The search to rescue, and then to discern the fate of, Sir John Franklin and his men was the very first mass-media disaster. For more than a decade, it dominated the popular press on both sides of the Atlantic; writers such as Dickens, Collins, Swinburne, Thoreau, Eliot, Verne, and Conrad were enthralled by its dark mysteries; clairvoyants from Scotland to India had visions of Franklin's ships, and more than thirty vessels were dispatched, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars in today's money, to seek him out. Stage plays, moving panoramas, and lantern shows depicted the wild loneliness of the "Frozen Zone"; lecturers equipped with maps, charts, and Esquimaux artifacts opined on his likely location, and his wife/widow Lady Jane Franklin became a dominating figure of the day, lauded by The Times of London as "Our English Penelope." Alas, for her, there would be no returning Odysseus! But loss and death draw down to deeper springs of human feeling, perhaps, than happy returns and loving embraces. And when, finally, the specter of the "last dread alternative" -- cannibalism -- was cast over the affair, it drove its tincture of admiration and revulsion deep down into the British psyche.
Even after the recovery of the expedition's final "Victory Point Record" by Francis Leopold McClintock in 1859, there was continued interest in discovering anything further about his final fate. The American eccentric and erstwhile newspaper publisher Charles Francis Hall led two search expeditions in the 1860's; in the 1870's, the U.S. Army dispatched Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka on a new seach for paper records or artifacts that might help clarify the last days of the Franklin exedition. Individual searchers returned to the area periodically from the 1880's through to the 1980's, among them the great explorer Knud Rasmussen, who in the 1902's heard stories of Franklin's ships from the grandsons of the men who had seen them perish, stories almost exactly the same as those collected by Hall more than half a century earlier. Forensic expeditions -- Owen Beattie in the mid-1980's, and Anne Keenleyside in the early 1990's -- collected the bones, and analyzed the bodies, of known Franklin remains, finding evidence of lead poisoning, scurvy, and tuberculosis. Most significantly, historians such as David C. Woodman and Dorothy Harlan Eber have collected and gathered Inuit testimony, comparing numerous accounts with the hope that a common narrative thread could be found. Woodman has traveled to the Arctic numerous times, searching for the ships in the places the Inuit described.
But it wasn't until 2014 when the first of Franklin's ships -- HMS "Erebus" -- was finally found. It was located by Parks Canada's underwater archaeologists only a few kilometers from where Woodman had searched, right where the Inuit had said it would be. Dives on "Erebus" have netted several remarkable objects, including the ship's bell, several china plates, brass buttons, and the hilt of a naval sword. Many of those, such as myself, who had followed the search for years, thought that finding one ship was already beating the odds -- and then, in 2016, the second ship "Terror" was found, again thanks to Inuit accounts (though in this case that of a contemporary witness, Sammy Kogvik). Although suspended for the past two seasons, new dives are planned for the summer of 2022, and many more to come -- who knows what secrets these wrecks may disclose? Meanwhile, land-based archaeologists have not been idle; earlier this year Doug Stenton announced that he'd been able to use DNA to identify one of the better-known skulls as that of John Gregory, who'd been hired to operate the steam engine installed in Erebus.
Interest in the Franklin story has continued to grow, both thanks to the discovery of the ships and the the new AMC TV series "The Terror," starring Ciarán Hinds as Sir John Franklin, Jared Harris as Francis Crozier, and Tobias Menzies as James Fitzjames. Based on Dan Simmons's horror novel The Terror, it nevertheless stays largely true to the history of the original expedition, and was meticulously researched and shot. To the historical hazards of scurvy, starvation, and cannibalism, the story adds a mythological Inuit beast, the fearsome "Tunbaq" -- if you don't mind the blood and gore, it's a wonderful re-telling of the Franklin story. You can download individual episodes from iTunes, or get the entire series as a DVD. Michael Palin's new book on HMS Erebus will doubtless spur still more interest, as many who only know him through the Pythons or his BBC travel shows will get his dramatic take on the ship's history, and his account of re-tracing its routes around the world from Tasmania to the Arctic. Part of this involved visiting Franklin sites in the Canadian territory of Nunavut aboard the Akademik Sergey Vavilov, a voyage on which I was lucky enough to accompany him.
