george Back

Nov 06, 1796

George Back is born in Stockport.

Location: Britain

1808

George Back joins the Royal Navy as a Volunteer on the frigate HMS Arethusa

Location: Britain

1809

George Back is captured by the French and taken prisoner.

Location: Europe

1814

George Back is released from the French prison at Verdun due to the peace treaty of 1814. He then serves as a Midshipman as HMS Akbar and HMS Bulwark.

Location: Europe

May 23, 1819

The Coppermine Expedition sails from Gravesend under John Franklin. He has George Back with him for surveying and chart making, and John Richardson as their surgeon. They travel on board a Hudson’s Bay Company ship. As soon as they get to Canada the first of their supply problems materialised as neither the Hudson Bay Company, nor the Northwest Company, was able to provide any of the supplies that they had promised.

Location: Britain

Aug 30, 1819

Franklin and his expedition arrive at York Factory in Canada

Location: Canada

Jan 1820

Franklin sets out into the pine forests to Fort Chipewyan in order to hire men with experience of exploring Canada, as he had none. They had no tents and had to sleep on the ground covered in blankets. It was so cold that the mercury in their thermometers froze and they were even grateful for snowfall as the snow on their blankets would add extra insulation and make it less cold.

Location: Canada

Mar 1820

Franklin arrives at Fort Chipewyan and tries to buy supplies and recruit voyageurs, only to find that there was little food and none of the better voyageurs wanted to go with him.

Location: Canada

Jul 1820

Franklin leaves Fort Chipewyan for the Great Slave Lake. It takes them 10 days to reach Old Fort Providence on its northern shore where they meet with Akaitcho the leader of the Yellowknives First Nation. Akaitcho agreed that some of the people from his nation would act as guides for the expedition and take them as far as the Inuit lands.

Location: Canada

Jun 04, 1821

After a near mutiny during the winter when the expedition almost ran out of food, Franklin heads north again with a vague plan of trying to meet up with the Parry expedition that was trying to find the Northeast Passage by sea.

Location: Canada

Jul 14, 1821

Franklin first sights the Arctic Sea. They meet their first Inuit camp a few days later and their Yellowknives guides leave for home as agreed. A quarter of the voyageurs go with them.

Location: Arctic

Aug 22, 1821

Having mapped 500 miles of the Canadian coast Franklin decides to head for home, however they cannot go the way that they had come because rough weather had damaged their canoes too badly. This means that they had to use the Hood River route, which involved another trek across unknown territory.

Location: Arctic

Sep 07, 1821

The Coppermine Expedition’s supplies were exhausted as winter settled in. They were forced to eat lichen, and even boil up their boots to eat the leather. The voyageurs became mutinous again, and the only that prevented them from simply walking away was that they did not know the way to get home.

Location: Canada

Sep 26, 1821

Franklin reaches the Coppermine river, but without their canoes they have no way to cross it.

Location: Canada

Oct 04, 1821

Franklin and his party manage to cross the Coppermine river using a makeshift one man canoe built by Pierre St Germain. He crosses first taking line with him that everybody else uses to haul themselves across in his canoe.

Location: Canada

Oct 12, 1821

Franklin reaches Fort Enterpise, only to find that the supplies that he had expected had never been delivered. By this point the entire party was starving and on the point of giving up hope of every reaching home.

Location: Canada

Nov 07, 1821

The Franklin expedition is rescued by the Yellowknives, one of the Canadian First Nations. Three men arrive with food, and then got more by fishing.

Location: Canada

Oct 1822

The expedition returns to Britain. Despite his expedition being a complete failure Franklin is lauded as a hero for struggling in the face of such adversity.

Location: Britain

Feb 16, 1825

Franklin, George Back, John Richardson and Edward Kendall leave Liverpool on the Mackenzie River Expedition, their second exploration expedition into the Arctic.

Location: Liverpool

Jun 15, 1825

Mackenzie River Expedition reaches Cumberland House on the Saskatchewan River, and heads up to the Methye Portage.

Location: Canada

Jun 29, 1825

Mackenzie River Expedition picks up their equipment at the Methye Portage. This had come by a different route to Franklin and his officers, having travelled from York Factory on the Hudson Bay up the Hayes River.

