Rear Admiral Sir John Franklin FRGS (April 15, 1786 – June 11, 1847) was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer who mapped almost two thirds of the northern coastline of North America. Franklin also served as governor of Tasmania for several years. His last expedition disappeared while attempting to chart and navigate a section of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic. The entire crew perished from starvation and exposure after Franklin died and the expedition's icebound ships were abandoned in desperation.

Franklin was born in Spilsby, Lincolnshire in 1786 and educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth. He was the ninth of 12 children of a Lincolnshire shopkeeper. One of his sisters became the mother of Emily Tennyson (wife of the poet).

Franklin's father initially opposed his son's interest in a career at sea. However, Franklin was determined and his father reluctantly allowed him to go on a trial voyage with a merchant ship. This hardened young Franklin's resolve, so at the age of 14, his father secured him a Royal Navy appointment on HMS Polyphemus. Franklin was later present at a number of historic voyages and battles. These included the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, an expedition to explore the coast of Australia on HMS Investigator with his uncle, Captain Matthew Flinders, a return to the Napoleonic Wars, serving aboard HMS Bellerophon at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, and he was at the Battle of New Orleans.

Franklin first travelled to the Arctic in 1818, as a lieutenant under the command of David Buchan, and became fascinated by it. He led a disastrous overland expedition into the Northwest Territories of Canada along the Coppermine River in 1819-1822, losing 11 of the 20 men in his party. Most died of starvation, but there was also at least one murder and suggestions of cannibalism. The survivors were forced to eat lichen and even attempted to eat their own leather boots. This gained Franklin the nickname of "the man who ate his boots."

In 1823, after returning to England, Franklin married the poet Eleanor Anne Porden. Their daughter, Eleanor Isabella, was born the following year. Eleanor died of tuberculosis in 1825, shortly after persuading her husband not to let her ill-health prevent him from setting off on another expedition to the Arctic. This expedition, a trip down the Mackenzie River to explore the shores of the Beaufort Sea, was better supplied and more successful than his last.

In 1828, he was knighted by George IV and in the same year married Jane Griffin, a friend of his first wife, and a seasoned traveler who proved indomitable in the course of their life together.

Franklin was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land in 1836, but was removed from office in 1843. He did not endear himself with the local civil servants, who particularly disliked his humane ideals and his attempts to reform the Tasmanian penal colony. His wife, Lady Jane, was quite liberated for a woman of her day, known for "roughing it" to the extent that an expedition had to be mounted after she and Franklin became lost in the wild. Such exploits further distanced the couple from "proper" society, and may have contributed to Franklin's recall. Nevertheless, he was popular among the people of Tasmania. He is remembered by a significant landmark in the centre of Hobart — a statue of him dominates the park known as Franklin Square, which was the site of the original Government House. His wife worked to set up a college, a museum and botanical gardens. The village of Franklin, on the Huon River, is named in his honour, as is the Franklin River on the West Coast of Tasmania, one of the largest and wildest Tasmanian rivers.

Exploration of the Arctic coastal mainland since Franklin's last Arctic expedition had left less than 500 km of unexplored Arctic coastline. It was decided that a well-equipped Arctic expedition would be sent to finally chart the Northwest Passage. After Sir James Ross declined the offer of commanding another polar expedition (owing to a promise to his wife), the invitation was extended to Franklin, who eagerly accepted, despite being quite advanced in years. As a compromise, a younger Captain James Fitzjames was given the command of HMS Erebus, with Franklin becoming the official expedition commander. Captain Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier, who previously commanded HMS Terror during the Ross 1841-44 Antarctica expedition, was appointed the executive officer and commander of HMS Terror on this voyage.

Franklin was given command on February 7, 1845, and official instructions on May 5, 1845.

