On May 19, 1845, two ships departed from Kent, England. The crew and officers of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, commanded by Sir John Franklin, embarked on a mission to map the Canadian Arctic’s Northwest Passage. The expedition did not proceed as planned.
Before reaching their intended destination, five crew members left the ships due to illness. These individuals would later be considered fortunate, as both vessels became trapped in Arctic ice. While some members perished prior to abandoning the ships, a total of 105 sailors eventually left the vessels in search of assistance overland. In total, 129 sailors lost their lives. Testimonies from the Inuit who encountered the sailors, along with marks discovered on some remains, reveal a grim narrative where the survivors resorted to cannibalism. Nearly 180 years after the expedition commenced, the remains of James Fitzjames, the captain of the Erebus, have been identified. Fitzjames was one of the unfortunate men subjected to posthumous cannibalism.
Researchers have discovered human bones and teeth on multiple expeditions to King William Island, dating back to the mid-19th century. This location is where over 100 survivors of the ill-fated voyage sought refuge after abandoning their ships and subsequently perished. At one site, 451 bones belonging to at least 13 sailors were uncovered. The identities of the remains had remained unknown until anthropologists and DNA experts from Canada’s University of Waterloo and Lakehead University began their analysis several years ago. Their findings were published in a recent edition of the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. After examining 17 bone and tooth samples collected from one of the King William Island camps, the DNA was compared to samples from the living relatives of some of the doomed sailors.
Stephen Fratpietro of Lakehead University’s Paleo-DNA lab stated, "We worked with a good quality sample that allowed us to generate a Y-chromosome profile, and we were lucky enough to obtain a match."
Fitzjames was a senior member of the expedition, authoring the report that declared Sir John Franklin’s death. However, his rank did not spare his remains from being used for survival, as cut marks on his jawbone indicate that at least some of his fellow sailors attempted to consume him.
Douglas Stenton, an adjunct professor of anthropology at Waterloo, noted, "This shows that he predeceased at least some of the other sailors who perished, and that neither rank nor status was the governing principle in the final desperate days of the expedition as they strove to save themselves."
Fitzjames is the second member of the Franklin expedition whose remains have been positively identified. In 2021, similar techniques were used to identify remains of John Gregory, a warrant officer on the Erebus. The Erebus was rediscovered in 2014, while the Terror was located in 2016.
The archaeologists continue their efforts, urging other distant family members of sailors who were on the Franklin expedition to come forward. They aim to create more genetic matches to identify additional remains from the ill-fated expedition.