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Schwatka Frederic Gustav (29.09.1849 – 02.11.1892)
Born in Galena, Illinois, in a family of a descendant of immigrants from East Prussia. In 1859, the family moved to Oregon, where the boy later studied at a private college for a printer. In 1867 he entered the military academy at West Point, from which he graduated in 1871 as a lieutenant of cavalry. During military service, Shvatka studied law and medicine, in 1875 received a law degree in Nebraska, and a year later - a medical degree at the prestigious Bellevue College in New York. In the mid-1870s, a few years after the death of Charles Hall, interest in the missing expedition of John Franklin increased again. It was initiated by numerous finds of expedition items from the Eskimos through whalers based in Repulse Bay in the south of the Melville Peninsula.Voices began again to be heard about the need to organize a new search expedition. Of course, no one expected to find the living members of the expedition, but there was hope for the discovery of any new evidence shedding light on its fate. The last straw was the information received in 1877 through the whaler Thomas Barry that, according to the Eskimos, the “white chief”, who led a large group of later white people, collected a huge amount of papers and hid them in Guria. It was impossible to disregard and check such a message, and in 1878 an American expedition was organized, which had as its goal the search for this houri. Headed her Shvatka. On June 19, 1878, he launched from New York aboard the Eton. The expedition members, in addition to Shvatka, were the correspondent of the New York Herald William Gilder, artist and surveyor Heinrich Kluchak, whaler Frank Melms and the famous Eskimo Joseph Eberbing, a companion of Charles Hall in his three expeditions. He commanded the ship, Thomas Barry. In the first half of August, the ship reached the western shore of the Hudson Bay, south of the entrance to the Ros Welk Strait. Here the Schvatka's party decided to stay for the winter. During the winter, Gilder traveled to the mainland, whose goal was to explore the area, check equipment, purchase dogs. Communication with the Eskimos gave rise to Gilder's first doubts about the truth of the message of Captain Barry, the message that became decisive in organizing their expedition. In January 1879 Gilder and Kluchak arrived at Marmara Island, the wintering place for Eton and Abbe Bradford, where Edward Potter served as navigator. It was here that it turned out that Captain Barry, out of a desire to become famous, invented information about Guria with documents from the Franklin expedition.Gilder made a serious accusation against Captain Barry for lies and hoaxes. As a result, the Schvatka enterprise turned out to be in a strange position, since the fact that gave rise to it turned out to be fictional. Gilder wrote in his diary: “So, there were no Gurievs there, and, quite naturally, there was no one to conduct us to them ... Lieutenant Schvatka could now turn to New York, and acting so would be justified, but instead nevertheless, he decided to try to survey King William’s Land in the summertime, if possible, to find the missing documents”. The ground part of the expedition lasted from April 1, 1879 to March 4, 1880. Shvatka, along with 12 Eskimos, overcame 3251 miles (more than 5000 km) on a sleigh, the longest journey on a sleigh of that time. He could not find the diaries and documents of the expedition of Franklin, at the same time on King William Island was discovered many of its other traces: the wreckage of the ship, pieces of clothing. In addition, he found and identified several graves of members of the Franklin expedition, including Lieutenant John Irving, one of the officers. His ashes were brought to Scotland and buried with due honors at the cemetery of his hometown. Other remains were buried on the spot. As Gilder wrote, “We managed to identify with complete certainty only the remains of Lieutenant Irving. If we identified others, we would also send them for burial to their homeland”. Through a survey of the Eskimos, Shvatka established the place of the death of one of Franklin's ships, the "Terror". On February 4 1880 the Schvatka detachment, after the hardest transition, approached its base at the entrance to the Ros Welcom Strait. Great was the joy of tireless travelers at the sight of a familiar shore. But at the base they were awaited by terrible disappointment. To their chagrin, they learned that this year only one ship is wintering here, and most importantly - that Captain Barry did not leave thousands of pounds of black crackers and other provisions belonging to her on the expedition base. Schvatka was completely at a loss for Barry’s strange course of action, who had left in an unknown direction with a load of foreign supplies on board.With this the captain put Schvatka and his comrades in a very difficult position. They were threatened with a hunger strike. The expedition had to live for many months in severe deprivation. They were saved only by the fact that the indefatigable Gilder during the winter traveled to Marble Island, from where he brought some of the food left there before. In the summer of 1880 Shvatka and his companions boarded a whale ship that had called on them, made several fishing trips as passengers, and only returned to the United States in September after an expedition for 2 years and 3 months. Shvatka received his first assessment of his achievements a few days after returning home. One of the English newspapers wrote: "Lieutenant Schvatka finally resolved the last doubts about the fate of the Franklin expedition ... He gave the unburied bones of the victims the only reliable refuge from desecrating them with stray animals or coarse Eskimos ... He brought home the body of one of them ... Above the rest he put tombstones to perpetuate memory. Finally, he delivered home a lot of information that complements the chronicle of Arctic exploration”. The role of Shvatka himself in the success of the expedition was evaluated by his companion and closest assistant William Gilder: “It is no use to say that the expedition was due to lieutenant Schvatka, who was at the head of it. It would not be an exaggeration to say that not a single person proceeded to research in the Arctic more physically prepared, educated, lifestyle, or mentally trained than Lieutenant Shvatka. He is naturally gifted with good health, a powerful physique, does not know fatigue, always in a cheerful mood and is interested in every trifle that distracts his attention from the gloomy atmosphere and relieves from depression - this unpleasant effect of being in such wild places ... The ability to dispose provides him the submission of our companions to the Inuit, which also cannot be underestimated”. Shvatka showed that a white person can travel across the Arctic without serious injuries and illnesses, if he adopts the hunting and culinary traditions of the locals.
In 1883, Schvatka, on instructions from the US Department of Defense, surveyed the Yukon River. On rafts, they floated down the Yukon River to its mouth in the Bering Sea, giving names to many geographic features along the way. This more than 1,300 km long raft trip was the longest ever made. Schvatka was awarded medals of the Geographical Society in Paris and the Imperial Geographical Society of Russia. He was an honorary member of the geographical societies of Bremen, Geneva and Rome. Shvatka described his expeditions in the books Along the Great River of Alaska and The Quest for Franklin. Last reprinted in 1965. He died in Portland. The New York Times reported that his death was the result of an accidental overdose of morphine. Buried in Salem, Oregon. Mountains in Alaska. Lake on the Yukon. Bay on the southwest coast of King William Island in the Rey Strait. |