HMS Erebus (370 tons) and HMS Terror (340 tons) were sturdily built, and were outfitted with a number of recent inventions. These included steam engines from the London and Greenwich Railway that enabled the ships to make four knots on their own power, a novel steam heating device for the comfort of the crew, a mechanism that enabled the iron rudder and propeller to be drawn into iron wells to prevent their damage, large ships' libraries of over 1000 books, and three years' worth of both conventionally preserved and tinned preserved food supplies. Unfortunately, the latter was supplied from a cut-rate provisioner, Stephen Goldner, and he was awarded the contract only a few months before the ships were to sail. Thus, though Goldner's "patent process" was in fact a sound one, the haste with which he had to prepare thousands of cans of food led to sloppily-applied beads of solder on the can's interior edges, allowing the lead to leach into the contents.

Most of the crew were Englishmen, many of them from the north-country, with a small number of Irishmen and Scotsmen. They were handpicked by the Admiralty, and with the advanced pay exploratory service members received, it was quite likely they were a good crew.

The Franklin Expedition set sail from Greenhithe, England on the morning of May 19, 1845, with a handpicked crew of 24 officers and 110 men (134). From there the ships traveled north to Aberdeen to pick up supplies. Lieutenant Graham Gore is reputed to have been responsible for ridding HMS Erebus of alcohol that was smuggled aboard ship. From Scotland, the ships sailed to Greenland with HMS Rattler and transport ship, Barretto Junior.

After misjudging the location of Whitefish Bay, Disko Island, Greenland, the expedition backtracked and finally harbored in that far north outpost. There, they unloaded supplies from the supply ships; slaughtered the livestock that was carried to the destination as fresh meat; did scientific observations (for which the younger lieutenants helped Sir Franklin up the crags); tested a novel rubber inflatable boat; and wrote their last letters home. Prior to their final departure from civilization, five crewmembers were discharged and sent home upon the Rattler and Barretto Junior, with the final ships' muster at 129 souls.

The expedition was last seen by Europeans on July 26, 1845, when Captain Dannett, of the whaler Prince of Wales, encountered them in Melville Bay moored to an iceberg.

After two years and no word from the expedition, Franklin's wife urged the Admiralty to send a search party. This was the largest group they had ever lost. But the crew carried supplies for three years, so the Admiralty waited another year before launching the search and offering a £20,000 reward for success. Not only was this a huge sum for the time, but Franklin's disappearance had captured the popular imagination. At one point, there were 10 British and two American ships headed for the Arctic. (More ships and men were lost looking for Franklin than in the expedition). Ballads telling of Franklin and his fate became popular. The ballad "Lady Franklin's Lament" commemorated Lady Franklin's search for her lost husband.

In the summer of 1850, a number of expeditions, including three from England as well as one from the United States, joined in the search. The search ships converged off the east coast of Beechey Island, where the first relics of the Franklin expedition were found, including the graveyard of three Franklin Expedition crewmen:

*Chief Petty Officer John Shaw Torrington (b. December 10, 1825, Manchester, England; d. January 1, 1846), Leading Stoker, HMS Terror; *Able Seaman John Hartnell (b. 1820, Brompton, Kent, England; d. January 4, 1846), HMS Erebus; and *Private William Braine (b. March, 1815, Oakhill, Somerset, England; d. April 3, 1846), Royal Marines, Western Division, Woolrich, HMS Erebus.

No official messages had been left there by the Franklin party to provide further clues for the searchers.

In 1854, explorer John Rae discovered further evidence of the Franklin party's fate. Rae was not searching for Franklin at all, but rather surveying the Boothia Peninsula on behalf of the Hudson's Bay Company . On this journey, Rae met an Inuk near Pelly Bay (now Kugaaruk, Nunavut) on April 21, 1854, who told him of a party of 35 to 40 white men who had died of starvation near the mouth of the Back River. The Inuit also showed him many objects that were identified as having belonged to Franklin and his men. In particular, Rae purchased from the Pelly Bay Inuit several silver forks and spoons, which were later identified as belonging to the following crewmen: Robert Osmer Sargent (a mate aboard HMS Erebus), Captain James Fitzjames, Captain Crozier, and Captain Sir John Franklin. Rae's report was sent by to the Admiralty and Lord's Commissioner's late in October, 1854. Upon receipt of the report, the Admiralty urged the Hudson Bay Company to send an expedition south of the Back River to search for other signs of the Franklin Expedition.

