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(pp. cix, 463, xxiii, as new in red/gilt cloth, gilt title...)
pp. cix, 463, xxiii, as new in red/gilt cloth, gilt title and decorations on spine) cloth, 6 b/w illustrations, 3 route maps, some uncut pages.
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Franklin was born in Spilsby, Lincolnshire, on 16 April 1786, the ninth of twelve children born to Hannah Weekes and Willingham Franklin. His father was a merchant descended from a line of country gentlemen while his mother was the daughter of a farmer. One of his brothers later entered the legal profession and eventually became a judge in Madras; another joined the East India Company; while a sister, Sarah, was the mother of Emily Tennyson.
John Franklin educated at King Edward VI Grammar School in Louth, he soon became interested in a career at sea.
His career in the Royal Navy began when he joined H. M. S. Polyphemus, which was about to play a significant part in the Battle of Copenhagen. Subsequent employment included a voyage in the Investigator, commanded by his cousin Capt. Matthew Flinders, to explore and map parts of the Australian coast, and service in H. M. S. Bellerophon and Bedford at the battles of Trafalgar and New Orleans, respectively. Franklin was promoted from midshipman to lieutenant on Feb. 11, 1808, and by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, he had experienced much time at sea.
Franklin's Arctic travels began in January 1818 with his appointment in command of the brig Trent. It was to accompany the Dorothea, commanded by Capt. David Buchan, on a voyage to the North Pole and Bering Strait, passing en route between Greenland and Spitsbergen. This expedition was unsuccessful.
In early 1819 Franklin was instructed to lead an expedition "to determine the latitudes and longitudes of the northern coast of North America, and the trendings of that coast from the mouth of the Coppermine River to the eastern extremity of the continent. " The findings of this hazardous 5, 550-mile expedition were published in 1823 in Franklin's Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea in the Years 1819-20, a classic in the annals of exploration. By the time of his return to England in October 1822, he had been promoted to commander, and on Nov. 20, 1822, he was advanced to captain.
Franklin's second journey to the Polar Sea was made via the Mackenzie River and Great Bear Lake in the years from 1825 to 1827. The object, Kotzebue Sound near Be-ring Strait, proved unattainable because of the lateness of the season; yet much of the northern coast of the continent was discovered by this expedition.
In 1830-1833 Franklin commanded the frigate Rainbow in the Mediterranean Sea. In January 1837 he arrived at Hobart, Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), to assume the position of lieutenant governor, which he held until 1843. His humanitarian sentiments toward the condition of the convicts restrained there resulted injudicious measures of social improvement.
At the time of his return to England in June 1844, Arctic exploration was of special interest, for the Erebus and Terror had just returned from a remarkable expedition to the Antarctic. The British Admiralty decided to use the Erebus and Terror to determine whether the Northwest Passage could be navigated by ship. Franklin, as a senior naval officer with Arctic experience, obtained the command in spite of some protests that others were younger and perhaps more capable, and on March 3, 1845, Franklin, now 59, commissioned the Erebus. Both the Erebus and the Terror had been fitted with auxiliary screws (a new development in Arctic exploration) and supposedly provisioned for a 3-year voyage. The two ships sailed from England in May amid optimism that the mission's object would be met. They were last seen July 26, 1845, in Lancaster Sound.
It took many years to reconstruct the fate of Sir John Franklin. Some 50 expeditions were sent over 20 years to find him or his remains. They revealed that from Lancaster Sound the Erebus and Terror had passed through to the maze of islands known today as the District of Franklin. In May 1847 Franklin's party discovered the remaining gap in the Northwest Passage—between Victoria and Simpson straits. On June 11 Franklin died. There followed a third winter in the ice, at the end of which Capt. F. R. M. Crozier, now in command, and his men (105 in all) set out for the nearest Hudson's Bay Company post, Ft. Resolution. All perished miserably in this attempt.
Franklin's second wife (formerly, Jane Griffin) was responsible for sending a number of relief and search expeditions. That of the Fox in 1857, under Capt. Francis L. McClintock discovered the main traces of the expedition, including important documents that tell the tragic tale.
Sir John Franklin is perhaps the most important figure in the search for the Northwest Passage. On 29 April 1829, he was knighted by George IV and the same year awarded the first Gold Medal of the Société de Géographie of France. On 25 January 1836, he was made Knight Commander of the Royal Guelphic Order by King William IV. He was made a Knight of the Greek Order of the Redeemer as well.
Franklin Street, in the city center of Adelaide, South Australia, is named after him.
There is a neighborhood in Winnipeg, Manitoba, which is named after Sir John Franklin in the southwest corner of the city. In Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, École Sir John Franklin High School (opened in 1958) is named after the explorer.
The Franklin rose, developed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, was named in his honor.
Franklin was commemorated by several geographic names, including two islands in Antarctica and Greenland, Franklin Sound north of Tasmania and Franklin Strait in Arctic Canada, whereas his wife has given a name to Lady Franklinfjord in Svalbard.
The wintering site of Franklin's second Canadian expedition, in Deline, Northwest Territories, was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1996. The explorer was also remembered when one of Canada's Northwest Territories subdivisions was named the District of Franklin. Including the high Arctic islands, this jurisdiction was abolished when the Territories were divided in 1999.
On 29 October 2009, a special service of thanksgiving was held in the chapel at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, to accompany the rededication of the national monument to Sir John Franklin there.
In Greenhithe, where he embarked on his final journey, there is a pub named Sir John Franklin, after him.
(pp. cix, 463, xxiii, as new in red/gilt cloth, gilt title...)
In 1823 Sir John Franklin married to the poet Eleanor Anne Porden. Their daughter, Eleanor Isabella, was born the following year.
On 5 November 1828, he married to Jane Griffin, a friend of his first wife and a seasoned traveler who proved indomitable in the course of their life together.
