Inevitably, those interested in the history of
the Franklin Expedition have pondered what it was like to live on the cramped
quarters of HMS Terror and Erebus. As part of my goal to reconstruct lower deck
plans for HMS Terror, I created cross sections and profiles for the great
cabin, the captain’s
and officer’s
berths, and the galley
stove. However, I also created plans for other areas of the lower deck and
I think these better reveal what it was like for the crew aboard Terror
during those long three years from 1845 to 1848.
These plans use information contained in the original Admiralty
draughts for HMS Terror and Erebus, with additional data gleaned from the plans
for HMS Investigator. Further information was sourced from contemporary images
of HMS Warrior, HMS Unicorn, and HMS Trincomalee, as well as several
contemporary accommodation plans and models held at the National Maritime
Museum.
For further orientation, please consult my plans
of Terror’s lower deck.
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| A cross section of the crew mess area. Note the location of the large sail bin on the left of the section (only half is represented here). Instead of benches or stools, the crew sat on their own chests, each shared by two men. The crew slept where they ate - note the hammock hooks on the deck beam above the table. Each hook was spaced precisely 14 inches apart. |
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| Hypothetical arrangement of chests with available mess tables on Terror's starboard side. |
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| Precisely amidships, the warrant officers shared one cramped cabin. It had a very large chest of drawers against the aft wall. |
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| The clerk in charge had a rather generous cabin with a sliding window, looking onto the purser's steward. Such an arrangement was common, and presumably discouraged theft. The mates had the smallest cabins on the ship - just large enough to accommodate the standard furniture given to officers. |
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| Despite limited space, there were three storerooms on Terror's lower deck. The purser's steward was located next to the clerk in charge's cabin, where he could keep a watchful eye on it. It contained several bins and a chest of drawers. The captain steward and the gunroom steward were outfitted identically and were located on opposite sides of the ship. Each had a storage tank for liquids as well as chests of drawers. |
