Maps

The start of the quest

Parry’s first voyage, 1819–20

Parry’s second voyage, 1821–22

Franklin’s first North American expedition with Back and Richardson, 1818–22

The unexplored Arctic coastline, 1821

Franklin’s second expedition with Back and Richardson, 1825–27

Parry’s last voyage: toward the Pole, 1827

John Ross and James Clark Ross, 1829–33

George Back explores the Great Fish River, 1833–34

Dease and Simpson’s explorations, 1837–39

Franklin’s proposed route from Cape Walker, 1845

John Rae crosses Melville Peninsula, 1846–47

James Clark Ross’s fruitless search for Franklin, 1848–49

Area of the Franklin search, 1850–51

Kennedy and Bellot search for Franklin, 1851–52

McClure rounds the tip of Alaska, 1850

McClure finds a North West Passage, 1850–54

Belcher’s search for Franklin, 1852–54

Kane’s “search” for Franklin and the Pole, 1853–55

John Rae gets the first news of Franklin’s fate, 1854

Southward route of Kane’s defectors, autumn, 1854

Kane’s retreat from Rensselaer Harbor, 1855

Collinson’s expedition, 1851–54

M’Clintock’s expedition to King William Island, 1857–59

King William Island, c. 1859

Franklin’s last expedition, 1845–47

The known and unknown Arctic before and after the search

Hall’s first expedition: Frobisher Bay, 1860–61

Area of Hayes’s explorations, 1860–61

Hall’s second expedition, 1864–69

Hall sails north to his death, 1871; Tyson drifts south on an ice floe, 1872–73

The Nares expedition, 1875–76

Greely at Fort Conger, 1881–83

Area of the Greely relief attempts, 1882–84

Nansen’s Arctic drift and polar attempt, 1893–96

The Polar ice cap

Andrée’s ill-fated balloon expedition, 1897

Peary’s two expeditions across Greenland, 1892 and 1895

Peary’s Farthest North in 1902

Amundsen navigates the North West Passage, 1903–06

Amundsen’s overland trek to reach the telegraph at Eagle, Alaska in the late fall of 1905

Peary’s exploration of Ellesmere Island, June 1906

Peary’s polar records, 1906 and 1909

Cook’s route from Anoatok to Axel Heiberg and return, 1908–09