Prior to this course, I had not heard anything about the Franklin Expedition. I did not know what to expect when the topic was introduced. However, the lectures and documentary sparked my interest, as it reminded me of the Miracle of the Andes tragedy (which I learned about during an anthropology course last year); the tragedy involved a plane with 45 passengers – a rugby team, as well as their friends and family – crashing deep in the Andes in 1972. For over two months, the survivors of the crash were stranded in the harsh climate of the Andes, left with little food and inadequate clothing. They rationed what they had, attempting to make the food last as long as possible. Once the food ran out, the survivors made the difficult decision to eat the flesh of their deceased relatives and friends in order to survive. Some passengers and crew had died in the crash, while others died as a result of an avalanche shortly afterwards. Out of the 45 passengers and crew, only 16 were alive when rescued. While they did not initially disclose about resorting to cannibalism, the truth was revealed shortly after. A book, Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors, was made as a result of interviews with the survivors.
Similarly to the Andes disaster, the members of the Franklin Expedition were faced with conditions they were not prepared for. As mentioned in the lecture, these individuals were sailors, trained in exploration of the sea in efforts to find the Northwest Passage; they were not trained to explore land, especially in the harsh, bitterly cold climate of the Artic. The members of the expedition were forced to spend not one, but two winters on King William Island as a result of their ships being trapped in pack ice that did not melt. Many causes of the deaths of the expedition members are speculated: pneumonia, extrapulmunary tuberculosis, lead poisoning, scurvy, starvation, and the harsh climate. However, along the west coast of the island, skeletons have been recovered, many of which contained de-fleshing marks – suggestive of cannibalism.
It’s interesting and disturbing to think about members of our species resorting to cannibalism in order to survive. While some individuals would like to sit back and condemn such behavior, it is imperative to view the circumstances in which these individuals were placed. Starving to death would be most definitely slow and terrifying, and human nature is to want to survive. Accounts of tragedies like the Andes disaster and the Franklin Expedition make us stop and examine to what lengths we would go to survive if placed in such a harsh and unexpected circumstance.
Cannibalism is not something often brought up in conversations and rarely something people enjoy thinking about. It is a topic that horrifies most people and is usually only discussed in references to scary movies or grisly serial killers. I do not blame the Andes survivors for not wanting to discuss how they resorted to cannibalism. I was also not surprised the defleshing marks on the Franklin Expedition skeletons were kept under wraps so that the crew members could be remembered as heroes. I agree with you that it is easy for people, who are sitting comfortably in their own homes, to condemn cannibalism. When you have never been in such dire, life or death circumstances, it is not hard to claim that you would never sink so low as to eat one of your own.
I however, see cannibalism as a sign of bravery and as a testament of their will to survive. I am sure both the men on the Andes plane crash and the crew of the Franklin Expedition struggled with their decision. This would not have been a choice to be taken lightly, but they saw it as their only way to survive. For some of them, it may have seemed easier to just give up and face death rather than consume a loved one. As you pointed out, it is human nature to want to live. The human will to live is strong, and when placed in dire circumstances, people will do whatever it takes to live. I see what these men did to survive as a true sign of courage.
Your blog post was very interesting! Like you, I had never learned about the Franklin Expedition before, so learning about it for the first time was very intriguing. I remember in lecture that the members of the Franklin Expedition did not know how to cope with the harsh conditions of the arctic and that the arctic conditions can, in fact, kill you. I also really enjoyed how you related this back to the Miracle of the Andes tragedy. I have never heard of this tragedy before, but it sounds similar to the Franklin Expedition, like you mentioned. It is surprising and a little bit frightening to think that in only 1972 people were still resorting to cannibalism.
It is not surprising that so many members died from the Franklin Expedition. As we learned in lecture, many of the members died from pneumonia, tuberculosis, lead poisoning, starvation, scurvy, harsh arctic conditions, and inexperience. Starvation was definitely a real threat on the Franklin Expedition. Because of their harsh climate and conditions and survival was threatened, they had to resort to cannibalism like you mentioned. Cannibalism is, without a doubt, disturbing to think about, but may be necessary in terms of survival. This topic made me think about my archaeological discovery project topic. I wrote about Easter Island and due to their collapse and self-induced devastation of natural resources, they didn’t have enough agriculture for food. Therefore, they had to resort to cannibalism to make up for the lack of protein in their diets because they had no other source of nutrients or food for consumption.
It is crazy to think about what the human race used to do in order to just survive. I liked how you mentioned in your blog how human nature is to want to survive. This is so true and is very evident in situations such as the Franklin Expedition and the Miracle of the Andes tragedy as they engaged in cannibalism just in order to merely survive their harsh conditions.