This document provides an overview of the complex history surrounding attempts to find the Northwest Passage by European explorers between the 16th and 19th centuries. It summarizes key expeditions led by figures like Martin Frobisher, William Baffin, John Franklin, and Francis McClintock. It also describes the tragic fate of Sir John Franklin's 1845 expedition aboard HMS Erebus and Terror, which became trapped in ice northwest of King William Island, resulting in the death of all 129 crew.

1. An overview of a complex…and baffling history
Denis A. St-Onge, O.C. 2007

3. William Baffin 1584-1622
W.E. Parry 1790-1865
John Ross 1777-1856
Martin Frobisher 1535?-1594
John Franklin 1786-1847
Thomas Simpson
1808 - 1840
John Rae 1813-1893
Francis Leopold
McClintock 18191907

4. THE SEARCH FOR THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE
…and Canada’s first Bre-X
First trip 1576
British Admiral Martin Frobisher

5. FIRST MEETING BETWEEN FROBISHER’S CREW
and THE INUIT OF BAFFIN ISLAND 1576
Painting by Francis Back

6. An Inuk and his Kayak
captured by Frobisher
in an attempt to find five
sailors who disappeared with
the only row boat

7. “Tokens of Possession”
THE GABRIEL ANCHORED AT
KODLUNARN Is. 1576

8. THE ART OF DIPLOMACY!
The second trip in 1577

9. Inuit man taken as an “interpreter”
and woman and child as prisoners.
“Ignorth” i.e. arnaq and Nutiok i.e. nutaraq
“Calichough”

10. KODLUNARN or
QALLUNAAQ Island
180 tons of ore taken in 1577

11. Departure from England in 1578 of the 15 ships under
Martin Frobisher. Destination: Countess of Warwick’s
Island (now Qallunaat Island). Purpose: mining ‘gold’.

12. THE QUEST FOR GOLD!
First European House
“Mining sites”
The third voyage in 1578

14. NO ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
BUT…SOMETHING USEFUL
“Ore” was eventually used
To build a wall around the
former Dartford Priory in
Kent.

15. WILLIAM BAFFIN
In 1616 Baffin explores the Bay
That bears his name and reaches
77o 22’ north, a northing that
will not be surpassed until the
19th century.

16. The First Tabloids?

17. John Ross (1818) and Parry (1819 – 1820)
Ross’s mythical
Croker mountains

18. "First Communication with the Inuit of Prince Regents Bay,
by John Sackheouse presented to Capt. Ross, Aug. 10, 1818."

19. THE FIRST LARGE COMMERCIAL VENTURE IN THE ARCTIC
Kekerten station in 1922-1923

20. Kekerten Harbour
As it was
Today

21. Edward Parry; John Ross and his nephew James Clark Ross

22. Fury Beach, Boothia Peninsula

23. Fury Beach today

24. Thomas Simpson(1808-1840)
& Francis Leopold McClintock (1819-1907

25. Peter Warren Dease and Thomas Simpson’s travels 1838 & 1839

26. Peter Dease who was a chief factor of the Hudson Bay Co. in the Athabaska region had been selected to lead the expedition
to be “a steadying influence on the impetuous and mercurial Thomas”
“Dease was a worthy, indolent, illiterate soul and moves just as I give the impulse”(Simpson in a letter to his brother)
The expedition left Fort Confidence for the Coppermine on 6 June 1838

27. Fort Confidence, Great Bear Lake. This sketch of the
Fort rebuilt in 1848 was drawn by Dr. John Rae (HBC
Archives, Manitoba)
Simpson spent the winters 1837-38 and 38-39 with Peter
Warren Dease’s family in Fort Confidence

33. To Simpson’s inexpressible Joy
they met a group of Eskimos

34. Simpson and Dease exploration Summer 1838

35. During the middle of the day on August 20 1838 they passed Point Turnagain
The furthest east reached by Franklin’s 1st expedition.
Fearing that he was heading to a dead end bay Simpson climbed a high cape:
“a vast and splendid prospect burst suddenly upon me. The sea, as if transformed
by enchantment, rolled its free waves at my feet, and beyond the reach of vision
to the eastward…”
Simpson called this Cape Alexander after his brother. “The morning of the 25th was
Devoted…to the erection of a pillar of stones on the most elevated part of the point.”

36. On 15 June 1839 Dease and Simpson leave Fort Confidence for the Coppermine.
They reached the western shore of Boothia Peninsula on August 20 at Cape Sir John
Ross.
Names they added: Richardson River, Cape Barrow, Cape Franklin, Cape Alexander, Trap Point,
Minto Inlet, Cape Roxborough, Melbourne Island, Gloucester Hills, Ellice River, Whitebear
Point, Grant Point, Cape Seaforth, Thunder Cove, Simpson Strait, Richardson Point, Pechell
Point, Cape Selkirk, Cape Britania.

