Franklin’s letter to his wife, Jane, was incredibly poignant and “although she might not have been on Erebus in person, her spirit was there in almost everything he did.” And it likely was on that fateful day the two ships disappeared on Baffin Bay. Franklin would be chosen to lead the next expedition to the Northwest Passage, with James Fitzjames named his second-in-command, and it would be aboard Erebus.įranklin not only loved the sea but “was especially concerned with the educational and recreational well-being of his crews.” He set up evening schools with arithmetic books, pens and paper - and increased the ship libraries to 1,200 volumes apiece to include Charles Dickens novels and copies of the satirical magazine Punch.Īs the two ships spend time in Greenland’s Whalefish Islands in 1845, they reached a point where correspondence would move at a snail’s pace. The grateful captain would even name Antartica’s second-largest volcano Mount Erebus.Īfter an incredible journey, one that “never again in the annals of the sea would a ship, under sail alone, come close to matching,” the two ships were in high demand. There would be zoological discoveries, including the first sighting of the Ross seal. The voyage went further than other great explorations, including that of Capt. Palin writes, “Erebus and Terror were now in waters that only a handful of people had ever crossed before.” Ross’ two warships dealt with rough waters, weather changes and the odd iceberg en route to the South Magnetic Pole. Ross, would say with pride she was “an excellent seaboat.” After a few test runs, he set sail from Tasmania a year later with, as fate would have it, the “more relaxed and less cerebral” Terror.Īs Mr. Although it was never viewed as a “graceful ship” or very quick, his great-grandson, Rear Adm. James Clark Ross, who discovered the North Magnetic Pole, was named Erebus’ captain in 1839 for his excursion to Antartica. ![]() Indeed, that was the type of intimidating vessel needed to travel the Antarctic and Arctic. These ships carried mortars “that could fling shells high over coastal defences, doing maximum damage without an armed landing having to be risked.” While the author acknowledges the ship’s name “wasn’t cheerful she wasn’t meant to cheer she was built to intimidate.” The Erebus was the “last but one” of a type of late-17th century warship called a bomb vessel. Palin admits in his introduction, “I’m not a naval historian, but I have a sense of history” and “I’m not a seafarer, but I’m drawn to the sea.” These two characteristics had no effect on his intellectual curiosity about the two ships that “vanished off the face of the earth whilst trying to find a way through the Northwest Passage,” which he notes was “the greatest single loss of life in the history of British polar exploration.” He travels the Erebus’ route on its different journeys, and describes them in such stunning detail that you may actually believe you’re there, too. ![]() His new book, “Erebus: One Ship, Two Epic Voyages, and the Greatest Naval Mystery of All Time,” is a well-written and captivating examination of the Erebus’ adventures and long-term watery grave. He’s an author, documentary filmmaker and former Royal Geographical Society president. Ah, but Michael Palin is more than just a great British comedian.
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