Even after 138 years, the cloth reeked.Īs Beattie and his crew came closer to the coffin lid, he and journalist John Geiger wrote that As they did, they became aware of a strong odor - not from Torrington's body but from the blue wool cloth that covered the coffin. Then they had to remove the last layer of ice from the top of the coffin. To get this far, the team had had to dig six feet through the icy earth to Torrington's frozen coffin. On August 17, 1984, Beattie and his research team were ready to examine John Torrington at the gravesite on Beechey Island. ![]() Finally, in 1980, anthropologist Owen Beattie decided to study the remains of the three men to "look for information on health and diet, for indications of disease, for evidence of violence, and information as to each individual's age and stature." Beattie was going to solve the mystery - even if it meant examining three frozen mummies. But his idea struck authorities as improper, and it was ignored. ![]() The answer to the mystery, a doctor on one of the search trips surmised, might be found by examining the bodies of Torrington, Hartnell, and Braine to look for clues to the cause of their deaths. Not only had they tried to drag a 1,200-pound lifeboat across the ice, they had selected an assortment of strange items to fill the boat: silk handkerchiefs, perfumed soap, six books, tea, and chocolate.ĭespite their importance, the messages failed to explain why the expedition had failed. The unfinished messages suggested that none had survived, and it is easy to see why: the men used extremely poor judgment. Finally, in April 1848, the surviving members of the expedition decided to abandon the ships and walk on the ice some 120 miles to a river where they could row to a trading post. During the next year and a half, nine officers, including Sir John Franklin, and fifteen sailors died. The Erebus and Terror had become stuck in the ice in September 1846. Rather than explain anything, though, the burial site simply added to the puzzle: why had the crew begun to die so early in the expedition?Īnother expedition in 1857, led by Sir Francis McClintock, discovered a number of written messages which did provide some answers. The other headboards marked the graves of John Hartnell, who died four days after Torrington, and William Braine, who died three months later. The first to die was John Torrington, on Januonly seven months into the expedition. Headboards indicated that the men had died separately, from unknown causes. ![]() Approximately twenty-five major search expeditions were needed to uncover some of the facts surrounding what became known as "the Franklin disaster."Īn 1850 expedition seemed to promise some answers when Captain Erasmus Ommanney came across the ruins of a stone hut, cans of food, torn mittens - and the graves of three of Franklin's crew. Once the ships reached Baffin Bay in late July, however, no one heard from Franklin or his crew again. The ships even had room for some luxuries, such as extensive libraries, hand organs, mahogany writing desks, and school supplies that could be used to teach reading and writing to crew members. They were so well stocked with food (including more than 120,000 pounds of flour, almost 17,000 liters of alcohol, and about 8,000 tin cans of meat, soup, and vegetables) that Franklin believed he had enough to last five - and maybe seven - years. The ships had steam heat (to keep the crew warm), locomotive-driven propellers (to provide power if the ships became stuck in the ice), and iron-reinforced bows (to help the ships cut through ice floes). Franklin envisioned a lengthy and difficult trip through Arctic waters, so the ships were specially prepared and outfitted. On May 19, 1845, Sir John Franklin and his 134-man crew sailed from Greenhithe, England, in two ships, the HMS Terror and the Erebus. One of the most interesting cases involving frozen remains began about one hundred and seventy years ago with an expedition to find the Northwest Passage, a sea route to Asia, by traveling around the northern edge of North America.
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