Franklin Expedition
F1. Maritime HistoryDefinition
1845 Royal Navy Arctic expedition lost in search of the Northwest Passage.
The Franklin Expedition of 1845 was a Royal Navy attempt under Sir John Franklin to complete the Northwest Passage with HMS Erebus and Terror and 129 men. The ships were trapped in ice off King William Island and all hands died over the following years from cold, starvation, scurvy, and possibly lead poisoning, the deadliest disaster in British polar history. Decades of search voyages mapped much of the Arctic; the wrecks were located in 2014 and 2016 with the help of Inuit testimony.