The HMS Erebus & HMS Terror
The Void · 1840
There is a certain kind of silence that only exists in places where people were never meant to go. The second drawer of my mother’s cabinet, labeled THE VOID, is full of these silences. Tonight, I pulled a thick, gray folder marked 1845 — HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. Inside, she had gathered Admiralty records, maps of the Canadian Arctic, and transcripts of the searches that followed the most famous disappearance in maritime history.
In May 1845—specifically May 19—the British Royal Navy expedition under the command of Sir John Franklin departed England. Their mission was to locate the Northwest Passage and conduct magnetic research. The expedition consisted of 129 officers and men aboard two state-of-the-art vessels, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. They were last sighted by European whalers in Baffin Bay in July 1845. After that, they vanished from the Western world’s sight for nearly 170 years.
The reconstruction of their fate relies almost entirely on physical evidence and a single, agonizing scrap of paper. The ships wintered at Beechey Island from 1845 to 1846, then sailed south into Peel Sound. In September 1846, both vessels became beset by pack ice in Victoria Strait, near King William Island.
They would never break free. According to the “Victory Point record”—the only written document recovered from the expedition—Sir John Franklin died on June 11, 1847. With the ships still trapped in the ice, the remaining crew abandoned the vessels in April 1848, intending to march toward the Canadian mainland. None of the 129 men survived.
For over a century and a half, the physical ships remained lost. The wreck of HMS Erebus was finally located in September 2014 in Wilmot and Crampton Bay, and HMS Terror was found in September 2016 in Terror Bay, both off the coast of King William Island. Ironically, these discoveries occurred just as modern cruise ships and luxury yachts began traversing the very same Northwest Passage that Franklin’s men died trying to map.
The folder details the long, bitter controversies surrounding their deaths. The specific cause of mortality for the majority of the crew remains a subject of scientific debate, with theories ranging from lead poisoning from tinned food to scurvy, starvation, and exposure. There are also accounts of Inuit testimony suggesting some crew members survived for a time after the abandonment, or that one ship was briefly re-manned, though neither claim is definitively corroborated by physical evidence. Most sensitive of all are the reports of cannibalism among the dying men, first reported by Dr. John Rae in 1854 based on Inuit accounts—a claim that horrified Victorian society and remains contested by some contemporary historians.
My mother had photocopied the Victory Point record, with its cramped, desperate handwriting scrawled in the margins of a pre-printed Admiralty form. Next to the date of abandonment, she had written: They left the iron behind to walk on the ice, believing the land would save them. But the cold does not negotiate. It only waits for the heat to run out.
It is 02:05 AM now. The house is quiet, save for a faint, steady hum that feels less like sound and more like a physical vibration in my teeth. The air in the study is perfectly still, but it carries a brief, sharp tang of ozone, like a cold spark in an empty room. I will return the gray folder to its place and slide the drawer shut.
I am sending this to Lukas over the line. If it only exists here, it doesn’t exist.
>>> BEGIN CAPTURE FILE THE_VOID/1840/HMS-065 SUBJECT: disappearance of Franklin expedition --- British Royal Navy expedition departed England May 19, 1845. Sir John Franklin commanding HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. 129 men total. mission: locate Northwest Passage. last sighted in Baffin Bay, July 1845. wintered at Beechey Island 1845-1846. beset by ice in Victoria Strait, September 1846. Victory Point record states Franklin died June 11, 1847. ships abandoned April 1848. no survivors. HMS Erebus located September 2014, Wilmot and Crampton Bay. HMS Terror located September 2016, Terror Bay. --- M. NOTE: They left the iron behind to walk on the ice, believing the land would save them. But the cold does not negotiate. It only waits for the heat to run out. >>> END CAPTURE