Northwest Passage - Canadian Arctic

Constructed of the wooden masts and spars from the wrecked whaling vessel McLellan, Northumberland House was built about 1853 and intended as a supply depot for use by the members of the Franklin expedition, should they return to Beechey Island. It contained a dwelling, store, and smithy.

Credit: Northern Heritage Centre

I found that the house had been stove in at the door and in both sides by the wind and bears, and almost everything light and movable either blown out or dragged out by bears, which had also torn up all the tops of the bales, and scattered the contents around for some distance. The house was nearly full of ice and snow, and frozen so hard that we could not move anything excepting with pickax and crowbar, and even then only the few things which were projecting above the surface. The tea chests were all broken open and most of their contents scattered about. Many of the beef casks had been eaten through the bilges, and the contents extracted. The whole place was a scene of confusion, and the kitchen a mere wreck... A cask of rum standing in the doorway intact was conclusive proof that neither Eskimo nor British sailors had entered that way.

— Allen Young, Captain of the Pandora - 1875