Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, Kevin Burke, and "Lord Franklin": "I dreamed a dream and I thought it true"

"Lady Franklin's Lament" is a popular English folk song that is known alternatively as "Lord Franklin." The lyrics are attributed to Lady Jane Franklin (December 4, 1791-July 18, 1875), the amiable, devoted, and indomitable widow of Lord John Franklin (April 16, 1786-June 11, 1847), who led an ill-fated expedition in 1845 in search of the Northwest Passage, an elusive sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by way of the seasonally transformative Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The tune is an old traditional Irish melody, "Cailín Óg a Stór" ("Young Maiden, My Dear"), dating from 1582.

With its poignant lyrics and haunting melody, "Lady Franklin's Lament" has remained a popular folk sing since its first appearance around 1850 to 1853. (NOTE: It is also the tune to which American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan [born May 24, 1941] set the lyrics to his 1963 ballad, "Bob Dylan's Dream.") Many influential singers and bands have performed and recorded this moving tribute to Lady Franklin, Lord Franklin, and the "gallant crew" of the Erebus and Terror, including:

***English folk singer-guitarist Martin Carthy (born May 21, 1941);

***English folk singer-guitarist-fiddler Nic Jones (born January 9,1947);

***English singer-saxophonist-songwriter Pippa Marland with her Celtic-folk-jazz band, Carmina;

***Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O'Connor (born December 8, 1966) with the world-renowned Grammy-winning Irish band, the Chieftains;

***Irish singer-guitarist-folklorist Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, first with the Bothy Band and then in duet with renowned fiddler Kevin Burke (born 1950);

***English guitarist/songwriter John Renbourn (born August 8, 1944) solo and with his folk-jazz-rock band, Pentangle

Mícheál Ó Domhnaill and Kevin Burke

The rendition that has garnered a strong and growing following is the one sung by the late great Irish musician Mícheál Ó Domhnaill (October 7, 1951-July 7, 2006). Esteemed music critic Earle Hitchner has described the Bothy Band's "Lord Franklin," with Mícheál's vocals, harmony from Mícheál's sister Triona, and multi-talented Irish musician-producer Dónal Lunny on bouzouki, as the version "against which all others will be forever judged" ("A Quiet Man: Micheal O Domnhaill, 1951-2006," Irish Echo, July 19, 2006).

Although I have not heard the Bothy Band’s recording, I personally heard Mícheál perform “Lord Franklin” with Sligo-style fiddler extraordinaire Kevin Burke in a packed Midwestern coffeehouse many moons ago. I have never forgotten that performance. The rowdy coffeehouse quieted to awed silence as Mícheál’s gentle, soulful, flowing vocals and flawless, clear guitar playing, in combination with Kevin’s evocative fiddling, perfectly captured the wistful spirit of the song in a way that no other musician has ever achieved.

I agree wholeheartedly with Earle Hitchner’s assessment, as well as with the beautiful observation made by frankmck45 in the notes to his YouTube video of Mícheál and Kevin’s recording of the song from their magnificent, unforgettable “Promenade” (1979) album: “I have around 8 versions of this on CD but this one, for me, is the one that plants the pictures in my head and the intro is amazing."

Frankmck45's video may be accessed after the lyrics, which are given in the next section of this hub. Please take the time to listen to this heartfelt version.

We were homeward bound one night on the deep
Swinging in my hammock I fell asleep
I dreamed a dream and I thought it true
Concerning Franklin and his gallant crew

With a hundred seamen he sailed away
To the frozen ocean in the month of May
To seek a passage around the pole
Where we poor seamen do sometimes go.

Through cruel hardships they vainly strove
Their ships on mountains of ice were drove
Only the Eskimo in his skin canoe
Was the only one that ever came through

In Baffin's Bay where the whale fish blow
The fate of Franklin no man may know
The fate of Franklin no tongue can tell
Lord Franklin with his sailors do dwell

And now my burden it gives me pain
For my long-lost Franklin I would cross the main
Ten thousand pounds would I freely give
To say on earth, my Franklin do live.

