#peddy bear

[firsttarotreader]

The most adorable thing! 😫

[strogoff-era]

🎤 opportunity to talk more about your selkie AU if you want to? im curious about the dog selkies v the seal selkies, or are they variations on the same concept ? (ie. nedward is a husky in 1 version and a seal in another?)

Yay !!! I love talking about this AU, thank you so much for the ask !!!!!

So this is just one single AU and some characters are dogs, some are seals and some (actually just Silna and her dad) are bears :D

There are 3 types of selkies in the AU that all cohabit : dog-selkies, seal-selkies and bear-selkies. They all pretty much work the same (they have a pelt they can "put on" and turn into their animal form) but each with different animals.

The type of animal you are is genetic, meaning a family of seal-selkies can't have a bear-selkie baby.

Also I'm using your ask as an opportunity to share a list of "what kind of selkies each character is". If a character isn't included, it means I don't have any idea for them yet (and i'm open to suggestion)

Seal selkies : Goodsir, Irving, Jopson (half-selkie but can transform), Blanky, Peddie, JCR, Collins

Dog selkies : Gore, Little, Hartnell, Tozer, Peglar, Pilk, Manson, Young

Bear selkies : Silna, her dad

Humans : Crozier, Sir John, Fitzjames (half selkie but cannot transform), Dundy, Fairholme, Hodgson (but was raised by selkies), Stanley, Macdonald, Bridgen, Hickey, CDV

(most people in the Navy are humans but in Artic expeditions, it's useful to have dog-selkies and seal-selkies in the team to pull sleds/hunt)

[saints-who-never-existed]

Rereading The Terror

Chapter Twenty-Six: Goodsir

And here we have it - the tally for it later. This is going to be an extra-long one I think, lads - I made a dozen annotations on the first page alone it's all so heart-breaking.

The chapter begins with one single gut-wrenching sentence: "I am the only one left." And we learn for certain that Peddie and Stanley both perished in the flames while MacDonald survived only to be gunned down accidentally by the Marines as he fled.

Surprisingly, the death toll is in single figures otherwise with only two other men on the list. Lieutenant Fairholme had his ribs crushed and his heart "pulverized" by Tuunbaq - interesting given that it was he who gunned down the polar bear mother and her cub. Retribution, perhaps? Meanwhile, Mr Hornby has an even sadder end than he does in the show - he was on watch most of the evening and arrived to the festivities not even an hour before he was brutally eviscerated.

There are eighteen other major injuries, including Blanky who has finally lost his already-damaged leg to the Tuunbaq but manages to remain upbeat about it like the absolute legend he is. Goodsir agrees: "Mr Blanky remains remarkably chipper for a man who has sustained so much damage in so short a time."

And so we move on to the punishment - Hickey, Manson, and Richard Aylmore (the man in the headless Sir John outfit and the brains behind the trippy Carnivale construction) are to be lashed 50 (50!!!) times each. Interestingly, Hickey and Manson are not being lashed for Insubordination etc. like Aylmore is but for making the bear costume as it is "a violation of all of Captain Crozier's previous orders about not wearing such Heathen Fetishes".

Aylmore and Manson are penitent with heads bowed. Aylmore faints after nine lashes and receives the full 50 (50!!!) while unconscious. Manson just weeps like a child. Hickey, however, holds his head high, takes all his lashes without a sound beyond a gasp just like in the show, and refuses support as he walks out of the room.

Another gut-wrenching detail that I feel the need to mention is the acknowledgement that they would normally throw a pail of water over an unconscious man so he would be awake enough to fully suffer his punishment. What's worse in this instance is the mention that it's so fucking cold they don't have any actual liquid water with which to do even that, hence why they just continue lashing Aylmore while he's passed the fuck out.

Another awful detail still is the fact that Crozier won't let Goodsir leave to attend to Aylmore once his punishment is over - he has to stay to watch Manson and Hickey too even if it means Aylmore bleeds to death in his absence.

Once Goodsir gets in there to treat the men, we see the mask very much start to come off for Hickey. He orders Manson abruptly to stop crying - no soothing, manipulative "loves" for him now apparently - then orders him to dress and leave the Sick Bay immediately. One can only imagine the pain they'd both be in and the force of will needed to dress and leave anyway...

Crozier gives a short speech after and there's a lot to consider. Like the fact that he takes responsibility as the Captain and assures the assembled men that he'll receive his own harsh punishment when he's eventually Court Martialled, while also openly expressing doubt that they'll survive long enough for that to actually happen.

Fitzjames says nothing, despite being the one to more actively oversee the Carnivale preparations. God love him, he's described as "impassive and pale. His gaze...unfocused. His thoughts...elsewhere."

Fitzjames is apparently so bereft and out of sorts that Crozier basically doesn't consider him within the chain of command as the chapter ends and Crozier endeavours to sober up: "The Captain turned over the handling of the ship's and expedition's affairs to Lieutenant Little yesterday - thus quietly but firmly giving command to Little rather than to Captain Fitzjames..." A win for cool, competent Ned! But at what cost?!

