A NARRATIVE OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE FATE OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN AND HIS COMPANIONS

London: John Murray, 1860. Hardcover. Very good. Twelfth Thousand. "Building on the work of John Rae and other Franklin searches, McClintock rightly can claim the distinction of discovering the true fate of Franklin. His expedition, which was privately sponsored by Lady Jane Franklin, lasted from July 1857 to September 1859. In scouring King William Island for traces of the lost explorers, the expedition's most significant discoveries were the only known paper records of Franklin, especially a composite note describing the besetting of Erebus and Terror in 1846, the death of Franklin on June 11, 1847, the abandonment of the ships in 1848 and the intent of Captain Crozier to set out on April 26, 1846, to Back's Fish River. In additional to several bodies, McClintock found or bought from local Inuit several relics from the crushed ships, including a number of books. McClintock also was able to describe the death march from Point Victory to the Great Fish River as Franklin's 'earliest discovery of the North-West passage, though not the actual accomplishment of it in his ships', a pyrrhic victory but no doubt a comfort to Lady Franklin, to whom the work is dedicated" (Books on Ice 3.16). Octavo: xxvii, 406 p. with a frontispiece, 14 illustrations, 4 folding maps (1 housed in the rear pocket), and a folding facsimile. In a lovely full black morocco binding, with the arms of King's College London stamped in gilt on the front panel, decorative gilt and blind stamping, five raised bands, and ornamental dentelles. Bookplate to the front pastedown. The spine is sun faded, with a bit of minor rubbing to the corners and tips; otherwise very good.