The Franklin Expedition: The Arctic's Greatest Mystery
Two ships sailed into the Canadian Arctic in search of a passage and vanished launching the most famous search in exploration history.
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Sir John Franklin led two reinforced ships, Erebus and Terror, to find the Northwest Passage. They were last seen by European whalers in 1845 and then disappeared.
Years of searches found relics, graves, and finally evidence of starvation, scurvy, and possible lead poisoning as the crews abandoned the ice-bound ships.
The wrecks were located in 2014 and 2016, closing one of history's great unsolved disappearances.
"129 men sailed north and not one came home. The ice kept their secret for a century and a half."
The lost Franklin expedition triggered decades of searches that mapped the Arctic and asserted sovereignty claims. Modern finds of the wrecks finally solved the riddle, a story of Victorian ambition meeting lethal cold.
The Full Story
The Vanishing
The expedition was superbly equipped yet doomed by pack ice, deficient provisions, and perhaps tainted food.
A Century of Search
Lady Franklin's campaigns and Royal Navy searches charted vast stretches of the Arctic while seeking survivors who were long dead.
The Wrecks Found
Parks Canada's discovery of Erebus and Terror off King William Island finally revealed where the ships came to rest.