The Arctic Grail Read online

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  Copyright © 1988 by Pierre Berton Enterprises Ltd.

  Anchor Canada paperback edition 2001

  All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisher — or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a license from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency — is an infringement of the copyright law.

  Anchor Canada and colophon are trademarks.

  National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data

  Berton, Pierre, 1920–

  The Arctic grail : the quest for the North West Passage and the North Pole, 1818–1909

  eISBN: 978-0-385-67362-4

  1. Northwest Passage – Discovery and exploration. 2. North Pole – Discovery and exploration. 3. Arctic regions – Discovery and exploration. I. Title.

  G620.B47 2001 910′.9163′27 C2001-930601-6

  Published in Canada by

  Anchor Canada, a division of

  Random House of Canada Limited

  Visit Random House of Canada Limited’s website: www.randomhouse.ca

  For illustrations used in this book, grateful acknowledgement is made to their sources as follows: The Metropolitan Toronto Library for “First communication with the natives of Prince Regent’s Bay,” page 14; “Victory crew saved by the Isabella,” page 106; The Investigator trapped off Banks Island, page 200; Belcher’s ships in winter quarters, page 234; “Life in the brig,” by Elisha Kent Kane, page 272; “Sighting of the Ravenscraig,” page 344; The National Archives of Canada for “Boats in a swell amongst the ice,” C-94116, page 62. The Illustrated London News (13 Oct. 1849) for The Arctic aurora, page 156. The National Maritime Museum, London, for “The Death of Franklin,” page 310, and “A sledge from the Alert making a push for the Pole,” page 410. The National Archives, Washington, for Rescue of Greely survivors, 200 (s) 2F B71, page 434. Andreemuseet, Gränna, Sweden, for Andrée’s balloon after foundering, page 488. The National Geographic Society ©, for Peary’s North Pole expedition, page 550.

  v3.1

  Contents

  Cover

  Other Books by This Author

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Illustrations

  List of Maps

  Chronology

  Map

  Epigraph

  ONE 1. John Barrow’s obsession

  2. The Croker Mountains

  3. Winter Harbour

  4. Fame, fortune, and frustration

  5. Innuee and kabloonas

  TWO 1. Franklin’s folly

  2. Miss Porden’s core of steel

  3. Fury Beach

  4. The silken flag

  5. Treadmill to the Pole

  THREE 1. Endless winter

  2. The indomitable Jane

  3. Enter the Honourable Company

  4. Prison warden

  5. A matter of honour

  6. The Arctic puzzle

  FOUR 1. The lost ships

  2. Arctic fever

  3. The American presence

  4. The crusaders

  5. The dutiful warmth of a son

  FIVE 1. Grasping at straws

  2. “A French officer will never hang back”

  3. The ambitions of Robert McClure

  4. The Passage at last

  5. Mercy Bay

  SIX 1. The spirit rappers

  2. Searching for the searchers

  3. The blue devils

  4. Ships abandoned

  5. Relics of the lost

  SEVEN 1. The defectors

  2. Kalutunah

  3. Retreat

  4. The high cost of dawdling

  5. The polar idol

  EIGHT 1. A “weak and helpless woman”

  2. The cruise of the Fox

  3. The document at Victory Point

  4. Failed heroes

  5. The ultimate accolade

  NINE 1. The obsession of Charles Francis Hall

  2. The Open Polar Sea

  3. Frobisher Bay

  4. Execution

  5. Death by arsenic

  6. George Tyson’s remarkable drift

  TEN 1. “The navy needs some action”

  2. The seeds of scurvy

  3. The scapegoat

  ELEVEN 1. The polar virus

  2. Abandoned

  3. No turning back

  4. Starvation winter

  5. The eleventh hour

  TWELVE 1. Nansen’s drift

  2. Andrée’s folly

  3. Peary’s obsession

  4. Amundsen’s triumph

  THIRTEEN 1. Nearest the Pole

  2. “Mine at last!”

