George Back facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sir George Back
|
|
|---|---|
Back in 1833
|
|
| Born | 6 November 1796 Stockport, England |
| Died | 23 June 1878 (aged 81) London, England |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Branch |  Royal Navy |
| Service years | 1808–1878 |
| Rank | Admiral |
| Wars | Napoleonic Wars |
Admiral Sir George Back (born November 6, 1796 – died June 23, 1878) was a British Royal Navy officer. He was also a famous explorer of the Canadian Arctic, a naturalist, and a talented artist. Back was born in Stockport, England. He is best known for his brave journeys into the cold, unknown parts of the Arctic.
Contents
George Back began his life at sea very young. In 1808, when he was just 11 years old, he joined the navy as a volunteer on a ship called HMS Arethusa. He helped destroy enemy batteries along the Spanish coast. The next year, he fought in the Bay of Biscay. However, he was captured by the French and became a prisoner.
Back was held in Verdun until 1814. During this time, he didn't waste his time. He learned French and mathematics. He also practiced his drawing and painting skills. These artistic talents later helped him record what he saw during his Arctic travels.
After being set free, Back served on two more ships, HMS Akbar and HMS Bulwark. He was a midshipman, which is a junior officer rank. Then, he volunteered to join John Franklin on his first Arctic expedition in 1818.
Exploring the Arctic with John Franklin
George Back continued to work with John Franklin on two more big expeditions. These were overland journeys to map the northern coast of North America.
First, on the Coppermine expedition, Back was in charge of all the surveying and map-making. He drew detailed charts of the land. Later, he joined the Mackenzie River expedition from 1824 to 1826. During this time, he was promoted twice. He became a lieutenant and then a commander in 1825. After these expeditions, Back was without a ship for several years, from 1827 to 1833.
The Back River Expedition
By 1832, no one had heard from another Arctic explorer, John Ross, since 1829. People began to worry and planned a search mission. George Back suggested a route: he would follow fur trade paths to the Great Slave Lake. From there, he would travel northeast along a river known as the Great Fish River. This river was known to First Nations people but no European had ever seen it. It was later named the Back River.
Back left England in February 1833. By August, he reached the Great Slave Lake. There, a man named George McLeod had built a winter camp called Fort Reliance. Back found the Great Fish River on August 29 and then returned to the fort for the winter.
In March 1834, he received exciting news: John Ross was safe back in England! Back was then told to explore the coast from Ross's King William Land to Franklin's Point Turnagain. This was a largely unknown area of the Arctic.
Back set out again on June 7, 1834. He traveled through Artillery Lake and Clinton-Colden Lake. He reached the river on June 28. He sailed east down the river, which had 83 rapids but only one place where they had to carry their boats overland. On July 23, he reached the ocean at Chantrey Inlet. He explored the inlet and saw King William Island to the north. Then, he wisely decided to turn back. He arrived back at Fort Reliance on September 27, 1834, and returned to England on September 8, 1835.
A naturalist named Richard King joined this expedition. He wrote about the weather and plants they found.
The Frozen Strait Expedition
.jpg)
In 1836, George Back was promoted to captain. This was a special honor. His next goal was to reach the northern part of Hudson Bay. From there, he planned to drag boats overland to the sea. Then, he would sail west along the unknown coast to the Back River and Franklin's Point Turnagain. These were the two known points on the north coast, west of Hudson Bay. The area between them was still a mystery.
Back was given command of a ship called HMS Terror. It was a strong ship, originally built to carry bombs. He had a crew of 60 and enough supplies for 18 months.
He left in June 1836, which was late in the season. Strong winds meant his ship had to be towed by a steamship all the way to the Orkney Islands. He reached Hudson Strait on August 1. By the end of August, Terror became stuck in thick ice east of Frozen Strait. The ship remained trapped in the ice for 10 long months. At one point, the ice pressure pushed Terror 40 feet up the side of a cliff!
The crew often prepared to leave the ship because of the danger. A serious illness called Scurvy appeared in January, and three men died. In the spring of 1837, the ship was damaged even more when it hit an iceberg. The ice pressure was so strong that it sometimes squeezed turpentine out of the ship's wooden planks.
The ship drifted with the ice south along Southampton Island and then east toward Hudson Strait. Finally, in July, the ice cleared enough for Terror to head home.
Soon, a huge chunk of ice broke off the ship, causing the remaining ice to tip the ship onto its side. The crew had to chop away the ice to right the ship. By the time they reached the coast of Ireland at Lough Swilly, the ship was barely floating. Everyone on board was amazed they had made it across the Atlantic Ocean. The Terror was a very strong ship to survive such an ordeal.
Later Life and Retirement
Because of his poor health from his tough expeditions, George Back retired from active service. He was made a Knight Bachelor on March 18, 1839. This meant he was given the title "Sir." He remained very interested in Arctic exploration for the rest of his life.
In 1859, he became a rear-admiral. Back also advised the British Admiralty (the navy's governing body) during the search for Franklin's lost expedition. He also served as vice-president of the Royal Geographical Society, an important group for explorers. He received gold and silver medals from them. Even though he was officially retired, he was promoted to vice-admiral in 1863 and finally to admiral in 1867.
George Back as an Artist
George Back was a very talented artist. He loved the scenery of the Canadian North and was able to draw and paint it beautifully.
One of his watercolors, believed to be painted after his 1836–37 expedition, sold for a lot of money in 2011. It showed a huge iceberg. Experts believed it was by Back because he had given it to his sister. The painting seemed to match a description in Back's book, Narrative of an Expedition in H.M.S. Terror (1838). In his book, he described an "enormous berg" that was "not less than 300 feet high" in the Davis Strait.
Back also drew HMS Terror Thrown Up By Ice (1836), showing his ship stuck in the ice. He also made a portrait called A Buffalo Pound (1823). He painted a watercolor called 'Winter View of Fort Franklin' (1825–26). More recently, a collection of twelve portraits of people from the Canadian Yellow Knife Tribe, signed by Back, sold for £24,000 in 2020.
See also
In Spanish: George Back para niños
