Polar News

Cameraman Jon Wood, Producer Tim Altmann, Captain Snider and Director Peter Bate

Captain Snider provided insight into the hazards and challenges facing mariners attempting the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic. The interviews were filmed onboard the Canadian research ship W. E. Ricker in which Captain Snider has sailed as Master conducting offshore research activities in the Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands.

Martech Polar Polar Research Associate Dr. Humfrey Melling also provided valuable information on ice conditions in the Canadian Central Arctic. Dr. Melling's interview was conducted at the Institute of Ocean Sciences in North Saanich, British Columbia.

The 50 minute television version was first telecast on UK's Channel 5 weekly documentary program "Revealed", 15 November 2005, followed by ZDF Germany on 20 November and ARTE on 24 November.

Revealed (Documentary)

Time - 20:00 - 21:00 (1 hour long)

When - Tuesday 15th November on five

Franklin's Lost Expedition.
Documentary investigating what happened to the doomed Franklin expedition of 1845, in which Sir John Franklin and 132 men set out to find a route to Asia through the Arctic and never returned.
(Stereo, Followed by five news at 9, Subtitles)

L'expedition disparue (PDF)

Arte Magazine no 47 19/11/05

Franklin's Lost Expedition

This documentary recounts a desperate tale of the doomed Franklin expedition and the equally desperate struggle to find out what went wrong. In 1845, Sir John Franklin, with two ships and 132 men, set out to find a route to Asia through the arctic – the fabled Northwest Passage. They never returned. Why the expedition failed became an enduring mystery. After 150 years, Franklin's records are still missing and the search for his ships and the graves of his men continues.

Since the 16th century, the British had been trying to conquer the Arctic. But the way was hard – the ice-encrusted islands of the world's second largest archipelago were largely uncharted, and it was uncertain if the Northwest Passage even existed. However, Franklin was determined to prove that it could be done. His ships sailed for Baffin Bay, where they were last seen moored to an iceberg. To this day, no one knows what happened next. What really finished the expedition were its maps, which were a mixture of accurately recorded detail, blank spaces and conjecture. Since popular opinion maintained that King William Island was in fact part of the mainland, Franklin concluded that the passage was closed off to the east. He therefore sailed west, where his ships became trapped in the ice. The men onboard had no recourse but to wait for the summer and pray that the ice thawed before it grew thick enough to burst through the hulls.

Three years after the expedition set out, the British admiralty mounted the largest search and rescue mission in history, spending £30 million to equip three teams to bring the men home, or at least find out what had happened to them. But the search parties were unsuccessful and, in a surprising turn, the first news came in 1854 from explorer John Rae. Rae reported having spoken to local Inuit people who told him they had found the remains of a party of white men who had died of starvation in their camp. These men had been driven to the last recourse: cannibalism. This prompted a national outcry in Britain as cannibalism was perceived as an act of uncivilised savagery that threw the expedition into disgrace.

With national pride at stake, the Admiralty mounted one final expedition in 1857. Although they failed to find either the men or the ships, they did recover the only document ever found from the expedition. It revealed that, 10 months after the ships became trapped in the ice, Franklin and several of his officers had died. But the document, which was left in a cairn on King William Island, gave no explanation of the cause of so many deaths, and simply added that the 105 men who were left alive had decided to abandon the icebound ships and make the long trek south to mainland America.

They never made it. Pulling heavy sledges stacked high with food, shelter and firewood across the frozen wastes was too much for the men, who were already overcome with fatigue, malnutrition and scurvy. Although some of them survived for as much as 200 miles, they were ultimately all doomed. The Admiralty in London were swift to play the blame game and pointed the finger at Stephan Goldner, the Hungarian immigrant who had supplied the expedition's canned food. But most modern scientists have exonerated him from accusations of both inexpertly preserving the food and lead poisoning.

The Victorians later turned on the Inuit, stating they were lying about British men resorting to so-called barbarism. The Admiralty overcame these shameful claims by simply ignoring them, erecting a statue to Franklin in praise of his successful conquest of the Northwest Passage and asserting his men had "forged the last link with their lives." But history remains unsatisfied with this blatant whitewash, and the quest for the true story continues to this day. It is driven, perhaps, that despite the Victorians' extensive search; a series of scientific expeditions in the 20th century; and new investigations in the 21st, the answer is still out there, buried under the ice.

EXTRACTS FROM a new documentary examining an ill-fated British Arctic expedition were filmed in a Dundee butcher’s shop yesterday.

The programme focuses on Sir John Franklin’s 1845 expedition to chart a navigable route through the north-west passage in the Canadian Arctic.

The expedition was to become the “biggest Arctic maritime disaster known” when both ships under Franklin’s command—Erebus and Terror—were lost along with their combined crew of 134 men.

The ships were last seen moored to an iceberg on the east side of Baffin Bay in July 1845. They continued to Beechey Island before taking a westerly course through Victoria Strait, where they became icebound in September 1846.