[netherfeildren]

the fic im writing rn involves joel miller wearing glasses every damn day soo…to help fix your sad and weirds:

my peddy bear!!!!!!!😭😭😭😭😭 thnku friend 🫶🏻

[joysmercer]

☕️ + what relationships do you think lasted post-show and where do you see those who are single ending up

ooh well if we’re being exact, i don’t think any of them broke up grad night or move out day 💀 but the only two i really see as endgame are peddie and jeroy. if anyone deserves a happy ending, it’s the four of them <3

i think fabian and mara have a fling for like a handful of weeks just to get it out of their systems and then they’re both like “i gotta focus on uni” and that’s that. alfie and willow just fizzle out naturally within a year but there’s like 0 animosity there (i mean have you met either of them??) and they stay besties forever. i like to think willow has that quintessential college romance and gets proposed to on grad day and alfie’s the one who sets them up in the first place and ends up being her best man. willow buys him a million gift certificates to build-a-bear (or whatever the uk equivalent is) when he gets into pediatric residency.

amber and nina get back in touch w each other the winter break after amber leaves and i like to think they do end up together, but it takes a while getting there—at least in KT’s point of view, considering she’s roomies with nina in college and grad school and has to witness the two of them skirting around each other for what feels like an eternity before they get their act together lol. romantically idk what goes on w KT or mick but i feel like if they met, KT would apologize to him on maras behalf dhdhfjhjk but mick (who heard what happened to jara from amber) would just laugh it off.

oh, and trudy and uncle ade get married and are honorary grandparents to all the sibuna kid’s children

send me a ☕️ and a topic and i’ll give you my opinion!

[taetaesungsung]

The NC Dinosaurs persistently persuaded Peddy.

"Korea is no longer a place where foreign players spend their final years, but it also introduces examples of reverse export such as Merrill Kelly (36, Arizona Diamondbacks) and Chris Flexen (30, Chicago White Sox), and urged the Korean team to consider the KBO League as a springboard 넥스트벳가입to challenge the big league once again."

Inspired by NC's sincere persuasion, Peddy eventually agreed to a 1 million dollar contract. He swept the Golden Glove in the KBO League MVP and pitching categories with 20-6 losses, 180 ⅓ innings, 209 strikeouts, and an ERA of 2.00 in 30 starts last year. He made a golden return to the 다파벳가입Major League after signing a contract with the White Sox ahead of this season.

Starting with Peddy, the number of players boasting of their major league careers in Korea has begun to soar. Jaime Barria (28), who played for the Hanwha Eagles this year, has garnered 22 wins in 134 appearances in the Major League. Foreign players who will join the team next season have become even more spectacular. SSG Landers pitcher Mitch White 메이저사이트(30), LG Twins pitcher Yoni Chirinos (31), Doosan Bears pitcher Cole Irvin (30) and NC Dinos pitcher Logan Allen (27) are all young and have a lot of experience in the Major League. Although no announcement has been made, infielder Patrick Wisdom (33), who signed a contract with the KIA Tigers, boasts 88 home runs in the Major League.

[outlookindiacom71]

The fire bat of the NC Dinos in professional baseball is heating up the autumn night.

NC beat KT Wiz 9-5 in the first round of the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League postseason playoff (three wins out of five) at KT Wiz Park in Suwon on the 30th.

NC, which advanced to the postseason as fourth place in the regular season, previously beat SSG in third place in the semi-playoff and continued to make a splash in the playoffs, raising expectations for another "upset." The number of teams that have won the first playoff game in history has reached the Korean Series is 25 out of 32 times, accounting for a whopping 78%.

NC's strong line that caught fire is also "active" in the playoffs

NC started the fire with Son Ah-seop's right-center hit and Park Min-woo's left-center double in the first inning, and scored first with Jason Martin's sacrifice fly to left field.

In the second inning, leadoff hitter Oh Young-soo took the lead by hitting a 149km/h fastball from kt starter William Cuevas and hitting a solo shot over the left fence. Confused, KT collapsed on its own, throwing out defensive errors one after another.

Park Gun-woo and Kwon Hee-dong scored additional runs in the third inning with timely hits, and Cuevas was pulled off the mound by hitting a "big inning" that scored four runs in the fourth inning alone.

Son Ah-seop hit a timely hit in the second and third base chances with no outs, and accumulated points steadily with Park Min-woo's walk and Park Gun-woo's sacrifice fly. Soon after, Kwon Hee-dong hit a sweeping triple that brought two runners home to seal the game.

NC, who is well aware of the importance of winning the first game, put in a must-win group such as Kim Young-kyu, Ryu Jin-wook, and Lee Yong-chan despite a wide score gap.

