The Franklin Expedition Vanished in 1845. Here's Why No One Came Home

In 1845, Sir John Franklin sailed into the Arctic with two of the best-equipped ships in the Royal Navy, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. Not one of the 129 men came home. We follow the evidence: the Victory Point note, the skeleton found in the wrong uniform, the lead poisoning theory and why scientists now doubt it, the Inuit testimony ignored for over a century, the discovery of both shipwrecks in 2014 and 2016, the closed door inside HMS Terror, and the 2026 DNA identifications that finally named Harry Peglar. ⏱ Chapters 00:00 The man in the wrong uniform 00:33 The note in the cairn 02:22 The best-equipped ships in the Navy 05:07 What killed them? Four explanations 10:22 Finding Erebus and Terror 12:46 DNA names the dead (2021–2026) 14:51 The door that's still closed 🔔 Subscribe to The Unsolved Files for documentaries on history's greatest unsolved mysteries. #FranklinExpedition #HMSErebus #UnsolvedMysteries