Two Irishmen are involved in the latest attempt to find two of the world's most important missing shipwrecks, writes Lorna Siggins
'I REPEATEDLY waved my handkerchief - which I hope you saw." Those were the words of English adventurer, Sir John Franklin to his wife, when he set off in May, 1845, to discover a shorter route to the Pacific than the dreaded southern one via Cape Horn.
Whether she did catch a glimpse of white linen or not, Lady Franklin never saw her husband alive again. His two ships, Erebus and Terror also disappeared. The lost voyage of Franklin en route to the Northwest Passage has remained one of the great mysteries for over a century, and the US and Canada regard the vessels as the world's most important missing shipwrecks. Now two Irishmen are attempting to solve the mystery.
Film-maker John Murray and Dublin sailor Kevin Cronin have recently returned from the first leg of a two-part expedition to the Canadian Arctic, led by Canadian mariner Capt David Woodman. Murray and Cronin were also involved in last year's successful Irish navigation of the Northwest Passage in a 50-foot (15-metre) aluminium boat built in Knock, Co Mayo.
It was there Murray met and interviewed Woodman, who has something of a Franklin obsession. He has made seven trips to the Arctic, and is author of two books on the 1845 expedition. An ex-submariner and diver, he has served on military and civilian ships and is the director of operations and harbourmaster for the Prince Rupert Port Authority.
Murray and Cronin follow in the wake of several Irish explorers who set off in search of Franklin - or his remains. Three relief expeditions supported by the British government set out in 1848, and Lady Franklin also sought help from whaling captains in Shetland, from the tsar of Russia, from President Taylor of the United States, and from a clairvoyant.
Another six search expeditions set sail in 1850, and the graves of three of the 129 crewmen were discovered at Beechey Island, with the dates indicating that Franklin had wintered there in 1845-46.
Hydrogen-filled balloons were launched, addressed to the leader, and foxes were tagged, and in the meantime the award for discovering the Northwest Passage went to a Wexford man, Robert McClure. He had traversed much of it on foot over the ice, and in three different vessels. In 1853-54, almost a decade after Franklin had set sail, John Rae discovered relics of the expedition and heard stories of its fate from the indigenous population of Inuit.
In 1855, Lady Franklin commissioned Leopold McClintock, a British navy lieutenant from Dundalk, Co Louth, to go north again, and he found three corpses, detritus from the crew, and a written record of the death of Franklin and many others which was stowed away in a cairn. It emerged that the second-in-command, Francis Crozier from Banbridge in Co Down, had abandoned the ships after they became trapped in ice, and had made heroic efforts to lead the 105 surviving crew on an unsuccessful march southward. There is speculation that Crozier's body - and documentation on the fate of the expedition - may be buried on King William Island.
In 1903-1906, the Norwegian Roald Amundsen made the first complete voyage of the Northwest Passage in a 47-ton herring sloop, the Gjoa. Amundsen's feat has been repeated many times now, most recently by the Irish team involving Murray and Cronin, which was led by Paddy Barry and Frank Nugent. Death in the Ice is the title of Murray's one-hour documentary on the adventure, which he filmed and directed for RTÉ.
His latest plan for a film on the original 1845 Franklin expedition links in very neatly to the latest search, specifically for the Terror. So, any actual discovery will not only be a bonus - it will make international news. Capt Woodman is nothing if not determined. During the first two weeks of May, the group of three Canadian, two Irish and four Inuit rangers travelled to a location about 160 kilometres west of the town of Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, and spent a fortnight pulling a magnetometer along the ice.
INUIT testimony had identified two possible wreck sites, and it is believed that the ships, which were strengthened for Antarctic and Arctic survey work, may lie in waters to the west of Adelaide Peninsula and between two islands named O'Reilly and Kirkwall. Surveys of the area have already been carried out in 1992, 1997, 2000 and 2001.
In 1997, for instance, two launches from a Canadian Coastguard ice-breaker, Laurier, discovered some copper sheeting and the bottom of a Britannia coffee pot which was only issued to British naval expeditions during a brief period in the mid-19th century. A skull was also found and was confirmed as that of a young Caucasian male who had died over a century ago.
Last month's survey with a magnetometer, which was supported by the Canadian government, also drew information from Inuit testimony. Like the magnet of a compass, a magnetometer reacts to changes in the Earth's magnetic field and can, therefore, pick up the iron used in the hulls and engines of sunken ships. Both the Erebus and Terror had hulls which were reinforced with iron, and were equipped with steam engines.
Speaking to The Irish Times on his return, Kevin Cronin says the team covered quite a lot of ground and collected a stream of data which now had to be analysed by a physicist back in Ottawa, Brad Nelson.
"The idea is that we pick out the promising spots, and then decide whether to dive on them in August," Cronin explains. "We carried out two runs every day over the search area, with two teams out for six hours each." Also with the group were Tom Gross, who has lived in the Arctic and has been involved in five expeditions to King William Island since 1995, and Amie Gibbons, a film technician and experienced sailor who has also participated in a previous water and land search for the Franklin ships.
"We worked very well together in quite difficult conditions, with temperatures of minus 20 degrees Celsius," Cronin says. "We were lucky in that we didn't have much wind, but there was a lot of fog and so the global positioning system (GPS) was vital." Much of the effort went into repairing the gear - comprising the snowmobile fitted with GPS,and the sledge which carried the equipment. "We travelled at about 15 miles an hour in a series of straight lines, but there was a lot of jolting and anything could upset the readings. We had to bring hot water bottles to keep the instruments warm, and several people got frostbite - fortunately, neither of us did," Cronin adds.
The team will meet up again in August for the underwater surveys, in the second leg of their expedition to the Canadian Arctic. Both Cronin and Murray paid for their own participation, but will be seeking sponsorship for their further efforts. "We probably passed over the ships several times," Cronin says, wryly. If they are located? "That's another question . . ."
The Canadian-Irish expedition can be contacted through John Murray, film-maker, at 01-2872622