Charles Des Voeux

Charles Frederick Des Voeux (c. 1825—after 28 May 1847) was an Irish officer in the British Royal Navy. He served as mate aboard HMS Erebus during the 1845 Franklin Expedition which sought to chart the Canadian Arctic, including the Northwest Passage, and make scientific observations. All personnel of the expedition, including Des Voeux, died in what is now Nunavut, Canada in uncertain circumstances. He and Graham Gore signed and deposited the Victory Point Record, one of the only official communications of the expedition yet found.

Life and career

Family Charles Frederick Des Voeux was the son of Reverend Henry Des Voeux and Frances Dalrymple and a member of the Des Voeux family. He was the brother of cricketer Henry Des Voeux, half-brother of colonial administrator William Des Voeux, and grandson of Sir Charles Des Voeux, 1st Baronet. His great-grandfather Anthony Vinchon de Bacquencourt moved from France to Ireland after renouncing his Catholic faith in favour of Reformed Christianity, also known as Calvinism, and changed the family name to Des Voeux. Charles Frederick Des Voeux was born in Ireland, but the exact location of his birth and where he spent his childhood are unknown.

Naval career Des Voeux served under Charles Napier in the Egyptian Ottoman War in 1840. He then proceeded to China for the First Opium War, serving under William Parker and then aboard HMS Endymion under Frederick Grey. Endymion sailed in Hangzhou Bay and the Yangtze River. During the war, he distinguished himself serving as aide-de-camp to Hugh Gough, the commander-in-chief of the British forces.

On 1 May 1844, Des Voeux passed his lieutenant's examination, but was not promoted until 9 November 1846 (in absentia). For several months after May 1844, he served as mate aboard the gunnery ship HMS Excellent in Portsmouth, under Thomas Hastings. Five Franklin Expedition officers last served on Excellent prior to serving in the expedition: Des Voeux, James Walter Fairholme, Robert Sargent (HMS Erebus), John Irving, and George Henry Hodgson (HMS Terror).

Franklin Expedition

Organization alt=A newspaper article depicting portraits drawn from daguerreotypes by Richard Beard. From The Illustrated London News (1845). The Illustrated London News (1845). Portraits taken from Richard Beard's daguerreotypes. Des Voeux is at top right During the preparations for the expedition, James Fitzjames selected Des Voeux as mate due their time together on HMS Cornwallis during the First Opium War. He was one of the officers who posed for a daguerreotype by English photographer Richard Beard before the expedition left. He was described by Fitzjames as "a most unexceptionable, clever, agreeable, light-hearted, obliging young fellow, and a great favourite of Hodgson's, which is much in his favour besides." Gore and Des Voeux deposited and signed a record written by James Fitzjames in a cairn at Victory Point, detailing the efforts of the expedition to that point. In April 1848, Fitzjames and Francis Crozier added an addendum to the record explaining they had deserted the ships and were heading south to Back River on the Canadian mainland. No further written accounts of what happened have been found, and all men perished. The addendum mentions the deaths of Franklin and Gore, but includes no details about Des Voeux.

Death None of the remains of Franklin Expedition men found have been identified as Des Voeux's.

Artefacts Inuit from Repulse Bay found various Franklin Expedition artefacts at a camp near the mouth of Back River where many Europeans had starved to death. They traded the artefacts to John Rae in 1854. Among them was a fragment from a plain-woven, cream-coloured woolen shirt with the words "F.D.V. 1845" written in black on the ribbon. Based on the initials on the ribbon, it has been identified as having belonged to Des Voeux.