Searching for the lost John Franklin Arctic expedition has been a popular and profitable industry since the explorer vanished in 1845. Seeking the Northwest Passage on behalf of the British Admiralty, Franklin, his ships Erebus and Terror, and his crew of 129 vanished in the Arctic Archipelago. They left behind only scattered debris and evidence of survivor cannibalism. Considered a mystery, Franklin’s spectacular failure assured his popularity for over a century. Now Franklin’s cause also enjoys increased public funding, as Parks Canada prepares to lead another multi-agency search for his ships this summer, their third search in four years.
Canada’s current Franklin searches appear to follow closely the previous 164 years of seeking and relic hunting, but this apparent continuity distracts from what is genuinely new. Searching for Franklin is no longer oriented back toward Britain and the Commonwealth, but into the future of the “New North.” The...
Adriana Craciun is University of California Presidential Chair at the University of California, Riverside, and Fulbright Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh. She has published widely on the history of Arctic exploration and is the author of Writing Arctic Disaster: Authorship and Exploration (Cambridge University Press, 2016).
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