  3. Dr. Cook’s strange Odyssey

  4. Cook versus Peary

  5. The end of the quest

  AFTERWORD

  The chart of immortality

  Author’s Note

  Bibliography

  Illustrations

  1.1 Ross and Parry encounter the Etah Eskimos (as drawn by John Sacheuse)

  2.1 Franklin’s second overland expedition off the Alaskan Coast

  3.1 John Ross’s crew saved by the Isabella

  4.1 A contemporary journalistic impression of the Arctic aurora

  5.1 The Investigator trapped off Banks Island

  6.1 Belcher’s ships in winter quarters

  7.1 Kane’s comrades in their cramped quarters aboard the Advance

  8.1 The death of Franklin as envisioned by a contemporary artist

  9.1 Rescue of the Polaris party by the Ravenscraig

  10.1 One of Nares’s sledge crews

  11.1 Rescue of the Greely survivors in their collapsed tent

  12.1 Andrée’s balloon after foundering

  13.1 Peary’s North Pole e
xpedition crossing pressure ridges

  Maps

  The start of the quest

  Parry’s first voyage, 1819–20

  Parry’s second voyage, 1821–22

  Franklin’s first North American expedition with Back and Richardson, 1818–22

  The unexplored Arctic coastline, 1821

  Franklin’s second expedition with Back and Richardson, 1825–27

  Parry’s last voyage: toward the Pole, 1827

  John Ross and James Clark Ross, 1829–33

  George Back explores the Great Fish River, 1833–34

  Dease and Simpson’s explorations, 1837–39

  Franklin’s proposed route from Cape Walker, 1845

  John Rae crosses Melville Peninsula, 1846–47

  James Clark Ross’s fruitless search for Franklin, 1848–49

  Area of the Franklin search, 1850–51

  Kennedy and Bellot search for Franklin, 1851–52

  McClure rounds the tip of Alaska, 1850

  McClure finds a North West Passage, 1850–54

  Belcher’s search for Franklin, 1852–54

  Kane’s “search” for Franklin and the Pole, 1853–55

  John Rae gets the first news of Franklin’s fate, 1854

  Southward route of Kane’s defectors, autumn, 1854

  Kane’s retreat from Rensselaer Harbor, 1855

  Collinson’s expedition, 1851–54

  M’Clintock’s expedition to King William Island, 1857–59

  King William Island, c. 1859

  Franklin’s last expedition, 1845–47

  The known and unknown Arctic before and after the search

  Hall’s first expedition: Frobisher Bay, 1860–61

  Area of Hayes’s explorations, 1860–61

  Hall’s second expedition, 1864–69

  Hall sails north to his death, 1871; Tyson drifts south on an ice floe, 1872–73

  The Nares expedition, 1875–76

  Greely at Fort Conger, 1881–83

  Area of the Greely relief attempts, 1882–84

  Nansen’s Arctic drift and polar attempt, 1893–96

  The Polar ice cap

  Andrée’s ill-fated balloon expedition, 1897

  Peary’s two expeditions across Greenland, 1892 and 1895

  Peary’s Farthest North in 1902

  Amundsen navigates the North West Passage, 1903–06

  Amundsen’s overland trek to reach the telegraph at Eagle, Alaska in the late fall of 1905

  Peary’s exploration of Ellesmere Island, June 1906

  Peary’s polar records, 1906 and 1909

  Cook’s route from Anoatok to Axel Heiberg and return, 1908–09

  Chronology

  1817 William Scoresby’s Greenland voyage, in which he observes unusually open ice conditions.

  1818 John Ross’s first expedition in search of the North West Passage; he turns back at Lancaster Sound.

  1818 David Buchan’s expedition in search of the North Pole via Spitzbergen; John Franklin second in command.

  1819-1820 William Edward Parry’s first voyage in search of the North West Passage reaches Melville Island.

  1819-1822 John Franklin’s first overland expedition to Point Turnagain, in search of the North West Passage in conjunction with the Parry voyage, ends disastrously with eleven members of the expedition losing their lives.

  1821-1823 Parry’s second voyage in search of the North West Passage reaches Fury and Hecla Strait.

  1824-1825 Parry’s third and final voyage to the Canadian Arctic, again in search of the North West Passage, ends with the wreck of one of his vessels on Fury Beach, Somerset Island.

  1825-1827 John Franklin’s second land expedition to the mouth of the Coppermine River; with John Richardson he explores and maps more than a thousand miles of coastline from Coronation Gulf to Icy Cape, Alaska.

  1827 Parry’s expedition attempting to reach the North Pole via Spitzbergen; he reaches 82°45′N and establishes a Farthest North that will stand for fifty years.

  1829-1833 John Ross’s second expedition in search of the North West Passage, privately sponsored by gin merchant Felix Booth. With the help of Eskimos, Ross and his crew survive through four Arctic winters.

  1833 George Back, with Richard King, leads an expedition to the Great Fish River in search of John Ross.

  1837-1839 Hudson’s Bay Company expedition by land, led by Peter Dease and Thomas Simpson, surveys most of the remaining unknown areas of the North West Passage.

  1845-1847 Sir John Franklin’s expedition aboard the vessels Erebus and Terror in search of the North West Passage.

  1848-1849 James Clark Ross expedition in search of Sir John Franklin with vessels Investigator and Enterprise.

  1848-1851 John Richardson, accompanied by Dr. John Rae, leads land expedition to the Mackenzie River, Wollaston Peninsula, and elsewhere on Victoria Island in search of Franklin.

  1848-1851 Plover and Herald reach Bering Strait; Lieutenant W.J.S. Pullen leads expedition by boat in search of Franklin, exploring the Arctic coastline to the Mackenzie delta.

