The Mystery of the Lost Franklin Expedition

[Music] foreign in 1845 an expedition party made their way into uncharted regions of the canadian arctic the group consisted of 129 men aboard two ships the hms erebus and the hms terror they never returned believed to be lost somewhere in the ice despite a long trail of clues the case remains unsolved after more than 170 years this is the mystery of the lost franklin expedition a half past 10 in the morning on the 19th of february 1845 the expedition party left green hive on the river thames and began sailing up the east coast of britain they were ostensibly well prepared for the journey the two vessels chosen for the expedition called the erebus and the terror were sturdy ice resistant ships that had been refitted for arctic duty with a series of new features iron reinforcements to the bow an internal heating system and the steam driven screw propeller one of the first ever used on a wood hold warship which provided an extra 25 horsepower to help drive through the ice for the first part of the journey the erebus and the terror along with a supply ship called the barretto junior were towed by steamboats travelling up the east coast of britain and landing at strom ness in the orkney islands they anchored stromness for three days before leaving on the 3rd of june where they left their steamboat escort and sailed towards the north atlantic the leader of the expedition was a man called john franklin franklin was 59 years old a well-respected veteran of arctic exploration who had captained three expeditions in the 1820s franklin's image was captured shortly before the expedition began in a daguerreotype an early photographic process that had been recently invented the portrait shows him dressed in his medals and a bicorn hat with a telescope gripped in his hands francis crozier a well-qualified antarctic explorer was chosen as the captain of the terror and james fitz james a naval officer with strong ties to the admiralty was elected as commander of the erebus of the remaining 131 crew members other officers were james reid the ice master graham gore the lieutenant of the erebus and stephen stanley the ship surgeon additional passengers included an old newfoundland dog a cat and a monkey named jaco they slowly made their way towards greenland eventually reaching the davis strait on the 25th of june the next day they crossed the arctic circle entering a world of sub-zero temperatures icebergs and constant daylight it was here that they hoped to discover the northwest passage a route that was rumored to exist through the dangerous frozen seas of the canadian arctic region at the end of june the ships arrived at the whalefish islands off the southern coast of greenland the islands were home to a small settlement of local inuit and danish traders making them a convenient location to transfer the last supplies from the barretto jr this lasted until july the 11th when the supply ship began its return journey to london carrying with it the last letters sent home by the expedition crew these included a 14-page letter from franklin to his wife he wrote my dearest love let me entreat you not to be too anxious for it is very possible our prospects of success and the health of the officers and crew might justify our passing a second winter in these regions at six o'clock in the morning sunday 13th of july 1845 the erebus and the terror left the whalefish islands and set sail north by northwest their early progress was recorded by the few vessels that encountered them over the next three weeks on the 19th of july they were spotted by the captain of a whaling ship heading out across baffin bay a few days later they met two more whaling ships the enterprise and the prince of wales surrounded by ice in the upper regions of baffin bay captain martin of the enterprise spoke with franklin and some of his officers who were reported to be confident of reaching the entrance to lancaster sound by august on the 26th of august the prince of wales spotted the ships at 74 degrees north and 66 degrees west this was the last recorded sighting of the expedition by european sailors from this point onwards we know that franklin's plan was to pass through lancaster sound and make as much progress westwards as possible before finding a suitable place to shelter during the winter after this if everything went according to plan they would make use of the warmer summer months to break through smaller channels of ice following the most advantageous route before emerging in the arctic ocean and crossing the bering strait at some point in 1846 this never happened and when 1847 came around still with no sign of the expedition concerns began to be raised jane franklin started lobbying for a rescue mission which the admiralty rejected with sir john barrow the chief organiser of the expedition writing that the anxiety that prevails regarding sir john franklin and the brave fellows who composed the crews of the two ships is very natural but somewhat premature for they are well equipped for their purpose at the end of 1847 the admiralty finally began to take action perhaps regretting their initial complacency they ordered three separate relief expeditions through the winter the first of these sailed for the bering strait and searched the coastline around alaska another expedition team was sent to lancaster sound and a final mission went overland tracing the area around the mackenzie river the expedition parties did not find any trace of franklin and his men the next rescue mission was captained by the antarctic explorer james ross ross took two ships into lancaster sound in the summer of 1848 but found his way to the west shut off by heavy ice they sheltered