Chapter 18 Chapter Eighteen Goodser

Seventy degrees five minutes north latitude, ninety-eight degrees twenty-three minutes west longitude November 20, 1847 Private Diary of Dr. Harry Goodser: Saturday, November 20, 1847 We don't have enough food to spend another winter and summer on ice. We should have still had enough food.Sir John prepared sufficient food on board the two ships: enough food for each man, enough to last three years; reduced but still enough for the crew to do heavy work every day, so enough to last five years; extreme austerity but still enough If people are hungry, they can still eat for seven years.According to Sir John's calculations, and those of the two captains, Croze and Fitzkin, the stores of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror should last us until 1852.

However, we are about to use up the last of our stocks next spring.If we were all killed by it afterwards, it would be murder. Dr Macdonald of the Terror long ago began to suspect something was wrong with the ship's canned food, and after Sir John's death he shared his fears with me.When we first explored the King William Landmass last summer, we found that the canned food we were carrying - the lower cans - had spoilage and poisonous problems, confirming McDonald's concerns.In October, four of us, the ship's doctors, petitioned Captain Crozier and Lieutenant Colonel Fitzjian to allow us a full inventory.Then the four of us moved out hundreds of crates, barrels and heavy cans from the main cabin, lower cabin and hold of the two ships, and then opened them for inspection.Some of the crew was sent to help and we took a double inventory so we couldn't make a mistake.

More than half of the cans on both ships were broken. Three weeks ago, in the large, cold cabin that had been reserved for Sir John, we reported our results to the two captains.Although Fitzjian was only a lieutenant colonel in name, Crozier, the new commander-in-chief of the expedition, called him "Captain", and others followed suit.Those who participated in that secret meeting were: our four ship doctors, Fitzjian and Crozier. Captain Crozier--I must remember he was an Irishman after all--became furious as I've never seen anyone lose his temper.He demanded a full explanation, as if we, the ship's doctors, were responsible for the Franklin expedition's stores and food.On the other hand, Fitzgerald was the only person on the expedition, or the entire Navy, to have expressed misgivings about canning and the food suppliers that packaged it from the beginning, but Crozier It's still hard to believe that such criminal fraud could have happened on board a Royal Navy ship.

The Chief Surgeon of the Crozier Terror, John Peddy, was the one who participated in the most sea missions among the four of us, but most of his experience was on the Royal Navy Mary, and Crozier's bosun, John Ray. Well, and it was in the Mediterranean Sea, and canned food accounted for a small amount of food stored on board.Likewise, on the Erebus, my nominal superior, Chief Surgeon Stephen Stanley, did not handle such a large quantity of canned food.Dr. Stanley's usual attention was that the crew should eat what he thought would prevent scurvy.The results of the sampling inspection showed that half of the remaining food, vegetables, meat, and soup cans may be poisoned or spoiled. He was so shocked that he could not speak.

Only Dr. McDonald has his own theory.He had watched the cans be loaded with Captain Crozier's comptroller, Hippamen. Some months ago I wrote in my diary that, besides the ten thousand cooked and preserved meats on the Erebus, our canned food consisted of boiled and fire-roasted mutton, veal, and various vegetables, including Potatoes, carrots, parsnips and various soups, and nine thousand four hundred and fifty pounds of chocolate. Alex Macdonald was previously the medical external liaison for our expedition.He was in charge of dealing with the head of Depfer's food supply plant and a certain Stephen Gardner (later our food contractor).Macdonald had alerted Captain Crozier in October that four contractors were bidding for canned food for Sir John's expedition—the Hogarth Company, the Gamper Company, the Cooper and Avis Company, and the Mentioned Mr. Gardner.To our astonishment, Dr. McDonald had reminded the captain that Gardner's bid was only half that of the other three more famous food companies.Moreover, while the other three contractors set a schedule for delivery within a month or three weeks, Gardner guaranteed immediate delivery, crating and haulage included, at no extra charge.Of course, such an immediate delivery was impossible, and if his food was as good as he claimed, cooked and handled as he claimed, Gardner would surely lose money by contracting the case.But except for Lieutenant Colonel Fitzjian, no one noticed this.

All three commissioners from the Admiralty and the Royal Exploration Corps were involved in the selection of the contractor, with the exception of the Treasurer of Depfer Food Supply.They immediately proposed to accept Gardner's proposal and pay him the full amount, which is more than 3,800 pounds.That's a lot of money for anyone, but even more so for Gardner, a foreigner -- according to McDonald.Alex McDonald said the man's only cannery was in Goraz, Moravia.Gardner received the largest commission in Navy history, 9,500 cans of meat and vegetables ranging in weight from one pound to eight pounds, and 20,000 cans of soup.

