Four more sailors on doomed 1845 Arctic expedition identified using DNA analysis
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Four more members of a doomed 1845 Arctic expedition have been identified with the help of DNA testing, a Canadian research team says, including one sailor whose remains had been shrouded in archeological intrigue.
The discovery appears to solve the mystery around the remains of Harry Peglar. His documents, one of the few written records from the fateful British voyage to the Northwest Passage, were found on a body wearing clothes that did not match his rank, sparking theories about whether the remains belonged to Peglar or another sailor.
The researchers say they used genetic samples to confirm the remains did, in fact, belong to Peglar, the only sailor from the HMS Terror to be definitively identified by DNA analysis — and the only one thought to have died alone.
“There’s a lot of pieces to that puzzle, but once and for all, about 166 years later, we finally put that one to rest,” said Douglas Stenton, an archeologist and adjunct assistant professor at the University of Waterloo.
