George Back

George Back

Sir George Back (born November 6, 1796 in Stockport , Greater Manchester , England , † June 23, 1878 in London ) was a British naval officer and polar explorer .

Early days and first expeditions

Back entered the Royal Navy on September 15, 1808 . On board the frigate HMS Arethusa he took part in battles off Cherbourg and the north coast of Spain during the Napoleonic Wars . In 1809 he was taken prisoner by the French, from which he was only released five years later. During his imprisonment he developed a talent for painting, which was an important skill for expeditions before the invention of photography.

Because of this, Back received a post in David Buchan's expedition to Spitsbergen in 1818 . He served aboard HMS Trent under the command of John Franklin , who became aware of the young midshipman . Franklin then took him on his expedition to explore the North American Arctic coast of 1819 and 1822. The expedition almost ended in total disaster when the group was stuck on the Canadian tundra with insufficient food and supplies and part of the crew was on the verge of mutiny. The fact that Franklin got away with his life on the expedition was thanks to Back, who made an extremely grueling march to a friendly Indian tribe and was able to organize help there.

On his second expedition to the Mackenzie River from 1825 to 1827 , Franklin Back initially did not want to consider it. Back had gotten into such an argument with another participant, Robert Hood, over the affection for an Indian girl named Greenstockings during the first expedition that a duel between the two could only barely be prevented. It was only when Franklin's favorite participant died that he decided to take Back with him. This expedition was finally brought to a successful conclusion.

The expedition to the Back River

In 1829 John Ross set out on an expedition to the North American Arctic on board the steamer Victory . After three years there was no news of his whereabouts, the British Admiralty put together a rescue expedition at the urging of Ross' brother George. The expedition organized by the Hudson's Bay Company was to be led by Back.

It was believed that the Victory was trapped in the ice in Prince Regent Inlet and that Ross had saved himself on Somerset Island . There were still sufficient supplies in the shipwreck of the HMS Fury , which Edward Parry had to leave there in 1825. Back's plan was to follow the Great Fish River (now the Back River ) from Great Slave Lake to the Canadian Arctic coast and then to Somerset Island. However, to date no European had penetrated to the “Great Fish River”, its course was only known from reports by Indians.

Accompanied by three sailors and a doctor, Dr. Richard King, sailed back to New York in February 1833 . On August 8th, he reached Fort Resolution on Great Slave Lake via fur trade routes that he knew from Franklin's second expedition . With the help of a Native American guide, he found the Great Fish Lake drain on August 29th. However, he initially wintered in Fort Resolution. On April 30, 1832, he received news that Ross had now safely returned to England. Back could now concentrate entirely on exploring the river and the coast at its mouth. He planned to advance to Point Turnaround on the Kent Peninsula , where Franklin had to turn back on his first expedition.

On June 7, Back set out for the Great Fish River with eleven men and a boat they had built during the year. On June 28th they reached its drain. It took them 25 days to travel over the 850 km long river and had to avoid 38 rapids and waterfalls. Once on the coast, however, it turned out that the polar sea to the west was already frozen over by thick pack ice. After two weeks, Back buried hope that the ice cover would loosen and he returned to Fort Reliance. In March the following spring he returned to England via New York. There he received several honors and the promotion to post-captain . He published a book about the trip that sold well.

Second expedition under Back's leadership

HMS Terror on July 14, 1837

In order to further complete the mapping of the North American Arctic Coast, the Royal Geographic Society proposed another expedition to the British government, of which Back was appointed. The expedition should first cross the Hudson Strait to Wager Bay or Repulse Bay , from where the west coast of the Melville Peninsula was to be mapped by boat . An expedition under George Francis Lyon had already failed in this task in 1824 , with his ship being badly damaged and the crew only being lucky enough to get away with their lives. The HMS Terror was made available for the voyage from Back . On June 14, 1836, he set sail from London with a crew of 60 .

Back was known that Lyon had attempted to circumnavigate Southampton Island south towards Repulse Bay, whereupon his ship struck an iceberg in a storm in Roes Welcome Sound . So Back decided to instead cross the Foxe Canal on a north course , which Parry had successfully mastered in 1821. However, the pack ice was much thicker this year, and by September the Terror was firmly trapped. Over the next ten months, the ship slowly drifted southeast and was badly damaged by storms and the pressure of the ice. Scurvy also spread to the crew during the winter , so a continuation of the expedition was out of the question. The crew was only able to free the ship in June 1837. However, due to the ice still clinging to the keel, the ship was listed immediately and almost capsized. Back finally managed to make makeshift repairs to the ship for the return voyage. After the ship got caught in a storm on the crossing in the Atlantic and again narrowly escaped a disaster, the crew reached Lough Swilly in Ireland on September 3 .

retirement

Back never fully recovered from the rigors of the journey, and his application for retirement was granted. In March 1839 he was knighted ( Knight Bachelor ). He was Vice President of the Royal Geographic Society for seven years . As a member of the Arctic Council , he advised the British Admiralty during the rescue of the Franklin expedition . In 1859 he was appointed Rear Admiral promoted the reserve in 1863 to Vice Admiral and finally in 1876 the Admiral. He died in London in 1878 at the age of 81.

Pictures (selection)

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  Estuary of the Coppermine River (1821)

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  Cape Barrow (1821)

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  Fort Enterprise (1823)

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  HMS Terror , trapped in the ice (1836/37)

Works

• Narrative of the arctic land expedition to the mouth of the Great Fish River, and along the shores of the Arctic Ocean, in the years 1833, 1834, and 1835. Murray et al., London 1836, (In German: Reise durch Nord-Amerika up to the mouth of the great fish river and on the coasts of the polar sea in the years 1833, 1834 and 1835. Translated from the English by Karl Andrée . Weber, Leipzig, 1836).
• Narrative of the expedition in HMS Terror, undertaken with a view to geographical discovery on the arctic shores, in the years 1836–7. Murray, London 1838.

Sources and web links

• William J. Mills: Exploring Polar Frontiers: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara 2003, ISBN 978-1-57607-422-0 , p. 47ff.

Commons : George Back  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• George Back . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ).