Just as written records from the lost Franklin Expedition were within reach, Canada is having to pull the plug on archaeological excavation of HMS Erebus & Terror. loganzachary.substack.com/p/illuminato...

In a way, it’s sort of a good thing most of the pubs mentioned in this piece by @illuminator.bsky.social and @finger-post.blog are gone, because IMAGINE the carnage a Franklin pub crawl would create across London. www.illuminator.blog/p/londonpubs...

If you're a member of the Maritime Museum, please come to my talk tomorrow night, at 6.30pm, on the life of Eleanor Anne Porden! She's done much more than *just* being married to John Franklin - she was an acclaimed poet and fascinating person. Hope to see you there! www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/nat...

Just migrated from polluted Twitter. Any Franklin expedition aficionados here yet? If so I would love to connect with you.

It’s 22nd April, which means it’s Abandonment Day: the date HMS Erebus & Terror were abandoned by their crews in 1848. (We know this from the last addition to the Victory Point note, made by Captains Crozier & Fitzjames on 25th April 1848) www.historymuseum.ca/blog/a-very-...

"...if intelligence be not received, before the 31st March of the officers and crews of HMS Erebus and Terror being alive, they will be considered as having died in service." This "sentence of death", as Lady Franklin described it, fell on the #FranklinExpedition OTD in 1854. #NavalHistory

For James Fitzjames' birthday I will organise a tour. If you would like to join, please fill in this form to sign up: forms.gle/TyhyFXbaZuop... I'm really looking forward to it! 🥳

And is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.

New land archaeology paper out. Inuit testimony counters cannibalism assessment at the site that cold opens Frozen In Time. journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/ar...

New post on Captain Crozier’s adventures in secondary sources to date - there will be grumbling (all of it well deserved) #NavalHistory #PolarExploration www.thethousandthpart.com/notes/crozie...

I've been wandering around cemeteries looking for graves related to the #FranklinExpedition and other Arctic disasters for years now. But I had no idea that the great scholar RJ Cyriax had done all this many decades ago, and that his photo albums were in Ottawa: finger-post.blog/2024/02/18/r...

Radio interview with Parks Canada Manager Jonathan Moore. www.cbc.ca/listen/live-....

My latest Atlas Obscura column is live! On Terror Camp, an academic conference + fan con that truly sits at the intersections between those worlds. Featuring a bunch of extremely smart, extremely enthusiastic participants (led by the inimitable @tchotchke.bsky.social) who were a joy to talk to. 🥰

When the National Portrait Gallery reopened in June 2023 the 'Arctic Council' portrait wasn't on display. Booo! So I arranged to visit the NPG's storage facility to view the painting there. Finally a good look at Fitzjames' portrait on the wall! Magnificent painting. #NavalHistory

If you're as excited about the news from the 2023 dive to HMS Erebus and HMS Terror as I am, one of the archaeologists is giving a talk tomorrow! 5-6:30 PM PT | 7-8:30 PM CT, free registration: events.teams.microsoft.com/event/91c9e2... #NavalHistory #FranklinExpedition

Dive season press release out. www.canada.ca/en/parks-can...

This one has been many years in the making, and involved two trips to Canada to work with the original headboards placed over the graves of three of Sir John Franklin's men in 1846. And this is just part one! It gets even nerdier from this point on. #19thC #NavalHistory #PolarExploration

www.illuminator.blog/p/gravemarke... New long-form article. A letter-by-letter crawl through the Beechey grave inscriptions. 1st installment.

178 years...

I can now share the poster on Careers of the Franklin Expedition that I presented at Terror Camp! Here's a blog post about Terror Camp, the project, and next steps: 🔗 wordpress.com/post/tristan... And here's the poster in all its glory: tinyurl.com/fe-careers #terrorcamp2023 #NavalHistory #c19th

tl;dr This is an endorsement of the Vitamin B deficiency theory first suggested by Park & Stenton in 2019 ("Use Your Best Endeavours..."), namely, that a lack of game northwest of King William Island could have led to beriberi derailing the Franklin Expedition.

If you see this, post a ship. This is #HMSInvestigator on her #Arctic journey in search of the lost #Franklinexpedition, left pic: 1850(by Cresswell), right pic: 2011 (by Brett Seymor, Parks Canada). On Board was Johann August Miertsching. #Miertsching #tallships #parkscanada #arcticexpedition

New #FranklinExpedition research post! In 1845, a boy watches in wonder as Sir John Franklin's ships are fitted out in Woolwich, and cheers as they depart. In 1992, a searcher finds human bones in the Arctic. In 2018, divers investigate the wreck of HMS Erebus. finger-post.blog/2023/12/03/w...

