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{{Short description|British Royal Navy admiral (1796–1878)}}
{{Moresources|date=December 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Infobox military person
 |width_style      = person
 |name             = Sir George Back
 |honorific_suffix = {{postnom|country=GBR|size=100%|FRS}}
 |image            = George Back.jpg
 |caption          = Back in 1833
 |birth_date       = {{birth date|1796|11|06|df=y}}
 |birth_place      = [[Stockport]], England
 |death_date       = {{dda|1878|06|23|1796|11|06|df=y}}
 |death_place      = London, England
 |allegiance       = {{flagu|United Kingdom}}
 |branch_label     = Branch
 |branch           = {{navy|United Kingdom}}
 |serviceyears_label = Service&nbsp;years
 |serviceyears     = 1808–1878
 |rank             = [[Admiral (Royal Navy)|Admiral]]
 |battles_label    = Wars
 |battles          = [[Napoleonic Wars]]
}}

[[Admiral (Royal Navy)|Admiral]] '''Sir George Back''' {{postnom|country=GBR|FRS}} (6 November 1796&nbsp;– 23 June 1878) was a British [[Royal Navy]] officer, explorer of the Canadian [[Arctic]], naturalist and artist.<ref>{{ cite DCB|last=Marsh|first=James H.|title=Back, Sir George|url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/back_george_10E.html|volume=10|access-date=24 September 2013}}</ref> He was born in [[Stockport]].

==Career==
As a boy, he went to sea as a volunteer in the frigate {{HMS|Arethusa|1781|6}} in 1808 and took part in the destruction of batteries on the Spanish coast.<ref name=Dod>{{cite book|last=Dod|first=Robert P.|title=The Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland|url={{google books|5t8NAAAAQAAJ|plainurl=yes|page=99}}|year=1860|edition=Twentieth|publisher=Whitaker and Co.|location=London|page=99}}</ref> In the following year, he was involved in combat in the [[Bay of Biscay]], until he was captured by the French.<ref name=Dod/> Back remained a prisoner at [[Verdun]] until the peace of early 1814; during this time he studied French and mathematics and practised his skills as an artist, which he later put to use in recording his travels through the Canadian [[Arctic]].<ref name="NGA">{{cite news |last1=Appleyard |first1=Kirsten |title=Portrait of an Explorer Artist: George Back |url=https://www.gallery.ca/magazine/your-collection/portrait-of-an-explorer-artist-george-back |access-date=1 May 2020 |publisher=National Gallery of Canada Magazine |date=15 April 2020}}</ref>

Following his release, Back served on {{HMS|Akbar|1811|6}} and {{HMS|Bulwark|1807|6}} as a midshipman before volunteering to serve under [[John Franklin]] in his first expedition to the Arctic in 1818. Back also served under Franklin in his two overland expeditions to survey the northern coast of [[North America]], first on the [[Coppermine expedition]]—when Back was responsible for all the surveying and chart making—and then the [[Mackenzie River expedition]] in 1824–1826, during which time he was promoted first to lieutenant and then to commander in 1825. Lacking appointment to a ship, Back was unemployed on the half-pay list, from 1827 to 1833.

===Back River Expedition===
By 1832 nothing had been heard of the Arctic explorer [[John Ross (Royal Navy officer)|John Ross]] since 1829, and plans were made to find him. Back proposed to take fur trade routes to [[Great Slave Lake]] and follow the Great Fish River northeast to Ross's probable location. No European had ever seen this river but it was known from [[First Nations in Canada|Indian]] reports (it was later named the [[Back River (Nunavut)|Back River]]).

He left England in February 1833, reached Great Slave Lake in August where George McLeod of the [[Hudson's Bay Company]] had built winter quarters at [[Fort Reliance, Northwest Territories|Fort Reliance]] at the eastern end of the lake. He located the river on 29 August and returned to the fort to winter. In March 1834 he received a packet of letters saying that Ross was back in England and telling him to explore the coast from Ross's King William Land to Franklin's Point Turnagain. This was the main unknown region, along with a few hundred miles eastward from [[Cape Barrow (Nunavut)|Point Barrow]] and the area around [[King William Island]] which was completely misunderstood.

