In the Arctic Seas

The Fox sails north in 1857 to learn what became of Franklin's expedition, and comes back with the one written record: a paper under a cairn on King William Island, and the trail of men who died walking south. M'Clintock commanded the search that Lady Franklin paid for after the Admiralty gave up. He is exact about the sledging, the ice and the Inuit testimony he took down with care. Fifty-one plates by marine painters including Thomas Buttersworth and Edward William Cooke follow the ice, the whalers and the northern sea that took Franklin's ships.