John Torrington
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John Shaw Torrington (1825 – 1 January 1846) was a
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
stoker. He was part of the 1845 Franklin Expedition to chart unexplored areas of what is now
Nunavut, Canada Nunavut is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the ''Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act'', which provided this territory to ...
, find the
Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, near the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada. The eastern route along the Arctic ...
, and make scientific observations. He was the first fatality of the expedition, of which all personnel ultimately died, mostly in and around
King William Island King William Island (, ; previously: King William Land) is an island in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, which is part of the Arctic Archipelago. In area it is between and making it the list of islands by area, 61st-largest island in the world ...
. Torrington was buried on
Beechey Island Beechey Island () is an island located in the Arctic Archipelago of Nunavut, Canada, in Wellington Channel. It is separated from the southwest corner of Devon Island by Barrow Strait. Other features include Wellington Channel, Erebus Harbour, ...
. His body was exhumed by forensic anthropologist Owen Beattie in 1984, to try to determine the cause of death. His remains are among the best preserved example of a corpse since the ancient
Tollund Man The Tollund Man (died 405–384 BC) is a naturally mummified corpse of a man who lived during the 5th century BC, during the period characterised in Scandinavia as the Pre-Roman Iron Age. He was found in 1950, preserved as a bog body near Sil ...
which was found in the 1950s. Photographs of his mummified remains were widely published and inspired music and literature.


Early life

John Torrington was born in
Manchester, England Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
in 1825. In May 1845, at age 19, he joined the Franklin expedition and was assigned to as leading stoker.


1845 Franklin expedition

Torrington was a part of Sir John Franklin's final expedition to find the Northwest Passage, a sea route to
Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
, via the northern edge of
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
. They set off from
Greenhithe Greenhithe may refer to: *Greenhithe, Kent Greenhithe is a village in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England, and the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe. It is located east of Dartford and west of Gravesend. Area In the past, Gree ...
,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
in two ships, HMS ''Terror'' and HMS ''Erebus'', on 19 May 1845. The trip was expected to last about three years, so the ships were packed with provisions which included more than 136,000 pounds of flour, 3,684 gallons of high-proof alcohol and 33,000 pounds of tinned meat, soup, and vegetables. However, after late July no Europeans heard from or saw the crew again. During the expedition, half of his monthly pay (2 pounds and 16 shillings) went to his stepmother Mary, who collected it from the Manchester Excise Office. She received this pay for years after he died, as the crew's fate went unknown.


Search expeditions

Many search parties were sent to look for the missing crew, but nothing significant was discovered until 1850, when the ruins of a stone hut, some food cans, and three graves were found. The graves contained the remains of Torrington,
William Braine William Braine (1814 – 3 April 1846) was a British explorer. He served as a marine in the Royal Marines. From 1845 he was part of an expedition to find the Northwest Passage, but he died early in the trip and was buried on Beechey Island. His p ...
and
John Hartnell John Hartnell ( – 4 January 1846) was an English seaman who took part in Franklin expedition, Sir John Franklin's Northwest Passage expedition and was one of its first casualties, dying of suspected zinc deficiency and malnourishment duri ...
. Torrington had apparently died about seven months into the expedition, which led to further questions as to why crew members had died so early in the expedition. In 1976, the graves were rediscovered on
Beechey Island Beechey Island () is an island located in the Arctic Archipelago of Nunavut, Canada, in Wellington Channel. It is separated from the southwest corner of Devon Island by Barrow Strait. Other features include Wellington Channel, Erebus Harbour, ...
,
Nunavut Nunavut is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the Nunavut Land Claims Agr ...
,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
and the headboards (presumed to be the originals) were transferred to the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife. In the 1980s, anthropologist Owen Beattie exhumed and autopsied the bodies to try to solve the mystery.


