Early life

William Parker Snow was born at Poole

Poole

Poole is a large coastal town and seaport in the county of Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester, and Bournemouth adjoins Poole to the east. The Borough of Poole was made a unitary authority in 1997, gaining administrative independence from Dorset County Council...

, England on 27 November 1817, the eldest son of Lieutenant William John Snow (1788–1827), a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

 and War of 1812

War of 1812

The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...

,and Harriet nee Parker (c1802-1835, a descendent of Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

). Following his father's death he was admitted into the Old Royal Naval College

Old Royal Naval College

The Old Royal Naval College is the architectural centrepiece of Maritime Greenwich, a World Heritage Site in Greenwich, London, described by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation as being of “outstanding universal value” and reckoned to be the “finest and most...

 at Greenwich

Greenwich

Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...

 and in 1833 was apprenticed to the merchant marine, making his first two voyages to India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and later voyages to New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 and the Dutch East Indies

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

. He also spent a brief period in the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 on board the Cherokee class brig-sloop

Cherokee class brig-sloop

The Cherokee class was a 10-gun class of brig-sloops of the Royal Navy. Brig-sloops are sloops-of-war with two masts rather than the three masts of ship-sloops...

 HMS Griffon

HMS Griffon

Six ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Griffon, an alternative spelling of the legendary creature, the Griffin. Another ship was planned, but later cancelled and reordered from a different dockyard:...

and was one of the prize crew of the slaver Don Francisco captured off Dominica

Dominica

Dominica , officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of . The Commonwealth...

 in 1837.

Parker Snow married a London house-maid Sarah Williams in 1839, consequently being ostracised by his family, and they emigrated to Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

 where they managed a hotel during 1840. Returning prematurely to England due to ill health, an attempt to organise a return to Australia with three other young people including his younger sister and her husband (his wife's brother) failed, and saw him convicted of swindling in 1842 and gaoled for a year.

After his release, the Parker Snows became reconciled with his step father and they spent some years in Europe, where William Parker Snow worked for some time as librarian at the Baths of Lucca

Lucca

Lucca is a city and comune in Tuscany, central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plainnear the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca...

 in Tuscany

Tuscany

Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....

, and here wrote his first book (a guide to the baths) in 1846. On returning to England he performed editorial and transcription work for William Johnson Neale and Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay.

Siblings

A sister Ellen Susannah Snow became Mrs John Williams and died late in 1841 or early in 1842, aged about 16.

A brother George Henry Joel Snow (c1826-1904) was also a mariner, but spent his final years as a market gardener in Victoria, Australia.

Searching for Sir John Franklin

On 7 January 1850, Parker Snow was working as a writer in New York when he claimed to have had a paranormal

Paranormal

Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...

 vision

Hallucination

A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...

 of the whereabouts of the missing Arctic expedition of Sir John Franklin and immediately wrote to Lady Jane Franklin with a plan for a search. Consequently she made him the civil officer of her expedition on board the ketch

Ketch

A ketch is a sailing craft with two masts: a main mast, and a shorter mizzen mast abaft of the main mast, but forward of the rudder post. Both masts are rigged mainly fore-and-aft. From one to three jibs may be carried forward of the main mast when going to windward...

 Prince Albert that explored the Boothia Peninsula

Boothia Peninsula

Boothia Peninsula is a large peninsula in Nunavut's northern Canadian Arctic, south of Somerset Island. The northern part, Murchison Promontory, is the northernmost point of mainland Canada, and thus North America....

 for any sign of the missing expedition between June and September 1850, without success. On his return Parker Snow wrote Voyage of the Prince Albert in Search of Sir John Franklin that Lady Franklin used to promote further expeditions.

Unable to secure a position on any of the other expeditions then searching for Franklin, late in 1852 the Parker Snows sailed for Melbourne, where he organised a new expedition intending to cross the Pacific and pass eastwards from the Behring Strait. He purchased the 15-ton

Ton

The ton is a unit of measure. It has a long history and has acquired a number of meanings and uses over the years. It is used principally as a unit of weight, and as a unit of volume. It can also be used as a measure of energy, for truck classification, or as a colloquial term.It is derived from...

 cutter Thomas in Melbourne for his expedition. Early June 1853, with A. Drummond Fenwick "next to himself in command" so far as Sydney, his steward and his wife, Parker Snow left Melbourne for Sydney from where, after further alterations were made to the vessel, he sailed for the Arctic on 30 June 1853, accompanied by his wife and a crew of four. Storm damage and problems with his men forced him to enter the Clarence River, New South Wales

Clarence River (New South Wales)

The Clarence River is situated in northeastern New South Wales, Australia. The river originates on the watershed that marks the Queensland border. After flowing south and northeast for 394 km it then empties into the Pacific Ocean at Iluka/Yamba. On its journey it passes through the towns of...

 a month later, and the expedition was ultimately abandoned.

