THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION
Newspaper Assignment Summary
MOVIE: FRANKLIN'S LOST EXPEDITION (46MINS)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiKrYuuerAc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU28jeAAaQE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=411B65uD26U&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltJ2Qs3O16c&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU-qLSKttj4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPb_92mys7E&feature=related
SIR JOHN FRANKLIN
• British Royal navy
Officer
• Arctic Explorer
• Mapped 2/3rds of
the Northern
coastline of North
America
THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION
• Set out to navigate a section of the North West Passage
• It was to take three years
• 1845, the ships HMS Terror and HMS Erebus set sail from
Greenhithe, England
• 24 officers and 110 men
• After 18 months, they were never seen again
• There was a reward of 20,000 pounds offered for their rescue
• Over 760,000 pounds were spent on expeditions to find them
THEORIES
• 1845-6 trapped in ice off of King William Island in the Canadian Arctic
• Dr. John Rae, who worked for the Hudson Bay Company spoke to
Inuit hunters who told him that the ships became icebound.
• The men tried to walk to safety but were overcome with exposure.
They resorted to cannibalism.
THEORIES
• The crew perished from:
• Starvation or food poisoning (not enough
fuel to cook all meals, thus ate raw food that
may have contained harmful bacteria)
• Hypothermia (core temp. drops really low)
• Tuberculosis (lung disease)
• Lead poisoning (from tin cans or the distilled
water system)
• Scurvy (disease caused from a lack of
vitamin C)
• Exposure to the harsh climate
1992: KING WILLIAM ISLAND
• 200 Artifacts were recovered: iron and copper nails, glass, pipe,
buttons, wood and maybe a life boat
• 400 human bone fragments which equaled a minimum of 11 men,
including a boy
• Cut marks on the bones support the Inuit story of cannibalism
• People did not believe the cannibalism story and came up with
their own theories:
• Cuts were from surgery to remove frost bitten limbs (but the
cuts were in strange places and did not support this
• Cuts were from being attacked by local natives (but some Inuit
hunters tried to help them and plus the crew has superior
weapons)
• Less than 2/3rds of the crew have been located
LEGACY
• Franklin was a hero in the Victorian
Era and statues were created that
stated he was the Discoverer of the
Northwest Passage, which is
incorrect.
• Inspired many artworks, poems,
songs, short stories, plays
• Stan Rogers famous song:
Northwest Passage
IN THE NEWS TODAY
• A British adventurer claims that he discovered the remains of Arctic
graves which could be from the expedition.
• Bear Grylls, star of the popular Man vs. Wild outdoor survival TV
series, claims to have found bones, charred wood and other artifacts
earlier this month during a charity-fundraising expedition to cross the
Northwest Passage in a rigid inflatable boat.
• An Inuit family in Nunavut claims they have a box that may contain
documents of the Expedition. Oral history contained stories of the
box. It was buried, but recovered and is going to be examined.
STAN ROGERS SONG: NORTHWEST PASSAGE
HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=THWDF42RG0
•
Ah, for just one time I would take the
Northwest Passage
•
Watching cities rise before me, then behind me
sink again
•
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the
Beaufort Sea;
•
This tardiest explorer, driving hard across the
plain.
•
Tracing one warm line through a land so wild
and savage
•
And through the night, behind the wheel, the
mileage clicking west
•
I think upon Mackenzie, David Thompson and
the rest
•
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea.
•
Westward from the Davis Strait 'tis there 'twas
said to lie
•
Who cracked the mountain ramparts and did
show a path for me
•
The sea route to the Orient for which so many
died;
•
To race the roaring Fraser to the sea.
•
How then am I so different from the first men
through this way?
•
Like them, I left a settled life, I threw it all
away.
•
To seek a Northwest Passage at the call of
many men To find there but the road back
home again.
•
Seeking gold and glory, leaving weathered,
broken bones
•
And a long-forgotten lonely cairn of stones
•
Three centuries thereafter, I take passage
overland In the footsteps of brave Kelso, where
his "sea of flowers" began