Leopold McClintock
Sir Leopold McClintock KCB FRS | |
---|---|
North America and West Indies Station | |
Commander-in-Chief 27 November 1879 – 7 November 1882 | |
Preceded by | Sir Edward Inglefield |
Succeeded by | Sir John Commerell |
Jamaica Division | |
Commodore 6 September 1865 – 21 February 1868 | |
Preceded by | Sir Algernon de Horsey |
Succeeded by | Sir Augustus Phillimore |
Personal details | |
Born | Francis Leopold McClintock 8 July 1819 Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland |
Died | 17 November 1907 (aged 88) Kensington, London, England |
Resting place | Hanwell Cemetery |
Spouse |
Annette Dunlop (m. 1870) |
Children | John William McClintock |
Awards |
|
Military service | |
Allegiance | United Kingdom |
Branch | Royal Navy |
Service years | 1835–1884 |
Rank | Admiral |
Expeditions | McClintock Arctic expedition |
Sir Francis Leopold McClintock
McClintock's report was received more favorably than that of Rae, who was shunned and denied recognition for having discovered the lost expedition's fate. Rae's report ultimately guided McClintock to the correct area to conduct a search. McClintock also stirred controversy with his claim that Franklin, before his death, had essentially discovered the Northwest Passage, while in reality he had not. Rae, with his discovery of Rae Strait, had discovered the real ice-free passage through North America's Arctic archipelago.
Early life
McClintock was born on 8 July 1819, one of 14 children of Henry McClintock, a collector of customs at Dundalk in County Louth, Ireland, and his wife Elizabeth Melesina née Fleury. He was the second oldest son, although the eldest died somewhere in the Caribbean, aged over 40.
The family was well connected; McClintock's uncle, John McClintock, was a Member of Parliament for County Louth and owned Drumcar House.[1]
Arctic exploration
In July 1831,aged just 12 years old, he joined HMS Samarang at Portsmouth, as a Gentleman Volunteer. The Captain was Capt. Charles Paget (who would later marry one of his sisters, Emily Caroline) and the Lieutenant was a relation, William McClintock-Bunbury, whose son Thomas later became 2nd Lord Rathdonnell . In 1843 he passed his examination for lieutenancy and joined the steamship "Gorgon", which was driven ashore at Montevideo and salvaged, a feat of seamanship on the part of her captain and officers that attracted much attention. Hitherto, until 1847, McClintock's service was almost wholly on the American coasts.[2]
McClintock joined a series of searches for Sir John Franklin between 1848 and 1859. He mastered travel through the manhauling of sledges, which remained the standard practice when it came to overland travel in icy territory in the Royal Navy, until the death of Robert Falcon Scott in his bid to reach the South Pole in 1912.
In 1848, McClintock accompanied James Clark Ross on his survey of Somerset Island. As part of Captain Henry Kellett's expedition from 1852 to 1854, McClintock travelled 1,400 miles (2,300 km) by sled and discovered 800 miles (1,300 km) of previously unknown coastline.[3]
Fate of Franklin's expedition
In 1854, explorer
In February 1859, when sledging became practical, he went south to the
McClintock returned to England in September 1859, and was hailed as the discoverer of the lost expedition's fate. In addition to being knighted, the officers and men of the Fox shared a £5,000 parliamentary reward. The tale was published in The Voyage of the 'Fox' in the Arctic seas: a narrative of the discovery of the fate of Sir John Franklin and his companions. McClintock's findings were of special importance for the subsequent romantification of John Franklin's figure in British culture, since the establishment of his date of death as having occurred before the ships' abandonment and the crew's failed trek south, firmly acquitted the veteran sailor from any suspicion of cannibalism. This had been a concern since 1854, when Rae had arrived back to London with shocking reports from Inuit sources that had greatly scandalized Victorian society, particularly Lady Franklin.
McClintock's writings, on the other hand, were obsequious towards Franklin, even going so far as to celebrate his "virtual completion" of the Northwest Passage, even though Erebus and Terror never sailed through Rae Strait, the only truly navigable passageway – for a 19th-century ship – that would have allowed sailing along North America's northern Arctic coastline all the way into the Pacific.[4]
Bulldog sounding expedition
In 1860, McClintock took command of the
Later life
In 1865 McClintock was elected a
Family
McClintock unsuccessfully contested a seat in parliament for the borough of Drogheda, but while there he made the acquaintance of Annette Delap, (later changed to Dunlop) and married her in 1870. She was the daughter of Robert Foster Delap (1809-1875) and Hon. Anna Elizabeth Foster (later Skeffington) 1817-1901.[2] Robert Foster Delap's father, William Drummond Delap, changed their surname to Dunlop in 1861 by Special Licence.There were five children, including:
- Henry Foster McClintock, (1871-1959)
- John William Leopold McClintock (1874–1929), Vice-Admiral, RN
- Col. Robert S. McClintock. CMG, DSO (1876-1967), who married Mary Elphinstone, the youngest daughter of Major General Sir Howard Craufurd Elphinstone.[10]
- Anna Elizabeth McClintock, (1873-1957) who married in 1902 Sir Bernard Eyre Greenwell, 2nd Baronet.[11]
- Elizabeth Florence Mary (Bessie) (1882-1913) died unmarried.
References
- ^ Murphy 2004, p. 6.
- ^ a b c d Chisholm 1911.
- OCLC 1391959.
- ^ McGoogan 2002.
- ^ "The Great Atlantic Telegraph; successful expedition of the Bulldog and Fox to establish a telegraph route between Europe and America; important scientific discoveries". New York Times. 20 December 1860. p. 2.
- ^ "M'CLINTOCK, Francis Leopold". Who's Who. Vol. 59. 1907. p. 1107.
- ^ William Loney RN
- ^ "Admiral McClintock Dead; British Officer Who Discovered Sir John Franklin's Fate". The New York Times. 18 November 1907. Retrieved 25 July 2010.
- ^ Library and Archive catalogue Archived 26 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine Royal Society
- ^ "Sir Howard and Lady Elphinstone". Bagshot Village.
- ^ "Marriages". The Times. No. 36932. London. 22 November 1902. p. 1.
Bibliography
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "McClintock, Sir Francis Leopold". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 204. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- McGoogan, K. (2002). Fatal passage: the story of John Rae, the Arctic hero time forgot. New York: ISBN 9780786709939.
- Murphy, D. (2004). The Arctic Fox: Francis Leopold-McClintock, Discoverer of the Fate of Franklin. Toronto: Dundurn. ISBN 9781554883080.
Further reading
- Coleman, E. C. (2007). The Royal Navy and polar exploration: from Franklin to Scott. Stroud: Tempus. ISBN 9780752442075.
- Leonard George Carr Laughton (1912). "McClintock, Francis Leopold". Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
- O'Byrne, W. R. (1849). Wikisource. . – via