Wishing all my Scottish friends a very happy Please Don't Fall On Your Arse in this lovely weather. #snow

Master mariner Thomas Blanky sailed with Sir John Ross and later joined - and was lost with - the #FranklinExpedition of 1845. But who was he? Frank Michael Schuster does a deep dive for Polar Record: #19thC #MaritimeHistory www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Delivering my last article as a talk in Bath this January. Their Franklin relics will come out of storage for the talk. www.brlsi.org/whatson/the-...

On 15 May 1875 John Barrow attended a dinner at the Admiralty in honour of Capt. George Nares' upcoming Arctic Expedition. Also present among others: Sirs George Back & Leopold McClintock. There was some interesting Arctic cuisine written on the menu! [Pic by me, Weston Library Oxford] #NavalHistory

The woman who said, “Canadians are fond of a good disaster, especially if it has ice, water, or snow in it. You thought the national flag was about a leaf, didn’t you? Look harder. It’s where someone got axed in the snow.” (From Strange Things: The Malevolent North in Canadian Literature)

Died #OnThisDay 1907: Sir Francis Leopold McClintock. My carte de visite of him is a bit faded, but considering it's from the 1850s that's ok. #19thC

A YouTube video helped me use a 19th-century book I’d bought on the history of extra-illustrated books (Tredwell’s A Monograph on Privately Illustrated Books: A Plea for Bibliomania, 1882) by teaching me to open the uncut pages w/an index card, NOT a knife. Who knew? youtu.be/VU7lqM6NfQo?...

Thought I'd try here: I am researching the careers of the Franklin Expedition. I am looking for service records of the crew and muster lists for related ships. I have started with the Kew National Archives, but if this work has already been done I'd love to find it. (1/2) #19thC #NavalHistory

Found the perfect 1890s album page for my carte de visites of three Arctic veterans: John Hillary Allard, Leopold McClintock and George Strong Nares. They all went on search expeditions for the Franklin Expedition. Nares later led the British Arctic Expedition 1875.

#OTD 5 Nov 1828 John Franklin & Jane Griffin were married by the Rector of Stanmore Parish. The witnesses were Jane Griffin's father & brother-in-law as well as the physician & naturalist John Richardson and the physician & geologist William Henry Fitton on John Franklin's side.

A very happy 236th birthday to Sir John Richardson: naturalist, naval surgeon, Arctic explorer. In 1847 - aged 60 - he joined John Rae on an overland search for Sir John Franklin's last expedition. There's still time for someone to write a biopic and cast Iain Glen. #19thC #NavalHistory

#OnThisDay 4 November 1854: The Illustrated London News publishes the Franklin Expedition relics brought back by John Rae.

The new blog by @illuminator.bsky.social about finding the RN broad arrow marking on Franklin artifacts reminds me of Marryat describing the history of the mark in 'The King's Own' (the doomed hero has a broad arrow tattoo). The King's Own ed. of Captain Marryat's books, 1896. #Victorian #navalhist

New article. Happy Halloween there are Beechey Island relics in Bath. www.illuminator.blog/p/bath.html

Good morning all. As the weather's getting colder, I wanted to share a cautionary tale about the dangers of exploring the North-West Passage. A good Polar outfit begins with a good pair of Inexpressibles. Let's look at Mr Muff from Horatio Austin's #19thC #FranklinSearch of 1850-51.

The officer has been identified as John Hillary Allard (1823-1901), of Franklin Search Expeditions HMS Investigator 1848-49, HMS Pioneer 1850-51 & 1852-54. I even have the clipping from the Illustrated London News (1 May 1852), that's why the guy looked so familiar to me. Thanks Logan & Glenn!

Captain Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier (1796-c.1849), born 17 October in Banbridge, Co. Down.

15 October 1859 the Illustrated London News continued their 'Franklin Expedition month' by publishing illustrations of the relics that McClintock's Fox Expedition had brought back to England, + the opening of the cairn at Point Victory. [Pics of my copy] #navalhistory #19thc #arctic

October 1859 was Franklin Expedition month at the Illustrated London News. After the publication of the Victory Point Note on 1 October, every week more info about McClintock's Fox Expedition was shared. On 8 October, McClintock's first interview with the Inuit plus an illustation of this encounter.

The only known full set of the Franklin Expedition daguerreotypes was sold at Sotheby’s this September - but are we any the wiser about its history, or that of derivatives that kept appearing in the latter half of C19? #PolarExploration www.thethousandthpart.com/notes/the-bi...

"Hi, I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn."

On 1 October 1859 the Victory Point Note was published in the Illustrated London News after Lieut William Hobson found it a few months earlier. This note was written by Fitzjames & remains the only written record of the Franklin Expedition after 1847. #navalhistory #franklinexpedition #arctic

Not my biggest bookcase, but the most special one. Everything here came from the library of the late great polar historian Ann Savours. Most have copies of the reviews she wrote, and her notes. She corrects authors in the margins of their books, with a shelfmark pointing to the primary source.