War, Ice & Piracy: The Remarkable Career of a Victorian Sailor. The Journals and Letters of Samuel Gurney Cresswell.

Cresswell, Samuel Gurney. Edited by Dominick Harrod. (London: Chatham Publishing, 2000).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Cresswell was a Royal naval officer aboard both the James Clark Ross and Robert McClure expeditions of the Franklin Search, and can claim to be the first to cover the entire Northwest Passage. He was also a notable water-colourist of these expeditions. The letters reproduced here are primarily to his Parents.

Sir John Franklin’s Last Arctic Expedition: The Franklin Expedition; A Chapter in the History of the Royal Navy

Cyriax, Richard J. Plaistow & Sutton Coldfield, UK: The Arctic Press, 1997.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 43-4: Research work was planned in magnetism, geology, botany, and zoology, and all the necessary instruments were supplied. Great importance was attached to magnetic observations, for the taking of which an elaborate and very comprehensive outfit was provided. Colonel Sabine gave special instruction in magnetism to several of the officers. Furthermore, a library was supplied to each ship, the one in the Terror comprised twelve hundred volumes, and the one in the Erebus was probably at least as large—Commander Fitzjames described it as a ‘very capital library’. The books included not only those in the ‘Seamen’s Library’ ordinarily issued to every ship, but also technical treatises on the management of steam engines, narratives of previous Arctic expeditions, geographical journals, and some lighter literature, such as Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby, The Ingoldsby Legends, Charles O’Malley, and volumes of Punch. Seventy slates, slate pencils, two hundred pens, ink, paper, and some ‘Common Arithmetic’ books, were supplied expressly for use in the schools which Sir John Franklin intended to hold for the men during the winter months. He was very anxious that every man should be adequately supplied with devotional works, and shortly before he sailed requested the Admiralty to furnish a hundred Bibles, Prayer Books, and Testaments, for sale on board the ships at cost price to all who applied for them. The Admiralty took immediate steps to comply with this request, but friends and various societies presented so many religious books that those furnished by the Admiralty were not needed and were, therefore, returned.

A Frenchman in Search of Franklin: De Bray’s Arctic Journal, 1852-1854.

De Bray, Emile Frederic. Trans. and ed. by William Barr. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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De Bray was influenced by Joseph-René Bellot’s service on an English expedition as a volunteer for the Franklin Search with Sir Edward Belcher aboard HMS Resolute. He served in the Arctic from 1852 to 1854, commanded a number of sledge expeditions, and left the Resolute shortly before it was abandoned. He was a friend of Jules Verne who used De Bray’s Arctic knowledge in a novel based on the Franklin Search.

Arctic Researches and Life among the Esquimaux: Being the Narrative of an Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin, in the Years 1860, 1861, and 1862.

Hall, Charles Francis. (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1865).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. xxvii: On the 29th of May [1860], accompanied by Mr. Grinnell and several citizens of New London… [I] entered the boat that was to convey me on board. A few strokes of the oars, however, had only been made, when we returned at the voice of Mr. Haven hailing us. It was to give me a present, in the shape of a little book called “The Daily Food,” which, though small in size, was great in its real value, and which proved my solace and good companion in many a solitary and weary hour.

Ten Months Among the Tents of the Tuski, with Incidents of an Arctic Boat Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin, as far as the Mackenzie River, and Cape Bathurst.

Hooper, William H. (London: John Murray, 1853).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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William Hulme Hooper (1827-1854) was a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and part of the 1848 expedition aboard the Plover, under the command of Capt. T. E. L. Moore, to search for the ill-fated Franklin expedition. Moore's expedition spent three years in the high Arctic, wintering the first year (1848-1849) on the Chukotsk Peninsula, later sailing to the Beaufort Sea. From there, Hooper made two overland trips up the Mackenzie River to Fort Simpson, on the second of which he travelled overland to Norway House, The Pas, and south through what is now Manitoba to reach the voyageur route back to Montreal, and thence to England (see Arctic Bibliography 7395). This is a very scarce account, seldom mentioned in most histories of Arctic exploration, and often overlooked in the lore of the search for Sir John Franklin and his party. Notwithstanding, Hooper's account is full of interesting information and observations, including detailed descriptions of the life, customs, dwellings, clothing and beliefs of the Chukchis (Tuski), and of the North Alaska Eskimo generally; as well as notes on the Mackenzie Eskimo and Indians, sea and river ice, hunting and trapping, and the character of the territory covered in his journeys.

