Abstract Since 1859, attempts to resolve the question of the identity of a sailor from the 1845 Franklin expedition whose body was found that year on the south shore of King William Island have been complicated by contradictory evidence found with the skeleton. Documents found with the body implied the man was Harry Peglar, Captain of the Foretop, but the clothing indicated the man held a domestic rating, a steward or officer’s servant. This paper examines the question of the sailor’s identity through a review of the investigative framework of past attempts to ascertain the man’s identity. It then presents results of comparative DNA analyses conducted on the skeleton and on samples provided by descendants of Harry Peglar and six of the eight stewards. Comparison of DNA profiles obtained from the skeleton with those of descendants of the stewards yielded no matches, but comparison of the mtDNA profile obtained from the skeleton with a presumed descendant of Harry Peglar yielded a match with a genetic distance of 0. We conclude that the DNA and genealogical evidence confirm that the identity of the sailor whose skeleton was discovered in 1859 was that of Henry Peter (“Harry”) Peglar, Captain of the Foretop, HMS Terror.
Stenton et al. (2026) studied this question.