This rare collection is a haunting remembrance of the brave explorers who set sail without modern technology.
Researchers match the DNA of a South African man with a sailor on the doomed Franklin expedition.
This rare collection is a haunting remembrance of the brave explorers who set sail without modern technology.
In my last posting, I gave some general background on the Daguerreotypes made of Franklin and his officers just before their sailing in May of 1845. There, I hinted that there was something further to be learned. With thanks to my esteemed friend Dr Huw Lewis-Jones of the Scott Polar Research Institute, who first observed this phenomenon, I pass along a vision recovered from the reflective bill of Lieutenant Graham Gore's cap (see detail, inset). The image seems clearly that of a ship, indicating that Gore's portrait was taken at dockside. Yet which ship is it? It seems to me to be a view of the stern of some vessel, but without any sails or rigging clearly visible. There seem to be masts, but one of these appears bent, and connected with another protrusion. Could one of these be the smokestack of a ship's engine, and a plume of smoke the source of this connection? If so, the vessel would seem to be either "Erebus" or "Terror." And yet tellingly, a line seems to extend from the ship's stern (if so it is), as though it were towing another vessel. If that's the case, the ship could be the screw steam sloop HMS "Rattler," for it towed both "Erebus" and "Terror" as far as Cape Wrath off Scotland. Unlike the discovery ships, which would have hoarded their coal for later, the Rattler would have been under full steam for the journey, and was far more likely to be exuding smoke during the photographic session. Rattler was the first screw-propeller driven warship in the world, and had famously won a contest with the side-wheel steamer Alecto, proving her pre-eminence by dragging the Alecto backwards at a speed of 2 knots in March of 1845. The propellor of the Rattler is on display in Portsmouth to this day. But what else can we learn from these Dauguerreotypes? My acquaintance Bill Schultz, a collector of and expert on early photography, prepared a lengthy essay on them for the 2005 edition of the Daguerreian Annual. Schultz specializes in military and naval images, and his commentary describes each officer's uniform in detail. For example, Franklin is wearing "a Cocked Hat or Chapeau, bound with black silk, which would have four loops of gold bullion with two center loops twisted." Gore, above, "wears the undress uniform of a Lieutenant according to the uniform regulation of 1843; his epaulettes have shorter braid (than those of a commander or captain) and would have been without any insignia on the strap or in the crescent." Is there more? Clearly, the photographer sent by Beard's firm chose at least two different settings, or allowed the officers to do so. Most of the subjects -- Franklin himself, Crozier, Fitzjames, Gore, Fairholme, Couch, Des Voeux, Sargent, Reid, Collins, Stanley, Goodsir, and Osmer, posed before a cloth backdrop; judging by Gore and Fairholme, this studio was set up dockside. The backdrop varies somewhat; in Goodsir's case, it seems draped or curtained, with light passing on either side, while with the others, it appears flat and opaque. Only Le Vesconte seems to have chosen to be photographed aboard ship; he stands with the wheel visible behind him, and a coil of rope hanging from the mast. In his hand he holds a book with a paper label on its cover, idnetified by Schultz as the ship's log. Ah, what any of us would give to have that book once more in our hands! There is surely still more to be learned from these images; the Daguerreotype process produces plates with an incredible level of detail, as the grain size was as little as that of a single silver halide crystal. The originals, properly copied, could be blown up by a factor of hundreds, and yield surprising results. Reproduced in the pages of the Illustrated London News and Gleason's Pictorial, endlessly peered at in hopes of some new insight, these memorial versions of the Franklin expedition's officers have a haunting quality -- for they were the first, as well as the last, we would ever have of these bold and tragic figures.
Sir John Franklin set out to traverse the Northwest Passage but became lost when the icepack closed around his ships. But has he been found?
Doomed 1845 ship believed to have been lost in the Arctic was found by Canada finally, after over 170 years of explorers’ searches. The doomed 1845 ship found by Canada is one of two British explorer...
“In the Footsteps of Franklin,” the theme of this writer's two-week expedition cruise, is about to take on added meaning. Read an intriguing summary of a voyage retracing the Franklin Expedition of 1845.
A new study by University of Glasgow researchers may give further insight to the deaths of all 129 crew of the ill-fated "Franklin Expedition" of 1845 which was lost in the Canadian Arctic as it attempted to navigate the final link in the fabled Northwest Passage in HMS Erebus and Terror.
Remains found on King William Island, Nunavut, have now been matched to a living individual, confirming the body is that of Warrant Officer John Gregory, an engineer on HMS Erebus.
HM Cutter Trial, 1790 His Britannic Majesty’s Cutter Trial, 1790 is the latest wooden model ship kit to come out of Christopher Watton’s company Vanguard Models, and Ages of Sail
The true story of Sir John Franklin’s fateful expedition in HMS Erebus and HMS Terror of the North-West Passage in 1845, and the eventual discovery of the ships' wrecks in 2014 and 2016.
The fate of Capt. Sir John Franklin and crew has been a mystery for more than 160 years, but now Canadian archaeologists believe they've found one of the expedition's two main vessels.
The 1845 Franklin expedition aimed to discover a sea-route through the Canadian Arctic. It consisted of two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. In command was Sir John Franklin who had previously commanded two other Arctic expeditions. Scientists have known for a while that the voyage most likely ended up with some form of cannibalism being practiced among the ship’s crew.
Researchers in Nunavut have now taken DNA from the skeletal remains of several sailors in the Canadian Arctic to identify the identity of the lost crew members.
The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich explores the mysterious disappearance of Sir John Franklin's expedition of 1845 When they set sail from the Thames on 19 May 1845, Sir John Franklin and his crew aboard HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, were...
Brian Spenceley recalls the expedition when he first saw his great-great uncle
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Examine the ill-fated Franklin Expedition of 1845, where two ships and their crews vanished while searching for the Northwest Passage. Discuss recent discoveries and ongoing mysteries.
While Sir John Franklin's 1845 expedition left England amid much optimism, it ultimately ended in the tragedy and became the greatest disaster in British exploration of the Arctic.
A new study suggests that some of the death's of the crew on the 1845 Franklin expedition in the Arctic may have been due to tuberculosis resulting in Addison's disease, which causes dehydration.
Sir John Franklin, English rear admiral and explorer who led an ill-fated expedition (1845) in search of the Northwest Passage, a Canadian Arctic waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. His ships the Terror and the Erebus were discovered by Canadian expeditions in the 21st century.
April 8, 2015 - April 18, 2015 - A team of navy divers and marine archaeologists are to investigate the wreck of HMS Erebus, one of two British ships that vanished in the Canadian Arctic 170 years ago. Erebus, found in September 2014, and HMS Terror disappeared during a quest for the fabled Northwest Passage by Sir John Franklin in 1845. infographic
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The exhumation of a man who died on an Arctic expedition allowed scientists to re-examine the body using modern forensics, revealing a surprise.
