The Journal of Rochfort Maguire, 1852–1854

In 1845 Sir John Franklin's expedition left England, searching for a northwest passage, and vanished into the Arctic forever. Three years later HMS Plover's was the first departure of 21 expeditions searching for Franklin. Although most of the analyses of the Franklin Search have focused on the large expeditions in the eastern Arctic, the smaller western expeditions also produced significant geographical and ethnographical information. The Plover's voyage of 1848 to 1854 was the first constant presence of Europeans in the western Arctic, and Rochfort Maguire's journal is the earliest account of a sustained foreign association with the Eskimos of northern Alaska. Maguire's journal is far more than an important historical document; it is a fascinating account of Europeans and Eskimos learning to cope with one another. Maguire's narrative is introduced by a detailed discussion of the history, strategy and logistics of the Franklin Search in the western Arctic. Appendices include accounts of the Search's five boat expeditions near Point Barrow as well as Dr John Simpson's seminal essay on the Eskimos of northern Alaska. The main pagination of this and the following volume (Second series 170) is continuous. This is a new print-on-demand hardback edition of the volume first published in 1987.