However, kt also showed its strength in second place in the regular season, even though it lost, as the allocation team hit a grand slam against Lee Yong-chan in the last 9th inning. For NC, there was no effect on winning or losing, but the short-term game was a disappointing home run in that fighting the atmosphere was important.

On this day, the two teams started the best ace as they did in the first round. NC's Eric Peddy, who shines with 20 wins-200 strikeouts in the regular season, and Kt's Cuevas, the winning percentage king, played.

Contrary to expectations that it would be a hot pitching match, the joys and sorrows of the two pitchers were sharply divided. Peddy, who skipped the wild card game and the semi-playoff due to an injury that hit his arm by a hit in his last appearance in the regular season, pitched hard as if to repay his teammates.

Based on a fastball of more than 150 kilometers per hour, he properly mixed curves and changeups to overwhelm the kt batters. In particular, in the fourth inning, all three kt center hitters, Anthony Alford, Park Byung-ho, and Jang Sung-woo, were struck out.

Peddy, who pitched hard with three hits and one run in six innings, struck out 12 and set a new record for most strikeouts in a playoff game, surpassing Sun Dong-yeol (Haetae Tigers) in 1989 and Chris Flexen (Doosan Bears) in 2020.

Cuevas, on the other hand, came off the mound early after being hit hard by six hits, two walks and seven runs (four earned runs) in three innings.

NC beat Cuevas with three hits and one run, Park Min-woo two hits and two runs, Kwon Hee-dong three hits and three RBIs, and Oh Young-soo three hits and two RBIs, including a home run.

Cuevas, who returned to kt as an alternative foreign player in June, played a decisive role in kt's rise to second place, with 12 wins, no losses, and a 2.60 ERA in 18 regular-season games.

However, on this day, as if he was conscious of his opponent, Pedi, his control shook as his shoulders tightened. In the third inning, third baseman Hwang Jae-kyun even made a painful mistake of missing an ordinary infield fly ball, making Cuevas difficult. 토토사이트 순위

In the end, the showdown between the two foreign aces, which drew attention, ended with Pedi's complete victory. The two teams will play the second game at the same venue on the 31st. Kt predicted Wes Benjamin and NC predicted Shin Min-hyuk as the starting pitcher.

[wolverconnie]

Finished coloring Honey Heist 2 drawings of the bears in their new hats. 🎩🐻🍯 #criticalrolefanart #criticalrole #honeyheist #trinket #cookie #waffle #liamlasvegas #peddy #bears #electricbeargaloo #artist #originalart #pencil #pen https://www.instagram.com/p/BmyLmH3FL6F/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1uc6a19sbqkak

[firsttarotreader]

Peddy Bear being all charming in The Uninvited. 🥰🥰🥰

https://x.com/c00k130r30/status/1769555042821107893?s=46&t=67rZ3XA7w2z6szQQNcLc1Q

[sleepyjaneart]

Trinket’s Honey Heist!

Artwork done for the Critical Role One-Shot on Geek and Sundry!

[claradesvoeux]

>Charlie nods, heads back to his quarters before going above deck. For something like this, sledge-hauling, bringing the bodies so far from the ship, their coats aren’t going to be enough, so he puts on his slops as quickly as he can before heading up and off the ship. The sledge itself still has some supplies from when it was carried on the lead scouting mission, whichever way this one had gone, but what little is left could be useful; an ice pick, ropes. A sharply pointed shovel, and of course the harnesses they’ll need to pull the vessel on the uneven shale. Unloading the harnesses and the ropes first, Charlie drapes the covering back over the supplies at the bottom of the small boat. They can use the ropes on a sort of stretcher to lower the bodies from the deck to the ice, and from there they can carry them to the sledge. It’ll take some time, but they should be set off within an hour or so.

>This entire situation makes him uneasy. It seems everyone is on edge, nobody wants to follow orders, even Dundy is openly going against Fitzjames… it seems they’re all parting on poor terms, and with who knows how many bears out there, and with several of either party in bad health… there’s nothing to be done, but he doesn’t like it one bit. Something else must’ve happened between George and Dundy, aside from what Charlie already knows, because they certainly don’t seem to be speaking to one another; Tommy is upset, rightly so, with both Tozer and himself, and badly wounded, yet being sent on this journey anyway; Gore himself has just come back from the dead as well as anyone ever has, and he’s being asked to haul a sledge miles from the ship so they can burn the bodies.

>Shouldn’t Fitzjames himself be pitching in, able bodied as he is and seemingly free of other duties? The Commander’s behavior has been odd, certainly, and Charlie has made it clear to the man that he doesn’t trust him, holds him responsible for the ways his orders have failed the crew, but to hear it from Dundy as well, not just criticism but outright disobedience, is alarming. And certainly, just three lieutenants aren’t enough to haul a sledge any day, let alone one piled high with the bodies of the crew, and with one of the men pulling badly injured.

