Entangled among the reefs off the coast of Queensland, the Porpoise ran on shore, became a wreck, and young Franklin found himself one of 94 souls on a sandbank. Flinders went in an open boat to Port Jackson, 750 miles off, and returned with help, and eventually Franklin got a passage in a vessel bound for Canton, with the object of returning home in one of the East India Company’s ships. He was taken on board the Earl Camden, Commodore Dance, and sailed with the China fleet of merchantmen, when as signal midshipman he took part in an ever-memorable action. In the Straits of Malacca the French Admiral Linois was encountered with a line-of-battle ship and three frigates, and after a sharp fight the French retreated, and were chased for three hours by the English merchantmen.
In 1804 Franklin joined the Bellerophon at the blockade of Brest, and on the 21st of October, 1805, was at the battle of Trafalgar, when he was once more signal midshipman. His next service was on board the Bedford, escorting the royal family of Portugal to Rio. He became a Lieutenant in 1808 and served in the Walcheren expedition. In 1813 he convoyed a fleet of merchantmen to the West Indies, and his last war service was a severe but successful action with American gun-boats near New Orleans.
Franklin gladly accepted the appointment offered to him by the Colonial Office to take command of an expedition to co-operate with Hudson’s Bay Co. in exploring the north coast of America and surveying it. His colleagues were Dr Richardson, who had sole charge of the natural history work; two midshipmen named Back and Hood, selected for their proficiency as artists, and a blue-jacket named Hepburn. Other members of the expedition were to be engaged in the country, Hudson’s Bay men and Canadian voyageurs.
George Back was then aged 22. He had entered the navy in 1808 on board the Arethusa, and served in boat actions on the north coast of Spain, where in his last fight 14 of his crew were killed out of 18. Back was taken prisoner while making an attack on a battery of heavy guns at Lequeitio and was detained at Verdun until 1814. On regaining his liberty he served in the Akbar under Sir J. Byam Martin at Flushing, and afterwards on the North American station. He passed for Lieutenant in 1817, and in the following year joined the Trent under Franklin in the Spitsbergen voyage. Franklin gladly secured the gallant young officer’s services again for his first land expedition.
It was a difficult task, as the narrative of Hearne made sufficiently clear. The explorers were to discover the north coast of America from the mouth of the Coppermine eastward. The party reached York Factory in Hudson’s Bay in August, 1819, and Fort Chipewyan early in 1820. In July they were at Fort Providence on the north-east side of the Great Slave Lake, and early in August they set out for the Coppermine river, wintering at a station which was built on Winter Lake, and called Fort Enterprise. The fatigue and difficulty of travelling thus far were enormous. Franklin calculated that all the portages, each having to be traversed four times, made together 150 miles.
One of the North West Co.’s men having joined the expedition, the party now consisted of six Englishmen and twenty-six others, principally Canadian voyageurs. Franklin arranged with the Indians that, on his return, there should be supplies of food and Indians at Fort Enterprise.
The descent of the Coppermine river was then commenced, and the mouth was reached on the 21st of July, 1821. Franklin and his gallant companions then embarked on the polar sea in their frail bark canoes. It was a rock-bound coast, fringed with masses of ice which rose and fell with every motion of the tempestuous sea, and the undertaking was in the highest degree perilous in canoes only fit for lake navigation. Franklin nevertheless persevered in the discovery of the coast-line until the 18th of August, when he felt obliged to begin the return voyage. Their provisions were nearly run out, and they were disappointed at not meeting with any Eskimos, from whom they might have obtained supplies. Their furthest point was named Point Turnagain, and was 6½° of longitude to the east of the mouth of the Coppermine. Franklin decided to land in Arctic Sound, at the mouth of a river he had named after Hood, and make direct for Fort Enterprise, rather than return by the Coppermine. He hoped to find more game by the new route. The canoes were broken up in order to construct smaller and lighter boats for carrying round the portages, and they left the banks of the Hood river on the 3rd of September, making straight for Fort Enterprise. The country proved to be stony and barren, there was no game, and their stock of provisions was soon exhausted. All they had to subsist on was tripe de roche, a noxious unwholesome lichen. At last, on the 10th of September, after six days of starvation, a herd of musk oxen was seen, and one was killed.
Affairs were so serious that young Back volunteered to make his way to Fort Enterprise and send back Indians with the supplies that had been ordered to be collected there. Back started on the 4th of October, Fort Enterprise being then 24 miles distant. The rest followed, several in a state of extreme weakness. Some of the men got weaker every day. At last it was settled that Dr Richardson, with Hood and Hepburn, should remain with the sick, while Franklin, with the stronger men, went on to Fort Enterprise for help.
Franklin, living on tripe de roche, took four days to reach Fort Enterprise and, on his arrival, found to his horror and dismay that there were no Indians there, no provisions, and that the place was quite abandoned. There was a hurried note from Back saying that he had gone on in search of Indians, and that if he found none, he intended to walk to Fort Providence. He added that it was doubtful whether, in his debilitated condition, he could make the journey. The temperature at Fort Enterprise was 15° to 20° below zero.
On the 29th Dr Richardson and Hepburn quite unexpectedly arrived at Fort Enterprise. They had a sad tale to tell. They were the only survivors of their party, the others having died of cold and starvation. But the horrors were made far more appalling by the crimes of a Canadian voyageur named Michel. There was little doubt that he had murdered two of his comrades, and feasted on their bodies, getting fat and strong while the others became weaker every day, and were at his mercy. He then shot Hood through the head, while the others were away collecting tripe de roche, and they found the body of their murdered friend on their return. Their only chance of survival now was the death of Michel. Dr Richardson undertook the duty, and shot him. The two survivors then walked on to Fort Enterprise. Here they all remained in the last stage of starvation until on the 7th of November three Indians arrived with food, having been sent by Back, and their lives were saved. The Indians treated the starving explorers with the greatest kindness, attending to all their wants until they arrived at Fort Providence on the 11th December.