Tragic Hero of Polar Navigation. This is the story of the worst ever catastrophe in British exploration: the loss of two ships and 129 men in circumstances that remain mysterious, darkened by irrefutable evidence of cannibalism. It's also the tale of what happened next, as Andrew Lambert reveals how this disaster was turned into a heroic but costly success - a version of events in which the dead men had discovered the fabled North West Passage. The truth is that Sir John Franklin and his men had not accomplished their misssion and were lost in the icy wastes.