When I look back on that year, I see it all in a warm, brown hue. James, Anne, and I. Cooking and cleaning and brewing tea. Singing and reading and running in the fields. It was strange to remember that there had been a time when we weren’t close.
Frank, James, and Anne all grew up in the same West Sussex boarding school. This is the story of their lives, however short.
Took a while to find it, but here it is. Follow this link and scroll down until you see ’Captain Richard Campbell, RN: The Voyage of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror to the Southern and Antarctic Regions. Captain James Clark Ross, R.N. 1839–1843. The Journal of Sergeant William K. Cunningham, R.M. of HMS Terror April 2009
There you’ll find links to the three part PDF of the journal of William Cunningham, an unofficial account (being a personal journal) of James Clark Ross’s Antarctic expedition. Along with some great ‘extras’ thrown in by the editor in part 3. Even if you’re more interested in the Arctic instead of the Antarctic, this gives a great picture of what life was like on a discovery ship of the mid 19th century. A ship that happens to be the HMS Terror as well. Under Francis Crozier.
Sir John Ross’s version of his failed attempt at the Northwest Passage. As always, keep in mind these books are official accounts and though written by those who participated have a certain aura about them.
One I so truly loved: Francis Crozier in the writings of James Clark Ross
1. “I feel it my duty in a more especial manner to recommend to your Lordships favourable consideration Mr Crozier my first Lieut: whose previous services under the distinguished Sir E. Parry and the high character he maintained … and his having been upward10 years a Lieut: are alone strong claims to your Lordships consideration.” – to Lord Minto, 30 September 1836
2. “The high example of Naval Enterprize that he has on this occasion manifested and the zealous and efficient manner in which he has fulfilled his trying and difficult duties makes me anxious that an officer of such high reputation who has given so many instances of distinguished merit should receive that promotion which it has been the invariable practice of the Admiralty to bestow on the first Lieut. of all the Arctic Expeditions that have hitherto been sent forth.” – to Lord Minto, 30 September 1836
3. “It affords me the highest gratification to acquaint you that I have received the most cordial and efficient co-operation from my well-tried friend and colleague Captain Crozier, and no terms of admiration that I can employ can do justice to his great merit.” – to the secretary of the Admiralty, 7 April 1841
4. “The eastern cape at the foot of Mount Terror was named after my friend and colleague Commander Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier, of the Terror, to whose zeal and cordial co-operation is mainly to be ascribed, under God’s blessing, the happiness as well as success of the expedition.”–p. 219,A voyage of discovery and research in the southern and Antarctic regions, vol. 1, 1847
5. “Under the circumstances we were placed in, it is impossible for others fully to understand the value of having so tried a friend, of now more than twenty years’ standing, as commander of the second ship, upon whom the harmony and right feeling between the two vessels so greatly depends.” –p. 219, A voyage of discovery and research in the southern and Antarctic regions, vol. 1, 1847
6. “Captain Crozier was distinguished for devotion to his duties as an officer, zeal for the advancement of science, and the untiring assiduity and exactness of his magnetic and other observations.”–obituary written for the Royal Society, 1856
Image:Rossbank Observatory by Thomas Bock, c. 1841
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7. “Captain Crozier was of an amiable and cheerful disposition, and his unbending integrity and truthfulness, invariably won the affection and respect of those he commanded as well as the admiration and firm friendship of all those officers under whom he had served.” –p. 5-6, Memoir of the Late Captain Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier, 1859
8.“I was limited to 12 lines to speak of his services. It was hardly possible to say the thousandth part of what I should have like to have said of one I so truly loved.” – to Eleanor Franklin Gell, 20 March 1855.
