page_title: George Back
section_title: Frozen Strait Expedition
hierarchical_section_title: George Back / Career / Frozen Strait Expedition
caption_attribution_description: English: Painting by Admiral Sir George Back &#160;(&#8211;1878)&#160;&#160;Alternative names Admiral Sir Back; Sir George BackDescriptionBritish naval officer, explorer and artistDate of birth/death 6 November 1796 / 6 November 1795&#160; 23 June 1878&#160;Location of birth/death Stockport, Cheshire Portman Square, LondonAuthority control : Q282922 VIAF:&#8201;76464117 ISNI:&#8201;0000 0001 2282 0796 ULAN:&#8201;500076997 LCCN:&#8201;n89613186 NLA:&#8201;35011625 WorldCat creator QS:P170,Q282922 shows HMS Terror anchored near a cathedral-like iceberg in the waters around Baffin Island, while a smaller boat is rowed nearby
context_page_description: Admiral Sir George Back FRS was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer of the Canadian Arctic, naturalist and artist. He was born in Stockport.
context_section_description: In 1836, Back was promoted to captain by an Order in Council, a rare honour. The goal this time was the northern end of Hudson Bay at either Repulse Bay (now Naujaat) or Wager Inlet. From there he would drag boats overland to seawater and sail the unknown coast west to the Back River and Franklin's Point Turnagain. These were the two easternmost known points on the north coast west of Hudson Bay. The area between them and between the Back River and Hudson Bay was unknown. In fact, 60 mi (97 km) northwest of Repulse Bay is the cul-de-sac of the Gulf of Boothia. To reach the Back River he would have had to drag his boats 250 mi (400 km) west-northwest. He was given command of the converted bomb vessel HMS Terror with a crew of 60 and provisions for 18 months. 
  He left in June 1836, which was late in the season. Because of contrary winds they had to be towed by steamship all the way to the Orkney Islands. He reached Hudson Strait on the first of August. By the end of the month, Terror was beset by ice somewhere east of Frozen Strait. It remained icebound for 10 months: at one point Terror was pushed 40 ft (12 m) up the side of a cliff by the pressure of the ice.
  Several times preparations were made to abandon ship. Scurvy appeared in January and three men died of it. In the spring of 1837, an encounter with an iceberg further damaged the ship. Sometimes the pressure of the ice was enough to force turpentine out of the planks. The ship drifted with the ice south along Southampton Island and then east toward Hudson Strait. It was not until July that the ice retreated sufficiently to allow Terror to head for home.
  Soon a large mass of ice frozen to the vessel broke off causing the remaining ice to tip the ship on its side until the ice was hacked off. The vessel was in a sinking condition by the time he was able to beach the ship on the coast of Ireland at Lough Swilly. "There was not one on board who did not express astonishment that we had ever floated across the Atlantic."
  Although a number of Arctic explorers allowed their ships to be frozen in harbours for the winter, this seems to be the only case of a ship - save for the disastrous Franklin Expedition - being caught in offshore ice. Its survival is a tribute to the strength of bomb vessels in Arctic service.
caption: HMS Terror anchored near an iceberg off Baffin Island, as painted by Back
exif: {"Image Copyright": "Canadian Museum of Civilization"}