Francis Leopold McClintock

Sir Francis as depicted in 1856

Sir Francis Leopold McClintock^[1] (8 July 1819 – 17 November 1907) was an Irish explorer in the British Royal Navy who is known for his discoveries in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. In 1831 he became a member of the Royal Navy as a gentleman volunteer, and joined a series of searches for Sir John Franklin between 1848 and 1859. He mastered traveling by using human hauled sleds, which remained the status quo in Royal Navy Arctic and Antarctic overland travel until the death of Captain Robert Falcon Scott RN in his forlorn hope bid to reach the South Pole. In his first Arctic command in 1848, McClintock surveyed and mapped Melville Island and discovered Prince of Wales Island and Prince Patrick Island. In 1857 he was given command of the yacht "Fox" which was sponsored by public subscription via Lady Jane Franklin's search for her missing husband, and found the only official record of the 1845-48 Sir John Franklin Northwest Passage Expedition, in May, 1859. This tale was published in The Voyage of the Fox in 1859. McClintock left the Royal Navy in 1884 as a Rear Admiral.

The Royal Navy in Polar Exploration from Franklin to Scott, E C Coleman 2006 (Tempus Publishing)
The Arctic Fox - Francis Leopold McClintock, Discoverer of the fate of Franklin, David Murray, 2004. Cork: The Collins Press, ISBN 1-55002-523-6