TORONTO A sailor of the doomed 1845 Franklin Arctic expedition was identified using DNA from a living relative in South Africa, marking the first time a crew member of that infamous voyage has been positively identified this way. The skeletal and tooth remains were confirmed to belong to Warrant Officer John Gregory, an engineer aboard HMS Erebus, according to scientists at the University of Waterloo (UW), Lakehead University, and Trent University. Having John Gregory s remains being the first to be identified via genetic analysis is an incredible day for our family, as well as all those interested in the ill-fated Franklin expedition, Gregory s great-great-great grandson Jonathan Gregory of Port Elizabeth, South Africa said in a press release.
DNA used to ID sailor from doomed 1845 Franklin Expedition with living relative
The 1845 Franklin Expedition to find the fabled Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic resulted in the deaths of nearly 130 sailors, and left more questions than answers. But 176 years later, a DNA match has identified the skeletal remains of a sailor aboard HMS Erebus.
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The University of Waterloo s Prof. Douglas Stenton excavating an as-yet unidentified sailor whose remains were found with those of John Gregory
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Diana Trepkov/University of Waterloo
Over the years, archeologists have unearthed the remains of members of the infamous Franklin expedition, although it hasn t been possible to confirm the individuals identities. Thanks to DNA analysis, however, scientists have now done so for the first time.
Led by Sir John Franklin, the Arctic exploration expedition departed from England in 1845 aboard the ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. A total of 129 crew members were aboard the two vessels, searching for the Northwest Passage, which would provide Northern Hemisphere mariners with a shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
THUNDER BAY - On July 9, 1845, Warrant Officer John Gregory, an engineer aboard HMS Erebus, sent a letter from Greenland to his wife Hannah before sailing off with the ill-fated Franklin Expedition into the Canadian Arctic and into an enduring historical mystery.
For 176 years that letter was the last Gregory’s descendants had known about his journey, but now they have an ending to his story, as his remains have become the first from the expedition to be identified genetically with the help of researchers at Lakehead University’s Paleo-DNA Lab.
“Everybody wants to know what happened. That’s the big question,” said Stephen Fratpietro, technical manager at the Centre for Analytical Services Paleo-DNA Laboratory.
Diana Trepkov/ University of Waterloo
By April 1848, the members of the 1845 Franklin expedition had given up hope of discovering the Northwest Passage. Their ships, the HMS
Erebus, had been frozen in the icy Canadian Arctic for more than a year and a half, during which time nearly two dozen men including the expedition’s commander, Sir John Franklin had already perished. Realizing their only chance of survival was to seek out rescue themselves, the 105 remaining men amassed their dwindling foodstuffs and abandoned the ships.
It was a disaster. Every last one of them died, and they likely resorted to cannibalism during the trek. Without any survivors (and so few known written records), the fate of the Franklin expedition became one of the most overwhelming mysteries in the history of Arctic exploration. Over the past 160 years or so, new evidence has slowly emerged. Bones and artifacts have been found on King William Island in Nunavut; and researchers finally located the HMS