COMO LLEGÓ EL TERROR A LA BAHÍA QUE LLEVA SU NOMBRE Y QUE PASÓ DESPUÉS

Si, se ha hallado el HMS Terror. Aunque algunos de nosotros pensamos que los esfuerzos deberían de haberse centrado en destripar el contenido del Erebus, Parks Canada no ha parado de buscar a su consorte el Terror y, si, finalmente lo han localizado.

Ha sido un movimiento interesante teniendo en cuenta que los recursos dedicados son limitados y que han tenido que pasar 160 años para encontrarlo. ¿No habría sido mas natural terminar la tarea que tienes al alcance de la mano antes que ir a la deriva detrás de una quimera? ¿Tratar de localizar una aguja en un pajar? Gracias a Dios no pensaron así y no pararon la búsqueda, creo que yo habría hecho lo mismo de estar al mando.

Pero como Russell Potter, especialista en exploraciones Árticas en general y en la de Franklin en particular, ha dicho, el hallazgo genera más dudas que respuestas. Si volvemos al antiguo mapa de la isla del Rey Guillermo dibujada por Thomas Gould, podemos descartar las rutas que resulta mas improbable que siguieran los barcos. La que se dirige al oeste hacia el estrecho de Dease y la que da la vuelta a la isla cruzando el estrecho de Simpson y que sitúa el naufragio en la Isla de Matty

Y lo que es más, las evidencias por el momento parecen demostrar que el barco habría llegado a la Bahía del Terror no debido a la deriva del hielo sino navegando. Aunque este punto todavía se tiene que demostrar, estoy seguro de que és lo que realmente ocurrió. la bahía Terror junto con  la de Washington son desde mi punto de vista los dos mejores lugares para invernar que puedes encontrar en esa región, lejos de la presión de los hielos que derivan hacia el sur desde el estrecho Victoria. Recordemos que el estrecho de Simpson se encuentra libre de hielo en verano, cosa que no ocurre pocas millas más al norte.

Mi suposición al respecto, aunque obviamente no soy un experto en estos asuntos, es que tras abandonar los barcos en primera instancia al norte del Cabo Félix en 1848, todos los hombres regresaron a los barcos motivados por diversas potenciales circunstancias. Pudo ser demasiado pronto para comenzar el viaje, (abril de 1848) demasiado frio, demasiada nieve, etc. o puede ser que el hielo se derritiera alrededor de los barcos liberándolos circunstancialmente, o quizás el hielo que los mantenía atrapados los desplazó hacia el sur más rápido de lo que ellos pensaban que podía ser. ¿Y si lo que ocurrió fue una combinación de estas tres razones?

John Ross, durante su escape de su propio barco el Victory, lo abandonó en 1832 aproximadamente a la misma fecha, pero regresó a él un mes después debido a que el tiempo era horrible y a por más provisiones. A Ross le llevó todo el mes de abril avanzar 18 millas para las que tuvo que caminar más de 110. Podeis ver las condiciones que tuvieron que soportar durante aquellos días y haceros una idea de lo que les pudo ocurrir a los hombres de la expedición de Franklin bajo circunstancias similares en la narración del viaje de Ross aquí.

Los hombres de Ross dejaron los botes y provisiones en el punto más alejado que habían alcanzado y regresaron al barco. El uno de mayo partieron de nuevo, alcanzaron los botes donde los habían dejado y continuaron hacia el norte hacia la playa de Fury donde había un depósito de provisiones abandonado por una expedición previa. Los hombres tuvieron que arrastrar los botes individualmente en turnos, primero uno, luego otro y luego el otro. Al final las circunstancias no fueron tan dramáticas como parecía que iban a ser y cubrieron una distancia de 370 km en dos meses (mayo y junio). llegaron a Fury beach el primero de julio después de haber abandonado el barco por segunda vez el primero de mayo. Crozier, si es que aún estaba vivo, seguramente habría tenido que recurrir a un método similar para avanzar por la isla.

No sabemos que punto alcanzaron durante este primer intento, quizás llegaron en mayo a Little Point al norte de la península de Graham Gore haciendo un gran esfuerzo (unos 80 km desde Victory Point siguiendo la costa). Alli fue donde se encontraron los dos botes de forma separada, uno con dos esqueletos dentro de él. Quizás fue desde allí desde donde vieron a los barcos derivar por el hielo hacia el sur desde el lugar donde los habían abandonado y se dieron cuenta de que podían volver a ellos y llevarlos a lugar seguro en la bahía Erebus donde pasarían el invierno de 1848-49. Esto explicaría las tumbas y restos encontrados allí en los lugares llamados NgLj-2, 3,4 and 5:

También es muy probable, que al igual que Ross, volvieran a los barcos donde fueron abandonados la primera vez en mayo después de un mes de viaje e intentaran un segundo viaje en junio o julio hacia el sur. En agosto vieron lobarcos aproximarse, los retripularon y  los trajeron a la bahía. Esto situaría a la expedición en la bahía Erebus en septiembre. No tenemos razones para pensar que los barcos estuvieran separados en este punto. Podría ser que el estrecho corredor entre las islas de la Royal Geographical Society y la costa oeste de la isla de l Rey Guillermo los hubiese mantenido juntos.

