A century and a half later, people are still puzzled by the downfall of Franklin Expedition, which seems to be a mystery that can never be solved. Because, 129 able-bodied men, carrying enough food and materials for more than three years, are gone forever, and there is no life left. This kind of tragedy is hard to explain.
So, scientists have come to solve this mystery. From 1981 to 1982, the anthropologist Owen Bietti of university of alberta, Canada, and other archaeologists tracked the route of that year, and found 31 bones on King William Island, which were scattered around a stone nest site.
After careful study and analysis, it is shown that these bones belong to the same person, aged between 22 and 25, and undoubtedly belong to a sailor of Franklin Expedition. Judging from the uneven surface of the relatively well-preserved bones, the poor young man really suffered from scurvy in the months before his death. However, the more severe fact is that they found three parallel knife marks on a leg bone, and the bone was incomplete, which was obviously dismembered artificially, so they can only come to the conclusion that people at that time once ate their companions.
as early as 1854, according to the information provided by the local Inuit, people came to the conclusion that hungry sailors used human flesh to satisfy their hunger in order to prolong their survival time. Later, they went deep into the Inuit and learned more details. According to local residents who have been to the scene, they saw boiled human flesh in some boots. Some bones on the ground were sawed open by a saw, some skulls were cracked open, and the meat on the body was carefully peeled off. However, people don't believe or have the courage to believe such a fact.
Bietti decided to analyze the skeleton tissue of the corpse. In 1982, the first trace element analysis result came out. Bietti was surprised to find that the lead content in the skeleton of the unknown sailor was as high as 228PPM (228 parts per million), while the lead content in the bones of two Eskimos collected in the same place was only 22 PPM and 36PPM. In other words, the lead content in the bones of sailors in distress is 1 times the normal standard. In the 184s, lead was widely used in people's lives. Even so, it greatly exceeded the industrial standards at that time. This result immediately attracted the attention of Bietti.
So, what caused such serious lead poisoning? According to Bietti's analysis, although the source of lead may be various, it comes from the packaging of tea leaves, lead alloy utensils and utensils inlaid with lead. But the main source is canned food. It turns out that canned food was patented in the United States in 1811 and used as a new technology by the Royal Navy. At that time, the solder used in sealed cans was mainly the alloy of lead and tin, and the content of lead was as high as 9%. Another disadvantage of this kind of solder is poor fluidity, and many gaps are often left in the welded gaps, which leads to food corrosion and deterioration. This has caused two serious consequences, one is lead poisoning to consumers, and the other is that a considerable part of canned food quickly deteriorates and becomes inedible. For Franklin's expedition, both results were fatal.
Lead can easily penetrate into food, and canned food found on Beach Island shows signs of lead leakage and spoiled food containing lead. Lead poisons the human body and weakens it, thus impairing the brain's function and thinking ability, which are essential for people who survive from death. As a result, people will feel tired, trance and insensitive, and lead to paranoia or paranoia, making people's temperament crazy and behavior out of control. Then it will cause pain and anemia all over the body. The lack of vitamin C, a common disease among ocean-going sailors, will not only cause scurvy, but also promote the body to absorb lead. Scurvy, lead poisoning, arctic cold and suffering combined to push the whole expedition to a desperate situation.
What makes archaeologists full of confidence is that the modern exploration technology will eventually make Terror and Darkness see the light of day again. A sunken ship preserved in ice water will provide relics, such as the ship's log book and the sailor's diary. The Inuit said that one ship sank and was destroyed by ice, while the other one floated south with the ice floe. The high-tech sonar installed on the research ship scanned the bottom of the ocean to detect the water depth and find suspicious objects. Once it detects something shaped like a boat, hope will emerge. But so far, all the underwater cameras have photographed are rocks. Today's search and investigation have turned to other aspects, and Canada intends to restart the search in order to find the ship drifting south. In 21, the National Geographic Society of the United States sent a team to look for the ship that was damaged by ice floes in the north. The team was led by Robert Boulder, who found the wreckage of the Titanic.
The mystery is constantly being solved, but it is worth mentioning that in 196, the Norwegian explorer Amundsen opened the northwest route for three years. Unfortunately, this route, which cost people a lot of money, has no commercial value.