37. An example of
a large cairn
Starvation Cove
James Savelle
At Cape Britania “…on this part of the coast, we erected a conical pile of
Ponderous stones, fourteen feet high; which, if it not be pulled down by the
natives may defy the rage of a thousand storms. In it we placed a sealed
Bottle, containing an outline of our proceedings; and possession was taken
of our extensive discoveries, in the name of Victoria the First…It was only
on occasions like this that we regretted the want of any kind of liquor with
Which to treat our faithful crews.”

38. THE RETURN TRIP
Leave Cape Selkirk on Augusty 20, reach mouth of Coppermine September 16, 1839

39. THE INCREDIBLE SAGA OF…

40. THE UNFOLDING OF A WORLD CLASS TRAGEDY
When last seen in Disko Bay July 1845

41. THE BEGINNING OF A CATASTROPHY
Erebus and Terror Bay, Beechey Island
Erebus and Terror, first winter
Near Beechey Island

42. Beechey Island Headland
Painting by John Hamilton
Thomas Morgan, 1854
Belcher exp.
William Braine, April 3rd, 1846,
age 32
John Hartnell, January 4th 1846, age 25
John Torrington, Jan. 1, 1846,
age 20
Stark memorials

43. IN MEMORY OF A YOUNG MAN
John Torrington
From HMS Terror
died January 1, 1846
(as he appeared when excavated
Owen Beattie in 1984)

44. PART OF THE PROBLEM!
And a Cenotaph erected by Belcher in 1854
“To commemorate Bellot and others…who died
Searching for the Franklin Expedition”

45. Erebus and Terror
Crawling along a lead
in pack ice West
of King William Island

46. ARTISTS’ RENDITION OF THE FRANKLIN TRAGEDY
Franklin died on June 11, 1847
Abandoning ships west of King William Island
Spring 1848
Nameless and
Desperate heroes

47. Memorial to Lieut Irving RN, HM Ship TERROR
Dean Cemetary, Edinburgh, Scotland

48. “In memory of Lieut John Irving RN, HM Ship TERROR.
Born 1815 died in King William’s Land 1848-9.
Her Majesty’s ships EREBUS and Terror left England in May
1845 under command of Sir John Franklin KCB to explore a
north-west passage to the Pacific.
After wintering 1845-6 at Beechey Island they sailed south down
Franklin’s Strait and entered the NW passage.
Having been there beset with ice for two years, Sir J Franklin,
8 other officers & 15 seamen having died, the survivors – 105 in
number – Lieut Irving being one – landed on King William’s
Land and attempted to march to Canada but all died from cold
and want of food.
In 1879 Lieut of the American Searching Expedition discovered
Lieut Irving’s grave. Through his kindness the remains of this
brave and good officer were brought away and were deposited
here on 7th January 1881.”

49. THE KABLOONA WITH THE LONG LEGS
John Rae,
the consummate Arctic Traveler
Surveyed 2, 825 km of new territory
Traveled 10, 490 km on snowshoes and
sailed 10, 720km in small boats
Aided by a few native people he solved the
two great Arctic mysteries:
-the fate of the doomed Franklin
in 1853 - 1854
-the final link of the NW passage.
This brought the wrath of the formidable
Lady Franklin

50. RELICTS OF A TRAGEDY

57. Lieutenant William Robert Hobson
Captain Francis Leopold McClintock
The Voyage of the Fox
in the Arctic Seas
1857 - 1859

58. The Fox was a 160-tonne yacht built by British nobleman for luxury cruising.
It was purchased by Lady Franklin following a public subscription. The Fox
Was merely a vehicle for getting as close as possible to King William Island.
The search would be conducted by sledges.

59. In late August-early September McClintock made 5 attempts to cross Bellot
Strait and was always stopped by ice in the western part of the Strait. A small
bay at the base of Mount Walker (Port Kennedy) was selected for the winter
anchorage.

60. Bellot Strait looking West

61. Burial in the ice. Fox’s engineer died of injuries from a fall. A hole was
cut in the ice and his body was slipped into the ocean to bury him “at sea.”

63. “On the 20th April, in latitude 70 1/2o N., we met two families of natives,
comprising twelve individuals;…”
“…we learned that two ships had been seen …one of them was seen to
sink in deep water, and nothing was obtained from her, a circumstance at
which they expressed much regret; but the other was forced on shore by
the ice, where they suppose she still remains but is much broken.”
“…the body of a man was found on board the ship; that he must have been
a very large man, and had long teeth;…”
“…it was in the fall of the year – that is, August or September – when the
ships were destroyed; all the white people went away to the “large river,”
taking a boat or boats with them. And that the following winter there bones
were found there.”

