Cannibalism

On June 25th, 1981 physical anthropologist Owen Beattie set out on a mission. Using his knowledge of forensic anthropology he wanted to uncover the time-hidden secrets of the Franklin expedition. Once and for all he hoped to substantiate or disprove the rumors of the cannibalism that allegedly the crew was forced to resort to. To do this Beattie and his company were forced to battle the "extremely low, marshy, and sandy," land and the lack of sites. Upon finally coming across a site they found some potential indications for the occurrence of cannibalism, though nothing concrete as of yet.

Their first discovery: a portion of a skull, would be one of the most telling artifacts of the expedition. The skull was, like the other bones later exposed, covered in "areas of shallow pitting and scaling on the outer surface." This giving merit to the claims by many historians that "expedition members suffered from the debilitating effects of scurvy during their final months." This would make the possibility of cannibalism much larger as the Franklin men would be subject to the "weakness, weight loss, and irritability" of scurvy. These characteristics drove their desperate need to eat at any cost. Beattie also described the piece of skull as being Caucasian after identifying such features "as the shape of the skull's frontal bone and characteristics of the eye socket."

Although it is an undisputed fact that in the times that the Franklin expedition took place scurvy was prevalent on almost all of the long voyages, a few other facts must be noted in regard to the piece of skull found. Upon first examination of the artifact, Beattie attributed its damage to "the severity of the northern climate." Later, he stated that the ...

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... did decide that "starvation need not be a factor anymore." As impossible as this seems, the bones would nevertheless tell their own fragmented story. Beattie and his team put that story together. At some point, Beattie unintentionally teaches that even the tiniest clue, such as the irregular arrangement of bones, can provide significant evidence. Clearly presenting both sides of the grim possibility of cannibalism among the Franklin crew in a concise argument, Beattie proves that which many suspected throughout the course of the debate. Fusing the old rumors of the Inuit with his modern knowledge of forensic anthropology, Beattie makes a substantial and convincing argument for the reality that cannibalism was the last measure taken for survival in the Franklin crew. As disturbing as the connotations are, the story of the crewmen can finally be put to rest.