>Heading back on board, he stops by the sickbay one last time, and he hates to pop in there and bother Tommy if he’s still talking to Hickey and the others, knows he doesn’t want to talk to Charlie, but he wants to bring @devious-seducer-69 with the smaller group. He knows he’s on board, and if he sees that other doctor around—Peddie?—he might as well ask him too.

Mr. Hickey? I think y’ought to accompany Lieutenants Irving, Gore and myself t’burn the bodies if you’ve not another task at th’moment. Lieutenant Gore’s still injured, n’even with three healthy men that’s not a full sledge complement.

>after muster, and the dead are accounted for, (eight dead, most everyone on watch, really), and it's figured out who died and who didn't, dundy goes down to sickbay where everyone was last gathered. steadies himself, rights himself. now to find everyone. not that hard, considering they're all in the same place. he spots @lieutenantjirv and @chasdesvoeux first

john, charlie. captain fitzjames wants you to go with lieutenant gore out on the ice to take care of the dead. burn them away from the ship. you'll need to take at least four more men with you for protection, i'd say, but it's at your discretion. i have to go with george, the marine sergeant tozer, and the steward armitage, to terror to deliver the news and check in on the command there. yes, he's splitting us up, i know. don't. question him >he grabs both their shoulders, first charlie's, then john's, and then he'll give each of them a hug, and john a kiss don't fucking die out there, okay? just don't. n... >he'll drop his voice to a whisper. we can regroup. once we're out there. or set out together. just don't mention it, okay? >he pats their shoulders again

[pocketgalaxies]

"the name's peddy. peddy bear."

"*muffled laughter*"

[the-wave-finally-broke]

Part 1 - Artefacts from the Franklin Expedition

(Part 2 here and Part 3 here)

Ohhh lads, I think this is going to be a long one, so I shall break it into 3 posts - for to stay within the picture limits.

It hath come to my attention that the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich has a magnificent online catalogue of Franklin Expedition relics. Having just spent a diverting couple of hours combing through the archive, I felt compelled to share a few items that I thought were particularly interesting or touching (would absolutely recommend conducting your own reconnaissance through the catalogue, though).

A cloth bound pocketbook ('Christian Melodies'), belonging to Graham Gore

Excerpt from poem pictured on open page, above— "But if in yon immortal clime, Where flows no parting tear, That root of earthly love may grow, Which struck so deeply here"

Gold dust cover of James Reid’s (Ice-master on HMS Erebus) watch

A gold regulation lace ribbon sewn into a circular band (possibly an officer's cap band)

Pair of leather and wire gauze snow goggles

Wooden clothes brush belonging to Henry Wilks, Royal Marine Private (Third Class)

A silver table fork belonging to Sir John Franklin. The back of the handle bears the Franklin crest (conger eel's head between two branches). Other cutlery that was found included spoons and forks* belonging to Alexander MacDonald, John Peddie, Lt Graham Gore, Lt James Fairholme and Lt Thomas Henry Dundas le Vesconte.

*Terror forks presumed lost in battle

Preserved sample of tinned meat from the Franklin expedition

Sledge runners from a boat sledge

[thequeenofmyownscreen]

Following the end of campaign 1, since I'm sticking to the chronological order, I've watched the numerous one-shots Critical Role did between the two campaigns. Man, the hiatus was long !

Some of them I appreciated less than others : wherever it was a tone of the one-shot, or the mood I was in... for example, I think I didn't enjoy enough the "Once Upon a Fairytale Cruise" (this one was, I think, because there was a weird inbalance between the fun dating cruise with explicit details, and the horrifying aspects of the fairy tales), or the "Epic Level Battle Royale" (this one was definitely because of the rythm, which suprised me because the precedent battle royale was so much fun ! But Liam made it real hard for the audience even if it was in character), or the Kobolds & Catacombs one-shot (this one was because perhaps it was a "normal" one, maybe too normal, and even if it was with a guest, there was a lot of combat and the universe did not vary very much from usual).

My favorites were, in order :

"Honey Heist", because I'm a Marisha Ray fan above all else. The system itself was really simple, and the story had a simple goal, but it's a demonstration of how you don't have to have a complex RPG system to have lots of fun : Criminal bears ! Plus the cast was just so great : seeing Matt as a player is a delight, especially as Trinket. Brian as a honey badger on a bender, Liam and Taliesin as brothers that have "roaring 20's criminals from New York" accents, Sam as panda that just can't shut up about being a vegan. I love that there were rolls to see what role the bears played in this heist, but also rolls to see what hat they're wearing. Bits and pieces :

"With these hats, there’s no way anybody in the town of Westruun would think that we’re bears !!"

Liam and Taliesin are playing it like honey is cocaïne, while Peddy Tuxpin tastes honey like a wine, because this is Sam.

Marisha as Vex, and Marisha as Victor, she's amazing.

The couple of criminal cows that are called Bonnie and Cow

Brian's personal challenge to make as many euphemisms as possible.

Tova, who survived the Nine Hells - it's canon ! - and is part of an order called 'the High-Bear Nation' (this pun is amazing, and so is Liam Las Vegas' line : "Listen, to one extremely high bear to another...").

