Guess This Is About The Franklin Expedition Now

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Thank you so much for this ask, it’s one of my favourite throwaway lines in the show because it has SO MUCH behind it.

The Raft of the Medusa is a painting by artist Théodore Géricault, depicting the plight of survivors of the wrecking of the French frigate Méduse. At the time of the Franklin Expedition, this was a famous and scandalous event and Crozier would be very aware of what he was referencing. It was a wreck famous for the unimaginable horror endured by some of the survivors, and the cause was widely attributed to the incompetency and inexperience of her Captain. There’s a lot of parallels to be found in the fate of Méduse and the fate of the Franklin Expedition as depicted in The Terror, and this line is absolute genius writing.

Heading into danger, Chaumareys recruited a passenger to aid with navigation. The passenger, a philosopher and member of a philanthropical society on Cape Verde, was not at all qualified for the job and at one point mistook a cloud on the horizon for the peninsula known as Cape Blanco. By July 2nd she was at least 100 miles off course and closing on the coast of Africa. With his Captain and navigator ignoring the danger signs of muddy water and white capped waves, Lieutenant Maudet began taking soundings, measuring a mere 33 meters depth. Chaumareys finally realised the danger he had sailed in and ordered the ship to turn but it was too late, and she ran aground around 50 kilometres from the shore of what is now Mauritania. In another error of judgement, Chaumareys refused to jettison the 14 cannons, weighing 3 tonnes each. As a result, Méduse sank into the sand bank.

A plan was devised to ferry the passengers to shore using the ship’s launches, along with another plan to build a raft onto which cargo could be loaded to lighten Méduse in hopes of re-floating her. Assembled from salvaged wood, the raft was 20 metres long and 7 metres wide, rickety and of poor quality, but fit for the purpose of temporary storing cargo. Three days after the wreck and before any passengers had been taken ashore, a gale hit and with Méduse looking ever closer to breaking up, Chaumareys ordered a full evacuation.

146 men and one woman boarded the raft, which was to be towed by the launches. Never intended to carry people, the raft was partially submerged and lacking supplies and any ability to be steered. But the worst was yet to come. Towing it was quickly realised to be impractical and a growing fear of panicked survivors fleeing the raft and overwhelming the launches led to the decision being made to cut the ropes and abandon the raft and its occupants. Both Captain Chaumareys and Governor Schmaltz were aboard the launches and made it to land safely.

Conditions aboard the raft deteriorated rapidly. Of the meagre supplies, there were no casks of water, only casks of wine. Fighting broke out between the factions of sailors, officers, passengers, and soldiers. 20 men were either killed or committed suicide after the first night adrift. By the fourth, only 67 remained, with many killed in fighting for the safety of the centre of the unstable raft or washed away by waves. Cannibalism soon broke out. Many died of dehydration, starvation, and sea water poisoning, and by the eight day, the weak and sick had been thrown overboard by the strong. When the raft was discovered by chance by a passing brig, only 15 men had survived the 12 day ordeal. Five of those died within days of reaching shore. Of the 17 who stayed with Méduse, only 3 survived, a fact discovered 54 days after the evacuation when a salvage crew sent by Chaumareys to retrieve gold discovered the wreck.

It’s worth noting that before this, a man could be promoted in the French Navy for reasons other than merit, and as a result of this tragedy, the laws were changed in part to prevent inept men like Chaumareys getting command positions.

One of the raft’s survivors was the ship’s surgeon, Henri Savigny (only 23 at the time of the wreck) who along with engineer Alexandre Corréard wrote a book about the hell they experienced, which is available for free via Project Gutenberg. I strongly recommend it.