TRAPPED In ICE - The Horrifying Events of FRANLKIN'S LOST EXPEDITION Of 1845...

 

On the morning of May 19th, 1845, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror departed England with a crew of 134 men. Their mission was to become the first expedition to successfully traverse the Northwest Passage, a sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans which could be used a shortcut when traveling between Europe and Asia. They never returned. What happened to them was a complete mystery for years, but multiple findings over the years, including a document left by the crew, the incredibly well preserved bodies of 3 crew members and the discovery of each ship about 170 years after their departure have shed light on the shocking & horrifying journey these men had to endure.

Going all the way back to the days of Christopher Columbus, Europeans had been on the lookout for this potential western shortcut. After hundreds of years of exploration, it was eventually determined that if a passable shortcut did exist, it would have to be through the unexplored Canadian Arctic – an inhospitable area where temperatures seldom rise above freezing. During the first half of the 19th century, several expeditions explored the area thanks in large part to Sir John Barrow, Second Secretary of the Admiralty. Barrow pushed hard for these missions and promoted the finding of the shortcut – what became known as the Northwest Passage. Casualties were enormous and many men died of starvation and exhaustion, but by 1845, nearly all of the arctic had been surveyed and England was prepared to send two well-equipped state of the art ships to finally discover the elusive Northwest Passage.

Barrow, at 82 years old, realized this would be his last chance and was determined to put together a crew that would succeed. Unfortunately, he struggled to appoint a leader as one after another declined the opportunity or the choice was rejected by the Admiralty. Finally, with few other choices, he reluctantly offered the command of this voyage to John Franklin, who was an experienced explorer and had led two previous Arctic expeditions. The problem was he was 59 years old, not in the greatest of health, and Barrow felt he was not the right man for the job, but there was no more time.

Each ship would also his its own leader. Francis Crozier was assigned as the captain of HMS Terror. Crozier was one of Barrow’s first choices to lead the expedition, but the Admiralty disagreed, largely because of Crozier’s Irish Ancestry and humble background. Crozier would be second-in-command of the expedition, however, while James Fitzjames would be Captian of HMS Erebus. Both ships were decked out with the latest technology, including steam engines, an internal heating system, and reinforced bows made of heavy beams and iron plates. The ships also included a library of thousands of books along with enough food to last three years. Much of the food was in tin cans, which were provided by the Stephen Goldner Company. The company was awarded the contract just seven weeks before the expedition set off and the rush to prepare 8,000 cans of food caused a massive decline in the quality of the soldering on the cans. ‘

After departure from England, the ships successfully traveled to Greenland, a 30 day journey. Already, five men were too sick to continue and were sent home on other ships. They would be the sole survivors of the initial 134. The 129 who remained continued on and were spotted at Baffin Bay by two whaling ships. It would be the last time any one recorded having made contact with Franklin’s Expedition. However, the expedition itself left behind enough evidence to piece together some of what happened thereafter.

During the winter of 1845 to 1846, the expedition created their first winter encampment on Beechey Island. During their stay there, three crewmen passed away and were ceremoniously buried and given headstones. By the Summer of 1846, the journey continued south through Peel Sound, an arctic waterway that is usually frozen. As they neared the northwestern tip of King William Island in September of 1846, both ships stopped – frozen in the thick arctic ice, unable to move. The plan was obvious – wait until the ice thaws so that the mission can continue. Tragically, the Spring and Summer of 1847 came and went – but the brutal weather of the arctic was unrelenting. By some time in 1848, it must have become clear to the crew – the food would run out before the ice would ever thaw.

Meanwhile, back in England, concern was growing increasingly strong with each passing month. Jane, Lady Franklin, the wife of the commander, was a huge promoter in organizing search and rescue missions in order to find out what happened to her husband and his crew. One of the early rescue expeditions, led by John Richardson and John Rae, failed to locate the lost men. However, Rae continued to search for years, conducting interviewing the Inuit peoples who lived near the region. Most of them had no information, but Rae refused to give up.

Finally, in 1854, he came across some Inuits who reported seeing a group of about 40 white men dragging a boat south several years prior. The men were in an extremely desperate state, led by a man whose description matched that of Francis Crozier. Their condition was so dire, the Inuit reported, that they had resorted to cannibalism. The Admiralty along with Lady Franklin were outraged and appalled by Rae’s report, and refused to believe his findings, condemning him for even suggesting the possibility. However, Rae had evidence to prove he had found a true connection to Frankiln’s Expedition. The Inuits sold him artifacts they collected from the men – including a silver plate with the words “Sir John Franklin” engraved on the back.

Meanwhile, other rescue efforts failed to find the ships, but one did come across their deserted Winter base on Beachey island, including the three gravesites. The three fallen men – John Torrington, John Hartnell, and William Braine – were left to rest in peace for the time being. Later, an expedition by James Anderson, the Chief Factor in charge of the entire district, and James Stewart, discovered more evidence. They were informed by Inuits that a small group of white men had starved to death along the coast. The men also discovered more relics near Montreal Island, including a piece of wood with the word “Erebus” inscribed on it.

