38. Captain Henry Larsen’s views on the burial of Sir John Franklin.

An interesting letter giving the views of Captain Henry Larsen and considering Franklin’s burial is given below. The letter was written to me by Mrs Doreen Larsen Riedel in May 2020.

My father was Henry Larsen captain of the RCMP MV St. Roch which traversed the southern North-West Passage west to east in 1940-42 and later the more northerly route east to west in 1944. He had made several patrols to King William Island and the Adelaide Peninsula by dog sled prior to that time and was aware of the Inuit stories regarding the locations of the ships and had even been guided by a young boy to the vicinity of where Terror was found. However the boy, who had been taken there by his grandmother, could ultimately not remember the whole way accurately.

My father had sailed in the Arctic waters with a local trader as early as 1924 and knew most of the traders of the time as well as many of the Inuit groups along the Coronation Gulf and east to Queen Maud Gulf and Gjoa Haven. He was of the opinion that Franklin must have known when he died that his officers had been able to determine there was a passageway west of King William Island based on several observations including the pattern of flow, tides and ice movements in southern Victoria Strait. The crews of the two ship were not typical, but many were very experienced and in positions well below their sea capabilities. He also stated that he very much doubted that Franklin, who was so well regarded by his men, would have been buried at sea.

This is the opinion of someone who went to sea at 14 to 15 under sail, on some of the remaining large commercial sailing vessels, and who spent most of his life from the age of 24 to 48 in the Arctic. It is unfortunate that my father passed away so soon after he retired and that the demands of his position and his reluctance to promote himself meant that his opinions based on personal experience, meant that his opinions have not been more widely known.

I found your conclusions very interesting.