Chapter 14 Chapter Fourteen: The Expedition to Find Franklin

On Wednesday, May 23, the Vampire began her adventurous voyage again, zigzagging and nimbly among floes and icebergs, thanks to the engine, a tame power so many polar navigators lack.It seemed to play among the moving reefs, as if it recognized the hand of an experienced master, like a horse under the lap of a nimble jockey, at the beck and call of its captain. The temperature has risen.The thermometer indicated minus three degrees Celsius at six o'clock in the morning, minus two degrees Celsius at six o'clock in the evening, and minus four degrees Celsius at midnight, and the southeast wind was blowing gently.

At about three o'clock on Thursday morning, the March reached Territory Bay on the coast of the Americas at the entrance of Lancaster Sound, and Burnie Point soon came into view. Several Eskimos approached the ship, but Hart Russ had no time to wait for them. The Byam｜Martin Cliff, which dominates the headland of Liverpool, was thrown to the left and disappeared in the fog at night. The fog was not conducive to circumventing the headland. This situation often makes hydrographic surveying in polar oceans extremely difficult. Shearwaters, mallards, and white gulls began to appear in large numbers.The observed latitude is 74 degrees and 1 minute, and the longitude is 77 degrees and 15 minutes from the stopwatch.

The two mountains, Catalina and Elizabeth, showed their snow caps on the clouds. At six o'clock on Friday, Cape Wallander was passed on the right coast of the strait, and Admiralty Bay on the left, a bay scarcely explored by voyagers eager to move westward.The sea became choppy, and waves often swept across the decks of ships, throwing pieces of ice.The land on the northern coast looks very strange, the high almost flat land platform reflects the sunlight. Hatteras wanted to move towards the southern land, with the aim of passing Beecher Island and the entrance of Wellington Strait as soon as possible, but an ensuing iceberg greatly dismayed him, forcing him to go south.

It is for this reason that, on May 26, the Forward rounded Cape York in foggy and snowy weather. A high, cliff-like mountain showed that this was Cape York, and the temperature rose, approaching The sun rose for a while at noon, so that observations could be made better. The latitude was 74 degrees 4 minutes, and the longitude was 84 degrees 23 minutes. The Advance came to the end of the Lancaster Channel. Hatteras showed the doctor on the map the roads already traveled and the roads to be taken.However, the position of the ship at this moment is quite interesting. I'd rather, he said, be further north.But since it's impossible and nothing helps, see, this is exactly where we are.

The captain marked it on the map not far from Cape York. We are in this windward crossing, formed by the entrances of the Lancaster, Barrow, Wellington, and Regent's Straits, through which the navigator of all these seas must pass. . Well, replied the Doctor, this should present them with a dilemma, a real crossroads, where, as you say, four great roads meet, and I see no sign of the real road!How did Barry, Ross, and Franklin do it? They did nothing, doctor, they resigned themselves to their fate, they had no choice, I assure you, one moment Barrow Strait is closed to this man and next year it is open to another, and the next moment the ship is inevitable Towed into Regent's Channel.All this is possible, and these restless seas were first known to men by the power of aliens.

What a strange place!The doctor looked at the map and said, everything here is torn, shredded, smashed to pieces, without any order, without any logic!It seems that the land near the North Pole is so fragmented in order to make it more difficult to approach, while the land in the other hemisphere ends in calm, elongated points, like Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope, and the Indian peninsula!It was the faster speed of the equator that changed things, while the lands at the poles were not solidified and piled on top of each other for want of a certain speed of rotation in the primordial age of the world's formation.

Possibly, because everything here has logic and no motivation.Nothing happens, and God sometimes allows scientists to discover the cause.So, doctor, use that right. Unfortunately I have to keep it a secret, Captain.But how terrible the wind blows in this strait!The doctor added that he had made the hood tight. Yes, especially with the northerly wind blowing, we'd be off course. It should have pushed the ice pack south, freeing the shipping lanes. It should, Doctor, but the wind doesn't always do what it should.look!This large group of ice floes seems to be inaccessible.In short, we will try to get to Grievous Island, and then go around Cornwallis Island to Queens Strait without going through Wellington Strait.But all I wanted was to go to Beachy Island, and get the coal reserves again.

Why?asked the doctor in surprise. There is no doubt that, by order of the Admiralty, the island is well stocked with supplies for future voyages, though Captain Clintock took some in August, 1859, and I assure you there is still some left. Use the next one for us. In fact, said the Doctor, these seas had been visited by explorers for fifteen years, and the Admiralty always kept five or six ships in them until the definitive proof of Franklin's disappearance came.If I am not mistaken, the Isle of Grievous, which I have seen on the map, is almost in the center of the crossroads, and also became the usual meeting place of voyagers.

