In 1849, the whereabouts of Sir John Franklin were also the subject of lively debate in Switzerland. On October 12, 1849, the Zürcher Freitagszeitung not only raised the hopes of its readers by mentioning James Ross` search expedition for Franklin, it also cites the account of a clairvoyant, who saw Franklin and Ross alive in a vision. This clairvoyant was Emma, the “Bolton clairvoyante”. Shane McCorristine has written an excellent piece on her efforts to find Franklin in the blog of the Royal Museum of Greenwich. Emma was not the only clairvoyant in search for Franklin. Russell A. Potter wrote in his blog the strange, but extremely enjoyable story about another  Captain Parker Snow  and the Weesy Coppin clairvoyant,  Anne . While Emma's visions were widely discussed in England, they also found their way into this Swiss newspaper.  “England. For years there had been no news of the expedition of Sir John Franklin, who was to seek a passage at the North Pole. S...

On October 5th, 1849 , the London Evening Standard printed a letter from the Truelove`s owner, Thos. Ward, addressing the Admiralty with the account of Captain Parker. I will cite the whole letter published, but will not comment it any further at this moment. "The following gratifying letter has been this day received at the Admiralty, from the owner of the vessel which yesterday brought to Hull the welcome news respecting the missing voyagers: –  Hull, Oct. 4, 1849 Sir, – I had the satisfaction of making a short communication this morning by telegraph, relative to Sir John Franklin`s expedition. I have now to forward for the inspection of their lordships the Admiralty chart of Baffin`s Bay, & c., which Capt, [sic] Parker, of the Truelove, has put into my hands, together with his remarks, which will, perhaps, convey better information than any lengthened detail of mine; and a rough sketch made by an Esquimaux, given to Capt. Ker, of the Chieftain, who handed it over to Parker....

The third Franklin Expedition found great reception in Swiss newspapers. The various reports differ in length, depth and accuracy. Most consist of just a few sentences, giving us an impression of what was considered newsworthy. In this blogpost I will focus only on one newspaper, the Intelligenzblatt der Stadt Bern . As it was recently digitized completely, it is available for further research. On January 10th, 1845 , the Intelligenzblatt der Stadt Bern published a short notice for an upcoming Polar expedition, later referred to as the Franklin expedition. To ensure the reader understands the function of the Royal Society, the writer translates it as "die königliche Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften" (the Royal Society of Science): "The British authorities, with the approval of the Royal Society of Science, have decided to launch a new North Pole expedition to discover a north-western passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Seas. The command would be offered to the well-...

On August 19th, 1847 an article about the Franklin expedition appeared in the Intelligenzblatt der Stadt Bern . The writer announced the dispatch of an overland expedition in search of Franklin and his men. The dangers to which Franklin and his men would be exposed were well known, however, Sir John Barrow persisted "with the blind persistence of age" in sending the expedition to the Arctic. Under the rubric "Mannigfaltiges (Manifold)" the following is said about Sir John Franklin's expedition: “It is known that two years ago Sir John Franklin was sent on another expedition to find a north-western passage. The expedition was once again nautical. Old Sir J. Barrow is the main promoter of these nautical voyages and persists with them, it must be said, with the blind persistence of age. Dr R. King, who had previously been a member of Captain Back's famous expedition, condemned in a famous letter the sea expedition, since the prospect of obtaining a result was...