It's been more than 170 years since he went missing, and Sir John Franklin remains a source of seemingly endless fascination -- but why? Is it just the mysterious nature of his disappearance? Or does he symbolize something deeper, something we feel we've lost in these modern times? Have a look at "The Man Who Ate His Boots," and leave your thoughts and comments here.
But it wasn't until 2014 when the first of Franklin's ships -- HMS "Erebus" -- was finally found. It was located by Parks Canada's underwater archaeologists only a few kilometers from where Woodman had searched, right where the Inuit had said it would be. Dives on "Erebus" have netted several remarkable objects, including the ship's bell, several china plates, brass buttons, and the hilt of a naval sword. Many of those, such as myself, who had followed the search for years, thought that finding one ship was already beating the odds -- and then, in 2016, the second ship "Terror" was found, again thanks to Inuit accounts (though in this case that of a contemporary witness, Sammy Kogvik). Although suspended for the past two seasons, new dives are planned for the summer of 2022, and many more to come -- who knows what secrets these wrecks may disclose? Meanwhile, land-based archaeologists have not been idle; earlier this year Doug Stenton announced that he'd been able to use DNA to identify one of the better-known skulls as that of John Gregory, who'd been hired to operate the steam engine installed in Erebus.
Interest in the Franklin story has continued to grow, both thanks to the discovery of the ships and the the new AMC TV series "The Terror," starring Ciarán Hinds as Sir John Franklin, Jared Harris as Francis Crozier, and Tobias Menzies as James Fitzjames. Based on Dan Simmons's horror novel The Terror, it nevertheless stays largely true to the history of the original expedition, and was meticulously researched and shot. To the historical hazards of scurvy, starvation, and cannibalism, the story adds a mythological Inuit beast, the fearsome "Tunbaq" -- if you don't mind the blood and gore, it's a wonderful re-telling of the Franklin story. You can download individual episodes from iTunes, or get the entire series as a DVD. Michael Palin's new book on HMS Erebus will doubtless spur still more interest, as many who only know him through the Pythons or his BBC travel shows will get his dramatic take on the ship's history, and his account of re-tracing its routes around the world from Tasmania to the Arctic. Part of this involved visiting Franklin sites in the Canadian territory of Nunavut aboard the Akademik Sergey Vavilov, a voyage on which I was lucky enough to accompany him.
It's been more than 170 years since he went missing, and Sir John Franklin remains a source of seemingly endless fascination -- but why? Is it just the mysterious nature of his disappearance? Or does he symbolize something deeper, something we feel we've lost in these modern times? Have a look at "The Man Who Ate His Boots," and leave your thoughts and comments here.
Madeleine Frost
ReplyDeleteThe interest in the story of Sir John Franklin has certainly not wavered over time. People seem to have always — and continue to have — a fascination with the disappearance of Sir John Franklin and his men. I think that as humans, we tend to enjoy closure; a conclusion offers us the satisfaction we crave. When the mystery of the fate of Sir John Franklin and his men were relatively new to the public, people were probably fascinated with it for two primary reasons: (1) prepared explorers who were supposedly experienced in their field simply vanished without a trace and (2) what does the Arctic contain and what are the conditions there that allowed so many people in such a sturdy carriage disappeared and left little to no clues. The conclusion to one’s life would be their death and, since Sir John Franklin and company have no definitive cause of death (only an assumed one), there is only an estimated cause of death and not an official one. As stated in “The Man Who Ate His Boots”, the Arctic is a “hostile landscape” that, at the time of Franklin’s journey, was “unmapped territory” (Potter 3). The unknown of the area that Franklin and his crew went missing makes the mystery surrounding their disappearance all the more fascinating. In today’s terms, Franklin and his men’s deaths are so captivating because still, even in a contemporary time with contemporary technology, their deaths and the exact details surrounding their deaths remain a mystery. Further, as stated on page 8, there is a hope that through “more careful procedures, more persistent searching, or some fresh interpretation of the known evidence” would be able to point to a solution to this unknown. People may think that with the newer technology that the fate of Franklin and his men’s deaths would be able to be solved once and for all, but, because the mystery still remains unsolved, there is still a captivation with their disappearances. Humans tend to prefer definitive conclusions as it helps them find peace of mind and feel a sense of completeness, but this feeling cannot be fulfilled with the conundrum of Franklin and his men.
