5 - Arctic Romance under a Cloud: Franklin's Second Expedition by Land (1825–7)

Summary

When the account of his first Arctic expedition by land, Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, was published in 1823, John Franklin became a national hero, henceforth known as ‘the man who ate his boots’. For the public, he had passed the sublime test of the Arctic. Yet much should have been controversial about the expedition. Franklin had lost eleven of his men, including Robert Hood, the young officer shot by an Iroquois voyageur, and his account was a harrowing tale of suffering, hunger and cold. But read as a mystical ordeal befitting the quest for the Northwest Passage – the holy grail of Arctic exploration – this first Narrative won both official and popular praise, and Sir John Barrow, the powerful Second Secretary to the Admiralty, lavished approval on Franklin. By contrast, the tale of Franklin's second expedition by land, Narrative of a Second Expedition To the Shores Of the Polar Sea, received comparatively little attention when it appeared in 1828, probably because there were no dramatic, sensational deaths to arouse interest; hence it was a single edition, whereas the tale of the first journey had been reprinted six times in England, published in America and translated into French and German. This second narrative, though equally praised by Barrow, tended to pale in comparison to the 1823 account, just as it was to be eclipsed by the disaster of the 1845 voyage.