26. The testimony of the ‘Black Men’ reconsidered.

Captain David Woodman went to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington to examine the original Hall notebooks. There he found testimony omitted from the summary of Nourse (1879), probably because it could not then be understood.  The testimony of the ‘black men’ was recorded by Hall in a journal dated ‘Dec. 6 1864 – May 12 1865’ book 6 (Woodman, 1991, p. 204-205, with Hall’s spelling).   It was collected from an old and blind Inut called Kok-lee-arng-nun and its weighting is excellent.  It provides a very good example of the problems of reconstructing the history of the lost expedition from Inuit testimony.

‘Bye & Bye the Innuit went again to the ship with his dogs and sledge.   He went on deck, & a great many men – black men – came up right out of the hatch-way & the first thing he (the Innuit) knew he could not get away. These men who were then all around him, had black faces, black hands, black clothes on – were black all over! They had little black noses…..& this Innuit was very much alarmed because he could not get away from these black men but especially was he frightened when they made three great noises (three rounds of cheers as Too-koo-li-too thinks these great noises were). When three great noises were made the Esh-e-mut-ta (Captain) came up out of the Cabin & put a stop to it, when all the black men went down the same way they had come up.   This Innuit believed these men belonged down among the coals & that they lived there.

Then the Captain took this Innuit down with him into his Cabin & made him many presents, for he (the Innuit) had been frightened so. Before the Captain took him down into his Cabin he told this Innuit to take a look over to the land, the Captain pointing out to him the exact spot where there was a big Tupik (tent). The Captain asked him if he saw the tent, & the Innuit told him he did. Then the Captain told him that black men, such as he had just seen, lived there, & that neither he (this Innuit) nor any of his people must ever go there. After the Innuit had received the presents that the Captain made him, he left the ship & went home; & he would never go to the ship again because of the frightful looking black men that lived there down in the Coal hole’.

The above testimony has provided three possible scenarios for the ‘Black Man’ testimony. In the first scenario proposed by Captain David Woodman (1991 and 2019 pers. comm.) it is suggested Terror was remanned in 1848 and sailed to Terror Bay. The Black Men in the tent are some of the crew who have deserted and possibly practice cannibalism. Terror was later crushed in the ice and sank taking some of her crew down with her and the survivors went ashore and lived in tents.

In the second scenario proposed by Russell Potter in his 2016 book ‘Finding Franklin’, the visiting Inut has disturbed a Guy Fawkes celebration, where the crew is dressed up as ‘Black men’.

The third scenario, proposed by Roobol (2019) is that the ship is Erebus at a very late date and after the 1850 retreat. Only a small crew with one officer remained aboard. After two years of eaking out an existence by hunting, with coal and candles long gone, the hot water system probably not used and without a change of clothing (the surplus clothing was abandoned at Crozier’s Landing) the men were in deplorable state with clothing and skin coated in oil and blubber soot. Their appearance is similar to Sir Earnest Shackleton’s men during the 1914 Trans-Antarctic expedition, after they lost their ship ‘Endurance’ to ice action off the Antarctic in 1915 during the Trans-Antarctic expedition. Erebus is now in Terror Bay but possibly some years before the abandoned Terror arrives.  The tent ashore with its black men may have been a hospital tent with ill and starving men.

Only these three scenarios have been proposed to understand the ‘Black Men’ testimony.  I rated the probability of the Guy Fawkes scenario as low as parties were usually held alongside the ship or on deck. The other two scenarios are however probable. Critical is the date when Terror was thrown over by ice movements and abandoned.

QUESTION: Does the ‘Black Men’ testimony describe a Guy Fawkes party?

QUESTION: Does the ‘Black men’ testimony describe the last survivors in deplorable shape aboard Erebus after the 1850 retreat?

QUESTION. Are the crews personal possessions still aboard Terror? If they are not present and the ship is sealed up, the ship probably drifted into the bay as an abandoned hulk.

QUESTION. Is there any evidence that bodies were present in the bunks? Burial at sea is a modern option in Britain.  Coffins have to be soft wood and weighted, and have round holes two inches in diameter. Soft tissues are consumed within two weeks but the bones may take a year or two. So if the testimonies are correct then there should be no human remains left in Terror’s bunks after 170 years. However burial clothing and bindings might survive. This result awaits the excavation of the silt-covered cabins in Terror.