  1850-1854 Robert McClure leads expedition in Investigator through the Bering Strait in search of Franklin. He establishes the last link in one route of the North West Passage and claims the parliamentary award for its discovery.

  1850-1855 Richard Collinson commands the Enterprise, part of the expedition through the Bering Strait in search of Franklin.

  1850-1851 William Penny expedition with the Lady Franklin and Sophia to the eastern Arctic in search of Franklin.

  1850-1851 Horatio T. Austin commands official four-ship Admiralty expedition to the eastern Arctic in search of Franklin.

  1850-1851 Sir John Ross, aged seventy-three, leads private expedition in search of Franklin.

  1850 Charles Codrington Forsyth leads Lady Franklin’s privately financed expedition in search of her husband on the Prince Albert.

  1850-1851 Edwin J. De Haven leads the first U.S. (Grinnell) expedition to the Arctic in search of Franklin. Elisha Kent Kane is surgeon on one of De Haven’s two vessels.

  1851-1852 William Kennedy, accompanied by Joseph-René Bellot, leads another expedition privately financed by Lady Franklin in search of her husband.

  1852-1854 Sir Edward Belcher leads a five-ship Admiralty expedition in search of Franklin. Robert McClure rescued.

  1852 Edward A. Inglefield explores Smith and Jones sounds, returning to England with the (false) story that Franklin had been murdered by Greenland Eskimos.

  1853-1855 Elisha Kent Kane leads the second U.S. expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, choosing a Smith Sound route.

  1853-1854 Dr. John Rae, sent by the Hudson’s Bay Company to complete a coastal survey in the area of King William Land and Boothia, discovers relics of the Franklin Expedition in the possession of the Eskimos. British authorities give him the $10,000 reward for establishing the fate of the expedition.

  1857-1859 Francis Leopold M’Clintock leads the Fox expedition, financed by Lady Franklin, that confirms Rae’s report of Franklin’s fate.

  1860-1861 Isaac Hayes leads a U.S. expedition in search of the Open Polar Sea.

  1860-1863 American Charles Hall makes his first Arctic journey in search of Franklin survivors; finds Frobisher relics.

  1864-1869 Hall’s second expedition reaches King William Island.

  1871-1873 Charles Hall’s third expedition, in search of the North Pole, aboard the Polaris; Hall dies under mysterious circumstances in November 1871. On the return voyage, half the Polaris’s crew are stranded on the ice in a storm and drift for six months before being rescued by whalers.

  1875-1876 George Nares leads the British Navy’s last attempt at Arctic exploration in search of the North Pole.

  1879-1882 Lieutenant George Washington De Long of the U.S. Navy commands the ill-fated Jeannette expedition, searching for the North Pole from Siberia.

  1881-1884 Adolphus Greely leads an American expedition to Ellesmere Island as part of the First Int
ernational Polar Year. His junior officer Lieutenant Lockwood establishes a Farthest North, taking from the British a record they have held for three centuries. Only six of twenty-four expedition members survive.

  1886 Robert Peary attempts and fails to cross Greenland.

  1888 Fridtjof Nansen makes the first crossing of Greenland.

  1891-1892 Peary’s first large Arctic expedition to Greenland.

  1893-1895 Peary’s second Greenland expedition.

  1893-1895 Fridtjof Nansen, with Otto Sverdrup, in the Fram drifts across the Arctic Ocean and establishes a new Farthest North.

  1897 Salomon Andrée attempts unsuccessfully to reach the North Pole in his balloon, the Eagle.

  1898-1902 Peary’s third Arctic expedition fails in its attempt to reach the North Pole.

  1899-1900 The Duke of Abruzzi leads an expedition in search of the Pole from Franz Josef Land; Lieutenant Cagni establishes a Farthest North twenty-two miles beyond Nansen’s.

  1901-1902 First Ziegler expedition, led by Evelyn Baldwin, attempts to reach the Pole from northern Norway but returns unsuccessful.

  1903-1905 Second Ziegler expedition, commanded by Anthony Fiala, attempts the Pole from Trondheim, Norway; expedition ends in disaster with the loss of the vessel America.

  1903-1905 Roald Amundsen completes first successful navigation of the North West Passage.

  1905-1906 Peary’s fourth Arctic expedition fails in attempt at the Pole but establishes a new Farthest North.

  1907-1909 Frederick Cook expedition in search of the North Pole.

  1908-1909 Peary’s final expedition in search of the North Pole.

  On every side of us are men who hunt perpetually for their personal Northwest Passage, too often sacrificing health, strength, and life itself to the search; and who shall say they are not happier in their vain but hopeful quest than wiser, duller folks who sit at home, venturing nothing and, with sour laughs, deriding the seekers for that fabled thoroughfare?

  — Kenneth Roberts

  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.

  — Robert W. Service

  Chapter One

  1

  John Barrow’s obsession