For more than 175 years, the fate of the men aboard Sir John Franklin’s doomed Arctic expedition has lingered somewhere between history and mystery. Now, advances in DNA science are helping researchers finally put names to some of those long-lost sailors — including one man whose identity sparked debate for more than a century.
By combining archaeology with familial DNA, researchers have identified four additional crew members from the ill-fated 1845 Franklin expedition, bringing the total number of confirmed identifications to six. The findings, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports and Polar Record, are helping anthropologists reconstruct the expedition’s tragic final days as crew members desperately tried to escape the Arctic after their ships became trapped in ice.
“Three of the sailors we have identified are from HMS Erebus, and they all died at Erebus Bay. The fourth, the only sailor from the HMS Terror to be definitively identified by DNA analysis, was found 130 kilometers away,” said anthropologist Douglas Stenton in a press release.
A Franklin Expedition Mystery Finally Solved
The Franklin expedition set sail in 1845 aboard HMS Erebus and HMS Terror in search of the elusive Northwest Passage. But by April 1848, after nearly two years frozen in Arctic ice near King William Island in Nunavut, 105 surviving crew members abandoned the ships and attempted an impossible escape across the frozen landscape. None survived.
Forensic facial reconstruction of Franklin Expedition sailor David Young.
(Image Credit: 2D Forensic Facial Reconstruction by Diana Trepkov, Investigative Forensic Artist)
Over the decades, skeletal remains recovered on King William Island and the Adelaide Peninsula have raised countless questions about who these sailors were and how their final journey unfolded.
Now, researchers say they have identified four more crew members: William Orren, an Able Seaman; David Young, a Boy 1st Class; John Bridgens, a Subordinate Officers’ Steward; and Harry Peglar, Captain of the Foretop aboard HMS Terror.
For Franklin expedition enthusiasts, Peglar’s identification is the most intriguing. Since 1859, historians have debated whether a body found carrying Peglar’s personal documents actually belonged to him, since the clothing found on the remains did not match his rank.
“It was interesting to conclusively identify this sailor because the body was found with almost the only written documents from the expedition ever found,” said co-researcher of the studies Robert Park.
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How DNA Helped Identify the Doomed Sailors
Rather than relying solely on historical records, researchers turned to genetics to help identify these sailors.
Researchers survey the NgLj-2 Franklin Expedition site at Erebus Bay.
(Image Credit: University of Waterloo)
The team extracted DNA from archaeological skeletal remains and compared it with mitochondrial and Y-chromosome DNA donated by living descendants. To qualify to submit their DNA, descendants had to prove an unbroken maternal or paternal family line through genealogical documentation.
In all four cases, scientists found a genetic distance of zero, which is exceptionally strong evidence linking the remains to these descendants who share a common ancestor.
The new studies even uncovered an unexpected family connection — BBC News journalist Rich Preston turned out to be a descendant of sailor John Bridgens.
“I was so intrigued when Dr. Stenton first contacted me telling me about his work and asking if I’d be willing to provide a DNA sample,” explained Preston in the release. “It was such a huge surprise to hear from the team that my DNA was a match with one of the sailors on the doomed Franklin expedition.”
The Future of Franklin Expedition Research
These discoveries build on earlier identifications made by the same research team. In 2021, the team identified John Gregory, an engineer aboard Erebus, through descendant DNA. In 2024, they confirmed the remains of Captain James Fitzjames, whose body showed evidence of cannibalism — one of the expedition’s darkest revelations.
With only six identifications total, researchers say the work is far from over. By encouraging more descendants of Franklin expedition crew members to come forward with DNA samples, the team hopes to identify additional sailors and continue solving one of Arctic history’s greatest mysteries, one name at a time.
“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,” concluded Stenton.
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Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
- This article references information from a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports: DNA identifications of three 1845 Franklin expedition sailors from HMS Erebus
- This article references information from a study published in Polar Record: “Some very hard ground to heave”: DNA identification of Harry Peglar, Captain of the Foretop, HMS Terror
