Claire Warrior reads extracts from Christmas letters by Arctic explorers and uncovers a festive season that was more enjoyable than you might think.
Claire: Hello, I’m Claire Warrior, Senior Exhibitions Curator at the National Maritime Museum.
How would you imagine your perfect Christmas celebration? Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, perhaps? A gathering of friends and family? Plenty of presents, mince pies and roast turkey, and a dusting of snow to make the day complete?
But what if your Christmas was to be spent far away from loved ones, in one of the coldest places on Earth – where the presence of snow wasn’t a question, but rather a certainty, where darkness prevailed, and where the familiar comforts of home were many thousands of miles away?
This was the situation faced by British explorers to the Arctic in the 19th century, who were searching for a North-West Passage across the top of Canada. To begin with, British expeditions had sailed in the summer, not even attempting to remain in the North during the icy winter. But in the 1820s, Captain William Edward Parry and his men managed to successfully overwinter in the region for the first time. From this point onwards, British expeditions journeyed to the Arctic and remained there over the winter period, continuing their explorations as the weather warmed in the spring.
So what were these Christmas celebrations actually like? How did the men mark this important day? For some, the day was full of good-humoured celebrations. George Lyon describes the festivities on board HMS Hecla in 1821:
“On Christmas Eve, in order to keep the people quiet and sober, we performed two farces, and exhibited phantasmagoria so that the night passed merrily. Christmas Day was very fine, and we all attended church on board the Fury as we had been accustomed to do every Sunday since we were frozen in. The people then returned to their dinners at which English roast beef, that had been kept untainted since the transport left us, was the principal luxury. To these were added cranberry pies and puddings of every shape and size, with full allowance of spirits. I never indeed saw more general good humour and merriment on a Christmas day since I went to sea. A pretty compliment was paid to all the officers by a well meaning, but certainly not very sober crew, by absolutely forcing each in his turn, beginning with myself, to go out on the lower deck and have his health drank with three hearty cheers.”
John Ross made his second attempt to find the North-West Passage in 1829. The expedition was sponsored by the gin manufacturer, Felix Booth. Ross’s ship, the Victory, became trapped in the ice and was abandoned in May 1832. He and his men passed the following winter in a hut built from the wreck of another vessel. The Christmas of that year, described by Ross in his Narrative of a second voyage in search of a North-West Passage, was therefore much less comfortable:
“It blew fresh on the Sunday and Monday, so as to prevent the men from going out; but a fox having been taken, served for our Christmas dinner, while the men received full allowances of meat for that day, though for them as for us, there was nothing to drink but snow water. No change of weather worthy of note took place onwards till the end of the month, nor did anything occur among ourselves to make one day differ from another, or diminish the weariness of that uniformity to which we were now tied. The month and the year ended sufficiently cold, since it was again at the freezing point of the mercury.”
By 1832, it was presumed back home in Britain that Ross was lost in the Arctic region. Commander George Back offered to go and search for him. He left for the Arctic in February 1833, enduring a particularly miserable Christmas that year, despite his best efforts to remain cheerful in temperatures of some -59°C. The day itself was spent at Fort Reliance, which the men had recently built, and which had attracted a stream of First Nations people from the surrounding area. Although food was in short supply, the men feasted on pemmican, a mixture of meat and fat, which had been put to one side for the following year’s expedition. He describes it like this:
“Christmas-day was the appointed time for opening a soldered tin case, the gift of a lady at New York; but our companion Mr. McLeod being absent, we thought it fair to postpone the gratification of our curiosity till he could participate in it; and Mr. King and I made a cheerful dinner of pemmican. Happiness on such occasions depends entirely on the mood and temper of the individuals; and we cheated ourselves into as much mirth at the fancied sayings and doings of our friends at home, as if we had partaken of the roast beef and plum pudding which doubtless ‘smoked upon the board’ on that glorious day of prescriptive feasting.”
Perhaps not quite as appealing as roast turkey with all the trimmings! Other men were more fortunate – and better prepared. One of the most famous British expeditions to the Arctic was the one led by Sir John Franklin, who, along with 128 men, left to find the North-West Passage in 1845. The men were never heard from again. As the years passed, Franklin’s wife, Lady Jane Franklin, became increasingly anxious about his fate. In 1857, she funded an expedition to rescue any survivors, retrieve any relics, and find out whether or not the men had discovered the Passage. Francis Leopold McClintock was appointed to command the expedition, and here he describes his Arctic Christmas in 1857:
“Our Christmas was a very cheerful merry one. The men were supplied with several additional articles, such as hams, plum-puddings, preserved gooseberries and apples, nuts, sweetmeats, and Burton ale. After Divine Service they decorated the lower deck with flags and made an immense display of food. The officers came down with me to see their preparations. We were really astonished! Their mess-tables were laid out like the counters in a confectioner’s shop, with apple and gooseberry tarts, plum and sponge-cakes in pyramids, besides various other unknown puffs, cakes, and loaves of all sizes and shapes…In the background were nicely-browned hams, meat-pies, cheeses, and other substantial articles. Rum and water in wine-glasses and plum-cake was handed to us: we wished them a happy Christmas, and complimented them on their taste and spirit in getting up such a display. Our silken sledge-banners had been borrowed for the occasion, and were regarded with deference and peculiar pride.
In the evening the officers were enticed down amongst the men again, and at a late hour I was requested, as a great favour, to come down and see how much they were enjoying themselves. I found them in the highest good humour with themselves and all the world. They were perfectly sober, and singing songs, each in his turn…We all joined in drinking the healths of Lady Franklin and Miss Cracroft, and…I returned to my cabin, immensely gratified by such an exhibition of genuine good feeling, such veneration for Lady Franklin, and such loyalty to the cause of the expedition…”
So, for some, like McClintock, a Christmas spent in northern climes was a highly enjoyable occasion, and was celebrated much as it would have been back home in Britain; others, like Back and Ross, were less fortunate. You can find out more about these men, and about British Arctic exploration, in the Museum’s current temporary exhibition, The North-West Passage: an Arctic obsession, which closes in January.