Franklin's lost expedition
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Search complete. 9 mentions across 6 episodes found for "Franklin's lost expedition".
Sep 13, 2026
MarkHOST
Yeah, I think we might have, yeah.
AndyHOST
But it was the British Royal Navy first commissioned the Resolute to search for the Lost Franklin Expedition, which I think we have done an episode on, but it was a long, long time ago.
AndyHOST
Two British ships had gone missing in the Arctic in the 1840s while searching for the Northwest Passage.
AndyHOST
Considering the grim circumstances, officials specifically outfitted the new vessel to withstand the brutal conditions of the Arctic.
AndyHOST
by which they got a box of Swan Vesta and some kindling.
MarkHOST
Yeah.
AndyHOST
The HMS Resolute was officially launched in 1850 and the crew ended up discovering minor clues as to where the Franklin expedition had gone.
AndyHOST
The Resolute then returned safely to Britain.
JoeHOST
I mean, on the last show, we talked about the different civilizations building things like Gobekli Tepe.
JoeHOST
Because we're finding things all the time, like the Baltic Sea Anomaly, but also like the Franklin Expedition Shipwrecks.
JoeHOST
In 1845, John Franklin led a British expedition seeking the Northwest Passage.
JoeHOST
With two ships.
JoeHOST
129 men.
JoeHOST
They vanished.
JenniferHOST
For more than a century, the Franklin Expedition became one of the greatest mysteries of the Arctic exploration.
JenniferHOST
Search parties found graves, notes, artifacts, human remains, but Intuit oral history provided crucial information.
speaker_1HOST
It really is.
speaker_0HOST
It is based on the real-life 1845 Franklin Expedition.
speaker_0HOST
Sir John Franklin took two heavily fortified state-of-the-art ships, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror, with 129 men to find the Northwest Passage through the Arctic.
speaker_1HOST
And in reality, both ships became completely locked in the pack ice.
Hampton SidesGUEST
The, the...
Hampton SidesGUEST
Well, you know, there had been a number of these expeditions by this point, you know, going back to, like, the British expeditions, like the Franklin Expedition, which was a, a famous one, and, um, there was always the role of the expedition leader's wife, who was, like, an important, you know, "We, I believe in my husband, and, uh, I am the...
Hampton SidesGUEST
And if the expedition goes badly, I have to be the, you know, godmother kind of, of, of the thing."
Hayden SammakHOST
Mm-hmm.
speaker_6NARRATOR
The closest routes to help were measured in hundreds of miles and the men attempting them were already sick, weakened and hungry.
speaker_6NARRATOR
Within a few years, every member of the Franklin expedition would be dead.
speaker_6NARRATOR
The ships remained missing for more than a century and a half.
speaker_6NARRATOR
The evidence of the disaster emerged slowly.
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speaker_6NARRATOR
The wreck locations and Inuit reports create a documented possibility of later activity.
speaker_6NARRATOR
They do not yet provide a complete account of it.
speaker_6NARRATOR
The Franklin Expedition remains powerful because its terror is entirely human and thoroughly documented in fragments.
speaker_6NARRATOR
The men began with ships, food, officers, routines and a national mission.