McDonald brought a leaflet of Gardner, and Fitzjian recognized it immediately.The content written above made my mouth water: seven kinds of mutton dishes, fourteen kinds of veal dishes, thirteen kinds of beef dishes, and four kinds of lamb dishes.Also on the menu were potted hare, grouse, rabbit (onion or curry), pheasant, and half a dozen other game dishes.If the Royal Expedition wants seafood, Gardner offers canned lobster in the shell, cod, West Indian turtle, salmon steaks and Yarmouth smoked herring.For fifteenpence specials, Gardner's flyer included: pheasant with truffles, veal tongue with spicy flavors, and Beef Flamenda.

"As a matter of fact," said Macdonald, "we're used to eating horsemeat in a saddle barrel." I've been at sea long enough to understand what he said: horsemeat instead of beef, until sailors simply called the barrels in which they were held a harness barrel.But they are happy to have salted meat. "Gardner deceived us more than that," McDonald continued in front of the pale Captain Crozier and Lieutenant Colonel Fitzjian, who nodded angrily, "he puts prices on cheap food that are much more expensive. The usual 'beef stew', for example, comes in a tin labeled 'beef sirloin'. The beef stew costs ninepence, but the relabeling allows him to charge fourteenpence."

"Jesus, man," Crozier snapped, "every food vendor treats the Admiralty that way. Cheating the Navy is as old as Adam's foreskin. But that doesn't explain why we're suddenly almost out of food." eat." "No, Captain," MacDonald went on, "the problem is cooking and welding." "What did you say?" demanded the Irishman, obviously struggling to contain his temper.Crozier's face was red and white under his old hat. "Cooking and welding," Alex said. "As far as cooking is concerned, Mr. Gardner boasts that he can use a patented process to add large quantities of nitrate (calcium chloride) , so that the temperature of the cooking process rises rapidly, which is mainly used to speed up the production speed."

"What's the problem?" Crozier asked. "These cans are past their scheduled delivery deadline. Someone has to light a fire under Gardner's ass! How can he have a patented manufacturing process to speed it up?" " "Yes, Captain," said Dr. Macdonald, "but that fire under Gardner's ass is greater than the fire under meat and vegetables and other food, which has been cooked in a hurry and canned. "A lot of people in the medical profession believe that cooking food well doesn't leave behind potentially disease-causing toxins, but I've seen Gardner's cooking firsthand, and the meat, vegetables, and soups simply weren't cooked long enough."

