The preserved body of John Torrington, one of the Franklin Expedition mummies left behind after the crew was lost in the Canadian Arctic in 1845.

John Torrington and the other mummies of the Franklin expedition remain haunting reminders of that lost Arctic voyage of 1845, when sailors cannibalized their fellow crew members in their final, desperate days.

Brian SpenceleyThe preserved body of John Torrington, one of the Franklin Expedition mummies left behind after the crew was lost in the Canadian Arctic in 1845.

In 1845, two ships carrying 134 men set sail from England in search of the Northwest Passage, but never returned.

Now known as the lost Franklin expedition, this tragic voyage ended in a shipwreck in the Arctic that left no survivors. Much of what remains are the mummies of the Franklin expedition, preserved for more than 140 years in the ice, belonging to crew members such as John Torrington. Since these bodies were first officially found in the 1980s, their frozen faces have evoked the terror of this doomed voyage.

Listen above to History Uncovered podcast, episode 3: The Lost Franklin Expedition, also available on iTunes and Spotify.

Analysis of these frozen bodies also helped researchers uncover the starvation, lead poisoning and cannibalism that led to the crew’s disappearance. Additionally, while John Torrington and the other mummies from Franklin’s expedition were for a long time the only remains from the voyage, new discoveries have since shed more light.

The two ships of the Franklin expedition, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, were discovered in 2014 and 2016, respectively. In 2019, drones from a Canadian archaeology team even explored the inside of the Terror ‘s wreck for the first time, giving us another close-up look at the haunting remains of this spooky story.

Brian Spenceley The hands of John Hartnell, one of the Franklin Expedition bodies exhumed in 1986 and photographed by Hartnell’s great-great-grandfather, Brian Spenceley.

Although the fate of John Torrington and the mummies of the Franklin Expedition has only recently become clearer, much of their story remains a mystery. But what we do know constitutes a disturbing tale of Arctic terror.

Where things went wrong with the Franklin Expedition

The ill-fated story of John Torrington and the Franklin Expedition begins with Sir John Franklin, an accomplished Arctic explorer and officer in the British Royal Navy. Having successfully completed three previous expeditions, two of which he commanded, Franklin set out once again to cross the Arctic in 1845.

Early on the morning of May 19, 1845, John Torrington and 133 other men boarded the Erebus and the Terror and set out from Greenhithe, England. Equipped with the most modern tools needed to complete their journey, the ironclad ships were also stocked with three years’ worth of provisions, including more than 32,289 pounds of corned beef, 1,008 pounds of raisins, and 580 gallons of pickles.

While we are aware of these preparations and know that five men were discharged and sent home in the first three months, most of what happened next remains a mystery. After they were last seen by a passing ship in Baffin Bay in northeastern Canada in July, the Terror and Erebus seemingly disappeared into the mists of history.

Wikimedia CommonsAn engraving of HMS Terror , one of two ships lost during the Franklin expedition.

Most experts agree that both ships eventually became stranded in the ice in the Arctic Ocean’s Victoria Strait, located between Victoria Island and King William Island in northern Canada. Subsequent discoveries helped researchers piece together a possible map and timeline detailing where and when things went wrong before that point.

Perhaps most importantly, in 1850, American and British researchers found three graves dating back to 1846 on an uninhabited piece of land west of Baffin Bay called Beechey Island. Although researchers would not exhume these bodies for another 140 years, they would turn out to be the remains of John Torrington and the other mummies from Franklin’s expedition.

Then, in 1854, Scottish explorer John Rae met Inuit residents of Pelly Bay who were in possession of items belonging to the Franklin Expedition crew, and informed Rae of piles of human bones discovered in the area, many of which were broken in half, sparking rumors that the Franklin Expeditionaries likely resorted to cannibalism in their final days alive.

Knife marks carved into skeletal remains found on King William Island in the 1980s and 1990s support these claims, confirming that explorers were forced to break the bones of their fallen comrades, who had likely starved to death, before cooking them to extract any remaining marrow in a last-ditch attempt at survival.

But the most chilling remains from Franklin’s expedition came from a man whose body was actually incredibly well preserved, with his bones (and even his skin) remarkably intact.

The discovery of John Torrington and the mummies of the Franklin expedition

YouTubeThe frozen face of John Torrington peers through the ice as researchers prepare to exhume his body some 140 years after his death during the Franklin Expedition.

In the mid-19th century, John Torrington surely had no idea that his name would eventually become famous. In fact, not much was known about the man until anthropologist Owen Beattie exhumed his mummified body on Beechey Island nearly 140 years after his death on several excursions in the 1980s.

A handwritten plaque found nailed to the lid of John Torrington’s coffin stated that the man was only 20 years old when he died on January 1, 1846. Five feet of permafrost buried and essentially cemented Torrington’s grave into the ground.

Brian SpenceleyThe face of John Hartnell, one of three Franklin Expedition mummies exhumed during the 1986 mission to the Canadian Arctic.

Fortunately for Beattie and his team, this permafrost kept John Torrington perfectly preserved and ready to be examined for clues.

