The Discovery Of Slowness (36 page)

Of course, their fortune melted quickly, much to the chagrin
of John's daughter, who had not married a wealthy man and was fearful about her inheritance. But no one could prevail against the imperious posture of a hero's wife – not even Ella, who had much of her father's persistence.

But ‘Jane and Sophy' became a symbol of friendship and loyalty between women. That they also exchanged tenderness fortunately escaped the notice of the zealously virtuous. Those who suspected it nonetheless were not quite so virtuous and found it simply irrelevant.

The most important task, however, remained unfulfilled: the fate of Franklin and his sailors still remained shrouded in darkness. Since, as before, a high reward was offered for clarifying his fate, voluntary search missions by whalers and rich friends continued even after 1852. Above all, there were Jane and Sophia, determined to sacrifice their last penny for this goal.

In 1857 Jane Franklin purchased her irrevocably last vessel. Named Fox, she was a small steamer equipped with a modern propeller. Jane entrusted her to a young captain who had already been on the Franklin search as a helmsman: Leopold McClintock, a man whom she loved like a son and who honoured her like a mother. He was among those who were interested not only in the solution of the riddle and the financial reward but also in John Franklin himself. He had heard much about him from Dr Richardson and Hepburn, Lady Jane and Sophia; he had read both his books, and had even been allowed to see the ‘Logbook of Punishments' from the
Trent
, in which John had jotted down his ideas. ‘I simply want to get to know him,' said McClintock, ‘and to that end I shall find him. It may well be that he is alive, perhaps among the Eskimos. He never lived quickly, so he won't have stopped living quickly either.'

That was McClintock, a short, wiry man with black sideburns. He left Aberdeen harbour on 30 June 1857, with a Scottish crew and a Danish interpreter.

On 6 May 1859, McClintock's people found a note under a rock pyramid. It was signed by Crozier and Fitzjames and told of the fate of the expedition and of Franklin's death. It was dated
in the spring of 1848. The ships could not get free. The crew had given them up. The message closed with the words: ‘And start on tomorrow the 26th to the mouth of Backs fish river.'

They continued their search in that direction. It soon became evident that it was no longer necessary.

One hundred and five men had set out from the
Erebus
and the
Terror
in the spring of 1848, evidently already in a state of deep physical and mental exhaustion. Soon the caravan of the dying had split into several groups, one of them trying to return to the ships. Many men dragged table silver with them, perhaps to exchange it for food with the Eskimos. Others had pulled heavy boats across the ice, which they had to abandon on the way, most of them with part of their food supply. McClintock found several skeletons next to the boats, together with forty pounds of still edible chocolate. In the bay at the mouth of the Great Fish river they found more skeletons, most of them dressed in faded but fully preserved uniforms.

McClintock called the bay Starvation Cove. He met a few Eskimos who recalled the ships in the ice or had heard that they had sunk in the fall of 1848. An old woman had, in fact, observed the march of the whites from afar. ‘They died while walking. They fell down as they stood or walked and were dead.' Why hadn't the Eskimos helped the whites? ‘There were so many of them, and we were hungry ourselves – worse than ever before.'

The captain obtained by barter a number of things the Eskimos had found: silver buttons, a set of table silver, a pocket watch, even one of Franklin's decorations. He asked for books, notebooks. Yes, they had found bundles of paper and had given them to their children to play with. Now nothing was left of them. Disappointed, McClintock left the Eskimo huts and returned to Starvation Cove.

Since they kept on finding food, they could not believe that the catastrophe was caused solely by hunger. The next obvious answer was scurvy. Examination of the skeletons showed that in many of them the teeth had fallen out. It also revealed something else: that the remnants of the crew fighting for their life had seized upon the final desperate means of survival in this place.
McClintock found bones neatly separated, with smoothly cut surfaces that could have been made with a saw. The ship's doctor crouched across from him. Their eyes met. The doctor whispered, ‘From my point of view … scurvy is a deficiency disease. The flesh of a man who dies of it lacks exactly the same ingredients that the sick require for their survival. It therefore didn't even––'

‘Please go on,' said McClintock.

‘It did them no good,' said the doctor.

When they had collected the bones in order to bury them, McClintock said, ‘It was a worthy and brave crew. The passage of time was too slow for them. Whoever does not know what time is cannot understand a picture, not even this one.'

The only person who didn't listen was the photographer of the
Illustrated London News
. He had quickly placed his camera, a Talbot System, in position to capture the skeletons' condition in a still picture.

J
ohn Franklin existed in real life. His true story has contributed countless details to this novel that could never have occurred to me on my own. This obliges me to name at least a few titles from the literature on the historical Franklin, in many ways undoubtedly different from the fictional Franklin of my novel.

On Franklin's family and the stages of his career, more exact information can be found in:

The above authors give no details about what happened on the voyage to Lisbon and in the battle of Copenhagen. More is known about the Australian voyage:

On the great navigator Matthew Flinders, see above all:

The expedition report on the first Arctic voyage is:

The following reports on the two land expeditions are Franklin's own:

From the hunger expedition on, the novel does not follow the exact chronology outlined in the first narrative. In the encounter with the Indian Michel Teroaoteh, the roles of Franklin and Dr Richardson have been reversed.

Franklin was not asked to direct military operations against China. However, from 1830 to 1833 he was commander of naval forces in Greek waters, where he succeeded in preventing armed conflict.

On the Tasmanian period, the following title will give the best information:

The elaborate defence by Franklin himself, justifying his tenure as governor, may be of additional interest to readers:

Many ingenious theories have been advanced concerning Franklin's last voyage. The best-known books are:

The best information on Franklin's first wife can be gained from their published correspondence:

On Jane Franklin, see:

Lasting traces of Franklin's accomplishment can be found above all in Hobart, Tasmania.

In Spilsby, the house where Franklin was born still stands. Statues of him can be found in Spilsby and London. In Westminster Abbey a memorial plaque to him bears an inscription with the following lines by Alfred, Lord Tennyson:

The archipelago north of the Canadian mainland is called District of Franklin to this day.