Franklin: 1825-1827

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Franklin, John, Sir, 1786-1847.      [map of British explorations through Franklin]
Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the Years 1825, 1826, and 1827 . . . London, 1828. [Rare Books Division]

Franklin's second overland expedition to the “polar sea” was a sharp contrast to his first. Well-manned and supplied, the party wintered at Fort Franklin on Great Bear Lake from September 1825 till June 1826. Then, in specially designed boats, they descended the Mackenzie River and reached the shore in July. On July 4, the parties separated. Richardson's group, in the Dolphin and Union, set off to survey the coast between the Mackenzie and Coppermine Rivers (accompanied by E. N. Kendall, who did the drawings); Franklin's, in the Lion and Reliance, attempted to go west from the Mackenzie to Icy Cape (accompanied by officer-artist George Back). 

It was impossible not to be struck with the difference between our present complete state of equipment and that on which we had embarked on our former disastrous voyage. Instead of a frail bark canoe, and a scanty supply of food, we were now about to commence the sea voyage in excellent boats, stored with three months' provision. [Franklin, p.95.]

Later, Franklin drew another comparison:

The obstinate continuance of fog forms another material difference between this season and the same period of 1821. We were only detained three times in navigating along the coast that year to the east of the Coppermine River; but on this voyage hardly a day passed after our departure form the Mackenzie that the atmosphere was not, at some time, so foggy as to hide every object more distant than four or five miles. [Franklin, p. 157.]
At the point where Franklin turned back, a party from Sir Frederick Beechey's expedition, advancing eastward from Icy Cape, was 160 miles away. From July to September that summer of 1826, Franklin's combined exploring parties charted over 1100 miles of coastline along the Beaufort Sea, which Franklin named, and in what is now Amundsen Gulf. Franklin estimated that the total number of miles surveyed and mapped on the continent, but not all included under “discoveries” because the routes had long been traversed by fur traders, was closer to 5,000.
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