Francis Crozier | |
|---|---|
 Crozier in 1845 | |
| Born | (1796-10-17)17 October 1796 |
| Disappeared | |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Branch |  Royal Navy |
| Service years | 1810–1848 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Ships |
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| Expeditions | |
Francis Rawdon Moira CrozierFRS FRAS (/ˈkroʊʒər/; 17 October 1796 – disappeared 26 April 1848) was an Irish officer of theRoyal Navy and polar explorer who participated in six expeditions to theArctic andAntarctic. In 1843, he became a Fellow of theRoyal Society for his scientific work during his expeditions.[1] Later, he was second-in-command toSir John Franklin and captain ofHMS Terror during what would becomeFranklin's lost expedition, to discover theNorthwest Passage in theCanadian Arctic, ending with the loss of all 129 crewmen in mysterious circumstances.
Many places in the Arctic and Antarctic are named after him.[2] He, withJames Clark Ross andRichard Moody, was also responsible for selecting the location of the capital of theFalkland Islands,Port Stanley, in 1843.[3]
Francis Crozier was born inBanbridge,County Down, inUlster, the northernprovince inIreland. He was the eleventh of thirteen children, and the fifth son of solicitor George Crozier, who named him after his friendFrancis Rawdon-Hastings, 2nd Earl of Moira. Crozier attended school locally in Banbridge, with his brothers William and Thomas, and lived with his family in Avonmore House which his father had built in 1792, in the centre of Banbridge.[4]
At the age of 13, Crozier volunteered for theRoyal Navy and joined HMSHamadryad in June 1810. In 1812, he served onHMS Briton and visitedPitcairn Island in 1814, where he met the last surviving mutineers fromHMS Bounty. In 1817, he received his certificate as mate; in 1818, he served onHMS Doterel during a trip to theCape of Good Hope.
Crozier joined CaptainWilliam Parry's secondArctic expedition to traverse theNorthwest Passage in 1821. He served as midshipman on Parry'sHMS Fury, which was accompanied by Captain Lyon'sHMS Hecla. He returned to the North with Parry a second time in 1824, this time onHecla. The journey resulted in the sinking ofFury offSomerset Island. Crozier was promoted to lieutenant in 1826, and a year later, he once more joined Parry in his attempt to reach theNorth Pole; ultimately a futile endeavour.
During his voyages, Crozier became a close friend and confidant of the explorerJames Clark Ross. He was elected to become a Fellow of theRoyal Astronomical Society in 1827, after conducting valuable astronomical and magnetic studies on his three expeditions with Parry.
He was appointed to the frigateHMS Stag in 1831, and served off the coast of Portugal during theLiberal Wars, the country's civil war. Crozier joined Clark Ross as second-in-command of HMSCove in 1835, to assist in the search for 12 lost British whaling ships in the Arctic. Crozier was appointed to the rank of commander in 1837.[4][5]
In 1839, Crozier again joinedJames Clark Ross on theRoss expedition, as second-in-command of a four-year voyage to explore the Antarctic continent in the shipsHMS Erebus andHMS Terror. Crozier commandedTerror, and was appointed to the rank of captain in 1841.Erebus andTerror returned in 1843, having made the most significant penetration of the Antarctic pack ice and discovered large parts of the continent—including theRoss Sea andRoss Island,Mount Erebus and theRoss Ice Shelf.[6][7]
Crozier was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society in 1843, in recognition of his outstanding work on magnetism.[8]
In 1845, Crozier joinedCaptainSir John Franklin as captain of theTerror on theFranklin expedition to traverse the last unnavigated section of theNorthwest Passage. Crozier himself was offered the command of the expedition, but, with "characteristic modesty", he deferred to Franklin.[9] After Franklin's death in June 1847, Crozier took over. His fate and those of the other expedition members remained a mystery until 1859, when a note written by Crozier andJames Fitzjames, captain of theErebus, was discovered onKing William Island during an expedition led byFrancis McClintock. Dated 25 April 1848, the note indicated that the ships—stuck in thick pack ice—had been abandoned. Nine officers, including Sir John Franklin, and 15 crewmen had died. Also stated was their intention, on 26 April, to set out on foot forBack's Great Fish River on the Canadian mainland.[10]
Inuit rumours collected between 1852 and 1858 indicate that Crozier and one other expedition member might have been seen in theBaker Lake area, about 400 km (250 mi) to the south, where, in 1948,Farley Mowat found "a very ancient cairn, not of normal Eskimo construction", inside which were fragments of a hardwood box withdovetail joints.[11] McClintock and later searchers found relics, graves and human remains of the Franklin crew onBeechey Island, King William Island and the northern coast of the Canadian mainland.
In 2014, the Victoria Strait Expedition found two items onHat Island, in theQueen Maud Gulf, nearKing William Island; part of a boat-launchingdavit bearing the stamps of two Royal Navy broad arrows, and a wooden object, possibly a plug for a deckhawse, the iron pipe through which the ship's chain cable would descend into the chain locker below.[12][13] The expedition located one of Franklin's ships, preserved in reasonably good condition.[14][15] The wreck lies at the bottom of the eastern portion of Queen Maud Gulf, west ofO'Reilly Island[16] and has been confirmed to be that ofErebus.[17] In 2016, a well-preserved ship matchingTerror's description was located inTerror Bay, off the southern coast of King William Island.[18] The exploration of the wrecks continues.
In January 2008, Crozier's home town of Banbridge hosted a memorial event, which included a service of remembrance and thanksgiving at the Church of the Holy Trinity, which was attended by more than a hundred descendants of Crozier and other officers of Franklin's lost expedition and those who searched for it, along with the chairman of Banbridge Council, and several Arctic historians, including Michael Smith andRussell Potter.[19]
A memorial toSir John Franklin and his men was erected by order of Parliament in 1858, in thePainted Hall of London'sGreenwich Hospital. It was moved toGreenwich Royal Naval College's chapel in 1937, and was re-erected in the entrance of the former college in late 2009. At the service of thanksgiving on 29 October 2009, polar travellers and descendants of the expedition's crew celebrated their contributions.[20][21]
Geographical features named after Crozier include:
Francis Crozier appears as a character and the primary narrator of the 2007 best-selling novel,The Terror byDan Simmons, a fictionalized account of Franklin's lost expedition, as well as the 2018television adaptation, where Crozier is portrayed byJared Harris.[22]
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