This was Sir John Franklin, whose Polar exploits form the subject of the succeeding chapter. CHAPTER II SIR JOHN FRANKLIN Young Franklin--His Dreams of Adventure--He becomes a Sailor--His First Arctic Expedition--Fails to get through Behring Straits--Explores Baffin's Bay--The 1845 Expedition--The _Erebus_ and _Terror_--The "Good-Bye" at Greenland--Wellington Channel--They select Winter Quarters--Discovery of the North-West Passage--Death of Franklin--Prisoned in the Ice--The Crew Abandon the Ships--Defeat and Death. Sir John Franklin was born at Spilsby, in Lincolnshire, on April 16, 1786, and was one of a family of ten. It is said that his father originally intended him for the clergy, but the boy had too restless and roving a nature to look with contentment upon a quiet, uneventful life. Nelson was the idol of his heart, and although a hundred years ago boys were not quite so well provided with books and stories of their heroes as they are to-day, young Franklin managed to acquire enough knowledge of the doings of Nelson, and the other great British Admirals, to make his heart thrill with enthusiasm for them, and for the element upon which their greatness had been achieved. His home was not so many miles away from the coast but that he had a personal acquaintance, from early boyhood, with the scent of salt water and the sight of the open sea. That, combined with what he learned of Nelson, and the romantic yarns spun to him by any old sailor he chanced upon, exerted over him the spell which, in all ages, has so powerfully influenced British boys. The long stretch of moving water, which rolled between him and the skyline, was the home of all that was wonderful and glorious; the ships which sailed over it were, to his enthusiastic mind, palaces of delight, journeying into realms of mystery, adventure, and beauty. Over that sea lay the lands where the coco-palms grew, where Indians hunted and fought, and where mighty beasts of strange and fantastic shapes roamed through the palm groves. Over that sea, also, lay the realms of ice and snow, of which more marvellous tales were told than of the golden islands of the Southern Seas. And to sail over that sea a great yearning came upon him. The life on shore, in peaceful, steady-going Lincolnshire, was too dreary and hopeless for him; nowhere could he be happy save on that boundless ocean, with room to breathe, and surrounded by all the glamour of romance.