easily be part of an old adventure film. 

Beechey even tells on this book how Spinks also accompanied Franklin and Back on their second expedition towards the north shores of Canada, giving him a little homage. Spinks is described by George Back as a man of great zeal, fortitude and perseverance and as a man of an unusual degree of good humour and who was of the utmost use on keeping up the spirits of others. 

After reading this, one thinks that sometimes we focus our attention on the great names of the polar exploration and that sometimes we forget that those great men were surronded by humble sailors which acts were so heroic or even more heroic than those performed by his commanders and that without those men those expeditions simply couldn´t have been posible. 

 Robert Spinks must have been a man worth of knowing, a good friend and a good man. Unfortunately he died soon after having being promoted as a gunner on the ship HMS Philomel in Gibraltar, the cause of his dead is not told by Beechey.

THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION UNDER THE MAGNIFYING GLASS

Today I have been doing some tests with my new "close up" camera lenses. As I am obsessed with the Franklin expedition, one of my first ideas has been to take pictures of the book "Sir John Franklin´s Last Arctic Expedition" by Richard Cyriax, surely one of the bests and more complete books which treats about this subject and which could be considered its encyclopedia.

Here we have the review about the book by William Battersby, done time ago, in Goodreads, here we have the review done in the Cambridge Journals and here an abstract of the book. Unfortunately, the book is not longer printed but you can still find the original, or more likely, its facsimile version of 1997 with prices which can vary between 20 to several thousand pounds.

The book itself had a turbulent life. It was published for first time in 1939 and most of their copies were destroyed while they were stored during a German bombing in the second World War. Long time after, in 1997, it was re-published again. However, even after this re-edition, the book is hard to find at a reasonable price. Perhaps, after this new and unexpected revival  of the interest about this matter provoked in my opinion mainly by the succes of the Dan Simmons´s novel "The Terror" and the project of making a film about it,  we could soon see a new edition of this magnific book which almost surely won´t be an accurate copy of the original as the edition of 1997 actually is.

Little is known about Richard Julius Cyriax, the author wasn´t an historian as many can think, he was a physician who was in his time, as many others still are , captivated by the fate of the last Franklin Expedition. I have not been able to find any picture of him, the man who wrote one of the books which perhaps could be a best-seller in the years to come is a mistery by himself or at least he is for me and for the general public.

While I was taking these photographs I would have liked to find through them some hidden secrets, perhaps something hidden among the paper fibers which at a short distance resembles me like ice crests. I would have liked to find some new clues in its pages and maps that could have given me some answers to the neverending questions, but the result has been the same as always: no answers.

Cover of  "Sir John Franklin Last Expedition" by Richard J. Cyriax.
My beloved copy find in England by my friend William Greenwell

The Arctic Press Logo.
To them we owe the privilege of having this copy in our hands.

The "King William Land" after known as "Island".
That tiny piece of Earth still hide secrets and generates long  and neverending discussions and it will keep doing it for many years or even forever.

Through the pages of  "Sir John Franklin Last Expedition" you will find the entrance to the mistery which wrap the fate of the last Franklin´s expedition but, like in an impossible labyrinth, you couldn´t find the exit.

Not only more than a hundred of men were lost in those remote lands but two big and well built ships. Perhaps they will be the only witnesses that we can aspire to find which, with some luck, could add some new information which could help to solve the mistery or which could only aid to generate new questions to the list.

THE WILD WILD NORTHWEST PASSAGE: ARCTIC EXECUTIONS OR ARCTIC CRIMES

The arctic has been, for centuries, the stage of  numerous deaths, some of them were provoked by starvation, exposure, Polar bear attacks, etc. but some of these deaths were provoked for the same people who participated on these expeditions. The frontier between what was called  "executions"in the official transcriptions of the journals  or what could had been called  "Crimes" is sometimes a thin line and, depending on the point of view, the "Execution" denomination could be considered even arguable.

This is not an exhaustive list, but to my mind come these cases:

Robert Hood and Michel Terhoaute, First Franklin expedition descending the Coopermine river in 1819.

