One of the greatest mysteries about the Franklin expedition is how so many men died so quickly. There were many causes of death for the men including illness, scurvy, harsh conditions, inexperience and starvation. Some evidence shows the lead poising from the solder on the cans that contained their food was a cause as well. However, inexperience is likely a major cause because Franklin was not a arctic expert and the men were sailors and not experience at survival on land. Yet there is another possible cause to add to the list – food poisoning.
Stephen Goldner and Sir John Franklin wrote a contract for 8,000 tin cans of food including soup, mean and vegetables. Goldner was responsible for finishing the canning within a short period of time. Canning was new technology and had not been used as food storage for an expedition yet. The canning process includes filling the can with food then boiling the food to kill the bacteria and sealing it up before it cools. Without the adequate knowledge about food safety and since Goldner was rushed he decide to take some short-cuts. Instead of the cooling the cans for 7 to 11 hours at 250 degrees Fahrenheit like he should have, he only cooked them for 30 to 75 minutes at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. When he still could not complete the task on time Goldner made another mistake, he increased the can size in order to increase the amount of food being processed at once. However this means the food at the center of the can was not able to be cooked and the shortened time became even more detrimental.
The evidence of food poisoning in the death of the men supports this claim because while the two ships sailed across the ocean they had plenty of fuel to cook each meal, killing the bacteria each time. However, when they were forced to abandon the ship and were stuck in ice, they could no longer cook the food, the men began to die rapidly. This could be from deadly bacteria in the food such as botulism that occurs when food is processed with the adequate air conditions but not enough heat to destroy the botulism spores. Botulism is deadly and has symptoms of difficulty swallowing, speech and breathing and double vision. With the large amount of food brought on board the ship it seems unlikely that starvation would be a cause of death. Perhaps the men realized that the canned food had spoiled and thus resorted to cannibalism as a survival mechanism.
Source: http://www.mysteriesofcanada.com/nunavut/franklin_expedition/
I find your blog post very interesting. It seemed that there was a vast amount of information revealing that the men on the Franklin expedition probably died from lead poisoning and that has long withstanding been the generally accepted idea. When Professor Watrall mentioned that there is now evidence showing that this idea may not actually be valid, I was very surprised. After remains of the skeleton and muscles were found, the fact that there was no evidence for a sudden increase in lead during the latter part of their lifetimes leads one to wonder what other factors could be at play. Professor Watrall mentioned that cannibalism was a suggestive alternative to the death of these individuals as many of the skeleton elements showed defleshing marks. I personally was not sure if I was willing to believe such findings as it sounded too gruesome and cruel. Such actions seem unfathomable to me. Your blog post provides a good explanation on an alternative to these hypotheses. The fact that the canning mechanism of storing food was a relatively new innovation makes it understandable why things could have gone array. As the technology was new, they probably did not know proper food maintenance procedures and thus did the things that you stated in your post. This easily could have led the sailors to get food poisoning. Additionally, the abandonment of the ship would lead the crew to not have the materials to adequately cook the food, and I believe that this could have been the cause of their death. However, there is a good chance that this is probably just me not wanting to believe the gruesome cannibalistic actions that are believed to have taken place!
I found your post to be very interesting. It is strange to think about the wide variety of theories as to why the crew of the Franklin Expedition died so quickly. I think that inexperience, starvation, disease, and lead poisoning are undoubtedly the most important causes but it would be interesting to see if food poisoning could also be a factor. It seems very likely because, as you mentioned, canning food was a very new technology and if it was canned in a rush, it is likely that many precautions would not have been taken. Back when the expedition set sail, the effects of bacteria and food poisoning would not have been very well known, causing Stephen Goldner to not have worried very much about the side effects of cooking the food for a shorter time at lower temperatures.
I am glad that brought up the change in the expedition’s ability to cook the food because I was wondering why they would not have been affected by the food poisoning earlier. It makes sense that they would have had the capability of cooking the food early on to kill off the bacteria, but once they got stuck in the ice, they lost the ability to cook the food. It is interesting how this theory fits with the idea of lead poisoning. Both involve very poor canning techniques cause by lack of time and not enough knowledge about the new technology of canning. It will be interesting to see if any additional information will come out anytime soon with a definite diagnosis of the men.