Sir Francis McClintock

MEDIA COVERAGE

Radio 1's Morning Ireland

Dundalk devotes exhibition to Arctic Fox

RTE's Nationwide
Exhibition on Dundalk polar explorer

The Life of Sir Francis McClintock (Part 2)

A Life More Ordinary
Having established the fate of Franklin, McClintock was feˆ ted throughout Britain and Ireland alike receiving a knighthood from Queen Victoria. Among other honours he received were:

the Freedom of Dublin
the Freedom of the City of London
Honorary Degrees from Cambridge, Oxford and Trinity College Dublin
a formal dinner and presentation in Dundalk

Perhaps though, the honour that gave him greatest pleasure was that of a gold chronometer presented to him by the crew of the Fox. In accepting this gift he remarked:

that as long as I live it will remind me of that perfect harmony, which made our ship’s company a happy little community, and contributed materially to the success of the expedition.

During the period 1860-68 he served a variety of roles: serving in the Atlantic on a surveying expedition, accompanying the Prince of Wales on a Royal Tour of North Africa, Egypt and the Ionian Islands and seeing his only instance of military action when commanding the Aurora at Heligoland (off what is now the north-western German coast).

The Life of Sir Francis McClintock

After serving three years in Jamaica, he returned to Ireland on leave. Without plans of an immediate posting, he sought election for Parliament. Running as an Independent in the 1868 General Election in the electoral area of Drogheda he campaigned on three issues:

I. opposition to Gladstone’s plans to disendow the Established Church
II. reformation of the town’s Harbour Board
III. reformation of the Irish spirit trade.

Amidst widespread violence and intimidation, he fought and lost the election. However, he successfully appealed the result but thought it prudent not to run in the new election. In the course of his campaign, he met Annette Elizabeth Dunlop of Monasterboice. Over time, their friendship grew and in October 1870 they married at Mellifont. The couple moved to London where they had five children – three boys (Henry Foster, John William and Robert Singleton) and two daughters (Anna Elizabeth and Elizabeth Florence). He served in a number of roles including naval aide de camp to Queen Victoria and Admiral Superintendent at Portsmouth Dockyard.

A Legacy Well Given
The next phase of his life reflected both his compassion for his fellow sailors and passion for exploration. He founded the Transport Guild - a charity that raised funds to provide soldiers returning from warmer climates with appropriate clothing and other items to reacclimatise them. He was also involved with the Royal Alfred Aged Merchant Seaman’s Institute and the National Lifeboat Institution. After his retirement as a full admiral in 1884, he became an active commissioner of lighthouses and lightships. His expertise in polar exploration and preparation was availed of via his contribution to the Nares expedition of 1875, and the Scott Antarctic expedition of 1901-4. It was around this time that his health began to fail.

After a period of ill health, Francis Leopold McClintock died on Sunday November 17th 1907 from a bout of pneumonia, and was buried in Kensington Cemetery. However, it is widely acknowledged that the most appropriate recognition of his life’s work is to be found in Westminster Abbey at the memorial to James Franklin where a simple inscription was added. It reads:

Here also is commemorated Admiral Sir Leopold McClintock, 1819-1907. Discoverer of the Fate of Franklin in 1859.

On hearing of his death, Reverend G.F. Wilson was moved to write that:

None know, perhaps, quite so much as those at work among sailors, what the wide- reaching influence he had over men at sea meant, and how much his earnest life of faith helped and strengthened the lives of others and still it lives among us.

Sir Francis Leopold McClintock is widely recognised not only as an Arctic explorer but as a principled man who placed great importance on the comfort of his officers and crew. The manner of his preparation inspired a generation of explorers including Roald Amundsen. The forensic nature of his observations and note-taking adding greatly to the store of scientific knowledge acquired by the Victorians. Ultimately, though he was, perhaps, best described as:

a man that might be typified in our own national symbol, the shamrock, a type that blends, three much sought friends head, heart and hand together.

Sledging Techniques
Perhaps McClintock’s single greatest contribution to Arctic exploration lay in the use of the sledge. He introduced a system based not on the use of dogs but men. This new system saw the use of teams of six or seven men led by an officer with advance parties laying down provisions and fuel. A supporting party accompanied the main party for up to half of the outward journey, carrying the extra weight of supplies in the early stages. This included sledges, camping equipment, clothes and diets all made to McClintock’s specifications. Additional innovations included the use of sails and kites to aid travel downwind, as well as the introduction of names, mottoes and flags on sledges to foster team spirit.



He memorably once remarked that:

No journey ever made with dogs can approach the height of that fine conception which is realised when a party of men go forth to face hardships, dangers and difficulties with their own unaided efforts, and by days and weeks of hard physical labour succeed in solving some problem of the great unknown. Surely in this case the conquest is more nobly and splendidly won.

He believed that the greatest distance a sledge party could accomplish in the Arctic could be 600 miles carrying 60 days’ food, and that the use of men would beat the use of dogs.

One criticism of the system was that it was labourious and slow, learning little from the expertise of the Inuit people. It was over time superseded by developments in technology and practice introduced by Scandinavian and American explorers. However, its impact was based on the objective of establishing the fate of Franklin, in effect to realise the job for which it was designed and ultimately this is the context in which it should be judged.

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