Robert Hood was allegedly, and almost certainly, killed by the indian Michel Terohaute while they were on their way back towards Fort Enterprise. The things were terrible wrong, John Franklin had gone ahead with the rest of the party leaving at Hood, Dr Richardson, John Hepburn and Michel behind. Michel Teroahute shot Hood in the back of his head after a bitter discussion while they were camped. In this case the situation was clear, it seems that it was actually a crime (Fergus Fleming in "Barrow Boys" suggested boldly that Hood could have been killed to be eaten for the rest of his British mates).

Dr. John Richardson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Richardson_(naturalist)

When Dr. Richardson and the sailor John Hepburn decided to move forward  towards Fort Enterprise Midhel Terohaute began to behave strangely and violently. John Richardson then killed him shooting him in the head. This was officially considered an execution, though Willard Wentzel, the Northwest Company representative asked for doing a proper investigation, but nobody listened to him.

Patrick Coleman  Second Hall expedition to locate the alleged survivors of the Franklin last expedition. 1868.

Charles Francis Hall
http://www.librarything.com/author/hallcharlesfrancis

Charles Francis Hall, during his second expedition shot on the 31 of July of 1868 one of the five sailors he had previously hired  after a bitter discussion with them. The discussion was provoked by Hall who went to the tent, where those men were resting after having been out the whole day. He asked them for an explanation about why had they spent so many time out the camp to do a job which must have lasted only a few hours.
 

Hall asked for the rifle which one of the sailors had, went to his tent, took a revolver, came back to the tent and shot Pat. The poor man agony lasted two weeks before dying. Some of the Inuit witnesses said that they were afraid of the life of Hall because the discussion was very violent. However, one of the sailors said time after that the situation could have been controlled with the proper management, perhaps for a more tempered man than Hall.

This is not clear if it was an execution or a crime or none of both, it seems that Hall acted in self defence, but the fact that Patrick was unarmed and that Hall could have gone to his tent and return with his gun without being stopped by the sailors suggest that the things weren´t so extreme.

Thomas Simpson Return expedition to England 1840

Thomas Simpson
http://becomingcanada.tumblr.com
http://becomingcanada.tumblr.com/post/26831393447/july-9-1837-thomas-simpson-and-peter-dease

This is one of the darkest stories of crime of the Arctic. Thomas Simpson was on his return trip towards England after the authorities had not answered his proposals to complete the location of the Northwest Passage. On his way back, the description of his death says that on June 14 he and some of his Indian mates died in a shoot-out. it seems that Simpson had become crazy, violent and paranoid. Thomas even thought that some of the Indian were trying to kill him. He killed them, and the rest of the men fled. These men found him dead of a shot and his gun was besides him.

Private Charles Henry  Greely expedition in 1884

Private Charles Henry
http://www.executedtoday.com/2013/06/06/1884-charles-henry-lady-franklin-bay-expedition-arctic-execution/

About this specific matter I have few things to say, a complete and thorough description of the facts was done by Glenn Marty Stein on his wonderful article: "An arctic execution" which is available here:

http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic64-4-399.pdf

This is perhaps the clearest case. The commander of the expedition ordered his execution, and the order was even written down. Therefore, this was clearly an execution. What perhaps it wasn´t so clear is that the facts had  happened as it was told in the oficial account of the expedition and that is the reason why I reccomend, to those who haven´t do yet, the reading of the Glenn´s article.

Ross Gilmore Marvin (Peary expedition 1908-09)

Another interesting case, again apparently product of the erratic and agressive behaviour of the victim, is that of Ross Gilmore Marvin, a member of the Peary expedition of 1908 who was the leader of one of the supporting parties. 

Ross Gilmore Marvin

Marvin was 28 years old by the moment he joined the expedition and had participated in the previous Peary´s attempt. He departed with two Inuit cousins, Kudlookto and Inuksutoq. these two men arrived without Marvin days after having left Peary, they told that Marvin had fallen the 10th of april of 1909 into a lead opened in the ice, fifteen days after they departed from Peary´s main party.  Seventeen years after, one of the Inuit confessed having shot Marvin because of his crazy behaviour. To make the things even more confusing, in 1954, apparently, Kudlookto told Peary´s daughter that he had been inclined to make that confession influenced by some sort of religious histeria.

Marvin was an enthusiast, absolutely motivated, the story told by the Inuk may surprise. He turned back, ordered by Peary, at a latitude of 86 º38 ´´north, at a distance around 370 km from their goal. Maybe being that "close" from the North Pole and having to return could have deeply affected him. 

