Of particular fascination to many was the elusive Northwest Passage which had been seeked for centuries and yet, at the beginning of the nineteenth century had still not been proven or disproved with enough evidence to quench the drive of explorers such as John Franklin. Although the arctic was his claim to fame, Franklin explored as south as Australia in the early part of his career (1801). Franklin made many voyages to the Arctic in search of the North West Passage. The first was as commander of the "Trent" in Captain Buchan's exploration of the arctic, whose goal was primarily to reach the North Pole. The second of which is one of great importance. He set out in 1819 in a land exploration wandering the lands west of the Hudson's Bay, surveying and mapping the coast, in hopes of finding a continuous, navigable course that would connect the arctic to the Pacific. His exploration and stories of the north brought him great fame in England after he published a book, "Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the Years 1819, 20, 21 and 22".
He made a similar voyage again, this time from 1825 to 1827, mapping even more coast, about 2000 kilometres more, from the Mackenzie River to an area of Alaska. Again he published a book on his findings.
Taking a break from exploring the north, Franklin was knighted by the King, in 1829 and served as Lieutenant Governor of Tasmania (then called Van Diemen's Land) from 1836 to 1843. His last trip, by sea on the Terror and the Erubus, was made in attempts to definitely find the Northwest Passage and reach the Pacific, the goal of all explorers from the time America was found to be a new continent. This voyage was to be his last as he perished at sea with many of his mates. No word on the exploration was heard in 1847 and Franklin's wife, sponsored explorers to search for Franklin, his ship or any news of what happened. According to an Inuk, the men left the ship when it was caught in the ice and perished.
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