Two Royal Navy warships. 129 men. A state-of-the-art expedition to conquer the final frontier. They sailed into the Arctic ice... and vanished from the face of the Earth. In 1845, the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, under the command of celebrated explorer Sir John Franklin, departed England on a mission to solve the greatest geographical puzzle of the age: the Northwest Passage. Equipped with the most advanced technology of the Victorian era, they were the pride of a confident empire. Failure was simply not a possibility. But a profound and deafening silence was the only reply. The disappearance of 129 souls sparked one of the largest and most desperate search efforts in history, a multi-decade obsession that uncovered a horrifying tale of ships trapped, a death march across a frozen wasteland, and the ultimate, unthinkable taboo of cannibalism. Yet the ships themselves—the silent, frozen witnesses to the catastrophe—remained lost. Until now. In The Frozen Silence , the epic new volume from the Echoes of the unsolved series, acclaimed historian Dr. James Pennington provides the definitive account of this legendary disaster. Fusing a gripping historical narrative with a stunning modern-day discovery, this is the complete story of the Franklin Expedition as it has never been told before. This definitive account is enhanced with unique features that immerse you directly in the 170-year-long investigation: PRIMARY SOURCE EVIDENCE: Read the crew's own words. This volume includes direct excerpts from the optimistic final letters sent home from Greenland, the chilling, handwritten Victory Point Note discovered in a stone cairn, and the long-ignored but crucial oral histories of the Inuit hunters who witnessed the expedition's final, desperate days. - EXPERT ANALYSIS PANELS: Understand the anatomy of the disaster through the eyes of modern science. Dr. Pennington convenes a panel of experts—including a Forensic Anthropologist , a Naval Historian , and a Survival Psychologist —to analyze the critical clues and systemic failures that led to the tragedy. - THE FORENSIC HUNT: Journey with 21st-century archeologists as they apply cutting-edge science to this Victorian-era cold case. Discover how modern analysis of the crew's remains revealed the invisible killers of lead poisoning and scurvy , rewriting the story of what truly happened on the ice. - THE GHOST SHIPS, REVEALED: Join the modern search team in the heart of the Arctic. Experience the incredible, emotional moment of discovery as advanced sonar finally reveals the lost ships , perfectly preserved on the seabed, and learn how this stunning breakthrough has completely transformed our understanding of the expedition's final, heroic act. The Frozen Silence is an epic tale of ambition and hubris, a haunting story of survival, and a powerful testament to the unending human quest for answers. It is the story of an imperial dream that became a frozen nightmare, and the long, patient hunt to bring the lost back into the light. For fans of David Grann's The Wager and Dan Simmons's The Terror, this is an unmissable masterpiece of historical non-fiction.