Fascinated by childhood stories of a noteworthy maritime relative, Angus Wardlaw has written a novel about his crucial role in one of the world’s greatest seafaring mysteries.
By Claire Vaughan
The neat copperplate reads, “28 May 1847. Ships Erebus and Terror wintered in 1846 at Beechey Island. Sir William Franklin commanding the expedition. All well.” The two ships’ coordinates were logged in the same hand. But around the margins of this age-yellowed, dog-eared Admiralty form are scrawled notes added later, some faded or lost to the elements.
One, dated 25 April 1848, states, “The officers and crews consisting of 105 souls under the command of Captain F. R. M.
Crozier landed here… Sir John Franklin died on the 11th of June 1847 and the total loss by deaths in the Expedition has been to this date 9 officers and 15 men.” And finally: “And start on tomorrow 26th for Backs Fish River.”
This is the Victory Point Note. It gives a glimpse into the unfolding of a disaster that still has us baffled and horrified today. It was found years later by a search party led by Francis McClintock under a message cairn at the north-west tip of King William Island in Canada’s Arctic Archipelago, and is the most tantalising clue as to what became of the 1845 Franklin Expedition.
Former soldier and creative director in advertising Angus
Wardlaw has a special interest in the note, now kept at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, South-East London – just across the water from where he lives on a barge (rmg.co.uk/national-maritime-museum). He explains that he is a relative of
Francis Crozier, who captained HMS Terror on the Franklin voyage and later the expedition.
FAMILY STORIES
“I remember as a child my grandmother talking about Antarctica and then the Arctic. She and my father mentioned
Sir John Franklin and my father
told me, ‘You’re related to
Crozier, the captain of one of Franklin’s ships.’ ” The family story was that Angus is descended from William, Francis’ brother.
The first Covid-19 lockdown gave Angus the opportunity to do something with these half-remembered snippets and he began to write a screenplay based on Franklin’s voyage, which eventually became a novel with the title Passage.
Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier (born 1796, Banbridge, County Down) was the 11th of 13 children, born to Geo
