Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition

Written by Owen Beattie and John Geiger

Narrated by Liam Gerrard

In 1845, Sir John Franklin and his men set out to "penetrate the icy fastness of the north, and to circumnavigate America." And then they disappeared. The truth about what happened to Franklin's ill-fated Arctic expedition was shrouded in mystery for more than a century. Then, in 1984, Owen Beattie and his team exhumed two crew members from a burial site in the North for forensic evidence, to shocking results. But the most startling discovery didn't come until 2014, when a team commissioned by the Canadian government uncovered one of the lost ships: Erebus.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Dec 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9781541432468

Reviews for Frozen in Time

[Emily Griffin Neill · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A bit slow, and I would have liked a bit more on the actual planning/voyage itself, but interesting and informative.

[vivienner_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Sir John Franklin set out with two ships and the pick of the Royal Navy in 1845 to try to find the North West Passage, expected to be an alternate route to the Orient. Franklin was an experienced Arctic seaman, but this time did not return. Lady Franklin worked tirelessly to ensure that searches for the ill-fated ships continued and that her husband's name would be remembered for his achievements, not for this failure. In the following decade, as many as forty major expeditions set out, by sea or overland, some funded by Lady Franklin’s influence or her own considerable wealth. They didn't find the ships but added significantly to the knowledge of the Arctic. The Franklin legend and search became obsessive. The mystery was so captivating that the general location was registered as a Canadian national historic site. Three known graves were exhumed by Dr. Beattie and his research team from the University of Alberta, the results of which was published with the same title in 1987. The news made international headlines. Beattie was able to determine the probable cause of death was tuberculosis and lead poisoning, the lead having leached from the improperly sealed canned food, a new innovation in 1845. His findings filled in many more details of the mystery. Nearly two hundred years later our yearning to know more persisted and in 2008 the Canadian government commissioned a team to resume the search for the ships. In 2014, in the shallow waters of Queen Maud Gulf, off King William Island, they discovered Erebus and in 2016, Terror. Franklin's name has become news once more as global warming has opened the Northwest Passage, discoveries continue, and sovereignty is at stake. Canada would like to protect the waters by having it designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and part of internal waterways, not an international strait.This is a revised edition of Beattie's bestseller published in 1987 with additional information and a foreword by [[Wade Davis]]. [[Margaret Atwood]]'s entertaining and knowledgable introduction is exceptional for the images she creates, and for her descriptions of how public perception of Franklin changed with the passing of each decade, each century. His reputation in the early years was particularly influenced by Lady Franklin's exhortations. She would have liked this book.

[Helena Ramirez-Deleon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Loved it! It had a ton of detail and was very thorough in approaching the subject of the Franklin Expedition and all of the players involved in the original and the next expeditions.

[librarycin · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book first looks at the Franklin Expedition in the mid-1800s to find the Northwest Passage. Franklin and his entire crew of 129 people and two ships disappeared. In the years following, others set out to find them or some clue as to what had happened. In the early 1980s, Owen Beattie, a forensic anthropologist, and a team of others set out to the graves of three of the expedition members on Beatty Island to dig them up to do autopsies to see if that would tell them what had happened. Surprisingly, I found the second half more interesting than the first. I guess all of it was potentially interesting to me, but I was surprised to be more engrossed in the parts as the modern-day scientists dug up the graves to find extremely well-preserved bodies and to read the details of their testing and what they found. Be warned that there are photos of the bodies that were dug up; of course, there are other interesting photos, as well.

[darthdeverell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition, Owen Beattie and John Geiger trace the history of Captain Sir John Franklin’s lost expedition to discover the Northwest Passage aboard the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror in 1845. Beattie and Geiger place Franklin’s Expedition in the context of Arctic exploration following the Napoleonic Wars, with the search expeditions of the mid-nineteenth century deifying Franklin and cementing the expedition in the national, and international, consciousness. They further explore the leading theories of the day for Franklin’s loss, including scurvy and the nineteenth century ailment of “debility.” After examining the historical record, Beattie and Geiger summarize Beattie’s 1980s expeditions to to King William Island and Beechey Island, in which Beattie examined bones and the graves of three Franklin Expedition crew, discovering the presence of elevated lead levels. This evidence, coupled with historical records of lead exposure from nineteenth century canning processes, helped to explain the underlying cause for the expedition’s mortality.Beattie and Geiger conclude, “The story of how the Royal Navy failed to achieve the Northwest Passage is really that of how the world’s greatest navy battled, and was ultimately humbled by, a simple yet gruesome disease – scurvy, allied to a menace of which they could not begin to conceive: lead poisoning. The source of their defeat was not the ice-choked seas, the deep cold, the winters of absolute night, the labyrinthine geography or the soul-destroying isolation. It was found in their food supply, most notably in their heavy reliance on tinned foods” (pg. 254). In this, Beattie and Geiger compare the Franklin Expedition’s fate to other instances in which people took technological advancements for granted, leading to systematic breakdowns.Frozen in Time will captivate readers interested in the history of exploration or the science of archaeology. The Franklin Expedition itself continues to play a role in international politics, as Canada works to declare the locations of the Franklin Expedition graves, the final resting places of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, and the surrounding waterways as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in order to cement Canada’s claim to the Northwest Passage, now increasingly open as a result of climate change (pg. xviii).

