Beechey Island

{{Short description|Island and archaeological site in Nunavut, Canada}} {{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}} {{Use mdy|date= September 2025}} {{Infobox islands | name = Beechey Island | image_name = | image_caption = | image_size = | map = Canada Nunavut#Canada | map_caption = Location in the [[Arctic Archipelago]] | native_name = {{lang|iu-Latn|Iluvialuit}} | native_name_link = Inuktitut | nickname = | location = [[Northern Canada]] | coordinates = {{coord|74|43|N|091|51|W|type:isle_scale:250000_region:CA-NU_source:http://www4.rncan.gc.ca/search-place-names/unique/OABWW |display=inline,title |name=Beechey Island |notes=<ref>{{cite cgndb |id=OABWW |name=Beechey Island}}</ref>}} | archipelago = [[Queen Elizabeth Islands]]<br/>[[Arctic Archipelago]] | total_islands = | major_islands = | area_km2 = 4.6 | highest_mount = Un-named | elevation_m = 198 | country = Canada | country_admin_divisions_title = [[Provinces and territories of Canada|Territory]] | country_admin_divisions = [[Nunavut]] | country_admin_divisions_title_1 = [[Qikiqtaaluk Region]] | country_admin_divisions_1 = | population = Uninhabited | population_as_of = | density_km2 = | ethnic_groups = | module = {{Designation list |embed=yes |designation1 = Canada |designation1_offname = Beechey Island Sites National Historic Sites of Canada |designation1_date = 1993 }} }} '''Beechey Island''' ({{langx|iu-Latn|Iluvialuit}}) is an island located in the [[Arctic Archipelago]] of [[Nunavut]], [[Canada]], in [[Wellington Channel]]. It is separated from the southwest corner of [[Devon Island]] by [[Barrow Strait]]. Other features include Wellington Channel, Erebus Harbour,<ref name="google">{{cite web |url=https://www.google.com/search?q=Beechy+Island+-wiki+map |title=Beechy Island| format= Map |website=Google.com |access-date=2015-06-23 }}</ref> and Terror Bay.{{efn|Not to be confused with the [[Terror Bay]] south of [[King William Island]]}}

==History==

The first European visit to the island was in 1819, by Captain [[William Edward Parry]]. The island was named by Parry's lieutenant, [[Frederick William Beechey]] (1796–1856), after his father, artist [[William Beechey]] (1753–1839).<ref name="google2">{{cite book|title=Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of a North-west Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific: Performed in the Years 1819-20, in His Majesty's Ships Hecla and Griper, Under the Orders of William Edward Parry; with an Appendix, Containing the Scientific and Other Observations| last= Parry| first= W. E.| year= 1821 |volume= 1 |publisher=John Murray|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f8VCAAAAYAAJ|page=51|access-date=2015-06-23}}</ref> [[File:Cornwallis and devon island.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|left|Beechey Island in relation to [[Cornwallis Island (Nunavut)|Cornwallis Island]], [[Devon Island]] and [[Somerset Island (Nunavut)|Somerset Island]]]] It is the site of several very significant events in the history of Arctic exploration. In 1845, the British explorer Sir [[John Franklin]],<ref name= Gazetteer>{{cite web| url= http://www.bartleby.com/69/86/B03786.html | title= Beechey Island| work= The Columbia Gazetteer of North America| via= Bartleby.com| url-status= dead| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20050401091532/http://www.bartleby.com/69/86/B03786.html| archivedate= 2005-04-01 |access-date= 2025-09-19}}</ref> commanding a new but ill-fated search for the [[Northwest Passage]] aboard [[HMS Erebus (1826)|HMS ''Erebus'']] and [[HMS Terror (1813)|HMS ''Terror'']], chose the protected harbour of Beechey Island for his first winter encampment. The site was not rediscovered until 1850, when British and United States search vessels anchored nearby.

In 1850, [[Edward Belcher]] used the island as a base. There are memorials to Franklin and other polar explorers and sailors on the island, including to the French naval officer [[Joseph René Bellot]], who died aged 27 falling into the Wellington Channel, northwest of Beechey Island.<ref>{{cite journal |first= Brian D.| last= Powell|title=The memorials on Beechey Island, Nunavut, Canada: an historical and pictorial survey|journal=[[Polar Record]]| volume= 42 |issue=223|pages=325–333|year=2006|doi=10.1017/S0032247406005596}}</ref>

In 1854, a building called Northumberland House was erected, using wood salvaged from a wrecked [[whaling]] ship. It was stocked with supplies in case any member of the Franklin expedition found their way back to the island.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hewitt |first=Sarah |title=The island of lost explorers |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/travel/article/20170223-the-island-of-lost-explorers |website= bbc.co.uk |publisher= [[BBC]] |language=en |access-date=2025-04-03}}</ref>

In 1903, paying respect to Franklin, Norwegian explorer [[Roald Amundsen]] stopped at the island at the beginning of his successful voyage through the Northwest Passage.

