TRACES OF FRANKLIN

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1073, 10 September 1930, Page 9

TRACES OF FRANKLIN

EXPEDITION WHICH LEFT 83 YEARS AGO AIRMEN FIND CAMPS O Received 1.20 p.m. EDMONTON (Alberta), Tues. Major L. T. Burwash, Canadian explorer, and Pilot W. E. Gilbert, are now flying back to civilisation after reaching the north-west corner of King William’s Land in the Arctic, where they located the sites of two camps of the expedition of Sir John Franklin, which set out 83 years ago and in which more than 200 men perished. The north magnetic Pole was reached and the area mapped by aerial photography. The fliers also mapped 1,000 miles of the CanadaArctic coastline and surveyed territory previously uncharted. Sir John Franklin left on his fourth expedition to the Arctic in 1845. taking with him the ships Erebus and Terror, his aim being to discover the North-West Passage between the Atlantic and the North Pacific. The vessels were last sighted in* Baffin Bay and when, two years later, Franklin had not returned, a series of 39 expeditions were sent to search for him. In 1859 a cairn was discovered containing records of his voyage until April 25, 1848, giving definite proof that he had discovered the Passage. At various times since then discoveries have been made which are believed to be further traces of the lost expedition.