Biography
His grandfather was John M'Clintock (1770–1855) of Drumcar House. In 1831, McClintock 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 bid to reach the South Pole. In 1848-49, McClintock accompanied James Clark Ross on his survey of Somerset Island. As part of Capt. Henry Kellett's expedition 1852 to 1854, McClintock traveled 1,400 miles by sled and discovered 800 miles of previously unknown coastline.
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 time, he did use dogs. This tale was published in The Voyage of the 'Fox' in the Arctic Seas: A Narrative of the Discovery of the Fate of Sir John Franklin and His Companions. London, 1859. In 1879 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief, North America and West Indies Station.
McClintock left the Royal Navy in 1884 as a Rear Admiral. He died on 17 November 1907. He was buried in Kensington Cemetery, Hanwell, Middlesex.
Read more about this topic: Francis Leopold McClintock
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