By the middle of the nineteenth century, the British Empire ruled the world’s largest navy and possessed trading networks that stretched across the globe. Yet one geographical mystery remained unsolved. Merchants travelling from Europe to the markets of East Asia still had to sail around either the southern tip of Africa or South America, journeys that could take many months. If a navigable sea route could be found through the Arctic islands north of Canada, it would dramatically shorten travel times and become one of the most valuable trade routes in the world. This elusive route became known as the Northwest Passage.
For centuries, explorers had searched for it. Some returned empty-handed. Others never returned at all. By the 1840s, however, many believed that only a small section of the route remained unmapped. The British Admiralty decided that one final expedition might complete the puzzle.
To lead it, they selected Sir John Franklin. At fifty-nine years old, Franklin was one of Britain’s most experienced Arctic explorers. He had served in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and had already led several expeditions into the Canadian Arctic. His record was mixed. During an overland expedition in 1819–1822, his men had suffered extreme starvation, becoming so desperate that they resorted to eating scraps of leather from their boots. The ordeal earned Franklin the nickname “the man who ate his boots”. Nevertheless, he was widely respected within the Navy for his determination, leadership and ability to maintain morale under the harshest conditions.
The expedition he was given in 1845 was the most advanced polar venture Britain had ever attempted. Two bomb vessels of the Royal Navy, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, were selected for the mission. Both ships had already proven themselves in Antarctic exploration and were specially reinforced for service in Arctic ice. Their hulls were strengthened with additional timber and iron plating, while their interiors were fitted with steam heating systems to make life more bearable during the long polar winters. Each vessel was also equipped with a converted steam engine and retractable propeller, giving them a limited ability to manoeuvre independently of the wind.
In addition, the expedition also served as a showcase for several of Britain’s newest technologies. If the propellors needed fixing they would use the new invention of the diving suit to go down and break the ice with a stick. They also brought canned food onto ships, in order to cut down on contractions of scurvy, a disease brought about by lack of Vitamin C in a diet, a very common plight for sailors. In order to preserve the crew’s mental health, books, sports equipment and even costumes for theatre productions were brought aboard. A total of 129 officers and sailors were chosen, many of them experienced seamen who believed they were embarking on a voyage that would secure their place in history.
On 19 May 1845, the Erebus and Terror departed from Greenhithe in Kent to cheering crowds. The mood was optimistic. The ships represented the very best of British naval engineering, commanded by one of the Empire’s most celebrated explorers. Few doubted that Franklin would return as the man who finally discovered the Northwest Passage. Instead, neither he nor a single member of his expedition would ever be seen alive again.
Around a month into the expedition, they stopped in Greenland, to gather more supplies, send letters home from the crew and send 5 men back who had contracted illnesses. In late July of 1845, two whaling ships spotted the Erebus and Terror entering Baffin Bay. This was the final confirmed sighting of the expedition.
As 1846 turned into 1847, and 1847 into 1848, there was still no sign of the Erebus or Terror. At first, few people were alarmed. Arctic expeditions were expected to disappear from civilisation for years at a time, and Franklin had carried enough provisions to sustain his men through multiple winters. Yet as the months passed, anxiety began to grow.
No one was more concerned than Franklin’s wife, Lady Jane Franklin. Convinced that something had gone wrong, she repeatedly pressured the Admiralty to launch a search expedition. Officials initially hesitated, believing that Franklin was simply trapped by ice and would eventually return. Lady Franklin refused to accept inaction. She organised a public campaign, appealed to newspapers, lobbied politicians and wealthy patrons, and transformed the search for her husband into a national cause. Under mounting public pressure, the Admiralty finally authorised a series of search expeditions in 1848.
For two years, ships combed the Arctic with little success. Then, in August 1850, searchers made their first major discovery on the bleak shores of Beechey Island. There they found the remains of a winter camp and three neatly marked graves. The headstones identified the dead as John Torrington, William Braine and John Hartnell, all members of Franklin’s expedition who had died during the winter of 1845-1846. The discovery revealed that Franklin’s ships had spent their first winter sheltering at Beechey Island, waiting for the sea ice to thaw before continuing southward. Although only three men had died, the graves were the first concrete evidence that the expedition had reached the Arctic and that not everything had gone according to plan.
More than a century later, in the 1980s, the three bodies were exhumed by archaeologists. Preserved by the permafrost, they were found in an extraordinary state of conservation, providing researchers with a rare glimpse into the expedition’s early hardships. Scientific analysis revealed signs of pneumonia, tuberculosis and severe physical stress. Investigators also detected unusually high levels of lead in the remains, leading to speculation that the crew may have suffered from lead poisoning, possibly from the ships’ water systems or the solder used in food tins. Modern researchers continue to debate how significant a role lead played in the disaster, but it is widely accepted that malnutrition, disease and the extreme Arctic environment were all major factors.
The most important discovery came nearly a decade later. In 1859, a search party led by Captain Francis McClintock found a cairn – a mound of stones used as a marker – on the northwest coast of King William Island, more than four hundred miles south of Beechey Island. Hidden inside was a written message from the expedition, the only official communication ever recovered from Franklin’s men after they disappeared into the Arctic.
