Death in the Arctic
The other Beechy Island graves
Beachy Island is a small island that lays off the remote northern coastline of Canada that attracts tourists who go for one reason, other than the outstanding natural beauty of the area, and that is the graves of the three seaman from the Franklin expedition that passed away in 1846.
Petty Officer John Torrington, Able Seaman John Hartnell and Private William Braine RMLI died of various causes exacerbated by lead poisoning and buried out in the snowy abyss. They were exhumed in 1986 by Owen Beattie’s expedition and autopsies carried out to determine causes of death and their overall condition, but there is a fourth grave with them.
Thomas Morgan, the fourth in the line, was not a member of the Franklin expedition but rather one of the many sailors who signed on missions to the Arctic to try and find the lost Franklin expedition and then, as time went by, for evidence for what have happened to the crews of Terror and Erebus.
As most of the attempts were centred around the eastern side of the North West passage Commander Robert McClure attempted the passage from the other side to try and see if the expedition had made it further through than had previously believed. The HMS Investigator left Woolwich in January 1850 and headed south, coming around Cape Horn and then heading up the west coast of the Americas, via Hawaii, until they reached Alaska.
Their attempts to find Franklin began but to no avail and much like the unfortunate Franklin, the Investigator became locked in pack ice and unable to move despite attempts to carefully manoeuvre through it. They settled in for a year, waiting for the ice to melt and clear which finally happened in July 1851.
McClure took Investigator south and eventually ordered the ship anchored to an iceberg in an attempt to protect it from the pressing pack ice. They ended up taking up winter quarters from September 1851-April 1852.
Having been at sea since 1850 the food supplies were starting to run down and a new option had to be looked at. McClure and seven men set out to try and reach Melville Island where they believed other British explorers might be but on the 7th May they returned empty handed.
Rescue would arrive the next year on April 6th 1853 as Lieutenant Bedford Pim of HMS Resolute (one of Sir Edward Belcher’s ships) stumbled on a force of men digging a grave for the first casualty of the McClure mission, John Boyle. Both vessels lay not far away from each other and McClure crossed the ice to Pim and two months later the Investigator was abandoned and both crews consolidated aboard the Resolute.
The following spring a force of sailors made it to Beechey Island where they found the North Star. It was here on 22 May 1854 that Able-bodied Seaman died aboard the North Star. He was one of the first Europeans to make the North West passage, the prize that Franklin and his men had died trying to attain, but Morgan would never get home and continues to rest on Beechey Island.
In contrast, McClure returned to England where he was court martialed for losing his vessel but pardoned and awarded the prize money and given a knighthood.
Elsewhere on the island is yet another grave and this one belong’s to Joseph Rene Bellot, a French Naval Officer who also died in the search for Franklin.
Born in Paris and raised in Rochefort before joining the French Naval College in Brest at the age of 15 and quickly caught the eyes of his superiors for excellent work and ability. He would go on to earn the Legion of Honour during the Anglo-French expedition to Madagascar (1845) whilst aged 19, before taking part in the Anglo-French blockade of Rio de la Plata.
By 1851, Bellot had signed up to one of the searches to find the lost Franklin expedition and served under Captain William Kennedy and had spent time preparing himself by sleeping on bare boards without a matress and only a thin blanket. Ultimately this would not be enough for an Arctic winter it was more training then many of the other of the adventurers who headed up into the frozen wastes. Bellot continued to shine in this venture and won over an inuit they encountered by making him a false leg to assist the disabled man.
His greatest achievement in the Arctic was an exploratory journey with Kennedy by dog sledge which began in February 1852. They travelled from their base at Batty Bay to Brentford Bay where a Strait was named after him. From there they crossed Prince of Wales Island to Ommanney Bay and then moved via Peel Sound and Cape Walker to complete their 1,100 mile journey. He would wrote a journal of this epic journey which was published in 1854.
He was promoted to Lieutenant in early 1852 before volunteering to join Inglefield’s mission to find Franklin the same year. He continued to shine on the expedition with his superiors noting his devotion to duty and intelligence but his glittering career would end in tragedy. On the 18th August 1853, aged 27, Lieutenant Joseph Bellot was attempting to reach Sir Edward Belcher with two comrades. Whilst moving across the frozen Wellington Channel he slipped through a gap in the ice and disappeared.
Napoleon III personally granted a pension for his family whilst in Britain £2000s was raised by the Royal Geographical Society with £1500 being given to his five sisters whilst the other £500 was used to build a granite memorial to him in front of the Greenwich hospital. It was a sad end and for a young officer who had a glittering career ahead of him.
As for the three main graves, I’ve already written a brief biography of John Hartnell, a sailor from Gillingham, and fully intend on writing something on Torrington and Braine in the following weeks.