En la primavera de 1849 la tripulación podría de alguna manera haber forzado el paso del Terror rodeando la península de Graham Gore. Quizás arrastrando el barco entre canales en el hielo o serrando el hielo y gastando las pocas fuerzas que les pudieran quedar. El Erebus, en ese punto estaba tan dañado por el hielo que tuvieron que abandonarlo mientras todavía estaba atrapado. De cualquie manera, necesitaban toda la mano de obra posible para arrastrar uno solo de los barcos. La circunnavegación de la península de Graham Gore podría explicar la ausencia de restos y tumbas en la península. El Erebus derivó hacia el sur en solitario hasta que alcanzó el lugar donde fue encontrado en 2014. El Terror por el contrario, en perfecto estado aterrizó en la bahía del Terror al final de septiembre de 1849, los hombres estaban exhaustos, la moral destruida y quizás unas 90 personas, tuvieron que preparar el barco para pasar otro invierno en la isla.

Se emplazó un campamento en la costa para cazar y para permanecer en contacto con las ocasionales visitas de los cazadores Inuit nativos. Aquel invierno de 1849-50 fue el último a bordo del barco. Aquel no fue un mal invierno para nada, mas al sur de donde habían estado hasta la fecha en los años precedentes, pudieron cazar caribues y pescar. Sólamente murieron dos hombres aquél invierno que  fueron enterrados cerca del campamento pero el hielo no se abrió en primavera. De cualquier manera, ¿cuales eran sus oportunidades de escapar navegando hacia el este rodeando la isla si era muy probable que no hubiese paso hacia el norte posteriormente? ¿Que pasaría si la bahía de Poctes realmente existía?

Decidieron abandonar el Terror de nuevo a pie y continuar con el plan original de viajar al este y al sur hacia la boca del rio Back, allí verían que hacer. No significaría esto que una segunda nota como aquella encontrada en VIctory Point podría encontrarse en la Bahía Terror contando la historia hasta la fecha? Si el barco invernó de forma voluntaria allí y fue posteriormente abandonado, debería de exisitir una nota en la bahía Terror.

El resto de la historia es la misma que hemos reconstruido todos un centenar de veces.  Quedaban todavía 80 hombres que se separaron en dos grupos para aumentar sus oportunidades de conseguir caza y ayuda por parte de los nativos. Uno estaría comandado por James Fitzjames, segundo de a bordo de Franklin y el otro por Crozier, comandante del Terror. Esto explicaría el avistamiento por parte de los Inuit de un grupo de unos 30 o 40 hombres en la bahía de Whasington. Los hombres fueron muriendo mientras durante el verano de 1850 alcanzaron la isla de Todd en la esquina sureste de la isla del Rey Guillermo. Allí al menos un grupo cruzó el estrecho de Simpson hacia la desembocadura del rio Back y acampó en Starvation Cove. El frio llegó y lo que quedaba de aquellos 30 o 40 hombres murió uno por uno durante el invierno de 1850-51

El segundo grupo se embarcó en los botes y trataron de ascender hacia el norte por el estrecho de Rae  para intentar escapar de aquel infierno via Fury beach y Port Leopold, la misma ruta de escape que siguió Ross en 1833.  Uno de los botes zozobró en la isla  Matty, el otro no pudo seguir hacia el norte de aquel punto debido a la acumualación de hielo al norte de la isla, de manera que los supervivientes cruzaron el istmo de Boothia situado al este y cruzaron el golfo para intentar alcanzar el estrecho de Fury y Hecla. Algunos de estos hombres fueron vistos por los Inuit que habitaban esa zona pero nunca se estableció contacto.

Y bueno, eso es todo, hacía tiempo que quería hacer este ejercicio de imaginación y el descubrimiento del Terror me ha ayudado a darle algo de forma. Tendría que analizar en detalle el número de tumbas, esqueletos y restos encontrados para intentar reconstruir con mayor exactitud que pasó planteando cuantas mas alternativas posibles mejor. Con esta descripción solo pretendo excitar la imaginación de aquellos que estáis siguiendo de cerca lo que le ocurrió a esta expedición y que saqueis vuestras propias conclusiones. Complementaré el post con el mapa de la ubicación de los restos encontrados y avistamientos relacionados con la expedición de Franklin que hice en Google Earth hace algún tiempo.

Todavía quedan incógnitas por resolver como las huellas de tres hombres y un perro encontradas en la península de Adelaida, al otro lado del estrecho de Simpson en el lado oeste, y que demonios eran aquellos mástiles que el guía de Anderson vio desde la desembocadura del rio Back. Visión que ocultó a su patrón hasta muchos años después.  

HOW THE TERROR ARRIVED TO TERROR BAY AND WHAT HAPPENED AFTER?

Yes, the ship HMS Terror has been found. Though some of us thought the efforts would be focus in disembowel what is inside Erebus, Parks Canada has not stopped its searching for the Terror and they finally have located it.

This is for me an interesting movement taking into account that their resources are limited and that it took more than 160 years to find it. Wouldn´t have been more natural to finish the task you have at the reach of your hand before drifting after what could be considered a chimera trying to locate a nail in haystack? Thank goodness they didn´t do that and kept on searching, actually, I think would have done the same thing.

But as Russell Potter has opportunely said, the finding arise more questions than answers. If we go back to Thomas Gould map of King William Island we can discard the more improbable routes which were asignated to the drift of the ships, the one which goes to the West towards Dease Strait and the one which took one of the ships to Matty Island surrounding King William Island (KWI) through Simpson strait.

What is more, evindences for the moment seems to demonstrate the ship had arrived to Terror bay not by the ice drift but sailing. Though this is still to be demonstrated I am confident that this is what actually happened. Terror Bay together with Washington bay are for me the better places to winter you can find in that region. Far from the pressure of the ice which comes south from Victoria Strait. Remember that Simpson strait is free of ice in summer, thing which doesn´t happen some miles north.

