The USS Terror

If you could see my recent reading list, you would know I've been on a disaster kick for the last 9 months or so. I can't get enough. It's science on the fringes - searching for the Northwest Passage, climbing peaks around the world, freediving hundreds of feet in the ocean. It's intense, heartbreaking, and it reminds me to try to stay fit in case I'm ever stranded on K2 during a blizzard.

A sub-obsession from all this is the lost Franklin expedition. Two ships - the HMS Terror and the HMS Erebus - departed to explore the Northwest Passage in 1845, with Sir John Franklin in command. Despite a massive search effort championed by Lady Jane Franklin, they were never seen alive again. It is one of the largest maritime disasters in history. One hundred twenty-nine men disappeared.

Credit: National Archives of Canada,

After more than 150 years of searching, we've discovered more of the story. A search party found three burial sites. A few years later, another group discovered a cached note that stated the ships had been trapped in the ice. In the early 1980s the graves were exhumed, lending credence to the idea that the crew died of lead poisoning from their own food supply, thanks to poorly soldered cans. Most dramatically, the Erebus was discovered in 2014.

Today the Arctic Research Foundation released photos and videos of what they believe to be the wreck of the HMS Terror. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/12/hms-terror-wreck-found-arctic-nearly-170-years-northwest-passage-attempt

The news has only been released for a few hours, but it brings up all sorts of questions. Is it possible some of the men tried to sail the Terror home? How did the Terror make it this far?

I've got to shut up now about this, but first here are my recommended books:

Frozen in time: Unlocking the secrets of the Franklin expedition by Owen Beattie and John Geiger. A first-person look at the exhumation of the bodies on Beechey Island and King William Island, complete with photos.

(fiction) The Terror by Dan Simmons. Ultimately a frustrating book, but great if you read it in parallel with Frozen in time.

In the kingdom of ice: the grand and terrible polar voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides. The story of another lost expedition, that of the USS Jeannette. Beautifully written. It humanizes their fight for life, and although a few survived this expedition, it's an easy parallel to the Franklin expedition.