From debated mysteries to exceptional survivals, the polar history books tell us of trailblazing tales that intrigue and inspire with long legacies that are shared by historians onboard your very own polar expedition. Discover some of those stories below…
 

1845 - Northwest Passage: What really happened to Erebus and Terror?

It was May 1845 when two ships sailed from Britain to chart the final part of the Northwest Passage, the link between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Teams aboard HMS Erebus and HMS Terror set off with explorer John Franklin towards what is now Nunavut in Northern Canada. Franklin was on his third shot at making the breakthrough, determined to cement his name in the history books. The two ships were powerful, comfortable and with enough food on board for all. There was heating too, keeping the crew safe as temperatures plummeted to as low as -48°C overnight and -35°C by day, freezing the mercury inside the thermometers solid. In theory, the trip should have been a success. A whaler saw the two vessels in Baffin Bay, waiting for the ice to thaw so they could continue their route to the Bering Strait. But that would be the last time that any of the 129 crew were seen alive.

Two years passed with no communication and so search parties were sent out to find the explorers. Unfortunately, no one was able to find any answers. It wasn’t until 1859 that a sole piece of paper gave some insight into the tragedy. The Victory Point Note is a hand-written message in the margins of a standard Admiralty form, stating that the ships had been deserted on April 22, 1848 after they’d become stuck in the ice in September of 1846. John Franklin had perished in June of 1847, the note revealed, and Captain F R M Crozier had taken leave with 105 officers and crew, making their way on foot towards the Back River. Inuit stories gathered by Dr John Rae back in 1854 indicate that some of the ill-fated crew had resorted to cannibalism to stay alive. It wasn’t until the 1980s that researchers were able to retrieve bodies and test them, determining that the remains of the crewmen showed high levels of lead in the bones, likely from the lead that had been used to seal the tins of food on board. The shipwrecks of the Erebus and Terror were finally discovered in 2014 and 2016. There’s still so much to be learnt about the fate of the men who lost their lives in search of the Northwest Passage.