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Use your best endeavours to discover a sheltered and safe harbour

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2019

Robert W. Park Open the ORCID record for Robert W. Park [Opens in a new window]  and
Douglas R. Stenton Open the ORCID record for Douglas R. Stenton [Opens in a new window]
Robert W. Park*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. W., Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada
Douglas R. Stenton
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. W., Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada
*
Author for correspondence: Robert W. Park, Email: rwpark@uwaterloo.ca
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Abstract

On 24 May 1847, Sir John Franklin’s third expedition reported “All well”, but less than a year later, on 22 April 1848, the 129 sailors who had set out from Britain on Erebus and Terror had been reduced to 105 survivors departing their frozen ships in a desperate attempt to escape the Arctic. At least 24 were so unhealthy that they would perish after having travelled little more than 100 km from the ships. By contrast, the small mortality rates on other contemporary Arctic expeditions, some of which stayed in the Arctic considerably longer, were consistent with the mortality rates in the Royal Navy worldwide. This paper explores the question of what difference caused so many of Franklin’s crew to die during their final months on-board the ships and in the initial stages of the escape attempt. From the perspective of cultural ecology, the most significant difference, and the ultimate cause of the catastrophe as it unfolded, was wintering in the ice pack. This distinguished the Franklin expedition from all of the other comparable overwintering expeditions, and precluded the Erebus and Terror crews from hunting or fishing. That in turn led to nutritional deficiencies due to much greater reliance on stored provisions than other expeditions.

Keywords

Franklin expeditionMortalityNutritionCultural ecology
Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 55 , Issue 6 , November 2019 , pp. 361 - 372
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019

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