129 People Died in a Doomed Polar Expedition 178 Years Ago. One of the Victims Was Just Identified.
John Franklin died on June 11, 1847, but 105 officers and crew survived long enough to abandon the ships on April 22, 1848, and set out on foot hoping to reach Back’s Fish River. Commander James Fitzjames, who had been aboard the HMS Erebus, was one of those men. None of them were ever seen alive again.