“Only the Eskimo Knew”: The Irish in the search for Franklin.
Saturday 26th – 1pm-2.30pm
A presentation in traditional song and story by Frank Nugent
In 1845, Sir John Franklin, an Arctic explorer, sailed from England in two ships with over a hundred men in an abortive attempt to find and sail “The Northwest Passage” from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean through the Bering Strait. After leaving the west coast of Greenland, they vanished without a trace. The search for the missing ships went on until 1859. This involved many Irish sailors including Captains Henry Kellett from Fethard, County Tipperary, Robert McClure from Wexford Town and Leopold McClintock from Dundalk. These Irish naval captains had a special interest in finding their countryman and Franklin’s second-in command Captain Francis Crozier from Banbridge, County Down.
It was McClintock’s men who discovered, a message written by Crozier, that the ships had been trapped in ice, that Lord Franklin had died, and that he and his remaining men had abandoned ship and were endeavouring to go overland to Canada. Franklin’s wife, Lady Jane Franklin had raised the funding and organised the ship which McClintock used. As part of Lady Franklin’s publicity to raise money, a song was written, which has evolved to become known as Lady Franklin’s Lament. Many other songs will combine to illustrate this tale of the fate of Franklin and the crews of HMS Erebus and Terror.
Frank Nugent who has climbed and sailed in the Arctic, will relate the story and sing many other songs which combine to tell the story of Franklin, Crozier and their gallant crews and the many expeditions who attempted to rescue them and discover their fate.
Frank Nugent is a mountaineer and was deputy leader of the successful first Irish Everest Expedition (Stelfox 1993); joint leader of South Arís – Irish Antarctic Expedition in 1997 which made the first traverse of South Georgia in the wake of Shackleton in 1916; and a member of the crew of Northabout on the first Irish navigation of the Northwest Passage in 2001. He is an Irish polar and alpine historian and author of two books ‘Seek the Frozen Lands – Irish Polar Explorers 1740-1922’ (Collins Press 2001) and ‘In Search of Peaks, Passes and Glaciers – Irish Alpine Pioneers’ (Collins Press 2011). A life-long traditional singer, he is a regular participant at An Góilín Traditional Singer’s weekly singing sessions in Dublin.