SIR JOHN FRANKLIN

Hokitika Guardian, 7 May 1928, Page 4

SIR JOHN FRANKLIN

Sir .John Franklin made the first of his four trips into the Arctic reg-|) ions in 1818, when he was given the command of one of the two ships in Captain Buchan’s polar expedition, which had to be abandoned soon after it had started owing to the leaking condition of the ships. In the following year the British Government placed Franklin in charge of a land expedition in Northern Canada which 1; .id for its object the survey of the unknown portions of the Arctic coast line of the American continent. He landed in Hudson Bay and proceeded overland, by way of Great Slave Lake, to the mouth ot the Coppermine River. In three years lie covered over 01X10 miles, and the latter stages of his journey were made under conditions of such terrible hardship that more than half his party perished by the way. In two iiai. canoes Franklin attempted to explore the coast line between the mouths'of the Mackenzie and Coppermine Rivers. but he had to abandon the undertaking owing to scarcity of iood, and the survivors of the expedition had to return to their base overland. They were reduced to eating scraps ( >f leather from old shoes and were ■ i» 1 1 v laved from certain death by the mexpecLed .Appearance - of, a reltei parly. In I p.nnkliir left. Lite sick bed if Ids first Fife, whom he never saw lira in; to lake command of ;l second ' ‘an.'oiian expeditinti. Oil this occashe descended" the Mackenzie Uiva!„j v . Idle he explored the coast a,, the west of the liver’s mouth one ,f his colleagues, Dr Richardson, nade his way eastward to the mouth if the Coppermine River. The result f these two trips in Arctic Canada was the addition of 1200 miles ol coast line on the maps of North America.

Franklin was almost sixty years ot ige when he sLarted on the hot ol 111\rctie journeys, lie left Knghtnd at ■he end of .Mav. 181.1. and tv. o mont hater his two ships were seen fur the asf time as they sailed into l.ancuser Sound, after which the title ol i<’ranklin and his men was wrapped in tystery for a period of fourteen years, her forty expeditious were dispatch'd to search for the missing ships, ,ml the work which they accomplished ms no pit nil lei in the history of maritime exploration, for they discovered ml exnlovcd many thousands ot miles >f hitherto tniknuwn Arctic territory, ',ut they all failed to secure any ailhenite information regarding the Hissing ships and men.

Finally in 181;) Captain AirClintock, vlio sailed into the Arctic seas in a until vessel which had been fitted out it the expense of Franklin’s second rife, discovered the records ol the ong-lost exoedilion in a tin canister, which had been deposited under a

■aim of stones at Point Victory ill \ittg William’s Land', and which gave ui account ol Frankln’s groat achietement—the discovery of the Northwest Passage. Although Franklin had been nimble to make a complete trip through the Arctic seas from east to west owing to harriers of ice, he had sailed from Davis Strait in the east to a navigable channel at the south of Victoria and 'Wollaston Lands which was known to communicate with Bering Strait in the west, and had thus solved the problem which had baffled the efforts of maritime explorers for over fear centuries. The documents discovered l\v AlcOliiitoek recorded the death of 1 rattkiin „n .lime 11. 1847. while his ships were held fast, in the ice off King William's Laud, and also told how |„. R)-, survivors of the original party ,|- lift intended to abandon the imirisnneil' ships and make their way n-erland to one of the outposts of the 'luiKon Bay Company. This they did. 1 1 ,ev till perished on the journey.

Franklin had entered the TLt.v.'l Vovy at. Hits ago ui lout 1 ceij and as t hoy was t, resell I at the Battles of Copenhagen and Irnialgar. viliile in filter years he distinguished himself is a statesman and diplomat during his seven years of office as Governor ■if Tasmania.

ed at noon yesterday, a free man, leaving his hank. He had paid his ■abductors £2,000 and, lie told reporters that he and his wife wercn leaving Detroit for a time, as lie was a sick man. Ho refused to give any information concerning the identity of the men who captured him, fearing their vengeance if he did so.