Essential Information
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National Maritime Museum
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07 Jun 2017
Going to sea is a dangerous business. Ahead of our major new exhibition, Death in the ice: the shocking story of Franklin's final expedition, we're looking at some of the more gruesome tales that can be found in the exhibition and in our archive.
In May 1845 two ships, HMS Erebus and Terror sailed from Britain to what is now Nunavut in Northern Canada. The ships were under the command of Captain Sir John Franklin and he with 23 officers and 105 men were on a mission to find the North West passage, a sea route that would link the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Both ships were spotted entering Baffin Bay in August 1845 but that was the last that was seen of them. After two years without receiving any communication from Franklin’s mission the Admiralty sent out a search party but without success. A total of 39 missions were sent to the arctic but it wasn’t until the 1850s that evidence of what befell the men began to emerge.
This painting can be viewed as part of the Death in the ice exhibition.
In 1859 Francis L. McClintock successfully recovered bodies and artefacts related to Franklin expedition. 135 miles from the last-known location of the ships, McClintock found a skeleton face-down in the ice. Beside the remains of this ill-starred man was found was a sixpence dated 1831, a half sovereign dated 1844, a pocket comb containing light brown hairs, a small clothes brush and more significantly a pocket book containing loose papers. The pose of the skeleton supported what an Inuit woman had told McClintock about the fate of the men – “they fell down and died as they walked along”.
Though the HMS Erebus was discovered last year, these papers were to be the only personal papers recovered from the Franklin Expedition. What do they tell us, and who did they belong to?
These papers can be viewed as part of the Death in the ice exhibition.
Death in the ice - Franklin exhibition opens 14 July 2017
Discover the shocking story of Franklin’s final expedition at the National Maritime Museum’s major new exhibition exploring this unsolved mystery.
In 2014, the wreck of HMS Erebus was discovered off the coast of Canada, followed by the discovery of HMS Terror in 2016. As Parks Canada’s Underwater Archaeology Team starts to bring to light the ships and their contents, Death in the ice will see some of the discoveries – including personal items, clothing and components of the ships – displayed in Britain for the first time.
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Read more about the Death in the ice exhibition