Searching for Franklin from Australia: William Parker Snow's initiative of 1853

• Published in: Polar Record
• Main Author: Barr, William
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1997
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Ecology; Geography, Planning and Development; Arctic; Polar Record
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247400014467; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247400014467

Abstract In 1853 William Parker Snow (who had earlier participated in an expedition to search for the missing Franklin expedition in what is now the Canadian Arctic) decided to sink the money he had made in Melbourne during the Australian gold rush into a private expedition to search for Franklin, starting from Melbourne. In the southern autumn of 1853, he bought a 16-ton cutter, The Thomas , and, despite the handicaps of exorbitant prices and shortage of labour, fitted the vessel out for an Arctic expedition during the continuing frenzy of the gold rush. After calling at Sydney, The Thomas started north but encountered a series of violent winter gales that damaged her severely and forced Snow to seek shelter in the mouth of the Clarence River in northeastern New South Wales. By the time the storm damage had been repaired, all but two of Snow's men had deserted. Still in hopes of trying again, Snow sailed his cutter back south to Sydney and there finally abandoned this, one of the more bizarre episodes of the Franklin search.