Did a concertina accompany the ill-fated Franklin expedition?

[SteveS]

I've just read an article about a forth-coming TV production on the Franklin expedition of 1845 to find the North West Passage.

The article discusses various items that have been recovered from the expedition.

At the end of the article there is this tantalising sentence:
 

“Bits of accordion, pipes and books have been found. These are touchstones to those lives and they have incredible poignancy.”

 

Was it a concertina or an accordion? 

 

Some years ago I read an account of the Franklin expedition and efforts to retrieve artefacts and find and examine the few graves of sailors entombed in the tundra.  I don't recall reading about a concertina, although I think I recall that both ships were equipped with a harmonium.

[Stephen Chambers]

It's been mentioned before, and I'd be fascinated to learn more about it, but I've never been able to find out anything more, nor a photo, of this "accordion"/"bits of accordion" (or whatever it is) that was reportedly found aboard the wreck H.M.S. Erebus.

[Stephen Mills]

It is said that there was a concertina on the later "Lady Franklin" or Greely expedition to search for survivors of the Franklin expedition. 

https://time.com/5752551/christmas-dinner-north-pole-1881/

On Christmas Day 1881, "The first Thanksgiving menu was extravagant... During the meal, prizes were distributed to the winners of the day’s events, and the evening concluded with concertina and violin music and singing."  - from Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition by Buddy Levy.

Edited March 14, 2021 by Stephen Mills

[Stephen Chambers]

 

2 hours ago, Stephen Mills said:

It is said that there was a concertina on the later "Lady Franklin" or Greely expedition to search for survivors of the Franklin expedition.

 

By the time of the Greely expedition, in 1881, both concertinas and accordions were much more freely, and cheaply, available than they had been in 1845 (when concertinas would have been more the preserve of the officer class).

Edited March 14, 2021 by Stephen Chambers

[David Barnert]

8 hours ago, Stephen Mills said:

It is said that there was a concertina on the later "Lady Franklin" or Greely expedition to search for survivors of the Franklin expedition. 

https://time.com/5752551/christmas-dinner-north-pole-1881/

On Christmas Day 1881, "The first Thanksgiving menu was extravagant... During the meal, prizes were distributed to the winners of the day’s events, and the evening concluded with concertina and violin music and singing."  - from Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition by Buddy Levy.

This is a little confused. “Lady Franklin” was not the name of a ship, but the name of the bay Greely explored (and the name of the expedition). The purpose of the expedition had nothing to do with the Franklin expedition (35 years later one could hardly have expected to find survivors). There was consideration that they might rescue survivors of the more recent Jeannette expedition.

[Stephen Mills]

2 hours ago, David Barnert said:

This is a little confused. “Lady Franklin” was not the name of a ship, but the name of the bay Greely explored (and the name of the expedition). The purpose of the expedition had nothing to do with the Franklin expedition (35 years later one could hardly have expected to find survivors). There was consideration that they might rescue survivors of the more recent Jeannette expedition.

I agree completely, David - a sloppily worded post.  I inadvertently dropped the word Bay after Lady Franklin, which I never intended to be taken as the name of the ship, but the expedition.  While the expedition was said to be named for Franklin's wife, who tirelessly worked to advance searches for her husband's expedition, the purpose was to search for Jeannette survivors.  While I was troubled by the large number of years passed since the original expedition, I indeed missed that that they were in fact looking for survivors from the Jeannette, as you stated.

[David Barnert]

4 hours ago, Stephen Mills said:

While the expedition was said to be named for Franklin's wife...

The expedition was named after the bay. The bay was named after Franklin’s wife.

[Stephen Chambers]

On 3/14/2021 at 5:09 PM, Stephen Chambers said:

It's been mentioned before, and I'd be fascinated to learn more about it, but I've never been able to find out anything more, nor a photo, of this "accordion"/"bits of accordion" (or whatever it is) that was reportedly found aboard the wreck H.M.S. Erebus.

 

Well now we know - it was a French accordion/flutina! (I'd have bet on it, for 1845 - they were the most popular accordions up until the 1870s.)

 

Here's its maple reedpan, with slotted-in individual reedplates, having just been recovered from the galley on board and being put into a plastic bag:

 

 

You can witness the recovery here, on YouTube, between 2.43 and 2.52:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 18, 2021 by Stephen Chambers

[David Barnert]

And for anybody who’s wondering, here’s what a flutina looks like, although not necessarily the same model as the one on the Erebus.

 

[SteveS]

Thanks Stephen!!

[Stephen Chambers]

The reedpan is evidently from a typical 2-row French accordion, something similar to the one in this YouTube video: 

 

 

 

[Stephen Chambers]

I was under lockdown a long way from home when I commented on this previously, but I've been back there recently and took a photograph of a French accordion/flutina reedpan to show what I mean. Of course the white leather valves (that are still on this one) would have detached and floated away a very long time ago:

 

 

Coincidentally, this mid-19th century image of three straw-hatted men (possibly sailors?) turned up today, with the one on the left holding an accordion of the type I'm talking about:

 

Edited May 25, 2021 by Stephen Chambers