DNA reveals identities of 4 sailors from doomed 1845 Franklin expedition

Researchers have identified the remains of four members of a doomed 19th century expedition in the Arctic. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images via CNN Newsource

Researchers have identified the remains of four members of a doomed 19th century expedition in the Arctic by matching DNA to the sailors’ living descendants — and solved a case of mistaken identity along the way.

The four sailors were part of Sir John Franklin’s 1845 expedition to find the Northwest Passage, a sea route north of the Canadian mainland and Arctic Circle that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans via the Arctic Ocean. British naval officials, merchants and polar explorers prized unlocking the passage because it would provide a shorter trade route between Europe and Asia.

The expedition’s two ships, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror, were carrying 129 crew members when the vessels became trapped in Arctic ice for nearly two years before crews deserted them in April 1848. The remaining 105 men dragged sledges of supplies overland along the west coast of King William Island, in what’s now the territory of Nunavut in Canada, but none survived.

• READ MORE: Four sailors from doomed Franklin expedition identified through DNA
• WATCH: Anthropologists identify four more men who died on the Franklin Expedition

The expedition buried only three members — those who died during the first year — with identifying headstones. Rescue teams and later various researchers in the years since have uncovered artifacts and remains scattered across the island and the Adelaide Peninsula. However, connecting bone fragments to individual crew members has proved difficult.

Within the past few years, matches with DNA from descendants helped scientists identify John Gregory, the engineer aboard the Erebus, as well as James Fitzjames, the ship’s captain — whose bones show evidence of cannibalism.

Now, the same research team, based at Ontario’s University of Waterloo and Lakehead University, has matched remains for three more Erebus crew members as well as the only Terror sailor identified so far using DNA. For 166 years, documents found with this sailor’s remains baffled researchers — until genetics provided an answer.

As more descendants share their DNA and discover their family’s connection to the Franklin expedition, researchers hope they are closer to determining what caused the crews to desert the ships — and solving the mysteries that linger around the tragedy.

“We are trying to add more pieces to the puzzle, the genetic side of it, since it hadn’t been done before,” said lead study author Dr. Douglas Stenton, adjunct assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Waterloo. “It’s opening up a new chapter in the story of the Franklin expedition, and something that I like about this is that chapter is helping to be written by the families of the men who never made it home.”

Preserving a tragic site

Stenton was serving as the director of heritage for the government of Nunavut in 2008 when Parks Canada was preparing a multidisciplinary search for the Erebus and Terror wreck sites. A combination of sonar and oral tradition from the Inuit community helped locate the remains of the Erebus in 2014 and those of the Terror in 2016.

Stenton led the investigation of the Franklin sites on land. After consulting documentation from search parties and previous research, Stenton and other researchers mapped the sites using photography and lidar, or light detection and ranging, for about six weeks per year between 2008 and 2023.

“Once you get hooked by the Franklin expedition, you want to keep going back to try and find as many more pieces of the puzzle as possible that you can,” Stenton said.

The team also collected artifacts that were often found sitting in plain sight for conservation, protection and research purposes. The researchers were granted permission in 2013 to collect remains for the same purposes.

“We wanted to think about how we might be able to contribute to work that others had done before us,” Stenton said. “Something that hadn’t been done was genetic analysis to see if we could identify who these men were. We know who was on the ships, but these are not complete skeletons. These are scattered bones.”

Initially, the researchers studied the remains to determine age, sex and pathology, with some bones and teeth being selected as ideal candidates for DNA analysis at the Paleo-DNA Laboratory at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Once the archaeological genetic profile was complete, the team only had one half of the picture, Stenton said.

“We had to track down people who were directly related to a member of the Franklin expedition with an uninterrupted inheritance of DNA from one generation to the next,” he said.

To identify the closest possible match, genetic material extracted from the remains was compared with Y-chromosome DNA, as well as mitochondrial DNA that is only passed on by females within the maternal line, in the cheek swabs provided by descendants.

