Samuel Gurney Cresswell (1827 – August 14, 1867) is the first naval officer known to traverse the entire Northwest Passage, a sea route linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans via the Canadian Arctic islands.
Cresswell was born in North Runcton, a village near King's Lynn in Norfolk, England. In 1842, aged fourteen, he joined the Royal Navy and quickly rose to become a Lieutenant on board Sir Thomas Cochrane's flagship HMS Agincourt in the China Seas. There he distinguished himself in actions against pirates near Borneo and Brunei. In 1848, he volunteered for Arctic service and joined the HMS Investigator, commanded by Robert McClure, as it began its first voyage in search of John Franklin's missing polar expedition. Returning a year later without success, Cresswell volunteered to remain on board for a second attempt to find the expedition.
Franklin's goal had been to complete the Northwest Passage, so the Investigator sailed from Britain around Cape Horn, up the western coast of the Americas and through the Bering Strait to begin its second search from the Pacific side of the northern Canadian coast. After nearly another four years' without success, however, the Investigator became trapped in ice in Mercy Bay on the northern coast of Banks Island
["from 25 September 1851 until the spring of 1853, her crew reduced to the verge of starvation"]. McClure, her commander, ordered her abandoned
"[McClure's?] party was rescued by two ships [Belcher's?] at nearby Melville Island but these also became trapped."
http://www.runctonweb.co.uk/cresswell.html: "In the summer of 1852, the crew of the Resolute, approaching from the Atlantic side, discovered evidence of the Investigator's location, which had been left at Winter Harbour by a sledging party from the Investigator. Cresswell was among a small party which transferred from the Investigator to ships on the Atlantic side and returned to Britain. This was the first time the NorthWest Passage had been navigated, and the first complete circumnavigation of the American continent."
http://ve.tpl.toronto.on.ca/frozen_ocean/s4f_cresswell.htm: "When the crew of the Investigator was found by the search party from the Resolute, Cresswell led the first sledge party 160 miles to the Resolute carrying the six sickest crew members. His series of drawings illustrates the historic venture."
http://www.thornburypump.myby.co.uk/KingsLynn/sgcress.php
In desperation he sent Lieut. Cresswell and a sledging party across the frozen ocean to Beechey Island with despatches for the Admiralty. By an incredible stroke of luck they encountered the Phoenix under the command of Captain Inglefield, who brought them back to Scotland. Thus Lieut. Cresswell's party were credited with being the first to traverse the North-West passage. In 1854 Captain McClure was awarded a knighthood for his leadership.
On 26 October 1853 King's Lynn welcomed Lieut. Cresswell with a lavish banquet in the Assembly room, tickets 1 guinea each. The Town Clerk read out a 'Congratulatory Address' and the Mayor, Lionel Self, presented him with a copy on an illuminated scroll of vellum to which the Corporate seal was attached by a golden cord...
The government gave up the search for Franklin in 1855 when it was discovered that the survivors had attempted to reach the Hudson's Bay Company's settlement. Lady Franklin was not satisfied and organised another search. The fate of the expedition was finally revealed in the spring of 1859. The Erebus and Terror had all but completed the navigation of the North-West passage and Franklin was entitled to the honour of its discovery.
Samuel Cresswell rose to the rank of captain but his years in the Arctic wastes had ruined his health and he died on 14 August 1867 at Bank house, his mother's home, aged only 39 years.
On his arrival [back in Britain] in late autumn [1853?], Cresswell enjoyed a temporary celebrity as bearer of the news that the long-sought Northwest Passage had been discovered, and he was feted by the townspeople of King's Lynn...
http://www.runctonweb.co.uk/cresswell.html
Samuel Gurney Cresswell's gravestone is to the north east of the Church. Also buried here are his parents and siblings. Rachel Fry had stayed in North Runcton for many months in 1816. She was a rebellious daughter, perhaps resentful of her mother's devotion to her prison reform work, and the marriage to Captain Francis (Frank) Cresswell was a source of distress to Elizabeth Fry. Cresswell was not a member of the Society of Friends, so Quaker doctrine forbade Elizabeth attending her daughter's wedding, in August 1821.
Samuel Gurney Cresswell went to sea at 14. By 1850 he had risen to the rank of Lieutenant and was on board the Investigator, which, with the Enterprise, set out to try to discover the fate of Sir John Franklin's expedition.
After crossing the Atlantic and the Equator, they sailed west round Cape Horn and proceeded up the west coast of the Americas, before entering the arctic waters north of present day Alaska and Canada. They made their way east, but became ice-bound. In fact, they spent two arctic winters there (1850-51 and 1851-52) in very inhospitable conditions.
http://ve.tpl.toronto.on.ca/frozen_ocean/s4f_cresswell.htm
A series of eight sketches of the voyage of H.M.S. Investigator [by Cresswell] ...
Samuel Gurney Cresswell. A series of eight sketches in colour (together with a chart of the route)... of the voyage of H.M.S. Investigator (Captain M[c]Clure) during the discovery of the North West Passage... London, 1854.
...In [1854] Cresswell served at the rank of commander with the Baltic fleet in the war against Russia. Three years later he sailed to China with a detachment of gunboats, served in the Chinese war on the Peiho River, and then went on a cruise against pirates. ...
He is best remembered as the artist of the cruise. His paintings of the ship in the grip of the ice and almost flung over on her side, and of his Dealy Island party, painfully dragging a loaded sledge up a ramp of ice-rubble, do more than the liveliest prose to bring home to us what was endured by the stalwarts of the British Navy in the mapping of Canada's northern archipelago with wind-jammers and man-hauled sledges.
War, Ice and Piracy: The Remarkable Career of a Victorian Sailor : The Journals and Letters of Samuel Gurney Cresswell
Authors: [Dominick Harrod]
Hardcover, 192 pages
Publisher: Chatham Publishing
Publication Date: 2001-05-01
Use for Canadian maps: http://atlas.gc.ca/site/english/maps/index.html