THE LAST LOGBOOK

Franklin's Lost Expedition

Episode 1 · 1845–1859 · King William Island, Canadian Arctic · 17 min 30 s

Two 1840s three-masted sailing ships completely locked in thick Arctic pack ice

Episode 1 · 17 min 30 s · Published 20 September 2026

AI-generated reconstruction, not an archival photograph.

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In May 1859, on the northwest coast of King William Island, a British naval officer named William Hobson pulled apart a pile of stones. Inside, sealed in a metal cylinder, was a single sheet of paper — a standard Royal Navy record form, the kind sailors threw overboard in bottles to track ocean currents.

It had been written on twice, a year apart. The first message, from May 1847, ended with two words: All well. The second was crowded into the margins around it in April 1848. The ships had been abandoned. Sir John Franklin was dead. Twenty-four men were gone, and the one hundred and five who were left were setting out on foot toward a river hundreds of miles to the south.

None of them were ever seen alive again by another European.

This episode follows the expedition from the day it left the Thames to the DNA laboratory that is now, one name at a time, identifying the dead — including the officer whose handwriting fills those margins.

There is a companion book for this episode — the whole account, $6.99.

Key facts

Ships
HMS Erebus · HMS Terror
Sailed
19 May 1845, Greenhithe
Crew
129 men
Beset in ice
12 September 1846
Ships abandoned
22 April 1848
Survivors found
None

Chapters

  1. 0:00The note in the cairn
    A Royal Navy officer lifting stones from a cairn on a snow-covered Arctic ridgeThe naval record form seen from above, handwriting crowded into every margin
  2. 1:01Two ships leave England
  3. 3:32Beechey Island and three graves
    A large pile of hundreds of rusting empty tin cans at an abandoned Arctic winter campThree weathered wooden grave markers standing in a row on a windswept Arctic slope
  4. 5:39Trapped
  5. 7:39The margins of the note
    A long column of exhausted men hauling two wooden boats on sledges across broken sea ice
  6. 9:44What they left behind
    The abandoned boat on its sledge seen from behind, its bow pointing toward the far white horizon
  7. 11:09John Rae and the truth nobody wanted
    Oil painting portrait in 1850s style of a lean bearded explorer in fur-trimmed travelling clothes
  8. 13:05Finding Erebus and Terror
    A remarkably intact nineteenth-century wooden warship upright on the seabed, hatches closed
  9. 14:52The names return
    A scientist in gloves and lab coat at a genetics workstation, DNA sequence graphs on two monitorsA simple stone memorial cairn with a small weathered brass plaque on a barren Arctic shore at sunsetAn aged folded sheet of paper on grey Arctic stones, its corner lifted by the wind

AI-generated reconstruction, not an archival photograph.

Timeline

  1. 19 May 1845Erebus and Terror sail from Greenhithe on the Thames.
  2. Late July 1845Two whaling ships meet them in Baffin Bay. The last Europeans to see the expedition alive.
  3. Winter 1845–46The expedition winters at Beechey Island. John Torrington, John Hartnell and William Braine die and are buried there.
  4. 12 September 1846Erebus and Terror are beset in the ice off the northwest corner of King William Island. They never move under their own power again.
  5. May 1847A party under Lieutenant Graham Gore builds a cairn at Victory Point and leaves a record ending with the words 'All well.'
  6. 11 June 1847Sir John Franklin dies aboard Erebus. The cause and burial place are unknown.
  7. 22 April 1848The ships are deserted, five leagues from Victory Point.
  8. 25 April 1848Fitzjames and Crozier add a second message around the margins of the 1847 record: 24 dead, 105 survivors.
  9. 26 April 1848The survivors set out on foot for Back's Fish River.
  10. 1850Search parties find the Beechey Island winter camp and the three graves.
  11. 1854John Rae reports Inuit accounts of the dead, and of cannibalism. Britain turns on him.
  12. May 1859Lieutenant William Hobson recovers the Victory Point record from a cairn on King William Island.
  13. 1984–1986Owen Beattie's team exhumes the three Beechey Island sailors and finds tuberculosis, pneumonia and very high lead levels.
  14. September 2014A Parks Canada team finds HMS Erebus in 11 metres of water in Wilmot and Crampton Bay, guided by Inuit oral history.
  15. September 2016HMS Terror is found in 24 metres of water in Terror Bay, hatches closed and windows intact.
  16. 2021DNA identifies John Gregory, an engineer on Erebus, through a descendant in South Africa.
  17. 2024DNA identifies Captain James Fitzjames, whose handwriting fills the margins of the Victory Point record.

