Sailors from doomed 1845 polar expedition identified through DNA

World 4 sailors from doomed 1845 polar expedition that killed 129 men identified through DNA By Kerry Breen Kerry Breen News Editor Kerry Breen is a news editor at CBSNews.com. A graduate of New York University's Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism, she previously worked at NBC News' TODAY Digital. She covers current events, breaking news and issues including substance use. Read Full Bio Kerry Breen May 14, 2026 / 9:59 AM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google Researchers say they have identified four sailors who were among 129 who died during a fatal polar expedition in 1845, resolving a decades-long debate about the identity of one of the men on the mission. The HMS Erebus and HMS Terror launched from England in 1845. The mission, led by Captain Sir John Franklin and called the Franklin Expedition, was meant to chart a passage around the top of North America. The ships spent nearly two years trapped in Arctic ice. Despite desperate attempts to escape in April 1848, every man who participated in the expedition died, marking the worst disaster in the history of British polar exploration, according to London's Royal Museums Greenwich. Details of their final days remain murky. Both ships are now sunk off the coast of Canada. Researchers have found remains of the sailors, as well as artifacts from the shipwrecks. To make the latest discovery, anthropologists at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Waterloo and Lakehead University extracted DNA from archaeological samples associated with the expedition. Those samples were compared to DNA donated by those known to be living descendents of the men aboard the expedition, the University of Waterloo said in a news release. The process allowed them to identify four of the sailors. Three — able seaman William Orren, Boy 1st Class David Young and subordinate officers' steward John Bridgens — had been aboard the HMS Erebus. Forensic facial reconstruction shows what Young may have looked...