In 1975, Beechey Island was declared a Territorial Historic Site by the government of the [[Northwest Territories]]. Since 1999, it has been part of the newly created Canadian territory of Nunavut.<ref>{{CRHP|7105|Beechey Island|29 October 2013}}</ref>

In 1993, five archaeological sites on Beechey Island and nearby Devon Island (the Franklin wintering camp of 1845–46, Northumberland House, the Devon Island site at Cape Riley, two message cairns, and the [[Breadalbane (ship)|HMS ''Breadalbane'']] National Historic Site) were designated as the Beechey Island Sites [[National Historic Sites of Canada|National Historic Site of Canada]].<ref>{{CRHP|17342|Beechey Island Sites National Historic Site of Canada|29 October 2013}}</ref>

==Beechey Island graves== Beechey Island is best known for containing three graves of Franklin expedition members, which were first discovered in 1850 by searchers for the [[Franklin's lost expedition|lost Franklin expedition]]. The searchers found a large stone cairn, along with the graves of three of Franklin's crewmen – [[Petty Officer]] [[John Torrington]], Royal Marine Private [[William Braine]], and [[Able Seaman (rank)|Able Seaman]] [[John Hartnell]] – but no written record nor indication of where Franklin planned to sail the next season.

In 1852, Commander [[Edward A. Inglefield]] arrived at Beechey, along with a physician Dr Peter Sutherland. John Hartnell's grave was opened, damaging his coffin, and Hartnell's memorial plaque on the coffin lid was removed. During a later expedition, a searcher named Thomas Morgan died aboard the vessel ''North Star'' on May 22, 1854, and was buried alongside the three original Franklin crew members.

In the 1980s, during two separate expeditions to Beechey, Canadian [[forensic anthropologist]] Dr. [[Owen Beattie]] examined the three bodies and found them (externally) remarkably well-preserved. [[Autopsy|Autopsies]] determined that [[lung disease]] and [[lead poisoning]] were among the probable causes of death; the lead appeared to come from the thousands of lead-soldered tins of provisions with which the Franklin expedition had been supplied (although later studies would suggest that the unique water distillation system used by the ships was the major source of lead poisoning).<ref>{{cite web| url= http://preservedremains.wikispaces.com/FrankExp.%20Discovery%20of%20bodies|title= Preserved remains: discovery of the bodies| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20180313020729/http://preservedremains.wikispaces.com/FrankExp.%20Discovery%20of%20bodies | archivedate= 2018-03-13| access-date= 2025-09-19}}</ref>

Later research, however, found through hair sample comparisons between the Beechey remains and those of expedition assistant surgeon and naturalist [[Harry Goodsir]] (who died on the expedition a year later, and would therefore be expected to have yet further exposure, under the lead poisoning hypothesis) that the lead in the three men's remains, while indeed present at high levels now recognized as deleterious, was no higher than Goodsir's, and thus evidently mostly the result of exposure prior to the expedition (due to high everyday lead exposure common in the 19th century), and consequently was unlikely to be solely responsible for their deaths.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Lori |last1=D'Ortenzio |first2=Michael |last2=Inskip |first3=William |last3=Manton |first4=Simon |last4=Mays|title=The Franklin expedition: What sequential analysis of hair reveals about lead exposure prior to death|journal=Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports|volume=21|date=October 2018|pages=401–405 |doi=10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.08.021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first=Kiona N. |last=Smith |title=Strands of hair shed light on doomed 19th-century Arctic expedition|url=https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/09/did-lead-poisoning-finish-off-a-doomed-arctic-expedition/|publisher=Ars Technica|date=2018-09-30}}</ref>

In the 1990s, due to the deteriorating condition of the Beechey grave markers, all markers were replaced with [[bronze]] memorials.

<gallery mode="packed"> File: Beechey Island Nunavut Canada.jpg|Beechey Island Harbour viewed from northwest summit of Beechey Island, Nunavut, Canada, 2017 File: 2018-09-30 01 Franklin Camp grave images, Nunavut Canada 2015-09-11.jpg|(L-R) Three graves from the lost 1845 Franklin Expedition, and a fourth from a later Franklin search expedition, 2015 File:2018-09-30 02 Franklin Camp grave images, Nunavut Canada 2015-09-11.jpg|(L-R) The Franklin Camp graves of [[John Torrington]], [[William Braine]], [[John Hartnell]] and Thomas Morgan, 2015 File: Northumberland House Beechey Island Nunavut Canada.jpg|Remains of Northumberland House on the shore of Beechey Island, 2017 </gallery>

==In fiction== The explorers in [[Jules Verne]]'s novel ''[[The Adventures of Captain Hatteras]]'' ({{langx|fr|Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras}}) visit Beechey Island. In addition, [[Clive Cussler]]'s novel, ''Arctic Drift'' (2008), featured characters who would visit this island in the quest for Franklin's ships. The island is also mentioned in [[Dan Simmons]]' novel, ''[[The Terror (novel)|The Terror]]''.

==Notes== {{notelist}}

== References == {{commons category|Beechey Island}} {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20140407075507/http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/toporama?center=91643.436532217,2805191.8136966&zoom=11 Beechey Island] in the [[Atlas of Canada]] - Toporama; Natural Resources Canada

[[Category:Islands of the Queen Elizabeth Islands]] [[Category:Uninhabited islands of the Qikiqtaaluk Region]] [[Category:National Historic Sites in Nunavut]] [[Category:Protected areas established in 1993]] [[Category:1993 establishments in the Northwest Territories]] [[Category:Franklin's lost expedition]]