On March 31st, 1854, the crew were officially deemed to be deceased. Lady Franklin urged the government to fund another rescue mission and when she was denied, she commissioned one of herself and purchased a steam yacht called Fox, which set sail in July of 1857, led by Sir Francis McClintock. Amazingly, a party led by Lt. William Hobson found a document left by Franklin’s crew with critical information regarding their fate. Signed by Crozier and Fitzjames in May of 1847, two years after their initial departure, the document noted that they had indeed wintered at Beechy Island. Later, both ships did get trapped in the ice, but Franklin was still in charge and all was well as they awaited the summer. However, on the margins of the page, more recent notes were recorded and the tone became much darker.

25th April 1848

HMShips Terror and Erebus were deserted on the 22nd April 5 having been beset since 12th Sept 1846.

The officers and crews consisting of 105 souls under the command of Captain F. R. M. Crozier landed here

Sir John Franklin died on the 11th of June 1847 and the total loss by deaths in the Expedition has been to this date 9 officers and 15 men.

So, 24 men, including John Franklin, had died before both ships were abandoned after being stuck in the ice for 19 months. The remaining men planned to make the seemingly impossible walk towards the Back River, then to safety at the Hudson’s Bay Company fur trading outpost in a final attempt to survive. The McClintock expedition discovered more relics from Franklin’s Lost Expedition along with skeletons, abandoned equipment, clothing, boots and books. They also interviewed the Inuits and confirmed much of what John Rae had already reported.

The search expeditions slowed down after McClintock’s major discoveries, but as modern forensics advanced throughout the 21st century, interest sparked in finding out more about what happened, such as the specific causes of death. In June of 1981, Canadian professor of Anthropology Owen Beattie began the Franklin Expedition Forensic Anthropology Project. Beattie and a team of researchers traveled to King William Island to retrace the steps of Franklin’s expedition as well as McClintock’s search expedition. They did discover some skeletal remains, and the later examination led Beattie to suspect that some of the crew suffered from lead poisoning due to the solder on the tin cans along with zinc deficiency and scurvy. Unfortunately, Beattie could not be confident in a cause of death without examining better preserved bodies that still had soft tissue. And that brings us back to the 3 bodies that were buried on Beechey island - John Torrington, John Hartnell, and William Braine. After obtaining legal permission to do so, Beattie and his team exhumed the bodies, which were found to be remarkably well-preserved. John Torrington’s eyes were still bright and blue.

The crew took the tissue and bone samples needed before reburying the three men. They also explored the island and amazingly found fragments of the tin cans that once held food consumed by Franklin and his men. Sure enough, the seams were poorly saudered and likely came into contact with the food. The autopsy results indicated that John Torrington had died of pneumonia but lead poisoning was a contributing factor. However, subsequent scientists have determined that the lead poisoning did not come from the poorly made tin cans, and had likely come from something that was going on throughout the lives of the crewmen. The most likely scenario is that the majority of the crew met their death through the expected causes – hypothermia, exhaustion, scurvy, pnemonia, terbuclosis. Then, add starvation to the list when they ran out of food and were forced to enter the unforgiving landscape of the arctic, where they lived a miserable existence as one by one, each man expired until nobody was left. Whether lead poisoning was a contributing factor continues to be a point of discussion among scientists, although most of the recent findings suggest that it was not.

Despite all the evidence that had been found, the one thing that remained a massive mystery was the location of the ships – until finally, in 2014, Erebus was located by a Canadian team called the Victoria Strait Expedition at the bottom of Wilmot and Crampton Bay west of O’Reilly Island. Two years later nearly to the day, Terror was found by the Arctic Research Foundation, coincidentally in the bay of the same name – Terror Bay, south of King William Island. Terror looked to be in pristine condition and appeared to be completely closed down operationally – everything, including the windows, were shut. It appeared that it had been completely shut down for winter, left that way, until it slow sank.

But neither of the ships were located where they were expected to be found. Terror was found 60 miles south of its expected location and Erebus was even further south. This led to some speculation as to whether some of the crew either stayed behind or returned to Erebus and made a desperate attempt to sail away. Or, did the ships move on its own over the years with natural breakup of the ice? Most experts believe that to be impossible based on how far away the ships were from each other. “This discovery changes history,” said Jim Balsillie, who led the expedition that discovered the ships. “Given the location of the find and the state of the wreck, it’s almost certain that HMS Terror was operationally closed down by the remaining crew who then re-boarded HMS Erebus and sailed south where they met their ultimate tragic fate.”

For well over a hundred years, the accepted history of Franklin’s men was that they all abandoned ship and went on a horrific and miserable death walk in a vain attempt to reach the Hudston Bay Company outpost. There is now evidence that perhaps some men indeed stayed behind or returned to Erebus to make one final attempt to sail back home. We’ll never know the entire truth of everything that happened with Franklin’s ill-fated expedition, but the gripping story has fascinated many people over the decades and inspired the first season of the highly recommended AMC show, “Terror,” which puts a supernatural horror element into play while also telling the story of Franklin’s Expedition.