- MS 1044/12;D Report, 15 August 1854 [Search of Beechey Island] 2 leaves, holograph (Xerox)
Elliott, British Naval Franklin Search Expedition, 1852-1854
This material is held atScott Polar Research Institute Archives, University of Cambridge
- Reference
- GB 15 William Elliott/British Naval Franklin Search Expedition, 1852-1854
- Dates of Creation
- 15 August 1854
- Name of Creator
- Physical Description
- Report
Scope and Content
Administrative / Biographical History
In 1845 Sir John Franklin sailed north in command of the British Naval Northwest Passage Expedition. Sent by the Admiralty the two ships HMS Erebus (Franklin) and HMS Terror (Francis Crozier) were to search for a passage via Lancaster Sound. With provisions designed to last three years the expedition sailed north in May 1845. Whalers in Baffin Bay were the last Europeans to see the two ships in July of 1845.
Many searches were conducted for the missing expedition during the course of which the main facts regarding the route taken and the final fate of the expedition were established.
The British Naval Franklin Search Expedition, 1852-1854 (leader William Pullen), in HMS North Star, the store ship for the British Naval Franklin Search Expedition, 1852-1854 (leader Sir Edward Belcher). North Star spent two winters at Beechey Island and was the only ship of the five in Belcher's search expedition to return to England in 1854, the other four being abandoned on Belcher's orders when beset in the ice.
Arrangement
Chronological