My guess, and obviously I am not an expert on this matters, is that after abandoning the ships north of Cape Felix in 1848, all the men returned to the ship motivated for several potential reasons. It was too soon (April of 1848) to begin to walk (too much cold, too much snow, etc), the ice melted around the ships or they saw how they drifted south quicker than they initially thought. Maybe what provoked their return was a combination of this three reasons.

John Ross during his escape from his ship Victory, abandoned her in 1832 at such early season, but  returned to the ships time after before the end of the month because weather was awful and for more provisions. It had taken them to walk 110 miles to advance 18 during the whole month. You can see what kind of conditions they endured during those days and make yourself an idea of what happened to the men of the Franklin expedition under similar circunstances in Ross´s account of his story here. 

They left the boats and provisions in the farthest point they reached and then departed again from the ship in may, reached the boats where they were left and continued north towards Fury beach and its huge depot of food. All the men had to drag the sledges individually in turns (with its boat on top of it) first one and then another and then another. At the end things weren´t that dramatic and they covered a distance of about 370 km in two months (may and june). They arrived Fury Beach the 1st of july after leaving the ship for second time the 1st of May. Crozier (if he was still alive) surely had to resort to that method either. 

We don´t know which point they reached during this first attempt. Maybe they arrived on May to Little Point north of Graham Gore peninsula making a big effort (80 km from Victory point following the shoreline). There were found two boats separatedly, one with two skeletons inside. Maybe it was there where they saw how the ships had drifted south from the point they had been abandoned and that they weren´t far from where they currently were and then remanned and took them to Erebus bay to spend the winter of 1848-49 . That would explain the graves and remains found in the sites NgLj-2, 3,4 and 5. 

It is also very probable, that like Ross, they returned to the ships where they originally were in 1848 on May, after a month of traveling,  and then tried a second time, in june or july to go south. Then, in August they saw the ships approaching Erebus Bay and  went aboard them to bring them to Erebus Bay. That would put them in Erebus bay in september. We don´t have reasons to think both ships were separated at this point, it looks like as if the narrow corridor between Royal Geographical islands and the west coast of KWI had forced them to stay together. 

In the spring of 1849 they could have forced their way with the Terror passing Graham Gore peninsula somehow to Terror bay, maybe dragging the ship through small leads in the ice close to the shore or maybe sawing the ice and wasting the remaining strength they had. The Erebus at this point was so damaged by the ice that they had to abandon it while she was still trapped in the ice. Anyway, they needed all the available strength to drag just one ship. That would explain the lack of graves and bones in Gore Peninsula. Erebus drifted south alone till the point she was found in 2014. The Terror on the contrary, in perfect shape arrived at Terror Bay at the end of september of 1849, men were exhausted, moral was destroyed and maybe about 90 people (I have calculated that about 19 had died at this point) had to prepare the ship for another winter in that island.

A camp was put ashore for hunting purposes and to stay in contact with the occasional visits from the Inuit hunters. That was the winter of 1849-50, their last aboard the ship. That wasn´t a bad winter at all, southern than they had ever been in previous seasons they could hunt caribous and do some fishing. Only two men died that winter and where buried near the camp but the ice didn´t open that spring. Anyway, what were the chances for them to sail surrounding KWI by its south end if there was a high chance that there wasn´t any pass east of the place where they were? What if Poctes Bay really existed? 

They decided to abandon the Terror again on foot  and continued with their original plan, to travel east and then south to the mouth of Back river, then they would have to see what to do. Wouldn´t that mean that a second note should be found in Terror bay telling the story till that moment?. If the ship voluntarily wintered there and was subsecquently abandoned, THERE MUST BE A NOTE SOMEWHERE IN TERROR BAY.

The rest of the story is the same that we had reconstruct one hundred times. There were 80 remaining men by then which splitted into two groups, one commanded by Crozier and the other by Fitzjames. That would explain the 30 or 40 men saw by the Inuit at Whasington bay. Men died while they struggled the summer of 1850 till they reached Todd island in the south east corner of KWI. There at least one group crossed to Back´s river mouth and camped in september in Starvation Cove. The winter fell and the remaining of those 30 or 40 men died there one by one during the winter of 1850-51. The second group took the boats and went north through Rae Strait trying to reach Boothia peninsula and get out of that Hell via Fury beach and Port Leopold, the same escape route followed by Ross in 1833. A boat capsized in Matty island and the other couldn´t go north of that point because the ice conditions. They crossed Boothia Istmus, crossed the gulf of Boothia and continued east to Fury and Hecla strait where some of the men were saw by the Inuit living there. Those men didn´t survive the winter of 1850-51 either, Rae arrived to late to that point in 1853 to rescue anybody.

And that´s all, I wanted to do this exercise of imagination. What do you think? May I be right? Surely not but I enjoyed reconstructing the story!

THOMAS ABERNETHY, VETERAN OF SIX POLAR EXPEDITIONS

Those who are following regularly my posts will surely know my predilection about secondary actors, or the regular men if you prefer, who participated in the nineteenth century polar expeditions. I have been always interested on those who lived at the shadow of the success of their commanders and rest of officers. Every time I begin to dig in the life of any of these men I always find dozens of pieces dispersed with which I can assemble and solve the puzzle of their lives.There is not too much added value on doing what I am doing, but the effort of gathering small details which all together can  make a story. Many times, I find interesting parallel stories which can make you digress and drift to other courses which I must ignore not to lose forever the main track.

