This book is a welcome addition to the literature of the ‘Franklin search’ for H.M.S. Erebus and Terror, under the command of Sir John Franklin, which were abandoned in 1848, during the last exploring and scientific expedition to be despatched by the Admiralty in search of the northwest passage. The editor here provides a transcription of 29 documents, all in the public sector, but not necessarily easy to find. She therefore performs a service to historians and to the reader and traveller interested in Arctic North America.
Her introduction, introductory notes, end notes and bibliography, as well as her very personal and informal acknowledgements demonstrate the ground she has trodden in bringing the book to publication. A good start is evident right at the beginning with the four clear and useful maps by Michael Pacey, so often considered unnecessary in similar works. The editor outlines the importance of the collection.
In contrast to explorers' reports, Admiralty Blue Books, and Victorian press editorials on the subject, Lady Franklin's letters offer us the opportunity to read of the tragedy as it unfolded. Her hopes and fears, her devastating acknowledgement of her husband's death, and her efforts to restore Franklin's honour and shine a light on his heroism are revealed in her forceful and elegant prose. As an advocate for all of the missing sailors, Lady Franklin became an enduring symbol of faith and fidelity. Through her letters, she transformed a tragedy – one that many Britons believed was best left forgotten – into a celebration of British fortitude, faith and heroism (page 5).
Furthermore, she maintains that Jane Franklin's letters inspired her contemporaries
. . . . .to persevere with the searches when the Admiralty would willingly have abandoned them, they kept her husband's memory and honour alive in the public imagination; and they provided a heroic template of Sir John Franklin that influenced both the explorers who went in search of him and the writers who later celebrated his adventures. Lady Franklin herself never went north to search for her husband, and all her opinions were based on other people's accounts and reports. But what Victorians learned about the lost Franklin expedition – and thus what we largely know about it today – they learned as a result of her fervour to locate her husband and, if he could not be found alive, to locate his honour in his discovery of the Northwest Passage (page 4).
One cannot help marvelling at Lady Franklin's eloquent pleas to the Admiralty, to Prime Ministers Disraeli and Palmerston. One also wonders not only at her command of English and her knowledge of the geography of the north, often through her friendship with Richards, Richardson and Collinson, but also at her restraint when complaining to the Admiralty about the loss of navigating seasons through their prevarication. Similarly, she witnesses the return of H.M.S. Resolute, restored by the Americans, after her amazing drift from the Arctic, abandoned by Belcher, with a gallant captain ready to continue the search, not accepted by the British authorities. In many ways, Lady Franklin's letters, plus the editor's notes and comments, are more appealing than a biography. Well recommended!