on somerset island over the winter before surveying the surrounding area on foot the next spring everywhere they turned they found sea passages blocked by thick impenetrable ice rendering further exploration impossible they returned to england empty-handed in the summer of 1849 the failure of the ross expedition signified the gravity of the situation of 129 men lost in the arctic wastes perhaps many already dead with others subsisting on dwindling supplies time was running out and fast this sober realization ignited an unprecedented international effort to locate franklin and his men over the next year a series of new expeditions were launched into the arctic finally on the 23rd of august 1850 the search paid off while surveying the southern area around devon island the crew of the hms assistants found the first physical traces of the franklin expedition these included fragments of clothing tins of preserved meat and a cairn on the headland of beachy island further searches in the area uncovered three gravestones made of wood poking out of a wide stoney beach writing on the gravestones commemorated john torrington who departed this life january 1st ap 1846 on board of her majesty's ship terror aged 20 years john hartnell died january 4th 1846 aged 25 years and william brain died april 3rd 1846 aged 32 years choose ye this day whom you will serve joshua chapter 24. beneath the ground were the bodies of three young men well preserved by the arctic environment the discovery offered a tantalizing glimpse into the fate of the lost expedition but lacked any further information regarding their progress or direction one of the rescue party of beachy island described this situation everyone felt that there was something so inexplicable in the non-discovery of any record some written evidence of the intentions of franklin and crozier on leaving this spot despite further searches in the surrounding areas the mysterious gravestones would be the first and only major discovery of the next few years just as all hopes of discovery seem to disappear new evidence of the franklin expedition was encountered by a man called john ray ray is an interesting character originally from the orkney islands he had been involved in earlier searches for franklin in the 1840s unlike many european explorers ray preferred travelling on foot with snowshoes and in small nimble canoes essentially adopting the techniques used by the native inuit people who he often traded with through interpreters [Music] in april 1854 ray arrived at pele bay on an expedition to map the remote area he met two inuit who were interested in trading through the course of the conversation one of the men named inuk puzaduke told ray about a group of foreigners who had died somewhere to the west described as beyond the large river inakuzu duke had objects belonging to these men an officer's gold cap band and a spoon embossed with the initials frmc those are francis rulden moira crozier ray quickly realized the significance of this information with further help of inukusa duke and other visiting inuit he was able to form a coherent narrative of what had happened to the expedition he learned that in the winter of 1850 40 men were seen traveling southwards from king william island towards the mainland they dragged sledges and appeared thin and weak these men had communicated with the local inuit in a rudimentary side language explaining that their ship had been crushed in the ice and that they needed food ray also learned that several months later other inuit had found the bodies of 35 men lying under improvised shelters spread out in an area around great fish river on the mainland he was told that the bodies were mutilated an indication that some had resorted to cannibalism ray returned to london delivering a report to the admiralty explaining his findings and concluding that it is evident that our wretched countrymen had been driven to the last dread alternative as a means of sustaining life the report was published in the times newspaper sparking a wave of shock revulsion and denial throughout the country it was argued that no englishman would resort to cannibalism that the inuit testimony could not be trusted despite providing the first good evidence as to the fate of the lost expedition ray's contribution was shunned and ignored he received no public recognition no knighthood or formal honours ray's report had however reignited national interest in the franklin case and funds were raised to send a small steam yacht names of the fox on an expedition to the area around the boothief peninsula drawing on rey's testimony they travelled around cape victoria and great fish river using dog drawn sledges here they met inuit who told them of a sinking three-masted ship as well as a very large man with long teeth spotted on king william island the fox travelled to king william island and on the 3rd of may 1859 came across a trail of physical evidence a can containing a blank piece of paper collapsed tents and scattered items spectacles wards of tobacco a medicine chest three days later just above victory point on the northwestern end of king william island they discovered another ken this time containing a tin canister sealed within the canister was a written note that would finally give a voice to the lost crew members the message now known as the victory point note was written on a thick piece of card instructions printed on the form in six different languages ask that whoever finds this paper is requested to forward it to the secretary of the admiralty london above the printed instructions is a message in handwriting identified as belonging to james fitz-james who gives the date as the 28th of may 1847 and writes