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The Franklin Northwest Passage Expedition of 1845 is perhaps the greatest disaster in the history of exploration--all 129 men vanished, as did the expedition's two ships, HMS Erebus and Terror. Over the next 150 years, searchers found bones, clothing and a variety of relics. Inuit narratives provided some of the details of what happened to the frozen, starving sailors after they deserted their ice-locked ships in 1848. Then, in 2014 and 2016, Canadian researchers found the sunken wrecks, not far from the bleak, windswept King William Island in the Arctic. At last, the mystery of the Franklin Expedition would be solved. Or would it?
This book pulls together the various searchers' discoveries; the many recent scientific studies that shed light on when, how and why the men died (and whether, in extremis, they ate each other); and illuminates what we know, and what we don't and may never know, about the fate of the expedition.
List of contents
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Preface
1.¿The Known Knowns
2.¿A Quantum Theory of History
3.¿Erebus and Terror
4.¿Who Sailed with Franklin?
5.¿Beechey Island
6.¿Westward Ho?
7.¿Which Side of King William Island?
8.¿Winter 1846-47 and Spring 1847
9.¿The Second Winter Trapped in the Ice
10.¿Where Did They Go?
11.¿Return to the Ships? Mutiny?
12.¿Off the Beaten Path-But Where?
13.¿What Killed Them-and When?
14.¿Cannibalism
15.¿Survivors?
16.¿Sir John's Grave
17.¿Franklin's Legacy
18.¿What Do the Recent Discoveries Mean?
Appendix I. The Victory Point Record
Appendix II. Erebus and Terror Muster Rolls
Appendix III. Sir John Franklin's Sailing Orders
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Stephen Zorn is a retired lawyer and law professor. He was a government official in Papua New Guinea, a United Nations technical adviser and a journalist at the San Francisco Chronicle and the Boston Globe.
Summary
In 2014 and 2016, Canadian researchers found the sunken wrecks of the Franklin Northwest Passage Expedition of 1845. This book pulls together the various searchers’ discoveries; the many recent scientific studies that shed light on when, how and why the men died; and illuminates what we know and what we don’t about the fate of the expedition.
