FRANKLIN EXPEDITION
Franklin's Expedition was a British voyage of Arctic exploration led by Captain Sir John Franklin that departed England in 1845. A Royal Navy officer and experienced explorer, Franklin had served on three previous Arctic expeditions, the latter two as commanding officer. His fourth and last, undertaken when he was 59, was meant to traverse the last unnavigated section of the Northwest Passage.
Pressed by Franklin's wife, Jane, Lady Franklin, and others, the Admiralty launched a search for the missing expedition in 1848. Prompted in part by Franklin's fame and the Admiralty's offer of a finder's reward, many subsequent expeditions joined the hunt, which at one point in 1850 involved eleven British and two American ships. Several of these ships converged off the east coast of Beechey Island, where the first relics of the expedition were found, including the graves of three crewmen.
After a few early fatalities, the two ships became icebound in Victoria Strait near King William Island in the Canadian Arctic.
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.
In 1854, explorer John Rae, while surveying near the Canadian Arctic coast southeast of King William Island, acquired relics of and stories about the Franklin party from the Inuit. A search led by Francis Leopold McClintock in 1859 discovered a note left on King William Island with details about the expedition's fate. Searches continued through much of the 19th century.
They concluded that the crew members whose graves had been found on Beechey Island most likely died of pneumonia and perhaps tuberculosis and that lead poisoning may have worsened their health, owing to badly soldered cans held in the ships' food stores. However, it was later suggested that the source of this lead may not have been tinned food, but the distilled water systems fitted to the expedition’s ships. Cut marks on human bones found on King William Island were seen as signs of cannibalism. The combined evidence of all studies suggested that hypothermia, starvation, lead poisoning and disease including scurvy, along with general exposure to a hostile environment whilst lacking adequate clothing and nutrition, killed everyone on the expedition in the years following its last sighting by Europeans in 1845.
In 1981, a team of scientists led by Owen Beattie, a professor of anthropology at the University of Alberta, began a series of scientific studies of the graves, bodies, and other physical evidence left by Franklin crew members on Beechey Island and King William Island.
Nearly 170 years later, a breakthrough was made in September 2014 when an expedition led by Parks Canada located the wreck of HMS Erebus , 80 km south of King William Island in Nunavut. A second breakthrough happened in September 2016, when HMS Terror was found in Terror Bay, further north.
VASSdesign related Art
' SIR JOHN FRANKLIN '
by VASSdesign
Original and unique creation (2017) by Pete Vass. Commemorating Sir John Franklin.
Reproduction concept design in tribute to the Frankln Expedition of 1845. The entire expedition complement, including Franklin and 128 men, were lost.
Currently this sign is being sold onboard Quark Expedition vessels on Arctic voyages.
To read more about this, visit the "Involvement" page of this site.
"FRANKLIN EXPEDITION" by VASSdesign
' WANTED, EXPLORING EXPEDITION, IN SEARCH OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN ' reproduction by VASSdeign
The disappearance of Franklin`s Arctic Expedition sparked one of the most extensive search efforts in world history.
32 expeditions were involved in the search for the missing Franklin Expedition between 1847 and 1859.
In the process, many more sailors were injured or died in their efforts to bring closure to the missing Franklin Expedition.
Few bodies were recovered, but search expeditions found no trace of either of the ships.
It took nearly 170 years before the Erebus and Terror were finally located in the Arctic waters of Canada, where the ships had become icebound and eventually sank, in Victoria Strait near King William Island in what is today the Canadian territory of Nunavut.
This reproduction sign was one of the recruitment posters used for the first American effort, the Grinnell Expedition of 1850, financed by Henry Grinnell, to determine the fate of the lost Franklin Northwest Passage expedition.
