In May 1845, 129 men sailed from England aboard two of the Royal Navy's finest ships — HMS Erebus and HMS Terror — on a mission to conquer the last uncharted stretch of the Northwest Passage. Not a single one of them would ever return. What happened to the Franklin Expedition over the next several years remains one of the most harrowing stories of human suffering in exploration history.
Sir John Franklin, already famous as "the man who ate his boots" after nearly starving on earlier Arctic expeditions, commanded what was supposed to be the most technologically advanced polar voyage ever attempted. The ships carried steam engines, central heating systems, water distillation equipment, and enough tinned provisions for three years. They had a library of 2,000 books, a hand-cranked organ, and daguerreotype cameras. By every measure, this expedition should have succeeded.
Instead, the ships became trapped in the crushing pack ice of Victoria Strait off King William Island in September 1846 — and never broke free. Over the next 19 months, Franklin himself and at least 23 other men died aboard the icebound vessels. The 105 survivors, led by Captain Francis Crozier, made the desperate decision to abandon ship in April 1848 and attempt a 400-kilometer death march across the ice and tundra toward the Back River. They hauled heavy boats and sledges through some of the most hostile terrain on Earth, already weakened by tuberculosis, scurvy, lead poisoning, and zinc deficiency. They died in small, scattered groups along the shores of King William Island — and forensic evidence confirms that in their final desperation, some of them resorted to cannibalism.
It took over 170 years, but the wrecks of both ships were finally found — Erebus in 2014 and Terror in 2016 — sitting remarkably preserved on the Arctic seabed, still holding secrets that may one day rewrite everything we think we know about what happened during those final, terrible years.
📍 TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 — 129 Men Disappeared Into the Arctic
0:55 — The Northwest Passage: Britain's Deadly Obsession
1:55 — Sir John Franklin: "The Man Who Ate His Boots"
2:25 — HMS Erebus and HMS Terror: The Ships
3:25 — The Expedition Departs England: May 1845
5:32 — Last Contact: July 1845
6:30 — The Three Graves at Beechey Island
7:58 — Frozen Bodies Exhumed After 138 Years
8:58 — Trapped in the Ice: 19 Months Without Escape
10:32 — The Victory Point Note: "All Well" to Total Disaster
12:10 — The 400-Kilometer Death March
13:36 — Starvation Cove: Where the Last Men Died
14:05 — John Rae and the Inuit Eyewitnesses
14:59 — Charles Dickens and the Cannibalism Cover-Up
17:27 — 92 Bones with Cut Marks: The Forensic Proof
19:32 — Lead Poisoning, Zinc Deficiency, and What Really Killed Them
22:01 — The 170-Year Search for the Lost Ships
24:07 — HMS Erebus Found: September 2014
25:39 — HMS Terror Found: September 2016
27:13 — What's Still Sealed Inside the Wrecks
28:42 — Why the Inuit Survived Where the Navy Died
📚 SOURCES & FURTHER READING:
https://wikipedia.nucleos.com/viewer/wikipedia_en_all_maxi_2025-08/Franklin's_lost_expeditionhttps://www.britannica.com/event/Franklin-expeditionhttps://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/nu/epaveswrecks/culture/archeologie-archeology/decouvertes-discoverieshttps://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/our-collections-relics-sir-john-franklins-last-expeditionhttps://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/maritime-history/hms-terror-erebus-history-franklin-lost-expeditionhttps://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2020/october/lost-franklin-expedition📋 ABOUT THIS VIDEO:
This video examines the complete history of the Franklin Expedition of 1845, commanded by Sir John Franklin aboard HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, which departed Greenhithe, England on 19 May 1845 with 129 officers and men to navigate the Northwest Passage through the Canadian Arctic. The expedition wintered at Beechey Island in 1845–1846 where Petty Officer John Torrington, Able Seaman John Hartnell, and Royal Marine William Braine died and were buried in permafrost. The ships became trapped in pack ice in Victoria Strait off King William Island on 12 September 1846 and were abandoned on 22 April 1848 after Sir John Franklin died on 11 June 1847. Captain Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier and Commander James Fitzjames led the 105 survivors on a 400-kilometer march toward the Great Fish River (Back River). Owen Beattie's 1984–1986 forensic exhumations revealed elevated lead levels, tuberculosis, and zinc deficiency. Cut marks on 92 of 304 bones found at Erebus Bay confirmed survival cannibalism. HMS Erebus was discovered on 2 September 2014 in Queen Maud Gulf and HMS Terror on 3 September 2016 in Terror Bay by Parks Canada, the Arctic Research Foundation, and Inuit hunter Sammy Kogvik.
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