tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3873756940955163469.post1814654765256031459..comments2024-03-18T18:05:25.821-07:00Comments on VISIONS OF THE NORTH: Sir John Franklin's TombRussell Potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11023313195827310776noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3873756940955163469.post-86258547872953514202019-02-04T18:46:00.665-08:002019-02-04T18:46:00.665-08:00Very late to this comment as well, as I navigate t...Very late to this comment as well, as I navigate through more posts of your fantastic blog - but I can't help but offer one comment, though hardly any may see it.<br /><br />I think it is hard to argue with the assumption that Crozier and Fitzjames opting to keep Sir John's body on board either of the ships is extremely unlikely. Burial - on see or land - is the overwhelming likelihood.<br /><br />I do think a sea burial is perhaps more likely than you speculate, though we lack enough information to be more specific. A land burial *would* be preferred by the crews and officers, all things being equal, no question, and would justify some effort and pains. Still, such an undertaking (no pun intended) would be no small affair: a trek of a sizable party of men over 30km of pack ice hauling the coffin and supplies on sledges, navigating around what were likely sizable pressure ridges and of course what had to be a daunting shore ice ride-up - they would have full details of just how bad from Lt. Gore's sledging trip two weeks before. Even assuming good weather, this could have been a round trip of up to a couple weeks, depending on how bad the pack surface terrain was. It would have been no trivial undertaking, though perhaps the balance could be tipped by making it part of a sledging party heading further west or south in search of late-forming leads. <br /><br />Set against that, the decision would have to weigh just how thick the ice was around the ships at that point - something we also don't know. <br /><br />Given that the crew was presumably still in mostly fair health and that cold June or no, and that the weather was *presumably* at least less unfavorable than it would have been for most of the year, I suspect the odds favor a burial on KWI's littoral, perhaps fittingly on Franklin Point. Certainly this is the archaeologist's hope! But I fear it may have been a close call, however much Sir John's officers surely wished to do him full honors. Athelstanehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07346012062816580296noreply@blogger.com