Arctic Hell-Ship: The Voyage of HMS «Enterprise», 1850–1855.

Gordon Turner is the author of Empress of Britain: Canadian Pacific’s
Greatest Ship and the editor of SeaFare, a quarterly newsletter on sea
travel.

Few stories about the Canadian Arctic have excited the imagination as much as Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated expedition in the 1840s, except perhaps the accounts of those who launched rescue missions to locate survivors, if indeed any existed. In 1850 the British government ordered two naval vessels, HMS Enterprise and HMS Investigator, to enter the Arctic via the Bering Strait and search for the Franklin party, with Captain Richard Collinson, an experienced marine surveyor, in overall command. However, by the time Enterprise left Arctic waters in 1854 after four years of fruitless search, relationships between the captain and his senior officers had deteriorated so badly that three were under arrest. Francis Skead, second master, had been under open arrest since January 1852 and close arrest since July 1854. His alleged offences began with criticism of Collinson’s navigational decisions, while subsequent clashes on various matters simply hardened each officer’s position.

Much of Arctic Hell-Ship consists of correspondence exchanged by Collinson and Skead. Their lengthy letters, written in the florid style of the period, provide a fascinating insight into the minds of these two men, each intractable in his perception. To reveal the flavour of life aboard the frequently icebound ship, the author quotes from the journal of Richard Shingleton, a gunroom steward, whose words provide a social commentary on life in the lower decks.

While captain and officers were frequently at loggerheads, this was not the case with captain and crewmen. The lowly sailors appear to have tolerated their long stay in the bleak Arctic with surprising equanimity, and in fact, Captain Collinson’s imaginative treatment of them contrasted strongly with what he meted out to the disaffected officers.

The author has capably drawn together the threads that constitute this story of an expedition that set out with high hopes but ended in failure. He was fortunate that so many records, informal as well as official, have survived. Dr. Barr, an acknowledged authority on the Arctic, is not only a thorough researcher; he is also a skilful writer. Arctic Hell-Ship is an important contribution to the history of the Canadian Arctic.