DNA identifies four more crew members of doomed Franklin expedition

A study run by UK and Canadian universities matched mitochondrial DNA from bones recovered on King William Island with living descendants of crew members. Of the four newly identified men, one served as a deputy commander and three as ordinary seamen.

Franklin's two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, were lost in the ice with 129 crew while attempting to chart the Northwest Passage. Modern underwater archaeology located the wrecks in 2014 and 2016, but tracing individual crew members has remained a scientific puzzle.

Researchers said putting names to remains gives families a measure of closure. The work also stands as a reminder that, even as climate conditions in the Arctic change, the human risks of polar travel still echo.