The short answer is, we don’t know what life was really like. We don’t yet have any of the journals or logbooks that would have been written aboard ship.
But we do have lots of evidence from other sources about what the men might have gone through. Using these, we can come as close as we possibly can to understanding what the crews of Erebus and Terror might have seen and felt.
Expeditions set off in the spring, so that they could get as far as possible before the winter, when their progress was halted.
Unfamiliar wildlife might be glimpsed, such as narwhals (which were called ‘sea-unicorns’), and splashes of botanical life, including vivid yellow poppies.
The Arctic could be a place of freezing fog and heaving seas, and the expedition crews were sometimes at the mercy of the immense pressure of the sea-ice and the unpredictable behaviour of icebergs. It was also, at times, breathtakingly beautiful, with dazzling colours and glowing skies.
Franklin’s ship was trapped in the ice in a remote and desolate area, which Inuit rarely visited, calling it Tununiq, ‘the back of beyond’. They couldn’t rely on local people for meat, clothing, and oil, as other expeditions had. But they had enough supplies for about three years, and British expeditions were experienced at overwintering in the Arctic...
Claire Warrior, Senior Exhibitions Curator
FAQs
What happened to the crew of Erebus and Terror? ›
We may never know exactly what happened to the crews of
Post-mortems and victim identification
By the time the second flight carrying bodies from the Erebus disaster crash site arrived on 11 December 1979, the pathology teams tasked with determining cause of death had completed post-mortem examinations on the first 114 bodies. They completed the remainder by 21 December.
The expedition was commanded by Captain Sir John Franklin, a seasoned polar explorer who had already led two previous searches for the Northwest Passage. However, his final journey to the Arctic would end in tragedy. Both ships were lost, and all 129 men on board perished.
Did Captain Crozier survive? ›Francis Crozier, one of the most experienced Arctic and Antarctic explorers, died during Sir John Franklin's tragic final Arctic exploring expedition. In the century and a half since 1848, his probable date of death, Crozier has been largely forgotten—except in his hometown of Banbridge, County Down, Northern Ireland.
Did they ever find Sir John Franklin? ›On 11 June 1847 Sir John Franklin, aged 61, died suddenly on board HMS Erebus4. No necropsy was done by the ship's surgeon and his grave has never been found, probably because he was buried in the ice. Now under the command of Captain Crozier the two ships were carried south by the pack ice and prevailing wind.