He set out on 7 June 1834, passed [[Artillery Lake]] and [[Clinton-Colden Lake]] and reached the river on 28 June. He ran east down a river in the barren grounds with 83 rapids but only one portage. On 23 July he reached salt water at [[Chantrey Inlet]]. He explored the inlet, saw King William Island to the north and then wisely turned back. He reached Fort Reliance on 27 September 1834 and England on 8 September 1835.

The expedition's naturalist was [[Richard King (traveller)|Richard King]], who contributed appendices on meteorology and botany to Back's account of the expedition; he also wrote his own two-volume account of the expedition.<ref name="KingV1">{{cite book|last=King|first=Richard|year=1836|title=Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Arctic Ocean in 1833, 1834, and 1835|volume=1|url={{google books|kLLGssORMlYC|plainurl=yes}}|publisher=Richard Bentley|location=London}}</ref><ref name="KingV2">{{cite book|last=King|first=Richard|year=1836|title=Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Arctic Ocean in 1833, 1834, and 1835.|volume=2|url={{google books|SBFaAAAAcAAJ|plainurl=yes}}|publisher=Richard Bentley|location=London}}</ref>

===Frozen Strait Expedition===
[[File:Admiral Sir George Back shows HMS Terror anchored near a cathedral-like iceberg in the waters around Baffin Island (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=1.6|right|[[HMS Terror (1813)|HMS ''Terror'']] (right) anchored near an iceberg off [[Baffin Island]], as painted by Back. Three [[Walrus|walruses]] are at left.]]
In 1836, Back was promoted to [[Captain (Royal Navy)|captain]] by an [[Order in Council]], a rare honour. The goal this time was the northern end of [[Hudson Bay]] at either [[Naujaat|Repulse Bay]] (now Naujaat) or [[Wager Bay|Wager Inlet]]. From there he would drag boats overland to seawater and sail the unknown coast west to the Back River and Franklin's [[Kent Peninsula|Point Turnagain]]. These were the two easternmost known points on the north coast west of Hudson Bay. The area between them and between the Back River and Hudson Bay was unknown. In fact, {{convert|60|mi|abbr=on}} northwest of Repulse Bay is the cul-de-sac of the [[Gulf of Boothia]]. To reach the Back River he would have had to drag his boats {{convert|250|mi|abbr=on}} west-northwest. He was given command of the converted [[bomb vessel]] {{HMS|Terror|1813|6}} with a crew of 60 and provisions for 18&nbsp;months.

He left in June 1836, which was late in the season. Because of contrary winds they had to be towed by steamship all the way to the [[Orkney|Orkney Islands]]. He reached [[Hudson Strait]] on the first of August. By the end of the month, ''Terror'' was beset by ice somewhere east of [[Frozen Strait]]. It remained icebound for 10&nbsp;months: at one point ''Terror'' was pushed {{convert|40|ft|abbr=on}} up the side of a cliff by the pressure of the ice.<ref>{{cite book|title=Ordeal by ice; the search for the Northwest Passage|last=Mowat|first=Farley|author-link=Farley Mowat|year=1973|publisher=McClelland and Stewart Ltd|location=Toronto|oclc=1391959|page=249}}</ref>

Several times preparations were made to abandon ship. [[Scurvy]] appeared in January and three men died of it. In the spring of 1837, an encounter with an iceberg further damaged the ship. Sometimes the pressure of the ice was enough to force turpentine out of the planks.<ref>{{cite book|first=Anthony|last=Brandt|title=The Man Who Ate His Boots; The Tragic History of the Search for the Northwest Passage|chapter-url={{google books|nS-7QsieSPUC|plainurl=yes}}|date=2010|chapter=Ch. 20|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing |isbn=978-0-30759-290-3}}</ref> The ship drifted with the ice south along Southampton Island and then east toward Hudson Strait. It was not until July that the ice retreated sufficiently to allow ''Terror'' to head for home.