that her majesty's ships erebus and terror wintered in the ice in 70 degrees five minutes north 98 degrees 23 minutes west having wintered in 1846 through 7 at beachy island in 74 degrees 43 minutes 28 seconds north and 91 degrees 39 minutes 15 seconds west after having ascended wellington channel to latitude 77 degrees and returned by the west side of cornwallis island sir john franklin commanding the expedition all well signed graham gore lieutenant chaz devoo mate this confident message is undermined by a second handwritten note scrawled around the margins of the paper it is also written in fitz james's handwriting giving a date 11 months later the 25th of april 1848 it describes a drastic change in fortunes her majesty's ships terror and erebus were deserted on the 22nd of april five leagues north northwest of this having been beset since the 12th of september 1846 the officers and crew consisting of 105 souls under the command of captain f.r.m crozier landed here at latitude 69 degrees 37 minutes 42 seconds longitude 98 degrees 41 minutes this paper was found by lieutenant irvin under the cairn where it had been deposited by the late commander gore in june 1847 sir john franklin died on the 11th of june 1847 and the total lost by deaths in the expedition has been to this date nine officers and 15 men signed frm crozier captain and senior officer and start on tomorrow 26th for baxfish river signed james fitz-james captain hms erebus from this piece of evidence containing two different chronological perspectives we can reconstruct the misfortunes that befell the franklin expedition between the first message of may 1847 and the second of april 1848. we learn most importantly that john franklin died in june only three weeks after the first message was written given the statement in the first message that all is well we can assume his death was fairly sudden and unexpected along with franklin another eight officers and fifteen men have died including lieutenant gore who originally deposited the note in 1847 we also know that the ships have been locked in ice and abandoned by the 105 remaining officers who then traveled on foot at some point crossing to king william island where lieutenant irving discovered the original note which fitz james and crozier amended in april 1848. the note was then resealed and replaced in its original position to be uncovered by the crew of the fox 11 years later before returning to london with news of their sensational discovery the fox encountered another strange piece of evidence to the north of victory point on king william island they came across a human skeleton covered in snow lying face down close to the skeleton they discovered a small pocketbook which has since become shrouded in mystery the first mystery is the owner of this pocketbook a siemens certificate discovered within belongs to henry peglar a senior sailor aboard the hms terror however the skeleton was found dressed in a well-preserved steward's uniform indicating it belongs to a lower ranking crew member perhaps thomas armitage a friend of piglow who was the gun room steward aboard the terror even more mysterious is the contents of the pocketbook which contains a jumbled mix of drawings and writings that are almost indecipherable most of the book has been badly damaged by exposure and the parts that are legible are written backwards or in poetic verse or strange code we can however make out some coherent sentences these reveal insights into the expedition's fate one passage goes we will have his new boots in the middle watch as we have got very hard ground to heave and the first men's 21st night agreed the 21st night may be the 21st of april 1848 the day before the crew abandoned the ships while the hard ground to heave might reference the subsequent overland journey another intriguing passage begins with the service of the burial of the dead o death where is thy sting it goes on the grave at comfort cove the dyer was and wild trafalgar the only man on the expedition associated with the battle of trafalgar was franklin might this be a eulogy composed for franklin's funeral although the contents of the pocketbook are largely obscured they nevertheless offer a tantalizing glimpse into the fate of the expedition as one writer has put it the peglar papers remain an enigma but given the almost total absence of written material from the expedition a precious one with franklin's death confirmed and with sufficient information gathered about the ill-fated events of the expedition theories began to emerge attempting to answer the most obvious lingering question why had the expedition failed so disastrously one of the first comprehensive theories was posited by sir clements markham the president of the royal geographical society malcolm argued that the crew had been poisoned by the tinned food carried on the expedition which due to time constraints had been supplied by a dubious company and had missed routine examinations of quality circumstantial evidence supports this theory the officers on the expedition had access to more expensive provisions wine tobacco high quality tea and tinned food at the time considered to be a luxury item in contrast most of the crew would have rarely eaten tin food and instead subsisted on a more basic diet if the tinned food was poisoned the officers would be the worst affected a situation apparently described in the victory point note which records that 9 officers and 15 men had died given that there were six times as many ordinary crew members as officers the disproportionate death rate is startling a modern iteration of the theory maintains that it was not the meat that poisoned the crew but the lead used to seal the tinned food