John Hartnell
| John Hartnell | |
|---|---|
| Born |
1820 Gillingham, Kent |
| Died |
January 4, 1846 (aged 25–26) Beechey Island, Nunavut, Canada |
| Body discovered | 1984 |
| Resting place |
Beechey Island 74°43′N 091°51′W / 74.717°N 91.850°W |
| Occupation | Explorer |
John Hartnell (1820 — 4 January 1846[1]) was an English sailor, and part of Sir John Franklin's last expedition. His preserved body was exhumed in 1984, to try to determine the cause of death.[2]
Early life
Able Seaman John Hartnell was born in Gillingham, Kent, in 1820 to a family of shipbuilders.[3] His parents were Thomas and Sarah (maiden name: Friar, born 1796) Hartnell who were married at Frindsbury, in the Medway Towns area of Kent, on 9 October 1815, and with whom he was living in Gillingham at the time of the Census of 1841.[4] [5]
1845 Franklin expedition
Together with his brother Thomas he was assigned to HMS Erebus during the Franklin polar expedition. They set off from Greenhithe, England, in two ships, HMS Terror and Erebus, on 19 May 1845. The trip was expected to last about three years, so the ships were packed with provisions which included more than 136,000 pounds of flour, 3,684 gallons of high-proof alcohol and 33,000 pounds of tinned meat, soup and vegetables.[6] However, after late July no one heard from or saw the crew again.[7]
Death and grave
1980s pathology reports suggest that Hartnell became blind in the right eye at some point before death.[8] According to his grave marker, Hartnell died on Beechey Island, on 4 January 1846, at the age of 25. In 1852, an expedition sent to find Franklin and his men arrived at Beechey Island. Commanded by Edward A. Inglefield, the crew of the Isabel included a physician, Dr. Peter Sutherland. Inglefield published a journal reporting their findings.
In 1984, anthropology professor Dr. Owen Beattie from the University of Alberta and a group of scientists arrived at Beechey Island to examine the bodies and determine what may have happened to the three men whose lives ended on the tiny speck of land in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.[9] One of Hartnell's distant relatives, Hartnell's great-great-nephew, physics professor Brian Spencely, was the expedition photographer.[10]
What they found was very surprising. Not only was Dr. Beattie stunned to see Hartnell's incredibly well-preserved, mummified remains through the melting ice, he was even more surprised to see that Hartnell's body had already been autopsied. Beattie and his team also noticed that Hartnell's right eye seemed damaged beyond the sinking-into-the-sockets effect that would have occurred from prior thawing.[9][11][12] Setting aside who did what to the mummy – before Beattie's examination – when Beattie and his team removed Hartnell's cap they saw a great deal of hair. They were able to use Hartnell's hair to conclude that his body contained large amounts of lead at the time of his death.[9]
Cultural influence
Hartnell's brother, Tom, played by Jack Hirst, is a supporting character in the television adaptation of The Terror, and the burial of the three crewmen on Beechey Island is mentioned in the first episode.[13]
Further Analysis
In 2016, A further analysis was conducted on Hartnell's body by his removed nail, and found that malnourishment and deficiently from Zinc may be his actual cause of death. [14]
References
- ↑ preservedremains - John Hartnell
- ↑ What Can We Learn From the Well-Preserved “Franklin Expedition” Mummies?
- ↑ McMahon, Tamsin (10 September 2014). "Face to face with a Franklin crew member, 140 years later". Maclean's. Rogers Media. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
- ↑ www.familysearch.org
- ↑ http://starsoverice.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/the-hartnells-of-nelson-street.html
- ↑ Nova (2015). Arctic Ghost Ship. WGBH Educational Foundation.
- ↑ Franklin Expedition - John Hartnell - AwesomeStories.com
- ↑ Awesome stories
- 1 2 3 "Franklin Expedition - John Hartnell".
- ↑ Face to face with a Franklin crew member
- ↑ Franklin Expedition Mummies from the Northwest Passage Archived 2007-07-01 at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ Jeffrey Blair Latta (2001). The Franklin Conspiracy: An Astonishing Solution to the Lost Arctic Expedition. Dundurn. p. 99. ISBN 978-1-77070-030-7.
- ↑ Jack Hirst as Tom Hartnell on IMDB
- ↑ http://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/65674fingernail-toenail_study_offers_insights_into_why_franklin_crew_died/
Further reading
- Beattie, Owen; John Geiger (1998). Frozen In Time: The Fate of The Franklin Expedition. Douglas & Macintyre. ISBN 1-55054-616-3.