COLONIAL EXPLORATION: An extremely rare, frayed section of ...

Hammer

£5,000

COLONIAL EXPLORATION:

An extremely rare, frayed section of Sir John Franklin’s Union Jack Flag with period note stating this was part of the flag unfurled upon reaching the mouth of the Coppermine River on July 20^th 1821.

Sir John Franklin KCH FRS FLS FRGS (16 April 1786 – 11 June 1847) was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. After serving in wars against Napoleonic France and the United States, he led two expeditions into the Canadian Arctic and through the islands of the Arctic Archipelago, in 1819 and 1825, and served as Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land from 1839 to 1843. During his third and final expedition, an attempt to traverse the Northwest Passage in 1845, He commanded H.M.S. Erebus and H.M.S. Terror and was assigned to traverse the last unnavigated sections of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic and to record magnetic data to help determine whether a better understanding could aid navigation, known as Franklin's Lost Expedition the ships became icebound off King William Island in what is now Nunavut, where he died in June 1847. They were abandoned ten months later and the entire crew died, from causes such as starvation, hypothermia, and scurvy.

Twenty-eight years prior to the Lost Expedition Franklin led, the Coppermine Expedition of 1819–1822, which was an overland undertaking to survey and chart the area from Hudson Bay to the north coast of Canada, eastwards from the mouth of the Coppermine River. The expedition was organised by the Royal Navy as part of its attempt to discover and map the Northwest Passage. It was the first of three Arctic expeditions to be led by John Franklin and also included George Back and John Richardson, both of whom would become notable Arctic explorers in their own right. The expedition was plagued by poor planning, bad luck and unreliable allies. The local fur trading companies and native peoples offered less assistance than expected, and the dysfunctional supply line, coupled with unusually harsh weather and the resulting absence of game, meant the explorers were never far from starvation. Eventually, the party reached the Arctic coast but only explored roughly 500 miles (800 km) before turning back due to the onset of winter and the exhaustion of their supplies. The party desperately retreated across uncharted territory in a state of starvation, often with nothing more than lichen to eat; 11 of the 22 members died amid accusations of murder and cannibalism. The survivors were rescued by members of the Yellowknives Nation, who had previously given them up for dead.

10ins. x 7ins. Provenance via direct descent from Rev. Frank Alston who was married to Mary Wright, Sir John’s niece.