Arctic Expedition: The Northwest Passage, 1845-1847

After (Sir) James Clark Ross (April 15, 1800-April 3, 1862) returned from his successful 1839 to 1843 expedition to Antarctica, the Admiralty decided to organize an expedition to discover once and for all the Northwest Passage through the ice-cluttered, labyrinthine Arctic archipelago that had confounded explorers for centuries. On February 7, 1845, the appointment of expedition commander finally fell upon Sir John Franklin, who had led two previous arctic expeditions --- the Coppermine River Expedition of 1819 to 1822 and the Mackenzie River Expedition of 1825 to 1827, after which he was knighted in April 1829 --- and had previously assisted in the North Pole via Spitsbergen Expedition of 1818 under the command of Captain David Buchan (1780-c. December 8, 1838).

Assigned as captains to this prestigious Northwest Passage venture were Francis Crozier from Ireland and James Fitzjames from Scotland.

Given charge of H.M.S. Terror as second-in-command, Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier (September 1796-c. 1848) had extensive, exemplary polar experience, having captained from 1841 to 1844 on Ross’s Antarctic expedition.

Known for a quick sense of humor, James Fitzjames (born 1813-1847/8) had a noteworthy career which included experience with steam engines. Third-in-command, he was assigned to captain H.M.S. Erebus.

H.M.S. Erebus and H.M.S. Terror

The two bomb vessels --- H.M.S. Erebus and H.M.S. Terror --- that had starred in the successful Ross Antarctica Expedition were assigned to the expedition, and further state-of-the-art improvements, such as the addition of steam engines, desalinators, and additional reinforcements to the hull, were quickly made. The towering praise heaped on the vessels’ enhancements and the extreme confidence expressed in the sure success and complete infallibility of these technological advancements eerily replicate similar grandiose sentiments expressed sixty-seven years later for another disastrous maritime enterprise, the maiden voyage of R.M.S. Titanic on April 10, 1912.

Sailing from Greenhithe down the Thames on May 19, 1845, Erebus and Terror were escorted by Barretto Junior, a supply transport ship, to the Disko Bay Danish whaling station on Whalefish Island along Greenland’s western coast. At that point the 134-member expedition was reduced to 130 by the discharge of four of the crew, because of illness and other reasons, for return to England. The vessels were joined in northern Baffin Bay on July 25, 1845 by two whaling ships, Enterprise and Prince of Wales, commanded respectively by Captain Robert Martin and Captain Dannett. Several friendly visits ensued, during which the whalers were entrusted with letters to distribute to the expedition’s families back home.

In his last letter, sixteen sides of quarto paper in length, dated from July 1 to July 12, 1845, to his wife, John, who was deeply religious, ended with his usual invocation of the universe's highest power who, as the expedition would eventually understand again and again, works in most mysterious ways:

“I have written to each of my dearest friends to comfort and assist you with their best counsel. To the Almighty’s care I commit you and dear Eleanor [John’s daughter from his first marriage to British Romantic poet Eleanor Anne Porden (July 14, 1795-February 22, 1825)]. I trust He will shield you under His wings and grant the continual aid of His Holy Spirit. Again, that God may bless and support you both is and will be the constant prayer of your most affectionate husband, John Franklin.” (Henry Duff Traill, p. 351)

Unbeknownst to any of these parties, a farewell get–together hosted by Prince of Wales on July 26, 1845 would stand for more than five years as the last sighting or news that any one anywhere throughout the world --- outside of indigenous peoples of the Canadian Arctic vastness --- would have of “Franklin and his gallant crew.” An extract of the whaling ship’s log was printed in a London newspaper on October 27, 1845:

“At 8 p.m. received on board ten of the chief officers of the expedition under the command of Captain Sir John Franklin, of the Terror and Erebus. Both ships’ crews are all well, and in remarkable spirits, expecting to finish the operation in good time. They are made fast to a large iceberg, with a temporary observatory fixed upon it. They were in latitude 74 degrees 48 minutes, longitude 66 degrees 13 minutes W.” (Henry Duff Traill, p. 352)

In 1845: Disko Bay (5) to Beechey Island and around Cornwallis Island (1)

In 1846: Beechey Island down Peel Sound between Prince of Wales Island (2), Somerset Island (3), the Boothia Peninsula (4) and near King William Island

Disko Bay (5) is about 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) from the MacKenzie River (6).

