The Franklin Expedition set out in 1845 consisting of two ships; the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror. Sir Joh Frank- lin was the commander of the 129 crew members aboard the ships. They set Franklin’s Final Expedition sail from England in search of the Northwest Passage across which is 1845 - 1848 now known as Canada’s Arctic. Letters sent home by the crew revealed that some were weary of the expedition, as they believed they had set sail too late in the season. The ships and crews vanished and no more letters were sent home. In the resulting years many rescue and search attempts were made but nobody was found alive. Early searches during the 1800s revealed clues to what may have happened during the expedition. John Rae was aboard a search rescue in 1854 and recorded Inuit stories about white men who had been spotted 4 years prior. The Inuit helped Rae with his searches of the islands; he found undeniable evidence of the ships. The Inuit stories strongly suggested that the men had resorted to cannibal- ism due to lack of food and the threat of starva- tion. Upon bringing his information back to England there was much uproar over the D e v o n thought of “civil” men resorting to such atroci- I s l a n d ties. Lady Franklin rebelled against the news that Rae returned with. She wanted to protect her husband’s legacy. B a n k s Lady Franklin convinced famous writers to suggest that I s l a n d the Inuit had lied and that the Inuit had been the ones to kill the crew. She then funded a second search expedition, lead by Francis McClintok in 1859. His expedition discovered no survivors, but did find evidence of the crew’s final days. This included cairns and skeletons of the dead crew members. Most im- portant was his discovery of a note left by Frank- lin’s crew which explained that the ships had been trapped in ice in 1846. A second message on the letter was much more bleak; Franklin and 24 other men had died and the crew had aban- B a f f i n doned the ships to head South on foot. V i c t o r i a Subsequent exploration was conducted in the I s l a n d 1800s to help answer questions about what had I s l a n d happened to the men. Explorers included Charles Francis Hall and Frederick Schwatka; both of which relied on Inuit people to help them explore and collect oral histories. Interest in the expedition continued into the 21st Century. This brought more searches for Location where the ships. After more ships were abandoned HMS Terror than 160 years in the ice K i n g searching; the W i l l i a m HMS Erebus was I s l a n d found in 2014 and Location where ships the HMS Terror was were later found HMS Erebus found in 2016. Both ships were found at the bottom of the ocean. With advanced remote sensing technologies having been used to create Route taken for the expedition scans of the ships. These discoveries are owed in large part to the knowledge and Oral Histories of the Inuit. Many artifacts were discovered in almost perfect condition, due to the sub-zero tempera- tures. This has allowed archaeologists and researches to discover even more about what these men endured and C A N A D A what their final days may 0 120 240 500 Kilometers have been like. However, Source: Bathymetric Data from https://www.naturalearthdata.com/; Raster Data from https://www.pgc.umn.edu/data/arcticdem/ (2018); Expedition route and ship location data from http://maps.canadiangeographic.ca/map-franklin/ (n.d); Icon made by Matin Mahirli from https://www.iconfinder.com/; Supplemental data from http://ww- questions will always remain regarding the mys- w.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/2017/2017-12-27/html/sor-dors273-eng.html (2017), https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/arctic/expe-nf.html (2016), https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/culture/franklin/ (n.d), https://www.hydro-international.com/content/article/searching-for-hms-terror (2019), https://news.nationalgeograph- ic.com/news/2014/09/140909-franklin-expedition-shipwreck-canada-arctic-archaeology/ (2014), https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/04/franklin-expedition-ship-watson-ice-ghosts/ (2017), https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/09/shipwreck-discovered-hms-terror-franklin-arctic-canada/ (2016). teries of Franklin’s Final Expedition. Map created and designed by: Jessica Rose.