After watching the documentary “Search of the Northwest Passage” I already had background knowledge about John Franklin’s venture to the Northwest Passage and the circumstances that some people think caused his crew’s and his death; however, after reading “The Man Who Ate His Boots” it has been extended even more. I want to share two thoughts I had when reading this article, and some questions.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I was amazed that Lady Jane never gave up on finding her husband and consistently pushed the government to do something. Not only did Lady Jane never give up, but it seems like everyone did not give up, and I am intrigued as to why everyone focuses on his disappearance specifically. The author writes that “[t]here was something about the manner of Franklin’s disappearance that continued then, and continues now, to haunt the edges of our imagination,” but how about all the other ships and crews that have gone missing over the years (“The Man Who Ate His Books” 8)? I understand and respect that people valued Franklin because he was seen as an excellent explorer and the risk of searching for the Northwest passage was immense, but the crews on other missing ships deserve just as much searching effort. This still happens in the media today where one story is shared and gets everybody’s attention because it is very disheartening and unfair, but there are also other stories that should be shared of the same nature. What makes people choose which stories, or ships and crews, are important over others?
My second thought point is about the mental health of the crew members on Franklin’s expedition to the Arctic. I have been interested in how exploration influences people’s mental health, whether it be exploration on land, sea, or space even, and how it has evolved over time. After reading this article, I realize that sometimes unfortunate incidents happen that cause the downfall of people’s mental health on travels that were unseen. On this trip, the men were ecstatic to have canned goods that could last them for such an extended amount of time that they could survive for months and months. It became known later that the men got lead poisoning from the tin cans and “…lead poisoning may have damaged the mental faculties of Franklin’s and his men…” (“The Man Who Ate His Boots” 9). This may have been the reason that some men turned to cannibalism, or even that the men felt like they could walk 600 miles in the freezing weather with pounds of artifacts from the ship. I realize from the article that the mental health of explorers may decline from physical health issues too, not just from confinement, being exposed to the elements, or having a compound of misfortunes.
While reading the story “The man who ate his Boots”, I wasn’t really sure where this title was going to play into John Franklin or what the connection was going to be between the two. I actually really enjoyed reading this story and watching the film because I learned about him in high school, I believe but it was so long ago that I forgot what he accomplished so it was great to read in more detail about it. When Franklin sailed to the North Pole and decided to take a different route back home, I thought to myself “oh no not another one!”, I couldn’t help but think about our story we read about Chris last week from “Into the Wild”. The reason why I thought about him was because when Franklin decided to take a different route, they mentioned he didn’t have a map for the way he was returning home, so why would you put yourself into that situation if you don’t know how rocky the waters will be.
ReplyDeleteI believe Sir John Franklin and his men’s disappearance still capture people’s attention today because of the mystery of it. Not knowing what had happened for all those years makes people really want to find out. The mystery of it is very fascinating and I think that is what draws people in. After watching the film and reading “The Man Who Ate His Boots” I myself was fascinated by the mystery involved with it. One thing I really liked was how Jane, Sir John Franklins wife, never gave up on the search for finding her husband. Aside from her many people continued the search for Sir John Franklin and his men for many years to follow. As talked about in “The Man Who Ate His Boots” technology has advanced over the years which had made it easier to explore and achieve new things which helped with eventually finding Franklin’s ship. Another thing the article points out is the mental health of Franklin and his men. Over time they grew much weaker and due to their physical condition, it deteriorated their mental health as well. Lastly, I found it interesting how excited they were about the canned food. In the film it talks about how Franklin is excited about it and how they won’t starve with the canned food. The irony is that the canned food ended up giving many of them lead poisoning which worsened their physical condition and eventually played a part in their deaths.