John’s instructions directed him to set off from Cape Walker on the northeast coast of Russell Island in Barrow Strait

“. . .to the southward and westward towards Bering Strait in as straight a line as is permitted by ice or any unknown land. . . .This route offers the best prospect of discovering a North-West Passage, because the ice seen at Cape Dundas, Melville Island, appeared to be fixed and very heavy. But should a permanent obstruction be found to the southward of Cape Walker. . .consider the alternative of passing between Cornwallis Island and North Devon if the strait (i.e., Wellington Channel) between them is open.” (Richard J. Cyriax, pp. 45-46)

In summer 1847 Scottish whaler William Penny (1809-February 1, 1892) conducted the first search, albeit unofficial, for the Franklin expedition but his progress south through the Lancaster Sound was impeded by adverse wind and sea conditions.

After two years of unabated silence from the arctic, mounting concern over the whereabouts of the expedition prompted the Admiralty to organize three simultaneous expeditions, all of which failed to uncover a single trace:

1) Sir James Clark Ross (April 15, 1800-April 3, 1862), commanding H.M.S. Enterprise and leading H.M.S. Investigator, to proceed through Lancaster Sound, 1848-1849

2) Captain Thomas Edward Laws Moore (1819-May 1, 1872), commanding H.M.S. Plover, to anchor at an eastern terminus in the Bering Strait, 1848-1852

3) Scottish naval surgeon-naturalist-arctic explorer Sir John Richardson (November 5, 1787-June 5, 1865) to journey overland to the arctic coast, 1848-1849

Austin-Penny Discoveries, 1850-1851

Three more expeditions were organized:

1) (Sir) Horatio Thomas Austin (1801 – 16 November 1865), commanding H.M.S. Resolute, H.M.S. Assistance, H.M.S. Pioneer, and H.M.S. Intrepid, and Scottish whaler William Penny (1809-February 1, 1892), commanding H.M.S. Lady Franklin and H.M.S. Sophia, to retrace west from Lancaster Sound

They were joined by three private expeditions:

a) Charles Codrington Forsyth (c. 1810-1873) onboard Prince Albert, under Lady Franklin’s sponsorship

b) Sir John Ross (June 24, 1777–August 30, 1856) onboard Felix, under the partial sponsorship of the Hudson’s Bay Company

c) Lieutenant Commander Edwin Jesse De Haven (May 7, 1816-May 1, 1865), commanding two U.S. brigs, Advance and Rescue, under the sponsorship of American merchant-philanthropist Henry Grinnell (February 13, 1799-June 30, 1874)

2) (Sir) Richard Collinson (November 7, 1811-September 13, 1883) and (Sir) Robert John Le Mesurier McClure (January 28, 1807–October 17, 1873), to head east from the Bering Strait

3) Scottish physician John Rae (September 30, 1813-July 22, 1893), under Hudson’s Bay Company sponsorship, to travel overland 

The Austin-Penny armada scoured the southern and northern shores of Lancaster Sound. On August 23, 1850, one of Austin’s captains, (Sir) Erasmus Ommanney (May 22, 1814-December 21, 1904), came across the first traces of Franklin’s expedition: a cairn with nearby detritus (clothing rags, preserved meat tins, etc.) at Cape Riley on Devon Island’s southwestern shore. Later that day on the adjacent, minuscule Beechey Island Lieutenant Sherard Osborn (April 25, 1822-May 6, 1875) located a large cairn that the searchers tore down

“. . .every stone turned over, the ground underneath dug up a little, and yet, alas! no document or record found.” (Sherard Osborn, The Polar Regions: Or a Search After Sir John Franklin’s Expedition, p. 82)

(A cairn [from Irish carn, Scottish Gaelic càrn, Welsh carnedd] is a manmade pile of rocks that were constructed in the arctic as landmarks and as repositories for messages, supplies, etc.)

