author
John Franklin
1786–1847
A Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer, he became one of the best-known figures in the long search for the Northwest Passage. His final 1845 expedition vanished in the Canadian Arctic, turning his name into one of exploration’s enduring mysteries.
4 Audiobooks
Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the Years 1819-20-21-22, Volume 1
by John Franklin
The Journey to the Polar Sea
by John Franklin
Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the years 1819-20-21-22, Volume 2
by John Franklin
Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the Years 1825, 1826, and 1827
by John Franklin, Sir John Richardson
About the author
Born in Spilsby, Lincolnshire, in 1786, John Franklin entered the Royal Navy as a teenager and served during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. He later became known for major expeditions in northern Canada, helping map large stretches of the Arctic coastline.
Franklin led overland expeditions in 1819 and 1825, and his reputation as an explorer grew despite severe hardship on the earlier journey. He also served as lieutenant-governor of Van Diemen’s Land, now Tasmania, before returning to polar exploration.
He is most closely associated with the 1845 expedition that set out to find the Northwest Passage aboard HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. Franklin died during that expedition in 1847, and the loss of the entire party became one of the most famous tragedies in the history of Arctic exploration.