ReplyDeleteI think that as more times passes with an unsolved mystery such as this one, the interest in the case only grows. I feel many may think that with time, we learn and become better at tackling solving mysteries considering learning from experience and an increase in technologies. Of course, at the time of their disappearance over 170 years ago, the knowledge and technological advances to search and discover missing people, especially in the arctic, simply was not possessed. As time goes on, while they may no longer be such a priority, it would be fascinating for some that the mystery cannot be solved.
ReplyDeleteI can also see an opposing argument to this, and that as the more time passes, the least likely an old case like this is to be solved. Considering the boat disappeared somewhere in the arctic, its almost imaginable to put together to toll the climate would take on any available evidence, especially over the course of over 170 years.
Regardless, there remains this elevated interest to discover what happened during the search for the North West Passage. I assume that it our general curiosity and our imaginations that lead us to take such an interest in this case. Know the harsh and gruesome elements the crew had to face making their way through the icy pathways of the ocean, leaves us to imagine what circumstances and desperation they would have faces that lead to their disappearance. I think we as people naturally seek to fill in those blank or confirm our suspicions. And for some, they cannot rest until they get answers
After reading “The Man Who Ate His Boots” I feel that the Franklin expedition symbolizes something deeper today. The question ‘”is Franklin the only man who is lost?’” is raised in the article, and I have to say that the answer is “no”. Although the article is referring to being physically misplaced, I think that the act of being lost can take on a different form. Chris McCandless was someone who was figuratively lost, searching in the wilderness to find himself. In that sense, I think that McCandless was conducting some emotional or mental exploration. That sense of emotional discovery continues in the search for the Franklin ships in recent years, specifically in regard to the northern regions of Canada: “It’s here that a number of additional factors came into play, most notably the anxieties surrounding Arctic sovereignty” (10). The Arctic regions in Canada are supposed to be a self-governing state, but with the presence of “American military activity, and potentially commercial activity” undermine any notions of sovereignty in the region. In short, the activity of a country in this region affects who “owns” it. This is another version of discovery. The Arctic is a “lost land” whose ownership can change based on who claims it as theirs. Is the ownership of discovery transferrable? According to Canadians it is: “if the Canadian government were to pay for the ships’ recovery, they would want the British to surrender their claims to the wrecks” (12). Despite the British owning the ship, the Canadians have been allowed to claim it as theirs.
ReplyDeleteI agree with many of the other posts that Sir John Franklin and his men's disappearance has remained fascinating because of the "mysterious nature of his disappearance," but I think it also has a lot to do with the media and how the story has been displayed. In "The Man Who Ate his Boots," it is explained that the recovered bodies of some of the ship's men were displayed on covers of magazines. These bodies, exhumed 40 years later, looked as if they died yesterday. The way these bodies were preserved allowed scientists to figure out exactly how they died. It led to greater mystery and people craved to see what happened next.
ReplyDeleteI would also argue that the intrigue of this case comes from the slow discovery of different artifacts over many many years. It is not a stagnant process. There is no reason to loose hope for the mystery to be solved. Lady Jane Franklin's love for her husband certainly kept the search alive for the remainder of her life, but I think that because new discoveries continued to be made, the fire to solve the mystery grew. Having found the lost ships in 2014 and 2016 makes the promise for new information even greater.
It is interesting that Franklin’s early Arctic Expeditions put him face to face with danger and malfunctions, almost as a foreshadow to his fate. Reading this article, it is hard to brush off what we’ve learned thus far; exploration is a sacrifice. However, the adventurous spirit was enthused in this period, and risk was just a side effect. This article seemed to speak a lot about one’s reputation, and the reputation of Sir John Franklin, which seemed to have flourished the more he was successful despite dangers. It seems to almost be why Jane Franklin did not want to accept the notions of cannibalistic resorts as her husband’s fate. Additionally, as pointed out, “Franklin’s personal character and career, though exemplary, were not so different from those of other men of his background and talents, and his quest – the search for a navigable “Northwest Passage” through the Arctic” (1). So therefore, why do we celebrate such a mystery, and how does the expedition appeal to us all the way through the 21st century? I believe it is because in human culture, we have a desire to always have definitive answers. When our curiosities are evoked by others that have taken such stunning risks, there becomes a quest within ourselves to put our minds at ease. That can explain the obsession of Stephen Harper, Jon Krakauer, and the rest of society.