H.M.S.hips Erebus and Terror Wintered in the Ice in Lat. 70°5’N Long. 98°23’W Having wintered in 1846-7 [sic] at Beechey Island in Lat 74°43’28’’N Long 91°39’15’’W
After having ascended Wellington Channel to Lat 77° and returned by the West side of Cornwallis Island. Sir John Franklin commanding the Expedition. All well. Party consisting of 2 Officers and 6 Men left the ships on Monday 24th May 1847.
Charles Frederick Des Voeux and Graham Gore (officers on the ships) May 28th, 1847
However, they found in the margins a very different message than the one claiming everything was fine a year prior.
HMShips Terror and Erebus were deserted on the 22nd April 5 leagues NNW of this 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 — in Lat. 69°37’42’’ Long. 98°41’
This paper was found by Lt. Irving under the cairn supposed to have been built by Sir James Ross in 1831 — 4 miles to the Northward — where it had been deposited by the late Commander Gore in
MayJune 1847.Sir James Ross’ pillar has not however been found and the paper has been transferred to this position which is that in which Sir J. Ross’ pillar was erected.
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.
Francis Cozier, April 25th 1848
And start on tomorrow 26th for Backs Fish River
James Fitzjames, April 25th 1848
The message found at King William Island revealed the expedition’s final known movements. Sometime after leaving Beechey Island in 1846, the Erebus and Terror had become trapped in pack ice off the northwest coast of King William Island. There they remained, unable to break free. Modern climate research suggests that the Franklin Expedition encountered an unusually severe period of Arctic ice, leaving even their heavily reinforced ships helpless.
The situation steadily deteriorated. On 11 June 1847, Sir John Franklin died, although the cause remains unknown. By the spring of 1848, a further twenty-four officers and sailors had also perished. With no prospect of the ships escaping the ice, Captain Francis Crozier and Captain James Fitzjames made a desperate decision. On 22 April 1848, the surviving 105 men abandoned the Erebus and Terror and set out on foot for the Canadian mainland.
The journey ahead was brutal. The men were hundreds of miles from the nearest permanent settlement and faced some of the harshest conditions on Earth. Contemporary evidence suggests they hauled heavy sledges loaded with boats, food and supplies across the frozen landscape, hoping to reach the Back River and eventually find rescue. None of them succeeded.
For years afterwards, the fate of the survivors remained a mystery. Then, in 1854, explorer John Rae returned from the Arctic with a disturbing account. During his travels, he spoke with local Inuit communities who possessed silverware, tools and other items that could be traced directly to Franklin’s expedition. More importantly, they described encountering groups of starving white men moving south and later discovering camps littered with bodies. Some of the remains, they claimed, showed signs that the dead had been cut apart for food.
Victorian Britain reacted with horror. Many people simply refused to believe the story. The idea that Royal Navy sailors could have resorted to cannibalism seemed incompatible with contemporary notions of British discipline and civilisation. Among the most vocal critics was Charles Dickens, who publicly dismissed the Inuit testimony and defended the reputation of Franklin’s men.
We submit that the memory of the lost Arctic voyagers is placed, by reason and experience, high above the taint of this so easily-allowed connection; and that the noble conduct and example of such men, and of their own great leader himself, under similar endurances, belies it, and outweighs by the weight of the whole universe the chatter of a gross handful of uncivilised people, with domesticity of blood and blubber.
Charles Dickens writing in his public journal, 1854
More than a century later, however, archaeology largely vindicated the Inuit’s account. During excavations conducted in the late twentieth century, researchers examined human remains recovered from King William Island. Many of the bones bore unmistakable cut marks made by knives. Others had been broken open in ways consistent with extracting marrow, a practice commonly associated with extreme starvation. The evidence suggested that, in their final days, at least some members of the expedition resorted to cannibalism in a desperate attempt to survive.
By then, it no longer mattered. Every member of the Franklin Expedition was dead. What had begun as Britain’s most ambitious Arctic voyage had ended as one of the greatest disasters in the history of exploration.
Not a single member of the Franklin Expedition ever returned home. For more than 175 years, historians, archaeologists and Inuit communities have worked together to piece together the fate of the 129 men who vanished into the Arctic. New discoveries continue to emerge even today, including the identification of additional remains and the recovery of artefacts from the wrecks of the Erebus and Terror, which were finally located in 2014 and 2016 respectively.
Ironically, the expedition’s greatest achievement came after its destruction. The numerous search missions launched to find Franklin mapped vast stretches of the Canadian Arctic and ultimately confirmed the existence of the Northwest Passage that he had set out to navigate. Although Franklin himself never lived to complete the journey, the knowledge gained from his expedition and the searches that followed helped solve one of the greatest geographical mysteries of the nineteenth century. In Victorian Britain, Franklin and his men came to be remembered not as failures, but as explorers who had pushed further into the unknown than any who came before them. Whether remembered as a tale of courage, tragedy, hubris or endurance, the story of the Franklin Expedition remains one of the most compelling mysteries in the history of exploration.
They Forged the Last Link with Their Lives
The words on the base of a statue of Franklin in Waterloo Place
