Scientists have identified the remains of another member of Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated 1845 exploration of the Northwest Passage.
Researchers from the University of Waterloo and Lakehead University confirmed they had found the remains of senior officer James Fitzjames.
In 1848 Fitzjames, of the HMS Erebus,helped lead 105 survivors from their ice-trapped ships in an attempt to escape the Arctic. None survived but various remains have been found around King William Island in Nunavut.
Fitzjames is only the second of the 105 to be positively identified from 451 bone samples believed to be from at least 13 sailors.
The other, engineer John Gregory, was identified in 2021.
The latest identification resulted from a DNA sample from a living descendant which matched the DNA that was discovered at the archaeological site on King William Island.
“The identification of Fitzjames’ remains provides new insights about the expedition’s sad ending,” Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at Waterloo Douglas Stenton said.
In the 1850s local indigenous people told searchers they had seen evidence that survivors had resorted to cannibalism.
“Those accounts were fully corroborated in 1997 by the late Dr Anne Keenleyside who found cut marks on nearly one-quarter of the human bones…proving that the bodies of at least four of the men who died there had been subject to cannibalism,” the study report said.
“Fitzjames’ mandible is one of the bones exhibiting multiple cut marks, demonstrating that after his death his body was subject to cannibalism.
“This shows that he predeceased at least some of the other sailors who perished, and that neither rank nor status was the governing principle in the final desperate days of the expedition as they strove to save themselves.”
The full report is on the University of Waterloo website.
