The Arctic Fox: Francis Leopold-McClintock, Discoverer of the Fate of Franklin

by David Murphy

The Shackleton of his day, Leopold McClintock (1819-1907) from County Louth was the leading Arctic explorer of the Victorian era. He undertook four major voyages, epic sledge journeys, and was the first to bring definite information on the lost Franklin party. He then rose to admiral and advised Robert Falcon Scott before the Discovery expedition in 1901. After his death a memorial plaque was unveiled at Westminister Abbey, portraits were hung in the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the McClintock Channel in the Arctic was named after him.

Genres: Nonfiction

216 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Nicola Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an account of the life of the Dundalk-born Leopold McClintock who journeyed four times to the Antarctic, searching for anything to do with the lost expedition of aging British explorer John Franklin and his 129 men. The book is well-researched, making good use of McClintock's memoir and letters, and the writing is clear and pragmatic. McClintock's big claim to fame was the 1859 discovery of a hand-written and printed note, recording the death of Franklin, in 1847, as well as various other deaths that had taken place by 1848. The rest of the men would follow suit and there has been plenty of debate over their loss with various theories offered, from starvation to lead poisoning from the canned food. McClintock also revolutionised the use of dogs pulling sledges while charted hundreds of miles of new geography. Quite naturally, once this part of his life is dealt with, his story falls flat with his return to civil life but that's not Murphy's fault. Mapping the Antarctic whilst solving a Victorian mystery about the vanishing of 130 men is a hard act to follow!

[Noah Oanh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Francis Leopold-McClintock - Irish man from Dundalk - one of the most famous polar explorer in 19th century during Victoria era but now he remains largely forgotten and is often only briefly referred to in exploration histories. There were still debates till now between historians about who first discovered about the Fate of Franklin and his crews in the Artic area - McClintock or Sir Rae (from Rae–Richardson Arctic expedition of 1848 ) but without efforts and trips over Artic from both man it would take longer to know about what happened to Franklin.

Francis Leopold is often referred to as the "father of modern sledging technique". Yet he was very conservative in some of his attitudes to Artic survival. He still preferred to use manpower to pull sledges. His rejections of their survival methods and Inuit's use of dog-teams meant that later British explorers who turned to him for advice would be infected with this prejudice.

Besides that, I found him quite an interesting man, not just an explorer but also a hell of navy captain, a writer, a researcher, a collector who enjoyed quite a bit of fame and connection with Royal families and the public. But he was quite also a philanthropist, a member of RNLI who always looked after his crews and his colleagues, friends and family. That is why I think he did not give up on looking for Franklin until seeing the evidence that they all perished in the Pole (4 times lucky!)

He should be remembered of not just the "Grand Old Man" of polar exploration but an important Irish man of his time. I mean more people should know about him.

Will study more about cannibalism theory during the Franklin's catastrophe also. I wonder would this theory has inspired Mark Twain to write "Cannibalism in the Cars"?!

[user8364891664 · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s interesting how this book is nearly identical in format to the biography of McClintock written by Clements Markham in 1909. Murphy has stripped away Markham’s excessive detail, but adds very little new information. Markham himself is mentioned only once! A brief discussion of McClintock’s influence on future explorers is interesting, but not fleshed out enough. In fact, this book lacks most of the anecdotes shared by Markham which go so far to illustrate McClintock’s personality. It is a matter of telling rather than showing, which makes for a fairly uninteresting narrative.

The reader who has not read McClintock’s writing or Markham’s biography will come away from this book with a very shallow view of a fascinating man.