The sailors had been stranded on the snow and ice for eight months when their rescuers

finally arrived.

Of the 25 men who had begun the expedition in June of 1881, only seven survived.

One man had been shot after stealing food rations for the second time, but the rest had

simply frozen or starved to death.

When they were brought on board the rescue vessel, there was a palpable feeling of celebration.

Against all odds, these seven men had managed to fight off death with little more than

hope to sustain them.

They were living examples of just how strongly human will to live can be.

They'd been on their expedition for three years, with orders to set up a chain of weather

stations north of Canada in the Arctic Circle.

Their target had been a small Canadian inlet known as Lady Franklin Bay, situated just

off the coast of the northwest tip of Greenland.

But the frozen waters delivered a tragic one-two punch.

Their resupply ships couldn't reach them through the ice, and then that same ice crushed

their own ship, the Proteus.

The survivors were celebrities back home.

When they arrived in America in early August of 1884, a funeral was held for all who had

perished on the expedition.

Soon after that efforts began to retrieve the bodies of those left behind to give them

a hero's burial.

But when the body of Lieutenant Frederick Kislingbury was exhumed, a horrific discovery

...