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Article: TRUE HEROES - OR CANNIBALS? It was an epic voyage to chart the North West passage in the Arctic wastes.Though ultimately ending in tragedy, the explorers John Franklin and his Irish number two, Francis Crozier,were mourned as heroes. But the truth was far more ghastly...(Features)
- Article from:
- Daily Mail (London)
- Article date:
- August 26, 2009
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Solo Syndication Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: by Annabel Venning
WE CANNOT know when it started, nor who took the gruesome decision, but some time in May 1848, sailors from the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror began butchering and eating their comrades.
Did they kill the living, picking out the weak, the young and the expendable? Or did they confine their attentions to the dead? That, too, history cannot tell. But one thing is certain, the sailors ate their shipmates -- not just one or two of them, but 40 or 50. Perhaps more.
The seamen carefully and deliberately used their knives to strip the flesh from men who had been their comrades. Their sharp blades left tell-tale marks on the ...