On July 9, 1845, John Gregory, an engineer on an ocean expedition to the Arctic, wrote a letter to his wife, Hannah, from a stop in Greenland.
That was the last time his family would hear from Gregory, who, along with 128 others, perished after their ships became trapped in the Arctic ice. Now, using DNA from his descendants, researchers have identified Gregory's remains, the first from the ill-fated expedition to be linked to a name, according to a new study.
In May 1845, 129 officers and crew, under the command of Sir John Franklin, set sail from England aboard two ships — the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror — to explore the Northwest Passage that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Canadian Arctic.
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