Waiting -- And A Franklin Expedition Update

     The floor fan is roaring away -- and I'm wearing the lightest thing I've got, so it will flap occasionally in the breeze. If anything, it's the hottest, sweatiest day yet-- and that's saying a lot. 

     The Mama is better, which makes her restless. Trips are still limited to the bathroom and kitchen, which means I stay home to keep an eye on her. Thankfully, the swelling in her legs and feet have gone down, as an odd "weeping" effect: one leg (and only one) 'weeps' a clear fluid that looks like water. Compression stockings and keeping ones feet well-elevated are the solution. But then she feels better...and gets restless.

     She likes watching television -- but only at night. And her favorite shows are I-could-gag festivas like America's Got Talent and American Ninja Warriors. So I wait it out...and watch late-night cowboy shows like Gunsmoke, after she goes to bed. 

      No movies. No music. And no tv until after the news. It gets pretty quiet around here, which makes it easy to doze off now and then. Makes up for the lack of sleep at night. (Just too hot.)

===============================

In better news, there have been developments on the fate of the Franklin Expedition. Y'know, that 1845 trip to oblivion that swallowed up 128 men from the British Empire, plus their commander, John Franklin, while they were searching for a way through the Northwest Passage. In the centuries since then, their paraphernalia and bones have been stumbled upon...and finally, in recent years, their ships: the Erebus (2014) and the Terror. (2016)

(If explorers had paid more attention to Inuit witness accounts, they would have found the ships a lot sooner. Erebus and Terror were right where the Eskimo said they would be.)

Parks Canada has started a new DNA matching program for relatives of the Franklin men. Lo and behold, they got a hit! One of the skulls found in 2013 was actually Warrant Office John Gregory, an engineer on the Erebus.  (His great-great-great grandson Jonathan Gregory gets the credit for this discovery. Go here for an interesting backstory on Gregory's skull.)

As David Woodman, author of Unraveling the Franklin Mystery, points out:

"He was one of the oldest guys and he was from the Erebus, so when did this happen? Was he one of the early succumbers?" Woodman said. "We know he wasn't the first to die because other work has been done …. so what was it about John Gregory that he ends up at Erebus Bay?"

No work was done on the wrecks in 2020 or this year, thanks to Covid. Archeologists did remove 350 artifacts in 2019 that are still being analyzed. Including a hairbrush...what could those stray hairs communicate?

Why is this important?? Erebus' position, at least, argues that someone on the Franklin Expedition may have found a way through the Northwest Passage. And if that can be proven, it means that Canada, who acquired the rights to the Expedition from Great Britain, has the right to asset ownership. Which could mean big bucks, charging tankers for passage rights. 

Hmmm.

Meanwhile, excavation will continue on the shipwrecks next year.

No rush, says David Woodman:

"The wrecks lay undisturbed for 150 years. They can afford to have another two years off,"

The North-West Passage by Millais