Remains Of Franklin Expedition Captain James Fitzjames Have Been Identified 175 Years After His Tragic Demise In The Arctic

James Fitzjames' mandible shows signs that he was cannibalized by his fellow crew members after his death on King William Island circa June 1848.

Sotheby’sA daguerreotype of senior officer James Fitzjames, who perished during the doomed Franklin Expedition of 1845.

The skeletal remains of James Fitzjames, a member of the ill-fated Franklin Expedition to the Arctic in 1845, have been identified by researchers from the University of Waterloo and Lakehead University.

Fitzjames served on the HMS Erebus as Sir John Franklin led that ship and the HMS Terror from England in search of the Northwest Passage in May 1845. Tragically, both ships soon met with disaster as they became trapped in ice in the Victoria Strait, near King William Island in present-day Nunavut, Canada. In the end, 129 officers and crew members perished.

But now, nearly 180 years later, researchers are examining a collection of more than 450 bones recovered from the area around King William Island, remains believed to belong to at least 13 different members of the Franklin Expedition.

The confirmation of James Fitzjames’ remains marks just the second time that bones belonging to a member of this doomed expedition have been identified.

Identifying Franklin Expedition Crew Members From The Massive Collection Of Bones

Stenton et al.The mandible of James Fitzjames, recently used to identify his remains.

Perhaps the most famous discovery relating to the fallen crew of the Franklin Expedition involves the mummified remains of sailors John Torrington, John Hartnell, and William Braine. However, their macabre, well-preserved remains only told a portion of the story behind the expedition’s tragic final chapter.

Since the mid-19th century, researchers have known about a collection of bones belonging to members of Sir John Franklin’s crew, many of which had been cracked in half, leading to speculation about cannibalism.

Archaeological evidence suggests that crew members who survived the initial disaster eventually set off on land, headed toward Back River, a 250-mile trek that led to many of them dying on King William Island. Roughly 30 to 40 crew members made it to the northern coast of the Canadian mainland, but they ultimately succumbed to the elements and starvation.

Stenton et al.The region around King William Island where many remains of the Franklin Expedition’s crew members were found.

Researchers eventually collected many of the scattered remains during various subsequent expeditions, which are now the focus of a joint study to identify the crew via DNA sampling.

“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 Lakehead University’s Stephen Fratpietro in a news release.

The DNA analysis identified the individual as senior officer James Fitzjames, making him just the second crew member to be positively identified from skeletal remains. The first, John Gregory, was identified in 2021.

“The identification of Fitzjames’ remains provides new insights about the expedition’s sad ending,” said the University of Waterloo’s Douglas Stenton.

The most telling and grisly of Fitzjames’ remains is his mandible, which offers further evidence of cannibalism among the crew.

James Fitzjames’ Remains Offer New Insight Into The Tragic Conclusion Of The Franklin Expedition

Stenton et al.Cut marks on James Fitzjames’ mandible suggest that his body was butchered after death and eaten by fellow crew members.

“On this mandible, they did find cut marks or evidence of cut marks,” Fratpietro told CBC. “So, it looks as though that this individual, or James Fitzjames, he was possibly cannibalized and that was probably his final situation that he was in. It was a dire survival situation and whoever was with him at the time probably used him to survive.”

Not only do these marks indicate that James Fitzjames had indeed been cannibalized, it also shows that rank and status were not factors in determining who got eaten. It’s likely that Fitzjames simply died before the others, and his body was used to help the others make it just a bit further. But it also shows just how desperate the members of the expedition were, given how morally reprehensible cannibalism was considered to be.

Stenton et al.A 3D reconstruction of James Fitzjames’ mandible.

“It demonstrates the level of desperation that the Franklin sailors must have felt to do something they would have considered abhorrent,” said University of Waterloo anthropology professor Robert Park. “Ever since the expedition disappeared into the Arctic 179 years ago there has been widespread interest in its ultimate fate, generating many speculative books and articles and, most recently, a popular television miniseries which turned it into a horror story with cannibalism as one of its themes.”

Fitzjames’ remains, and the remains of his fellow sailors, have now been laid to rest in a memorial cairn at the discovery site on King William Island, accompanied by a commemorative plaque. The identification of Fitzjames also offers some sense of closure for his descendants.

Closure For The Descendants Of The Franklin Expedition’s Crew

Robert ParkDouglas Stenton posing next to the memorial cairn for the fallen members of the Franklin Expedition.

The team was able to identify James Fitzjames’s remains with the help of a DNA sample from a distant living relative, Nigel Gambier, a second cousin five times removed. Gambier told the CBC that he had already known he was a distant relative, but the captain’s ultimate fate had always remained a mystery.

“I think it’s terrific. It kind of gives closure on where James Fitzjames died and, we understand the circumstances how he died. We now have a sense of just how extraordinarily tough it was for him in his final days,” he said.

According to Fratpietro, Gambier was somewhat relieved to know that his ancestor had not actually partaken in the cannibalism, but was eaten instead.

“I think it’s a terrific pity that despite that cannibalism that took place, that they didn’t manage to make it to Back River and then on to Hudson Bay to be able to tell the story of the whole expedition and exactly what happened,” Gambier said.

Gambier’s sense of closure highlights why this sort of research is important. Despite being several generations removed from Fitzjames, there is a genuine curiosity among people to know what happened to their family members that came before them. Gambier submitted his DNA in the hopes that it would help researchers in their efforts, and the researchers are encouraging others to do so as well.

“We are extremely grateful to this family for sharing their history with us and for providing DNA samples, and welcome opportunities to work with other descendants of members of the Franklin expedition to see if their DNA can be used to identify other individuals,” they said.

After reading about the newly identified remains of James Fitzjames, learn about 15 terrifying encounters with ghost ships. Then, learn about nine allegedly haunted paintings — including one that depicts the grisly end of John Franklin’s crew.