What is it that your book does that no other book on Franklin/naval history has done before?

This book establishes that the Franklin expedition was not sent to ‘find’ the North West Passage, in fact the expedition was part of a massive international scientific project to understand and exploit the navigational possibilities that key scientists believed could be recovered form a complete understanding of terrestrial magnetism.

For this purpose Franklin needed to get as close as possible to the Magnetic North Pole, and conduct an extensive set of magnetic recordings over a prolonged period, at least six months. His ships were stuck in the ice less than 70 miles from the magnetic pole, and he operated a large observatory on shore.

In your opinion, what are the most newsworthy or revelatory stories in the book?

In addition to the magnetic purpose of the expedition, the most important issues revolve around the fate of the expedition. The latest archaeology has revealed that cannibalism occurred on a massive scale, possibly half the crew were dismembered and eaten by their comrades.

How should the public perceive Franklin?

Captain Sir John Franklin FRS was a brilliant navigator, observational scientist and leader. He did not ‘discover’ the North West Passage, he completed a more complex scientific mission, but tragically his ships were fatally beset in the ice and the results of his expedition were lost, along with the ships and the men. As a result he was remembered for something he did not do, and his wife turned him into a brave but stupid explorer.

Do you have anything to say on the wider context of Victorian idealisation of ‘heroes’?

The heroism of unthinking sacrifice that was built around Franklin and other apparently sacrificial explorers helped to form the mind set of the generation that volunteered en masse in 1914, it was a noble duty to lay down one’s life for one’s country, right or wrong.

What do you think the most common misconception of Franklin and the Franklin expedition is?

That he found, or was even looking for the North West Passage. The Victorians were not such fools as to risk two ships and 129 men in pursuit of a useless geographical curiosity. The size, equipment and timing of the expedition makes it clear that magnetic science was the key driver, and only that would explain why a morbidly obese man of sixty was sent in command. Exploration would have been left to younger, more mobile men. Franklin was sent to direct a major scientific project.

What do you think Franklin and the Franklin disaster taught England? Either then or now.

The failure to understand why Franklin had been sent meant that the only lessons to be drawn from the expedition, and the numerous search missions, were misguided. As Karl Marx observed, ‘if we do not tell the truth about the past we are condemned to repeat it, either as tragedy or farce’. Captain Scott’s attempt on the equally useless South Pole was the obvious tragic repetition.

Was Lady Jane Franklin revolutionary for her time? For example, her fearless challenging of the naval, scientific and political male establishments.

Jane Franklin was a truly remarkable woman – she mobilised the support of a nation, through astute media management, engaged the support of American Presidents and kept the Royal Navy searching for Sir John years after everyone knew he must be dead. Then she ‘solved’ the mystery with her own money, in the process absolving him of any taint of cannibalism, and securing for him the glory of being the first to complete the North West passage. No one else in Victorian Britain was so effective at manipulating the media, and influencing Government. She made Franklin into a bronze god.

Is there anything else to note?

This book was inspired by spending a month in the high Arctic tracing the route of the expedition and the fatal cannibal march. That experience convinced me that the conventional story was simply incredible.

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