Taissumani: June 19, 1764 – The birth of John Barrow

KENN HARPER

John Barrow was a civil servant who rose from humble origins to a position of influence in the British government. For almost a half century, he was the Second Secretary of the British Admiralty. His interests were wide-ranging but he had an especial interest in the Arctic and its exploration. What was known of the Canadian Arctic until the ill-fated Franklin expedition in 1845, was learned largely as a result of expeditions sent out by Barrow.

He was born in Lancashire on June 19, 1764, the son of a farmer. As a child he was bright, excelling in Latin, Greek and mathematics. But he left school at the age of 13 to work in an iron foundry. Working his way slowly up from the underclass, Barrow became a master at making and maintaining important contacts. In his late twenties, through some of those contacts, he attracted the attention of Lord Macartney, and accompanied him to China when Macartney became ambassador to the imperial court there. He remained with Macartney when he became the first British governor of Cape Colony in South Africa.

Back in England, John Barrow was a “dark-haired, moon-faced man of forty” when he was appointed Second Secretary of the Admiralty, the highest-ranking administrative position in the organization. Except for a few months, he held this post until his retirement 41 years later. The Royal Navy was at its largest when Barrow joined the Admiralty, but fell into a period of quick decline after the defeat of Napoleon. Barrow was concerned to find employment for the otherwise unneeded naval officers. This, combined with his innate curiosity over everything geographical, led him to propose a series of expeditions that would fill in the blanks on the globe. The biggest of those blanks lay to the north.

In 1818, Barrow sent two expeditions to the Arctic, one via Svalbard which was tasked with reaching the North Pole, the other via Davis Strait charged with finding a Northwest Passage. Both were failures.

Barrow had a low tolerance for failure. And he developed a special loathing for John Ross, commander of the expedition which had returned without finding a Northwest Passage. Part way through Lancaster Sound, the eastern entrance to the passage, Ross thought he saw a range of mountains blocking his path. He turned back. It was the wrong decision. The Croker Mountains (as Ross named them) do not exist, and many under Ross’s command claimed not to have seen them at all. Ross had been deceived by a mirage.

By this time Barrow, as well as being the power that controlled the Admiralty, was also a prolific writer and thereby gained influence far beyond his administrative role. In 1818 he wrote “Chronological History of Voyages into the Arctic Regions,” and he wrote extensively for the influential “Quarterly Review,” often in articles that were published anonymously. He used his poison pen to effectively hamper the career of John Ross, who remained officially on the sidelines for decades.

At the same time Barrow advanced the career of William Edward Parry, who had been Ross’s second in command on the failed expedition. The following year Barrow sent Parry back to the Arctic, where he pushed through Lancaster Sound, through the non-existent Croker Mountains, to winter successfully on Melville Island, the first expedition by ship to ever winter deliberately in the High Arctic. Other Arctic names whose careers were advanced by Barrow were John Franklin, George Lyon, Frederick Beechey and George Back.

Despite his obsession with the Arctic, Barrow only traveled to high latitudes once in his life, and that was as a teenager aboard a whaler bound for Spitsbergen. Nonetheless he got a lot of mileage out of telling after-dinner tales of the brief summer’s voyage. One of those occasions may have added to his dislike for Ross. John Ross wrote:

“After dinner Barrow, as usual, began to repeat his story of having been at Greenland in a whaler when he was a boy. A significant nod from me and a negative shake of the head attracted the notice of Lady Melville, who quickly said “Mr. Barrow, what was the name of the ship you went to Greenland in?” “I — I do not remember the name just now.” “What was the Captain’s name?” says her Ladyship. Barrow had also no Captain’s name ready and replied “I — I don’t remember just now but it was out of Whitehaven.” “Whitehaven,” says I, “that is a small dry harbour. No whaler ever sailed out of that.” Barrow… coloured up to the eyes, while the whole company burst out in laughter but from that moment Barrow was my bitter enemy.”

But perhaps there is another reason for Barrow’s low regard for John Ross. Barrow was a man who took great pride in his erudition. In the “Quarterly Review” he published numerous reviews of newly-published volumes on exploration during the course of his career. But a review by John Barrow was nothing like the brief reviews published in modern-day journals. His reviews were mini-books in themselves, often running well in excess of twenty-five pages of small print. Barrow modestly claimed that they “were written off hand as an amusement.”

Shortly after Ross had humiliated Barrow at Lord Melville’s dinner, he committed an even graver crime. He accused Barrow of trying to rewrite Ross’s soon-to-be-published book and complained that something that Barrow had written was ungrammatical. Now here was an insult! Barrow stormed out of the publisher’s office, saying, “I’ll have nothing more to do with you.”

The final expedition organized by John Barrow was the tragic adventure commanded by John Franklin, which disappeared into the Arctic in 1845. Barrow planned it, but he opposed the choice of the 59-year-old Franklin as its leader. But this time Barrow didn’t get his way. He retired a few months before the ships sailed. Three years later, with Franklin lost, but with hope remaining that he would yet be found, John Barrow died at the age of 84.

Taissumani: A Day in Arctic History recounts a specific event of historic interest, whose anniversary is in the coming week. Kenn Harper is a historian, writer and linguist who lives in Iqaluit. Feedback? Send your comments and questions to kennharper@hotmail.com.