cans this has been supported by scientific analysis of hair samples taken from the three bodies buried at beachy island which exhibited high levels of lead exposure of up to 707 micrograms per gram other proponents of the lead poisoning theory have pointed to the ship's heating system which used a modified stove oven to melt snow into drinking water in a 2016 journal article peter carney argues that this drinking water would have been condensed in lead piping providing a possible source of exposure these arguments are by no means conclusive however many have pointed to the widespread use of lead piping in victorian england and made the argument that the beachy island hair samples do not differ widely from other contemporary samples if we choose to discount the lead poisoning theory another reasonable explanation for the expedition's failure can be based in meteorological evidence which shows a series of exceptionally cold winters through the 1840s leading to the blockage of passages by heavy ice and the fast and early onset of new ice this would be a deadly combination luring the ships into blocked waterways before trapping them in forming ice a situation potentially leading to the abandonment of the ships on the 22nd of april 1848 taking these theories into account modern experts have reconstructed the path taken by franklin's expedition after sailing through lancaster sound they camped for the winter at beachy island at the start of summer 1846 they sailed northwest into the wellington channel but found their way blocked they then circumnavigated the coast of cornwallis island and decided to go south in an effort to avoid the heavy ice to their west they sailed down into peel sound until at some point in 1846 they reached the victoria strait the way here was blocked by thick multi-year ice which they were unable to break through they continued to try and find a way through to the south until on the 12th of september 1846 they were completely trapped they attempted to weigh out the ice hoping for some improvement in conditions the following year during this process franklin died along with several other crew members perhaps of poisoning on the 22nd of april 1848 with the ship still locked in the ice the crew now under the command of francis crozier opted to abandon the ships and make their way on foot they were not sufficiently equipped for overland travel they did not have snow shoes or dog-driven sledges nor did they possess knowledge of how to hunt or build shelters in these inhospitable conditions after traveling to victory point to amend the note they would wander southwards through the frozen wastes disorientated hungry eventually succumbing to starvation scurvy or exposure to the cold scattered in different locations around the surrounding landscape theories relating to the expedition's failure go some way in resolving the mystery of the lost franklin expedition however an important question still remained where were the ships despite many years of searching despite the advantages of modern scientific methods and despite the evidence contained in the victory point note the remains of the hms erebus and the hms terror still eluded discovery most theories assumed that they had sunk after being deserted and therefore lay somewhere on the sea floor near their final position of abandonment five leagues north northwest of the victory point note not everyone agreed however local inuit who had retained oral histories of the lost expedition maintained that one ship had sunk near at julick an area to the east of queen maude golf in 2014 this theory was confirmed when a remote underwater vehicle operated by parks canada discovered the wreckage of the erebus in queen maude gulf two years later in 2016 the terror was discovered on the southern end of king william island paradoxically these discoveries only served to complicate the accepted theories surrounding the expedition if the ships had been abandoned in 1848 in the victoria strait north northwest of the victory point no how would they ended up 100 kilometers apart to the south of this location it seems unlikely that fitz james would have recorded their position of abandonment so incorrectly and it is equally unlikely that they could have drifted such a distance there is only one reasonable alternative which has been described by franklin expert david woodman unless you believe in fairies somebody must have gone back after the 1848 abandonment underwater images of the erebus and the terror were eventually released showing the remarkably well preserved state of the vessels these pictures which possess a strange and ethereal beauty may represent different things to different people first and foremost they are indicative of a tragedy of 129 lives lost in harsh and tormenting conditions to some they may take on a heroic connotation of individuals risking their lives in pursuit of a higher goal to others they might represent the hubris of man or the conceit of a nation-state intent on naval or geographical dominion to the local inuit who often reported seeing ships in the locations where they were eventually found they are a vindication of native testimonial evidence that has been routinely ignored and overlooked finally to the experts who still obsess over the franklin case the maritime historians the marine scientists and the amateur researchers these pictures represent the continuation of a 170 year old mystery the answer to which often seems tantalizingly close is forever complicated obscured and just out of reach hidden somewhere in the ice [Music] [Music] you

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Length: 25min 39sec (1539 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 07 2021