It is true, doctor, that Franklin's ill-fated voyage has introduced us to these distant lands. Quite right, Captain, for there has been a lot of sailing since 1845.It was only in 1848 that people took the disappearance of Franklin's two ships, the Endobos and the Terror.And the old friend of the admiral, Dr. Richardson, sixty-six years old, came to Canada and sailed along the Coppermain River to the polar ocean, where James.Ross, for his part, commanded the Enterprise and the Prospector, which sailed to Urbana Vik in 1818 to Cape York, where we are at the moment.Every day he throws a bucket into the sea, containing a piece of paper to let people know his location, when it is foggy, he fires a cannon, and at night, he lights a firework, lights a bonfire, always cautiously with a small sail , and eventually he wintered in Port Leobore in 1848 and 1849, where he acquired a large number of silver foxes and put brass collars around their necks with inscriptions about the ship and and then let them scatter, and then in the spring he set out on sleighs up the coast of North Somerset, where dangers abounded, supplies were scarce, and almost all were sick or crippled, and they A road sign made of ice blocks was erected, and a copper cylinder was buried in it. There were some necessary explanatory texts on it, indicating that the voyage had failed. After his disappearance, Mike.Lieutenant Krull surveyed the south coast of Barrow Strait, but to no avail.It is worth noting that the captain, James.Ross had two later very well-known officers under his command, one was Mike.Krull, he opened up the Northwest Route, one is Mike.Clintock, who discovered the remains of Franklin's fleet.

Two fine and gallant captains today, two brave Englishmen.Doctor, go on with these sea stories you are so familiar with, there is always something to be learned in these tales of daring adventure. Okay, speaking of James.Ross's ending, I might add, is that he tries to get somewhere west of Melville Island.But he nearly lost his ship, and he was caught in an ice floe and was driven involuntarily to the Baffin Sea. Bring it!Hatteras shrugged and said, being brought involuntarily! He found nothing, and the doctor went on to say that since 1850, British ships have been sailing to these waters continuously, and anyone who finds the ships of the Etipus and the Terror will get a half million francs. reward.As early as 1848, Captains Cayley and Moore commanded the Herald and Plover in an attempt to enter through the Bering Strait.I should add that during 1850 and 1851 Captain Austen wintered at Cornwallis, Captain Benny explored the Wellington Channel in Rescue and Resolve, and John Sr.Ross, the hero of the pole, set out again on his yacht Felix in search of his friends, and the Prince Albert made its maiden voyage under the patronage of Ms. Franklin. The ship was swept out of Wellington Channel and thrown into Lancaster Channel.Just this year, Mike.Clindock, Austen's lieutenant, advanced as far as Melville Island and Cape Dundas, as far as Barrie reached in 1819, and they found Franklin at Beecher Island in 1845 Signs of winter.

Yes, answered Hatteras, three of his sailors were buried there, and those three were more fortunate than the rest! From 1851 to 1852, the doctor went on, he gestured to Hatteras's insight, and we know that the Prince Albert under the command of the French lieutenant Belleau made a second sailing.He was Betty in Prince Regent Sound.Baie overwintered, surveyed the south-west of Somerset, and established the coast as far as the Rambler's Head.During this period, the Enterprise and the Prospector came back from England, where Collinson and Mike.Under the command of Krull, he joined Kelley and Moore in the Bering Strait, and when Collinson returned to Hong Kong for the winter, Mike.Krull went on, and after three winters in 1850-1851, 1851-1852, 1852-1853, discovered the Northwest Passage, but said nothing about Franklin's fate. known.From 1852 to 1853, three sailing ships Rescue, Resolve, and North Star and two motor ships Pioneer and Courage set sail.The commander is Edward.Sir Bilcher, Captain Cayley as first mate, Sir Edward explored the Wellington Strait, wintered in Northamberland Bay, inspected the coast, Cayley advanced as far as Burrid Harbor on Melville Island, explored The lands to the north were made without much progress, but rumors abounded in England that two ships abandoned in the ice floes could be seen not far off the coast of New Scotland.Mrs. Franklin at once equipped the small propeller steamer Isabel, the captain of which Eaglefield sailed up Baffin Bay to Cape Victoria at the eightieth latitude, and then back to Beecher Island, without much success.In early 1855, American Grinnell raised funds for a new expedition, and Dr. Kane tried to reach the Pole But he did not succeed, Hatteras vehemently cried, and God should be praised: what he did not do, we will do! I know, Captain, replied the doctor, and I say this because the voyage is so closely connected with the search for Franklin.Besides, it didn't yield any results.I forgot to tell you just now that the Admiralty made Beecher Island the general center of the expedition, and in 1853 the steamer Felix and Captain Eaglefield were tasked with delivering supplies there; Lieutenant Lowe went with him, but lost contact with the brave officer.The latter was serving the British service for the second time, and we are able to know more details of the accident, because our boatswain Johnson was a witness to the disaster. Lieutenant Bello was a brave Frenchman, Hatteras said, and Britain will always remember him. At that time, the doctor went on to say, the ships of Bilcher's contingent began to retreat bit by bit.Not all ships retreated, because Sir Edward had to throw the Rescue in 1854, Mike.Krull's Prospector was treated in the same way in 1853.At this time, Dr. Ray received a letter dated July 29, 1854, addressed to Repulsion Bay, which he passed through on his way to America. The Eskimos of King Yom's Land have various items from the Edupes and the Terror.The fate of the expedition was left in doubt, and the ships of Flix, North Star, and Collinson returned to England, and there were no more British ships in the polar seas.But while the government seemed to have lost all hope, Mrs. Franklin did, and with what was left of her fortune she outfitted the Fox, a ship managed by Mike.Commander Clintock, who set out in 1857, wintered where we appeared, reached Beecher Island on August 11, 1858, and wintered a second time in Bello Channel, 1855 The search was resumed in February, 1999, and inconclusive evidence of the fate of the Epipos and the Terror was found on the 6th of May, and returned to England at the end of the year. everything that happened.Since the return of the Fox, not a single ship has ventured into these treacherous waters! Well, let's try our luck.Hatteras replied.