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.
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.
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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.
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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.
A Summer Search for Sir John Franklin, with a Peep into the Polar Basin.
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
This expedition took place in the summer of 1852, sponsored by Lady Franklin.
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….
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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.
Godfrey’s Narrative of the Last Grinnell Arctic Exploring Expedition, in Search of Sir John Franklin, 1853-4-5. With a Biography of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, from the Cradle to the Grave.
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
p. 77-78, on decision to procede further North towards North Pole:
An Evangelical Christian on Franklin’s Last Expedition: Lieutenant John Irving of HMS Terror,
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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.
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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.)
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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.
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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.
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
Fictional account of the Franklin search and an obsessive Franklin searcher.
The Polar Regions, Or a Search after Sir John Franklin’s Expedition…
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
This deals with the 1850 Franklin search by the Intrepid and Pioneer, in company with Resolute and Assistance, with Osborn as Commander of the Pioneer. "Account, by the commander of the "Pioneer", one of the tenders to the Resolute and Assistance, of the Franklin search expedition under Capt. H. T. Austin: the voyage by Baffin Bay, Lancaster Sound, Barrow Strait, the wintering at Griffith Island, and return. Includes informative notes on West Greenland Eskimos, negotiating the ice of northern Baffin Bay, ice conditions in the Canadian Arctic waters, hunting adventures, clothing, food and equipment (for sledge journeys and otherwise), carrier pigeons, the sledge journeys, arctic nature and winter recreations." (Description on ABEBooks)
Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal: Or, Eighteen Months in the Polar Regions, in Search of Sir John Franklin’s Expedition, in the Years 1850-1851.
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
p. 21, re Brit. chauvinism: The whaler from bonnie Scotia, or busy Hull, fresh from the recollection of his laird and home, no doubt shudders at the comparative misery and barbarity of these poor people; but those who have seen the degraded Bushmen of South Africa, the miserable Patanies of Malayia, the Fuegians of our southern hemisphere, and remember the comparative blessings afforded by climate to those melancholy specimens of the human family, will, I think, exclaim with me, that the Esquimaux of Greenland are as superior to them in mental capacity, manual dexterity, physical enterprise, and social virtues, as the Englishman is to the Esquimaux.
Finding Franklin: The Untold Story of a 165-Year Search.
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
p. 11: McClintock found one of these [Franklin whale]boats abandoned on the western shore of the island; in it were two skeletons along with an astonishing array of materials—silver forms and spoons, tea, chocolate, lead sheeting, carpet slippers, dozens of books (including bibles, prayer books, and a copy of The Vicar of Wakefield), and much other such bric-a-brac, which McClintock regarded as “a mere accumulation of dead weight” that would have made hauling the oak-and-iron sledge even more exhausting.
Sir John Franklin and the Arctic Regions: With Detailed Notices of the Expeditions in Search of the Missing Vessels under Sir John Franklin. To Which is Added an Account of the American Expedition, under the Patronage of Henry Grinnell… .
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
Simmonds’ book is one of a series of reports on the “Progress of Arctic Discovery” that appeared in England and elsewhere from the first thoughts of the North-West Passage until the McClintock discoveries of 1859. As a group they tend to be largely derivative from similar works in the genre, but consistently provide a measure of hope that Franklin and his men survived, or their graves would be discovered.