Four Maps For The First Expedition By Captain John Franklin In 1819 & 1820

ROYAL NAVY

Publication: John Murray 1823, London

Rear Admiral Sir John Franklin, 16 April 1786 – 11 June 1847) was an English Royal Navy officer and explorer of the Arctic. Franklin also served as Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) from 1837 to 1843. He disappeared on his last expedition, attempting to chart and navigate a section of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic. The icebound ships were abandoned and the entire crew died of starvation, hypothermia, tuberculosis, lead poisoning, and scurvy. The maps for this expedition are titled "Route of the Expedition From York Factory To Cumberland House and the Summer & Winter Tracks From Thence To Isle A LA Crosse in 1819 & 1820," "Route of the Expedition From Isle a la Crosse to Fort Providence in 1819 & 1820," "A Chart of the Discoveries & Route By The Northern Land Expedition, Under the Command of Captain Franklin, R. N. in the Years 1820 & 21," and "An Outline to Shew the Connected Discoveries of Captains Ross, Parry & Franklin in the Years 1818, 19, 20, 21, 22, & 23." All on four maps are backed with linen and have been deaccessioned from Middlebrough Free Library and stamped "16 MAY 91." For the 1819 Expedition, Franklin was chosen to lead an expedition overland from Hudson Bay to chart the north coast of Canada eastwards from the mouth of the Coppermine River. On his 1819 expedition, Franklin fell into the Hayes River at Robinson Falls and was rescued by a member of his expedition about 90 metres (98 yd) downstream. Between 1819 and 1822, he lost 11 of the 20 men in his party. Most died of starvation, but there were also at least one murder and suggestions of cannibalism. The survivors were forced to eat lichen and even attempted to eat their own leather boots. This gained Franklin the nickname of "the man who ate his boots." The four maps are housed in a case with a flap fold and insert clasp. Maps are in very good condition.

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