Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T05:19:29.150Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Arctic Committee of 1851: A Background Study Part 1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

Clive Holland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In 1850, five expeditions sailed for Baffin Bay with the common purpose of searching the Canadian Arctic for Sir John Franklin's missing North-west Passage expedition. They were all headed for different destinations and should have found themselves wintering many hundreds of miles apart; but, as chance would have it, three of them, led by Captain Horatio T. Austin, RN, Admiral Sir John Ross and the whaling master William Penny, were thrown together by ice conditions and by events. They wintered in close proximity to one another and were obliged to divide among themselves the search of the surrounding area. Ross's little private venture was too poorly equipped to contribute much, but the other two achieved very promising results: Austin's men discovered the first traces of the Franklin expedition on Devon Island and, in cooperation with Penny, located Franklin's first winter quarters on Beechey Island. In the following spring, sledge parties went out to explore hundreds of miles of new coastline; Austin found no further trace of Franklin, but Penny found persuasive evidence to suggest that the missing expedition had sailed up Wellington Channel (as, indeed, it had done, though it had not remained in that area). With the work of the travelling parties concluded, and after some conversation between Austin and Penny on 11 August 1851, all three expeditions set course for home.

Type
Articles
Information
Polar Record , Volume 20 , Issue 124 , January 1980 , pp. 3 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Austin, Horatio T. 1851. Letter to William Penny, 17 February 1851. (SPRI MS 116/8/2.)Google Scholar
Cator, John Bertie. 1850–1851. Journal, 20 03 1850–1859 June 1851. 2 vols. (Xerox copy. SPRI MS 1183/1–2.)Google Scholar
Great Britain. 1850. Arctic expeditions. Return to an address of the honourable the House of Commons, dated 10 May 1850;—for, copies of instructions from the Admiralty to Captain Austin, and to any other officers in Her Majesty's service engaged in Arctic expeditions since the date of the last parliamentary return. [London, HMSO].Google Scholar
Great Britain. 1851. Arctic expeditions. Report of the committee appointed by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to inquire into and report on the recent Arctic expeditions in search of Sir John Franklin, together with the minutes of evidence taken before the committee, and papers concerned with the subject. London, Eyre and Spottiswoode for HMSO.Google Scholar
Great Britain. 1851b. Arctic expeditions. Return to an address of the honourable the House of Commons, dated 17 February 1851;—for, copy or extracts from any correspondence or proceedings of the Board of Admiralty, in relation ot the Arctic expeditions… [London, HMSO.]Google Scholar
Britain, Great. 1852. Arctic expeditions. Return to an address of the honourable the House of Commons, dated 20 February 1852;—for, papers in connection with the late Arctic expeditions, or with any which may be in preparation.… [London, HMSO.]Google Scholar
Holland, Clive. 1970. Penny, William, 1809–1892: Arctic whaling master. Polar Record, Vol 15, No 94, p 25–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holland, Clive. 1976. SirAustin, , Thomas, Horatio. Dictionary of Canadian Biography (Toronto, University of Toronto Press), Vol 9, p 11–13.Google Scholar
McClintock, F. L. 1850. Journal, 22 March-31 December 1850. (Microfilm. SPRI MS 1.)Google Scholar
Osborn, Sherard. 1850. Letter to William Penny, 8 April 1850. (SPRI MS 116/57/1.)Google Scholar
Osborn, Sherard. 1852. 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. London, Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans.Google Scholar
Peake, James. 1850. Letter to William Penny, 2 March 1850. (SPRI MS 116/59.)Google Scholar
Penny, William. 1850a. Letter to Lady Franklin, not dated [1850]. (SPRI MS 116/63/66.)Google Scholar
Penny, William. 1850b. Letter to H. T. Austin, not dated [1850]. (SPRI MS 116/63/28.)Google Scholar
Penny, William. 1851a. Letter to Margaret Penny (his wife), 13 April 1851. (SPRI MS 116/63/115.)Google Scholar
Penny, William. 1851b. Letter to Lady Franklin, 8 May 1851. (SPRI MS 116/63/63.)Google Scholar
Penny, William. 1851c. Letter to Margaret Penny (his wife), not dated [1851]. (SPRI MS 116/63/116.)Google Scholar
Ross, John. 1850–1851. Diary, 1 January 1850–1831 December 1851. (Unpublished manuscript in private ownership.)Google Scholar
Ross, John. 1855. Rear Admiral Sir John Franklin. A narrative of the circumstances and causes which led to the failure of the searching expeditions… London, Longman, Green, Brown and Longmans.Google Scholar
Sutherland, Peter. 1852. Journal of a voyage in Baffin's Bay and Barrow Straits, in the years 1850–1851, perfonned by H. M. Ships “Lady Franklin” and “Sophia”, under the command of Mr. William Penny… 2 vols. London, Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans.Google Scholar