Resolute (39 page)

It was not until 1912, when vitamins were discovered—and later, when it became possible to diagnose deficiency diseases—that anyone understood which fresh vegetables, meats, and fruits prevented scurvy, and why they did so. By that time, the enigma of the Northwest Passage and the mystery of the disappearance of its most famous seeker had been thoroughly explored, most of the Arctic was no longer unknown, and more brave souls engaged in unlocking these riddles had died of scurvy than from any other cause.

George Back.
By the mid-nineteenth century, the Northwest Passage had still not been found and gigantic blunders had been made, yet the earlier expeditions led by Edward Parry, John Franklin, and John Ross had unlocked significant pieces of the Arctic puzzle. Other seekers of glory had also made notable voyages before the most anticipated and optimistic search of all was launched by John Franklin in 1845.

Significant among them were two journeys made by George Back, voyages that were a microcosm of the often consecutive achievements and disasters experienced by those who challenged the Arctic. A vain and often cantankerous man, Back had severely tested the patience of John Franklin, whom he had served under during the latter's first two ventures into the Arctic—and Franklin was patient and easygoing to a fault. Most of the other early nineteenth-century explorers had found Back equally difficult. But no one could question his courage. He had proved his bravery beyond a doubt when twice his heroics had prevented Franklin's overland journey from becoming a total disaster.

In 1833, Back was given his first command, one directly connected with John Ross's four-winter misadventure. By 1832, Ross had been gone for three years. Not a word from him or about him had been heard. The same question was increasingly being asked throughout England: What had happened to John Ross? The Admiralty was sure that he and his men were dead. But not Ross's brother George, the father of James Clark Ross. A furor erupted when George Ross began to publicly decry the government's reluctance to send a rescue party in search of his brother and his son. Was their disappearance being ignored because John Ross, out of favor with John Barrow, had launched his own private expedition? Informed of the controversy, George Back interrupted his vacation in Italy, rushed home, and volunteered to head a rescue mission. Reluctantly giving in to mounting pressure from the public and the press, the Admiralty granted Back his wish. His modest party of twenty included fellow officer Dr. Richard King, three soldiers, and men recruited from the Hudson's Bay Company.

In 1820, when Back had been with Franklin in Canada, he had sat enthralled as an elderly Indian warrior told stories of a mysterious river that the natives called the Great Fish. Now, Back's plan was to find this river, follow it to its mouth, cross over to Prince Regent Inlet (where he was sure that Ross had gone), and conduct his search for the missing party. The Hudson's Bay Company men, as well as King, were certain that Ross and his men had long since died. Nor did they believe that the mysterious river existed. But it did. And Back found it. Early in 1834, just as he was about to begin following it, he received a dispatch with the startling news that Ross and his men had been found alive. Back now found himself with the opportunity of exploring the unknown territory through which the river passed. Perhaps he would even find the passage.

As he moved down the Great Fish River (now the Back River), Back encountered what he later described as “a violent and tortuous course of five hundred and thirty geographical miles, running through an iron robbed country without a single tree on the whole line of its banks.” The river, he discovered, emptied into a number of lakes that gave him a clear view of distant vistas. He also discovered a body of water that he named Chantrey Inlet. Now he could see the lands that John Ross had named Boothia Felix and King William Land. If he could have explored them, perhaps he would have confirmed John Clark Ross's contention that Boothia Felix was a peninsula and would have found that King William Land was an island, information that would have changed the entire nature and outcome of the search for the passage. But by this time he was running out of supplies and had to make his way back to England.

He arrived back in England in 1835, and a year later he returned to the Arctic, this time in the 340-ton
Terror.
His intention was to spend the winter in Repulse Bay and then explore the far shore of Melville Peninsula. What followed was one of the most horrifying experiences that any of the Arctic adventurers had yet endured.

