John Franklin: The Expedition Trapped in Ice and the Truth an Empire Buried

On 19 May 1845, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror left Greenhithe, England. The two ships carried 134 people: Sir John Franklin, Royal Navy officers, sailors, engineers, and doctors. They carried years of tinned food, steam engines, heating equipment, and reinforced hulls for sea ice. Their mission was to find a sea route through northern Canada connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

After a stop in Greenland, five men were sent home for health reasons. The remaining 129 continued north. In late July, two whaling ships saw Erebus and Terror in Baffin Bay. No European saw the expedition alive again. Neither ship returned. No letter arrived. No survivor came home to describe the final days.