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Post date: Mar 01, 2015 3:48:30 PM
a film for Canadian TV following up on the discovery, last September of the remains of one of the ships of the ill-fated Franklin expedition of 1845. The Erebus and the Terror (both ex-bomb vessels) set off to find the North-west passage to the East Indies. After becoming ice-bound off king William island, both ships and their entire crews were lost. The crew died from a combination of hypothermia, starvation, scurvy and lead poisoning. The lead poisoning is currently thought to be from the ship's distiller water system, not from the tin cans. Starvation was largely due to taking the wrong stores for such a voyage. Cannibalism is also supposed to have existed!
The last men seen to be alive were reported by local Inuit some time in 1851, 4 years after the death of Franklin.
In September 2014 the Canadian government announced it had found the well-preserved wreck of the Erebus.
The Erebus may yet provide some more information as divers and ROV's are sent down to it.
The film HMS was involved with aims to put some meat on the bones of this well-known story.
HMS members spent their Saturday playing roles in
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