The First Expeditions to Lady Franklin Bay, Northeast Ellesmere Island, N. W. T., Canada

Abstract

Notes dating from the British Arctic Expedition of 1875 and the U.S. Army's Lady Franklin Bay Expedition of 1881 to 1884 were found by the author on Ellesmere Island. The first note, typed on board H.M.S. Discovery by Captain Stephenson on March 10, 1876, was found in 1971 in a cylinder near the cairn on the summit of Mt. Campbell, Bellot Island. Two other notes were found together in one cylinder at Record Point on Archer Fiord in 1972. The first of these is dated August 15, 1882, and was deposited by Lt. J. B. Lockwood, U.S.A., of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, who removed an earlier note left by Lt. Archer, RN, from H.M.S. Discovery in the spring of 1876. Lockwood returned to Record Point the following spring and on April 29, 1883, deposited an extensive handwritten note prepared at Fort Conger on March 26, 1883, by Lt. A. W. Greely. The Greely/Lockwood note describes the excellent condition of the expedition personnel and their accomplishments at that time. It also includes meteorological observations from August 1881 to July 1882. Facsimilies of the notes appear in the paper. The history of the two expeditions is briefly recounted and the tragic end of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition described. Only seven out of Greely's party of 25 survived the winter of 1883–84 after the failure of a supply ship to reach them in 1883.