#edward couch

Then I was under the impression that Erebus & Terror had a different number of quartermasters each. They don't! They've got three each & I just got confused. Terror quartermasters:

David McDonald

John Kenley

William Rhodes

Erebus Quartermasters:

Daniel Arthur

William Bell

John Downing.

I'm not done with Edward Couch (although I feel very sorry for his tragic fate). He not only looks like this but writes with the voice of an 1840s Gent in his letters home. He visits Greenland and writes to his parents: "Arrival took place this morning at 3 o’clock & one of the rummest snug little places I ever saw. x x x x x" (He uses tons of Xs in his letters, from the example in May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth).

"Old Franklin is an exceedingly good old chap." And he continues:

Chapter Fifty-Four: Des Voeux

Oh gang, we're rapidly running out of living POV characters as you can see. But that means we do get a glimpse into the inner life of the Notorious C(F)DV, a generally sweet lad more akin to his real-life counterpart than to his gremlin-like show one.

Des Voeux is deliriously happy, right off the bat. As well as successfully hunting and gorging themselves on seal out on the pack, his party have spotted real proper leads in the ice with clear water all the way to the Adelaide Peninsula and Back's River. "Everyone could leave Rescue Camp. Everyone there now had a chance at survival." :(((

His joy doesn't last for long, however, as his party returns to camp not to fanfare but to abject misery. The men at Rescue Camp are so despondent that they don't even react to the eight tasty seal carcasses Des Voeux and his men haul behind them. "Did someone die?" asked Charles Frederick Des Voeux

The last men standing with any kind of seniority/rank gather in a tent to fill Des Voeux in, all but one of them smoking like chimneys all the while. They are: Second Mate Edward Couch, First Mate Robert Thomas, Captain of the Hold Joseph Andrews, and Captain of the Maintop Thomas Farr. They've found the bloody carnage that Hickey's party left behind them: "[the remaining bones and flesh] Had knife marks on them" finished Robert Thomas. "Lane and Goddard were butchered by a human being" "Not a human being" said Thomas Farr. "But some vile thing in the shape of a man."

The conversation that follows has definite shades of the E10 Lawful Mutiny scene with Des Voeux cast in Little's role instead. "We have to go after him and the murderers with him," said Des Voeux No one spoke for a moment. Then Robert Thomas said, "Why?"

It's hard to disagree with them really. They discuss the lives that would be wasted in such a battle, mentioning Thomas Johnson again who - as we now know - was sent to track the Mutineers to ensure they really left only to fall bloody victim to them. Des Voeux argues first for Crozier and then for Goodsir but the others reason that they don't even need the surgeon any longer - Tom Hartnell has learned enough to be able to administer what few medicines they have left and as for surgeries... Couch smiled sadly, "Lad, do you really think that anyone who needs actual surgery from this point on in our travels is likely to survive, no matter what?" That ever-so-slightly condescending reference to Des Voeux's youth gets to me especially, it really does! He's just a wee guy!

The assembled men still worry about predation from Hickey and the Mutineers as well and have some choice words to say on the matter: "... He sees all of us as livestock. What if he's just waiting out there beyond the next rise, waiting to attack the whole camp?" "You're turning the caulker's mate into a bogeyman" said Des Voeux. "He done that to his self already." said Andrews, "But not a bogeyman, the Devil. The actual Devil..." I feel like that specific phrasing - his self vs. himself - can do SO much heavy lifting if you want it to. You could interpret it as Hickey not just being corrupted but as devoting/losing his entire sense of self to that corruption. Delicious stuff!

The remaining men decide explicitly that Des Voeux should lead the Expedition entire as he's the highest ranking left among them. He accepts this though he vows to continue to consult closely with the other four in the tent where necessary. Poor Hodgson is mentioned here, in a way that makes me laugh much much more than it really should: "Technically," said Thomas Farr, "Lieutenant George Henry Hodgson is in charge of the expedition now" "Oh, fuck Lieutenant George Henry Hodgson up the arse with a hot poker," said Joseph Andrews, "If the little weasel were to come crawlin' back now, I'd strangle 'im with me own hands and piss on his corpse."

But. Edward Couch and macassar oil and/or bear's grease or whatever product he has lmao.

I have seen this in many other mid-19th century daguerreotypes: so much styling product his hair gleams and is literally sculpted into shape. (I have also previously written about Dr. Stanley's 1840s juvenile delinquent hairstyle). Along with the low inseam and footstrap on trousers, it seems to be one of those things that rarely makes it into historical costume dramas.

The Franklin daguerreotype images are also high resolution enough that you get a better view of their wonderful black stocks tied with bows. It's an easy look but the bow gives it a certain elegance—Fitzjames and Goodsir have particularly good examples of stocks. As I understand it almost any black stock was acceptable per Royal Navy regs for a long time, allowing the 19th century officer a certain degree of fashion expression changing with the times.

I love Frederick William Beechey's portrait circa 1822 in pattern 1812 uniform (NMM):