New research reveals more details about the doomed mission to find the Northwest Passage.
Researchers have now identified four additional members of Sir John Franklin’s 1845 expedition, including one sailor whose identity had been debated for more than 100 years.
The work was led by anthropologists in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Waterloo, who analyzed DNA taken from skeletal remains and matched it with DNA provided by living descendants. The new identifications raise the total number of confirmed Franklin expedition sailors to six.
In April 1848, after the expedition ships Erebus and Terror had been trapped in Arctic ice for almost two years, 105 surviving crew members tried to escape by walking along the west coast of King William Island, Nunavut, while dragging boats on sleds. None survived. Since the middle of the 19th century, remains linked to the expedition have been discovered on King William Island and the Adelaide Peninsula.
DNA names four more sailors
The new identifications add detail to what is known about the expedition’s final phase and settle a 166-year-old question about one crew member.
“Three of the sailors we have identified are from HMS Erebus, and they all died at Erebus Bay. The fourth, the only sailor from the HMS Terror to be definitively identified by DNA analysis, was found 130 kilometres away,” said Dr. Douglas Stenton, Adjunct Professor of anthropology at Waterloo.
That sailor has now been identified as Harry Peglar, Captain of the Foretop on HMS Terror. His identification clears up a mystery that began in 1859, when a body was discovered with Peglar’s personal papers but dressed in clothing that did not match his rank.
“It was interesting to conclusively identify this sailor because the body was found with almost the only written documents from the expedition ever found,” said Dr. Robert Park, Professor of anthropology at Waterloo and co-researcher with Stenton. Dubbed the “Peglar Papers,” they were found with his seaman’s certificate and included poetry and apparent descriptions of some events from the expedition.
excavating the bones of Franklin sailors at Erebus Bay. Credit: University of Waterloo
The three other expedition members were identified as William Orren, Able Seaman; David Young, Boy 1st Class; and John Bridgens, Subordinate Officers’ Steward.
Their identification shows that all three survived the expedition’s first three years and were among the men who tried to escape the Arctic.
Descendants recover lost details
The new findings build on earlier identifications by the same research team. In 2021, DNA from a descendant helped identify John Gregory, Engineer of HMS Erebus. In 2024, another DNA match identified James Fitzjames, the Captain of Erebus whose body showed evidence of cannibalism. The remains of the newly identified sailors show no evidence of cannibalism.
“For the living descendants, these findings provide previously unavailable details regarding the circumstances and locations of their relatives’ deaths, as well as the identities of some of the shipmates who died with them,” Stenton said.
The research also revealed that BBC News journalist Rich Preston is a descendant of John Bridgens.
“I was so intrigued when Dr. Stenton first contacted me telling me about his work and asking if I’d be willing to provide a DNA sample,” Preston said. “It was such a huge surprise to hear from the team that my DNA was a match with one of the sailors on the doomed Franklin expedition. I used to work on a genealogy show for the BBC that traced people’s fascinating family stories, and so to discover that there’s such an interesting tale in my own family’s past feels very exciting.”
More identities may still emerge
To identify the four sailors, study coauthor Stephen Fratpietro of Lakehead University extracted DNA from archaeological samples and compared it with mitochondrial and Y chromosome DNA from descendants. In each of the four new cases, the comparison produced matches with a genetic distance of zero, strong evidence that the individuals shared a common ancestor.
DNA from descendants is essential for identifying the remains and for adding new detail to the sailors’ escape attempt. Eligible descendants are confirmed through genealogical records showing a direct and unbroken maternal or paternal line. The researchers are encouraging other descendants of Franklin expedition members to contact them to determine whether their DNA could help identify more individuals.
References:
“DNA identifications of three 1845 Franklin expedition sailors from HMS Erebus” by Douglas R. Stenton, Stephen Fratpietro, Kaitlyn Gorsalitz and Robert W. Park, 6 May 2026, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2026.105739
““Some very hard ground to heave”: DNA identification of Harry Peglar, Captain of the Foretop, HMS Terror” by Douglas R. Stenton, Stephen Fratpietro, Kaitlyn Gorsalitz and Robert W. Park, 7 May 2026, Polar Record.
DOI: 10.1017/S003224742610031X
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