Frozen in Time: Fate of the Franklin Expedition

by Owen Beattie (Author), John Geiger (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1989

  $3.25

• Used

  Paperback
  1993

  $105.15

  A reconstruction of Sir John Franklin's ill-fated Arctic expedition of 1848 when the HMS Terror and HMS Erebus disappeared. This study was made possible by the discovery of a bleached human skull, found by the team working with anthropologist Dr Owen Beattie on 29 June 1981. This led to 3 further scientific expeditions over the next five years, during which time more information was pieced together. The bodies of 3 Victorian seamen were found on King William Island, well preserved by the permafrost for 133 years which enabled twentieth century forensic and anthropological scientists to uncover the mystery. Also revealed were the circumstances by which the surviving members of Franklin's elite naval forces came within sight of the Northwest Passage, which was their journey's goal, only to succumb to the horrors of starvation, scurvy and cannibalism. Included is a photographic record of the excavation with maps and illustrations and the conclusions reached by twentieth century forensic and anthropological scientists.

• New

  Paperback
  2004

  $14.26

  The Franklin expedition was not alone in suffering early and unexplained deaths. Indeed, both Back (1837) and Ross (1849) suffered early onset of unaccountable debility aboard ship and Ross suffered greater fatalities during his single winter in the Arctic than did Franklin during his first. Both expeditions were forced to retreat because of the rapacious illness that stalked their ships. Frozen in Time makes the case that this illness (starting with the Back expedition) was due to the crews' overwhelming reliance on a new technology, namely tinned foods. This not only exposed the seamen to lead, an insidious poison - as has been demonstrated in Franklin's case by Dr. Beattie's research - but it also left them vulnerable to scurvy, the ancient scourge of seafarers which had been thought to have been largely cured in the early years of the nineteenth century. Fully revised, Frozen in Time will update the research outlined in the original edition, and will introduce independent confirmation of Dr. Beattie's lead hypothesis, along with corroboration of his discovery of physical evidence for both scurvy and cannibalism. In addition, the book includes a new introduction written by Margaret Atwood, who has long been fascinated by the role of the Franklin Expedition in Canada's literary conscience, and has made a pilgrimage to the site of the Franklin Expedition graves on Beechey Island.