In 1845 the ill-fated Sir John Franklin and his 129-man crew sailed off in search of the Northwest Passage and were never seen again – at least that is what was thought until some local Inuit people were interviewed. Roger Williams investigates one of Britain's greatest naval mysteries - the subject of an exhibition at London's National MAritime Museum.
It was the worst disaster in the history of British naval explo-ration. Sir John Franklin set off with two naval ships to discover the Northwest Passage across the Canadian Arctic to the Pacific. The last sighting reported to the Admiralty was off Greenland in July 1845. They never returned. Ships were sent in search of them and some evidence was found, but there was no definitive news regarding what had become of the ships and most of the 129 men.
Over the next 150 years, as if emerging from the deep, parts of this intriguing story began to surface. With investigations, theories, films, songs, paintings and what Dr Claire Warrior at the National Maritime Museum calls ‘a florescence of Franklin fiction’, this maritime mystery was kept alive in the imagination of successive generations. Finally, the ships came to light. In 2014, marine archaeologists from Parks Canada found Franklin’s flagship HMS Erebus. Last September the triumph was completed with the identification of her sister ship, HMS Terror .
Yet the timing of Death in the Ice: The Shocking Story of Franklin’s Final Expedition, opening at the National Maritime Museum (NMM) in Greenwich, is fortuitous and has nothing to do with the re-appearance of the ships. The idea had originated a few months earlier at the Canadian Museum of History (CMH) in Québec.
‘We realised we had never held an exhibition in this museum solely on the Franklin Expedition, or on the Northwest Passage,’ says the exhibition’s curator Dr Karen Ryan. ‘We had started to approach partners in the spring of 2014 and had one or two meetings with Parks Canada in the early summer. A couple of months later they found HMS Erebus.’
Denne historien er fra July/August 2017 Volume 28 Number 4-utgaven av Minerva.
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Denne historien er fra July/August 2017 Volume 28 Number 4-utgaven av Minerva.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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ROMAN DISCOVERIES AT ANCIENT AUGUSTODUNUM
More than 230 graves have been uncovered at a necropolis in the French city of Autun, revealing a diverse mix in burial practices over a period of nearly 200 years, as well as luxury grave goods from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD that highlight the wealth of some of its ancient inhabitants.
SHAPING THE WORLD: SCULPTURE FROM PREHISTORY TO NOW
The sculptor Antony Gormley and the art historian and critic Martin Gayford have been talking about sculpture with each other for 20 years.
Amelia Edwards (1831-1892)
“I am essentially a worker, and a hard worker, and this I have been since my early girlhood.”
THE GREAT BEYOND
The ancient Greeks thought much about the dead – how their remains should be disposed of, how their spirits might be summoned, how malignant they could be if unavenged. Classicist David Stuttard brings us face to face with the Greek dead.
INTO THE VALLEY OF THE QUEENS
The Great Royal Wife of Ramesses II, Nefertari, was buried in one of the most spectacular tombs of Egypt’s Valley of the Queens. Well-educated and well-travelled, Nefertari played a crucial part in the political life of the pharaoh, and her importance was reflected through her magnificently decorated tomb. Lucia Marchini speaks to Jennifer Casler Price to find out more.
DEIR EL-BAHRI, 1894
Tensions were already high among the archaeologists, surveyors, and artists of the Archaeological Survey of Egypt in 1891 when an eventful dispute arose on Christmas Eve.
PUSHING BOUNDARIES
When the Etruscans expanded to the south and the vast plains of Campania, they found a land of cultural connections and confrontations, as luxurious grave goods found across the region reveal. An exhibition at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples sheds light on these ancient Italians at the frontier. Paolo Giulierini, director of the museum, is our guide.
CUZCO 'CENTRE AND HEAD OF ALL THE LAND'
Cuzco was the heart of the vast Inca empire, but all changed in the 16th century when the capital was conquered by Spanish invaders. Michael J Schreffler investigates the Inca city, and how it went from the centre of one empire to the periphery of another.
A STUDY IN PURPLE
A tiny speck of purple paint from the 2nd century AD may yield clues to how ancient artists created the extraordinary portrait panels that accompanied mummified bodies into the afterlife.
Rome In The 8th Century: A History In Art
John Osborne CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, £75 HARDBACK - ISBN 978-1108834582
