DNA identifies four more crew members of doomed Franklin expedition
“some very hard ground to heave”
Three served on the HMS Erebus; the fourth was Petty Officer Harry Peglar of the HMS Terror.
Oil painting by Belgian marine artist François Etienne Musin depicting the HMS Erebus trapped in Arctic ice. Credit: Public domain
Archaeologists continue to use DNA analysis to identify the recovered remains of the doomed crew members of Captain Sir John S. Franklin’s 1846 Arctic expedition to cross the Northwest Passage. They can now add four more names to the list of previously identified crew members. The findings were reported in two papers, one published in the Journal of Archaeological Science and the other in the Polar Record.
As we’ve reported previously, Franklin’s two ships, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror, became icebound in the Victoria Strait, and all 129 crew members ultimately died. It has been an enduring mystery that has...
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