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-known Sir James Ross, and, if this officer would refuse, to Sir John Franklin."
While one would expect additional information about the launch of the expedition at a later date, there is no notice or report in the Intelligenzblatt der Stadt Bern until 1847. A short notice on June 13th, 1849, informs the reader in the rubric Northamerica, that US president Taylor will send two ships to assist the English search for Franklin and his man: "22. May. President Taylor has ordered two ships to be equipped for Sir John Franklin's search, which are under the command of C. Wilkes, to join the English expedition."
On January 23rd, 1850, the expedition is mentioned again, this time subsumed under the news for England: "England. The expedition that went out to search for Franklin also took large quantities of gunpowder to blow up ice fields." Just ten days later, the Franklin expedition finds its ways into the newspaper again: "The Times brings the tedious report of an expedition, that is searching for Franklin from the Sandwich Islands to the Behrings Strait, which shows that it can be assumed that Franklin did not touch the American mainland until last October."
On March 12th, 1850, the newspaper again publishes two separate short notices within the same page. Weirdly, they contradict each other, as one reports that Franklin has been found dead and the other that Franklin and his crew were found healthy and in good humour.
"According to a message published in the "Globe", the brave North Pole sailor Sir John Franklin was found frozen to death in the Prince Regent Island by an English expedition that set out to find him"
"According to the latest news from England, which yesterday's Constitutionnel published, Sir John Franklin and his entire ship's crew were found alive and well."
Apparently, the paper expected its audience to know the expedition in general, adding just a few snippets now and then, of what sometimes seems nothing but gossip. On November 17th, 1854, it was the presumed overall costs of the expedition that raised the interest of one of the journalists: "England. A cost estimate of the various expeditions to find Sir John Franklin and his 137 companions calculates the same at 1 000 466 pounds sterling! In spite of the unfortunate outcome of the Franklin expedition, the once awakened interest in the Arctic regions will not abate until the still unexplored polar basin has been cut and explored. It is well known that ships struggle with enormous difficulties between the drifting icebergs and the freezing frost."
Then, for the next three years there is no report in this newspaper, but on March 6th, 1857, the paper corrects an earlier report about another search party. I could not find the earlier report, but I will include this one: "The news we recently gave about another North Pole expedition is not confirmed. In the meeting of the House of Commons on February 25th Admiral Napier supported a new expedition to search for Franklin`s, but withdrew his request after the first Lord of the Admiralty, Sir Ch. Wood, decisively opposed it and declared that the Franklin expeditions had already cost 610,000 pounds sterling and had been unsuccessful."
Two years later, on September 27th 1859, the newspaper refers to McClintock`s search. For the first time, it names a french journal as the source of its information. Several names are written in French such as the Roy William Island (King William Island):
"The Journal des Debats provides the following information about Lady Franklin's latest expedition to seek for her famous husband: Captain Mac Clintoc, who has just arrived on Wight Island from his voyage of discovery, found on the shores of Roy William Island a diary signed by Captains Crozier and Fitz-James, which dates back to April 25th, 1848. The diary tells us that the so called "Erebus" and "Terror" were abandoned by their crews on April 22, 1848, in the middle of the frozen deserts of the polar sea. The 105 men who made up the expedition set sail in the direction of what the English were calling the "Fish River". The death of these people is only too certain. As far as Sir John Franklin is concerned, according to the notes in the diary, he died on June 11, 1847. Apart from the diary, numerous other traces of Franklin's expedition have been found: Books, weapons, a boat in which the crew attempted to go upstream and other remains of all kinds. There has long been no doubt about the unfortunate outcome of Sir John Franklin's daring venture, but there is some comfort in knowing the fate of these brave men who sacrificed their lives for science and the service of their country."
Being a local newspaper, the Intelligenzblatt seems to have seen no need to cover the expedition in a broader sense. Instead, it offered small bits of information that must have been regarded as breaking news, and could be discussed in casual conversation. As we have seen, these short announcements could at times even contradict one another. While the people behind the sources are often unclear, detailed information seems to have come mainly from foreign newspapers, integrating Bern into a global network. So, although the Intelligenzblatt had no interest in covering the expedition extensively, it still aimed to cover the newest revelation.
The next entry from September 18th, 1869, reveals a way the news travelled: "Telegrams from September 14th. New York, 14th. The French Journal announces that documents have been found near San Buenaventura which refer to the lost ships of the Franklin expedition. The ship's Crew had spent the winter of 1846 in Bechy Island, and Franklin died on June 11th, 1847.(Repeated for a part of the edition.)"
This was to be the last snippet covering Franklin's expedition for over 30 years. On September 8th, 1909, a long review of England's Polar expeditions in the 19th century ends this remarkable little afterlife of the Franklin Expedition in Bernese local news.
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