The Daily Populous Thursday September 26th, 2024 day edition
Authored by newscientist.com and submitted by PM_ME_KITTYNIPPLES

DNA and genealogical evidence reveal, for the first time, the identity of cannibalised remains recovered from the Franklin expedition

The Franklin expedition was dramatised in television show The Terror AMC

Human remains recovered from the British Royal Navy’s doomed Franklin expedition have been identified as Captain James Fitzjames using DNA and genealogical evidence. The unfortunate officer has also been confirmed as the first known victim of cannibalism among the expedition members.

In 1845, an expedition led by Sir John Franklin set out to find a navigable North-West Passage through the Arctic with 129 men aboard the ships HMS Terror and HMS Erebus. But in 1848, Captain James Fitzjames, commander of the HMS Erebus, left a report in a stone cairn recording how the survivors had decided to abandon the ships. Later, the unidentified skeletal remains of many sailors were discovered in various locations across the Canadian Arctic.

Now researchers have put a name to some of those remains. “Identifying an individual using molecular methods often takes time because descendants need to be involved in the process,” says Treena Swanston at MacEwan University in Canada, who was not involved in the study.

Douglas Stenton at the University of Waterloo in Canada and his colleagues identified Fitzjames by comparing the Y chromosome profiles from a tooth that was found on Canada’s King William Island with cheek swabs taken from one of Fitzjames’s descendants. The descendant donor had a demonstrated genealogical relationship with Fitzjames through the captain’s great-grandfather.

Cut marks on this mandible, now identified as that of James Fitzjames, indicate it was cannibalised Anne Keenleyside

The discovery also makes Fitzjames the first identified victim of cannibalism among the Franklin expedition’s members. Earlier analysis by the late bioarchaeologist Anne Keenleyside had revealed cut marks on many of the recovered remains, with one lower jawbone – now identified as belonging to Fitzjames – having multiple cut marks.

This indicates some of the last survivors who were trekking overland resorted to eating parts of Fitzjames’s body and those of several other sailors. The finding “reveals the desperation of the Franklin sailors”, says Swanston.

Such research also reinforces the importance of testimony from Indigenous Inuit people, she says. The Inuit reported seeing about 40 men dragging a ship’s boat on a sledge and made the first discoveries of bodies showing signs of cannibalism.

AnalogDigit2 on September 26th, 2024 at 13:02 UTC »

If anyone hasn't seen the show, "The Terror", the first season is fantastic and covers a dramatization of these events and it is currently on Netflix.

kabushko on September 26th, 2024 at 10:03 UTC »

Thank God we've finally got some closure. I've been waiting 176 years for this moment

slash-5 on September 26th, 2024 at 03:37 UTC »

Saved you a click: “AMC Human remains recovered from the British Royal Navy’s doomed Franklin expedition have been identified as Captain James Fitzjames using DNA and genealogical evidence. The unfortunate officer has also been confirmed as the first known victim of cannibalism among the expedition members.”