Captain Francis Crozier
Page 23
In 1851, the artist, Stephen Pearce, painted a revealing picture of the Arctic Council showing a group of ten luminaries, including Ross, Parry and Richardson all poring earnestly over charts at the Admiralty. On the wall, portraits of Barrow, Franklin and even Fitzjames gaze hopefully down at the venerable gathering. Crozier, unaccountably, was not considered worthy of inclusion.
On the moon, however, Crozier is to be found among the select band of men whose role in shaping the history of polar exploration has been saluted by the naming of lunar landscapes after them. Crozier’s name, at last, stands alongside those of the most celebrated polar explorers of any age: Cook, Parry, Ross, Nansen, Amundsen, Scott and Shackleton.
The Crozier monument, Banbridge, erected in 1862, to ‘perpetuate the remembrance of talent, enterprise and worth as combined in the character and evinced by the life of Captain Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier’.
Appendix
Francis Crozier: A Chronology
1796
c.17 September: born at Avonmore House, Banbridge, County Down, Ireland, the fifth son of George and Jane Crozier.
1810
12 June: enlists in Royal Navy: joins HMS Hamadryad.
1812
Serves on HMS Briton.
1814
May: first voyage around Cape Horn. September: visits Pitcairn Island.
1816
Serves on HMS Meander and Queen Charlotte.
1817
Obtains certificate as mate.
1818
Serves on HMS Dotterel.
1821
Volunteers as midshipman on Fury for Parry’s second North West Passage expedition.
8 May: Fury sails from England. October: Fury and Hecla winter at Winter Island, Melville Peninsula.
1822
7 July: Fury and Hecla released from Winter Island. July: Fury and Hecla Strait sighted. October: Fury and Hecla winter at Igloolik.
1823
12 August: Fury and Hecla leave Igloolik.
14 November: Fury and Hecla arrive in London.
1824
Joins Hecla for Parry’s expedition to North West Passage.
19 May: Fury and Hecla leave England. September: Fury and Hecla commence winter stay at Port Bowen, Prince Regent Inlet.
1825
20 July: Fury and Hecla released from Port Bowen.
25 August: Fury abandoned and stores cached at Fury Beach, Cresswell Bay, Somerset Island. October: Hecla returns to England.
1826
March: promoted to lieutenant.
1827
March: joins Hecla for Parry’s North Pole expedition.
25 March: Hecla leaves England.
11 May: elected Fellow of Royal Astronomical Society.
20 June: Hecla anchored at Hecla Cove, West Spitzbergen under joint command of Crozier and Lieutenant Foster. July: makes depot-laying journey to Little Table, Walden and Phipps Islands.
23 September: Hecla reaches Britain.
1831
26 April: joins HMS Stag.
1835
23 December: joins HMS Cove.
1836
6 January: Cove sails from Hull. April–August: Cove searches Davis Strait for missing whalers.
31 August: Cove returns to Hull.
1837
10 January: promoted to commander.
1839
Appointed commander of HMS Terror for Antarctic expedition.
25 September: Erebus and Terror sail for Antarctica.
1840
15 August: Terror reaches Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania).
12 November: Erebus and Terror depart Van Diemen’s Land.
1841
1 January: Crossed Antarctic Circle for first time.
15 August: promoted to captain.
1843
September: Erebus and Terror return to England.
1845
March: appointed captain of Terror and second-in-command of North West Passage expedition.
19 May: Erebus and Terror sail from London.
29–31 July: last sightings of Erebus and Terror in Baffin Bay. October: Erebus and Terror winter on Beechey Island.
1846
July–August: Erebus and Terror leave Beechey Island. August: Erebus and Terror enter Peel Sound.
12 September: Erebus and Terror trapped in Victoria Strait.
1847
11 June: assumes command of expedition.
1848
22 April: Erebus and Terror abandoned.
26 April: begins march towards Great Fish River.
1848
Date unknown: dies in vicinity of King William Island.
References
Abbreviations
NMM
National Maritime Museum, London
PRONI
Public Record Office North Ireland, Belfast
RGS
Royal Geographical Society
SPRI
Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge
Chapter 1: A Bond with History
1
Sir Walter Scott, The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott (Frederick Warne and Co.), p. 600.
2
George Crozier and Jane Elliott Graham, the parents of Francis Crozier, had thirteen children: Rachel, Martha, Eliza, Jane, Sarah, William, George, Thomas, John, Charlotte, Francis Rawdon Moira, Margaret, Graham.
3
W.A. Maguire, The Downshire Estates in Ireland 1801–1845 (Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 209.
Chapter 3: Seizing the Moment
1
Ann Parry, Parry of the Arctic (Chatto and Windus, 1963), p. 72.
2
John Barrow, Voyages of Discovery and Research Within the Arctic Regions (John Murray, 1846), p. 236.
3
Royal Society, 7 December 1843.
