Illustrated Arctic News Archives

WRITTEN BY GEORGE FREDERICK McDOUGALL

In the Illustrated Arctic News, produced onboard HMS Resolute during our galant ship’s very first Arctic winter, of 1850-1851, the Editors George McDougall and Sherard Osborn published McDougall’s Arctic Anthem. You can sing it in your head, or actually out loud, to the tune of the British National Anthem “God Save the Queen”. Americans can sing it to the melody of “My Country Tis of Thee” which is the same. (I quote the first verse in the front of my non-fiction manuscript which I am still sending around to agents!) I have made bold the words that might need definition, with their explanations below. Here are all the verses:

God bless the Resolute,
A ship of good repute,
And all her crew!
Make her victorious,
Over old Boreas,
Whene’er he’s uproarious,
Our consorts too.

Of Button’s Balloons, a store,
We have sent on a tour’
Franklin to cheer!
From toil, we’ll not refrain,
To release his crew from pain,
And return with them again
To friends sincere.

Let this our winter be,
From every care, quite free,
Health to us all!
Don’t let old Zero’s tricks,
perplex the brave Arctics,
Nor let for want of sticks,
Sylvester* fall.

Let us return once more,
To England’s happy shore,
Never to roam!
May we ne’er want for prog,
Or what is better – Grog,
To keep all our lives agog,
Till we reach home.

EXPLANATIONS:
Boreas is the Greek God of the North Wind and Winter
consorts: Austin’s 3 other ships 1850-1851 Intrepid, Assistance & Pioneer.

George McDougall, Master on HMS Resolute 1852-1854, wrote the Arctic Anthem about Resolute

Button’s Balloons: The Austin Expedition released many balloons to which were attached, according to McDougall, thousands of slips containing the expedition’s whereabouts. On 12 September 1852 Kellett dispatched a balloon “with 800 papers attached to a tail of quick-match. The balloon disappeared in a north-westerly direction.” (McDougall’s Eventful Voyage of HMS Resolute, p. 127) McDougall noted that he was unaware of any of the “many thousand slips” scattered in every direction were ever picked up.
Zero’s tricks: I’m not sure what McDougall meant. Any ideas anyone?
Sylvester*: This word has an asterisk next to it the Illustrated Arctic News with this explanation: “The name of the inventor of the warm air stove”. The Admiralty equipped all their Arctic search vessels with this device.
prog: short for “progress” made to rhyme with Grog
Grog: defined in Admiral Smyth’s The Sailor’s Word Book (edited by our story’s Edward Belcher) “a drink issued in the navy, consisting of 1 part of spirits diluted with 3 of water…as the water onboard in olden times was very unwholesome it was necessary to mix it with spirits…”

ARCTIC RIDDLE & SAYING

From the Illustrated Arctic News (October 1850 edition) come the following saying and riddle. The 1850 Austin Expedition consisted of 4 of the 5 ships sent under Edward Belcher two years later in 1852: Assistance, Resolute, Intrepid and Pioneer. The only ship missing was North Star. She was added as a depot ship for Belcher’s men, which the Admiralty ordered him to keep on Beechey Island so she could be utilised as a rendezvous point in addition to being a place for additional supplies to be landed.
Its important to know these four ships’ names to understand this saying McDougall placed in the October 1850 news letter:

A good Pioneer must be a Resolute man.
Few men, however Intrepid, but have felt the want of Assistance.

This following query speaks for itself:
Q: Why should we in our present position be considered very knowing?
A: Because there is nothing green about us!

As I noted a couple of days ago, the explorers searching for the lost Franklin men used a variety of occupations to get themselves through the long Arctic winters. After setting up their winter camps almost all of them participated in theatre performances in one way or another. Some worked on the scenery and costumes, others diligently practiced their lines. In 1852 the Resolutes appointed Captain Henry Kellett to be the head of their theatre committee, and McDougall wrote about the theatre preparations in The Eventful Voyage of HMS Resolute:

“All has been hurry and bustle for the last fortnight, in preparing scenes, decorations, dresses, etc for the theatre. In addition to being a committee man, I was obliged to take on myself the responsible offices of scene painter and dressmaker; the former was sufficiently difficult in consequence of the want of proper materials; to remedy which we were obliged to have recourse to soot, blacking, chalk, etc.

“The dress-making business was, indeed, extremely puzzling, particularly in the ladies’ department; but success attended our enterprising efforts, and although much criticised, elicited warm expressions of admiration.” p.158-159

When the Resolutes opened their theatre in the winter of 1852, the Theatre Royal, Melville Island had not taken place since 1820, when Captain Parry opened it! Now in 1852, Captain Kellett provided the after play refreshments, then McDougall commented further:

“Amateur theatricals are seldom subjected to severe criticism…but here, where the dreary darkness of an Arctic winter affects the mind and body in no small measure, where the the temperature is at zero on the stage (no joke in petticoats), besides having to depend on our own resources, where is the man who could look on such performances with too critical an eye?” p. 162

Once their play was over, and they had toasted good health to one and all with Kellett’s spirits (of one kind or another!) they dismantled the stage and began their preparations for Christmas. In tomorrow’s blog I will detail some of those Christmas preparations as they unfolded onboard HMS Resolute in 1852.