Other items found on Devon Island included newspaper scraps dated September 1844, paper fragment with the words “until called,” and torn mittens.

Then on August 27, 1850 the searchers had a major breakthrough on Beechey Island: a line of three headstones facing Cape Riley.

Further searching late into the summer revealed that the lost expedition had wintered for 1845 to 1846 on Beechey Island: remains of a forge, a large storehouse, tenting sites, smaller structures. Another large cairn was found that was constructed of over 700 discarded food tins filled with gravel.

Admiralty Notice of Presumed Death of the Lost Expedition, January 18, 1854

On January 18, 1854, the Admiralty issued Order No. 263, which stated:

“It is directed that if they are not heard of previous to 31 March 1854, the Officers & Ships companies are to be removed from the Navy List & are to be considered as having died in the service. Wages are to be paid to their Relatives to that date. . . .”

On January 20, 1854, the Admiralty’s notice was printed in the London Gazette.

On his third expeditionary search to determine the whereabouts of Lord Franklin and his men, John Rae learned vaguely from an Inuit on the Boothia Peninsula in April 1854 that a number of white men had died of starvation near a large river to the west. The Inuit sold him a gold cap band that allegedly had been removed from one of the corpses. First completing his survey in the vicinity of Cape Porter and discovering as well as naming Rae Strait between King William and the mainland, thereby proving the insular --- instead of peninsular --- status of King William Island, Rae then headed to Repulse Bay to seek substantiation prior to presenting this sad information to the Admiralty. There on May 26, 1854 a party of Inuits informed him that previously some of their tribe had encountered about forty white men, who were starving and to whom the tribe had sold seal meat, on King William island’s southern coast. Later that year the tribe had found thirty bodies on the mainland and five on nearby Montreal Island close to the Back River. The Inuit informants possessed numerous objects --- such as monogrammed silverware and one of Lord Franklin’s medals --- that had been retrieved from the corpses, and they also claimed that the last survivors had engaged in cannibalism.

John Rae purchased as many relics as possible from the Inuits and returned to England with them. His information met with a doubtful yet repelled reception there and cast a pall over the lost expedition that has lingered alongside the general fascination with the fate of the doomed explorers.

Every search expedition between 1848 and 1853 was entrusted by Lady Franklin with a personal letter to be delivered to her husband whenever and wherever he was found. The first such letter was dated May 8 and 9, 1848, by which date her beloved husband was, tragically, already long deceased. The fervency with which Lady Franklin attempts to maintain hope in the desired outcome of the search comes poignantly and powerfully through in her touching words:

“If the prayers of all who love you have availed with that merciful God whose ear is ever open to the cry of all who trust to Him, you will yet be spared to us. . . .

“God bless you, my own dearest love. How ardently we pray for you, you will not doubt. It was settled between us and the Bishop of Tasmania, who has lately left us, that on July 16 next prayers should be put up in Van Diemen’s Land [John was lieutenant governor there, 1836-1843] in every church and chapel for you and all the expedition. . . .You will be welcomed back with joy and honour by your friends and family and country, most of all by your affectionate and devoted wife.”