[amerynth · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"Frozen in Time" is a fascinating look at the fate of the Franklin expedition. In the 1980's a series of scientific expeditions headed off to the Arctic to exhume the remains of three bodies buried before the expedition got into real trouble and disappeared. In a detailed analysis, Owen Beattie found the lead levels in the bodies was extraordinarily high, and he believes the expedition started to go awry as its members became ill with lead poisoning. He also found a bone that backed up the story of cannibalism that rocked England when it was first suggested. I generally liked the book and found the scientific story interesting. I felt the Franklin information itself was a big glossed over and was bugged that the book paints Lady Franklin as a devoted wife searching for her husband's fate without balancing out the story -- she was so devoted to glorifying her husband that she tried to destroy Arctic explorer John Rae for suggesting the crew turned to cannibalism in an attempt to survive. If you already know a bit about the Franklin expedition and the many searches for the fate of the captain and his men, this book is definitely worth reading.

[threadnsong · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I picked this up at the library as a supplement to Dan Simmons' The Terror, which I'm listening to on audiobook. This book has a great set of maps as well as photographs of the Canadian wilderness, much as the men of Franklin's failed expedition would have seen it. It brings the reality of the man-hauled sledges, the Arctic summer sun, and the conditions very much to life.

It was a quick read - I read it last night. Note: there are some pictures of the 3 bodies buried on Beechey Island that may not be for the most squeamish.

[slug9000 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I am really disappointed to give this book such a bad review because I really wanted to like it. I am an avid reader of nonfiction, I don't bore easily, and I love books about polar exploration. I got about halfway through this book and had to give up because I could not get into it. A friend recommended this to me because he said it was fascinating and terrifying, so I hope I didn't close it right before the good sections, but even if that is the case, the first part is almost intolerably boring. One of my biggest issues with the book is that it is not presented in chronological order. Certainly this is not a deal breaker for me, and I've read and enjoyed countless other nonfiction books that are presented in a non-linear fashion. The problem is that (until the point where I shut the book) the Franklin expedition is by no means the main story. It is a recurring theme, but I felt as if I were reading more about subsequent search and rescue expeditions and not the actual Franklin expedition. The point at which I gave up was the impossibly dull section on a modern quest to find the remains of the expedition. The fact that the author managed to make a modern story about trekking through the Arctic so boring is almost an impressive feat, given the environmental risks and physical dexterity required to do it. I hope I didn't give up right before the action got good, but even if that is the case, the first 50% of the book is so unengaging that I don't think I'd be able to give the book a much higher rating.

[familyhistorian-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I can remember being interested in the story of the Franklin Expedition from the time that I was in grade school. How could a whole expedition just vanish? In Frozen in Time, Geiger and Beattie recount the history of the Franklin Expedition, the realization that it was lost and the many expeditions that followed; searching at first for the living and then for evidence of what had happened to the dead. The prevailing theory as to why the whole expedition died put it down to scurvy. Beattie, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Alberta, wanted to use modern forensic methods to test that theory and perhaps come up with a definitive conclusion as to what had felled the men of the expedition. The last part of the book covers his Arctic expeditions to find forensic evidence and the conclusions that were drawn from the samples they obtained. This book combines history and mystery and is a great read for the archeology buff.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Over the years I’ve read a number of accounts about the ill-fated Franklin Expedition of 1845 and 1846. Some concentrate on the expedition itself, some on one or more of the subsequent searches for Franklin, some even on Franklin’s wife, Lady Jane. This is the first I have read that details a modern search, based on scientific evidence, for the cause of the failure. As a scientist I personally found this book fascinating.I especially loved the role that serendipity played in the outcome because that so often is how scientific advances are made. In this case, Owen Beattie (who is a forensic anthropologist) expected to find evidence that would confirm that the crew suffered from scurvy. The skeletal remains that his team found in their first Arctic trip were sent for atomic absorption analysis as a matter of thoroughness, not because anything in particular was being looked for. When the results of the analysis showed the bones from the Franklin crew member had extremely high levels of lead the investigation took a new turn.I thought the explanation of the scientific testing was very well done, something that any intelligent lay person could understand. It’s not every scientist that can write in a way that is intelligible to someone outside of the field. I presume John Geiger may have had something to do with that but I suspect that Dr. Beattie is the rare scientist who can capture an audience regardless of who composes it.Great read.