And of course the game at the safe's door, this all sequence is hilarious.

Matt, to Marisha : "I'm so proud I married you."

Paddy had to ressuscitate Trinket who was uncounscious, by making "snout-to-snout", or "BPR", and Sam had the audacity to shout in character : "Trinket, if you died, I would be so upset !"

"Thursday by Night" was so great !! I know nothing about the system of Vampire: The Masquerade, but when Taliesin talked about vampires, I was on board instantly. Add to that the cast playing "themselves as newbies vampires" and you just know it's going to be great. Everyone dressing up vaguely goth (they are handsome people), and then for the 2nd part on Halloween in costumes, was great. Like Liam's one-shot, they all begin in a familiar place (the Nerdist set), that is strange and overturned by a calamity ; and Taliesin really brought the weird in the building ! And I love that it was destined, in his mind, to be a TPK since they are newbies vampires and he knew his friends would be reckless in this world ; but Laura saved her and Travis' non-life by staying true to her good heart, and this made for a very statisfying end. Bits and pieces :

Taliesin keeps mispronuncing "stamina" into "stanima".

Sam doesn't know anything else in the building except the Critical Role set.

Matt and Marish dying super early because they had to go prepare their wedding (Marisha, when Matt dies "We always knew you would be the first to go in the apocalypse", and Sam asking in-game if this means they get a refund on their wedding gifts, cracked me up).

The True Blood (Sam's only reference when it comes to vampires) and the Twilight (Travis' only reference) things.

The fact that they made secret alliances with each other, sometimes using mind-control (Liam was such a little shit ! I love it) so that in the end they all betrayed and double-crossed.

Travis saying "Can I take my shirt off..." and Taliesin, Liam and Sam simultenously responding "Always".

The lizard people living in the L.A. sewers, because of course there is, and some of them are fans of the cast because Critters are everywhere.

The whole sequence where Liam hunts a human that turns out to be Will Friedle, and stuff his body inside the hole of a porta-potty (Taliesin : "Actually you can shove a whole body in a porta-potty hole. Don't ask me how I know that")

The "Shadow of War" one-shot, because I'm a huge LoTR nerd and also Darin De Paul is such a treasure that I would watch anything he's in.

The Grog as a DM one-shot was so much ridiculousness that it won me over. It was very relaxing, since there were no high stakes at all, except Scanlan trying to kill Trinket. Also Seeing Travis panicking as a DM was a delight.

[watchingcr]

Peddy: you don’t need all those riches and luxury. You just beed the bear necessities

Trinket: ..anyway..

[entwinedmoon]

John Torrington: Redshirt

(Previous posts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

“I'm expendable. I'm the guy in the episode who dies to prove the situation is serious.”

–Guy Fleegman, Galaxy Quest

After the exhumations of Torrington, Hartnell, and Braine, and the subsequent publication of Frozen in Time, there was a fresh wave of literature inspired by the photographs and findings from Beechey Island. Novels, short stories, and poems either attempted to recreate what had happened to the expedition according to the latest findings or incorporated this new information in some other way. Some feature Torrington, while some just use certain aspects of the findings, such as the remarkable level of preservation or the lead poisoning theory.

I have read only a handful of the many literary works about the Franklin Expedition that have been published since the exhumations on Beechey Island, so I can’t speak for every novel, poem, or other form of literary composition that has come out since then. For the purposes of this post I decided to focus only on works that feature Torrington himself, and even then, I haven’t had a chance to read every work that does. There may be some that have a completely different take on the story and depict Torrington in a way not seen in the works that I will be discussing, but those will have to wait for another day. For this post I can only focus on the fraction of Franklin-related literature that I have been able to read so far, and if I leave out something that people think is a must-read, I apologize. But feel free to let me know what it is, because I love reading new interpretations of the expedition’s story.

(Unless you’re here to tell me about the Marvel comics character Pestilence, a supervillain who is actually Francis Crozier, preserved in ice for over a hundred years. He’s still alive but he’s gone mad and has magic for some reason. And he can possess other people. Pestilence was first introduced in 1986, and yes, him being frozen in ice was obviously inspired by the exhumation of Torrington. Now, let’s never speak of this again.)

I’m going to start with the various novels that have attempted to tell the story of the Franklin Expedition. FYI, there will be some spoilers, but mostly the spoilers will be about Torrington and other crewmembers dying, which shouldn’t really be a spoiler at this point.

Before I get into the specific books, though, I’ve noticed that there are certain themes in many of these stories, particularly involving Torrington. As his illness and death is a known point during the timeline of the expedition, he inevitably gets a mention in many of these works, but since he died so early in the expedition, he rarely has a major role in the overall story. Not only that, Torrington’s characterization is typically absent altogether. He’s generally depicted as a variant of the Victorian waif—pale and thin and doomed to die—and rarely does he get any dialogue or development. He’s first blood, a harbinger of things to come, but almost never a character on his own. He’s simply there to die, like a redshirt in Star Trek.