Next were Chief Factor James Anderson and HBC employee James Stewart, who, with two canoes, traversed north to the mouth of the Back River. On July 30, 1855, near the outlet of Lake Franklin, Anderson and Stewart encountered a band of Inuit, who told them of a group of qallunaat (Inuktitut for "whites") who had starved to death along the coast. On August 2, 1855, Anderson and Stewart discovered further proof of the Franklin Party's presence in a cache on Montreal Island. There, a piece of wood with "Erebus" on it and another engraved with the name "Mr. Stanley" (Stephen S. Stanley, MD, Surgeon aboard HMS Erebus) were found.

Even though the Rae and Andersons' findings were monumental in scope, the Admiralty did not plan another search mission. Britain officially labeled the crew deceased in service, on March 31, 1854. Lady Franklin petitioned the State for another search expedition, and being unsuccessful in obtaining funds, personally commissioned one more expedition under Francis Leopold McClintock. The expedition ship purchased via public subscription, the yacht Fox, sailed from Aberdeen on July 2, 1857.

In May of 1859, the McClintock party found a document in a cairn on King William Island left by Captain Crozier and Captain Fitzjames, Franklin's second-in-command. It contained two messages. The first, dated May 28, 1847, was unexceptional, saying that the expedition had wintered off King William Island, that they were "All well", and Sir John Franklin was commanding. The second message, written in the margins of that same sheet of paper, was much more ominous. The message, dated April 25, 1848, reported that Erebus and Terror had been trapped in the ice for a year and a half and that the crew had abandoned the ships on April 22. Twenty-four officers and crew had died, including Sir John Franklin on June 11, 1847 — just two weeks after the date of the first note. Captain Crozier was commanding the expedition, and the 105 survivors would start out the next day, heading south towards the Back River.

McClintock also found several bodies on the southern coast of King William Island. One body, still clothed, was searched, and some papers were found, including a seaman's certificate for Chief Petty Officer Henry Peglar (b. 1808), Captain of the Foretop, HMS Terror. However, since the uniform was that of a ship's steward, it is more likely that the body was that of Thomas Armitage, Gun-room Steward on HMS Terror and a longtime shipmate of Peglar's who was returning his friend's papers. McClintock found an astonishing amount of abandoned equipment, including a longboat with two skeletons inside and such detritus as crockery from the ships, utensils, carpet slippers, sheet-lead, and numerous books, among them a copy of The Vicar of Wakefield. He also took testimony from the Inuit about the expedition's disastrous end.

The expedition of Frederick Schwatka, twenty years later, found the southernmost remnants of the expedition at a place on the Adelaide Peninsula, south of King William Island, later named "Starvation Cove." They were still well north of Crozier's stated goal, the Back River, and several hundred miles away from the nearest Western outpost, on the Great Slave Lake.

On June 25, 1981, University of Alberta Professor of Anthropology Owen Beattie began the 1845-48 Franklin Expedition Forensic Anthropology Project (FEFAP), when he and his team of researchers and field assistants embarked from Edmonton to King William Island, transversing the island's western coast as Franklin's men did 132 years before. FEFAP hoped to find artifacts and possible human remains in order to use modern forensics to discover the fate of the lost 129.

Although the trek successfully found archeological artifacts related to 19th century Europeans and undisturbed disarticulate human remains, Dr. Beattie was disappointed that more remains weren't found. While back at the University of Alberta offices, Beattie compared notes from the survey with John Savelle and noticed some disturbing patterns that did suggest cannibalism.