"Why didn't you report this to the commissioners of the Royal Expedition?" Crozier scolded him. "He reported it." Fitzjian said lazily, "I also reported it. But only the chief financial officer of Depfer Food Supply Factory listens to us, but he has no voting rights in the selection of contractors. " "So you're saying that over the past three years, more than half of our food has spoiled because of a faulty cooking method?" Crozier's face was still covered in red and white patches. "Yes," said Alex Macdonald, "but it's also the welding that's at fault." "Welding of cans?" Fitzjian asked.His distrust of Gardner apparently didn't extend to the technology. "Yes, Lieutenant Colonel," said the Assistant Surgeon of the Terror, "preservation of food in cans is a recent invention, one of the beauties of our new age. But, from the experience of the past few years, we have seen it very well. , it is very important to weld the flanges firmly along the gaps in the cylindrical can if the food in the can is not to be spoiled." "Didn't Gardner's guys weld those cans?" Crozier asked.His voice sounded like a low, menacing growl. "Sixty percent of the cans we inspected were not welded properly," said Macdonald. "The gaps in the cans that were not welded carefully resulted in incomplete seals. Incomplete seals speed up the production of beef, veal, vegetables, soups, and other foods." Spoilage of other food cans." "How could this be?" asked Captain Crozier.He shook his broad head as if he had just been bumped and dazed. "Our two ships were sailing in Arctic waters shortly after leaving England. I thought it was cold enough to freeze everything until the end of the world." "Obviously not," Macdonald said. "Of the twenty-nine thousand Gardner cans left, many are cracked. Others are swollen with gas from spoiled food. Maybe Some noxious vapors got into the cans while they were in England, and perhaps some microbes, unknown to medical and scientific knowledge, got into the cans during transit, even while they were still in Gardner's food factory." Crozier frowned even tighter. "Microorganisms? Let's be practical, Mr. McDonald." The assistant doctor could only shrug. "Maybe that sounds a little unrealistic, Captain. But you don't spend hundreds of hours staring wide-eyed at a microscope like I do. We don't quite know what these microbes are, but I assure you, After seeing how many of these things there are in a drop of water, you become very conscious." The red and white patches on Crozier's face had already faded, but after hearing these comments that seemed to reflect his often not sober, his face turned red again. "Well, some food has gone bad," he said roughly. "What can we do to make sure the crew can eat what's left?" I cleared my throat. "You know, Captain, that the crew's summer diet consisted of a pound and a quarter of cured meat a day, and vegetables a week of only a pint of peas and three-quarters of a pound of barley. But they had Bread and biscuits. After entering winter, in order to reduce coal consumption, the amount of baked bread has been reduced by 25% in terms of flour-based foods. If we start cooking the remaining cans longer, it will also restore Not only will spoiled meat in canned food no longer endanger our health, but it will also prevent scurvy." "Impossible," Crozier said angrily. "We only have enough coal left to keep the two ships warm until April. If you doubt me, ask Engineer Greg or the Terror's engineer." Thompson." "I don't doubt your word, Captain," I said sadly. "I've spoken to both engineers. But if we don't cook the rest of the canned food longer, our chances of getting food poisoning are pretty high. We can What you do is, throw out the cans that are obviously broken, and don't eat cans that are not welded. But then we will have a lot less food in stock.” "How about heating it with an alcohol stove?" Fitzjian asked with a slightly excited expression. "We can use a camping stove to heat soup cans and cans that we fear are faulty." This time it was McDonald who was shaking his head. "We've tested it, Lieutenant Colonel. Goodser and I have experimented with heating so-called cans of beef stew on a patented 'Cookware' alcohol burner, and it turns out that a pint of ether fuel can't fully heat the food. Still low. And our sled team—or all of us, if we're forced to abandon ship—have to rely on alcohol stoves to melt ice and snow into water to drink when we're on the ice. We should keep the ether fuel. " "When our sled team went to explore the King William landmass for the first time, I also went with Lieutenant Goer. We used alcohol stoves every day." I added softly, "The crew only used a moderate amount of ether and flames for heating. Once the canned soup starts bubbling, you can’t wait to scoop it out and eat it. The food in it is only lukewarm.” Everyone was silent for a while. "According to you, more than half of our canned food for the next year or two, if need be, will be spoiled," Crozier concluded. What else can we do?" None of the five of us made a sound.The only answer I can think of is to abandon the ship and find a milder climate, preferably some southern shore, where I can shoot some fresh prey. Crozier seemed to read what was going on in each of us, and he smiled, a uniquely Irish smile, I thought then.Then he said, "The thing is, folks, there's not a single person on either boat who knows how to hunt or shoot a seal or a walrus, and even if those animals were given another chance to show up in front of us, no one would shoot big game. Experience, such as reindeer, which we have not yet seen, even our venerable Marines." The rest remained silent. "Thank you for doing your best to take inventory this time, and for giving me such a detailed report, Mr. Peddy, Mr. Goodser, Mr. McDonald, and Mr. Stanley. We will continue to put the cans that you think are completely sealed and safe. , to distinguish it from cans that are not welded well, bulged, swollen, or cans that are immediately rotten. We will maintain the current method: two-thirds of the normal food ration until the end Christmas. I'll introduce a tougher food ration then." Dr. Stanley and I put on our many layers of warm clothing and went out on deck to watch Dr. Paddy, Dr. McDonald, Captain Crozier, and an escort of four sailors with shotguns, unfurl their The long journey back to the Terror in the dark.Watching their lanterns and torches disappear into the snow, hearing the strong wind whistling through the rigging, and the grinding and moaning of the ice against the Erebus's hull, Stanley suddenly leaned closer to me, Shouting into my blindfolded ears, "If they miss the waypoint and get lost on the way back, or if that thing on the ice field catches them tonight, they're lucky." I could only turn my head and look at the chief ship doctor in shock. "It's horrible to be starved to death, Goodser," Stanley continued. "Trust me. I've seen it in London, and I've seen it in shipwrecks. Dying from scurvy is far worse. I'd rather that One thing will kill us all today." After finishing speaking, we went down to the dark main cabin with only a few flames flickering. The severe cold there was comparable to the "Ninth Circle of Arctic Night" in Dante's "Divine Comedy" outside the ship.