The only written record ever found of the disastrous Franklin
Northwest Passage expedition of 1845-1848 was discovered in
1859. It was found in a stone cairn erected on the western
shore of King William Island, near where Franklin's ships had
become irretrievably beset in pack ice in 1846. Sealed inside
a small tin cylinder, it consists of a single sheet of paper
bearing two hand-scrawled messages written 11 months apart.
Here, read the original note yourself, along with brief
annotations that reveal harrowing details that these
all-too-brief—and, in the case of the second one,
downright peculiar—messages cannot. To open
the note, click on the image at left.—Peter Tyson