Dressed in a grey cotton shirt adorned with shell buttons and linen trousers, John Torrington’s body was found lying on a bed of wood chips, his limbs bound with strips of linen and his face covered with a thin sheet. Beneath his shroud, the details of Torrington’s face remained intact, including a pair of now milky blue eyes, still open after 138 years.

Brian Spenceley The crew of the 1986 exhumation mission used warm water to thaw the frozen mummies of the Franklin expedition.

His official autopsy report shows that he was clean-shaven and had a long, brown mane of hair that had since separated from the scalp. No signs of trauma, wounds or scarring appeared on his body, and a marked disintegration of the brain into a yellow granular substance suggested that his body was kept warm immediately after death, probably by the men who would outlive him long enough to ensure a proper burial.

Standing at 5’4″ tall, the young man weighed just 88 pounds, likely due to the extreme malnutrition he suffered in his final days of life. Tissue and bone samples also revealed fatal levels of lead, likely due to a supply of poorly canned food that surely affected all 129 men on Franklin’s expedition at some level.

Despite a thorough postmortem examination, medical experts have not identified an official cause of death, although they do speculate that pneumonia, starvation, exposure or lead poisoning contributed to the deaths of Torrington and his crewmates.

Wikimedia Commons The graves of John Torrington and his shipmates on Beechey Island.

After investigators exhumed and examined Torrington and the two other men buried alongside him, John Hartnell and William Braine, they returned the bodies to their final resting place.

When John Hartnell was exhumed in 1986, he was so well preserved that skin still covered his exposed hands, his natural red highlights were still visible in his nearly black hair, and his intact eyes were open enough to allow the team to meet the gaze of a man who had died 140 years earlier.

One member of the team who met Hartnell’s gaze was photographer Brian Spenceley, a Hartnell descendant who had been recruited after a chance meeting with Beattie. Once the bodies were exhumed, Spenceley was able to look into his great-uncle’s eyes.

To this day, the mummies of the Franklin expedition remain buried on Beechey Island, where they will remain frozen in time.

Recent research into the fate of John Torrington and the Franklin Expedition

Brian Spenceley The preserved face of John Torrington some 140 years after his death.

Three decades after researchers found John Torrington, they have finally located the two ships he and his crewmates had traveled on.

When the Erebus was discovered in 36 feet of water off King William Island in 2014, it had been 169 years since it set sail. Two years later, the Terror was discovered in a bay 45 miles away, in 80 feet of water, in astonishing condition after nearly 200 years underwater.

“The ship is amazingly intact,” said archaeologist Ryan Harris. “You look at it and you find it hard to believe that this is a 170-year-old shipwreck. You just don’t see this kind of thing very often.”

Parks Canada The Parks Canada team of divers conducted seven dives, during which they inserted remotely operated underwater drones into the ship through various openings, such as hatches and windows.

Then, in 2017, researchers reported that they had collected 39 samples of teeth and bones from members of the Franklin expedition. From these samples, they were able to reconstruct 24 DNA profiles.

They hoped to use this DNA to identify crew members from various burial sites, look for more precise causes of death and piece together a more complete picture of what really happened. Meanwhile, a 2018 study provided evidence that contradicted long-held ideas that lead poisoning from poor food storage helped explain some of the deaths — though some still believe lead poisoning is a factor.

Otherwise, big questions remain unanswered: Why were the two ships so far away from each other, and how exactly did they sink? At least in the case of the Terror , there was no definitive evidence explaining how it sank.

“There is no obvious reason why the Terror sank,” Harris said. “It was not crushed by the ice and there is no breach in the hull. However, it appears to have sunk quickly and suddenly and settled gently to the bottom. What happened?”

These questions have since left researchers searching for answers, which is precisely what archaeologists did during a 2019 drone mission that entered the Terror for the first time.

A guided tour of HMS Terror by Parks Canada.

The Terror was a state-of-the-art ship and, according to Canadian Geographic, was originally built to sail during the War of 1812, participating in several battles before its journey to the Arctic.

Reinforced with thick ice-breaking iron plates and designed to absorb and evenly distribute impacts across its decks, the Terror was in prime condition for Franklin’s expedition. Unfortunately, this was not enough and the ship eventually sank to the bottom of the ocean.

Using remote-controlled underwater drones inserted into the ship’s hatches and crew cabin skylights, the 2019 team conducted seven dives and recorded a fascinating batch of footage showing how remarkably intact the Terror was nearly two centuries after it sank.

Parks Canada, Underwater Archaeology TeamFound in the officers’ mess aboard the Terror , these glass bottles have remained in pristine condition for 174 years.

Ultimately, to answer this question and others like it, there is much more research to be done. To be fair, the research has only just begun. And with modern technology, it is very likely that we will discover more in the near future.

“One way or another,” Harris said, “I’m confident we’ll get to the bottom of this story.”

But while we may uncover more secrets of the Terror and the Erebus , the stories of John Torrington and the other mummies of the Franklin expedition may be lost to history. We may never know what their final days in the ice were like, but we’ll always have the haunting images of their frozen faces to give us a clue.

After this look at John Torrington and the mummies of the Franklin Expedition, learn about sunken ships far more interesting than the Titanic . Then, check out some surprising facts about the Titanic you’ve never heard before.