#fitzjames' bio is up next

[terrorconfessions]

Terror Tidbits

Things I learned from reading ‘Frozen in Time’ by Owen Beattie and John Geiger:

1. How to make a tin can like Samuel Goldner (ie how to poison people with lead and botulism). 

2.In 1852 an inquiry into the quality of Goldner’s cans was held. Despite the fact that putrified meat was found in the most recent consignment, the Admiralty continued to give Navy contracts to Goldner.

3. Sir John Franklin got the job of leading the expedition because William Parry, a prominent member of the Admiralty and friend, said: “If you don’t let him go, the man will die of disappointment.” This was even though people had expressed misgivings about Franklin’s abilities while he was still a lieutenant.

4. Blanky wasn’t kidding about John Ross’ bad leadership. The book recounts his 1829-33 expedition in a little more detail and hoo boy.

5. On Beechey Island there is evidence of a small garden, an observatory of some kind, as well as numerous tent markers dating to the period of the Franklin Expedition. The garden is mentioned in a verse by Charles Dickens.

6. Sailors during the 18th and 19th centuries were known to suffer from what was then called debility. Debility as an illness was poorly defined, although symptoms included “languor”, “incoherancy” and being made “useless”. It’s unclear whether this refers to depression, the mental effects of scurvy, lead poisoning or a mixture of these conditions.

7. In the 1840s the Admiralty believed that scurvy could be avoided by eating tinned foods, which is why the majority of food on the Franklin expedition was tinned. This perhaps also explains why the expedition did not include anyone experienced in hunting in the Arctic, or why they didn’t take advantage of local Inuit knowledge as a few previous explorers had done.

8. The amount of lead found in the bodies of three members of Franklin’s crew buried on Beechey Island was several times greater than expected. By analyzing the men’s hair, researchers found that the lead exposure occurred within a year of their deaths and therefore could not be attributed to ordinary environmental factors.

9. The researchers put off completing the second exhumation/autopsy because the end of the warm season was fast approaching and the isolation and monotonous landscape were beginning to freak them out. They returned the following year. 

10. Despite showing signs of severe lead poisoning and scurvy, the researchers concluded that all three of the men buried on Beechey Island died of tuberculosis.