To study this finding more, the skeletons (including Inuit bones found along the trek) were sent to the Alberta Soil and Feed Testing Laboratory for trace element analysis, and Dr. Beattie assembled another team to King William Island.

June 28, 1982 Owen Beattie, Walt Kowall, and Arne Carlson landed near Seal Bay, King William Island. Supplied with Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka's descriptions of his trek 100 years earlier, the explorers traced Schwatka's journey in an attempt to discover more artifacts and remains.

After crossing the Rivière de la Rocquette and its tedious mud flats, research assistant Ariensik Tungilik found a tibia poking out of the ground near the location of Captain Francis Leopold McClintock's "boat place," where the skeletons of two Franklin crewmen had been discovered over a century before. Later trace element analysis noted a somewhat unexpected spike in lead content within the bones (226ppm, which was ten times higher than the control samples of 26-36ppm).

After obtaining the permission of surviving relatives, Beattie's team subsequently visited Beechey Island (August 10, 1984) to exhume the graves of the only known Franklin Expedition crewmen and survey Franklin expedition sites there and along the coastline of Devon Island. They found about a hundred empty tin cans which had been dumped by the Franklin expedition and noticed that the seams were poorly soldered with lead, which had likely come in direct contact with the food.

The anthropological plan was to exhume the first crewmember to die, Leading Stoker John Shaw Torrington, who was the youngest crewman on the expedition, apart from the ships' boys. Then, if time was available, exhume the second man to die, Able Seaman John Hartnell. All three bodies buried on Beechey Island were eventually found to be extremely well preserved, having undergone natural mummification from being encased in permafrost.

After the monumental exhumation and autopsy on August 18, 1984, of John Torrington, and the excavation of John Hartnell (whose exhumation was stopped due to weather and time restrictions), the FEFAP team returned to the University of Alberta with their tissue and bone samples.

Releasing their field work findings, and the photo of John Torrington in September, 1984, Dr. Beattie stoked world-wide interest in the case. The thought of a 138 year-old corpse, well preserved in the tundra, "visiting" the 20th century world took hold of many imaginations. The media seized the story and introduced a new generation to the mystery of Sir John Franklin's lost expedition.

This survey was performed with a number of new features, including a camera crew to document the autopsies, (later aired as NOVA's "Buried in Ice", in 1988") equipment to attempt the first field X-Ray in the far north, by Derek Notman, MD, and a historical clothing expert.

Dr. Beattie and his team noticed that someone else had attempted to exhume Hartnell. The effort had been rough, with a pickaxe destroying the wood lid on the right side. Also, curiously, the coffin plaque was missing. It was later uncovered that in October, 1852, Captain Belcher first attempted to exhume Hartnell, but was thwarted by the permafrost. A month later, again at the suggestion of Peter Sutherland, MD, Commander Edward A. Inglefield and Sutherland did exhume the able seaman. In finishing the exhumation, Inglefield took the coffin plaque.

Unlike Hartnell's grave, the grave of Private William Braine was largely intact. When he was exhumed, it was apparent that he was delayed in being interred. Even though severely emaciated, his coffin was too narrow, so his arms were folded in the back to fit his shoulders into the coffin. Braine also had a broken tooth, and an old severe concussion on the forehead. A large copper hole punched plaque adorned his coffin lid.

The FEFAP field surveys, excavations and exhumations spanned over 10 years. The results of this comprehensive study from King William Island and Beechey Island artifacts and human remains, showed that with the Beechey Island crew had most likely died of pneumonia, and perhaps tuberculosis (as evidenced in Braine having Pott's Disease). However, toxicological reports indicated lead poisoning was also a possible factor.

Nevertheless, (blade) cut marks found on bones from some of the crew on King William Island suggest that conditions became so dire there eventually that some resorted to cannibalism. In the end, it was likely a combination of bad weather (years locked in ice), disease including scurvy (the lemon juice after three years out of Britain lost its potent vitamin C), poisoned food, botulism, and simple starvation that killed the entirety of the Franklin Party.

