Greetings, Adventurers!
In today's devlog, we will take a brief look at the historical events that inspired our game.
As you may already know, Terror: Endless Night is based on real events most notably the extensive search efforts undertaken to locate the missing ships of Sir John Franklin's ill-fated expedition, HMS Terror and HMS Erebus.
Before long, you will step into the role of the Commodore of one of the ships sent into the Arctic in search of Franklin's lost expedition: HMS Chione.
Join us as we venture into the frozen wilderness and uncover the history that lies behind Terror: Endless Night.
The rescue efforts following the disappearance of Sir John Franklin’s expedition (1845–1848) became one of the largest search operations of the 19th century. Over the following decade, numerous British and American expeditions searched the Canadian Arctic by ship and overland, often facing the same dangers that had overwhelmed Franklin’s men: pack ice, starvation, scurvy, extreme cold, and isolation.
Early searches concentrated around Lancaster Sound and King William Island, where Franklin was believed to have disappeared. Expeditions gradually expanded the search area as no survivors or ships were found.
Several important discoveries eventually revealed what had happened. John Rae obtained Inuit testimony and recovered objects belonging to Franklin’s men, providing the first strong evidence that the expedition had ended in disaster. Later, Francis McClintock’s expedition aboard HMS Fox discovered the famous Victory Point Record and numerous remains, confirming that Franklin’s ships had been abandoned and that the surviving crew had attempted to travel south on foot.
The searches also established much of the geography of the Canadian Arctic. Explorers such as Edward Belcher, James Clark Ross, John Rae, Leopold McClintock and others mapped previously unknown passages, islands and coastlines while searching for the missing expedition.
By the late 1850s, it had become clear that Franklin and all 128 members of his expedition had perished. The search itself, however, continued to influence Arctic exploration for decades and contributed significantly to the mapping and understanding of the Northwest Passage.
We strongly encourage you to explore this subject for yourselves, as the stories of the rescue expeditions are often every bit as gripping and mysterious as Franklin’s original expedition itself.