Many letters later in May 1850 Lady Franklin’s hope was thinning, and she clearly was concerned about the rigors of survival for five years in the hostile Arctic landscape:

“. . . .If you are only restored to us in any way, enfeebled as you may be, I shall bless God for the mercy. If you live to read this and receive my fondest blessing, I will thank Him still. I desire nothing but to cherish the remainder of your days, however injured and broken your health may be, but in all cases I will strive to bow to the Almighty will and trust in His mercy for reunion in a better world.” (Henry Duff Trail, pp. 419-420)

After John Rae returned in 1854 with relics and dire news of the starving expeditionists, diminished to one-third of their original numbers, Lady Franklin ceased writing letters, for she realized that the worst outcome had in all probability occurred. She then devoted her considerable energies to gleaning whatever evidence still existed, and continued to hope, as did many others, that John's grave would be located and that the expedition's log and other valuable records would also be found.

Irish explorer Admiral (Sir) Francis Leopold McClintock (July 8, 1819-November 17, 1907), commanding the steam yacht Fox, was enlisted to lead the fifth expedition sponsored by Lady Franklin. On May 5, 1859, the expedition had its first breakthrough at Victory Point. Lieutenant William Robert Hobson (1831-1880) came across a six-foot-tall cairn on King William Island’s northwest coast. The cairn was surrounded by four-foot-high piles of blankets, broken bottles, clothing, cooking utensils (kettles, pans), mattresses, rusted meat tins, tools, and other items.

First message: "Sir John Franklin commanding the expedition. All well."

Dismantling the cairn, Lieutenant Hobson found a sealed tin at its base. Enclosed within the tin was one sheet of the standard Admiralty record that was to be completed and deposited in noticeable terrestrial places or into sea currents in secure containers, such as message bottles or cairns, by naval officers as official communications for submission to the Admiralty by whoever located them. The instructions on the sheet were printed in six languages (English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, German). The English instructions directed:

“WHOEVER finds this paper is requested to forward it to the Secretary of the Admiralty, London, with a note of the time and place at which it was found; or, if more convenient, to deliver it for that purpose to the British Consult at the nearest Port.”

Two separate messages were handwritten on the sheet. The first message began on the blank lines above the instructions and was neatly completed in the margin at the bottom:

28 of May 1847. HM Ships Erebus and Terror wintered in the ice in Lat. 70-05’ N. Long. 98-23’ W. having wintered in 1846-47 at Beechey Island in lat. 74-43’-28” N. Long. 90-39’-15” W., after having ascended Wellington Channel to Lat. 77, and returned by the west side of Cornwallis island. Sir John Franklin commanding the expedition. All well. Party consisting of 2 officers and 6 men left the ships on Monday 24^th May 1847.

Gm. Gore, Lieut.

Chas. D. DesVoeux, Mate

Second message: "Sir John Franklin died on 11th June 1847....start on tomorrow 26th for Back's Fish River"

The second message was dated eleven months later and was written in the two side and top margins of the sheet:

April 25^th, 1848

HM’s Ships Terror and Erebus were deserted on 22^nd April, 5 leagues N.N.W. of this, having been beset since 12^th September 1846. The Officers and crews, consisting of 105 souls, under the command of Captain F.R.M. Crozier, landed here in Lat. 69-37’-42” N., long. 98-41’ W.

Sir John Franklin died on 11^th June 1847; the total loss by deaths in the Expedition has been to this date 9 officers and 15 men.

James Fitzjames, Captain HMS Erebus

F.R.M. Crozier, Captain and Senior Officer

And start on tomorrow 26^th for Back’s Fish River

Forty pounds of chocolate, five Bibles, and The Vicar of Wakefield

Forty-five miles and six days later on May 11, 1859, Lieutenant Hobson’s search party made a devastating, gruesome discovery on the island's west coast: perched on top of an oak sled was a pinnace (small sailboat) with two corpses inside. The jumbled body in the bow had been partially devoured. Sprawled twenty-five feet away in the stern, the second body was intact and warmly dressed.

