3-082-834 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Franklin Celebration: Franklin relics - part of compass, piece of plate, part of flannel shirt, and certificate case, 1895. 'On May 20, 1845, the Franklin Expedition set sail, never to return. On May 20, 1895, the Royal Geographical Society commemorated this national event amid the sympathetic interest of all Englishmen. The Arctic seas have fascinated lovers of adventure since the days of Cabot, but "they keep their secret still," despite the repeated attempts to solve it. In the Franklin Room at the Royal Hospital, Greenwich, there were exhibited many of the relics which alone told the story of the expedition's end...Dr. Rae brought home several pathetic relics of the unfortunate expedition. He had heard that some Esquimaux possessed some curious articles, which they claimed to have received from an officer in command of forty English sailors in exchange for food. This was in 1850, and shortly afterwards the dead bodies of the men were found near Back River, and the Esquimaux removed other relics from them...Each vessel [had been] provided with two hundred tin cylinders for the purpose of holding papers which were to be thrown overboard with statements as to longitude and occurrences on the voyage'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.