Three graves from the doomed 1845 Franklin expedition. Exhumation revealed lead poisoning from canned food solder likely weakened the crew before they vanished. The graves' permafrost preservation preserved the sailors of Victorian medicine.
Ansgar Walk, CC BY-SA 2.5
A Frozen Winter Camp
In the winter of 1845-46, Sir John Franklin's expedition, with 129 men aboard HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, established a camp on Beechey Island to wait for the ice to clear. The expedition's goal was to navigate the final unnavigated section of the Northwest Passage. That first winter, three men died and were buried in the island's permafrost, their graves marked with wooden headboards. They were the first fatalities of an expedition from which no one would return.
The three men were John Torrington, a 20-year-old leading stoker who died on January 1, 1846; Able Seaman John Hartnell, aged 25, who died on January 4; and Royal Marine Private William Braine, aged 32, who died on April 3. Their graves, along with remnants of the camp including a storehouse, a forge, and cairns, were discovered in 1850 by search parties. For over a century, these three graves were the primary physical evidence of the expedition's fate before its two ships became trapped in ice off King William Island and were abandoned in April 1848.
An Arctic Autopsy
In the 1980s, a team of scientists led by anthropologist Owen Beattie traveled to Beechey Island to seek answers. They received permission to exhume the three sailors to determine their cause of death. Hacking through the frozen ground, they reached the coffins and found the bodies encased in blocks of ice. After a careful thawing process, the team was stunned by the results. The permafrost had preserved the men in a near-perfect state for almost 140 years.
The forensic autopsies provided information. John Torrington, the first man exhumed in 1984, weighed only 38.5 kilograms (85 pounds). Analysis of his hair and tissue samples revealed high concentrations of lead. The subsequent exhumations of Hartnell and Braine in 1986 showed similar results. The autopsies determined the immediate causes of death were diseases like pneumonia and tuberculosis. The high lead levels, however, suggested the men were suffering from lead poisoning, which would have compromised their immune systems and led to symptoms like fatigue, weakness, and paranoia.
The primary suspect for the source of the lead was the solder used to seal the 8,000 tins of food supplied to the expedition. The technology was relatively new, and rushed production for the expedition may have resulted in poorly sealed cans, allowing lead to leach into the contents. While later research has suggested other sources, like the ships' unique water piping systems, could have contributed, the analysis of the Beechey Island graves provided the first major scientific breakthrough in understanding the medical disaster that befell the Franklin expedition.
💡Fun Facts
The body of John Torrington was so well preserved that his blue eyes were still visible when he was exhumed almost 140 years after his death.
During the 1986 exhumation, researchers discovered that John Hartnell's body showed signs of a previous autopsy, likely performed by the expedition's own surgeon in 1846.
The permafrost preserved the bodies not through mummification (drying) but by keeping them frozen in an anoxic, or oxygen-free, environment that halted bacterial decomposition.
Other remains of the 1845-46 winter camp on Beechey Island include a large cairn, the remains of a storehouse called Northumberland House, and smaller artifacts like tin cans and canvas.
