“A Fine, Sunshiny Night": The Authorial Afterlife of Captain James Fitzjames of the Third Franklin Expedition

Abstract

The Third Franklin Expedition of the British Royal Navy set sail in 1845 in search of the Northwest Passage.  There were no survivors of the expedition, and nearly all records associated with it were lost.  This personal and textual disappearance severed the narrative control of those who participated in the expedition and sought to write about their experiences.  This article examines the authorship and the authorial afterlife of Captain James Fitzjames, an officer of the Third Franklin Expedition, with an emphasis on the ways in which Fitzjames’ legacy has been contextualized and recontextualized across time, discourse, and format.