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What evidence did Francis Leopold McClintock find on King William Island in 1859?

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Map of the Arctic region highlighting the Northwest Passage, a maritime route shown with a red line connecting the Atlantic Ocean near Greenland to the Pacific Ocean via the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, passing north of Canada and Alaska through the Bering Sea. Major islands and surrounding countries such as Russia, Norway, Denmark (Greenland), the United States (Alaska), and Canada are labeled.
Northwest Passage

In 1859, while leading a search mission on King William Island, Capt. Francis Leopold McClintock discovered critical evidence regarding the fate of the Franklin expedition.12

His findings included:

  • Written Record: The most significant discovery was a document providing an account of the expedition’s progress up to April 25, 1848.12
  • Human Remains: McClintock found the skeletons of crew members who had perished while attempting to travel southward on foot.12
  • Relics and Belongings: He recovered various artifacts and personal belongings from the expedition.23
  • Inuit Testimony: McClintock received an account from an elderly Inuit woman describing how the starving men died in their tracks as they attempted to reach the Back River on the North American mainland.12

These discoveries confirmed that the ships Erebus and Terror had been abandoned in the ice in April 1848 and that there were no survivors of the expedition.13