Lady Jane Franklin, the explorer’s second wife, would prove to be his most stalwart supporter.
AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER RESOURCES
CHAPTER
6
NOT LONG AFTER RETURNING FROM the Arctic, Franklin, a 41-year-old widower, began to show interest in his late wife’s friend, the forceful Jane Griffin. He visited her parents’ home and left his calling card. Jane, a healthy, free-thinking, independent lady of 36, was at that time travelling somewhere in Europe. When she returned, they met at her home and occasionally attended society functions together. The couple soon announced their engagement and planned a November 1828 wedding in England.
Prior to the wedding, in the summer of 1828, Franklin and the Griffin family travelled to Russia. Franklin travelled separately from the family and met up with them in St. Petersburg. Having explored and mapped the north coast of Alaska as far as Prudhoe Bay, which was then Russian territory, Franklin was entertained in Russia in high style. Jane, as his fiancée, was usually at his side. From Russia, they all travelled home together in September by way of Germany and the Netherlands, with stops in Hamburg, Amsterdam and Leyden. They were married at Stanmore on November 5 and spent a short honeymoon in Paris. There, in addition to meeting the future king of France, Franklin had the pleasure of greeting the former Duchess of Angoulême, now Madame la Dauphine, whom he had escorted home to France when he was second in command of HMS Forth.
As a result of his Arctic endeavours, both successes and failures, Franklin was knighted by King George IV in April 1829 and received an honorary degree in civil law from Oxford University the same year. His friend, William Parry, was similarly honoured at the same event in Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre. But despite his rewards, Captain Franklin’s career was going nowhere. The Royal Navy had called a halt to northern exploration, and with no wars to fight, there was little for naval officers to do. He was offered a reasonably lucrative business appointment in Australia but turned it down, still hoping for command of a new Arctic expedition.
Although the Admiralty had halted northern exploration, there was an Arctic expedition in the planning stages, and as it had been sanctioned by the Admiralty prior to the embargo, it showed every chance of going ahead. Unfortunately for Franklin, he was not invited to join the endeavour. Leadership was given to John Ross, and his nephew, James Clark Ross, was to be second-in-command. When the expedition ship, a converted and strengthened paddle steamer, was fitting out at Woolwich, Sir John Franklin and Jane went on board to look at her in May 1829. Named Victory, the steamer was hardly suited to an Atlantic crossing, far less an Arctic expedition. Even so, Franklin must have watched the departure with envious eyes. He was still an unemployed naval officer on half pay. He could put up with the half pay but disliked being idle.
Franklin spent more than another year at leisure in England. His sedentary life caused him to put on weight even as he yearned for action. At the end of August 1830, his prayers were answered. He was recalled by the navy and given command of HMS Rainbow, a 26-gun frigate. The man who had become something of an expert on the Arctic, and who had been lobbying to return to the North, was then sent in the opposite direction—to the sunny and warm Mediterranean. Rainbow set sail from Portsmouth on September 11, bound for Malta.
Lady Jane Franklin, the explorer’s second wife, would prove to be his most stalwart supporter.
AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER RESOURCES
Jane and young Eleanor remained in England for a year, while Franklin and Rainbow patrolled the Mediterranean, showing the flag and defending British interests. When Jane joined her husband in 1831, Eleanor stayed put with relatives in England. Jane travelled to Malta, with a stop in Cadiz, Spain, en route. With her went her father, her maid and another attendant. Old Mr. Griffin found the journey too much to handle and soon returned to his English home, while Jane and her depleted entourage continued to Malta, where her husband waited. Due to a quarantine on all arrivals, a holdover from the dreadful plague of 1813, John and Jane were unable to meet, except at a distance, for the first 48 hours.
For the next two years, Jane wandered the lands surrounding the Mediterranean, studying their cultures and visiting historical sites while her husband was patrolling the large, almost landlocked sea. They met whenever possible, sometimes for a few weeks, sometimes a few months. Often they missed each other by no more than a couple of days.
In the spring of 1832, Rainbow was deployed to Greece to settle a series of petty business disputes between local merchants, who claimed to be British, and the governor of Patras. That was followed by a show of force to protect Patras from a minor revolt. Apart from those events, life in the Mediterranean arena was peaceful and relatively comfortable for officers and, to some extent, for common sailors as well.
Franklin and his wife lived for a time in rented accommodation on Corfu, until she went travelling. In April 1833, they were both in Malta. With his ship in the naval dockyard at Valletta, Franklin and his wife enjoyed a few weeks together in a hotel. Most of the time, Rainbow, with her captain aboard, patrolled the Mediterranean east of Malta, calling at ports wherever Franklin was ordered.
While Franklin cruised in the sun, his Royal Navy contemporaries, the two Rosses, were trudging about in the Arctic in the less than serviceable Victory. It must have been particularly galling for Franklin, as he had recommended the navy send him to those same icy areas as far back as 1828. Despite his frustration, there was nothing he could do about his ambitions while on duty at Malta. Only in England, within calling distance of the Admiralty and persons of influence, could he achieve his personal goals.
After a little more than three years based at Malta and solving petty disputes in the eastern Mediterranean, toward the end of 1833, Franklin and Rainbow received orders to return to England. Jane, still travelling the exotic lands of the Near East and at that time in Alexandria, Egypt, did not get home until the following October. For Franklin, the return to England gave him the opportunity to continue lobbying for a return to the Arctic. Once again, he would be disappointed.