Soon a large mass of ice frozen to the vessel broke off causing the remaining ice to tip the ship on its side until the ice was hacked off. The vessel was in a sinking condition by the time he was able to beach the ship on the coast of Ireland at [[Lough Swilly]]. "There was not one on board who did not express astonishment that we had ever floated across the Atlantic."<ref>{{cite book|first=Glyn|last=Williams|title=Arctic Labyrinth; The Quest for the Northwest Passage|publisher=Allen Lane|date=2009|chapter=Chapter 14|isbn=978-0-14103-715-8}}</ref>

Although a number of Arctic explorers allowed their ships to be frozen in harbours for the winter, this seems to be the only case of a ship – save for the disastrous [[Franklin's lost expedition|Franklin Expedition]] – being caught in offshore ice. Its survival is a tribute to the strength of bomb vessels in Arctic service.

===Retirement===
Poor health caused Back to retire from active service. He was made a [[Knight Bachelor]] on 18 March 1839, and maintained an interest in Arctic exploration for the rest of his life. In 1859, he was nominated a rear-admiral.<ref name=Dod/> Back served as an advisor to the [[British Admiralty|Admiralty]] during the search for [[Franklin's lost expedition]], and as vice-president of the [[Royal Geographical Society]], having received its gold and silver medal. Although nominally retired, Back remained on the Admiralty List and, based on seniority, he was promoted to vice-admiral in 1863 and finally admiral in 1867.

== Personal life ==
In 1846, Back married Theodosia Elizabeth Hammond, a widow.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Steele |first1=Peter |title=The man who mapped the Arctic |date=2003 |publisher=Raincoast Books |location=Vancouver, B.C. |isbn=1-55192-648-2 |pages=277}}</ref> He is buried in the [[Kensal Green Cemetery]], London.

==Back as artist==
[[File:George Back 1863.jpg|thumb|left]]
George Back was an accomplished artist. Historian Leslie H. Neatby wrote, “Back had neither the seriousness of disposition nor the intensity of purpose which are indispensable to the great captain. His virtues were of a different order. No other man has viewed the scenery of the Canadian North with so appreciative an eye, nor has been able to give such full and vigorous expression to that appreciation.”<ref name="NGA"/>

A watercolour of an iceberg, believed to have been painted by Back following his 1836–37 expedition, sold at auction on 13 September 2011 for $59,600, despite its being unsigned and undated. Experts at the prestigious London auction house [[Bonhams]] credited the watercolour to Back, claiming it had been presented by Back to his sister Katherine Pares, and thence descended through her family.

The auction house opined that the scene surrounding the towering iceberg appears to match a description in Back's ''Narrative of an Expedition in H.M.S. Terror'' (1838) when the ''Terror'' was in the [[Davis Strait]] (between Canada and Greenland) that reads "in the evening (of 29 July 1836) when the weather cleared ... we observed an enormous berg, the perpendicular face of which was not less than 300 feet high..."<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Maine Antiques Digest|date=November 2011|page=32-B|title=Back to the Arctic, or ''Terror'' and the Iceberg}}</ref>

Back drew ''HMS Terror Thrown Up By Ice'' (1836) and the portrait ''A Buffalo Pound'' (1823), which was later reworked into an engraving. He painted the watercolour 'Winter View of Fort Franklin' (1825–26).<ref>{{cite book|title=Fitzhenry and Whiteside Book of Canadian Facts and Dates|last=Pound|first=Richard W.|publisher=Fitzhenry and Whiteside|year=2005|page=[https://archive.org/details/fitzhenrywhitesi0003unse/page/174 174]|isbn=1-55041-171-3|url=https://archive.org/details/fitzhenrywhitesi0003unse/page/174}}</ref>

