muchtodoonterror - Tumblr blog

[muchtodoonterror]

polar expeditions are at their core, like all good and homosexual things, about narrative

[muchtodoonterror]

absolution. this is my little/tozer piece for the @theterrorzine ⚓ big thanks to @zevons for the inspo and thanks to the zine mods for organising!

[muchtodoonterror]

it's 3:30am so please excuse this post which is going to feature decapitation and cannibalism and emotions so content warning for those

but i keep seeing people say they've identified fitzjames' body, but they haven't! they've identified not even his skull but his jawbone. his lower mandible with cut marks. and yes the "they ate his face" jokes are right there for the taking, but probably more likely they in fact cut his head off first specifically so they wouldn't have to look at his face while they carried out their task of butchery. and if they were making use of the head....that's the direst of all, because it's the most individual part, it's the part they would have least wanted to consume. there are so few skeletons that were found in their original arrangement so i know it's not necessarily telling, but presuming that they did cut off his head, it really hits home to me even more that all we have identified is his jaw. not even his "face". certainly not a body. his actual body could be somewhere far distant or nowhere because all that's left is this part because these men who he lived in incredibly close quarters with for so long were forced to do the unthinkable to a man who was widely liked and considered an emblem of vitality and who they served under for years. he did funky little drawings in his letter margins and got excited about goodsir's sea creatures and had served with some of these men not just on erebus but for years before!!! he personally hired many of them (which maybe they were not so glad of anymore) because he knew and liked and trusted t hem. maybe they tried to bury his head with dignity to give at least part of him a christian burial. maybe not. but there's something deeply lonely about a jawbone. . . . with cut marks.

[muchtodoonterror]

chelsea smile

[muchtodoonterror]

Confession of a King

[muchtodoonterror]

HELL YEAHHHHHHHHHHH

[muchtodoonterror]

and! i do get that in some ways the reality of what happened to this man is so awful that the gut reaction is to make jokes - the old "if i don't laugh I'll cry" response, it is one of my most reliable coping mechanisms. it's just, for so long we've known the outlines of what happened and that it happend to SOME unknown unnamed expedition members kept it vague. but to have that vague reality now be tied specifically to one of the most well documented, well liked members of the expedition - and to have it be part of his face..... well, it hits hard.

it's 3:30am so please excuse this post which is going to feature decapitation and cannibalism and emotions so content warning for those

but i keep seeing people say they've identified fitzjames' body, but they haven't! they've identified not even his skull but his jawbone. his lower mandible with cut marks. and yes the "they ate his face" jokes are right there for the taking, but probably more likely they in fact cut his head off first specifically so they wouldn't have to look at his face while they carried out their task of butchery. and if they were making use of the head....that's the direst of all, because it's the most individual part, it's the part they would have least wanted to consume. there are so few skeletons that were found in their original arrangement so i know it's not necessarily telling, but presuming that they did cut off his head, it really hits home to me even more that all we have identified is his jaw. not even his "face". certainly not a body. his actual body could be somewhere far distant or nowhere because all that's left is this part because these men who he lived in incredibly close quarters with for so long were forced to do the unthinkable to a man who was widely liked and considered an emblem of vitality and who they served under for years. he did funky little drawings in his letter margins and got excited about goodsir's sea creatures and had served with some of these men not just on erebus but for years before!!! he personally hired many of them (which maybe they were not so glad of anymore) because he knew and liked and trusted t hem. maybe they tried to bury his head with dignity to give at least part of him a christian burial. maybe not. but there's something deeply lonely about a jawbone. . . . with cut marks.

[muchtodoonterror]

it's 3:30am so please excuse this post which is going to feature decapitation and cannibalism and emotions so content warning for those

but i keep seeing people say they've identified fitzjames' body, but they haven't! they've identified not even his skull but his jawbone. his lower mandible with cut marks. and yes the "they ate his face" jokes are right there for the taking, but probably more likely they in fact cut his head off first specifically so they wouldn't have to look at his face while they carried out their task of butchery. and if they were making use of the head....that's the direst of all, because it's the most individual part, it's the part they would have least wanted to consume. there are so few skeletons that were found in their original arrangement so i know it's not necessarily telling, but presuming that they did cut off his head, it really hits home to me even more that all we have identified is his jaw. not even his "face". certainly not a body. his actual body could be somewhere far distant or nowhere because all that's left is this part because these men who he lived in incredibly close quarters with for so long were forced to do the unthinkable to a man who was widely liked and considered an emblem of vitality and who they served under for years. he did funky little drawings in his letter margins and got excited about goodsir's sea creatures and had served with some of these men not just on erebus but for years before!!! he personally hired many of them (which maybe they were not so glad of anymore) because he knew and liked and trusted t hem. maybe they tried to bury his head with dignity to give at least part of him a christian burial. maybe not. but there's something deeply lonely about a jawbone. . . . with cut marks.

[muchtodoonterror]

Tumblr fans of doomed polar expeditions be like, “my man my blorbo my love my princess” and show you a picture of a single gnawed-up human bone

[muchtodoonterror]

“Captain (Commander) Fitz James we had known in Hertfordshire; he was the strongest, most energetic man I ever saw, and for long we could never believe he had perished at the North Pole–death and he appeared to have nothing in common.”

— Sophy Percy Bagot, Links with the Past.

[muchtodoonterror]

hold up babe i'm talking to the people in my phone about the recovered jawbone of british royal navy officer james fitzjames who died and was cannibalized in 1848 during the lost franklin expedition

[muchtodoonterror]

im sorry your tummy hurts. you're a good mutual. there will be poems

[muchtodoonterror]

thank you so much douglas stenton, stephen fratpietro, and robert park for offering not one but two heartbreaking scenarios

[muchtodoonterror]

apparently not everyone is aware of james fitzjames inshallah so.

[muchtodoonterror]

sorry boss i can't come in today. yeah they positively identified james fitzjames's remains and his bones have cut marks consistent with cannibalism

[muchtodoonterror]

The Terror cast a week ago: here you go, enjoy some new bts pics!

Fandom: yay new content!

Journal of Archaeological Science: hold my beer.

[muchtodoonterror]

THE TERROR ▸ 1.10 we are gone