Back and his crew sailed from England in June 1836. Only six weeks later they became surrounded by an enormous ice field. They would remain trapped in the field for the next ten months. For four of these months the
Terror
would sit precariously perched atop what Back would describe as “an icy cradle,” continuously lifted in and out of the water onto the floes. In the spring, when the ice began to break up, Back and his men, who had accomplished nothing on their journey except barely managing to survive, were, for the first time, hopeful of at least returning safely home. Suddenly, however, when they were still deep in the Arctic, the
Terror
was struck by a submerged iceberg that splintered the ship. Realizing that he had no chance of reaching England safely, Back headed for the Irish coast. Miraculously, he was able to ground his vessel on an Irish beach just before it fell apart. He would never return to the Artie.

Setting the Stage for Franklin.
Between 1837 and 1839, two Hudson's Bay Company men, Thomas Simpson and Peter Dease, had completed an expedition that many believed had resulted in a survey of much of the remaining unknown areas of the Northwest Passage. John Franklin's orders, in fact, called for him totravel along the large part of the Arctic coastline that Simpson and Dease had mapped.

Although the Hudson's Bay Company had been formed primarily as a fur-trading enterprise, from the beginning it had engaged in the exploration of the North, as witnessed by Samuel Hearne's significant achievements. Also, on several occasions the company had provided important aid to the Admiralty's passage-seekers. And although its original charter dealt mostly with matters relating to the fur trade, it also mandated that the company should do whatever it could to discover a northwest passage.

The two men that the Hudson's Bay Company selected to conduct the 1837 expedition were not strangers to the northern wilderness. As secretary (and cousin) to the company's governor, George Simpson, Thomas Simpson had accompanied his relative on tours throughout the Hudson Bay territory. Extremely fit and energetic, Thomas Simpson was one of the most ambitious men in the company's employ. A much calmer man than Simpson, Peter Dease had a past history with John Franklin. It was he who had supplied Sir John with important information about the topography and the weather during Franklin's first overland Arctic expedition. And it was he who had contributed to the success of Sir John's second expedition by providing counsel regarding the supplies that Franklin needed to take with him.

Starting out in February 1837, the first objective of the Simpson-Dease expedition was to travel on foot and by small boat from the Athabasca region to Point Barrow. By July 31, 1837, the small party was about halfway there, but Dease and some of the others had become totally exhausted. Refusing Dease's plea that they turn back, Simpson, with five men, plunged on, tracing and mapping the Arctic coast as he went. On August 4 the Point was reached, an accomplishment that Simpson, in a classic overstatement, would celebrate by proclaiming, “I and I alone have the well-earned honour of uniting the Arctic to the great western ocean.”

Making his way back from Point Barrow, Simpson reconnected with Dease and during the next two years they traced the Arctic coast from north of the Coppermine River all the way to the Gulf of Boothia. When they were finished, a considerable amount of the remaining blank spaces on the Arctic map had been filled in. Neither Simpson nor Dease would ever receive the acclaim of a Parry or a Franklin or a James Clark Ross, but, in truth, they had unlocked Arctic mysteries as important to finding the passage as those uncovered by any of their predecessors.

In the fall of 1839, buoyed by what he had accomplished (he never gave any credit to Dease), Simpson was certain that he was on the verge of finding the passage. One more expedition should do it. Stating that “I feel an irresistible presentiment that I am destined to bear the Honourable Company's flag fairly through and out of the Polar Sea,” he petitioned the Hudson's Bay Company for permission to undertake another exploration as soon as possible. This time he wanted no Peter Dease to accompany him. “Fame I will have,” he wrote, “but it must be alone.”

It was fame that the Company was only too happy to try to give him. Nothing would please its directors, and particularly its governor, George Simpson, more than snatching the great prize away from the British navy. In response to his request, the Company sent a letter to Simpson, congratulating him on his accomplishments, approving the next expedition, and granting him sole command.

