sources

An Explorer's Fate

Cincinnati Evening Post, Saturday, August 30, 1884, p. 1, col. 3

AN EXPLORER'S FATE.

Captain McClintock, of the Franklin Expedition, was Killed and Eaten.

A Fact for the First Time Made Public.

Uncle John D. Caldwell Tells the Story — How It was Kept from His Affianced Wife, Miss Cracraft, Lady Franklin's Niece, by Captain Hall.

"Many years ago," said Uncle John D. Caldwell, ex-member of the Board of Public Works, to THE POST this morning, "Lady Franklin, in her voyage around the world, made a special visit to Cincinnati in order to pay her respects to Capt. C. T. Hall¹, the Arctic explorer, whom she regarded as having made greater sacrifices to find her unfortunate husband than all others. This visit of the widow was highly appreciated at the time when sympathy for her was still warm, and the loss of the explorers still fresh in recollection, although hope of the rescue of any of them had died out. Uncle John and Capt. Hall set about the task of giving her a semi-public reception. Money was raised, her bills provided for at the Burnet house, carriages furnished to s[h]ow her such objects of interest as the city then afforded, and a banquet in her honor arranged for. Lady Franklin was not the only one whose complete happiness had been wrecked by

THE ILL-FATED EXPEDITION.

She had as companion on her travels a niece named Sophia Cracraft, whose lover had perished with the rest. His name was Capt. M'Clintock and they were engaged to be married on his return. She was a sad-eyed, heavy-hearted girl when here, who weighed every word uttered by Capt Hall, apparently in expectation of some revelation, some slight circumstance on which to hang a hope that her lover still lived, and that the icebergs of the Arctic might yet deliver him up to her safe and well. Over and over again did Capt. Hall rehearse to these ladies his

EXPERIENCES IN FROZEN REGIONS.

What mementoes of Sir John's expedition he had discovered, what stories were related by the Esquimaux. But there was one fact that he could not tell them, at least one that he could not tell M[is]s Cracraft, one that he dare not tell the world, lest she might learn it, and one which the public at large and she, if she still lives, and this meets her eye, will learn for the first time learn not altogether with composure now, although the years have moderated grief, and the warm passion of her youth is but a tender and melancholy memory. Up to this time it has been guarded reverently as a secret by Uncle John and his family, as communicated to them by Capt. Hall, when at dinner with them during Lady Franklin's visit. He was relating the substance of his interviews with the ladies and in reply to the earnest inquiries of Miss Cracraft in regard to mementos of her lover, "I couldn't," exclaimed Hall, "I couldn't tell her of

CAPT. M'CLINTOCK'S HORRIBLE FATE.

Then, for the first time, he rehearsed to Uncle John what he had learned from an Esxuimau who had been with the Franklin party. Suppressing his voice almost to a whisper, he said: "Capt. McClintock was shot and eaten by the others for food. They had reached the point of starvation when it became a question whether all should perish or one or another should die that the others might live. The agreement was unanimous that lots should be drawn to see who should die first, and that lot fell to Capt. McClintock. He yielded with composure to h[i]s fate. He was shot, and his body became food for the others. He was eaten. Whether others followed by lot, Capt. Hall did not say, but the death of McClintock the E[]quimau witnessed. It was only yesterday that Uncle John D. Caldwell, whose sterling integrity even an enemy can not be found to question, told the story, to a friend. The fate of the Greely expedition recalled it to his mind, and he considered that after this lapse of time it could do no harm to tell the sad story."