SIR JOHN FRANKLIN
The
English explorer Sir John Franklin is not really a character in High Spirits.
In fact, later evidence would prove that he was already dead by 1847, a year
before the events which begin this novel. However, Franklin's absence—the
very fact of his mysterious absence—is a driving motivation for the actions of
Dr. Elisha Kane.
Franklin was a British Royal Navy officer who made several attempts to chart a Northwest Passage through the Arctic Sea north of Canada. His first expedition was a disaster. Most of his men died of starvation and Franklin himself was lucky to survive. The desperate attempts of his party to nourish themselves when their food supplies ran out earned Franklin the nickname "The Man Who Ate His Boots."
A second expedition was better supplied and more successful at mapping out the treacherous Arctic coastline. For a time, Franklin retired from the exploration business to serve as Governor of Tasmania. Then, in 1845, he mounted a third expedition into the Arctic waters. Among the provisions which stocked his ship were three years worth of canned food—which were supposed to be his best insurance against starvation and scurvy. Instead, they contributed to the demise of the entire expedition. Inferior soldering on the cans caused lead to leak into the food, slowly poisoning the unsuspecting men.
The Franklin expedition was last seen in July of 1845 and over the next decade, many search parties were sent out on a quest to solve the mystery of its disappearance. Franklin's wife, Lady Jane Franklin was the driving force behind this rescue effort. More ships and men were lost during the search than were lost in the original Franklin party itself. Dr. Elisha Kent Kane participated in two of the rescue missions, once as a ship's doctor and once as the commanding officer.
To learn more about the doomed Franklin expedition and how forensic scientists solved the mystery of its fate, try the following link.
A Multimedia Overview of Franklin's Expedition and the Search for Franklin
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