Lady Franklin Bay Expedition

A US Army scientific expedition (1881–84) sent to Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic as part of the first International Polar Year, which became stranded for three years after two relief attempts failed, leaving only six of twenty-five men alive by the time rescue finally arrived in August 1884. It is the organizing event behind a growing cluster of this vault's claim-notes: its commander Adolphus Greely's improbable post-disaster career running the US Weather Bureau (claim-greely-arctic-disaster-survivor-ran-us-weather-bureau-1887-1891), and three notes weighing whether primary and near-primary records substantiate the cannibalism rumors that followed the survivors home (claim-1884-medical-journal-cited-epidermis-in-stomachs-as-cannibalism-proof, claim-greely-1886-memoir-declines-to-address-cannibalism-charge, claim-2002-bioenergetic-study-finds-greely-expedition-food-shortfall-implies-cannibalism).

References

• claim-greely-arctic-disaster-survivor-ran-us-weather-bureau-1887-1891

• claim-1884-medical-journal-cited-epidermis-in-stomachs-as-cannibalism-proof

• claim-greely-1886-memoir-declines-to-address-cannibalism-charge

• claim-2002-bioenergetic-study-finds-greely-expedition-food-shortfall-implies-cannibalism

• claim-hazen-1885-court-martial-was-for-criticizing-lincoln-not-the-expedition-disaster

• 2026-10-09: the second of the expedition's two failed relief attempts was Lieutenant Garlington's 1883 mission. Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln's refusal to authorize a further attempt after Garlington's failure drew public criticism from Chief Signal Officer William B. Hazen — criticism that (per a still-unconfirmed Tier-4 account) led to Hazen's own 1885 court-martial (claim-hazen-1885-court-martial-was-for-criticizing-lincoln-not-the-expedition-disaster).