Passage 2
Franklin's Lost Expedition
A.
What could have resulted in the deaths of 129 men and officers aboard the
ship in Franklin’s lost expedition? The fate of the ship remains a topic of
investigation, still intriguing to some international researchers of today. Sir
John Franklin and his crew set sail from England in 1845 in search of the
Northwest Passage, a sea route that was rumored to connect the continents
of Europe and Asia. Two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, headed the
expedition. Franklin's wife, Lady Jane Franklin, had become worried after
three years without any communication from the expedition. She then
persuaded the government to begin investigating. The sites of the three first
search efforts were Lancaster Sound, the Bering Strait and over land
beginning at the Mackenzie River.
B.
All of these searches, as well as others that followed were unsuccessful in
discovering the fate of the crew. Lady Franklin began her own search in 1851,
but about a year later, these searches led by McClure and Collinson and their
crews also turned up missing. Collinson eventually found his way back
to England, while McClure was found and returned back in 1854. That same
year, searcher John Rae reported to the Admiralty that according to Inuit
information and some discovered items, it seemed
that Franklin and the crew
had perished. In a desperate last attempt to survive, some may have even
taken up cannibalism. Rae was given what would be about $400,000
Canadian dollars today as a reward. Therefore, it appeared that Admiralty
would not pursue any further search efforts.
C.
However, Lady Franklin did not give up there, and in 1857 she began
commissioning another search with Leopold McClintock as its leader. It was
McClintock who found many corpses on King William Island, along with a
journal which outlined the journey of Franklin's two ships, Erebus and Terror.
On May 1847, it seemed according to the journal that the ships were stuck in
ice. Even so, there should have been enough food supplies onboard the ships
to last three years. "All well," said the note. Another note from April 25, 1848
made the situation appear more dire. Apparently, the ships had remained
stuck in ice for over a year, with several men abandoning the expedition within
the days before.
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