DNA Identifies Four Franklin Expedition Crew

Researchers have identified four crew members from Sir John Franklin's 1845 expedition to find the Northwest Passage through DNA analysis of skeletal remains matched to living descendants, providing new details on the final days of the ill-fated voyage.

The three sailors from HMS Erebus, William Orren, an able seaman; David Young, a boy first class; and John Bridgens, a subordinate officer's steward, died at Erebus Bay on the west coast of King William Island, Nunavut, Canada. The fourth, Harry Peglar, captain of the foretop on HMS Terror, was found about 130 kilometers south. The identifications, detailed in studies published this week in the Journal of Archaeological Science Reports and Polar Record, bring the total number of confirmed Franklin expedition members identified by DNA to six.

Led by anthropologist Douglas Stenton of the University of Waterloo, the team extracted mitochondrial and Y-chromosome DNA from the remains and compared it to samples from descendants with documented maternal or paternal lineages. All matches showed a genetic distance of zero, confirming direct ancestry.

The expedition left England in May 1845 with 129 men aboard the reinforced ships HMS...