There are several factors that may have contributed to the loss of the Franklin expedition. Franklin was a product of the mores and social strata of the 19th century; for example, the expedition carried silver plate, crystal decanters, and many extraneous personal effects with them. They are alleged to have attempted to haul much of this heavy gear along with them even after abandoning the ships, possibly due to lead poisoning-induced loss of judgment. Combined with the attributed Western European mindset of the day of "civilized" people who would not descend into "tribal" ways to survive, he and his expedition then would be unwilling or unable to learn survival techniques from the natives.. Inuit oral histories, the source of the allegations, also speak of observations of cannibalism among the expedition members.

Moreover, their expedition was a naval one, not equipped for hiking over land. Their ships were locked in the ice for two winters, stuck in one of the most ice choked straits of the Arctic, the Victoria Strait. They also had the misfortune of sailing in a period which proved to be colder than average, including probably at least one season in which the ice did not break up at all. The party's morale and cohesion were possibly damaged by psychological effects of lead poisoning from the solder that sealed their tinned food supply. Lead was discovered in both the King William Island and Beechey Island human remains. They also seem to have been weakened by internal bleeding caused by scurvy, which must have beset the crew after the preventive lemon juice they carried lost its potency. This effect was observed by visual examination in European skeletal remains found along the Franklin Expedition escape route.

For years after the loss of the Franklin Party, the Victorian media portrayed Franklin as a hero, leading his men in the quest for the Northwest Passage. At the constant pressure of Lady Franklin, stories about the expedition's disappointing demise were suppressed, and her husband was elevated to a hero. A statue of Franklin in his home town bears the inscription 'Sir John Franklin — Discoverer of the North West Passage'. Statues of Franklin outside the Athenaeum in London, and in Tasmania, bear similar inscriptions.

An alternative view is that Franklin was portrayed as a hero because of his many achievements, and that his death trying to discover the Northwest Passage did not diminish his standing in the eyes of the public. In fact, the expedition's fate, including the possibility of cannibalism, was not suppressed but in fact widely reported and debated in the newspapers of the day. The mystery still surrounding Franklin's last expedition was the subject of a 2006 episode of the NOVA TV series, Arctic Passage, and a 2007 documentary on Discovery HD Theater.

*In the early 1960s, the Canadian poet Gwendolyn MacEwen wrote, and broadcast on CBC radio, a verse play titled, Terror and Erebus that told of the failed expedition from various perspectives. *The 1981 song "Northwest Passage" by Stan Rogers makes reference to John Franklin.

*The ballad "Lady Franklin's Lament", aka "Lord Franklin", has been recorded by numerous artists, including Martin Carthy, Pentangle, Sinéad O'Connor, and the Pearlfishers. The melody was also used for Bob Dylan's song "Bob Dylan's Dream", as well as David Wilcox's "Jamie's Secret".

*The song "I'm Already There" on the Fairport Convention album Over the Next Hill is sung from the point of view of a member of one of Franklin's Expeditions.

*"Buried In Ice" is a popular children's book about the Franklin Expedition.

*James Taylor and Metallica have both recorded songs inspired by the excavations of the graves of some members of the Franklin Expedition.

*The short story Age of Lead, by Margaret Atwood, included in the collection "Wilderness Tips", was inspired by "Frozen In Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition", by Owen Beattie and John Geiger. Atwood has also written several essays on Franklin, including in her book "Strange Things", and an introduction to "Frozen In Time".

*"The Ice Child", a novel by Elizabeth McGregor, was based on the research described in "Frozen In Time".

*The book The Terror, a novel by Dan Simmons, is a supernatural take on the events of John Franklin's Arctic expedition.

*The novel Solomon Gursky Was Here by Mordecai Richler has a subplot involving the last Franklin expedition.

*The song "900," the B-side to the Breeders' 1993 Cannonball single, has lyrics based on the Franklin expedition, particularly referencing the unnecessary luggage they carried south.