The strange behaviour detailed by the Inuit companions is even rarer if you take into account the high regards on which he was considered. In Mathew Henson own words Professor Marvin was  "a quiet, earnest person, and has had plenty of practical experience besides his splendid education.". The church service performed in his honor, available here, isfull of compliments made by Peary and others.

Peary´s plans about who would form part of the final team which would press to the final target were unknown by the men, not even Mathew henson was aware of that who said:

"My heart stopped palpitating, I breathed easier, and my mind was relieved. It was not my turn yet, I was to continue onward and there only remained one person between me and the Pole — the Captain. We knew Commander Peary's general plan: that, at the end of cer-tain periods, certain parties would turn south to the land and the ship "

But it looks that Marvin feet were badly frozen by the time he had to come back to the mainland or the ship, Peary had sent him back once before to reach a previous and far depot to bring a surplus of alcohol for the main party, that extra effort could have affected very badly his phisical and mental conditions.

It is evident from Mathew Henson narrative of the expedition that he had developed a special fondness towards Marvin, at the end of it surprisingly writes this:

"but the one ever-present thought in my mind was of Marvin, and of his death. I thought of him, and of his kindness to me ; and the picture of his widowed mother, patiently waiting the return of her son, was before me all of the time. I thought of my own mother, whom I scarcely remembered, and I sincerely wished that it had been me who had been taken."

Nobody reading this was there to witness and therefore nobody can tell what actually happened no matter how strong could be the clues or trustworthy the confessions, so there are no factual reasons to believe one or other theory wich make this death controversial. Drowning in icy seas was very common in polar explorations and it is sadly still happening during these days in modern expedirions, but it is doubtful that anyone could have fabricated such a tale like that told by the Inuit who could have confronted a very severe punishment. I am, like many others, much more prone to think that Marvin was actually shot and that he didn´t drown, but what actually happened to provoke such an extreme act is not completely clear. It was said that Marvin had the intention of abandoning Kudlookto and that he didn´t allow Inuksotoq to get into his igloo, which would have meant the certain death of both men but there is also another possibility, that the two cousins could have killed or abandoned Marvin in order not to delay their return to safety. We shouldn´t forget that Inuit were absolutely scared of advancing into sea ice and we know from many polar accounts the terrible effects of having an injured member in the team who can´t follow the desperated pace needed in such extreme straits. More likely, playing the king Salomon Role, Marvin was pressed by the Inuit to go faster when he couldn´t and that could have driven Marvin crazy or desperate who could have threaten his two companions not to leave him alone, maybe he even didn´t allow one of them to share the igloo because he didn´t trust on him which obviously led to his killing. I am not blaming anyone, of course, it is my believe that arctic explorers used to threat Inuit people to follow their crazy plans, some times frocing them to perform travels which the natives knew were suicidal, so there is not judging here at all, just an evaluation of options.

The fact, is that as Peary said:

"The bones of Ross G. Marvin lie farther north than those of any other human being.”

There is a small memorial in Elmira which you cand find in my Polar explorations memorial map, there is also a dummy grave here. More information can be found here, here 

CONCLUSION

Well, I am sure that there are a much higher number of "crimes-executions-self defending killings", but to my mind only comes these ones right now. Anyway, one thing is clear, the Arctic, a place on which I have never been, seems to exert a great and magnificient attraction towards the sensitive people and it makes arise on them the best and most wonderful feelings, but it seems that it has also the capability to transform other kind of people on murderers and paranoids. Cases of paranoid seems to be frequent on these latitudes and, perhaps justified or not, this paranoia usually ended with a murder or with a dead.

To me it is clear that the power of those regions are beyond the limits of understanding of those, like me, who have not been there and that a person, no matter how strong this man or woman could be, phisically or mentally, it is no more than a puppet on the claws of its nature.

IF THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION HAD HAD AN ATLANTIC CABLE...