Location: Canada

Aug 03, 1825

Mackenzie River Expedition reaches the headwaters of the Mackenzie River and begin to follow it down to the Arctic Ocean

Location: Canada

Aug 04, 1825

Mackenzie River Expedition reaches the point that the Mackenzie River joins the Liard River.

Location: Canada

Aug 07, 1825

Mackenzie River Expedition reaches Fort Norman

Location: Canada

May 23, 1826

The ice on the Great Bear Lake starts to break up and the Mackenzie River Expedition begins preparations to head back to the coast.

Location: Canada

Jun 20, 1826

The Mackenzie River Expedition heads down the Mackenzie River to the Artic Ocean. Once they reach the mouth of the river they plan to split the expedition in two, with one team heading west and the other heading east in order to map the maximum amount of the coast before returning to Fort Franklin before the winter.

Location: Arctic

Jul 04, 1826

The Mackenzie River Expedition reaches the coast and splits in two teams. Franklin and Back led one team heading west. Kendall and Richardson led the other team heading east.

Location: Arctic

Jul 09, 1826

Franklin and Back meet an Inuit group. Franklin mentioned that they all appear in excellent health, although nearly all of them suffered from some degree of snowblindness.

Location: Arctic

Jul 15, 1826

Franklin and Back reach the Babbage River

Location: Arctic

Jul 17, 1826

Franklin and Back reach Herschel Island and meet some more Inuit

Location: Arctic

Jul 30, 1826

Franklin and Back reach what is now Alaska

Location: Arctic

Aug 16, 1826

Franklin and Back decide to turn back towards Fort Franklin as summer was coming to an end. They had not realised that at this point they were merely 6 days journey from another expedition that was travelling east from Alaska.

Location: Arctic

Aug 29, 1826

Franklin and Back were told by a group of Inuit that they had seen Richardson’s party returning to the mouth of the Mackenzie River, and that there were hostile groups hunting for them that planned to steal all of their equipment.

Location: Arctic

Sep 04, 1826

Franklin and Back reach the point that the two parties had split earlier that year.

Location: Canada

Sep 21, 1826

Franklin and Back return to Fort Franklin. Franklin is worried that they do not have enough stores at Fort Franklin to make it through the winter, and so he despatches Kendall to Fort Norman in order to get more supplies.

Location: Canada

Oct 1827

Back and the other officers of the Mackenzie River Expedition arrive back in Britain where Kendall is promoted to Lieutenant.

Location: Britain

Feb 01, 1833

George Back leaves Britain in order to try and find the John Ross expedition as nothing had been heard from it since it left in 1829.

Location: Canada

Mar 1834

George Back receives a package of letters that tell him that the John Ross expedition which he had been looking for was now safely back in Britain. These letters also contain orders that his mission has changed and he is to explore the coast from the area that Ross had mapped at King William Island to the area that he himself had mapped with Franklin on the Coppermine River expedition.

Location: Canada

Jun 07, 1834

George Back sets out on his exploration mission

Location: Canada

Jul 23, 1834

George Back reaches salt water at the Chantrey Inlet. They explore the area and see King William Island but decide that going any further would be too great a risk and therefore turn back.

Location: Arctic

Jul 28, 1834

George Back reaches Back River, known to the local Inuit people as the Great Fish River.

Location: Canada

Sep 27, 1834

George Back reaches Fort Reliance

Location: Canada

Sep 08, 1835

George Back returns to Britain

Location: Canada

1836

Archibald McMurdo is promoted to Lieutenant, and George Back is promoted to Captain. They are both appointed to HMS Terror for another artic expedition.

Location: Britain

Jul 1836

HMS Terror, with George Back as Captain and Archibald McMurdo as Lieutenant, leaves Britain for the Arctic.

Location: Britain

Aug 1836

HMS Terror reaches the Hudson Strait. She enters the Frozen Strait were she is trapped in the ice. At one point the pressure of the ice pushes her 40 feet up a cliff, and it is only her extremely strong construction that allows her to survive.

Location: Canada

Jan 1837

Scurvy appears amongst the crew of HMS Terror and kills three.

Location: Antarctica

Jul 1837

The ice has retreated enough for HMS Terror to head home

Location: Antarctica

Mar 18, 1839

George Back is knighted as a Knight Bachelor

Location: Britain

Jun 23, 1878

George Back dies in London

Location: Britain