Navigation and history of science: Ice, hunger and lead. Franklin’s lost expedition

Abstract

The Franklin’s lost expedition was a British voyage of Arctic exploration led by Captain Sir John Franklin. They sailed from England in 1845 aboard two ships, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror. The mission was to cross the last non-navigated section of the so-called Northwest Passage in the Arctic. After various vicissitudes and losses of men, the two ships were trapped in the ice in the Victoria Strait, near King William Island in the Canadian Arctic. The entire expedition, 129 men including Franklin, was lost. Infections, lead poisoning, malnutrition, scurvy, hypothermia and cannibalism ended the expedition

Keywords

• Franklin
• Erebus;
• Terror;
• Arctic
• lead poisoning
• ; cannibalism
• starvation; scurvy
• ; hypothermia