Illustrated Arctic News: Facsimile of the Illustrated Arctic News, Published on Board H.M.S. Resolute: Capt. Horatio T. Austin. C.B. In Search of the Expedition under Sir John Franklin.

(London: Ackermann, 1852).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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HMS Resolute , commanded by Captain Horatio Austin, together with Assistance (Captain Ommanney), was dispatched in February 1850 to search for the missing Franklin Expedition. The Illustrated Arctic News was published on-board the ships during the winter to help maintain morale. This facsimile contains 5 of the newspapers [issues] published on board, in imitation of the Illustrated London News. The facsimile is of the hand written text of the shipboard original. The text is in an italic hand, and the subsequent facsimile printed by lithograph with some hand-coloring.

Arctic Explorations: The Second Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin, 1853, ’54,’55. Illustrated by Upwards of Three Hundred Engravings, from Sketches by the Author….

Kane, Elisha Kent. Two volumes. (Philadelphia: Childs & Peterson, 124 Arch Street, 1856).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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An extremely well-written account. Although he says his vessel, The Advance, was supplied with “a large, well-chosen library” (Vol. 1, p. 20), there is scarcely any indication in the work that it was used, apart from occasional references to reading religious services.

The U.S. Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin: A Personal Memoir

Kane, Elisha Kent. New York: Harper, 1854.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Kane was surgeon aboard the Advance, under the command of Edwin De Haven. The search did find the three graves at Beechey Island, but DeHaven felt the voyage to be ineffectual. Kane went on to command the second Grinnell expedition in 1853.

An Evangelical Christian on Franklin’s Last Expedition: Lieutenant John Irving of HMS Terror,

Lloyd-Jones, Ralph. Polar Record 33 (October 1997) 327-32.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Irving, an officer on Franklin’s Terror, died on King William Island, and his bones were found by Lt. Frederick Schwatka in June 1879 between Victory Point and Cape Jane Franklin. His remains were returned to Scotland and he was reburied in Edinburgh in 1881.

The Journal of Rochfort Maguire, 1852-1854: Two Years at Point Barrow, Alaska, aboard HMS Plover in the Search for Sir John Franklin.

Maguire, Rochfort. Edited by John Bockstoce. (London: Hakluyt Society, 1988).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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During the Franklin Search it appeared that Franklin’s ships might well have made it through the Northwest Passage and might be met at the western end of the Passage at Point Barrow or the Baring Strait. The Plover was given the ultimate but fruitless duty of looking for that possibility.

A Series of Fourteen Sketches Made during the Voyage up Wellington Channel in Search of Sir John Franklin and the Missing Crews of H.M. Discovery-Ships Erebus and Terror, Together with a Short Account of Each Drawing. By Commander Walter W. May, R. N. Late Lieutenant of H.M. Discovery ship Assistance (Captain Sir Edward Belcher, C.B.)

May, Walter W. London, Published May 1855 by Day & Son, Lithographers to the Queen, 6-7-8-9 Gate Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Fourteen remarkable lithographs, preceded by succinct descriptions of each, from Disco, to Beechy Island, to Wellington Channel, including sketches of sledge parties on the ice. May himself was a Lieutenant on the Assistance before it was abandoned. Last plate show relics of Franklin that Dr. Rae had found. Final part of description lists officers on all five of Belcher’s ships: Assistance, Resolute, Pioneer, North Star, and Intrepid.

The Voyage of the ‘Fox’ in the Arctic Seas. A Narrative of the Discovery of the Fate of Sir John Franklin and His Companions.

McClintock, Frederick M. With maps and illustrations. (Philadelphia: J. T. Lloyd, 1860).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Two reading-related matters stand out in this account: the dependence on whalers for annual delivery of newspapers and other reading (see p. 111, 119), and the availability of an arctic library aboard the Fox, provided by the Admiralty, allowing M’Clintock to make regular references to past occurrences in polar exploration, including specific dates and places, and to verify later native accounts.

The Ice Child.

McGregor, Elizabeth. [Novel]. (New York, Dutton, 2001).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Fictional account of the Franklin search and an obsessive Franklin searcher.