[drmaf-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great book. First read it as a teenager and then picked it up again recently. The eerie photos of the perfectly preserved bodies emerging from the ice are literally breathtaking and have stayed with me for always. Literally staring into the face of someone from the 1840s, its something that should be impossible, but because of a freak of nature, it is possible. Amazing.

[marlene9nl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interesting book. Just worth it for the photos of the frozen bodies alone. Wow. Maybe I should have read this book before I read The fictional Terror by Dan Simmons. Now I see how much he has taken from this book.
Anyways thanks to the reburial and examination of the 3 sailors of the lost Franklin expedition we have learned a little bit of what happened to them.

It is clear that the biggest reason is as always money. The Navy decided to go with a new provisioner for the food who offered it at cut rate prices. Stephen Goldner, who was awarded the contract on 1 April 1845, just seven weeks before Franklin set sail. Goldner worked in haste on the order of 8,000 tins, which were later found to have lead soldering that was "thick and sloppily done, and dripped like melted candle wax down the inside surface".

From the bodies they discovered all 3 had too much lead in them. lead poisoning.They concluded that the crew members whose graves had been found on Beechey Island most likely died of pneumonia and perhaps tuberculosis and that lead poisoning may have worsened their health, owing to badly soldered cans held in the ships' food stores. However, it was later suggested that the source of this lead may not have been tinned food, but the distilled water systems fitted to the expedition’s ships. Do not know about the latter but they also discovered cut marks on some human bones which lead them to believe that some of the men ate each other.

All in all what exactly happened to the Franklin expedition will still be a mystery but at least we did get some answers.

All

[nanalb · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I bought this book at the National Maritime Museum outside of Greewich on a recent visit there, and I had high expectations both because of Margaret Atwood's introduction but also because I'm interested in polar exploration generally and the Franklin expedition in particular.Too much focus and detail about opening the graves and what was found there, for my taste.

[rebeccaann_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

After reading The Terror, I found myself quite interested in the Franklin expedition and, having long found myself wanting to try out the nonfiction genre, I decided this was a perfect opportunity.The book is very readable, presenting facts in an interesting way. There were plenty instances of humor that made me laugh out loud as the author related anecdotes of the researcher's mishaps (they seemed to have great fun playing pranks on one another). There were informative pictures that really helped me understand what was being said in the book.The face on the front of the cover is that of John Torrington, the lead stoker on the Terror. There are also pictures of the other two bodies exhumed from their graves on Beechey Island. While I know this was done in the name of research and I don't mind it, I felt it was a bit derogatory to put the pictures in a book for all the world to see, especially Torrington's on the front cover. It's my own personal view on the subject, but I just found it a bit cheap.Other than that, though, I really enjoyed my first venture into nonfiction. I also have a much greater respect for Dan Simmons. The amount of actual facts in The Terror is amazing. He created "the thing on the ice", but almost everything else came from facts. It made his book that much more frightening.

[noblechicken · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of the archeological expeditions to the Arctic to find evidence of Sir John Franklin's tragic expedition to find the Northwest Passage. The haunting photographs of the remains of some of the early buried on the voyage, as well as stunning glimpses of the region are worth the read alone. How desolate and hopeless it must have seemed to these sailors. The evidence of cannibalism and destitution are haunting and the book is very matter of fact at some points, but still a good read for those into the subject matter. I still wonder if any one has tried to find the sunken ships or is still looking for evidence.

[clueless_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beattie returns to the scene of the 'crime' where the Erebus and Terror left some debris. Meticulously and reverently he exhumes three graves and removes samples to be tested later. With much hardship and dignity the corpses are replaced and the permafrost reclaims their charges. Forensic anthropology has never been so gripping.

[j5v5d5a5 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great story of modern investigation coupled with fascinating history; completely absorbing read.