Oct 03, 2024 08:00:00

Research confirms cannibalism on the lost Franklin Expedition of 1847

The Franklin Expedition , which left England in 1845 with 129 members including Captain John Franklin , became trapped in ice in the Victoria Strait near King William Island in the Canadian Arctic, and all members of the expedition, including Franklin, disappeared. Researchers from the University of Waterloo and other institutions have recently shown that the stranded Franklin Expedition showed signs of cannibalism .

Identification of a senior officer from Sir John Franklin's Northwest Passage expedition - ScienceDirect
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X24003766

Another Franklin expedition crew member has been identified | Waterloo News | University of Waterloo

https://uwaterloo.ca/news/media/another-franklin-expedition-crew-member-has-been-identified

Cannibalism Confirmed: DNA Links Lost Officer to Franklin Expedition's Darkest Hours
https://scitechdaily.com/cannibalism-confirmed-dna-links-lost-officer-to-franklin-expeditions-darkest-hours/

In 1846, the Franklin Expedition was trapped in the ice of the Victoria Strait, but Franklin died on June 11, 1847. After Franklin's death, James FitzJames, commander of the Royal Navy's expedition ship HMS Erebus, led 105 survivors in an attempt to escape from the Arctic Circle, but in the end there were no survivors.

Since then, the remains of dozens of people believed to be members of the Franklin Expedition have been discovered around King William Island.

The team used DNA samples from surviving descendants of the Franklin expedition members to identify the remains. Thirteen members have been identified so far, including the remains of expedition leader FitzJames, who was found in NgLj-2, one of the many remains found there.

Local Inuit also told searchers in the 1850s that survivors of the Franklin Expedition had practiced cannibalism, and in 1997, Dr. Anne Keenlyside found incision marks on nearly a quarter of the bones found at NgLj-2, proving that some of the people who died there had been cannibalized.

'This discovery indicates that FitzJames died before the rest of the crew,' said Douglas Stenton, a researcher at the University of Waterloo.

Even in 19th century Europe, cannibalism was seen as a 'morally reprehensible act,' but the research team sympathizes with the desperate situation that the Franklin Expedition found itself in, having to resort to cannibalism.

'Since the expedition's disappearance in the Arctic in 1847, there has been widespread interest in its ultimate fate, resulting in a number of speculative books and articles and, more recently, a television series on cannibalism,' said Robert Park of the University of Waterloo. 'This discovery shows that there is much that remains unknown about the Franklin Expedition.'