Artic Passage

In this two-hour special, NOVA dramatizes two extraordinary sagas in the quest for the Arctic Passage, the legendary Arctic sea route between the Atlantic and the Pacific that was the dream of merchants and adventurers for centuries. The first hour probes the Arctic's most enduring exploration mystery. In 1845, two Royal Navy ships and 129 men set sail from London on an elaborately prepared expedition to conquer the elusive Arctic route and were never heard from again. What happened to Franklin's men? Poignant clues indicate that the expedition became icebound, short of food, and that the stronger members resorted to murder and cannibalism. Or did their own provisions poison them? A century and a half later, NOVA follows a team of historians and forensic scientists to the bleak wilderness in which the Franklin drama unfolded in the continuing quest for the truth of this classic mystery.