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I watched recently a Nova episode on the lost Franklin Expedition to find the North West passage.

First off, all tests of bodies and bones found find massive amounts of Lead in their bodies. The bodies of the ones that died early in the voyage have 600 ppm. We have some people with medical knowledge. How long can a human being survive with that amount of lead being introduced in their bodies. Could they have survived the two or three years that they were aboard the boats? Also, could they have made any distance at all when they abandoned the boats. There was suppose to be Inuit sighting of survivors years later.

Second, with regards to the actual cause. There seems to be two possibilities as far as cause. There are the tins which the food is kept in and the water purification system is suggested by an article I read. Have anyone else done any reading on this and can give their own conclusions?

Wow, this is a blast from the past. You watch a documentary and decide to dredge up this debate from back in the day? Polar exploration is an interesting topic, especially from the 'they went a long long way away and then died' perspective.

From what I remember of my reading on the issue, the biggest argument 'against' lead poisoning is that the expedition slowly died over time instead of everyone dropping at the same time.

How the expeditiion moved and the truth of the various (some impossible) Inuit oral traditions are almost unverifiable. I've seen some very strange ideas pitched based on very odd things like the position/orientation of boats and cairns.

Edit: Wanted to add an additional question which came to me. How intact should the remains of the vessels be. The water is extremely cold and should inhibit the wood deteriorating so they should be fairly intact. Any similar discovers of ships underwater in polar regions which can be used for comparison purposes? There have been several expeditions sent out including one in 2008 which don't appear to have published results yet.

I saw some of that show.

I thought there was strong evidence for the crew members having scurvy and lead poisoning.

They had enough food for the years they were trapped but they didn't know (and neither did I) that whatever source they
were counting on for Vitamin C loses potency over time.

Kitsune wrote:Edit: Wanted to add an additional question which came to me. How intact should the remains of the vessels be. The water is extremely cold and should inhibit the wood deteriorating so they should be fairly intact. Any similar discovers of ships underwater in polar regions which can be used for comparison purposes? There have been several expeditions sent out including one in 2008 which don't appear to have published results yet.

From what I remember, nothing of the ships was ever found and it has been assumed that they were eventually crushed by the ice.