On the subject of mountaineering, I would like to mention another brave soul with a far more relevant connection to the Franklin Expedition: Edward Whymper. Dubbed "the Prince of Mountaineers" for his incredibly ambitious ascents (many of them firsts) of Alpine peaks, Whymper fared much better on the icy slopes than Maurice Wilson. He was also a man of great accomplishments, some of which may have been inspired by "Franklin and his gallant crew."
As a young man growing up in the 1850s, Whymper was immersed in the news of the futile searches for Franklin's lost Arctic expedition. His diary from his youth, edited by Ian Smith and published as The Apprenticeship of a Mountaineer: Edward Whymper's London Diary, is surprisingly laconic for a man of great aspirations, but he devoted at least a few sentences to his interest in the fate of Franklin. His family owned a successful wood engraving business, and young Edward made at least one Franklin-related image. Ian Smith, who is himself a mountaineer, recently authored an authoritative biography of Whymper, Shadow of the Matterhorn, that features an image of his print of a foundering HMS Terror on page 123. Whymper was undeniably a talented artist.
Smith, who is admirably thorough, mentions a few Whymper-Franklin connections, including Edward's association with Clements Markham, formerly a lieutenant on HMS Assistance, and his ownership of one of McClintock's sledges. Perhaps not too surprisingly, Whymper made plans to explore the Arctic himself, with the intent of penetrating remote regions of Greenland. He mentioned reading Elisha Kent Kane's account of the second Grinnell expedition in one of his London diary entries. Dr. Kane's words left such a lasting impression on Whymper that he decided to venture into those frozen wastes over a decade later.
I thoroughly recommend that readers of this blog get a read of both of Smith's books. Whymper is just one of probably many noteworthy figures who were inspired by the Franklin Expedition. In Whymper's case, the inspiration took him to great heights and secured his position as a formidable mountaineer and man of science.
Finally a blog update! Anyway, wow, that's interesting how Whymper was inspired by the Franklin tragedy, similar to Joseph Conrad.
ReplyDeleteYes, FINALLY! I'm glad to be back! Thank you for mentioning Joseph Conrad! He is an excellent example of one whose Franklin-generated inspiration led to great accomplishments. Here is some Conrad-Franklin material compliments of Prof. Potter: http://www.ric.edu/faculty/rpotter/temp/geog_and_some.html
DeleteIt is amazing, there is some kind of conection that link this kind of persons, the mountaniers, with the mistery, the adventure and the tragedy of the arctic and antarctic stories. Mountains have all this ingredients and all the mountaniers have a seed inside which demands this ingredients. You can find the mistery in an unknown summit, the adventure in the way to get it and, unfortunately, sometimes you can find also the tragedy, but this is part of the attraction of the mountains, the posibility of finding a tragedy increases the sensation of adventure and this is adictive. I am afraid that the link doesn´t work in the other direction, I suppose that except some officers, the rest of the Franklin men who were involved in this expeditions were looking for money, work, promotions, etc.
ReplyDeleteSo true. Even after the Matterhorn tragedy, Whymper kept at it!
DeleteIt would be fascinating to know each man's personal motive for joining the Expedition. I'm sure there were those who wanted personal glory in being part of an undertaking that was "certain" to make great contributions to human progress. And, there must have been a few who wanted to experience the awe of the Arctic for themselves!