Explorer. Franklin was born on April 15, 1786, in Spilsby, England. At the age of 14 he joined the Royal Navy and took his first trip out to sea the same year, where he fought in the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, and the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. In 1805 he travelled with his uncle Captain Matthew Flinders in and around Australia on board the HMS Investigator. The ship was later shipwrecked on the Great Barrier Reef, but the men were rescued 6 weeks later. In 1814, he took part in the Battle of New Orleans, and in 1818, Franklin made his first trip to the Arctic. He made his second and third trips from 1819 to 1822 and 1825 to 1826, at one time crossing the barrens of Great Slave Lake to the Arctic coast near the Coppermine River. On his second trip Franklin and his men travelled by the Mackenzie River up to Point Barrow, Alaska, and back to the Coppermine River, where he founded Fort Franklin. In 1836 Franklin served as the Governor of Tasmania until he was fired in 1843. In 1845 Franklin set out on his final trip with two ships and 129 men. Franklin was on board the HMS Erebus, while others were on board the HMS Terror. Franklin and his men were looking for the Northwest Passage. In 1848, 3 years had gone by, and no word was heard from Franklin or his 129 men. In the next while over 40 search parties were sent to look for Franklin and his men. The parties searched miles and miles of Arctic land and water, but no valuable traces of the men or ship were found. In 1853 and 1854 John Rae, and Sir Francis McClintock, in 1857 and 1859, found evidence of the great arctic tragedy. This search party was funded by Franklin's wife using her own resources and funding, at one time even travelling to the Arctic herself. The search party found records at Point Victory that established that Franklin's ships had been frozen in the ice between Victoria Island and King William Island. The notes also told of Franklin's death on June 11 1847. In 1848 the remaining survivors of the crew abandoned ship and had travelled south over the frozen wastes of the Boothia Peninsula to reach civilization. All the crew later died. In 1960 several relics and documents of the Franklin party and of later search expeditions have been found by other explorers. In 1976 3 graves of sailors from Franklin's crew were found on Beechey Island, and later exumed. The scientists found that the bodies found were perfectly preserved, and had been found to have died from lead poisoning between 1845 and 1846. Franklin's body has never been found, but he is believed to be buried somewhere on King William Island.