Do any of you Northerners know of the doomed Franklin Expedition?

[SteveSS]

I'm reading a huge novel about it right now. I had no idea about this but it's quite the mystery. The book is a horror novel called The Terror. Ironically that was the name of one of the doomed ships. I just wondered if any of you had visited the museums or know much about the story. They did find the graves of a couple of sailors. Since they have been frozen they look like they died last week. You can look up the pictures but be forewarned.

Franklin expedition, British expedition (1845–48), led by Sir John Franklin, to find the Northwest Passage through Canada and to record magnetic information as a possible aid to navigation. The expedition ended in one of the worst disasters in the history of polar exploration. All 129 crew members and officers of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror perished under mysterious circumstances. The British Navy launched the most extensive search effort in its history but recovered few bodies and found no trace of the ships. It took nearly 170 years before the Erebus and Terror were finally located in the Arctic waters of Canada.

 

[Photon440]

We watched the series up here, shortly after I had read a book on the subject. The Terror (TV series) - Wikipedia

 

[440 4 speed]

I don’t remember where I read it, might have been The Terror. There was a lot of controversy on how hard they were looked for. I will try and find out.

 

[Sahara]

It’s a common topic of discussion up here. One of my friends, Tom Gross, is a leading expert. Flies his own plane from here to there every year to look for evidence. He travels around giving lectures. Lots of the “experts” have never set foot near the place, he’s been going every summer for a few decades.
It’s a harder search then it would appear. The land is vast, featureless.
I can’t imagine what those poor bastards went through. We are probably a thousand miles south of that. Our climate is tough enough but there is a magnitude worse. And about two months more of winter then even we get. We have trees to burn and game to eat. They had nothing.
For a different perspective on a similar story read about Earnest Shakelton(sp?) He led a similar expedition to Antarctica. Also lost their ship and were stranded for two years. Never lost a man. Not one.

 

[#41]

Yes, this is a great story. Non-fiction books on exploration and adventure, especially under sail are my go-to reads.

The perils that people willingly faced in the age of sail is a fascinating subject. There was little opportunity for regular people in the world and people's lives were simply not as valued as they are today. The attitude of most expedition leaders were that lives were expendable if it brought the glory of achieving something never accomplished before and increased the knowledge base of the human race.

If you enjoy The Terror and want more similar, check out any of the Shackelton/Endurance books or the a book on the shipwreck Grosvenor in the 1700's.

 

[1STMP]

I'm reading a huge novel about it right now. I had no idea about this but it's quite the mystery. The book is a horror novel called The Terror. Ironically that was the name of one of the doomed ships. I just wondered if any of you had visited the museums or know much about the story. They did find the graves of a couple of sailors. Since they have been frozen they look like they died last week. You can look up the pictures but be forewarned.

Franklin expedition, British expedition (1845–48), led by Sir John Franklin, to find the Northwest Passage through Canada and to record magnetic information as a possible aid to navigation. The expedition ended in one of the worst disasters in the history of polar exploration. All 129 crew members and officers of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror perished under mysterious circumstances. The British Navy launched the most extensive search effort in its history but recovered few bodies and found no trace of the ships. It took nearly 170 years before the Erebus and Terror were finally located in the Arctic waters of Canada.

It's been generally agreed upon that
most of these sailors died from lead
poisoning.The canned goods were
sealed with lead instead of tin.
Since lead tends to mess with the
brains' cognitive abilities, it was
generally assumed that these guys
simply wandered away from the ships, only to freeze to death.
I'm a southerner and was intrigued
by this story.