I have often flipped through books to see where Torrington comes in, wondering if he’ll be given something to do before he passes, and more often than not I have been disappointed. His death is always included because we know he died, and if it were left out it could be seen as callous at worst or inaccurate at best, yet his inclusion sometimes feels more like the author simply checking something off a checklist. Enters Lancaster Sound, check; winters at Beechey Island, check; Torrington dies, check. Sometimes there might be a funeral, where the main characters speak of Torrington as if he’s been there the entire time and wasn’t just first mentioned only two paragraphs ago, perhaps with Franklin orating the first of many eulogies (“We have lost one of our own today, a fine sailor named John [looks at smudged writing on his hand] Turlington…”).

But one thing that Torrington usually gets is a brief mention of his burial clothes. Since we know what he looks like in death, there’s often a description of him in his coffin, perhaps a mention of his youth, small stature, and wasted appearance. His illness usually gets a mention too—and sometimes he gets berated postmortem for going to sea while sick.

Of course, since Torrington dies only seven months into the expedition, it’s not surprising that he doesn’t have much to do in most stories, but I do wish he could at least have a little more of a role before taking his final bow. It would make his death more meaningful if he was a known character and not just a name in a long list of people who are about to die.

For a deeper dive into how Torrington is typically depicted in novels about the Franklin Expedition, I’m going to start with the most mainstream of the books I’ve read—and also the most inaccurate. That would be The Terror by Dan Simmons, a story that posits what if, rather than starvation, scurvy, illness, and lead poisoning killing off the crew, there was also an evil magical bear bent on their destruction. The book was recently adapted into a television series on AMC, and I watched the show first. I loved the show—it was very well done, despite the evil bear—so I read the book. The book…well, it had some good parts to it, but also some incredibly ridiculous parts and some incredibly offensives ones too. I won’t get into a full review of the book, though—I’m just here for Torrington.

Torrington doesn’t get mentioned until his death in The Terror. In fact, the sentence introducing him is “John Torrington, stoker on HMS Terror, died early this morning.” His slow decline from consumption is described, while also saying that he had obviously been in the advanced stages of the disease when he signed up for the expedition. There’s an aside about how ironic it is that Torrington’s doctor had told him going to sea would be good for his health, something that isn’t based on a known fact about Torrington, but getting away from Manchester and into fresh air may have been part of Torrington’s intent when signing up. Judging by the state of his lungs, he probably had difficulty breathing in the thick smoke of industrial Manchester, so it’s not so far-fetched to think he may have wanted a change of scenery to improve his health.

The dressing of his body for burial, descriptions of the clothes and bindings we know so well from the exhumation pictures, and a brief recap of his funeral get described in just a few pages. The image of him in his striped shirt sticks out in the memory of Dr. Goodsir (who is writing this down in his diary), an image that anyone who is familiar with the Franklin Expedition would know very well. But that’s about it for Torrington in this book. His name does pop up a few more times, though, because Captain Crozier has a habit of going over the names of the dead to himself, assessing how many men he has lost at different points throughout the book. Torrington as part of a list of the dead is mostly how we see him in The Terror.

In the TV adaptation, Torrington doesn’t appear at all, because the show picks up after the ships have left Beechey. The men who died at Beechey are mentioned a few times, usually as a group—referred to as “the men on Beechey” or some variation of that—with only John Hartnell being mentioned by name. Torrington, however, does get a visual sort of reference when one of the ship’s boys, David Young, dies in the first episode. During his burial, his coffin accidentally comes open, and his burial clothes look very reminiscent of the famous photos of Torrington.

Alfie Kingsnorth, the actor who plays David Young, looks a lot like Torrington, making this image extra eerie. In fact, I started watching the show because I saw a screencap of the burial and thought it was Torrington. When I realized that Torrington wasn’t in the show, I was disappointed, but I ended up loving the show anyway.

The next book I want to discuss is a novel that tried to do what The Terror did but without the monster. Robert Edric’s book The Broken Lands tells the story of the Franklin Expedition from the point of view of Commander James Fitzjames of the Erebus, third-in-command of the expedition. Fitzjames seems to be a popular point-of-view character since another book I’ll be discussing in this post is also from his perspective. Fitzjames is an interesting historical person, particularly if you’ve read Battersby’s biography of him, although that was published long after The Broken Lands came out. Being from Fitzjames’s point of view, however, means that the story focuses mostly on what happens on Erebus, which means Torrington, leading stoker on Terror, wouldn’t have had much of a role no matter what.

