Franklin Bay Explained

Franklin Bay (69.6667°N 155°W) is a large inlet in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is a southern arm of the Amundsen Gulf, southeastern Beaufort Sea. The bay measures 48km (30miles) long, and 40km (30miles) wide at its mouth. The Parry Peninsula is to the east, and its southern area is called Langton Bay.

Franklin Bay receives the Horton River.^[1] There are gales in the early winter months.^[2]

Franklin Bay was named in honor of Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin by John Richardson in 1826.^[3]

History

Based on hearsay rather than exploration, Émile Petitot, a French Missionary Oblate and a notable Canadian northwest cartographer, ethnologist, and geographer charted the Hornaday River's mouth at Franklin Bay, instead of Darnley Bay in his flawed 1875 maps and account.^[4]

Langton Bay was the base of operations for the three-year expedition, 1909 to 1912, of Arctic explorers Vilhjalmur Stefansson and Rudolph Anderson^[5]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Franklin Bay. 2000. The Columbia Gazetteer of North America. bartleby.com. 2009-03-07. https://web.archive.org/web/20050816143642/http://bartleby.com/69/81/F02981.html. 2005-08-16. dead.
2. Stefansson (1913), p. 233
3. Book: Franklin , John . Narrative of a second expedition to the shores of the Polar sea in the years 1825, 1826 and 1827, by John Franklin,... including an account of the progress of a detachment to the Eastward, by John Richardson. . J. Murray . 1828 . London. John Franklin 1826. .
4. Book: Davis, Richard Clarke . Lobsticks and Stone Cairns: Human Landmarks in the Arctic. University of Calgary Press. 1996. 153–154. 1-895176-88-3. registration.
5. Book: Stefansson, Vilhjalmur . Rudolph Martin Anderson. My life with the Eskimo. Macmillan Company. 1913. Digitized September 26, 2008. 125.