Four more members of Rear Admiral Sir John Franklin's infamous Arctic expedition have been definitively identified by researchers from the University of Waterloo, as revealed in a Friday statement, bringing the total number of known sailors from the expedition to six.
The failed British voyage set sail in 1845 to map the last unnavigated passes of the Canadian Arctic’s Northwest Passage and to study magnetic data and determine whether it could be used to further perfect navigation.
In 1847, the expedition’s two ships - the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror - became icebound not far from King William Island, Nunavut, in the Arctic.
Later, in April 1848, after more than a year trapped in the ice and the deaths of 24 men, including Franklin himself, the 105 survivors tried to save themselves by dragging boats on sleds along the island’s coast.
All 105 of them died trying to escape the ice. Their remains have been found across the island and the Adelaide Peninsula since the mid-19th century.
DNA samples shed light on sailors' identity
Recently, however, scientists from the University of Waterloo were able to identify three sailors from the HMS Erebus and one from the HMS Terror by comparing DNA samples from the skeletal remains of the deceased sailors against samples donated by living descendants.
The three from the Erebus were identified as Able Seaman William Orren, Boy 1st Class David Young, and Subordinate Officers' Steward John Bridgens.
Douglas Stenton, an adjunct assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Waterloo, said that all three appear to have died at Erebus Bay.
Interestingly, the DNA analysis also revealed that BBC News anchor Rich Preston is a descendant of Bridgens.
Of the fourth sailor, Stenton said, researchers were able to identify him as Harry Peglar, the HMS Terror’s Captain of the Foretop - the only member of Terror’s crew to yet be positively identified.
He is the only one from the ship to be definitively identified through genetic analysis, with his sister’s great-great-granddaughter being a “perfect match,” Stenton shared with CBC News.
Peglar’s remains were found some 130 kilometers away from the Terror, according to the university's statement.
The identification of his remains solves an over a century-old mystery surrounding his whereabouts and death.
In 1859, researchers found a body carrying personal documents belonging to Peglar, but wearing a uniform that did not match Peglar’s ranks.
The pages, dubbed the “Peglar Papers,” included Peglar’s seaman's certificate, poetry, and what are believed to be descriptions of events from the expedition. They are the only written documents from the expedition ever found.
"For the living descendants, these findings provide previously unavailable details regarding the circumstances and locations of their relatives' deaths, as well as the identities of some of the shipmates who died with them,” Stenton said.
Only two others genetically identified despite several remains being found
Previously, while the incomplete remains of several individuals from Franklin’s expedition have been recovered, only two sailors have been definitively identified.
Aside from the body found with Peglar’s papers, which was in 2021 identified to be John Gregory, the engineer of the HMS Erebus, skeletons believed to be the remains of Henry Le Vesconte and John Irving were discovered in the late 1800s.
In September 2024, Stenton, alongside Stephen Fratpietro and Robert W. Park from the Waterloo and Lakehead University, succeeded in positively identifying a jawbone that belonged to James Fitzjames, who had become Erebus’ captain after Franklin’s death.
Fitzjames’s jawbone, however, bore signs of cannibalism, unlike the remains of the four sailors recently identified, which do not.
The wrecks of the Erebus and the Terror have also been rediscovered, now protected as a combined historic site named "Wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror National Historic Site."
Erebus was rediscovered in 2014 by the Canadian Victoria Strait expedition in the waters of Wilmot and Crampton Bays, west of the Adelaide Peninsula. Terror was found by the Arctic Research Foundation in Terror Bay two years later, sunken off the southwest coast of King William Island.
The findings appear in two separate papers in early May: “DNA identifications of three 1845 Franklin expedition sailors from HMS Erebus” in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports and “‘Some very hard ground to heave’: DNA identification of Harry Peglar, Captain of the Foretop, HMS Terror” in Polar Record.