Franklin's Lost Expedition

Sir  John Franklin led a British Arctic Exploration in 1845. This wasn't his first arctic exploration. He had served on three previous explorations. His fourth exploration would be his last.What prompted this voyage was that people wanted a quicker way to get to Asia. People wanted to know if a northwest passage existed between Asia and North America. His ships were the Terror and Erebus. He had 129 crew members and believed he had enough supplies to last the whole trip. The supplies were not enough to last the whole trip.The lack of supplies led to the death of the entire crew. Somehow both ships were trapped in ice at King William Island. Since supplies were dwindling some of the men left the ship to find food.  The intense cold did get the best of them though. The graves of three crew members were discovered on Beechy island. The cold had turned them into mummies. Those mummies were analyzed and it was discovered that they had lead poisoning.

 People in England realized something must be wrong. They sent other explorers to find Franklin and his crew.A search in 1859 led by Francis McClintock discovered a note on King William Island. This note left details of the expedition and what went wrong.  A series of studies in 1981 concluded that the crew members they found most likely died of pneumonia and maybe tuberculosis.The lead poisoning made their health worse. The cut marks on the bones left on King William Island were seen as signs of cannibalism. The combination of starvation, lead poisoning, disease,and the fact that they lacked proper clothing is what killed the crew.  Here is a link to a documentary of the expedition: http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=E9dwodDdvjk. Or go on youtube and type in Franklin's lost expedition to find out more.