Use your best endeavours to discover a sheltered and safe harbour
Abstract On 24 May 1847, Sir John Franklin’s third expedition reported “All well”, but less than a year later, on 22 April 1848, the 129 sailors who had set out from Britain on Erebus and Terror had been reduced to 105 survivors departing their frozen ships in a desperate attempt to escape the Arcti...
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2019
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247419000573 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247419000573 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s0032247419000573 2024-04-28T08:08:10+00:00 Use your best endeavours to discover a sheltered and safe harbour Park, Robert W. Stenton, Douglas R. 2019 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247419000573 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247419000573 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms Polar Record volume 55, issue 6, page 361-372 ISSN 0032-2474 1475-3057 General Earth and Planetary Sciences Ecology Geography, Planning and Development journal-article 2019 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/s0032247419000573 2024-04-02T06:54:05Z Abstract On 24 May 1847, Sir John Franklin’s third expedition reported “All well”, but less than a year later, on 22 April 1848, the 129 sailors who had set out from Britain on Erebus and Terror had been reduced to 105 survivors departing their frozen ships in a desperate attempt to escape the Arctic. At least 24 were so unhealthy that they would perish after having travelled little more than 100 km from the ships. By contrast, the small mortality rates on other contemporary Arctic expeditions, some of which stayed in the Arctic considerably longer, were consistent with the mortality rates in the Royal Navy worldwide. This paper explores the question of what difference caused so many of Franklin’s crew to die during their final months on-board the ships and in the initial stages of the escape attempt. From the perspective of cultural ecology, the most significant difference, and the ultimate cause of the catastrophe as it unfolded, was wintering in the ice pack. This distinguished the Franklin expedition from all of the other comparable overwintering expeditions, and precluded the Erebus and Terror crews from hunting or fishing. That in turn led to nutritional deficiencies due to much greater reliance on stored provisions than other expeditions. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Polar Record Cambridge University Press Polar Record 55 6 361 372 |
institution |
Open Polar |
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Cambridge University Press |
op_collection_id |
crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
topic |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences Ecology Geography, Planning and Development |
spellingShingle |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences Ecology Geography, Planning and Development Park, Robert W. Stenton, Douglas R. Use your best endeavours to discover a sheltered and safe harbour |
topic_facet |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences Ecology Geography, Planning and Development |
description |
Abstract On 24 May 1847, Sir John Franklin’s third expedition reported “All well”, but less than a year later, on 22 April 1848, the 129 sailors who had set out from Britain on Erebus and Terror had been reduced to 105 survivors departing their frozen ships in a desperate attempt to escape the Arctic. At least 24 were so unhealthy that they would perish after having travelled little more than 100 km from the ships. By contrast, the small mortality rates on other contemporary Arctic expeditions, some of which stayed in the Arctic considerably longer, were consistent with the mortality rates in the Royal Navy worldwide. This paper explores the question of what difference caused so many of Franklin’s crew to die during their final months on-board the ships and in the initial stages of the escape attempt. From the perspective of cultural ecology, the most significant difference, and the ultimate cause of the catastrophe as it unfolded, was wintering in the ice pack. This distinguished the Franklin expedition from all of the other comparable overwintering expeditions, and precluded the Erebus and Terror crews from hunting or fishing. That in turn led to nutritional deficiencies due to much greater reliance on stored provisions than other expeditions. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Park, Robert W. Stenton, Douglas R. |
author_facet |
Park, Robert W. Stenton, Douglas R. |
author_sort |
Park, Robert W. |
title |
Use your best endeavours to discover a sheltered and safe harbour |
title_short |
Use your best endeavours to discover a sheltered and safe harbour |
title_full |
Use your best endeavours to discover a sheltered and safe harbour |
title_fullStr |
Use your best endeavours to discover a sheltered and safe harbour |
title_full_unstemmed |
Use your best endeavours to discover a sheltered and safe harbour |
title_sort |
use your best endeavours to discover a sheltered and safe harbour |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247419000573 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247419000573 |
genre |
Arctic Polar Record |
genre_facet |
Arctic Polar Record |
op_source |
Polar Record volume 55, issue 6, page 361-372 ISSN 0032-2474 1475-3057 |
op_rights |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0032247419000573 |
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Polar Record |
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55 |
container_issue |
6 |
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361 |
op_container_end_page |
372 |
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