The Franklin expedition fatalities.
Shockingly well-preserved, isn’t he? Especially considering he’d been dead for 140 years. Seldom do we see someone who died in a different century, in such a complete condition. His name was John Hartnell, and the man who took this photo, who saw his face for the first time, was his great-great nephew.
Hartnell was one of 129 officers and men who set out on a Victorian expedition to explore the last unnavigated sections of the Northwest Passage, an expedition which proved to be fatal for all, and one that would end with a disappearance that would spark curiosity in inquisitive minds for decades.
25-year-old John was one of the first casualties of the trip, and was buried on Beechey Island alongside two others who’d died early on too:
The three men’s bodies were exhumed in the 1980s in a quest to discover the truth, and it was there that John’s great-great nephew first saw his ancestor’s face. It must have been shocking to witness him in still such recognisably human form.
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