Franklin's Lost: John Shaw Torrington

Today's musical credit goes to John Shaw Torrington, the lead stoker during the Franklin expedition. Torrington was one of the first men to die during the search for the Northwest Passage, cut down by pneumonia only seven months into the three-year journey.

In 1850 Torrington's body was found in a grave on Beechey Island, Nunavut. While performing an autopsy on his body he was found to be in a state of near-perfect preservation, the ice having slowed his decomposition. Petrified in a comparable state to an Egyptian mummy, Torrington's story inspired songwriter James Taylor to write the song "Frozen Man".