Back at Beechy

August 18, 2024

Beechy Island

We made it! Finally, we’ve arrived at Beechy Island! Situated at the end of Lancaster Sound and the beginning of Barrow Strait, this island is only an island at high tide, but an island nonetheless. It’s marked by a single cairn on the seaside—a slightly crooked pole that leans as if weary from battling the relentless elements. Behind it, on the slopes of the island, the permafrost preserves a silent witness to one of maritime history’s greatest tragedies: the Franklin Expedition. Four lonely graves overlook the bay, with a fifth unmarked and empty grave adding to the mystery. Even today, people remain puzzled by the cause of this disaster, myself included.

It was here that the Erebus and Terror wintered in 1845/46. After circumnavigating Cornwallis Island, a safe harbor was found in this very bay. The year 1845 had been favorable in terms of ice, and spirits among the crew must have been high. There was no doubt that the two ships would reach the Pacific Ocean by the end of the summer of 1846. Beechy Island was the last known place where the expedition stayed, and nothing was ever heard or seen of them again.

A small note discovered in a cairn some 300 nautical miles to the south reported that the commander had passed away the previous winter, and that the crew was now setting off on foot after two winters trapped in the pack ice of Victoria Strait. Only their bones, scattered over King William Island, provided clues to their fate—an ill one. They dropped like flies, with only a handful making it across to the mainland, where they too perished. They “forged the Northwest Passage with their lives.”

In 2016, the last of the two ships was discovered, bringing some pieces of the puzzle together. Yet, this great mystery still grips the events tightly, and once you’re caught in its hold, it’s hard to let go.

This morning, our destination is the crooked cairn atop Beechy Island, set up by the crew of the Franklin Expedition and still standing today. From the top, we’ll look out over Barrow Strait and try to imagine what these brave souls faced. This afternoon, we will head to John Ross’s cairn, crafted in the same Victorian style.

As Crozier wrote in the note at Felix Point:

“All is well.”

Gijs