Lady Jane Franklin makes a mysterious journey to a gold rush town to discover the secret of what really happened to her husband, the ill-fated Sir John Franklin. There she meets a sailor who claims he smuggled the famed Arctic explorer off his ill-fated ship alive, only to spend a decade as captives of a renegade Native war party. Lady Franklin listens as Able Seaman Aubrey Spencer weaves a fantastic story about her husband's "death" and resurrection and leaves in her hands Sir John's ultimate fate.

SYNOPSIS:

In 1861, Lady Jane Franklin, the wife of the ill-fated Arctic explorer, paid a mysterious visit to Yale, British Columbia. She’d been searching for her vanished husband for twelve years, financing search missions, writing letters to the British government, appealing to the public. All to no avail. So why did she take the time to visit Yale, a town in southern B.C. far from the Arctic, where the answers to her questions lay? Lady Franklin Rock reveals the reason: to meet with the lone seaman who claims he survived the disastrous expedition who has finally made it to “civilization” after a decade of captivity, escapes and near-rescues. Not only that, but Able Seaman Aubrey Spencer also claims to have smuggled Sir John off of the HMS Erebus to safety before the expedition was lost. He knows that Franklin is alive and where he is this minute. “Int’rested in ‘earing where?”

Spencer weaves a fantastic tale of how Franklin's fate was sealed by his first Arctic expedition overland to the Coppermine River in 1820, when a love triangle between a young Native woman, a Voyageur and an English officer set off a train of events that led to murder. They also clashed with a fierce Dene outlaw, Yelloweyes, killing the brigand’s son while recusing a party of Inuit.

This will come back to haunt them when Spencer joins Franklin’s Arctic expedition to find the Northwest Passage in 1845. History tells us Franklin died aboard his ship before the expedition fell apart and every man was lost. But Spencer claims to have smuggled Franklin off the HMS Erebus by faking his death with the help of a surgeon. They make it back to the Coppermine but are captured by the very outlaws that they rescued the Inuit from.

Lady Franklin listens as Spencer spins a story of torture, survival, near-escapes and near-rescues that take he and Franklin from the Arctic to Rockies, south to the Interior of British Columbia and further south to Washington Territory and the heart of a brutal Indian War.

When he’s done, he offers to reveal Sir John’s whereabouts to Lady Franklin. But she first has to decide what her husband’s ultimate fate is and his place in history. A choice between life and death. Lady Franklin Rock is written by Don Hauka, a produced writer with television, radio and stage credits. It's inspired by Lady Franklin's historic (if inexplicable) visit to Yale, B.C., during which the townsfolk named a prominent islet in the Fraser River after her: Lady Franklin Rock.