How elusive? Our expedition leader with 19 years’ experience had seen them but once. Plus, we were also on the lookout for the ever-elusive narwhal. The dinner meals were a choice of meat (beef, lamb, pork, veal), a fish (Arctic char, salmon, halibut, etc.) and a vegetarian option.Īfter Gjoa Haven, we were on an ice hunt, having not seen any for a few days and therefore the polar bear sightings were slim to none, and we had not had our fill of seeing them. There were a few I’d happily have had again as my entire meal. Apart from the dinner menu staples of a beef, chicken, and pasta dish, the 21 days of menus were never repeated. Refrigerated items were regularly rotated. It was just like at home: use the oldest first. We now know-refrigeration and careful monitoring. We all wondered how food was kept so fresh, including the lettuces and fresh fruit, for the three weeks we would be cruising without a stop to resupply. We had a galley tour with the hotel manager and the chef. Part of the Franklin exhibit at the Gjoa Haven museum. We ended up at the cultural center with its stories of the Franklin expedition. We walked through the hamlet, had a treat of tea and Bannock, a skillet bread. Now we were in Gjoa Haven (Joe Haven), named for Amundsen’s ship the Gjoa. Here he learned the ways of survival, a valuable lesson in not only learning from those who know but also leading to his successful reach of the South Pole in 1911. The Northwest Passage was not successfully navigated until 1906 by Roald Amundsen, who spent two years in an Inuit hamlet now known as Gjoa Haven. Inuit oral history remembers starving men making their way through the snow and not deigning to ask how the people that lived there, managed to do so. With the 20 discoveries of the Erebus and Terror miles south of where they were thought to be, it is now believed that sufficient of the crew were able to sail them. Lady Jane did not give up, even spending her own money to equip later expeditions.Įventually, more men and ships were lost looking for Franklin than Franklin had with him to start with. They waited a year before doing so because of the three years’ supplies. The location of his grave is not known.Īfter two years with no word of the expedition, and although they had provisions for three years, Lady Jane Franklin began pressing the Admiralty to send a rescue expedition. The ships became trapped in ice on King William Island in September 1846 and Franklin died there the next June. It was found they had died of pneumonia and lead poisoning. Three graves are there and when exhumed in 1984 they were remarkably preserved in their permafrost enclosures. The expedition is thought to have wintered 1884-46 on Beechey Island, a place we would visit. Alas, this latter were so hastily assembled it is believed the lead solder on the cans leaked into the food and occasioned lead poisoning. The ships had steam engines, a large library of books, and three years’ of supplies. With a crew of 24 officers and 110 men, he set out on two worthy vessels, the Erebus and the Terror. In 1845, at the age of 59, Franklin wanted to make one more go of it to find the Northwest Passage. After the death of his first wife, he married Jane Griffin, a force to be reckoned with, as the British government found out. The 19th century was a busy time for ships and men of ambition and one of the more famous, albeit doomed, was Sir John Franklin.įranklin had steadily climbed the ladder of naval success, leading two other expeditions to map the Canadian coast, the Coppermine (1819-1822) and the Mackenzie River (1825-1827). It is not boring it is just sad.Īs global navigation opened, and the riches on the other side of the world became known, there was a push, especially by the British, to find a shorter route to the Spice Islands of the Pacific rather than around the Cape or the Horn. There is no way to appreciate where we were and the route we traveled without the history of the Northwest Passage.
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