(Web Desk) - Nearly 180 years after two ships embarked on an expedition to map the Canadian Arctic’s Northwest Passage, a disturbing detail about the journey that turned tragic has emerged.
Two ships – HMS Erebus and HMS Terror – set sail from Kent, England on May 19, 1845.
But things turned sour quickly for the crew as five of them fell sick and left the expedition midway.
Later, both the ships got trapped in Arctic ice. The crew was faced with a deadly situation and so 105 of them left the ship in search of help. A lot of them died before they could abandon it. In total, 129 sailors lost their lives.
Indigenous people saw what transpired after that which was corroborated by marks discovered on some of the remains.
Records show that those who managed to stay alive the longest turned to cannibalism and were forced to eat the dead.
The latest finding shows that one of the unfortunate ones to be subjected to cannibalism was none other than James Fitzjames, captain of the HMS Erebus, Gizmodo reported.
Researchers have been studying human bones and teeth collected from King William Island, the place at least 100 crew members went to after leaving the ship. At least 451 bones belonging to 13 people were found in one location.
DNA experts at Canada’s University of Waterloo and Lakehead University worked to reveal who these bones belonged to.
They compared the DNA with living relatives of the sailors and published findings in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
“We worked with a good quality sample that allowed us to generate a Y-chromosome profile, and we were lucky enough to obtain a match,” said Stephen Fratpietro of Lakehead University’s Paleo-DNA lab.
Fitzjames was a senior member and had made a record of commander Sir John Franklin's death. But after he also died, others depended on his remains for survival, records show.
Researchers cite cut marks on his jawbone to say that it appears that they at least tried to eat him.
Till now, they have successfully identified two of the people on the ill-fated ship. In 2021, some of the remains were found to belong to John Gregory, a warrant officer who served on the Erebus.
Notably, Erebus was rediscovered in 2014, while the Terror was found in 2016.