Reading, as I am doing now, "Weird and Tragic SHores", I am now aware that the first transatlantic cable was laid on the ocean between the British islands and America during the years 1854 and 1858. I´ve always supposed that it was laid soon before the first world war, but it was not. It was much sooner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Atlantic_cable_Map.jpg

Charles Francis Hall was fascinated by this demonstration of science, (almost science fiction) and of modernity, a demonstration which could be compared perhaps on that time to what the human kind would think about the Moon landings years after. I am also fascinated now by this achievement, and oneself cannot, but being amazed about how a steamer and a barge crossed the Atlantic, more than one hundred and sixty years ago, laying the longest cable of the world to be able to communicate with people at thousand of miles of distance. And one also can´t avoid being less than fascinated if thinks that, while this operation was happening, the Henry Grinnell expedition together with the biggest amount of ships had ever been in the Arctic were trying to find Sir John Franklin and his lost expedition.

 

When Franklin was lost in the Arctic the comunications in the world were based on letters which crossed the earth from one side to the other. The Postal service in Britain in  the nineteenth century was surely the most effective, sure and quick one. Remember that following a postal service line, George Back crossed England from the south to the north during the beginning of the first Franklin Expedition when he lost the ship in the southeast shores of England to end reaching them in the Orkney islands soon after.

 

 It is true that the Telegraph had been already discovered, but it was still on its beginnings and, of course,  there weren´t telegraph lines in the Arctic and there weren´t neither post offices in the Arctic Archipiélago nor horses to carry rapidly to the civilization their messages with news about their discoveries, with their letters addressed to their families containing their dreams, fears and anxieties and with their SOS messages.

 

Franklin couldn´t use all those wonders, Franklin couldn´t use the telegraph though it already was a reality on that time. Balloons, bottles, pigeons, cairns and medals tied to arctic foxes were the only means available on that time for the expeditions which were in desolated regions to communicate  with the rest of the world.

 

In a crazy world which was witnessing an eruption of  discoveries and amazing scientific achievements  which increased and improved the communications in a way never seen before, paradoxically, the last and lost Franklin expedition was without any question alone.

THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION IN MODELISM

Recently William Battersby called strongly my attention  with fascinating news in his blog. Someone is preparing accurate plans to do a perfect replica of the HMS Terror. A replica of the ship made exactly as it was refitted to its last mission of 1845 to cross the Northwest Passage in the arctic, including the reinforcement of the hull, the inclusion of the screw propeller, etc.  It is wonderful to see how the work done by William and Peter Carney in their article is going to  be materialized in a real wooden ship: 

 

"Equipping HM Ships Erebus and Terror, 1845. International Journal for the History of Engineering & Technology 81(2):192-211.".

 

This mysterious "Someone" is John Smith, a model ship builder, and John Smith is kindly sharing his progress in his wonderful blog. There is no need to say that we will follow closely his steps and that we will wait anxiously to see the results of this scientific and artistic reconstruction project.

 

Through his blog you can see how he is adapting and remakimg the old plans of the ship and you can check the already available different models of the hull of the ships which nowadays exist in the online pictures which the National Maritime Museum , as for example this one.

 

I´ve always thought that this world needs a beautiful diorama which was based on this expedition, but as many other lacks (lack of films, more documentaries, etc),  this will be still one of the voids that someday will be filled.

 

There have been several previous projects of making models and dioramas about the last Franklin expedition. Some of them, designed with scientific purposes, were able even to sail.

 

This one, in particular, can be seen in the fabulous John Murray´s documentary “Finding Franklin”.. A beautiful model of one of the ships can be seen sailing in a pool into a simulated pack of ice where it is tested its behavior against a frozen sea:

 

"Finding Franklin" Documentary.

 

There are other model, to me one of the most impressive at the moment, on which we can see the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror beset into the ice with the upper part of their mast removed and some men in the ice which seem to be preparing themselves for the winter, they are downloading packages, putting the deck cover and doing some other things on the ice.

 

This is the only picture I´ve been able to find about it. The procedence is the web site belonging to the Rhode Island College on which Russell Potter added the "Report of Field Survey Results" of the Irish-Canadian Franklin Search Expedition in 2004. The model, as the legends says, was exposed at the Princeof Wales Heritage Centre till 2004.

 

 

 

URL of the picture obtained from: http://www.ric.edu/faculty/rpotter/woodman/2004_Field_Report_short.htm
Diorama of HMS Erebus beset, displayed until 2004 at the Prince of Wales Heritage Centre, Yellowknife (Photo: D. Holland, P5090020).

