On 24 May 1847, Sir John Franklin’s third expedition reported “All well”, but less than a year later, on 22 April 1848, the 129 sailors who had set out from Britain on Erebus and Terror had been reduced to 105 survivors departing their frozen ships in a desperate attempt to escape the Arctic. At least 24 were so unhealthy that they would perish after having travelled little more than 100 km from the ships. By contrast, the small mortality rates on other contemporary Arctic expeditions, some of which stayed in the Arctic considerably longer, were consistent with the mortality rates in the Royal Navy worldwide. This paper explores the question of what difference caused so many of Franklin’s crew to die during their final months on-board the ships and in the initial stages of the escape attempt. From the perspective of cultural ecology, the most significant difference, and the ultimate cause of the catastrophe as it unfolded, was wintering in the ice pack. This distinguished the Franklin expedition from all of the other comparable overwintering expeditions, and precluded the Erebus and Terror crews from hunting or fishing. That in turn led to nutritional deficiencies due to much greater reliance on stored provisions than other expeditions.

中文翻译：

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尽你最大的努力去发现一个避风港和安全港

1847 年 5 月 24 日，约翰·富兰克林爵士的第三次远征队报告“一切顺利”，但不到一年后，即 1848 年 4 月 22 日，从英国出发的 129 名水手厄瑞巴斯和恐怖已经减少到 105 名幸存者离开他们的冰冻船只，绝望地试图逃离北极。至少有 24 人非常不健康，以至于他们在距离船只不到 100 公里的地方就会死亡。相比之下，当代其他北极探险的死亡率较低，其中一些在北极停留的时间要长得多，这与全球皇家海军的死亡率是一致的。本文探讨了为什么富兰克林的许多船员在他们在船上的最后几个月和在逃生尝试的初始阶段死亡的问题。从文化生态学的角度来看，最显着的差异，也是灾难发展的最终原因，是在冰袋中越冬。厄瑞巴斯和恐怖狩猎或捕鱼的船员。与其他探险相比，由于对储存食品的依赖程度更高，这反过来又导致了营养缺乏。