At least in this book Torrington does get mentioned before his death, but only just. When the ships are wintering on Beechey, it’s mentioned that two men become ill, Torrington and John Hartnell. Since Hartnell died only a few days after Torrington, they would have been ill around the same time. However, rather than showing signs of tuberculosis followed by pneumonia as the killing blow, Torrington and Hartnell suffer symptoms that get mistaken for scurvy but then are assumed to be some form of food poisoning. Torrington dies while Terror’s doctor, John Peddie, sits with him, but there’s not much to the scene. He and Hartnell get buried on the same day after a snowstorm delays their burials. Hartnell gets more attention here because of his autopsy, and there’s no mention of striped shirts and bound limbs.

But that’s not the last we hear of them. In the next chapter, it’s discovered that some crewmembers had been pilfering from the canned food supply. William Braine gets flogged for his part in the scheme, and he starts showing symptoms similar to Torrington and Hartnell. Braine then confesses that Torrington and Hartnell had also been involved in stealing canned foods, and the doctors jump to the conclusion that the canning procedure must be responsible for the illness and deaths of these three men. So instead of going with the known causes of death of tuberculosis and pneumonia, in this version of the story the Beechey Boys die of lead poisoning and only lead poisoning. That bothers me not only because it completely ignores the actual cause of death, but because it makes Torrington, Hartnell, and Braine criminals, stealing food from the ship’s stores. I guess this was Edric’s attempt at explaining why these three men had such high levels of lead so early on in the expedition, but this explanation doesn’t work for me because it ignores a lot of other things in a struggle to make certain puzzle pieces fit. I admit, I got a little overprotective when I saw Torrington being accused of something like this and started ranting about it to my sister—despite the fact that I have no idea what sort of person he was actually like, and he’s been dead for over hundred seventy years, so he doesn’t really need me to protect him from purely fictional accusations. But still…

The other novel from Fitzjames’s perspective is North with Franklin by John Wilson. This is set up as a lost journal written by Fitzjames, using some of the known letters and journals written by the real life Fitzjames as a jumping off point. In these fictional journal entries, there’s a mention of a man in sickbay with signs of consumption in August, and there’s an aside wondering why he didn’t inform anyone about his illness prior to setting sail. However, since this is the sickbay on Erebus, this must be a reference to Hartnell, not Torrington. But it’s a hint at what’s to come for both of them. An update on the consumptive man in November confirms that it’s Hartnell, his condition getting worse, and then it’s mentioned that the leading stoker on Terror is suffering the same. Again, Fitzjames wonders why Hartnell and Torrington didn’t mention their condition before setting sail, calling their weakened lungs a “death warrant” in the Arctic. There’s another update in late December about their worsening condition, until they both succumb. Out of the three books discussed so far, this is the most that Torrington has been mentioned pre-death, but he says not a single word.

Torrington’s death, taking place on New Year’s Day, brings down the happy celebrations of the crew. Again, it’s mentioned that Torrington should never have undertaken the journey with his illness, as if it hasn’t been driven home enough that he and Hartnell had probably been showing symptoms when they first boarded and should have reported it. Torrington’s burial clothes get an overview, with his short, emaciated appearance being compared to that of a child. He gets a funeral, with Franklin presiding.

The repeated mentions of how Torrington and Hartnell should have declared their illnesses before sailing on the expedition almost comes off as blaming them for their early demise. Realistically, of course, they probably had noticed some early symptoms before leaving England. But how bad were those symptoms? Were they enough to make them think they had a disease that would prove fatal? Did they realize that they wouldn’t be coming back, or did they shrug it off as just another cough? Torrington had bad lungs anyway, so maybe he didn’t notice when his black-lung-coughing changed into tuberculosis-coughing.

John Wilson wrote another book about the Franklin Expedition, this one for young adults, called Graves of Ice. This book is from the point of view of one of the ship’s boys, George Chambers. Chambers was assigned to the Erebus, so the main action happens on that ship once again, which means Torrington barely appears. Again. William Braine, however, befriends Chambers and gets far more dialogue and development than Torrington or Hartnell in any of the previous books—or this one—combined. Braine actually gets to defend his actions by saying his lungs had always been weak, and he thought the cold might do them good, explaining why he didn’t bother declaring any illness before setting sail. In real life, Torrington probably felt the same way, but he doesn’t get to stand up for himself here. In a prime example of dramatic irony, Braine calls Torrington an idiot for signing up while sick.

Torrington and his illness get mentioned the same day he dies, just shortly before Dr. Peddie informs Franklin of Torrington’s passing. His death gets called a bad omen among the crew. His burial gets a brief mention, but there’s no lingering on the image of his body in its coffin, or any mention of it even. He has no lines once again, nor does George Chambers ever meet him. At least one crewman admits that there are many men on board with lungs as bad as Torrington, as if to soften the accusation that Torrington should have known better, but it doesn’t soften it by much.

In all four of these books Torrington has had zero lines of dialogue. He gets sick, he dies. That’s it. There’s another book, a self-published one that came out this year, that I had hoped may do better by him. That would be Toward No Earthly Pole by Jonathan Schaeffer, which is from the point of view of James Thompson, the engineer on Terror. Being the engineer, Thompson would have interacted with Torrington a great deal, so I’d hoped I would get to see Torrington fleshed out more as a real character, but sadly that was not to be. Torrington does get mentioned more before his death than in other books, but it’s mostly in superficial interactions where anyone could have stood in instead, such as Torrington pointing out a polar bear.

