Lady Franklin’s Lament

1
One night when sailing across the deep
Swinging in my hammock I fell asleep;
And I dreamed a dream and I thought it true
Concerning Franklin and his gallant crew.
2
With a hundred seamen he sailed away
To the frozen ocean in the month of May;
To seek that passage around the pole
Where us poor sailing men do sometimes row
3
And through cruel hardships he mainly strove
His ship on mountains of ice was drove;
Where the Eskimo in his skin canoe
Was the only one of them that ever came through.

4
For in Baffin’s Bay where the whale fish blow
The fate of Franklin no man may know;
The fate of Franklin no tongue can tell
Lord Franklin along with his sailors do dwell.
5
And now my burden it gives me pain
For me long lost Franklin I’d cross the main;
Ten thousand pounds would I freely give
To say: “On earth, that my Franklin do live.”

Expedition note found in a cairn. It contained two messages. The first, dated 28 May 1847, said that Erebus and Terror had wintered in the ice off the northwest coast of King William Island and had wintered earlier at Beechey Island after circumnavigating Cornwallis Island. "Sir John Franklin commanding the Expedition. All well ".
The second message, written in the margins was much more ominous. The message, dated 25 April 1848, reported that Erebus and Terror had been trapped in the ice for a year and a half and that the crew had abandoned the ships on 22 April. Twenty-four officers and crew had died, including Franklin on 11 June 1847, just two weeks after the date of the first note. Wikpedia