What happened to the Franklin Expedition? The real mystery behind The Terror

In 1845, two British navy ships sailed into the Canadian arctic and never returned. The fate of the Franklin Expedition has proven one of history’s most compelling mysteries, and most recently inspired the BBC drama The Terror. Here, Andrew Lambert explores the history behind the series and asks: what really happened to the expedition’s 129 crewmembers?

Andrew Lambert is the author of Franklin: Tragic Hero of Polar Navigation (Faber & Faber, 2010)