Near the beginning of the story, Thompson gives a rundown of each stoker, giving Torrington a less-than-stellar description as a weakling, saying that, “He comes across as an old man resigned to his lot in life.” But Thompson does remark that Torrington is handsome, which isn’t really that important, but it is mentioned multiple times in the text. I guess the point was to emphasize that Torrington was cut down in the prime of his young, handsome life, but it comes off as a little awkward.

Torrington apparently has no friends in this interpretation of the story, and only Thompson seems to visit him when he gets sick. The day before he dies, Torrington, in a delirium, says some incomprehensible sentences, ending on an ominous “…do not belong here,” a phrase that Thompson initially interprets as meaning that Torrington realized he didn’t belong there, but that over the course of the expedition Thompson comes to think means the entire expedition didn’t belong there. Torrington gets the usual drawn-out illness coverage, unsurprising death, and a mention of his burial. He also becomes an omen that gets mentioned again as the situation grows worse. Even though Thompson would have been one of the crewmembers to interact with Torrington the most, Torrington still doesn’t get much development as a character.

However, there is one retelling of the Franklin Expedition that gives Torrington quite a bit of development. That would be Kristina Gehrmann’s graphic novel Im Eisland (or Icebound in the English version). I previously discussed Im Eisland in my last post about Torrington in art, but now I’d like to focus on the writing rather than the artwork. Torrington is actually introduced as if he’s going to be a major protagonist of the story, and for a time he does play a large role. We get a glimpse of a sweet little romance between him and his fiancée (we don’t know if Torrington was engaged to anyone, but there’s no evidence that he wasn’t either), and he develops a warm friendship with Thomas Evans, one of the ship’s boys, whom he teaches to read. Torrington comes alive as a real person here, and while yes, he does inevitably become too ill to work and dies, as he did in real life, he’s much more than just the first victim of a tragedy. If you’re looking for some good Torrington fiction, Im Eisland is an excellent choice.

But not all Torrington-related literature is a retelling of the expedition. There is a famous story by Margaret Atwood, “The Age of Lead,” which appears in her short story collection Wilderness Tips. I should say upfront that this story is not about Torrington himself. Atwood described her use of him as that of an extended metaphor, as his death is juxtaposed with that of another character’s in the story. But the story still delves into the pathos around Torrington’s death. In mourning for her friend, Jane, the protagonist, mourns for Torrington in a way too. As Jane remembers sitting with her dying friend, she ponders about who may have sat with Torrington in his final days. His half-open eyes are described as “the light brown of milky tea,” and they look back at Jane as she watches a program about him on television. It’s a touching story that asks some emotional questions about Torrington’s death—did he have anyone to comfort him as he passed, so far from home? Did anyone on the ship mourn him, love him? The story might not be about Torrington in the end, but he makes for a powerful centerpiece, and this story treats his humanity as far more present than many of the novels discussed above.

The last piece of literature I’d like to discuss is “Envying Owen Beattie” by Sheenagh Pugh. In a poem that gives Seamus Heaney a run for his money, Pugh lovingly describes the exhumation of Torrington’s mummified body. She compares Torrington to Snow White by describing his being cocooned in ice as “asleep in his glass case.” The reason she envies Owen Beattie is because of an anecdote Beattie had once told that Pugh recounts here, of how when Beattie lifted Torrington out of his coffin, Torrington’s head lolled onto Beattie’s shoulder, and they stared eye-to-eye at each other, Beattie holding his frail, limp body. This leads Pugh to conclude her fairy tale metaphor by saying “how could you not try to wake him with a kiss?” I have to admit that if I had been in Beattie’s place, I probably would have dropped the body, but Pugh romanticizes the moment instead.

While many of the novels that I’ve described above treat Torrington as just another milestone to get through in the story, Pugh brings far more emotion and love to his depiction in so few words. Torrington looks so very much alive, like a princess under a sleeping spell, so why can’t a kiss break that spell and bring him into the present? A sweet sentiment tinged with the sadness that we know he can’t be awakened by a kiss, because it’s no spell that’s put him asleep. He’s too far beyond fairy tale dreams to come back. The tragedy of Torrington’s death gets swallowed by the larger tragedy of the Franklin Expedition’s demise in the full-length novels, but in shorter pieces such as Pugh’s poem and Atwood’s short story, Torrington’s death is given greater thought and respect. Torrington, after all, was no redshirt on Star Trek but a human being. He wasn’t just a name, a check on a checklist, but a man who suffered and died at too young an age. But the tragedy of the individual is easily lost among the tragedy of the group.

Next: My final post, a personal reflection as I ponder just what fascinates us about him after all these years.

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Torrington Series Masterlist