DNA identifies four more crew members of doomed Franklin expedition

Archaeologists continue to use DNA analysis to identify the recovered remains of the doomed crew members of Captain Sir John S. Franklin’s 1846 Arctic expedition to cross the Northwest Passage. They can now add four more names to the list of previously identified crew members. The findings were reported in two papers, one published in the Journal of Archaeological Science and the other in the Polar Record.

As we’ve reported previously, Franklin’s two ships, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror, became icebound in the Victoria Strait, and all 129 crew members ultimately died. It has been an enduring mystery that has captured imaginations ever since. The expedition set sail on May 19, 1845, and was last seen in July 1845 in Baffin Bay by the captains of two whaling ships. Historians have compiled a reasonably credible account of what happened: The crew spent the winter of 1845–1846 on Beechey Island, where the graves of three crew members were found.

When the weather cleared, the expedition sailed into the Victoria Strait before getting trapped in the ice off King William Island in September 1846. Franklin died on June 11, 1847, per a surviving note signed by Fitzjames dated the following April. HMS Erebus Captain James Fitzjames had assumed overall command after Franklin’s death, leading 105 survivors from their ice-trapped ships. It’s believed that everyone else died while encamped for the winter or while attempting to walk back to civilization.

There was no concrete news about the expedition’s fate until 1854, when local Inuits told 19th-century Scottish explorer John Rae that they had seen about 40 people dragging a ship’s boat on a sledge along the south coast. The following year, several bodies were found near the mouth of the Back River. A second search in 1859 led to the discovery of a location some 80 kilometers to the south of that site, dubbed Erebus Bay, as well as several more bodies and one of the ships’ boats still mounted on a sledge. In 1861, yet another site was found just 2 kilometers away with even more bodies. When those two sites were rediscovered in the 1990s, archaeologists designated them NgLj-3 and NgLj-2, respectively.

The actual shipwrecks of the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror were not found until 2014 and 2016, respectively. Thanks to the cold water temperature, lack of natural light, and the layers of silt covering many of the artifacts, the ship and its contents were in remarkably good condition. Even some of the windowpanes were still intact. The first underwater images and footage showing the ships’ exteriors and interiors were released in 2019.

It’s in the DNA

2D forensic facial reconstruction of David Young, Boy 1st Class from the HMS Erebus, who died at Erebus Bay.

Credit:
Diana Trepkov

For several years, scientists have been conducting DNA research to identify the remains found at these sites by comparing DNA profiles of the remains with samples taken from descendants of the expedition members. Some 46 archaeological samples (bone, tooth, or hair) from Franklin expedition-related sites on King William Island have been genetically profiled and compared to cheek swab samples from 25 descendant donors. Most did not match, but in 2021, they identified one of those bodies as chief engineer John Gregory, who worked on the Erebus.

By 2024, the team had added four more descendant donors—one related to Fitzjames (technically a second cousin five times removed through the captain’s great-grandfather). That same year, DNA analysis revealed that a tooth recovered from a mandible at one of the relevant archaeological sites was that of Captain James Fitzjames of the HMS Erebus. His remains showed clear signs of cannibalism, confirming early Inuit reports of desperate crew members resorting to eating their dead.

We can now add three more crew members identified through their DNA. As before, to make the identifications, the team extracted DNA from archaeological samples and compared it with mitochondrial and Y-chromosome DNA from descendants. These included a molar and humerus shaft from NgLj-3; two molars, a premolar, and a temporal cranium bone from NgLj-2; and a sample taken from a left humerus found in 2018 at NgLj-1. The researchers were able to identify three individuals: William Orren, able seaman; David Young, boy 1st class; and John Bridgens, subordinate officers’ steward. All served on the HMS Erebus, and they all died at Erebus Bay.