Simpson would never receive the letter. While it was on its way, he met a sudden and violent death. To this day, it is not clear exactly what happened. What is known is that on June 14, 1840, while riding through Dakota Sioux country with a group of four heavily armed, mixed-race porters, he died from a bullet wound to the head. Was it suicide, as an official report would later conclude? Or had the cantankerous Simpson angered his traveling companions one time too many? The “fame alone” he sought would never be his. But nothing could take away the fact that he had, it seemed, set the final stage for others to sail into glory.

George Simpson
&
the HBC.
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), one of the oldest commercial organizations in the world (and today Canada's largest department-store retailer), was formed shortly after two English-sponsored French fur traders and explorers, Mèdard Chouart, Sieur des Groseilliers, and his brother-in-law Pierre Esprit Raddison, made a profitable trading expedition to Hudson Bay. HBC's charter, granted by England's King Charles II in 1670, gave the company a trading monopoly covering an enormous region that included much of present-day western Canada and parts of what is today the northern United States. Building the company meant opening up trading posts throughout the vast region, and that meant exploring territory into which no other white men had ever set foot. In establishing these posts, early HBC adventurers such as Henry Kelsey (the discoverer of the Canadian plains) and Samuel Hearne (the discoverer of the Coppermine River), established a tradition of courage and daring that would be the hallmark of scores of company men who followed.

The beginning of the Hudson's Bay Company's rise to commercial success can be traced to 1820, when George Simpson assumed the first of several positions that quickly led to his being appointed governor of HBC operations in North America, a post he would hold for more than forty years. An able administrator, Simpson was also a skilled negotiator and, shortly after becoming governor, he scored one of his greatest achievements. For years, the Hudson's Bay Company's one major North American competitor was the North West Company. It was a rivalry so bitter that on several occasions it had erupted into open warfare. Simpson immediately saw the necessity of bringing North West into HBC's fold. Through skilled and iron-fisted maneuvering he was able to do just that. When this had been accomplished, he held a dinner to bring the former enemies together.

It was an extraordinary event—men who had tried to kill each other, who had, on occasion, held each other captive, sitting down to dine as members of the same organization. One observer described it this way: “Men found themselves vis-à-vis, across the narrow table, who had lately slashed each other with swords, and bore the mark of combat. I noticed one Highlander … whose nostrils seemed to expand as he glared at his mortal foe, and who snorted, squirmed and spat… he and his enemy opposite being as restless as if each was sitting on a hillock of ants.” Somehow, Simpson not only kept the dinner from turning into a bloodbath, but was able to attain the improbable goal of getting the men from both organizations to work together for the good of the now greatly enlarged Hudson's Bay Company.

He was equally successful in the establishment of the trading posts. Nicknamed the “Little Emperor” because he was short in stature and long on giving orders, he was a stern taskmaster who pushed his traveling crewmen to extremes, demanding that they journey quickly from one trading post to another. Equally demanding on himself, he visited every wilderness post in his realm and twice traveled completely across the continent. His travels were made mainly by canoe and were accomplished in a style befitting his imperial manner. As he toured his vast empire in his own narrow-beam, twenty-six-foot, banner-waving “Express Canoe,” he was accompanied by a crew of eight expert Iroquois voyageurs and his personal bagpiper and bugler.

George Simpson would play an important role both in the hunt for the passage and the search for Franklin. Always painfully blunt, he had been openly critical of Sir John's leadership of the 1821 overland expedition, and even more of Franklin's selection as commander of the most ambitious search yet launched. “Lieut. Franklin, the officer who commands the party,” he had written, “has not the physical powers required for the labor of moderate Voyaging in this country; he must have three meals per diem, Tea is indispensable, and with the utmost exertion he cannot walk Eight miles on one day.”

Simpson was, in fact, critical of the way in which, in his opinion, most of the British navy's passage-seeking expeditions had been bungled and was convinced that his two Company men, his nephew Thomas Simpson and Peter Dease, had accomplished more toward unlocking the secrets of the passage than any of John Barrow's explorers. When pressed, however, he was willing to lend support to the Admiralty, and his willingness to permit the Company's John Rae to join in the Franklin search would eventually prove a major contribution to finally solving the mystery of Sir John.