The 1845 Franklin Northwest Passage expedition was an unprecedented disaster in the history of British polar exploration, with the loss of all 129 officers and crew and the discovery ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. The catastrophe has been the subject of novels, films and television series, as well as active research across several disciplines.

In recent years, remarkable advances have been made, most notably the discoveries of the wrecks of both ships in astonishing states of preservation, which offer great potential for a new understanding of the expedition’s fate. This same period has also seen major advances in the study of the expedition’s human legacy.

On a cold day in late April 1848, having deserted Erebus and Terror a few days earlier, the sailors encamped near Victory Point on northwest King William Island. Captain Francis Crozier penned the words “and start on tomorrow 26th for Back’s Fish River” in the margin of the most important written record of the 1845 Franklin expedition ever found.

Their situation was bleak. The ships had been trapped for 19 months in the ice of Victoria Strait, nearly 30 kilometres from the shore of King William Island.

Nine officers, including the expedition’s leader, John Franklin, and 15 sailors had died, food supplies had declined both in quantity and nutritional value, and many of the 105 survivors were undoubtedly suffering from declining physical and mental health.

The decision to attempt a long and dangerous escape, dragging heavily loaded sleds south over hundreds of kilometres of ice and land, proved fatal. The men stepped onto a path that would lead to their own deaths and into........

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