Through the original link of the PWHC we could see in a mínimum size the whole disposition of the diorama with the two ships here: 

 

http://www.pwnhc.ca/timeline/French/1800/northwestpassage_1815.htm 

Another astonishing model of the Erebus, which some time ago I posted here in my own blog, is a fascinating  icy and tiny model of the Erebus done by Rober A. Wilson.

This model, because its minimum size and its haunting appearance has always captivated me.

http://www.finewaterline.com/pages/albums/rwilson/Erebus%20Complete%20out%20of%20case%20(Large).JPG
Author: Robert A.Wilson

And to finish, one of the most intriguing ones is this other model which appears in the Wikipedia in this link: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Model_of_HMS_Erebus.JPG I have no idea where this model is displayed.

Wikipedia: HMS Erebus. Off the north coast of King William Island, Sept 1846. Sir John Franklin captaining

To finish with this issue, as a fanatic of models as I am, I´ve tried, dreamt and fighted against the elements and fought against my own lazyness, to reproduce one of the boats which Aglooka and his men dragged over the ice of Washington bay someday during the spring of 1848.

It is not necessary to mention that the project is still unfinished. I´ve subcontracted the task of painting and mounting the men who should to drag the boat to one of my brothers (which walks the dark path of the modelism as you can see here), and I have still to do the canvas which will cover the boat, the sailing, rigging and  to practice the art of simulating the snow.

 

Perhaps I will finish it someday, someday...

 

Boat seen by the Inuit in Washington Bay in 1848. Author: me.

OTHER UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTION FOR THE VICTORIAN THINKING APART OF THE CANNIBALISM IN THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION

Recently, posted by my collegue Beatriz, I´ve read an article about the content of the new and modern medicine kits which are now used on Polar expeditions. On it, is mentioned that nowadays part of them are now contraceptives, the Pill, and the morning-after pill, far from the reality of the content of the old and sober medicine chests of the nineteenth century expeditions like the medicine chest found by Lt. Hobson of the last and lost Franklin expedition in the Point Victory. That medicine chest is wonderfully described and the use of the medicines inside was analized here by J.Cyriax in order to try to determine what diseases were suffering the crews at the moment of abandoning the ships.

Why then the modern expeditions include this apparently "out of place" items? Because: "Thank goodnes" the current expeditions are not anymore "All men - expeditions", It is clear that the sexual question (at least)  in  the civil expeditions have been solved in the XXI century.

But after reading, in a couple of fiction books about the Franklin expedition, at least two episodies about some intimal behaviour between men. I´ve  wondered what happened actually (sexually spoken) on those arctic expeditions. I know, or better said, I can deduce through some references and quotes about some arctic expeditions in that time that there were intimal contact between the crews and the Inuit during the course of the years which lasted those expeditions. 

Why are there so many references in the fiction books to the same fact?, How would it be the sexual live on board ships which were trapped in the ice for more than three years, if they had one? How the commanders of isolated expeditions like these dealt with them?. 

I´ve done some cursory searching and I´ve found, reading quickly, an interesting article called "Buggery and the British Navy: 1700-1861"  that the punishment for those kind of behaviours, besides of course being awfully unfair, were absolutely disproportionated, causing the death of innocent men till the end of the first thirty of the nineteenth century. Some sailors received till 1.000 lashes and some officers were even hanged for that. Between 1756 and 1816 four ship´s captains were accused, one was hanged, other cashiered and two acquietted.

The numbers published on this article speak: the second reason in the eighteen century for deserving a Death sentence was "Buggery" after the accusation of Desertion. How many innocents were killed by this "Naval laws"?

But  what happened after in the nineteenth century? The martial courts fortunately decreased. It seems that it was a direct relation between the periods of war and the number of Death sentences and punishments provoked by these causes. In the first place because the cases of "buggering" decreased and also because the naval officers and sailors were more reluctant to report the known cases and this find its explanation on that there was a change of mind of that time that related the homosexuality with some kind of mental disorder. The explanation about the correspondency between the war time and the increasing of buggery accusations seems to be based on the increase of the number of people recruited to fill the war ships, which were taken from all kinds of background levels and countries.

The last man executed by this accusation was William Maxwell, a boatswain who was hanged the 7 of january of 1829 and, as far as I know,  there weren´t sailor, officer or captain who were executed in any artic expedition.