14. Two iron boat knees found at the camp at Crozier’s Landing.

In summer 1859 Lieutenant Hobson of the McClintock Fox expedition found Crozier’s Landing. He described it in detail and listed many items there. In particular he listed ‘ironwork from a large boat’ (Stenton, 2014).
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector Henry Asbjom Larsen, famous for taking the R.C.M.P. vessel St. Roch through the North-West Passage in both directions, visited Crozier’s Landing in 1949. With two RCMP men he flew to North-west King William Island in August 1949 and was joined there by his former engineer on the St. Roch. The party searched the north-west coast on foot. At Cape Lady Jane Franklin they found wood chips and part of the sole of a shoe. At Crozier’s Landing they found two iron brackets (boat knees), some canvas, blue cloth, and rope (Cyriax, 1952, p.505). Near Cape Felix the party made their most significant discovery – a human skull, that was later identified as that of a fairly young white man. Unfortunately today Inspector Larsen’s report cannot be found, but some further information is available from correspondence he had with Dr. R.J. Cyriax.

The presence of the iron work from a large boat tells a story. McClintock in 1859 found a pinnace that he believed was from Erebus. The boat had been considerably modified to lighten it and convert it for use in rivers.

McClintock (1859, p.290) gave a meticulous description the boat that was barely visible under a thick snow cover as he found it in Erebus Bay on the morning of the thirtieth of May 1859 (The site is now known as ‘McClintock’s boat place’, sites NgLj-1 and NgLj-3):
‘This boat measured 28 feet long, and 7 feet 3 inches wide; she was built with a view to lightness and light draught of water, and evidently equipped with the utmost care for the ascent of the Great Fish River; she had neither oars nor rudder, paddles supplying their place; and as a large remnant of light canvas, commonly known as No. 8, was found, and also a small block for reeving a sheet through, I suppose she had been provided with a sail. A sloping canvas roof or rain awning had also formed part of her equipment. She was fitted with a weather cloth 9 inches high, battened down all round the gunwale, and supported by 24 iron stanchions, so placed as to serve likewise for rowing thowells. There was a deep-sea sounding line, fifty fathoms long, near her, as well as an ice grapnel; this line must have been intended for river work as a track line. She had been originally ‘carvel’ built; but for the purpose of reducing weight, very thin fir planks had been substituted for her seven upper strakes, and put on ‘clincher’ fashion.
The only markings about the boat were those cut in upon her stem; besides giving her length, they indicated that she was built by contract, numbered 61; and received into Woolwich Dockyard in April 184-; the fourth figure to the right hand was lost, as the stem had been reduced as much as possible in order to lessen her weight; from this cause part of the Roman numerals indicating her length were also lost.
The weight of the boat alone was about 700 or 800 lbs. only, but she was mounted upon a sledge of unusual weight and strength. It was constructed of two oak planks 23 feet 4 inches in length, 8 inches in width, and with an average thickness of 2.5 inches. These planks formed the sides or runners of the sledge. …….Upon the cross bars five saddles or supporting chocks for the boat were lashed, and the drag ropes by which the crew moved the massive sledge, and the weights upon it, consisted of 2.75 inch whale line. I have calculated the weight of this sledge to be 650 lbs.’
Thomas Honey, the carpenter, and Alexander Wilson the Carpenters Mate , both of Terror, probably worked on at least one of the pinnaces of HMS Terror at the shore camp. This was probably in the spring of 1848.They removed unnecessary iron work and replace the upper seven planks on both sides by lightweight thin fir planks. Oars were cut down to make paddles.
QUESTION: Why were the carpenters modifying the boats on shore instead of on an ice floe alongside the ships?