A Day in the Life
While John Charters’ journal and the official account of the expedition are from different expeditions, Charters was also aboard the search party written in the official account. Charters’ diary remarks on an expedition from a few years prior, but is also filled with interesting events. Other than describing the daily life of a seaman, Charters also remarks on some excitement he witnessed aboard the ship and while stuck in the ice. During his time on the Enterprise, they tried to utilize foxes to contact the missing crews. On several pages, we learn about these experiments, he details the trapping and collaring of numerous foxes, as well as their release. The two boats on the expedition seemed to have tried to communicate with eachother through foxes before using the strategy to search for the Franklin expedition.
As seen at the top of this page, his accounts of the foxes are usually brief, but over time we get a good idea of what their intentions might have been.
On this page, Charters also begins to describe his routine of duty, which is repeated a number of times throughout the diary, with slight changes to the program. Here is an (approximate) transcription of this particular page.
Transcription:
23d Do=Do Set fox loose
24 Do=Do Took down Laboratory, and building
snow houses and Observatory. 25th Banking
sp outside. 26th Cleaned and performed
Divine Service. Thermometer 36- 27th Blowing
hard, walking the deck for exercise. 28th
Building snow house and on shore for gravel
17
November 29 Building snow wall to
Investigator. Thermometer 38- 30th Do=Do=Do
and finished the observatory. Thermometer
40 deg. Below.
Routine of Duty
6-30 am turn the hands up, lash up
the hammocks, 6-45 am one watch sweep
the upper Decks, 7-30 hands walk the upper Deck
for exercise, 8 am Breakfast, 8-30 hands
employed as necessary, 11-30 am clear up
Charters' Diary is filled with interesting accounts! From daily mundane tasks, to Arctic wonders, to crewmate death, Charters shares the trials and tribulations he went through on this expedition. Here are a few to note:
