Online

James Fitzjames sources

His last letters written from Erebus June – July 1845

– The Nautical Magazine has the letters printed in 1852. Read them here (part 1) and here (part 2).
– All the Year Round: A Weekly Journal conducted by Charles Dickens printed excerpts from the letters in 1859 here
– On the Arctonauts website you can read annotated versions of the letters with the redacted names added back in.

Franklin Expedition

If you want to learn more about the expedition that Fitzjames spent the last few years of his life on, there is much to keep you occupied online.

In 2014 the HMS Erebus was found, followed by the HMS Terror in 2016.
Parks Canada and the Inuit community are working together on researching the wrecks and the objects found within them. On the Parks Canada website you can read it all about it. These are exciting times, who knows what will be found and what knowledge there is to be gained! Obviously I hope that personal items of Fitzjames will be recovered and studied.

These are some very interesting Franklin Expedition-related blogs:

https://arctonauts.com/ by Edmund Wuyts

https://erebusandterrorfiles.blogspot.com/ by Peter Carney

https://finger-post.blog/ by Alison Freebairn

https://www.hiddentracksbattersby.com/ the late William Battersby’s blog posts archive

h ttps://www.illuminator.blog/ by Logan Zachary

https://www.thethousandthpart.com/ by Olga Kimmins, about Captain F.R.M. Crozier

https://visionsnorth.blogspot.com/ by Russell Potter

If you want to connect with other Franklin Expedition enthusiasts, have interesting discussions and stay up to date on the latest news, join the Facebook group
Remembering the Franklin Expedition

The Mysteries of the Franklin Expedition – Life and death in the Arctic is a very comprehensive website that includes scans and transcriptions of letters by Franklin Expedition personnel. Much to read and discover!

The Royal Navy

Naval Social History – Circa 1793 – 1920 A very comprehensive website about the Royal Navy, including an index of 19th Century Naval Vessels and some of their movements

The Victorian Royal Navy “The officers, ships, fleets and campaigns of the Royal Navy between 1840 and 1880, the slave trade on the West and East African coasts, the 1841 Niger expedition, the Crimean War victory naval review, and much more…”