Chapter 4: A Promise
1
Pierre Berton, The Arctic Grail (Viking Penguin, 1988), p. 49.
2
William Edward Parry, Journal of a Second Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage in the years 1821–23 (John Murray, 1824).
3
David C. Woodman, Unravelling the Franklin Mystery (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1991), pp. 44, 195.
4
Ibid. p. 195.
Chapter 5: Fatal Errors
1
Pierre Berton, The Arctic Grail, op. cit. p. 56.
Chapter 6: Wreck of the Fury
1
Sir Leopold McClintock, The Voyage of the ‘Fox’ in Arctic Seas (John Murray, 1859), p. 88.
2
Ann Parry, Parry of the Arctic, op. cit. p. 93.
Chapter 7: North Pole Trek
1
Frank Nugent, Seek the Frozen Lands (The Collins Press, 2003), p. 35.
2
Ibid.
Chapter 8: Arctic Rescue
1
Ernest S. Dodge, The Polar Rosses (Faber and Faber, 1973), p. 139.
2
HM Cove logbook, National Archive, London.
3
A.G.E. Jones, Polar Portraits (Caedmon of Whitby, 1992), p. 238.
4
James Clark Ross to Admiralty, 30 September 1836, RGS.
Chapter 9: South
1
Maureen Peters, Jean Ingelow: Victorian Poetess (Boydell Press, 1972), p. 103.
2
Early Crozier Memorials, published privately c. 1830, revised c. 1870, PRONI.
3
May Fluhmann, Second in Command: A Biography of Captain Francis Crozier (Government of Northwest Territories, 1976), p. 39.
4
M.J. Ross, Ross in the Antarctic (Caedmon of Whitby, 1982), p. 28.
5
May Fluhmann, Second in Command, op. cit. p. 41.
Chapter 10: Flirting with Love
1
Francis Crozier to Sarah Crozier, 31 January –8 February 1840, SPRI.
2
Frances Woodward, Portrait of Jane: A Life of Lady
Franklin (Hodder and Stoughton, 1951), p. 228.
3
Ibid. p. 365.
4
Frank Debenham, ‘The Erebus and Terror at Hobart’, Polar Record, no. 3 (1942).
5
Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Sir John Franklin in Tasmania (Melbourne University Press, 1949), p. 249.
Chapter 11: An Epic Voyage
1
Roald Amundsen, The South Pole (Hurst & Co., 1912), vol. 1, p. 12.
2
M.J. Ross, Ross in the Antarctic, op. cit. p. 93.
3
Apsley Cherry-Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World (Penguin, 1983), pp. 277–356.
4
Michael Smith, Polar Crusader – Sir James Wordie (Birlinn, 2004), p. 242.
5
James Clark Ross, A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern Antarctic Regions during the years 1839–43 (John Murray, 1847), p. 322.
Chapter 12: Dangerous Waters
1
Hobart Town Advertiser, 7 May 1841.
2
Ernest S. Dodge, The Polar Rosses, op. cit. p. 203.
3
Hobart Town Advertiser, 4 June 1841.
4
M.J. Ross, Ross in the Antarctic, op. cit. p. 117.
5
Ibid. p. 164.
Chapter 13: Trembling Hands
1
Ibid. p. 187.
2
Ibid. p. 206.
3
Early Crozier Memorials, op. cit.; Crozier family history, Banbridge Genealogy Services.
4
James Clark Ross, A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern Antarctic Regions, op. cit. p. 368.
5
Dr J.S. Crone, ‘Distinguished Downshire Men – Captain Crozier’, Northern Whig, 9 October 1906.
6
Ibid.
7
Ibid.
8
The watch can be found at the National Maritime Museum, London.
Chapter 14: ‘I Am Not Equal to the Hardship’
1
M.J. Ross, Ross in the Antarctic, op. cit. p. 217.
2
Frank Debenham, ‘Erebus and Terror at Hobart’, Polar Record, no. 3 (1942).
3
Francis Crozier to James Ross, 4 October 1844, SPRI.
4
Ibid.
5
May Fluhmann, Second in Command, op. cit. p. 73.
6
Richard Cyriax, Sir John Franklin’s Last Arctic Expedition (Arctic Press, 1997), p. 19.
7
Sir Leopold McClintock, The Voyage of the ‘Fox’ in Arctic Seas, op. cit. p. xxxv.
8
Francis Crozier to James Ross, 30 December 1844, SPRI.
9
Francis Crozier to Charlotte Crozier, 19 February 1845, PRONI/SPRI.
10
Pierre Berton, The Arctic Grail, op. cit. p. 142.
11
Francis Crozier to James Ross, 30 December 1844, SPRI.
12
Francis Crozier to Charlotte Crozier, 19 February 1845, PRONI/SPRI.
Chapter 15: A Sense of Tragedy
1
May Fluhmann, Second in Command, op. cit. p. 82.
