John Fraklin ( Eng. John Franklin ; April 15, 1786 , Spilsby, Lincolnshire - June 11, 1847 , King-William Island) - English navigator, Arctic explorer , rear admiral .
| John franklin | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of Birth | April 15, 1786 | ||
| Place of Birth | Spilsby, Lincolnshire , England , British Empire | ||
| Date of death | June 11, 1847 (61 years) | ||
| Place of death | near King William Island, Canada | ||
| A country | |||
| Occupation | explorer, arctic explorer | ||
| Spouse | |||
| Awards and prizes |
| ||
Content
Biography
Born April 15, 1786 in the family of a merchant in the city of Spilsby ( Lincolnshire ).
In 1799, at the age of 14, he entered the service of cabin boy on a coaster. In 1801-1803 he participated in an expedition to Australia under the command of Matthew Flinders , during which he was engaged in hydrographic research. Participant of the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), was wounded in 1814 in the Battle of New Orleans during the Anglo-American War .
In 1818, as commander of the ship, Trent took part in the British Arctic expedition, which was to reach the Bering Strait , passing through the North Pole ices). The expedition was able to move north from Spitsbergen , but was forced to turn back.
In 1819, he organized and led a land expedition to Canada , which traveled from Hudson Bay to Coronation Bay. She then surveyed about 800 km of the North American coast, up to Cape Thornagain. Particularly difficult was the return journey that the researchers went through, despite the hunger and deprivation.
In 1825–1827, he led a new expedition, whose members sailed down to the mouth of the Mackenzie River on sailboats. After this, Franklin, with one part of the expedition, headed westward, plotting 600 km of the North American coast as a result of his journey, and the other part, led by Frederick Beachy , to the east.
The successful completion of the difficult expedition contributed to Franklin's administrative career. First, after the publication of the results of the expedition in 1829, he was knighted, and later was appointed lieutenant-governor of Van Diemen’s Land and held this post in 1837–1843.
Searching the Northwest Passage
Returning to England, Franklin led an expedition to search for the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean on the ships Terror and Erebus . Departure took place on May 19, 1845 . For more than ten years there was no information about the fate of its participants, despite the ongoing search. In 1851-1852, an expedition headed by William Kennedy was equipped to search for John Franklin. Kennedy discovered Bellov Strait, through which he headed west, towards the Prince of Wales Island , and sailed around it to Cape Walker. Considering the Pyla Strait to the south of Bellov Strait closed, he did not head further south, where, perhaps, he would have encountered Franklin’s ships, and returned to England .
In total, 39 polar expeditions were engaged in the search for the Franklin expedition, many of which were equipped by the efforts of his wife, Lady Jane Franklin , who spent all of her fortune on it. For the first time, traces of a missing expedition were discovered by a Scottish explorer John Ray in 1854. Exploring the island of King William in 1854, on the Peninsula Butia Ray made contact with the local population and received a lot of information about the fate of the lost naval expedition. On April 21, 1854, one of the Eskimos told him about 35-40 white people who died of hunger. Another Eskimo soon confirmed this information, adding about cases of cannibalism among dying sailors. Traces on the remains of the dead, as well as the contents of the dishes, forced John Ray to agree that there were facts of cannibalism among the members of the expedition [1] .
Ray's statements sparked a wide public response in the UK. Many famous figures, including the writer Charles Dickens , accused Ray of "slandering" the British Royal Navy sailors based on the "Eskimo bikes".
However, later cases of cannibalism were proved by other researchers, in particular, following the tracks on the bones of the crew members. The Eskimos also showed him other evidence of white people staying in the area, in particular, Ray bought several silver spoons and forks from the Eskimos, later it was established who the particular subjects belonged to the missing expedition members [2] [3] .
Subsequently, in 1857-1859, the expedition of Francis McClintock discovered the members of the expedition and the remains of some of them. The notes found contained information that the ships were frozen into the ice, which never melted. Franklin survived two winterings in the ice and died on June 11, 1847 during the third wintering, like all the other members of the expedition who died from hunger, cold, and disease.
The grave of Franklin was never found. In London , in Westminster Abbey , where many prominent people of the country are buried, he erected a monument. Another monument to him is in his hometown of Spilsby. In Alaska and Canada, cape, mountains, bay and strait are named after Franklin.
In 2004, the novel “The Discovery of Slowness” by German writer Wall of Nadolny , artistically describing the life of Franklin, was translated into Russian.
In 2007, the crypto-historical novel “ Terror ” by the American writer Dan Simmons was published, dedicated to the expedition of J. Franklin. Based on Eskimo legends, Simmons colorfully describes the destruction of the expedition members by a giant polar bear-monster Tuunbak.
On September 9, 2014, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper reported on the discovery of the sunken remains of one of the expedition ships. [4] They became HMS Erebus . [5] On September 13, 2016, the media reported on the discovery of a sunken “Terror” by experts from the Arctic Research Foundation [6] [7]
Ranks
- Lieutenant (11.02.1808)
- Commander (01/01/1821)
- Capten (11/20/1882)
- Rear Admiral (1852, title awarded posthumously)
See also
- Northwest Passage
- Franklin (river in Tasmania)
- Terror (novel)
Notes
- ↑ Fragments of bones told about cannibalism among nineteenth-century British sailors
- ↑ Rae, John. Dr Rae's report (Neopr.) // Household Words: A Weekly Journal. - London: Charles Dickens , 1854. - 30 December ( vol. 10 , No. 249 ). - p . 457-458 .
- ↑ Stamp, Tom; Wilson, Jackie. Following in Franklin's footsteps (Eng.) // New Scientist : magazine. - London, 1985. - 7 February ( vol. 105 , no. 1422 ). - P. 37 .
- ↑ A famous expedition vessel missing in the 19th century was found in the Arctic
- ↑ HMS Erebus ship's bell recovered from Franklin expedition , CBC News (November 6, 2014).
- ↑ Ship found in the Arctic 168 years after doomed Northwest Passage attempt . The appeal date is September 13, 2016.
- ↑ "Terror" found in the ice (September 13, 2016). The appeal date is September 13, 2016.
Literature
- Kane I. K. The travels and discoveries of the second Grinel expedition to the northern polar countries, in search of Sir John Franklin, made in 1853-1855 under the command of Dr. E.K. Kena - Ed. 2nd - SPb. : Vol. M. O. Wolf, 1866. - 396 p. (region)
- Urvantsev N. N. The Arctic campaigns of John Franklin. - L .: Glavsemorputi Publishing House, 1937. - 528 p. - ( Polar Library ). (region)
- Davydov Yu. V. John Franklin. (1786—1847). - M .: Geografgiz, 1956. - 48 p. - ( Wonderful geographers and travelers ). (region)
- Davydov Yu. V. John Franklin. - Ed. 2nd - M .: Thought , 1974. - 64 p. - ( Wonderful geographers and travelers ). - 25 000 copies (region)
- Cooper PF The Island of the Lost. - L .: Gidrometeoizdat, 1970. - 167 p. (region)
- Beatty Owen , Geyer John. The mystery of the missing expedition. - M .: Paulsen, 2015. - 232 c. - (Great British expeditions). - ISBN 978-5-98797-103-1 . - 2000 copies (region)