Skip to main content

The "Intelligenzblatt der Stadt Bern" and Sir John Barrow`s "Persistence of Age"


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 very small, but the danger to which the crew of the ship were exposed was certain and very great. The influence of the old man and his followers prevailed, and Sir J. Franklin left. Since that time, he has not been heard from, and therefore a land expedition is now to go out to seek him, just as Captain Back was once sent out to seek Captain Ross. The reasons why a nautical expedition faces great difficulties are very simple: as little as we know about the land and the seas between the mouth of the Coppermine river and the waterway, it is a foregone conclusion that the sea is dotted with numerous islands, promontories, etc., between which the ice can easily become lodged.The passage will probably be found, and when it is found, and the precise way is known, then it may be possible to cross it without much effort every year; but before it is found, it is far more probable that you will get stuck in the ice. This seems to have been Sir J. Franklin's fate, and so a land expedition is now to set out, which will advance eastward from the Mackenzie and Coppermine Rivers.”

Presumably, Dr. R. King's letter in the Athenæum served as a source as the merits of his cautionary stands are praised throughout. The "Intelligenzblatt der Stadt Bern" was the most important newspaper reporting mainly local news. It appeared daily from 1841 onwards. It included reports on political events, official announcements from the city, canton and civic community (Burgergemeinde), news from clubs and societies, letters to the editor, obituaries, reports on crimes and much more. Advertisements also make up a large part of the site; they show which vacancies were available and which products and services the Bernese businesses advertised at the time. In this edition, the photographer Mr. H. Edouard and his skill in creating daguerreotypes is praised. He does "the most perfect portraits" with the best procedure. The artist worked at 54 Aarbergergasse.  Just opposite the Franklin report, Mr. Charles de Gondrecourt, animal tamer, advertises his shows with wild animals. The menagerie is "the most beautiful, which has been seen in Switzerland for a long time." It consists of lions, Bengal tigers, panthers, polar bears, leopards, hyenas, jaguars and "American tigers".

Why this article appeared in the Intelligenzblatt der Stadt Bern at precisely this time, I can only guess. Whatever the case, it shows how globally Franklins disappereance found reception. It is known that the Burgerbibliothek, an institution of the civic community (Burgergemeinde), also had objects from the North American Arctic in its possession (which are now in the collection of the Bernisches Historisches Museum). These came into their possession through legacies, including the bequest of Samuel Engel. Samuel Engel is represented in an etching without dating.


He was a statesman, economist and philanthropist and lived in Berne from 1702-1784, advocating the hypothesis of a navigable polar sea. His investigations into the controversial northern passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, for which he preferred the northeastern route, prompted the British Admiralty to carry out test voyages. In 1752 he handed over a manuscript to his confidant and intermediary Jean-Rodolphe Vautravers in London. In it Engel took the view that the Northeast Passage was the easier of the two routes, and that the sea between the 70th and 80th latitude was ice-free. Two ships were sent out in the spring of 1754 to check the accuracy of his information. Direct contacts from the city of Bern to England began in 1720 with the creation of the post of Commissary of English Funds in London (Commissarius der englischen Gelder in London), and in 1817 the Swiss Confederation established a consulate in London.

The generally high level of interest in the Franklin Expedition met an interested and educated audience at the Burgergemeinde, whose collections already included not only the writings of scholars like Samuel Engel, but also objects such as kayak miniatures. With the Arctic directly in sight, this may explain the author's detailed report and firm condemnation of Barrow's promotion of unsave expeditions.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pocket Watches in the Arctic -A Fashionable Item

In 1854, eleven fragments of pocket watches of the still missing Franklin expedition came back to England. On October 23rd, The Times published a report of Dr. John Rae about the ill-fated expedition. In it, he not only revealed details about the death of the men, but also mentioned items that he brought back. Part of these items were eleven pocket watch cases, that are now in the collection of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. It is these pocket watch fragments that particularly caught my interest. Charles Frances Hall, in search of the fate of Sir John Franklin and his men, met on his second expedition some of the same Inuit family members as Dr. Charles Rae. Thanks to Too-koo-li-too, his Inuit translator, he was able to write down the Testimony of Ook-bar-loo, a woman who knew a lot about the watches - or as Too-koo-li-too put it, about the "witches". The full testimony is at the end of this blogpost. Interestingly, Ook-bar-loo told them how and where she had s...
1 comment
Read more

An Inuit Ambassadress

Two members of the Schwatka expedition, the American journalist Henry Gilder and the german speaking cartographer and drawer Heinrich Klutschak, published their reports and experiences in the 1880ies. Being able to read the reports in their original language, I started to wonder about the differences. In my opinion, Gilder's interpretation is more audacious, and therefore his views and values become apparent in the text itself. As an example, I chose a  "ceremony of opening communication" , as he puts it. In an Inlet of Richardson point or Nu-oo-tar-ro, how he transcribed the Inuit name for the place, the party met some Netsilingmiut for the first time:  The ceremony of opening communication was similar to that with the Ooquee-sik-silliks a few days before, with the exception that instead of remaining in their igloos the men were drawn up in line of battle in front of them, and sent out an old woman to find out who we were and what we wanted. If our designs had be...
Post a Comment
Read more

Metallic Objects, Reflecting Light

When considering the specific mode of adaptation the Inuit used regarding my pocket watch fragments, I wondered what kind of general observations I could make. In my previous blog post,  The Afterlife of the Pocket Watches , I already mentioned that wearing these played a crucial role in adapting some objects. In-nook-poo-the-jook, who will become one of the most crucial witnesses for Western explorers searching for Franklin and his men, wore an  officer's hatband  around his head. Thanks to Logan Zachary, there is a high-resolution photograph of this hat band on his  blog . However, he was not the only one who wore an object, formerly belonging to one of Franklin's men. Also, Captain McClintock writes in his  travel report  about four Inuit hunters, of which one must have worn a naval button on his clothing. Additionally, "my" pocket watch fragments were worn around  the neck . In these cases, the Inuit found the objects in a camp, where some party me...
Post a Comment
Read more