The Patagonian Mission

On his return to England, Parker Snow became master of the Patagonian Missionary Society's schooner Allen Gardiner, which sailed for Keppel Island

Keppel Island

Keppel Island is one of the Falkland Islands, lying between Saunders Island and Pebble Island, and near Golding Island to the north of West Falkland on Keppel Sound. It has an area of and its highest point, Mt Keppel, is high. There is a wide, flat valley in the centre of the island with...

 in the Falkland Islands

Falkland Islands

The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...

 on 24 October 1854. His most important achievement was location of the Tierra del Fuego

Tierra del Fuego

Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of a main island Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego divided between Chile and Argentina with an area of , and a group of smaller islands including Cape...

 native Jemmy Button

Jemmy Button

Orundellico, known as "Jeremy Button" or "Jemmy Button", was a native Fuegian of the Yaghan people from islands around Tierra del Fuego, in modern Chile and Argentina...

 in November 1855.

Disagreements with the Society's management saw him sacked by the newly-arrived missionary George Pakenham Despard in September 1856. In its aftermath his wife Sarah suffered a nervous breakdown

Nervous breakdown

Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...

 from which she never recovered. Parker Snow published a successful book A Two Years' Cruise off Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands, Patagonia and in the River Plate: A Narrative of Life in the Southern Seas in 1857 but ultimately lost a lengthy legal case for compensation for wrongful dismissal against his former employers. He correctly predicted that the society's method of operation would result in a massacre by the natives. He became reconciled with his former employer's successor the South American Missionary Society in the mid-1880s.

Aborted Searches for the Franklin Expedition

In 1857, Lady Franklin employed Parker Snow as a travelling lecturer in support of her expedition using the auxiliary steamship Fox

Fox (ship)

The steam yacht Fox was the vessel commanded by Francis Leopold McClintock on an expedition of the Arctic in northern Canada searching for the fate of the missing expedition of Sir John Franklin in 1857-1859.-Construction and Early History:...

, which returned with confirmation of the tragic fate of the missing expedition in 1859. Parker Snow immediately promoted a new expedition seeking the lost expedition's scientific records that were believed to have been buried under a cairn or in Sir John Franklin's grave. He acquired a small schooner Triumver which he renamed Endeavour, but a series of delays, ill-health and inadequate funds saw the expedition abandoned early in 1862, before it could leave Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

.

Parker Snow then proposed another overland expedition from Canada and travelled to New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, where he was soon in contact with Charles Francis Hall

Charles Francis Hall

Charles Francis Hall was an American Arctic explorer. Little is known of Hall's early life. He was born in the state of Vermont, but while he was still a child his family moved to Rochester, New Hampshire, where, as a boy, he was apprenticed to a blacksmith. In the 1840s he married and drifted...

, who had been exploring the Canadian Arctic in much the way Parker Snow had earlier planned. They planned another expedition while Parker Snow edited Hall's account of his expedition Arctic Researches and Life Amongst the Esquimaux for the publishers Harper Brothers. Lack of finances and disagreements between the two men saw their expedition with its own 95-ton schooner Active aborted, and Hall left with a small land-based expedition on the whaler Monticello in July 1864. Parker Snow remained in New York writing and lecturing.

Parker Snow had presented an interesting relic to be interred in President Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

's coffin. In the April 26, 1865 New York Herald Page 1 Column 4, was the following article: "Captain Parker Snow, the distinguished commander of the Artic and Antarctic exploring expeditions, presented to Gen. Dix, with a view of their being interred in the coffin of the President, some interesting relics of Sir John Franklin's ill fated expedition. They consisted of a tattered leaf of a Prayer Book, on which the first word legible was the word "Martyr," and a piece of fringe and some portions of uniform. These suggestive relics, which are soon to be buried out of sight, were found in a boat lying under the head of a human skeleton."

Literary career

While living in New York, Parker Snow compiled his most successful book, on the military leaders of the Confederate States of America

Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

, first published as Southern Generals, Who They Are, and What They Have Done in 1864, being reprinted in at least two revised editions with slightly varying titles including Southern Generals, Their Lives and Campaigns (1866) and Lee and his Generals. Returning to England in 1867, Parker Snow continued writing and publishing on diverse subjects until almost the day he died. His efforts met with mixed success and the last two decades of his life were spent in genteel poverty, aided by a small pension and donations from friends. He died at London on March 12, 1895, his Polar Medal

Polar Medal

The Polar Medal is a medal awarded by the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. It was instituted in 1857 as the Arctic Medal and renamed the Polar Medal in 1904.-History:...

 being placed on his grave.

William Parker Snow was a complex person - quick to take offence in the face of authority, litigious and prone to paranoia

Paranoia

Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...

. These characteristics led to the failure of many of his projects. However, to many observers he genuinely tried to do good for others, often causing himself legal and financial distress. He supported many good causes including services to the poor in London and marine safety, including the efforts of Samuel Plimsoll

Samuel Plimsoll

Samuel Plimsoll was a British politician and social reformer, now best remembered for having devised the Plimsoll line .-Early life:Plimsoll was born in Bristol and soon moved to Whiteley Wood...

 and proposals for harbours of refuge and a system of linked floating relief stations around the globe. Though describing himself as a conservative, he publicly supported many radical causes including that of the Tichborne Claimant, Arthur Orton

Arthur Orton

Arthur Orton , was the celebrated Tichborne claimant of the Victorian era.-Biography:Orton was born at Wapping, London, the son of George Orton, a butcher and purveyor of ships' stores....

. His writings preserved in several public collections including the Royal Geographical Society (London) and Mitchell Library (Sydney) include many valuable observations, especially on the native peoples of Australia, the Arctic and Patagonia.