Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1920 — 50 Year Old Cache Found [ARTICLE]

50 Year Old Cache Found

Stefansson Discovers Supplies Left in 1850 to Aid 11lFated Franklin. RECALLS TRAGEDY OF ARCTIC Food and Clothing Found to Be Almost in as Good Condition as When Placed There by McClintock in 1853. New York. —Of interest to all who have heard the call of the North and the lure of exploration is the announcement that Vilhjalmur Stefansson found the abandoned cache of Sir Leopold McClintock, commander of the Intrepid, in the Arctic after a lapse of more than half a century. It was Sir Leopold McClintock. In command of the ship Intrepid, who found traces of the voyage of that unfortunate explorer Sir John Frariklin. He built a cache on Melville island, presumably between 1850 and 1854, when in quest of tidings of Sir John Franklin and the members of his ill-fated expedition in the Arctic. Located by Stefansson. The McClintock cache was located by Stefansson, who reports that be found everything in almost as good condition as when placed there In 1853. Articles of clothing he found particularly well preserved and much better in quality than the clothing of today, and the food and supplies left in the Arctic cache by Commander McClintock and his men also were well preserved, despite the severe weather known to prevail in the Arctic regions. . Documents and a list of the contents of a cache built in the far North by Commander McClintock and Other data also were found by Capt. Joseph E. Bernier, in command of the tic” expedition of 1908-1900. A erected on Dealy island by Captain Kellett snd Commander McClintock In 1852-1853. whose vessels were lost, also was found by Captain Bernier and re-erected, with his own tablet, onParry’s Kock, commemorating the annexing of the Arctic archipelago in 1909. On the tablet found by Captain Bernier were the names of the ships navigated by the explorers—“H. M. S. Resolute, Henry Kellett, Esq.. C. 8.. H. M S. V. Intrepid. F. L. McClintock. Esq., Comm. Wintered 1852-1853, 8. 82 a (true). Door at Depot House

(with direction given). Record will be found in house.” “Lieutenant McClintock,” says Captain Bernier, who was commander of the Intrepid and second in command to Captain Kellett, early showed his great activity by making sledge journeys of a hazardous nature across Melville island from the locality In which the Resolute and Intrepid were frozen in near Dealy island. The tracings made by McClintock around the shores of Melville island and Prince Patrick island, on foot, added many hundreds of miles to the coast surveyed under Belcher and Kellett. The cairns established by him between 1852 and 1854 are mentioned In his reports with the papers found at Dealy island. Built Half Century Ago. It is probably one of these cairns that was discovered by Stefansson and built by McClintock more than half a century ago. Continuing, Captain Bernier says of McClintock: “His subsequent career in navigating the waters in Lady Franklin’s yacht Fox of Peel sound. Regent inlet, Bellot strait. King William island and around Montreal island and Boothia peninsula are wellknown. His brilliant achievements and discovery of definite Information regarding the fate of Franklin point to him as the most fortunate of all voyagers who pursued the most remarkable search known in the history of navigation.” One of the documents left by McClintock in a copper tube and under a pile of rocks was found by Captain Bernier. Another was found outside of Kellett’s depot, probably disturbed from its resting place by a polar bear, for it bore the marks of the paw of an animal of considerable size. Much of the information found in these documents was utilized by Captain Bernier while "cruising through northern seas in the Arctic.