WRECKAGE FOUND

Hokitika Guardian, 5 February 1930, Page 3

WRECKAGE FOUND

SIR JOHN FRANKLIN’S FATE.

ESKIMOS’ DISCOVERY

VANCOUVER, Jan. 8

Two aged Eskimos, found on King William Island by Ma or Burwash, Superintendent of the Northwest Territories, have added a new theory in regard to the expedition of Sir John Franklin.

'(Some years ago, Major Burwash, who has been in the Arctic 33 years, with brief spells on the “outside,” brought back a piece of blue serge he obtained from a native, which the Admiralty experts later identified as the kind of doth from which the uniforms of Franklin’s men were made. H'e also brought back the story told by Eskimos that a ship had been sunk off the south side of King William Island. The natives, having boarded her and found her abandoned, cut a hole in her side to let light in, and she filled and sank.

Now, from the eastern side of King William Island, Major Burwash has found evidence of the other ship. Two ancient Eskimos remember seeing the wreckage of a ship off the shore near Matty Island. They had later found .aches of meat and flour, in tins, packed in wooden cases. The natives used the wood for arrows, having previously used bone. The meat they devoured,' but the Hour puzzled them. They finally decided it was the white man’s snow and had. gleefully thrown it up into uie air and watched it disperse in the wind. Major Burwash brought out copper knives with hardwood handles, whose blades had evidently been made from the sheathing of th ■ vessel, the handles from oakfen planks. Similar relics were found in other parts of King William Island. The. new theory fromi all tilts is that when Franklin’s ships, the Erebus and Terror, became: fast in the ice and were abandoned, the expedition travelled south to look for the Great Fish River (now Back’s river). Later, hiembers of the party went back to make an effort to bring the vessels down in the spring. One ship was to navigate Queen Maud Gulf and tlie other to try a. route around the east side of King William Island. Then, whichever ship got through was to [rick up the main body near tbe mouth of the Fish River. The ship which came down the west side had evident-ly-gone ashorfe, while the vessel that went eastward was wrecked near Matty Island. Two lifeboats from the second ship bad evidently got ashore and cached supplies. This cache was found many years later by Eskimos, cWo of whom told Major Burwash recently of the discovery. The Eskimos count up to 20 on their fingers and toes and they conveyed the idea that there were 21 cases in the cache.

Uopner knives, utensils, and other things, which had evidently been made from the ship’s copper and timber gave colour to the theory that these materials may have come from the wreckage of SiryTohn Ross’s ships, the Hecla and the Fury, which, were abandoned by one of the relief expeditions wliicn went in later. Major Tlurwash’s evidence now points to the Franklin theory.