It’s a match

DNA matches enabled the team to identify William Orren, David Young and John Bridgens, who all served aboard the Erebus, according to a study published on May 6 in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. Previous documentation shows the remains were originally found together on the southern shore of Erebus Bay.

Rich Preston, a journalist for BBC News, only discovered his family’s connection to the Franklin expedition when Stenton reached out last year after establishing a possible family line between Preston and a crew member. The BBC journalist learned during the process that Bridgens was his great-great-great uncle.

“This was a complete surprise,” Preston wrote in an email. “I’m a total history nerd and love hearing stories of how societies, areas, cultures, places have changed and been shaped over the years. To find out that one of my direct ancestors was involved in a very (in)famous mission and one that’s prompted so much research and study over the years is very exciting.”

Now, Preston is eager to learn more about the expedition and Bridgens’ involvement, including making time to visit the Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre in Wales. The museum will host a special exhibition of never-before-seen artifacts that opens next month, marking 200 years since the Erebus ship originally launched.

The fourth crew member identified by Stenton and his colleagues was Harry Peglar of the Terror ship. A report describing the DNA identification was published on May 7 in the journal Polar Record. An expedition launched during the mid 19th century found Peglar’s remains alone about 81 miles (130 kilometers) from those of the other sailors.

Questions have swirled around Peglar’s true identity since 1859, when the search party spotted a skeleton wearing clothing that did not match his rank but included his personal documents — some of the only documents to ever be recovered from the disaster. Some wondered whether Peglar had simply passed his papers on to another crew member for safekeeping.

Peglar was the captain of the foretop on the Terror, yet he was clad in a lower-ranked steward’s uniform when searchers discovered his body. As captain of the foretop, Peglar would have been a petty officer responsible for overseeing sailors who maintained the sails and rigging of the ship’s foremast.

Stenton and his team carried out an exhaustive analysis, comparing DNA from the remains with living descendants of every steward known to serve aboard the ships. But genetics pointed to the remains belonging to none other than Peglar himself.

“If there was ever a case to approach using genetics, this was it,” Stenton said.

But why was Peglar wearing the clothes of a steward? The authors piece together more of his story in the study.

“The possibility that he was disrated while aboard now seems clear, potentially because of unacceptable conduct,” said Dr. Claire Warrior, senior curator of content at the Royal Museums Greenwich, including the National Maritime Museum in London where many Franklin expedition artifacts are housed. “Joining the archaeological and material evidence up with archives adds fuel to the fire: Peglar’s previous naval service included incidents of drunkenness and ‘mutinous conduct.’”

Bringing the crew to life

Warrior was not involved with either study but appreciates how DNA analysis is helping put names to faces for the sailors of the Franklin expedition, including men like Bridgens and Orren who were illiterate and didn’t leave behind any correspondence.

The study paints portraits of them, describing Bridgens as having hazel eyes and dark hair. He began his seafaring career as a musician when he was just 11, while Young joined the polar expedition at age 17 after being born in poverty.

“One of the reasons that this work is so important is that it recentres the people at the heart of this tragedy, identifying them through careful genealogical work and the advances of DNA technology,” Warrior wrote in an email. “Once we know who the remains belonged to we can reimagine them, vital and alive before the horrors of their tragic end in the most desperate of circumstances. These were real people, who lived, were loved, suffered and died far away from home, yet traces of their existence remain.”

Stenton and his team are analyzing artifacts that may reveal more clues about what went so wrong during the expedition.

And the researchers continue their project to identify more of the crew members and connect the men to their descendants — which has been one of the most gratifying aspects of the work, he said.

“They’re not just names anymore,” Stenton said. “At the sites, it’s simultaneously fascinating to be there and at the same time, know that something terrible happened. Our work helps put more of a human face on it. They had families back home who would never see them again, and I think for some of the descendants, it’s fair to say it might provide some measure of closure for them.”