*The novel The Discovery of Slowness by German author Sten Nadolny tells its story about the right speed in life along the complete lifeline of Franklin.

*In William T. Vollmann's novel The Rifles, the narrator tells his own story of fatal fascination with the Arctic alongside John Franklin's, whom he imagines as his "grave twin."

*In Robert Edric's novel The Broken Lands, a Novel of Arctic Disaster, a fictionalized account of the final expedition aboard Terror and Erebus.

*1845, May 19: Franklin expedition sails from England *1845, July: Expedition docks in Greenland, sends home five men and a batch of letters *1845, July 28: Last sighting of expedition by Europeans (a whaling ship in Baffin Bay) *1845-6: Expedition winters on Beechey Island. Three crewmen die of tuberculosis and are buried. *1846, September 12: Ships trapped in the ice off King William Island. They never sail again. *1846-7: Expedition winters on King William Island *1847, May 28: Date of first note, says "All well" *1847, June 11: Franklin dies. *1847-48: Expedition again winters on King William Island *1848, April 22: Erebus and Terror abandoned *1848, April 25: Date of second note, saying twenty-four men have died and the survivors plan to start marching south on the 26th to the Back River *1850: Inuit see forty men walking south on King William Island *1851 (?): Inuk hunter saw four survivors still trying to head south. Last sighting (as reported to Charles Hall) *1854: Dr. Rae interviews local Inuit, who give him items from the exhibition and tell him the men starved to death, after resorting to cannibalism *1858: McClintock finds the abandoned boat and the message on King William Island

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*NOVA - Arctic Passage Part 1 - Prisoners Of The Ice (TV documentary). See also program transcript. *Frozen In Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition (Revised edition), Owen Beattie and John Geiger 2004 *Unraveling the Franklin Mystery: Inuit Testimony. David C. Woodman *The Arctic Grail, Pierre Berton * Deadly Winter, Martyn Beardsley * The Royal Navy in Polar Exploration, Frobisher to Ross, E C Coleman 2006 ISBN 0-7524-3660-0 * The Royal Navy in Polar Exploration, Franklin to Scott, E C Coleman 2006 * British polar exploration and research : a historical and medallic record with biographies, 1818-1999 , Neville W. Poulsom & J. A. L. Myres (London: Savannah 2000) * Franklin Saga Deaths: A Mystery Solved? National Geographic Magazine, Vol 178, No 3, Sep 1990 *The Arctic Fox - Francis Leopold McClintock, Discoverer of the fate of Franklin, David Murray, 2004. Cork: The Collins Press, ISBN 1-55002-523-6 * To the Arctic!: The Story of Northern Exploration from Earliest Times, Jeannette Mirsky, 1970 ISBN 0-226-53179-1 *Fatal Passage, Ken McGoogan *Lady Franklin's Revenge, Ken McGoogan

*The Discovery of Slowness, Sten Nadolny, Novel, 1983. *The Rifles (novel), William T. Vollmann, Novel, 1994. *The Terror, Dan Simmons, Horror novel, 2007. *The Broken Lands, Robert Edric, Novel, 1992 *The Ice Child, Elizabeth McGregor, Dutton, May 3, 2001 *Journeys and Adventures of Captain Hatteras, Jules Vernes, Novel (in French), 1864.

*NOVA's companion website for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Passage%3C%2Fa%3E" title="Arctic%20Passage%3C%2Fa%3E">Arctic Passage</a> *Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online *The Fate of Franklin (Russell Potter) *The Life and Times of Sir John Franklin *List of artifacts recovered from the Franklin Expedition *Paper from the Universary of Calgary about the discovery of skeletal remains in 1992 *

*Alexander, Alison (editor) (2005)The Companion to Tasmanian HistoryCentre for Tasmanian Historical Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart. ISBN 186295223X. *Robson, L.L. (1983) A history of Tasmania. Volume 1. Van Diemen's Land from the earliest times to 1855Melbourne, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195543645