Now, the subject of my analisys is Thomas Abernethy, a scottish man who was born in 1802 in Peterhead, same birthplace than William Penny, the famous whaler Captain who in fact was born only seven years after Thomas. Peterhead was by then a prosperous town where the whaling industry was flourishing. It produced surely, together with Orkney and Shetland islands, a big part of the sailors who participated in the Arctic expeditions of the time.

The life of Thomas Abernethy has been a little mistery to me during some time. He appears here and there in several (six, to be precise) of the polar exploration accounts about which I have read. Sometimes his achievements appear in capital letters making him outstands over the grey mass of sailors who participated in those expeditions and others he is not mentioned at all.

There are only a couple of books where some paragraphs are dedicated specifically to the life of this man and that is more than we can say about other Arctic explorers. One of them is "The lands of silence" wrote by Clements Markham, who claimed to be an acquitance of Thomas, and the other is John Ross´s narrative of his second journey to the Northwest Passage in 1829-32. He is described in the appendix of Ross´s book with an unexpected kindness and detail. I would say, in a totally unusual way for these kinds of accounts.

It seems, according to Ross, that Thomas Abernethy was a tall man of about 1,80 m (6 feet), "well made and of florid complexion", of "Dark eyes and hair and an aquilinne nose", "decidedly the best looking man of the ship", " The most steady, active and more powerful man of the ship".

Such words, coming from a man like Ross, who was able to amputate with his own hands the arm of his engineer during one of his voyages of exploration and who was able to sail after John Franklin when he was in his seventies, makes you think that Thomas was a very uncommon man worthy of such praising. I don´t know you but, now, at this point, I would be even more intrigued about who and how was this phenomenon. It is clear, and we will see it after, that on performing his duties he earned the respect of his bosses and mates making of his, therefore, a prolific career. As we will learn, he was recommended several times for promotion by his commanders.

As it happened to John Ross, Thomas began his career at the early age of ten, (Ross did at nine), joining merchant ships and whalers from Peterhead. Ross says he got on board the ship "Friends" in 1811 on which he spent four years of apprenticeship. Apparently, Thomas went once to west indies and after, twice to Greenland. The only ship I have found with that name is a convict ship, a three masted ship of 331 tons, which in 1811 carried one hundred one convict women to New South Wales in Australia. The ship traveled first via Rio de Janeiro and then passed Cape Horn on its way to Sydney, where it arrived the 10th of october after a trip which lasted six months.  Maybe Ross wanted to omitt that his, I would say friend, was on board a convict ship. There are no mentions about those trips to Greenland.

Afterwards, he enroled in the whaler Hannibal on which he travelled to Davis strait three times. The whaler Hannibal, according with the "Peterhead Almanac and Directory", fished almost yearly seals (better not to check the growing number of seals they hunted within the years) and whales in Greenland and Davis Strait from 1819 to 1847.

Cew of the Peterhead whaler Hope 1880 (I don´t think crews of 1820´s looked too different from these men).
http://www.scran.ac.uk/packs/exhibitions/learning_materials/webs/40/whaling_crew.htm

The whalers had to go further north to fish in Davis Strait because whales become more and more scarce in front of the shores of Greenland. That provoked those known disasters, as the one which happened in 1830, where from 91 ships which were fishing in Davis strait, 19 were lost, two of them whalers from Peterhead (The Resolution and Hope). Hannibal made it and could come back home having fished only two whales (on each of the two previous seasons they got eleven).

The Hannibal wrecked in Norway in 1848 on its way back from Davis strait. The captain by then, J. Lowrie, found rough weather. They were carrying the crew of another ship on board. Lowrie decided to try to reach Peterhead instead of looking for safety in Shetland islands. His ship was driven by a gale to the shores of Norway where it wrecked. All the hands were lost but one, a seaman called Watt, who was called after life "Piper George Watt". I can´t avoid being curious about what was of the life of this man. Sailors of the time were quite superstitious and particularly, whalers seem to be the more supertitious of all. I would bet that this poor man was either condemned to ostracism or considered as an amulet of good luck. I am prone to believe what happened was the former guess...

During its first years the ship was under the command of William Robertson. We don´t know exactly which years were those on which Thomas went to Davis Strait, maybe the seasons corresponding to the years 1819, 1820 and 1821, but what it is sure is that the experience he gained there prepared his way to form part of the coming Arctic expeditions and therefore opened the way to put his name discretely in the Hall of fame of Polar exploration.

Ross also mentions that after the time in the north he performed some coast guard services in Oporto but I haven´t be able to find any trace of his life during this time. There are some gaps in his naval career about which I couldn´t get any information. For example, what he did from 1815 to 1819 and what he did between 1822 and 1823 before going with Parry in 1824, on which was going to be his first Arctic expedition (the third expedition which Parry commanded).

In 1824, HMS Fury and HMS Hecla, commanded by Edward Parry, departed from England again with the intention of discovering the elusive Northwest Passage. Thomas was 22 when came on board HMS Fury. The ship would wreck the following summer in Somerset Island in the course of the expedition. That wasn´t a very succesful mission, Parry had an incomparable luck during his first attempt to cross the passage in 1819 but since then things had gone quite worst.

Fury was severly damaged by the ice in Prince Regent Inlet and had to be abandoned. It seems that Thomas´s work in Fury Beach, the name of the place where they had to abandon the ship, was of the utmost importance. At least that´s what Ross says about him though Parry doesn´t mention it any single time in his narrative. It took the expedition days to empty the holds, take Fury´s cargo to the beach and haul the ship to the shore. The crews of both ships worked together countless hours on doing that. There is no doubt that there were lots of opportunities to demonstrate courage during the whole process and Thomas exuded that characteristic.