Death and autopsy

Beattie and his team began their work on 17 August 1984. Torrington's coffin was deep in the
permafrost Permafrost () is soil or underwater sediment which continuously remains below for two years or more; the oldest permafrost has been continuously frozen for around 700,000 years. Whilst the shallowest permafrost has a vertical extent of below ...
, which the team had to dig through. When the coffin was opened they saw how well preserved the outer parts of Torrington's body were, apparently not much different from the day he was buried. In order to thaw the body, the team poured water on the ice, to slowly melt it away and therefore not cause any damage to the body. Once thawed, they undressed the body to examine it. They found that Torrington had been very sick at the time of his death—he was so thin all his ribs were visible, and he only weighed about , at a height of . After conducting a thorough autopsy and taking some tissue samples, the team left to analyse what they had discovered. Tissue samples revealed that Torrington's body had probably been stored on board ship while his grave was being dug; in almost all areas, significant cell autolysis had occurred, and cell definition was very poor. His brain was almost completely gone, leaving only a "yellow granular liquid". The lungs showed scarring from earlier bouts with
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
as well as signs of more recent
pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...
. After toxicology analysis showed heightened levels of lead in Torrington's hair and fingernails, the team concluded Torrington had died from
pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...
, after suffering from various lung problems, which were aggravated by the
lead poisoning Lead poisoning, also known as plumbism and saturnism, is a type of metal poisoning caused by lead in the body. Symptoms may include abdominal pain, constipation, headaches, irritability, memory problems, infertility, numbness and paresthesia, t ...
. Beattie believed that the canned food was the most likely source of the lead and argued that 'lead played an important role in the declining health of the entire crews of the Erebus and Terror.' However, Franklin historian Russell Potter has pointed out that 'We know so little about the average exposure of a typical person in mid-nineteenth century Britain that we lack a reliable baseline to which to compare the Beechey island bodies....Further studies, looking both at the Beechey Island remains and at bones recovered from King William Island have shown a wide variety of levels of exposure, ranging from negligible to quite high....Torrington's levels were high (413-657 ppm) but Braine (145-280 ppm) and Hartnell (183-313) had much lower levels....Lead may well have been a factor for some, but the effect of this exposure on the expedition as a whole is unclear.' Russell Potter, ''Finding Franklin'', McGill Queens University Press, 2016 p59


Legacy

Photographs of Torrington, in a remarkable state of outward preservation, were published widely, including in ''
People The term "the people" refers to the public or Common people, common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty. I ...
'' magazine which named him one of the world's most interesting personalities in 1984, and the widely reprinted photograph inspired
James Taylor James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. Taylor achieved his breakthrough in 1970 with the single "Fi ...
to write a song, "The Frozen Man", and
Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris (musician), Steve Harris. Although fluid in the early years of the band, the line-up for most ...
to write "Stranger in a Strange Land". British poet
Sheenagh Pugh Sheenagh Pugh (born 20 December 1950) is a British poet, novelist and translator who writes in English. Her book, ''Stonelight'' (1999) won the Wales Book of the Year award. Pugh was born in Birmingham. She was a creative writer educator at ...
wrote an award-winning poem, "Envying Owen Beattie", about the Torrington exhumation. Authors
Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and an inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight chi ...
and
Mordecai Richler Mordecai Richler (January 27, 1931 – July 3, 2001) was a Canadian writer. His best known works are ''The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (novel), The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz'' (1959) and ''Barney's Version (novel), Barney's Versi ...
were also inspired by the photograph, and the account of the research provided by Beattie and
John G. Geiger John Grigsby Geiger is a Canadian journalist, author and shipwreck hunter. He is best known for his book ''The Third Man Factor: Surviving the Impossible'', which popularized the concept of the "Third man factor, third man", an incorporeal being ...
in their book ''Frozen In Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition''. Atwood wrote a short story, "The Age of Lead", and Richler included references to the research and the Franklin expedition itself in his novel ''
Solomon Gursky Was Here ''Solomon Gursky Was Here'' is a novel by Canadian author Mordecai Richler first published by Viking Canada in 1989. Summary The novel tells of several generations of the fictional Gursky family, who are connected to several disparate events in ...
''. In the 2018 television series ''
The Terror The Reign of Terror (French: ''La Terreur'', literally "The Terror") was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to ...
'', Torrington's sickness, death and burial are mentioned in the first episode.


References


Further reading

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Torrington, John English explorers Explorers of the Arctic Royal Navy sailors 1825 births 1846 deaths Deaths from pneumonia in Nunavut Mummies Franklin's lost expedition