ReplyDeleteIt can be argued that Franklin was a romanticized explorer; a hero. Franklin was described as the only man that could be bold enough and successful in pursuit of a crucial mission. He was the “national guarantee” (4) to undertake the “national agenda” (4). This was an important quest, and therefore required a fitting person, or as said, “... a mission upon which ‘knights-errant of the sea’ (as Joseph Conrad later called them) could be dispatched, having the requisite difficulty and uncertainty to make the mission a long one” (4). Like McCandless, he was idealized as a heroic figure, aspiring to venture into the unknown. Humans seem to have not an overall fascination with Franklin, but with the unknown itself. Therefore, there will be no rest until every part of the story is uncovered and all theories will continue to be expanded on as artifacts may be retrieved. All evidence is going to invite more inquiry and perspectives.
We talk endlessly in this class, as we did over the summer, about the fascination people have with a mystery. The fact that the Franklin expedition hasn't been solved sticks with people because we love to puzzle things out and put all the little facts we learned together. Whether its as serious a "Don't f*** with cats", as ancient as The Franklin Expedition, or as silly as trying to figure out all the clues and hints from Twenty One Pilots' Trench album drop, people will invest until they have the catharsis of answers. It's why people are still fascinated with the Titanic, why people search constantly for shipwrecks. Its why people literally do puzzle books, do escape rooms. It engages our brain in some way that we just can't ignore. The story about the Franklin expedition is still relevant because there is only speculation, no real answers, and people still want to know what's out there. They want the full story of what happened.
ReplyDeleteat first I didn't understand why the Franklin expedition has forever remained at the forefront of people's minds. It was just like many other stories of those that have been lost and remained missing, he was maybe a little more well known for his past adventures, but like I said it was a story like many others. And then I remembered a different story, one that I have been told for my entire life. My father's cousin would love to go fishing and being out on the boat. One day he went to go fishing and they never found him or the boat ever again. That story is like other missing stories, but it has remained in my family ever since my father was a teenager, over 30 years. These stories remain in our minds because we as people have a longing of figuring out the unknown. We obsess over it and some people dedicate their entire lives about it. Look at all of the youtubers and people who have podcasts dedicated to people that have gone missing and have yet to be found. It is in our human nature to discover and uncover mysteries. That is why the mystery of Franklin and his men's disappearances remains so poignant for people.
ReplyDeleteThinking about Franklin and the fascination that surrounds his doomed voyage, I was struck by the assertion that “if we are to fully understand the present meaning of his passage, we must begin with the earlier one, as well as the ripples of rearward-looking nostalgia and romanticism with which, even more than ice, he and his ships have become quite heavily encrusted” (2). I want to take a moment to consider memory and how that impacts how people view the Franklin expedition and why we still have such a fascination with it. While modern technology has helped us better understand the Arctic, there is still something eminently mysterious and unbelievable about the Arctic and the freezing miles and miles of ice in the north. Mystery can be romanticized through time, and I think the Franklin expedition is an example of that. Franklin’s wife never gave up on the search for him, which brings in a kind of tragic romance to the proceedings, and as we remember her and try to imagine what it was like for her, that influences how we remember and value the Franklin expedition, if that makes sense. As time has gone on, we’ve had more and more opportunities to imagine what happened to Franklin and his men, which explains why there has been so much produced about the expedition, from plays to documentaries to operas. With that imagination, I think there is a certain nostalgia and romanticism associated with the Franklin expedition because it was unknown for so long. Our cultural memory is shaped by our associations, and the Franklin expedition was/is shrouded in mystery and has a certain appeal to the nostalgic and romantic. In that way, I can see how people would still be fascinated with it. Others above have mentioned that humans love a satisfactory conclusion to a mystery, and with Franklin, the lack of resolution for so long allowed for nostalgia and a certain romanticism to develop, and that influences how we remember the expedition and seek to understand it in the present.