The Fury grounded on Fury Beach, from William Edward Parry, Journal of a Third Voyage, 1825 
http://ice.lindahall.org/10_img2.shtml

In 1827 Parry commanded another Polar expedition on board HMS Hecla, this time the journey consisted on an attempt to reach the North Pole. The previous try had been performed unsuccesfully by David Buchan and John Franklin in 1818. His predecesors basically had pushed untiringly  their ships, HMS Dorothea and HMS Trent, against the sea ice formed north of Spitzbergen with the result that Buchan´s ship, Dorothea, ended severily damaged. Buchan, defeated, ordered to withdraw against the will of a young and temerary John Franklin who wanted to go ahead alone with his ship.

HMS Hecla left London on March 1827. On their way north they crossed their way with two Peterhead whalers, Alpheus and Active, maybe Thomas could have find there some old friends from his whaler days. They arrived at Spitzbergen and begun the 23th of june to walk on the ice towards the North Pole .

This time, the strategy was a little bit different. Parry, following a Franklin´s original idea, had the intention of reaching the ice with his ship and then drag with Lapland reindeers two boats, of a specific design, on the ice till reaching the North Pole.

If you know something about Friedjof Nansen´s attempt, you will realize how difficult and dangerous Parry´s plan could result. Nansen chose a more sportive and modern way to do the things, he prefered to travel light and fast, just two men, two sledges and two kayaks. Parry´s strategy proved to be futile. Polar ice drift would make them to go forth and forward making them to walk dozens of miles not to advance a single second of latitude, besides the ice was all but smooth and plain. High ridges cut their way constantly making them make huge physical efforts.

Parry´s boats Endeavour and Enterprise
http://ageofex.marinersmuseum.org/index.php?type=explorersection&id=151

Parry, however, had read from Scoresby and Phipps that the Polar ice was smooth as a road, and that sometimes happen, but this time it wasn´t the case. The boats were about seven meters length and Parry had prepared two five feet wheels to carry the boats on that "road". Each boat had assigned a crew of fourteen, two officers, two marines and ten men. Eight rein deers were bought to drag the boats though they weren´t finally used by Parry because the actual ice conditions.

They dragged the boats from 10 to 12 hours a day sleeping during daylight and walking by night. Depending on the state of the ice, sometimes they only advanced a mile a day. They drag and crawled oftenly upon all fours on deep snow, under the rain and under snow drifts. It was a painful experience but the men usually laughed to this situation saying" We were a long time getting to this 83 º" latitude which, by the way, they never reached...they returned after having reached a latitude of 82 º 45´. The nothernmost point reached till that time and a mark which won´t be beated till 50 years after. After the massive effort done and 48 days of hard work, they were only at a distance of 172 miles from the ship for which they had to travel 580 or 600 miles.

In that same journey participated James C. Ross and Crozier, it was surely here where it was planted the seed which forged later Thomas´s pass to participate in their Antarctic expedition of 1839-42.

Thomas was promoted, because of Parry´s recommendation, as gunner of HMS Blossom, on which he served from 1827 to 1829. It was during this time that he married the daughter of George Fiddis, the carpenter of all the previous Parry´s expeditions. I don´t know if they had descendants or not, I couldn´t find any information about it.

Then it came the John Ross´s Victory expedition of 1829-33 (one of my favourites), where Thomas participated as second mate . He was now a 27 years old veteran which had seventeen years of experience, many of them in Polar seas.

In this expedition he is explicitly mentioned a good number of times by John Ross. He begins the narrative saying that Thomas and the carpenter Chimham were two of their best acquisitions for the journey.

Such was the confidence on him that he was one of the few, together with Thomas Blanky about whom I wrote some lines time ago, who accompanied James Ross in his sledge trip to locate the North Magnetic Pole. I would say that for the crew of Victory, this was a fact comparable to the decission taken by R.F. Scott when he decided who would accompany him in his final voyage to the South pole. 

When Ross had to explore separatedly from the main sledge party any possible way to go forward, it was Thomas who accompanied him as if he was his right hand. When the men were exhausted and had to rest during this long trip it was always Thomas who was besides Ross looking for the best route to follow. Same happened when the ship Victory had to be abandoned in Prince Regent Inlet. The ship´s boats had to be hauled all the way north to Port leopold where they hoped to find help coming from the whalers which were fishing in Lancaster sound. Thomas, was the man chosen by James Ross to find the best way to make the boats pass.

Somerset House in Fury Beach, 1833

John Ross expedition of 1829-33 could be considered as an equivalent of the Ernest Shackleton feat of 1914. He and almost all his crew survived four winters in the Arctic against all hope. They had to look for their safety when there was no chance for help, the same as Shackleton did. They finally were rescued by the whaler Isabella in Lancaster sound and brought back to England. When arriving, John Ross recommended Thomas promotion and he was appointed to HMS Seringapatam. 

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gurrs/newsletters/Feb04.htm

Six years after John Ross´s expedition, Thomas Abernethy was chosen as ice master and gunner of Erebus for the Antarctic expedition of 1839. It was Thomas Abernethy and Oakley, according to James Ross with their accustomed boldness and humanity, who tried to rescue with a boat to James Angley, the quater-master who fell overboard from the mainyard during a gale in Antarctic waters. Angley had reached the life-buoy which was threw to help him. Due to the rough weather James Ross ordered Thomas not to go. Ross's intention was triying to reach the buoy manouvering the ship, but the poor man, who hadn´t tied himself to the buoy´s mast was swallowed by the angry sea before he could be rescued. There were another previous incident when a sailor called Roberts also fell from the rigging to the sea. This time Oakley lowered his boat to help him, unfortunately, weather was so bad that a wave threw the four men on board to the sea. It was then when Thomas lowered another boat and risking his life rescued the four men. The poor sailor who had fell formerly was lost. Maybe this experience was the one which made Ross to take the decission not to allow Thomas to use the boat to rescue Angley in the second incident.