The companion book

The video is seventeen minutes. This is the whole thing. Every date, every name, every object the searchers found and what it proves — and what it does not. The six explanations for what killed them, each one weighed and ranked. The questions still open. And the full source list, so you can check any of it yourself.

Cover of The Last Logbook: Franklin's Lost Expedition

The Last Logbook: Franklin's Lost Expedition

How 129 men vanished in the Arctic, and how DNA began giving them their names back

75 pages · PDF + EPUB · $6.99

Buy the ebook — $6.99What is in the book

Researched and written with AI assistance. Every fact is checked against the sources listed in the book — the full note.

Questions people ask

What happened to the Franklin expedition?

HMS Erebus and HMS Terror sailed from Greenhithe on 19 May 1845 to find the Northwest Passage with 129 men aboard. They were beset in the ice off King William Island on 12 September 1846 and never moved under their own power again. Sir John Franklin died on 11 June 1847. The ships were deserted on 22 April 1848 and the 105 survivors set out on foot for Back's Fish River. None were seen alive again by another European.

What did the Victory Point note say?

It is a single Royal Navy record form, written on twice a year apart. The first message, left in May 1847 by a party under Lieutenant Graham Gore, ends with the words "All well." The second was crowded into the margins in April 1848 by Fitzjames and Crozier: the ships abandoned, Franklin dead, 24 men lost, and 105 setting out south. Lieutenant William Hobson recovered it from a cairn in May 1859.

Where are HMS Erebus and HMS Terror now?

A Parks Canada team found HMS Erebus in September 2014, in 11 metres of water in Wilmot and Crampton Bay, guided by Inuit oral history. HMS Terror was found in September 2016 in 24 metres of water in Terror Bay, hatches closed and windows intact. Both are protected as a National Historic Site.

What killed the crew of the Franklin expedition?

No single cause is supportable on the evidence. Lead poisoning from tin solder was proposed after Owen Beattie's 1984–86 exhumations, which also found tuberculosis and pneumonia; later isotope work weakened the lead explanation. Scurvy, starvation, cold and exhaustion all contributed. Researchers disagree, and the honest answer is that the men died of several things at once.

Have any of the Franklin expedition crew been identified?

Yes, two so far. DNA identified John Gregory, an engineer aboard Erebus, in 2021, through a descendant in South Africa. In 2024 the same programme identified Captain James Fitzjames — the officer whose handwriting fills the margins of the Victory Point record — from a jawbone bearing cut marks.

Was John Rae right about the Franklin expedition?

Yes. In 1854 Rae reported Inuit accounts of the expedition's final months, including cannibalism among the last survivors. Britain rejected the account and attacked him for repeating it. The cut marks on the jawbone identified as James Fitzjames in 2024 confirmed what Rae had been told, and both wrecks were later found close to where Inuit testimony had always placed them.

Sources

Primary records

  • The Victory Point record

    1847–1848 · National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

  • The Voyage of the 'Fox' in the Arctic Seas

    Francis Leopold McClintock · 1859

  • Report to the Admiralty on the fate of the Franklin expedition

    John Rae · 1854

  • The Lost Arctic Voyagers, Household Words

    Charles Dickens · 1854

Books

  • Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition

    Owen Beattie & John Geiger

Institutions and archives

  • Wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror National Historic Site

    Parks Canada

  • Franklin expedition collections

    National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

  • Franklin expedition collections

    Canadian Museum of History

Papers

  • Identification of John Gregory by DNA analysis

    2021 · University of Waterloo / Lakehead University

  • Identification of Captain James Fitzjames by DNA analysis

    2024 · University of Waterloo / Lakehead University

Books we recommend

Every book listed is one we actually used. These are not affiliate links.

  • Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition

    Owen Beattie & John Geiger

  • Erebus: The Story of a Ship

    Michael Palin