A recent collection of twelve portrait studies of male and female characters mainly from the Canadian [[Yellowknives|Yellow Knife Tribe]], eleven of which were personally signed by the artist, sold for £24,000 at auction on 16 June 2020.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wottonauctionrooms.co.uk/catalogue/lot/d5e7f5a264bf6a01e936794b71082f6d/788167bda1bc670dc0c9849c1459e149/general-sale-lot-653/ |title = Wotton Auction Rooms {{!}} General Sale {{!}} Lot 653}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
''Recent''
* {{cite book|last=Steele|first=Peter|year=2003|title=The Man Who Mapped the Arctic: The Intrepid Life of George Back, Franklin's Lieutenant|location=Vancouver, B.C.|publisher=Raincoast Books|isbn=978-1-55192-648-3}}
* {{cite book|last=Back|first=George|orig-year=1994|date=1995|edition=reprint|editor-first=C. Stuart|editor-last=Houston|others=MacLaren, I.S. (commentary)|title=Arctic Artist: The Journal and Paintings of George Back, Midshipman with Franklin, 1819–1822|url={{google book|EcT57Vi8KGoC|plainurl=yes}}|location=Montreal; Buffalo|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press|isbn=978-0-7735-1181-1}}

''Historical''
* {{cite book|last=Back|first=George|year=1823|title=Canadian Airs, Collected by Captain George Back, R.N. during the Late Arctic Expedition under Captain Sir John Franklin, with Symphonies and Accompaniments by Edward Knight, Junior. The words by G. Soane, and J.B. Planché|location=London|publisher=J. Power|oclc=181890333}}
* {{cite book|last=Back|first=George|orig-year=1836|url={{google books|Eb9NAQAAQBAJ|plainurl=yes}}|title=Narrative of the Arctic Land Expedition to the Mouth of the Great Fish River, and along the Shores of the Arctic Ocean, in the Years 1833, 1834 and 1835|edition=Re-print|publisher=Adegi Graphics|date=2011|isbn=978-1-4021-6098-1}}; Original scanned copies [https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.17412 at Canadiana.org]; [https://archive.org/stream/cihm_32033#page/n9/mode/1up at Archive.org]; {{google books|IjJCAAAAcAAJ}}.
* {{cite book|author=Ross, J|author2=Back, G.|author3=Williams, E.|name-list-style=amp|orig-year=1835|date=2008|edition=reprint|title=Narrative of the recent voyage of Captain Ross to the Arctic regions in the years 1829-30-31-32-33, and a notice of Captain Back's expedition; with a preliminary sketch of polar discoveries, from the earliest period to the year 1827|url={{google books|6pkj1VpXHP4C|plainurl=yes}}|location=New York|publisher=BiblioBazaar|oclc=74413181}}; Original scanned copies {{google books|e8QM1qn-H8gC}}.
* {{Cite book|author=Back, George|year=1838|title=Narrative of an Expedition in HMS Terror, Undertaken with a View to Geographical Discovery on the Arctic Shores, in the Years 1836–37|location=London|publisher=John Murray|oclc=1275534}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
* {{BHL author}}
* {{OL author}}
* {{Internet Archive author}}

{{Polar exploration}}
{{Royal Navy Arctic exploration}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Back, George}}
[[Category:19th-century Canadian painters]]
[[Category:Canadian male painters]]
[[Category:19th-century British explorers]]
[[Category:1796 births]]
[[Category:1878 deaths]]
[[Category:British polar explorers]]
[[Category:British prisoners of war in the Napoleonic Wars]]
[[Category:English entomologists]]
[[Category:English explorers of North America]]
[[Category:Explorers of Canada]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Manchester]]
[[Category:British explorers of the Arctic]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:Napoleonic Wars prisoners of war held by France]]
[[Category:People educated at Stockport Grammar School]]
[[Category:People from Stockport]]
[[Category:Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)]]
[[Category:Royal Navy admirals]]
[[Category:Royal Navy personnel of the Napoleonic Wars]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Royal Geographical Society Founder's Medal]]