The 1980s Canadian Expedition

For over 150 years people have been searching for the two lost ships, (the Erebus and Terror). Owen Beattie, a University of Alberta anthropologist let the first of 17 expeditions from 1981 to 2011. Going back to Beechy Island and King William Island, Beattie and his crew studied the graves, bodies and other physical evidence left by Franklin’s crew.

 From 1981-82, the Franklin Expedition Forensic Anthropology Project (FEFAP) was conducted. The trek found archaeological artifacts related to the 19^th-century Europeans and undisturbed disarticulated human remains. After examining the bones, Beattie notes areas a pitting and scaling, often associated with vitamin C deficiency, the cause of scurvy. He also noticed skeletal patterns suggesting cannibalism. They also found unexpected levels of lead in the bones, 10 times higher than the control samples taken from Inuit skeletons form the same geographic region. Other discoveries at King William Island include the remains of between 6 and 14 men and artifacts including a complete boot sole fittest with makeshift cleats for better traction.   

In 1984, Beattie and his group exhumed three well-preserved bodies of crew members on Beechy Island in the permafrost. These men’s bodies were well preserved, and undisturbed for many long decades. There they performed autopsies on the three crew men. Trace samples from the body and hair of John Shaw Torrington indicated that the crewmen were probably suffering from severe mental and physical problems caused by lead poisoning. The lead poisoning most likely came from the tin cans in which their food was held in. the seams of the cans were poorly soldered with lead, which came in direct contact with their food.

 

Frozen mummy of John Shaw Torrington: This picture, along with the information collective sparked interest in the Franklin expedition again.

Just to give you an idea of what lead poisoning can do; lead poisoning is known to cause insanity including delirium, cognitive deficits, tremors, hallucinations and convulsions. This coupled with the brutal cold, scurvy, and extreme isolation of being trapped at sea makes it a high probability that these men went mad.  This also contributes to the evidence of cannibalism in the form of gnaws and cuts on the human bones.