HMS Erebus and Terror: The Doomed Franklin Expedition

An Arctic Expedition With No Return Ticket: Trapped in the Ice Forever

An expedition searching for the tomb of Sir John Franklin became trapped in the ice for eight days in Pasley Bay, Nunavut, Canada. In doing so, the explorers inadvertently mirrored the fate of a doomed 19th-century Arctic voyage while attempting to uncover a centuries-old mystery.

Despite the harsh conditions, the journey yielded significant insights. Researchers and filmmakers aiming to retrace the steps of an Arctic expedition that ended in death and cannibalism searched for the captain's tomb, unearthing remnants of the fatal voyage of two British exploration ships that set sail in 1845 and never returned.

The National Geographic documentary Explorer: Lost in the Arctic, which premiered in August 2023, chronicles a four-month quest to find the lost crew and the tomb of Sir John Franklin, whose ships vanished in the Canadian Arctic in 1846.

"I organized the whole trip so that I could try to feel what Franklin and his men felt: sailing the same waters, dropping anchor in the same bays, and weathering the same storms, thereby connecting with the spirit of the lost," explained Mark Synnott, the National Geographic explorer, climber, and author who led the modern expedition [1] [2].

However, if you were stranded indefinitely in inhuman cold, how do you think you would react? If your companion died and you were starving, would you resort to eating them?

Attempting to solve one of history's greatest maritime mysteries, Synnott speculates in the film about exactly what happened to the 129 men of Sir John Franklin's expedition as they tried to navigate the Northwest Passage.

"We know they all died. But it is curious to see what people are willing to do when they desperately need to survive," Synnott asserted.

The need for answers has driven countless other searchers from 1848 to the present day, and even inspired the horror novel The Terror, which was adapted into a hit television series in 2018.

Abandoning HMS Erebus and Terror: The Grim Cost of Survival

The tense documentary follows the four-month search by Synnott and his team of explorers, who were convinced that the answers must lie deep within Franklin's tomb on Canada's remote King William Island. The search team also believed that the grave would contain ship logs and crew letters, helping to fill in the historical gaps and delve into the true scenario by echoing the words of the actual historical figures.

To reach the island, Synnott noted that his modern crew balanced "on the edge of their survival skills," navigating the roughly 46-foot (14 m) sailboat Polar Sun through fog and storms along the doomed route of Franklin's vessels. (The HMS Erebus wreck and the HMS Terror wreck were discovered in 2014 and 2016, respectively).

The result was a chilling repetition of history, with the ice closing in and trapping the sailboat in a bay for 10 days.

When the men finally reached King William Island, instead of finding something pleasantly intriguing, they discovered only piles of human bones showing clear signs of Franklin expedition cannibalism.

All the Answers Lie in Franklin's Tomb

When the renowned Sir John Franklin sailed from England with two ships and over a hundred men, aiming to become the first expedition to navigate the Northwest Passage—a route from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean through the Arctic—no one believed the journey would end in doom [3]. The tragic scenario was nearly repeated by another "shift" of explorers decades after the disaster.

The greatest curiosity surrounds the most recent searches, which have shed light on what actually happened to Franklin's ill-fated expedition.

In 2014, a Canadian search team found one of the missing ships, HMS Erebus. Two years later, a tip from a local fisherman led to the HMS Terror discovery off the coast of King William Island [4].

Investigations have also revealed that while some crew members died on the frozen ships, as many as 105 men survived by relying on their provisions until April 1848. They eventually abandoned the wrecked vessels, though not a single man made it out alive.

Experts suggest the crew likely died from starvation and scurvy, a disease caused by severe vitamin C deficiency. Lead poisoning, allegedly from poorly soldered canned food, may have also played a significant role. Finally, some believe the sailors succumbed to tuberculosis, respiratory issues, and cardiovascular diseases.

Regardless, perhaps the most disturbing fact is that the sailors who abandoned the ships resorted to cannibalism in a desperate bid to survive the freezing glacial expanses.

Fractured bones found at Booth Point and Erebus Bay indicate that crew members likely extracted bone marrow from their fallen comrades to obtain the last remnants of sustenance. To verify this grim reality, Synnott and his team of explorers and filmmakers followed the expedition's route through the Canadian Arctic until they reached King William Island.

According to Inuit oral history, Franklin's tomb was located there, and a note found on the island stated that he died aboard HMS Erebus on June 11, 1847. The modern explorers discovered various artifacts, including a tent peg, suggesting they were getting closer to their goal. However, after more than a week spent scouring the landscape for signs of Franklin's grave, the crew was forced to retreat.

Explorers still hold out hope that the day will come when the tomb is finally found.

"When we find it, we'll have everything—and it's only a matter of time," historian and explorer Tom Gross, who has spent the last 28 years searching for the captain's final resting place, said in the documentary.