Franklin, Sir John (1786-1847), an English explorer, led several expeditions to the Arctic region. He lost his life during an expedition to find the Northwest Passage, a northern water route across North America.
Franklin was born on April 16, 1786, in Lincolnshire, England, and joined the British Navy at the age of 15. He was a midshipman on Matthew Flinders‘s voyage around Australia from 1801 to 1803. In 1819, Franklin explored the mouth of the Coppermine River, in what is now northern Canada, while leading his first Arctic expedition. He led his second expedition to the Arctic in 1825 and 1826.
From 1836 to 1843, Franklin served as lieutenant governor of Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania, Australia), a British prison colony. Conflicting political interests in the colony contributed to strain between Franklin and colonial officials, and he was dismissed in 1843. As lieutenant governor, Franklin became interested in the colony’s social and cultural welfare. For example, he further developed Tasmania’s educational system and promoted science. Franklin’s wife, Lady Jane Franklin, also took an active interest in the colony’s social and cultural life. Her causes included the advancement of education, agriculture and botany, and the humane treatment of convicts. Christ’s College, a natural history museum, and a society for the advancement of science were founded during the Franklins’ time in Tasmania.
In 1845, Franklin led the best-equipped expedition to enter the Arctic up to that time. He discovered a Northwest Passage, but he died during the expedition, on June 11, 1847. His crew also died during the expedition. When no one returned from the voyage, the British Admiralty, Lady Franklin, and others sponsored dozens of expeditions to search for Franklin and his crew. Lady Franklin herself financed and outfitted five ships. She also worked to organize and secure contributions for the search effort. As a result of this search effort, large areas of the Arctic were newly explored and mapped. A search party led by Sir Robert McClure crossed the Northwest Passage during an expedition from 1850 to 1854. Later, explorers found evidence of Franklin’s party and reconstructed his voyage. In 2014, searchers discovered one of Franklin’s two lost ships, the HMS Erebus, near King William Island in Nunavut. In 2016, searchers found Franklin’s second ship, the HMS Terror, in Terror Bay, King William Island, north of where the Erebus was found.
