{{Short description|British explorer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2018}} {{Infobox military person |width_style = person |name = John Hartnell |birth_date = July 1820 |birth_place = Gillingham, Kent, UK |death_date = {{death date and given age|1846|01|04|25|df=y}} |death_place = Beechey Island, North-Western Territory (now Nunavut, Canada) |allegiance = {{flagu|United Kingdom}} |branch_label = Branch |branch = {{navy|United Kingdom}} |service_years_label = Service years |service_years = 1841–1846 |rank = Able seaman |unit_label = Served on |unit = {{HMS|Erebus|1826|6}} |battles_label = Expeditions |battles = Franklin expedition }}
'''John Hartnell''' ({{circa|1820}} – 4 January 1846) was an English seaman who took part in Sir John Franklin's Northwest Passage expedition and was one of its first casualties, dying of suspected zinc deficiency and malnourishment during the expedition's first year.
He was buried on Beechey Island, next to John Torrington, who had become the expedition's first fatality on New Year's Day of 1846, and William Braine, who died three months later on 3 April.
The expedition had not yet run into trouble at this time and proper burials in the Arctic permafrost could be afforded. Because of the region's icy conditions, he was found in a remarkably well-preserved state when a scientific expedition exhumed his remains in 1986 to determine a cause of death.{{sfn|Beattie|Geiger|2014|p=62}}
== Biography ==
=== Early life === John Hartnell was born in Gillingham, Kent to a family of shipbuilders.<ref name="Macleans">{{cite news|last=McMahon|first=Tamsin|date=2014-09-10|df=dmy-all|title=Face to face with a Franklin crew member, 140 years later|url=https://www.macleans.ca/society/face-to-face-with-a-franklin-crew-member-140-years-later/|newspaper=Maclean's|access-date=2018-12-21|quote=Brian Spenceley recalls the expedition when he first saw his great-great uncle.}}</ref> His parents were Thomas and Sarah (maiden name: Friar, born 1796) Hartnell who were married at Frindsbury, in the Medway Towns area of Kent, on 9 October 1815, and with whom he was living in Gillingham at the time of the census of 1841.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://starsoverice.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-hartnells-of-nelson-street.html|title=STARS OVER ICE: The Hartnells of Nelson Street|date=15 August 2012|access-date=4 March 2019}}</ref> He was baptised at the Parish church of St. Mary Magdalene in Gillingham on 16 July 1820.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Holzhueter |first1=D.J. |title=Two and a Half Years Before the Mast: A Second View on the Hartnell Family - Part 1 |url=http://acreynard.blogspot.com/2020/04/two-and-half-years-before-mast-second.html |website=over clouds in twilight skies |access-date=28 July 2020}}</ref> He was raised in the trade of shoemaker.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Lloyd-Jones|first=Ralph|date=2005|title=The men who sailed with Franklin|journal=Polar Record|volume=41| issue = 219|pages=316|doi=10.1017/S0032247405004651 |s2cid=131330851 |doi-access=free|bibcode=2005PoRec..41..311L }}</ref>
=== Franklin expedition === Together with his brother Thomas he was assigned to {{HMS|Erebus|1826|6}} as an able seaman on the Franklin Northwest Passage expedition. They set off from Greenhithe on 19 May 1845 with two ships, the other being {{HMS|Terror|1813|6}}. The trip was expected to last about three years, so the ships were packed with provisions that included more than {{convert|136000|lb}} of flour, {{convert|3684|impgal|L}} of high-proof alcohol, and {{convert|33000|lb}} of tinned meat, soup, and vegetables. However, the expedition was never heard from again by Europeans after July 1845.
=== Death and analysis === thumb|upright=1.2|Graves of the expedition's first three fatal casualties. Hartnell's is the second from the right. The fourth grave is that of Thomas Morgan, a sailor who died in 1854 on one of the many subsequent fact-finding expeditions. Pathology reports suggest that Hartnell had a damaged right eye, and it is unclear whether this happened before or after his death.{{sfn|Beattie|Geiger|2014|p=206}} According to his grave marker, Hartnell died on Beechey Island, on 4 January 1846, at the age of 25. He was buried in a shirt embroidered with the initials T.H. and the date 1844, likely having belonged to his brother Thomas.<ref name=":0" /> His tombstone was inscribed with a bible passage: ‘Thus saith the Lord of Hosts; Consider your ways’ (Haggai 1, 7).<ref name=":0" />
In 1852, an expedition sent to find Franklin and his men arrived at Beechey Island. Commanded by Edward A. Inglefield, the crew of the ''Isabel'' included a physician, Peter Sutherland. Inglefield published a journal reporting their findings.
In 1984, professor of anthropology Owen Beattie from the University of Alberta and a group of scientists arrived at Beechey Island to examine the bodies and determine what may have happened to the three men whose lives ended on the tiny speck of land in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.<ref name="AwesomeStories">{{cite web|last=Bos|first=Carole|date=2013-05-03|df=dmy-all|title=Franklin Expedition – John Hartnell|url=https://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/Franklin-Expedition-John-Hartnell0|work=Awesome Stories|access-date=2018-12-21}}</ref> One of Hartnell's distant relatives, Hartnell's great-great-nephew, physics professor Brian Spenceley, was the expedition's photographer.<ref name="Macleans" />
Beattie was surprised to see Hartnell's incredibly well-preserved, mummified remains through the melting ice, he was even more surprised to see that Hartnell's body had already been autopsied. Beattie and his team also noticed that Hartnell's right eye seemed damaged beyond the sinking-into-the-sockets effect that would have occurred from prior thawing.{{sfn|Latta|2001|p=98}} When Hartnell's cap was removed, they saw a great deal of hair – used to determine that his body contained large amounts of lead at the time of his death.<ref name="AwesomeStories" />
However, a 2016 analysis conducted on samples of Hartnell's removed fingernail and toenail found that malnourishment and zinc deficiency may have been his actual cause of death.<ref name="Nunatsiaq">{{cite news|last=Ducharme|first=Steve|date=2016-12-09|df=dmy-all|title=Fingernail-toenail study offers insights into why Franklin crew died|url=https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/65674fingernail-toenail_study_offers_insights_into_why_franklin_crew_died/|newspaper=Nunatsiaq News|access-date=2018-12-21|quote=Dead sailor may have been sickened by a zinc deficiency.}}</ref>
== In popular culture == Hartnell's brother, Tom, played by Jack Colgrave Hirst, is a supporting character in the television adaptation of the novel ''The Terror'', and the burial of the three crewmen on Beechey Island is mentioned in the first episode.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}
== References == {{reflist|30em}}
== Bibliography == *{{cite book |last1 = Beattie |first1 = O. |last2 = Geiger |first2 = J. |year = 2014 |title = Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition |url = {{google books|cAxgBgAAQBAJ|plainurl=y}} |location = Vancouver |publisher = Greystone Books |isbn = 9781771640800 }} *{{cite book |last = Latta |first = J. B. |year = 2001 |title = The Franklin Conspiracy: An Astonishing Solution to the Lost Arctic Expedition |url = {{google books|DoZu1QEb8oUC|plainurl=y}} |location = Toronto |publisher = Dundurn |isbn = 9781770700307 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hartnell, John}} Category:1820s births Category:Year of birth uncertain Category:1846 deaths Category:19th-century Royal Navy personnel Category:19th-century English explorers Category:British explorers of the Arctic Category:Mummies Category:People from Gillingham, Kent Category:Franklin's lost expedition