In Robert McCormick alternative account of the Antarctic expedition, the adjectives which acompany the name of Thomas are "worthy, able, Captain´s Ross old follower, ever the foremost in all emergencies" and so on. Abernethy seems to have accompanied McCormick in a good number of his proceedings, of special help on hunting , catching and chasing penguins.

Erebus and Terror among icebergs
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/09/09/347105526/canada-says-its-found-ship-from-doomed-1845-arctic-expedition

There is not an official account about James Clark Ross´s journey in HMS Enterprise and HMS Investigator of 1848-49, so I can´t say nothing about the role of Thomas during this expedition apart of the fact that he was the Ice Master of HMS Enterprise. The only input I could get, and is not a very favourable one, is that Thomas was "A good seaman, an athletic, healthy person, but a heavy drinker who presented disciplinary problems, though James Ross seems to have no difficulty with him". It seems that Thomas had a dark side after all, but maybe not that bad as for not counting with him for a responsible vacancy such as Ice Master was.

Not too much time after returning to England with Ross, Thomas rejected a proposal to sail as Ice master with the Captain Horatio Austin in 1850 in his Franklin search expedition. Instead of, he wrote to Henry Pelly, governor of the Hudson Bay Company which was organising a private initiative to locate Franklin, to apply for the vacancy as Ice Master in the schooner Felix. The ship would be commanded by an aged John Ross. The letter was signed by Thomas but was clearly written by James Clark Ross. As we have seen earlier, it seems that by the time of the Felix expedition, Thomas 's  problems with alcohol had escalated. John Ross had to deal with that issue the best way possible.

North-West searching expedition for Sir John Fran Lin, Sir John Ross Yacht Felix at Anchor in Loch Ryan
http://www.antiquemapsandprints.com/scotland-john-ross-yacht-felix-loch-ryanfranklin-antique-print-1851-145087-p.asp

It has been always said that J.C. Ross, besides having been the first on reaching the North Magnetic Pole, would have  held for a long time (50 years) the record of having reached both, the northernmost and southernmost latitudes during his voyage to the North Pole and South pole respectively. It is for me quite clear that Thomas Abernethy would have shared that privilege too, though of course his name is much less, if any at all, known than the name of James Clark Ross. 

There is a common point in almost all the expeditions on which Thomas Abernethy participated, and that is the presence of James Clark Ross. He was second lieutenant in the third Parry voyage of 1824-25, second in command in Hecla when they tried to reach the North Pole, second in command during the second voyage of John Ross in the Victory, he was the leader of the Antarctic expedition of 1839-42 and he commanded too the ships HMS Enterprise and HMS Investigator which were sent to locate the missing Franklin expedition. The only expedition on which James C. Ross didn´t participate was the John Ross attempt to find Franklin in 1850. It seems as if their fates were strongly linked, maybe linked by a frank friendship. One has to wonder what would have happened if James Ross would have been commander, instead of Franklin, of the lost expedition of 1845. Thomas surely would have perished, as it happened to Thomas Blanky, together with the rest of the crews of Erebus and Terror.

Thomas died at Peterhead in 1860 only 58 years old. As I said before, I don´t know if Thomas left any children behind but at least we know there is a cape which bears his name in the proximity of Matty island, located between the east coast of King William Island and the mainland on the north side of Wolstenholme sound.

Thanks to Peter Carney for always supplying me with some valuable sources of information.

SE VUELVEN A OÍR CAMPANAS - JOHN FRANKLIN A LA TELEVISIÓN

AMC ha anunciado de nuevo recientemente su intención de estrenar una serie basada en la novela "El Terror" de Dan Simmons. "El Terror", a su vez, se inspira en la desaparecida expedición comandada por John Franklin que partió en 1845 en busca del Pasaje del Noroeste a bordo de los barcos Erebus y Terror. 

En breve, y venciendo la pereza que a todos nos invade con el calor veraniego, prepararé un extenso blog-post en castellano donde os explicaré, a aquellos que todavía no la conozcáis, algunos de los detalles que rodearon a esta desaparición. Así os podré preparar para lo que se avecina. 

Por poneros la miel en los labios os diré que no estamos hablando solo de una historia de exploraciones polares, sino de mucho más. En esta trágica aventura, hacen su aparición intrigas políticas, triángulos amorosos (si no cuadrados), apariciones reveladoras desde el mas allá, misteriosos mensajes pidiendo ayuda que cruzaron volando el Atlántico norte, muerte por inanición, exposición, hipotermia, escorbuto y como colofón ...el eterno reclamo que inspira cualquier historia de horror: Canibalismo. Interesante, ¿no?

Y esa, amigos, es la historia real, que como veis, no sería necesario sazonar ni dramatizar por parte de AMC. La historia original abunda ya de los necesarios ingredientes que pueden llevarla al éxito en la televisión. 

Cuando uno de los dos barcos, el "Erebus", apareció en el Ártico Canadiense, Jean Marc-Vallé anunció que haría una película sobre el tema. Buenas noticias, sin duda, aunque desde mi humilde opinión, una película solo rozaría la superficie de la historia completa, la punta del iceberg, si queréis.  En cualquier caso, no ha habido noticias acerca del tema desde entonces, por lo que sospecho que el proyecto ha quedado varado en alguna vía muerta.

