#there. terror adjacent

[mental-mouthful]

losing my mind over these specific pics of tobias menzies i found on pinterest

[undead-in-space]

Starting to think some of y'all don't even want to go on a doomed polar expedition with me

[cockroachesunite]

James Fitzjames in his letter to John Barrow Jr. 10th July 1845

(transcript from May We Be Spared To Meet On Earth)

[the-golden-vanity]

I think the thing I like most about The Sea, as, like... a setting or a concept, is that in its vastness, its untameable nature, its unknown secrets, you have a lot of historically documented events that sound more like tales out of mythology and folklore.

Take, for instance, the fate of the Victory Expedition of 1829.

The Victory expedition was a private polar expedition led by veteran British explorer Captain John Ross. Twenty-three men set sail for the Canadian Arctic on the steamship Victory, but when the ship became trapped in the polar ice, there was no way to free it. The crew spent four years in the frozen north, surviving on rations from the wreck of a previous polar exploration ship.

Eventually, twenty survivors packed their belongings into small boats and hauled them over ice towards open water. And in that open water, there was a ship, the whaler Isabella of Hull.*

The Isabella's crew couldn't believe their eyes, because, as they told the Victory's survivors, "Captain Ross has been dead these two years."

And if that wasn't strange enough, the (very much alive) Captain Ross of the Victory had, on a previous Arctic expedition, been captain of the Isabella.

*Side note: the more I read about the Age of Sail, the more I realize that wherever official Explorers™ from a given Western nation go, their whalers have already beaten them there. Sometimes that's even the reason the explorers were sent.

[falling-through-a-trapdoor]

Ok guys, now I’m reading the James Fitzjames biography by William Battersby and I’ve come across some more fun facts that we do NOT talk about enough:

He kept detailed journals and marked entries with an ‘X’ to signify that he had had sex that day. Pretty much every time he was promoted or passed an examination that day’s entry was marked with an ‘X.�� Big celebratory sex guy

He performed in a play dressed in drag. He was playing the role of a queen and apparently the play was pretty bawdy. It ends with the Queen (Fitzjames’ character) taking two male lovers. Fitzjames said he “never laughed so much in [his] life”

He had a reputation for being extremely strong and agile. He once broke a chair at his lodgings and his landlady said “that there young gen’leman is as strong as a rhinoceros.”

[hmstartnell]

Some of my favourite things from my visit to the national archives today!!!

Fitzjames’ drawings on a letter he wrote to Col. Edward Sabine on 3rd June 1845 (click on the left one to see the whole thing)

Signatures of the officers on Erebus (left) and Terror (right) in the muster book

How similar John & Thomas Hartnell’s signatures are 🥹

Hickey’s name in the muster book immediately after Gibson’s

List of the British names of places in the Canadian Arctic with the Inuit counterpart on a map showing a route taken by a rescue ship while looking for the Franklin Expedition (I can’t remember which one)

[suddenly-frankenstein]

and then they've never seen each other again

[pretendingday]

he was the what

[crancisfrozier]

Truly if they ever identify Francis Crozier in my lifetime I am going to have to be institutionalized for my own well being.

[moongazeonastarfillednight]

Some Ice terms definitions to be used as reference, Courtesy of one Sir John Ross (1777-1856)

Extract of the Narratives of his second voyage

Never thought the sky actually looked different if land was around or water :o

[i-am-countess-olivia]

Another lunchtime adventure looking for traces of James Fitzjames in Brighton. This time I set out to see the resting place of his beloved brother William.

The headstone near the Woodvale Cemetery’s North Chapel is gone, cleared to make a garden sometime in the 1970s - thank you @jamesfitzjamesdotcom for this valuable insight. Still, somewhere under my feet, in the bramble and ivy sprawl and the snowdrops that are just beginning to blink open, rest the Coninghams.

I spent some time reading inscriptions on graves tucked around the garden - sometimes when stones are cleared they are merely relocated. No luck.

Take it from an old goth: always make a point of standing over the bones of your long perished historical darlings and having a little chat. Wherever you are, William: hello, I was here, it’s almost spring.

[cockroachesunite]

I think this one speaks for itself

[dravenscroft]

Since this baby is going out to publishers soon, thought it was time to drop the trailer again.

THIS SAVAGE KINGDOM is THE TERROR meets ALIAS GRACE. Partly inspired by the true story of HMS Wager. Queer and twisty, with dual timelines, set in both the Arctic and 1860 London.

[bamboo-vulture]

what if instead of visiting some more boring museums and drinking coffee in the small streets of old european cities we went to the antarctic next time??????

[falling-through-a-trapdoor]

Obsessed with how in the Erebus muster book all of the officer’s signature are super fancy and neat and then you have Goodsir…

Bless his little heart

[hmstartnell]

Some Franklin Expedition things at the Maritime Museum!!

Terror and Erebus emblems (Erebus’ is actually really cool but I have no idea what Terror’s is. My dad says it looks like an angry monkey which is fair tbh)

The cup awarded to Fitzjames after jumping into the River Mersey to save James Dickinson from drowning

Some artifacts discovered by the rescue ships searching for the lost explorers (I managed to get the info boards in bc there was no way I would remember what all of these are)

A bust of Sir John Franklin from c.1898

A spoon, fork, something I can’t remember (no.5) and medicine chest belonging to Alexander McDonald

THE MYSTERY MEAT!!

And finally, my favourite and the one that nearly made me cry when I saw it…

THE VICTORY POINT NOTE 🥹