January 17, 2023 - for some reason, this previously unpublished post from my 2019 trip to Baffin Bay inserted itself in my Antarctica blog. opps
Beechey Island
We turned north, bypassing the polar bear populated ice pack blocking access to Prince Regent Inlet and a possible circumnavigation of Baffin Island and continued to sail NW in Lancaster Sound to Barrow Straight. We awoke (sunrise 0539) sailing toward Beechy Island.
The first European to visit the island was Captain William Edward Parry in 1819. The island was named after the artist William Beechey by his son Frederick William Beechy who was then serving as Parry's lieutenant. Beechy Island is the site of several very significant events in the history of arctic exploration. In 1845, the British explorer Sir John Franklin, commanding a new but ill-fated search for the Northwest Passage, aboard the HMS's Erebus and Terror, chose the protected harbor of Beechy Island for his first winter encampment. The site was not discovered until 1851 when British and American search vessels anchored nearby.
They found a large stone cairn, along with the graves of three of Franklin's crew but no written record or indication of where Franklin had planned to sail the next season.
There are memorials to Franklin and other polar explorers and sailors on the island.
In 1093, paying respect to Franklin, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen stopped at the island at the beginning of his successful voyage in search of the Northwest Passage.
After nearly 200 years of searching, Franklin's ships were finally located. In 2014 the Erebus was located and with much fanfare the Terror was found in 2016. When I was in Anchorage earlier this summer, I visited the Smithsonian/National Geographic exhibit of the expedition, continued rescue missions, and the search and finding of the ship.
While we ate breakfast, the crew did a sea and land search for polar bears at Beechy Harbor. We had been scheduled to a tour of the Franklin site. Bears were spotted. On to plan B or maybe C.
We headed to Radstock Bay on Devon Island.
This shoreline reminded me of Inuit dancers.
Devon island looked much the same as Beechy Island
Radstock Bay.
National Geographic Exploration crew believe we are the first ship to ever anchor in Radstock Bay. As we waited for the shore crew to make sure landing zodiacs was safe, we got a presentation on how the land is rising after the weight of the glaciers is removed. Our geologist and arctic biologist explained the landscape, looking something like waves on water, gives a unique look into history and that we would be hiking back centuries as we traversed the land.
Along with rifle toting scientists, our lifejacket stand always awaited us when we hit the shore.
The waves of land released from the weight of glaciers.
