Leopold M'Clintock - 1857-1859

Leopold M'Clintock

Accomplishments:

• unfavourable ice conditions were a major problem for the party and, after several attempts to penetrate various waterways, M'Clintock and Lieutenant Hobson moved south by sled to Cape Victoria
• Hobson searched the west coast of King William Island southwards from Cape Felix to discover the only written record of Franklin's expedition
• M'Clintock searched the east coast and examined Chantrey Inlet before recrossing to King William Island and tracing its south and west coasts
• meanwhile, Allen Young, master of the ship, examined and surveyed the southern shores of Prince of Wales Island
• Young also travelled along the west coast of Somerset Island, completing the gap in the coastal survey between the western entrance of Bellot Strait and the farthest point reached by James Ross in 1849

Interesting Facts:

• it was Lady Franklin who sponsored the voyage of M'Clintock and his crew, unsatisfied, as the government was, with the findings of Rae

  View Voyage Route

Information taken from Arctic Canada, Volume I, Third Edition, 1982

Image courtesy of Lieutenant R.N. Cheyne/NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF CANADA/C-11568