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Europeans in the Arctic
Claudia pulls a book on Arctic expeditions out of her
backpack.
"Europeans started exploring this region over a thousand
years ago. Scandinavians and the Irish sailed west and established colonies.
But only the Viking colony in Iceland managed to survive.
"As soon as Europeans realized that America blocked the
way to the riches of the Far East, they began to look for ways to sail
around it, right? But their attempts to find a Northwest Passage always
failed, often disastrously.
"John Cabot sails north in 1498, never to be seen again.
In 1611, Henry Hudson's crew mutinies rather than spend another winter
exploring Hudson's Bay. In 1719, Governor James Knight sets sail with
two ships, seeking gold and the Northwest Passage. Inuit traders see the
last man die while digging a grave for his companion, in 1721.
"In 1819 John Franklin leads a disastrous First Expedition
into the Canadian Arctic. The party runs out of supplies, and after episodes
of starvation, murder and cannibalism, over half the men are dead.
"In 1845 Franklin launches his Third Expedition with the
two ice ships Erebus and Terror and 129 men. Their supplies include tons
of canned food. The ships are lost and none of the men survive.
"Over the next fourteen years about $4 million of rescue
efforts are launched; all fail. Five more ships are lost. "Finally, in
1859, an expedition funded by Lady Jane Franklin finds the scattered remains
of her husband's expedition. Modern-day analysis of the crew's remains
and artifacts tell a horrific tale of death due to exposure, scurvy, and
cannibalism. Acute lead poisoning from improperly soldered tins is found
in their hair and bone. This leads us to speculate that confusion due
to lead poisoning may have ultimately caused the expedition's failure.
"And in 1871, in northwest Greenland, a tension-filled
expedition ends when its leader, Charles Francis Hall, dies. When his
frozen body was found again in 1968, it was discovered that he was deliberately
killed with arsenic."
An Access Excellence
Science Mystery sponsored by Genentech, Inc.
Copyright © 1997 Genentech, Inc.; all rights reserved.
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