Captain Francis Crozier : Banbridge's famous son

At one point in time the wheel of the HMS Terror was used for its final time before the ship become beset in ice, frozen in place with its sister ship the Erebus , high into its final trek of discovery as it tried to traverse The NorthWest Passage.
Indeed the ships had been locked tight in Arctic ice from the 12th September 1846 , recorded on the Victory Point note discovered in 1859. This would be the end of rich and varied expeditions , voyages and adventures of The Terror and tragically its intrepid and brave Captain Francis R.M Crozier.

Picture courtesy of Parks Canada.

Church Square , Banbridge, County Down.
Birthplace of Captain Francis R.M Crozier and location of his monument in perpetual memory of the town’s most famous son.
A post-war photograph postcard of Croziers Monument.

Antarctica 2026

An amazing view from space this week by Artemis 2 released by NASA.
To see the continent in such aerial detail really brings home the massive feat of discovery and voyage of bravery and scientific advance that Captain Francis Crozier contributed to history on The Antarctic Ross Expedition of 1839-1843.

Photograph by

Sharing this fantastic article with exhaustive research about the potential connections for the naming of Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier ; Banbridge’s most famous son.
Many thanks to Olga Kimmins for permission to share one of the latest articles on an already deep trove of insight on all things Captain Crozier.

www.thethousandthpart.com

George Crozier of Banbridge: important long eighteenth century connections — the thousandth part An in-depth look at how Francis Crozier ended up with his name and career

Captain Francis Crozier at his desk on The Terror

While the real desk lies tentatively below Arctic waters today in the North-West Passage , posing questions of the contents of the desk’s drawers, we can visualise Crozier keeping records in the ships log thanks to modern artistic interpretation. A sombre image of the naval expectancy of a Captain to detail the expedition despite Crozier’s final fateful entries perhaps being emotionally difficult to record.

Artwork by Vikki Bentham on Artstation.

Captain Francis Crozier : Banbridge’s famous son

Photography by Blackbox Aerial Photography

Crozier and the Collision of Terror and Erebus March 1842

The first few months of 1842 in the Southern Ocean had been trying enough before the near catastrophic collision of the ships on The Ross Expedition.
In January the ships had wrecked rudders and had copper sheeting ripped from the hull upon enduring a gale while stuck in pack ice.
After sailing from the grip of the pack on February 2nd and completing repairs , the expedition eventually turned back towards the north. Crozier and Ross had reached a southerly point that no other ship would reach for another sixty years aboard the two intrepid wooden sailing vessels of legend ; The Erebus and Terror.
In the darkness of the night of March 13th, an error on the part of The Erebus saw them slow and be in the path of the approaching Terror that was in full sail.
The ships struck each other , the rigging became tangled together, masts were broken , an anchor embedded in the hull and the ships breached the waves and almost landed on top of each other. Crews described the night as being a near death experience avoided only by the expertise of Crozier and the seamanship of Ross.
Icebergs surrounded the ships the whole time and Crozier miraculously steered the Terror through a gap in the ice leaving his crew in awe at his composure.
The Erebus was guided through the gap to safety by following a blue light as a beacon ordered by Crozier to keep the expedition to face another day after their remarkable Antarctic journey.
Heroics recorded and recalled in perpetuity of Captain Francis Crozier ; Banbridge’s most famous son.

Crozier trapped in ice New Year 1842

The Christmas Day of 1841 was described as “anything but a pleasant one” by marine sergeant Cunningham on The Ross Expedition to the Antarctic.
The Terror and Erebus had become stuck in ice and would not be freed from its grip until the 2nd of February the next year.
The navigation between the treacherous, dense and tightly packed ice floes eventually saw them caught and having to wait for it to release them.
Spending weeks onboard the ships patiently waiting saw a Christmas Day meal of roast beef and goose and also New Year celebrations in a carved Arctic ballroom on an iceberg with a thrones made of ice for Crozier and Ross, a statue of a woman of pure ice and dancing and snowball fights on the Arctic dance floor into the night.
Spirits were certainly being maintained despite the long period caught in the icy grasp of the Arctic ice.

Back to The Antarctic

On the 23rd November 1841 , Crozier and Ross took the Terror and Erebus back to the Antarctic and attempted to sail through the pack ice and the elusive part of the barrier they had reached before on their first attempt.
On arrival at the same location on the 17th December, the ice floe was unfortunately not to prove as kind as it had been before.