DNA test helps identify sailor from doomed Arctic expedition

A second member of a doomed 1845 expedition through the Canadian Arctic has been identified by researchers using a DNA sample from a living descendant.

The bones recovered from a remote Arctic cairn are believed to be those of James Fitzjames, a19th-century explorer.

Fitzjames was one of the captains of British explorer Sir John Franklin's two ships that went missing in the summer of 1845.

The expedition was meant to find a Northwest Passage through the Canadian Arctic but ended up becoming a story of starvation and death. The commander and his 128 men never returned.

The ill-fated expedition has inspired art, books and TV series with fictionalised depictions of their struggle for survival.

In 1845, Sir John Franklin, an officer in the British Royal Navy, took two ships and 129 men towards the Northwest Territories in an attempt to map the Northwest Passage.

If charted properly, the route would allow sailors to travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific via the icy Arctic circle.

Sir John Franklin died during the journey and Fitzjames was one of the two men who stepped in.

When their two ships - HMS Erebus and HMS Terror - became trapped in the ice, Fitzjames helped lead 105 crew members in an attempt to escape the Arctic. None would survive.

Fitzjames also co-signed the last known message from the expedition.

"Sir John Franklin died on the 11th of June 1847 and the total loss by deaths in the Expedition has been to this date nine officers and 15 men … (We) start on tomorrow 26th for Backs Fish River," that message reads.

The wreck of HMS Erebus, was discovered in 2014. The other ship, the Terror, was found in 2016.

The remains of Fitzjames were identified by researchers from the University of Waterloo and Lakehead University using genealogical analyses.

The identification was made possible by a DNA sample from a living descendant, which matched the DNA that was discovered at the archaeological site on King William Island where 451 bones from at least 13 Franklin sailors were found.

“We worked with a good quality sample that allowed us to generate a Y-chromosome profile, and we were lucky enough to obtain a match,” said Stephen Fratpietro of Lakehead’s Paleo-DNA lab.

Fitzjames is just the second of those 105 to be positively identified, joining John Gregory, engineer aboard HMS Erebus, whom the team identified in 2021.

“The identification of Fitzjames’ remains provides new insights about the expedition's sad ending,” Doug Stenton, an archaeologist at the University of Waterloo, said.

Researchers are pursuing further DNA matches to remains discovered.