John Arrowsmith’s 1860 Arctic discoveries map

Posted on June 9, 2020

by Angie Cope

If you’re watching the AMC series “The Terror” you’ve experienced the dramatization of Sir John Franklin’s final voyage in 1845 in HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. The journey ended in tragedy for him and all his men, becoming the worst disaster in the history of British polar exploration.

Sir John Franklin’s Arctic discoveries, between Baffin Bay & Cape Bathurst, combined with those of Sir Edward Parry in 1819, and the several searching expeditions, concluding with that of Sir Francis L. McClintock in 1859 / constructed by John Arrowsmith, 1860

https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/…/colle…/agdm/id/21392/rec/4

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From Royal Museums Greenwich:
Franklin’s two naval vessels sailed up the Wellington Channel before turning south toward Beechey Island, where they would spend the winter. In the spring, they sailed south down Peel Sound but, off the northernmost point of King William Island, were trapped by the ice flow down the McClintock Channel.

In the spring of 1847, a party from the expedition travelled across the ice to Point Victory on shore and deposited a written record of their progress. It is thought they reached Cape Herschel on the south coast of the island, filling in the unexplored part of the North-West Passage. Sir John Franklin died in June that year.

Still trapped in the ice, Erebus and Terror drifted south until Captain Crozier ordered their abandonment in April 1848. Weakened by starvation and scurvy, the 105 surviving men headed south for the Great Fish River. Most died on the march along the west coast of King William Island.

To read the entire article. https://www.rmg.co.uk/…/john-franklin-final-north-west-pass….