following in the footsteps of @bomburjo,@radiojamming, and others before me, i now present to you a ranking of blanky’s Looks throughout the terror. i apologize for image quality, as the very definitely legal service i’m using to get my screenshots doesn’t have the best quality.
Go For Broke Command Meeting - 6/10. an okay look. this is probably the most clean-shaven blanky gets in the series, and frankly i like him better with the beard. points for glaring at fitzjames every time he says something rude to crozier and for demonstrating excellent drift compatibility.
Nighttime Chat - 7/10. there we go, there’s the beard! it’s a little too dark to see exactly what he’s wearing but blanky doesn’t change up his look too much, so one can assume it’s his usual coat, which is very cute. some points off because it’s difficult to see him, but some points back for the pretty moonlight and his laughter. blanky’s cackles warm my heart better than an industrial space heater.
Big Ol’ Hat and Vest - 8/10. i love this outfit. so much. god he looks so silly. i bet it’s warm as hell, but still. some points off because the scene was very frustrating to screenshot properly - it’s so dark and there’s so much camera movement. let us bask in the glory of his ridiculous woolly hat, dammit.
New Leg, New Me, aka Fury Beach Speech, aka The Sexiest Scene in the Show - 10/10. the hair! the suspenders! the leg! the absolute lack of a shit given! the raw sexuality of openly saying you might’ve split your superior officer’s head open with a boat axe for being a prick! i have to fan myself while i watch this scene. also, suspenders are sexy, don’t @ me.
Carnivale - 10/10. he’s swigging spirits out of his prosthetic leg. he’s dressed as bacchus. the Smirk. he’s the life of the party and he is here for a good time, if not a long time.
Walkin’ Out In Style - 8/10. the coat! the cane! they might have an 800 mile walk ahead of them, but blanky is ready for the runway. love the hair peeking out under the hat, too.
Discovering the NWP Sweater - 500/10. that PATTERN. the SUSPENDERS. his hair is a mess but he makes it work. he’s got that perfect salty sea dog look and he’s grinning like he’s just won the lottery. this is a perfect blanky right here, folks, no doubt about it.
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On this day, 19 May 1845, Franklin’s Arctic Expedition sailed out from Greenhithe.
A few days before, on 16 May, all of the officers of the HMS Erebus plus Captain Francis Crozier of HMS Terror had their Daguerreotype portrait taken. Fitzjames wrote to Wiliam Coningham:
Erebus Greenhithe Friday
16th May
My dearest William
[…]
She [Lady Franklin] has taken it into her
head to have a portrait of
all our officers, & sent a man
down who takes us all with the
Daguerreotype - I have got a
second for Elizabeth to whom
I shall send it when set.
I believe it is very like me
The other known Daguerreotype is either in private hands or lost. Only a photographic copy exists.
Colourisations by Ross’ Restorations. Give him a follow on Instagram for more amazing colourisations.
About Graham Gore Fitzjames said that “he plays the flute dreadfully well”
Apparently Fitzjames owned a flute as a teenager but never had much time to actually play it. He took it with him on the HMS Pyramus and HMS St Vincent.
After that we hear no more of the flute.
[Detail from: The Interior of a Midshipman’s birth, 1821 Print, after Captain Frederick Marryat, British Museum]
Fitzjames mentions the flute in a few letters:
HMS Pyramus June 29th 1826
Dearest Uncle
You no doubt expected a letter from me yesterday but I could not get on board till to day — so I did not write — I arrived quite safe at Portsmouth on Tuesday Morning, but when I got here I had to pay 10 Shillings for they said that when I was booked you only paid 10 Shillings. I told them that I paid a sovereign & they kept my luggage till I had paid it — I forgot the ink Powder but got every thing else quite safe — Mr Sterling got me a very nice flute indeed and I have got it quite safe
—–
HMS St Vincent Decr 20th 1830
My Dear Uncle
I am now comfortably on board, and am a little more accquainted with my messmates some of them, indeed all of them, are very nice fellows, and I think I shall be very comfortable. I have a good birth for my desk, and one of the mates has allowed me to keep my flute and several other things in his cabin.
—-
To William Munn [a friend/neighbour from Blackheath]
In the Bosphorus HM Cutter Hind
April 10th 1832
[…] The flute gets on slowly as I have not much place & time to play. You must be quite a professor by this time.
[Detail from: ‘Master B finding things not exactly what he expected’, the midshipman arrives on board ship; study for an illustration to 'The Life of a Midshipman’, 1820 Drawing by Captain Frederick Marryat, British Museum]
Thanks@marryat92 for pointing me to these wonderful illustrations
InMay We Be Spared to Meet on Earth: Letters of the Lost Franklin Arctic Expedition everybody will be able to read Fitzjames’ original last letters to the Coninghams. This is the publication history of the edited letters, including some quotes and images of the original ones:
When transcribing Fitzjames’ first surviving letter of September 21st 1825 to his uncle Robert Coningham, William Battersby misread “my dear Aunt” for “my dear Rumb” (p. 37), and developed the theory that Rumb could be a nickname for Fitzjames’ Portuguese nurse. (p. 29 and 31).
Now that I have seen the original letter I can say that the words clearly say “my dear Aunt”, meaning Louisa Coningham.
Suspected but now confirmed: James Fitzjames did not only have a red beard, he was a redhead as well! This fragment from William Coningham’s December 20th 1835 letter to Fitzjames, written at the family home in Chorleywood, Hertfordshire, confirms it:
They are all fond of you here even Will Wyat asks after the red headed young gentleman as he knew formerly -
First image: daguerreotype of James Fitzjames, May 1845, colourised by Ross Day, National Maritime Museum Greenwich
Second image: excerpt from letter by William Coningham to James Fitzjames, Caird Library Greenwich
Third image: watercolour portrait of James Fitzjames, May 1835 by Lieutenant Robert Cockburn, Euphrates Expedition, Yale Center for British Art, USA
To give you an idea why William Coningham thought it best to edit James Fitzjames’ letters, this is how Fitzjames describes Second Master Henry Foster Collins:
In 1859 William Coningham published his friend/cousin/otherwise related James Fitzjames’ last letters to William and his wife Elizabeth. But not before editing them as Fitzjames makes some unkind remarks about his colleagues. The original letters are on microfilm at the Caird Library, and will appear in the long awaited ‘Franklin Expedition letters book’ entiteled May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth: Letters of the Lost Franklin Arctic Expedition, out July 2022.
Besides his famous doodles in letters, Fitzjames was quite the talented artist, as is evident in his Euphrates Expedition drawings that were published as lithographs in Chesney’s book.