A bizarre effect, that amplified the horror of the scene, was produced by the strange assortment of supplies that had been loaded into the boat. In the stern, five gold watches clumped at the corpse’s right foot, and two double-barreled shotguns, each with one barrel loaded and primed, swung out over either side of the stern. Also nearby were a bizarre array of items, including canvas and wool clothing, 40 pounds of chocolate, powder shot cartridges, and 26 pieces of silverware (11 silver forks, 11 silver spoons, 4 silver teaspoons) identified through personal crests as belonging to John and nine of his officers. Near the mangled body were silk handkerchiefs, handworked slippers, soap, towels, five Bibles, and The Vicar of Wakefield, a novel written in 1761-1762 by Irish author Oliver Goldsmith (November 10, 1730-April 4, 1774) that was popular with Victorians for its melodramatic triumph of good over evil. In the bilge was a miscellany of equipment, personal items, and tools, ranging from eight pairs of boots, brushes and combs, knives, nails and saws to two rolls of sheet metal and twine.

Entangled with the gruesome, horrific, incomprehensible scene was a curiosity that baffles to this day. Why was the sled pointed northeast, in the direction of the Victory Point cairn, instead of towards the purported destination, Back's River?

One of Lady Franklin’s last efforts to commemorate John was to have a memorial set up in the Chapel of St. John the Evangelist in Westminster Abbey. She had hoped to write John’s epitaph but the right words eluded her, so a verse was composed by Alfred Lord Tennyson (August 6, 1809-October 6, 1892), who had married John’s niece, Emily Sarah Sellwood (July 9, 1813-August 10, 1896).

Completed and unveiled on July 31, 1875, two weeks after Lady Franklin’s death, the memorial was sculpted by Matthew Noble (1818-June 23, 1876), the creator of the bronze statue of John Franklin that was unveiled in London’s Waterloo Place on November 15, 1866. Set in an alabaster niche, the memorial was comprised of a bust of white marble, with the inscription of FRANKLIN on its base, and beneath the bust a ship trapped in ice was carved in relief with words from an ancient hymn, “Benedicite”:

“O ye frost and cold, o ye ice and snow, bless ye the Lord: praise him and magnify him forever.”

Also included was Lord Tennyson’s epitaph:

“Not here! The white North has thy bones; and thou,

heroic sailor-soul,

art passing on thine happier voyage now

toward no earthly pole.”

The memorial bears two further inscriptions:

To the memory of Sir John Franklin, born April 16, 1786, at Spilsby, Lincolnshire, died June 11, 1847, off Point Victory in the frozen ocean. The beloved chief of the gallant crews who perished with him in completing the discovery of the North-West Passage.

The second inscription was composed by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (December 13, 1815-July 18, 1881), Dean of Westminster:

This monument was erected by Jane, his widow, who, after long waiting, and sending many in search of him, herself departed, to seek and find him in the realms of light, July 18, 1875, aged 83 years

The search for answers, including the locations of Erebus and Terror, continues to this day.

Owen Bevery Beattie, Forensic Anthropologist, University of Alberta

In August 1984 Owen Beverly Beattie (born June 3, 1949), a University of Alberta professor specializing in forensic anthropology, exhumed the body of John Torrington, the expedition's first death. Laboratory analysis of samples of the young sailor's rib and radius bones, hair, right thumbnail, and brain tissue revealed high levels of lead.

In June 1986 the bodies of William Braine and John Hartnell were exhumed. Laboratory analysis of their bone, hair, and tissue samples yielded the same results.

In examining ten tin cans collected from Beechey Island, Professor Beattie's team discovered that the sealing of the side seams of some of the tins was incomplete. Improper sealing results in spoilage of the food contained therein.

From Sloppy Soldering to Lead Poisoning

Patent no. 3372 was issued on August 25, 1810 to merchant Peter Durand for food preservation in glass, pottery, tin, or other metal containers, so this food preservative innovation was only in its third decade at the time of Franklin's expedition. Durand specialized in tin containers, and in 1812 he sold his patent to Bryan Donkin (March 22, 1768-February 27, 1855) and John Hall of the firm of Donkin, Hall & Gamble.