“I was limited to 12 lines to speak of his services. It was hardly possible to say the thousandth part of what I should have like to have said of one I so truly loved.“
–James Clark Ross, writing to Eleanor Franklin Gell about Francis Crozier, 1855
man you know what i think about a lot, re: the 1829 victory expedition finally being saved by whalers who couldn’t believe who they’d found because “captain ross has been dead these two years”
how was crozier doing while both james ross and blanky were presumed dead
Also, it just occurred to me–some of Crozier’s former shipmates (or expedition-mates at least, they weren’t all on the same ship) did actually die around the same time. Henry Foster (lieutenant on Hecla in 1824-5), George Lyon (captain of Hecla in 1821-23), and Henry Hoppner (lieutenant on Hecla in 1821-23, captain of Fury in 1824-5) all died between 1831 and 1833.
Meanwhile George Ross (Dad Of The Century) was moving to organize a search mission, with good ol’ George Back in charge. It would be be interesting to see if Crozier had any correspondence with either of them at the time!
Crozier was on duty off of Portugal at the time - there certainly hasn’t been enough written about that period of his life - so his ability to follow the news and be involved in any search plans would have been limited, but he certainly could have had SOME contact.
What I think about a lot is that it would be great to have Ross and Crozier’s correspondence form 1833-1835, once Ross was back in England but Crozier was still on assignment. I can’t imagine Ross wouldn’t have written to him, given the fact they were pretty much joined at the hip once they were both able to be in the same place again.
Ross could have chosen anyone to be his second on the Cove in 1836; he had spent four years getting to know how all his shipmates on the Victory handled time in the Arctic, after all. He could have chosen any of them for the Antarctic in 1839 as well; but he chose Crozier for both.
They had been separated for six years - four while Ross was away and then “missing,” and then two while Ross conducted his magnetic survey of the UK and Crozier was in Portugal. And yet for all that, despite everyone Ross had interacted with and all the new people he met, he STILL chose Crozier.
We don’t even need any of their correspondence to infer what their letters and then their reunion must have been like, or how it must have pained Crozier to hear that people thought Ross was dead. But imagine having it! How much of his experience would Ross have written about, and how did he frame it since he could only write it, not tell him in person?* And how long were Crozier’s letters? Did he talk about the mission he was on (which seems to have been diplomatic and kind of secretive)? Did he ramble on with his characteristic displays of honesty and emotion? Just thinking of his letters from before and after, and remembering how much he worried at Ross going on a sledge journey to the North Pole in 1827, while Crozier stayed behind with the ship (“I cannot express the mingled sensations I felt the day I parted from you…”) says quite a bit.
* An aside, regarding Ross telling Crozier about his experiences on the Victory: I was thinking earlier about how the date given for “Ross’s Cairn” on the 1848 addition to the Victory Point Record is incorrect. The record was written by James Fitzjames, but Crozier read and signed it, but did not correct the date. In the grand scheme of the abandonment of ErebusandTerror, that date may not have mattered so much, but for a great friend of Ross to not notice and correct the error … I ended up wondering if that was because Crozier himself did not know! Not knowing the date suggests to me that maybe he didn’t read John Ross’s official narrative of the voyage, but instead heard it all from James, and what he heard would have been personal and filled with anecdotes and experiences, not dates of the building of cairns.
**And, for those of you who really want to feel sad today…
It has not escaped my notice that “James Dear” seems to have been an endearment that comes up late in their friendship. From the letters I’ve been able to read, Crozier used it after their time apart, but not before. This could be just a fluke from scarcity of material, but it is possible that it developed sometime between Ross’s period of disappearance and Antarctica. It seems to me their closeness was indeed strengthened by this period of presumed death.
“I was limited to 12 lines to speak of his services. It was hardly possible to say the thousandth part of what I should have like to have said of one I so truly loved.“
–James Clark Ross, writing to Eleanor Franklin Gell about Francis Crozier, 1855
Rear Admiral Sir James Clark Ross, 1800- 1862, by Alexander Scott after the orignal Portrait placed in the Royal Hospital Greenwich, by Stephen Pearce 1871
new stickers are available on my art store #1and#2 ✨ they include some of the most iconic Terror classics, such as Two Captains in Love, Tozer’s swag, Collins with Baby Seal, and more… ⛵❄️⛵
add “erebus” as a note to your order and get a cheeky secret sticker!!
