The four additional individuals identified were:
William Orren, an Able Seaman aboard HMS Erebus; David Young, a Boy 1st Class aboard HMS Erebus; John Bridgens, a Subordinate Officer’s Steward aboard HMS Erebus; and Harry Peglar, Captain of the Foretop aboard HMS Terror.
Three of the four — Orren, Young, and Bridgens — had died at Erebus Bay, the same site as Fitzjames and Gregory. The identification of Peglar was geographically distinct: his remains were found approximately 130 kilometers from Erebus Bay. His identification also resolved a historical puzzle that had existed since 1859, when Francis McClintock’s search party found a body near the southern coast of King William Island with a collection of personal papers — the “Peglar Papers” — but without clothing consistent with the rank those papers suggested. The 2026 DNA identification confirmed that the body was Peglar’s.
The methodology for the 2026 identifications followed the same approach as the 2021 and 2024 work: DNA extracted from specimens by Fratpietro at the Paleo-DNA Laboratory, compared against profiles from living descendants of expedition members. The matches showed a genetic distance of zero — meaning no mutations separated the specimen’s profile from the descendant’s profile across the relevant lineage, which the researchers described as strong evidence of a shared common ancestor.
John Bridgens’s identification had an additional point of public interest: the living descendant who provided the matching DNA sample was Rich Preston, identified as a journalist with the BBC. Preston had traced his family connection to the Franklin expedition through genealogical research.
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## The Wreck That Fitzjames Commanded