The ships were abandoned and the men headed south on foot toward mainland Canada.

None survived the trip, which later sparked one of the largest and most expensive search missions in naval history.

Documentary makers Crossing the Line Films are trying to shed a new light on the tragedy and contacted forensic anthropologist Professor Sue Black, of Dundee University, to give her expert opinion on bone samples of crew members that feature unusual cut marks.

Professor Black, who worked for six years as a Saturday girl in a butcher’s shop, visited G. & B. Grossett Ltd in Arbroath Road yesterday to demonstrated on a leg of pork how the cut marks might have occurred.

Her expert opinions will be revealed when the documentary is aired on Channel 5 later this year.

Tim Altmann, of Crossing the Line Films, said the story of the Franklin expedition endured in Canada and elsewhere but had been all but lost to generations of Britons.

He said, “Some of the more recent search expeditions brought bone samples of the men with unusual cut marks on them.

“Various theories have been attributed to these marks including polar bears, Eskimo attacks and cannibalism. Professor Black is going to talk about what might have caused these marks.”

At the turn of the 19th century the British had already explored the arctic hinterland extensively. Seamen such as Franklin, Back, Parry, Sabine, Beechey and Ross had been successful in locating previously unchartered territory. But Sir John Barrow, the Secretary of the Admiralty in England at the time, had one final mission up his sleeve before retirement. He longed to discover the missing link in the Northwest Passage, a feat already proven unsuccessful by many.

Sir Barrow approached several explorers before settling on the 60-year-old Franklin, who had recently returned home from a tour as Governor of Tasmania. The opinion was that Franklin was past his prime and better suited to family life at home than on the perilous arctic sea. But the steadfast explorer rejected this notion and eagerly accepted the post.This was to be Franklin's last and most prestigious sea adventure.

The Franklin Expedition was equipped with two ships—the Terror and the Erebus—and was given supplies to cover a three-year expedition. Franklin's direct sailing orders from Sir Barrow were to head through Lancaster Sound and Barrow Straight at 89W and 74N. From here, Franklin was to travel southwest as close as possible to the Bering Strait. The last recorded sighting of the Expedition was on July 26, 1845, when a group of Europeans spotted the ships approximately halfway between Disko Island, Greenland, and the entrance to Lancaster Sound.

When there was no word from the Expedition in 1846, the English populace did not sound alarm bells. The belief at the time was that Franklin would complete the expedition at the end of 1846 and would arrive home in 1847. But when months passed with no word from Franklin, tension started to build. In 1847, Sir John Ross approached the Admiralty with the suggestion that a rescue team be dispatched.

The initial rescue mission consisted of three fleets that set out in 1848. One ship, the H.M.S. Plover, was sent to the Bering Strait with orders to anchor and set out in small boats to explore the Alaskan coast. Another crew was sent on an overland expedition to descend the Mackenzie River, to search along the Mackenzie Delta and the Coppermine/Kent Peninsula region. The third rescue team consisted of two ships that were sent to search out Franklin's supposed route through the northeast. Unfortunately, all three teams were unsuccessful.

The initial rescue mission consisted of three fleets that set out in 1848. One ship, the H.M.S. Plover, was sent to the Bering Strait with orders to anchor and set out in small boats to explore the Alaskan coast. Another crew was sent on an overland expedition to descend the Mackenzie River, to search along the Mackenzie Delta and the Coppermine/Kent Peninsula region. The third rescue team consisted of two ships that were sent to search out Franklin's supposed route through the northeast. Unfortunately, all three teams were unsuccessful.

In the ensuing years, over 40 additional search and rescue crews were dispatched (some financed directly by Franklin's wife, Lady Jane Franklin) from England and the US to locate any clues of the missing ships. It wasn't until 15 years after the initial launch of the Franklin Expedition, that any trace was found of their whereabouts. In 1859, Captain Francis Leopold McClintock arrived at King William Island, and it was here that he located the long lost treasure. He found skeletons of the missing seamen and a logbook of the expedition dated up until April 25, 1848.

According to the written records found by McClintock, the Terror and Erebus became trapped in the ice in Victoria Strait, off King William Island, in September 1846. By April 1848, Franklin and 23 other crewmen had died. On April 22, 1848, the 105 survivors abandoned ship and took off on foot across the Arctic mainland in search of rescue, reportedly resorting to cannibalism en route.

Autopsies conducted on the skeletons showed that the men died of lead poisoning from faultily tinned food. The poisoning might well have contributed to the mental state of the men and prevented them from making rational decisions. As well, it is widely believed that the Franklin Expedition suffered severe cases of scurvy—a life threatening and painful disease caused by malnutrition.

The Northwest Passage was finally successfully navigated by Roald Amundsen's Gjoa steamship in 1906. Today, it is relatively safe to journey through the Arctic's Northwest Passage and several tour companies offer cruises through the region. However, Sir John Franklin's tragically failed expedition remains a cautionary tale that warns of the fierce and unyielding nature of the Arctic Sea.