Mi apuesta siempre ha sido que se debería de realizar una serie de televisión basada en la historia real y no en la ficticia de Dan Simmons. Yo había pensado en la productora HBO pero bueno, nadie me hace caso nunca, ellos se lo pierden. 

El caso es que encima de la mesa tenemos "El Terror", menos es nada. Si Ridley Scott la produce, de lo que podemos estar seguros, es de que no faltarán medios. Creo que podemos garantizar que disfrutaremos un rato pasando miedo, asco y frío a partes iguales. ¿Quien podría decirle que no a eso?. Lo único que me apena es que, obviamente, nadie va a lanzar una segunda serie basada en los hechos reales en el corto plazo.

La expedición de Franklin pasará tristemente a la mente de muchos televidentes como una historia de terror más, como Penny Dreadful o The Walking Dead. No sabrán que gran parte del escenario contextual en el que se va a desarrollar el guión de esta nueva serie fue real.

Aquellos que, sin embargo, lleguen a leer el mensaje que suele aparecer al comienzo cuando el fondo se vuelve negro y la música se apaga y que dice: 

"Basado en una historia real"

Dirán:

¿Una historia real? ¡Venga ya!

AND WE DANCE TILL DAWN - BETTER TIMES FOR EREBUS AND TERROR

Days before today, but 175 years ago, the ships Erebus and Terror enjoyed definitely better times than those which they were condemned to endure few years after so their crews do. Officers of both ships danced till dawn with the people from Hobart enjoying of an event so great that it was even announced three days after in the local newspaper "Hobart Town Advertiser"

Now, sadly, Erebus is going to be reminded forever as that mastless sunken ship which lays in the bottom of the pristine shallow waters of the Arctic ocean. Now she is dead, but it still shows her proud shape and almost complete stout body in that Parks Canada greenish subacuatic pictures. But not always was like that, there was a time when people went back home walking in zigzag with very vivid memories dancing in their brains. The ships would be reminded for long time in the minds of those people for years, what would they think when news of the dissappearance of the ships arrived Hobart years after?.

The first of june of 1841, two months after arriving back to Hobart in Tasmania from their first expedition to the South, it was organized a ball which would be celebrated on board the two ships. That was the kind response James Clark Ross wanted to give in return to all the celebrations which subsequently followed their arrival from Antarctic waters.  After the success of James Clark Ross first exploration season nobody could even dream that the two ships will play that role in what could perfectly be a horror movie few years after. Those were times of merriness and pleasure. Party after party it was in everybody´s thoughts that Ross could reach, with those two reniforced ships, whatever target he addresed. Ross was invencible.

Ross´s narrative jumps from the 6th of april of 1841, when Erebus and Terror were moored in Government Gardens in Hobart after five months of absence, to the 7th of july of 1841, when they resume their  explorations beginning with a visit to Sydney, New Zealand and other places. He ommitted in his official account, therefore, the ball celebrated in honour of the hospitality of the people from Hobart which was celebrated  over the decks of his ships. 

From what I have read about the ball, this must have been an event to be remembered in the minds of all the inhabitants of the town but specially by the officers of the ships, whose hangover surely would have beaten all records.

There are not watercolours which depict the scene, but there are some descriptions which reflects the majesty of the event with some extension of detail. There is an alternative narrative to that of Ross which tells the story, Robert McCormick´s one. Robert McCormick, the surgeon of Erebus was elected secretary of the committe to organize the party. He dedicated four full pages of his narrative to describe that night through. His description is so vivid that you can smell the scent of the flowers, be blinded by the inmense brightness of the lights and even hear the music from the orchestra.

Robert McCormick 

Preparations began more than two weeks before. Invitations were sent the 13th of may, some of them signed by the officers which had the possibility to invite at least then people each. The ships were put alongside each other, moored head and stern, being Terror outside Erebus. They were off-shore connected to the land through a bridge made of boats wide enough to allow two persons walk side by side . Canvas formed an arcade covering the bridge giving it the appearance of a grotto and flags were placed together with branches with flowers of several colours.

The lights placed in the bridge drove the guests to Erebus's quarterdeck which was impressively  illuminated in his turn with lamps and chandeliers. Guests had to walk about 60 meters through the barely illuminated tunnel to end in the impressively bright dance floor on which erebus quarter deck had been transformed. Captains and officers were placed at the end of the tunnel to greet the guests.

Erebus would play the role of the ballroom. She would surely be the stage of  Crozier's laconic proposals towards Sophie Cracroft. The sad flirt, as Lady Franklin herself called her in a letter, rejected him one time after another.

Benches covered with red clothes were disposed all around the deck to allow those who weren´t dancing to rest and even the capstan was covered with hundreds of flowers.

The Hobart Town quadrille band and the 51st regiment band was in charge of the music. For the latter it was constructed a stage rising some feet over the deck Erebus. The Queen, surrounded by flowers would look over the band and will witness the whole event. The former local band would stay under the main mast.

Captain's cabin was not always full of water as it is currently, it was once the ladies dressing room, full of mirrors, perfurme and other necessary accesories, the same happened to the gun room.

It was a fine evening of tuesday. The ball began punctually at eight, soon after Sir John Franklin and company. made their appearance, at nine 300 people wandered, laugh and cheered everywhere. At eleven o'clock the agenda said the guests must go to Terror for dinner. McCormick says that the transit from one ship to the other through the gangway involved certain "pressure and squeezing", it is funny to imagine those smartly dressed people fighting not to fall and crash against the timbers of the deck or even to fall to the water. It is easy to picture the scene and see how the youngests officers would have gathered around the gangway to witness the scene, maybe not alughing but defenitely smiling.

