A new exhibit at Mystic Seaport Museum sheds light on one of history’s most enduring maritime mysteries. “Death in the Ice: The Mystery of the Franklin Expedition” assembles a collection of artifacts bringing to life the doomed 1845 Arctic mission to navigate the farthest portion of the Northwest Passage.
The exhibit is divided into various zones covering the expedition’s story. Zone One begins with Captain Sir John Franklin and his ships, HMS Terror and Erebus, departing England on 19 May 1845. The expedition was the Royal Navy’s most ambitious attempt to map the final reaches of the Northwest Passage and was Franklin’s fourth sojourn to the Arctic.
The Terror and Erebus were last reported in late July 1845 in Baffin Bay. Optimistic that the winter would be a mild one, Franklin set a course due west into Barrow Strait, ascending Wellington Channel and reaching Cornwallis Island by early autumn. It is at this point that either sea ice or storms convinced Franklin, who knew he had gotten incredibly far very quickly, to turn back. His first months had been a success, and he found a safe harbor near the looming cliffs of Beechey Island and prepared to wait out the Arctic winter.
Zone Two examines the prior 400 years of Arctic exploration (both Inuit and European) that provided Franklin with a wealth of intel. Using this to his advantage, Franklin extensively provisioned the expedition with almost 100,000 pounds of beef, pork, and tinned meat, which, by the captain’s own estimate, would be enough to last the crew five years, seven if they rationed spartanly.
To accommodate such an extensive manifest, Franklin was given two fine Royal Navy’s ships. HMS Terror participated in the War of 1812, firing on Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore and on Stonington, Connecticut, near Mystic Seaport Museum. HMS Erebus was younger by 13 years but had extensive Antarctic exploration under her hull. Naval architecture buffs will appreciate the exhibit’s many plans, sketches, and models of the two ships, used to show their genesis into Arctic powerhouses.
Zone Three looks at life on board the two vessels, both while under way and (later) while iced in. Franklin anticipated long winters on board, and he stocked both ships with games, books, periodicals, hand organs, and even pets to keep the crew occupied. Recovered artifacts reveal the men’s leisure activities and scientific pursuits. A subzone, named “Tununiq: The Back of Beyond,” uses Inuit oral history to describe the natives’ negative associations surrounding the desolate area where the ships rested.
Zone Four looks at the intersections of national pride, ego, and blind faith—the fault lines of the expedition. For instance, in a deviation from normal procedure, no smaller “escape boats” were left at ports along the way, should the Terror and Erebus become compromised. Also, no volunteers were sent to follow the expedition’s trail after a certain point. In the end, Franklin’s good friend and fellow polar explorer Captain James Ross convinced Franklin to leave messages in designated cairns and promised to come himself if his friend had not been heard from by February 1847.
Franklin’s wife, Lady Jane, was worried long before then. The first to sound the alarm for her husband’s possible misfortune, she helped set in motion some 30 search efforts between 1847 and 1880. Mystic Seaport displays many of the artifacts recovered during this time, including items that were either traded to or discovered by Inuits, who provided testimony to the recovery crews to no avail. But perhaps the most significant artifact in the exhibit is the Victory Point Note, the only firsthand account of the expedition’s downward spiral.
Written on 28 May 1846, the Victory Point Note, found in a cairn at the northwest tip of King William Island, gave the coordinates for the crew’s position and stated that after spending the winter on the ships, all was well. But written around the edges of the document, an amendment told a different story. Added roughly a year later, the note stated that after a year and a half of being icebound, the crew finally abandoned ship.
“The Victory Point Note was the Holy Grail of looking for Franklin,” says Mystic Seaport Museum Vice President Nicholas Bell. “That’s the only narrative clue to come out of the expedition, and it states that they’re going to walk out.”
The document gave credence to discounted Inuit stories. “The Inuit were aware of the ships, interacted with them, and provided eyewitness testimony when rescuers came,” Bell says, citing the many Inuit artifacts that show their understanding of the white men’s predicament. “But no one was paying attention.”
Details surrounding the men’s ultimate fate are still under debate, and Zone Five explores Inuit oral history and the modern-day forensic evidence that supports it. The oral histories involve the stuff of nightmares, describing a site of mass death where men had overturned boats and erected tents. According to Inuit stories, the most horrific details were in kettles found at the site: Without game available, the crew had resorted to cannibalism. One member of the crew was found with a telescope strapped to his shoulders and a shotgun resting underneath him.
Back in England, the realities of the expedition’s final days were met with great resistance from a media campaign aimed at preserving Franklin’s reputation. Charles Dickens himself wrote a scathing editorial denouncing the Inuit stories and vehemently concluding that no member of the Royal Navy ever would resort to cannibalism.
This aversion to the harsh reality perhaps created the biggest obstacle in finding the men and built a barrier to fully understanding their heroism and bravery. The exhibit adds a human element to the story, commemorating each of the men involved in the expedition, displaying their personal effects, daguerreotype portraits and other images, and posthumously awarded medals.
It was almost 150 years before a breakthrough came. “The oral histories played a big part in being able to locate the ships in 2014 and 2016,” Bell says, referencing the discovery of the Erebus in 2014 and Terror in 2016 by Parks Canada and the Arctic Research Foundation, respectively. Both ships were located in less than 100 feet of water, using Inuit knowledge of the well-preserved vessels’ last known locations and knowledge of the movement of sea ice. Various objects carefully removed from the ships are on display, including a bronze bell, the first artifact removed from the wreck of the Erebus.
Exploring the wrecks may rapidly change understanding of the expedition. “The diving brings the possibility of a new narrative. We might find photographic negatives, journals, paper records, and more in the storage lockers of officers’ cabins. These have not been opened yet,” said Bell.
While no sailors lived to tell the tale, the museum recognizes that the men live on through their own ancestry. “DNA work is currently being done on the remains of some 60 to 75 men found on the tundra,” Bell says, stating that descendants of the crew are encouraged to attend and reach out to historians actively mapping the genealogical picture.
The exhibition was developed by the Canadian Museum of History in partnership with the Parks Canada Agency and the National Maritime Museum in London, England. The Government of Nunavut and the Inuit Heritage Trust also collaborated. “Death in the Ice: The Mystery of the Franklin Exhibition” runs through 28 April 2019.
