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Franklin and all his men were lost on this expedition, having (all bar two) abandoned ship and attempted to cross the ice and snowy wastes on foot, in the hope of finding help. Amazingly some of the documents, diaries and logs of the expedition were later found.
The ships Franklin used were the Erebus and the Terror, which were previously used on Sir James Clark Ross's 1841 expedition to the Antarctic. Prior to that, Ross's uncle Sir John Ross had been one of the most recent searchers for the North West Passage, and had been frozen in over four winters. J.C.Ross, who had accompanied his uncle, was invited to lead the ill-fated Canada expedition, but declined. When Amundsen eventually charted a way through (1903-6), he wisely traced out a more southerly, safer route.