On April 1, 1845 the contract for providing 9500 cans of meat and vegetables and more than 20,000 cans of soup within 60 days was awarded to the lowest bidder, the unscrupulous Stephan Goldner of Goldner's Patent Preserved Provisions on Houndsditch Road in Whitechapel, a notoriously overcrowded, appalling slum in London's East End. Goldner's bid was voraciously lower than that of his primary competitor, the firm of Donkin, Hall & Gamble (later merged into Crosse & Blackwell), which had been regularly supplying quality provisions to the Admiralty for decades.

Captain Fitzjames expressed concern over an unfamiliar victualler winning such a plum contract on the basis of submitting the lowest bid, but, tragically, his concern fell on deaf ears --- the ears of those who were making decisions about the expedition but who would be comfortably ensconced in their cozy Victorian homes and would dine there with their family and friends on delicious home-cooked meals or would be fêted at banquets with multi-course gourmet delicacies, while the expedition members themselves would be struggling for their lives in a brutal environment that was rendered more insurmountably hostile by the fatal deterioration of their mental and physical faculties.

H.M.S. Erebus and H.M.S. Terror

In 1992 the unknown locations of Erebus and Terror were designated as a National Historic Site under the management of Parks Canada (Parcs Canada), the governmental agency which is charged with protecting Canada's natural and cultural heritage.

In August 2008 Parks Canada's Underwater Archaeology Service (UAS) conducted its first expedition in search of the two vessels. Parks Canada led a second expedition in August 2010. CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier, a Canadian Coast Guard ice-breaker, was deployed for both expeditions.

This hub is dedicated to the memory of Micheál O'Domhnaill as well as to "Lord Franklin and his gallant crew."

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

My special thanks are extended to:

* William Battersby for "Franklin Expedition News and Views," his incomparably well-researched blog, and for his dedication to exploring the depths of this tragic event

* frankmck45 for making "Lord Franklin Micheál O'Domhnaill" available on YouTube

* Mícheál’s sisters, Tríona and Maighread, and his surviving brother, Conall, for sharing their superbly talented brother with his admirers through his memorial website

* Russell A. Porter for his incomparably informative and well-written blog, "Visions of the North," and for the warm generosity with which he shares his Arctic/Franklin collection and knowledge on the Internet

Beattie, Owen, and John Geiger. Buried in Ice: The Mystery of a Lost Arctic Expedition. New York: Scholastic, 1992.

_________________________. Frozen in Time: Unlocking the Secrets of the Franklin Expedition. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1987.

Cyriax, Richard J. Sir John Franklin’s Last Arctic Expedition. London: Methuen, 1939.

Day, Alan Edwin. Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Northwest Passage. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2006.

Hickey, Clifford G., James M. Savelle, and George B. Hobson, “The Route of Sir John Franklin’s Third Arctic Expedition: An Evaluation and Test of an Alternative Hypothesis,” Arctic, Vol. 46, No. 1 (March 1993), pp. 78-81. http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic46-1-78.pdf

Markham, Albert Hastings. Life of Sir John Franklin and the North-West Passage. London: G. Philip, 1891.

McClintock, Francis Leopold. The Voyage of the "Fox" in the Arctic Seas: A Narrative of the Discovery of the Fate of Sir John Franklin and His Companions. Philadelphia: Porter and Coates, 1859.

Potter, Russell A. Visions of the North: The Terrors of the Frozen Zone, Past and Present. http://visionsnorth.blogspot.com/

Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia: South Australian Branch. Session 1903-1904. Vol. VII. Adelaide: Vardon & Pritchard, Printers, Gresham Street, 1904.

Stein, Glenn M. "Photography Comes to the Polar Regions --- Almost." http://www.antarctic-circle.org/stein.htm

Traill, Henry Duff. The Life of Sir John Franklin, R.N. London: John Murray, 1896.

Woodman, David. Strangers Among Us. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1995.

Copyright April 12, 2011 by Stessily