2
John Cyriax, Sir John Franklin’s Last Arctic Expedition, op. cit. p. 47.
3
Pierre Berton, The Arctic Grail, op. cit. p. 149.
4
Hugh N. Wallace, The Navy, the Company and Richard King (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1980), p. 57.
5
Frances Woodward, Portrait of Jane, op. cit. p. 253.
6
Early Crozier Memorials, op. cit.; Crozier family history, Banbridge Genealogy Services.
Chapter 16: The North West Passage
1
Francis Crozier to James Ross, 9 July 1845, SPRI.
2
Ann Savours, The Search for the North West Passage (Chatham Publishing, 1999), p. 192.
3
Francis Crozier to John Henderson, 4 July 1845, NMM.
4
Pierre Berton, The Arctic Grail, op. cit. p. 146.
5
Richard Cyriax, Sir John Franklin’s Last Arctic Expedition, op. cit. p. 58.
6
Frances Woodward, Portrait of Jane, op. cit. p. 252.
7
Pierre Berton, The Arctic Grail, op. cit. p. 146.
8
Francis Crozier to James Ross, 9 July 1845, SPRI.
9
Sir Leopold McClintock, The Voyage of the ‘Fox’ in Arctic Seas, op. cit. p. xlv.
10
Francis Crozier to Henderson, 4 July 1845, NMM.
11
Francis Crozier to James Ross, 9 July 1845, SPRI.
12
Francis Crozier to Henderson, 4 July 1845, NMM.
13
Ibid.
14
Francis Crozier to James Ross, 9 July 1845, SPRI.
Chapter 17: Ice
1
Anne Thwaite, Emily Tennyson: The Poet’s Wife (Faber and Faber, 1996), p. 166.
2
May Fluhmann, Second in Command, op. cit. p. 106.
3
Sir Leopold McClintock, The Voyage of the ‘Fox’ in Arctic Seas, op. cit. p. 244.
Chapter 18: ‘No Cause for Alarm’
1
Hugh N. Wallace, The Navy, the Company and Richard King, op. cit. p. 73.
2
Ernest S. Dodge, The Polar Rosses, op. cit. p. 226.
3
James Ross to Francis Crozier, 6 January 1848, SPRI.
4
Ann Ross to Francis Crozier, 6 January 1848, SPRI.
5
Hugh N. Wallace, The Navy, the Company and Richard King, op. cit. p. 75.
Chapter 19: Breakout
1
Sir Leopold McClintock, The Voyage of the ‘Fox’ in Arctic Seas, op. cit. p. 262.
Chapter 20: A Slow Execution
1
Ibid. p. 252.
2
Woodman, David C., Unravelling the Franklin Mystery, op. cit. p. 137.
3
Ibid. p. 124.
4
Roald Amundsen, My Life As An Explorer (Wm. Heinemann, 1927) p. 230.
5
Ibid. p. 61.
Chapter 21: Last Man Standing?
1
Chauncey Loomis, Weird and Tragic Stories: The Story of Charles Francis Hall, Explorer (Macmillan, 1971), p. 191.
2
Ibid.
3
Frances Woodward, Portrait of Jane, op. cit. p. 341.
4
Farley Mowat, Ordeal by Ice (Little Brown, 1960), p. 323.
Chapter 22: The Unsolved Mystery Endures
1
H.D. Traill, The Life of Sir John Franklin (John Murray, 1896).
2
Lloyd-Jones, Ralph, ‘The Paranormal Arctic: Lady Franklin, Sophia Cracroft and Captain and “Little Weesy” Coppin’, Polar Record, no. 37 (2001).
3
Frances Woodward, Portrait of Jane, op. cit. p. 285.
4
Ann Savours, The Search for the North West Passage, op. cit. p. 273.
5
C. Stuart Houston, Arctic Ordeal: The Journal of John Richardson, 1820–22 (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1984), p. 150.
6
Ibid. p. 217.
7
Sir Leopold McClintock, The Voyage of the ‘Fox’ in Arctic Seas, op. cit. p. 246.
Chapter 23: A Fitting Memorial
1
Frances Woodward, Portrait of Jane, op. cit. p. 273.
Bibliography
Books and Articles
The volume of books written over the centuries about exploration of the Arctic and Antarctic regions is too vast to detail here. A great many of these books, including contemporary accounts written by the explorers themselves, were consulted in the preparation of this book, and the list below shows those which were m
ost helpful. It is by no means comprehensive and should be considered as purely a personal choice.
Amundsen, Roald, My Life As An Explorer (Wm. Heinemann, 1927).
Amundsen, Roald, The South Pole (Hurst & Co., 1912).
Barrow, John, Autobiographical Memoir (John Murray, 1847).
Barrow, John, Voyages of Discovery and Research Within the Arctic Regions (John Murray, 1846).