ReplyDeleteAfter viewing all of these materials about the Franklin expedition, I think the mystery mostly came from the nature of the crews disappearance. I also think it had a lot to do with how invested Franklin’s wife Lady Jane was in the search for her husband. She remained so determined and hopeful of his return constantly arranging search parties to potentially risk other people’s lives, following a similar route to her missing husbands ship. I think this story became so well known and big because of the way Lady Jane publicized the expedition. I think eventually it became a hot topic because of how many people she made involved in the search. Not to mention, if 100 plus people go on a voyage to discover a route/ islands that had not yet been discovered and would benefit the world to be put on a map, I think that would be concerning to many people. And going back to the fact that many people disappeared with Franklin and the ship, there were probably many other concerned families waiting for loved ones to come home.
ReplyDeleteAs I previously mentioned in the last post, they went into it completely prepared, but were derailed by an endless winter that never melted, disease, and led poisoning. We later find out that these freak accidents, although did not allow them to go back to England, gave great insight into the land they walked on and put it on the map. I think because of this reason it made people curious how something could go wrong. I also think that this event in history has stuck with people because of how well preserved the bodies and relics were. I mean uncovering the bodies of some of the men found was like practically stepping into the 1800s.
Many aspects of this crews disappearance were unknown for a very long time, so I think for there to be so many un answered questions about a large group missing like that didnt make sense. As human beings we live to have answers for things that don’t make sense, especially with this group of people (Aka the Victorian English that were known for being ahead of their time), they needed to understand what was foreign to them. Lastly, being a large country that was competing with other countries to be the first to do things that perhaps other countries hadn’t, the need to have answers came from trying to discover things/ have credit before other did.
To me, the disappearance and overall treatment of Franklin and how everyone, including people now, handle that is key to why this incident is still so fresh. People always seek out answers, and they desire to know just what happened, even if the chance of actually finding out seems miniscule or near impossible. Nevertheless, we desire an answer and go searching for it. Franklin's death and what actually happened is something that I feel makes this person as famous as he is. As the stated above in the post, if not for his death, Franklin would not even hold a fifth of the attention he has today.
ReplyDeleteI feel there is a distinct allure to the mystery of what happened to the crew and their disappearance and, most likely, subsequent death. And that's what lead so many people to both publicize and search for that very issue. Honestly, the idea of missing person in modern times would not garner the attention that Franklin and the crew has; simply due to the overflow of information that comes through with every single day due to social media, etc..
It would take a short of amount of time for something like this, at least at its occurrence, to be taken over by another event that completely overshadows it, forever banned to obscurity for a constantly moving media. The fame Franklin has for this is a product of his time, and I think that's something modern people would have trouble replicating, at least in such a large scale that Franklin has demanded.
I believe that, as humans, we are naturally drawn to mystery. Who killed JFK? Who killed Lizzie Borden's parents? What started the Salem Witch Trials? What happened to Sir John Franklin? Humans have an innate fear of the unknown, so if we don't have a rational explanation as to what happened, our minds run rampant with theories. The CIA killed Kennedy and pinned it on Lee Harvey Oswald and sent Jack Ruby to silence him after Oswald claimed to simply be a patsy. Lizzie conspired with the maid to kill the Bordens. The Salem Witch Trials were started by an ergot infestation. Franklin's expedition vanished in a wormhole. While some of these theories are more plausible than others, I firmly believe that there are some mysteries that will never be solved, for better or for worse. Some might say it would be harder for a mystery such as this to develop in the modern age, but then look at Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. This commercial airliner disappeared in 2014, yet we still do not have concrete proof that it crashed in the forest or washed up in Africa. We are naturally drawn to these mysterious occurrences and no matter how much ability we have to solve these cases, some mysteries will forever remain unsolved.
ReplyDeleteHello Sage,
DeleteI half agree with your sentiment. People are definitely drawn to mysteries, but I can disagree that the Frankilin Expedition disapeared in a worm hole. The ship got stuck in ice, they had to get off, they had no food, and starved to death one by one. I believe the appeal is from 1. cannibilism and 2. they ships were never found until recently. Funny enough, these situatons would have been solved earlier if people listened to the Inuit. In my research, I found that Inuit oral tradition held a lot of truths of the Franklin Expedition, but were ignored.
Alexandra Ritacco