Franklin and Co. sat at the bottom of the supper table. Then, each officer would be surrounded in the table by his own guests. The dinner was, "A blend of French style of variety, with English fashion of plenty". Poultry was served in various ways like pastries, pies, cakes, etc.  Champagne flew in abundance among the bright lights.. Bird was in charge of the decoration of Erebus and McMurdo of the decoration of Terror, both had done a fine job though it seems that Terror was prepared in a more fascinating way than Erebus. Something in the decoration of Terror must made more than one mouth open. One of the more impressive details was that numerous mirrors, which were brought on the ships as presents for eventual natives, were placed in a way that they reflected the light from the chandeliers. Those, at the same time, were made with bright steel bayonets, swords and cutlasses, giving the decorations a more terrifying look.

After dinner, there were "drunken", as McCormick points, toasts here and there and speeches which surely ended all with hearty hoorays and applauses.

Some guests abandoned the party before it endend but many came back to Erebus quarter-deck and dance over her timbers till daylight.

It is sad to think that that bright and beautifully decorated deck of Erebus which was once supporting six hundred dancing feet and so many happiness is the same broken deck we have seen countless times in Parks Canada´s underwater pictures and videos.

I would like to keep in mind the nicest of both pictures and to end this blog post with the McCormick´s reflection in his narrative about one of the best moments that our beloved ships enjoyed during their lives:

"The decks of the old old ice-weather-beaten ships never before responded to the elastic step of so much female loveliness and beauty"

"LAS AVENTURAS DE PITI EN LA ANTARTIDA", MÁS QUE UN LIBRO PARA NIÑOS

La verdad es que es difícil hacer un comentario objetivo sobre un libro que me ha llegado directamente de las manos de su autor ¡y además dedicado!. Más difícil todavía si encima, el autor, es una persona tan entrañable como lo es Javier Cacho, además, por desgracia, "Las aventuras de Piti en la Antartida", ya no se edita por lo que considero un privilegio poder contar con él en mi librería Polar.

Las Aventuras de Piti en la Antartida, edición Búlgara.
http://www.javiercacho.com/ediciones-extranjeras.html

Dado que no soy un crítico literario ni escritor, esta entrada no es una crítica de este libro, sino que es simplemente una manifestación de los sentimientos que éste me ha despertado. Los sentimientos no se someten a reglas por lo que, lo que estos expresan, puede ser tan valioso como la mejor crítica profesional, ¿porque no?, así que allá voy.

No es la primera vez que un libro de Javier me transporta desde el sofá de casa, desde un vagón de metro o desde una parada de autobús hacia otro lugar, bueno, un vagón de metro también te transporta a otro lugar, pero ese no era el caso.... La diferencia con Piti ha sido que este pequeño (¡Uy si me oyera Piti!) cachorro de Huskie Siberiano no solo transporta tu mente al otro lado del mundo sino que también se lleva de viaje a tu corazón, y, ¡Ay amigos! eso ya es algo mas difícil de conseguir. 

Basta con leer las primeras hojas del libro para sentir como una cálida manta de ternura te acoge y envuelve no queriéndote dejar salir. Y así es la historia que Javier nos cuenta, se trata de una historia de amistad, aventuras y amor que te hace olvidar en cada momento que coges el libro donde estás y hacia donde vas. Fiel reflejo de la personalidad de su autor, en cuya compañía el tiempo se detiene de tal manera que cuando llega el momento de partir uno se resiste porque siempre quiere estar con él un poquito más.

Es su inocente, cariñoso pero también valiente protagonista, Piti, quien te hace sonreir, reir y hasta casi llorar mientras vas conociéndole un poco mejor con cada página que pasas. Guiados por Piti, olfatearemos el valor de la amistad, el amor a la familia y gruñiremos ante el peligro que encierran los hermosos paisajes desolados de la Antartida y sobre todo a la distancia, esa magnitud única en hacernos capaces de hacer resurgir esas ocho partes del hielo sumergido del iceberg de sentimientos que se alberga en nuestros corazones,... 

No categorizaría (¿Existe realmente esta palabra?) a "Las Aventuras de Piti en la Antartida" como un libro necesariamente solo para niños, sino mas bien como un libro para aquellos adultos que quieran volver a ser niños por un rato, para aquellos que quieran recordar lo que sentían cuando leían sus primeros libros de aventuras.

Enhorabuena Javier, de la lectura del libro se deducen la multitud de experiencias personales que seguramente motivaron y modelaron la particular historia de Piti en la Antartida, y quien sabe, quizás en esta nueva era donde las películas de animación ocupan un papel tan predominante en la oferta disponible para la gran pantalla, no veo porque no podría la historia de Piti ocupar un puesto de relevancia si alguien se animara a llevarla del papel al cine.

THE SONG OF A DEATH MAN DREAMED BY AN ALIVE ONE

Reading Birket-Smith´s book about Inuit people I have found this pretty song which apparently was sang once by Copper Eskimos. 

"The song of a death man dreamed by an alive one"

Tell me, Was the life in Earth so beautiful? 

Here hapinness fills me

every time aurora raises over the Earth

and the great Sun

slides up in the sky.

But the rest of the time I lie, anxious and afraid 

covered by larva and worms

which quenched in the clavicle cavity 

and pierce my eyes

Aji, jai, ja

I found it creepy and beautiful at the same time, it would be the perfect epitaph to be carved in my gravestone. Any knowledge about its origins would be welcome.