The Tins of Terror

"The Tins of Terror" by historian Samuel Wright offers a chilling, forensic deep-dive into one of the greatest mysteries of the age of exploration: the lost Franklin Expedition of 1845. While many books focus on the harsh climate or the eventual resort to cannibalism, Wright zooms in on the technological marvel that was supposed to save them: canned food. Wright meticulously traces the supply chain of the 8,000 tins of preserved meat supplied by Stephen Goldner. He exposes the corruption and haste of the victualling contract, where cost-cutting measures led to lead soldering dripping into the food. The book argues that the expedition was doomed not by the ice, but by the slow, neurotoxic effects of lead poisoning, which caused paranoia, weakness, and madness among the crew long before starvation set in. Combining metallurgy, toxicology, and naval history, Wright paints a portrait of Victorian hubris—the belief that technology could conquer nature without consequence. He uses modern autopsies of the frozen bodies found on Beechey Island to prove his thesis. This is a story of how a tiny, invisible manufacturing flaw brought down the pride of the British Royal Navy. It serves as a grim cautionary tale about quality control and the fragility of human endurance in extreme environments.