The remains of the crewmen were located much earlier at two sites on the south-west coast of King William Island, Nunavut. Search teams located boats lashed to large sleds, apparently bound for the Back River.
The famed and closely watched expedition ended in disaster, with all 129 crew members succumbing to the hostile elements of the Arctic. Between 1847 and 1859, at least 36 expeditions set out in search of Franklin's lost ships, but all ended in failure.
Now, one of those men has been identified as Capt James Fitzjames from London, a discovery stemming from years of study by researchers at two Canadian universities, who isolated his DNA from a single molar and traced it to living relatives.
What was the plan following the desertion of the ships? Did they travel as a single group? How do we understand the bodies of 20 sailors in this one spot? There are so many questions we still have and we're trying to get a better understanding of what was happening.
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