The sturdy former bomb ships were substantially strengthened and fitted with the latest technologies for polar service and, at the time, were the most advanced sailing vessels developed for Polar exploration. Go to or call the number on the website.In the summer of 1845, Sir John Franklin and a crew of 128 men entered Lancaster Sound on board HMS Erebus and HMS Terror in search of a Northwest Passage. Why don’t you arrange a walk to The Dean Cemetery and many other places of interest in Edinburgh with Edinburgh Walks. So, although Irving was interred in the Dean Cemetery 137 years ago his story and that of the Franklin Expedition continues to evolve to this day. It appears yet again that authorities had taken a long time to listen to the words of the local Inuit as to where these ships may lie. Work continued to find Irving’s ship and on 12th September 2016 HMS Terror was found….in a place called Terror Bay on King William Island. This ship has been confirmed as HMS Terror’s sister ship, HMS Erebus. Also in September 2014 the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the discovery of a ship to the West of King William Island, South of the Victoria Strait. This plaque is adjacent to a memorial to Franlin.īut there is more……. On 30th September 2014 a simple plaque was unveiled to Rae in Westminster Abbey in London, England. Rae eventually returned to the UK, but his courageous deeds in the snowy wastelands of Northern Canada were never truly recognised….until 2014. But in May 1859 following another expedition, skeletons were found of some of the last survivors and they appeared to confirm that the men had resorted to cannibalism.ĭr. Even Charles Dickens wrote of his disbelief. But the report of cannibalism caused a scandal which was not accepted by Victorian Britain and, in particular, Franklin’s widow. Some years later, Rae learned that the Inuit had discovered 30 bodies and a number of graves and it appeared the men had died of starvation. From what he was told, Rae decided the men had died in the winter of 1850, after ice had crushed their ships. In April 1854, Rae had heard from an Inuit that a group of 40 white men had been seen four years previously pulling a boat and sledges South along the West coast of King William Island. Rae assisted in two searches for Erebus and Terror and their men, but abandoned the search for Franklin in 1854 after learning that the expedition had ended in disaster and that the last survivors having been forced to resort to cannibalism. He learned their vital survival skills, though his insistence of dressing like a native was frowned upon. He stayed in the Moose Factory area for around 10 years and in this time assimilated with the local native Canadians. John Rae was a qualified surgeon from Orkney in Scotland who was employed by the Hudson’s Bay Company after his arrival there in 1833. However, it brought to mind more recent information that adds colour to this story.ĭr. The tableau on the Cross appears to show the survivors leaving Erebus and Terror to commence their march South.Ī synopsis of the terrible affair is also on the cross. His remains were returned to Edinburgh and on the 7th January 1881 he was buried in the Dean Cemetery. Many expeditions were sent out to trace the crews, and it was in June 1879 that Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka’s American Searching Expedition found Irving’s grave near a place called Camp Crozier, the remains identifiable by the presence of a silver medal engraved ‘Second Mathematical Prize, Royal Naval College. By June 1847 Franklin, twenty Officers and Seamen died, but Irving and 104 other survivors landed on King William Island and tried to march further South into Canada, some 250 miles away. Having wintered at Beechey Island, they thereafter set out to find the Passage, but became locked in the ice for two years. The other Royal Navy ship in the party was HMS Erebus. Irving was part of Sir John Franklin’s expedition to find the North West Passage that left Kent, England in 1845 on board HMS Terror.
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