illuminator ⚓️Franklin Expedition

"He died much lamented": George S. Malcolm of HMS Resolute, and his grave on Griffith Island - THERE STOOD NO FRIENDLY FINGER-POST TO GUIDE US George Malcolm of HMS Resolute died in the Arctic searching for the Franklin Expedition. His grave marker would go on a journey of its own.

How's your Sunday? A bit meh?

Maybe it needs some Tragic Doomed Love! Heroism! Horrible Death! Bitching! Watercolours! Missing Gravemarkers! and Men Geeking Out Over Flowers!

It's all here:
finger-post.blog/2025/11/02/g...

#FranklinExpedition #FranklinSearch

illuminator newsletter #42 The final dive season.

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...

The wreck of The Sir John Franklin (and other Franklin Expedition pubs of London). By Logan Zachary & Alison Freebairn.  July 15, 2025. { Outside the East India Docks.  May 25th, 2023. }    Perhaps everyone reading...

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...

Do use the pic if you have a spot for it. I thought Greenwich didn't have an online option? I'm not seeing it on their site...

Eleanor Anne Porden's eyes.

Wish I was in London to attend your talk. Best of luck tomorrow, Sam. ❤️

Members' Lecture: Eleanor Anne Porden Uncover the often-forgotten life of John Franklin's first wife, Eleanor Anne Porden, with author Sam Pope

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.

A very special piece of paper

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-...

The front page of the 1845 muster book of HMS Erebus (TNA ADM 38/672). A note at the bottom reads "Officers & Ships Company are to be considered as having died in the Service & the Wages are to be paid to their Relatives to 31 March 1854".

The front page of the 1845 muster book of HMS Terror (TNA ADM 38/1962). A note at the bottom reads "Officers & Ships Company are to be considered as having died in the Service & the Wages are to be paid to their Relatives to 31 March 1854".

"...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-....

'Terror Camp' Could Be a Glimpse of the Future of Fandom and Scholarship “It’s academia that feels criminally fun!”

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

Photo of someone bending over water beside a green banner with text: "SUC Speaker Series presents Thierry Boyer, Parks Canada Underwater Archeologist. The Franklin Expedition: Discovery, Research, & Preservation of the HMS Terror & HMS Erebus, January 24 2024 @ 7:00pm, Online Event. Underwater Council SASK"

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...

Love the timeline graph

Careers of the Franklin Expedition I began this project to answer the question: which members of the Franklin Expedition might have known each other before they set sail? My initial results were presented at Terror Camp 2023 from Decem...

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

Qumangapik, age 16, hunts seals near Thule. Henrik Saxgren

www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture...

William Lego and the lost boys of Erebus and Terror - THERE STOOD NO FRIENDLY FINGER-POST TO GUIDE U... In 1845, a young boy watched Franklin's ships being refitted for the Arctic, and cheered as his friends sailed away. They never came home.

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...

An image from the Illustrated Arctic News showing a three-masted barque in winter quarters while half a dozen Franklin Searchers fall on their arses while trying to walk on ice.

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...