A relic of Sir John Franklin's last expedition 1845-8. A silver, fiddle-pattern dessert spoon owned by Sir John Franklin (1786-1847). The front of the handle bears the Franklin crest - a conger eel's head, between two branches. the item has London hallmarks with the date letter for 1844-5 and the maker's mark of George Adams - the initials 'GA'. 'T. T.' is scratched on the back. These are the initials of either Boatswain Thomas Terry or Able Seaman Thomas Tadman or Tadiman both of HMS 'Erebus'. Tadman was 28 at the time of the expedition and came from Brompton in Kent. It was found in an abandoned boat at Erebus Bay, King William Island, in May 1859 by the McClintock Search Expedition 1857-9.
McClintock's party reached this site on the 30 May and discovered that Hobson had been there a few days before on the 18th. The boat was 28 foot long and mounted on a heavy sledge. McClintock found it just above high tide mark pointing back in the direction of the ships and containing a large quantity of abandoned personal possessions and two skeletons. McClintock described finding eight pieces of plate in the boat with Franklin's crest. As he found none of the iron spoons used by the men, he thought that the officer's plate had been distributed among the crew to preserve it.
John Franklin joined the Royal Navy in 1800 and accompanied Matthew Flinders on his circumnavigation of Australia in 1802-1803. He was midshipman in ‘Bellerophon’ at Trafalgar. Still a junior officer at the end of the war, he subsequently became involved in Arctic exploration. Franklin commanded the ‘Trent’ in 1818 in an attempt to find a route to the North Pole through the pack ice north of Spitsbergen. An overland expedition to the Arctic coast in 1819-1822, though not unsuccessful, ended with some loss of life and the near starvation of the survivors. A second overland expedition in 1825-1827 went more smoothly though Franklin's first wife, Eleanor Porden, died during his absence. He remarried Jane Griffin in 1828. Between 1837 and 1844 Franklin served as Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land. On his return to England he accepted the command of an expedition to chart the unexplored gap in the North West passage. His two ships ‘Erebus’ and ‘Terror’ sailed in 1845, their fate only revealed years later, after many search expeditions. Franklin died on board ship while beset off King William Island before his crews abandoned their vessels in a futile attempt to treck south to safety.