64. Pasley Bay, Boothis peninsula

67. “We found here ten or twelve huts and thirty or forty natives…”
“I purchased from them six pieces of sil;ver plate, bearing the crests or initials
of Franklin, Crozier, Fairholme, and McDonald…”
“There had been many books they said, but all have long been destroyed by
the weather; the ship was forced on shore in the fall of the year by ice.”
“She said many of the white men dropped by the way as they went to the
Great River.”
“Shortly after midnight of the 24th May…I cam across a human skeleton…This
victim was a young man, slightly built…the dress appeared to be that of a stewart
or officer’s servant…blue jacket with slashed sleeves and braided edging, and
the pilot-cloth great-coat with plain covered buttons. We found also, a clothes
brush near, and a horn pocket-comb.”

68. “…I ascended the slope which is
crowned by Simpson’s conspicuous
cairn …now only four feet high; the
south side had been pulled down and
the central stones removed…nothing
whatever was found, nor any trace
of European visitors in its vicinity”

69. Southwestern King William Island in Spring

70. …a sad and touching relic of our lost friends…
There is an error in the first “All well” document
Apparently written by Lt. Gore : over wintering at
Beechey Island was in 1845-46 not 1846-47.
Second message written around the margin is more
Ominous: “April 25, 1848.-H.M. ships ‘Terror’ and
‘Erebus’ were deserted on the 22nd April, 5 leagues
N.N.W. of this, having been beset since 12th September,
1846. The officers and crews, consisting of 105 souls,
Under the command of Captain F.R.M. Crozier, landed
Here in lat. 69o 37’ 42’’ N., long. 98o 41’ W. Sir John
Franklin died on the 11th June, 1847; and the total loss
by deaths in the expedition has been to this date 9
Officers and 15 men.”
Signed
Signed
F.R,N. Crozier
James Fitzjames
Captain and Senior Officer Captain H.M.S. Erebus
“and start (on) tomorrow, 26th for Back’s Fish River.”

71. …in the morning of the 30th May (1859) we encamped alongside a large boat-…

73. “A vast quantity of tattered clothing was lying in her…not a single article bore the name of its former owner.”
“This boat measured 28 feet long, and 7 feet 3 inches wide;…she had neither oars or rudder, paddles supplying
their place…”
“The weight of the boat alone was about 700 or 800 lbs but she was mounted upon a sledge of unusual weight and
strength, It was constructed of two oak planks 23 feet 4 inches in length, 8 inches in width and with an average
thickness of 2 ½ inches….I have calculated the weight of this sledge to be 650 lbs.; it could not have been less, and
may have been considerably more. The total weight of boat and sledge may be taken at 1400 lbs.
“But all these were after observations; there was that in the boat which transfixed us with awe. It was portions of
two human skeletons….Close beside (one) were found five watches; and there were two double-barrelled guns- one
barrel in each loaded and cocked…eight pairs of boots…silk handkerchief…a quantity of articles of one description
and another truly astonishing in variety, and such as, for the most part, modern sledge-travellers would consider a
mere accumulation of dead weight, but slightly useful, and very likely to break down the strength of the
sledge-crews.”
“in the after part of the boat we discovered eleven large spoons, eleven forks, and four tea spoons, all of silver;…”
“I was astonished to find that the sledge was directed to the N.E., exactly for the next point of land
which we ourselves were travelling. The position of this abandoned boat is about 50 miles – as
a sledge would travel – from Point Victory, and therefore 65 miles from the position of the ships;…
A little reflection led me to satisfy my own mind at least, that the boat was returning to the ships: and
in no other way can I account for two men having been left in her, than by supposing the party were
unable to drag the boat further… ”
“Whether all or any of the remainder of this detached party ever reached their ships is uncertain; all we know is, that
they did not revisit the boat, and which accounts for the absence of more skeletons in its neighborhood; and the
Eskimaux report that there was no one alive in the ship when she drifted on shore, and that but one human body
was found by them on board of her.

75. “On the morning of the 2nd of June (1859) we reached Point Victory.”
“A great quantity and variety of things lay strewed about the cairn, such as even in their three days’
march from the ships the retreating crews found it impossible to carry further. Amongst these were
four sets of boat’s cooking stoves, pickaxes, shovels, iron hoops, old canvas, a large single block,
about four feet of a copper lightning conductor, long pieces of hollow brass curtain rods, a small case
of selected medicines containing about twenty-four phials, the contents in a wonderful state of
preservation; a deep circle by Robinson, with two needles, bar magnets, and light horizontal needle
all complete…and even a small sextant engraved in the name ‘Frederick Hornby’ lying beside the
cairn without its case.”
“The clothing left by the retreating crews of the ‘Erebus’ and ‘Terror’ formed a huge heap four feet high.”

76. Cairn at Cape Lady Jane Franklin
Photo:
Prof. James
Savelle