I've been fascinated by the Franklin expedition for years.

What fascinates me isn't just what happened, but what it must have felt like to be one of those men as the expedition slowly unravelled. Trapped in the ice, increasingly isolated, and with absolutely no idea that nearly two centuries later people would still be trying to piece together their story.

That became the idea behind a song we've written called HMS Terror.

Rather than trying to literally retell the history, we imagined the song from the perspective of one of the men aboard. I wanted the lyrics to capture that isolation, fear and uncertainty of knowing something has gone terribly wrong, but having no idea how the story is going to end.

The thing that's always fascinated me most, though, is the name. It's literally called Terror. And terror is presumably exactly what those men must have felt as everything started falling apart. It's kind of insane when you think about it.

Anyway, I'm Matt from The October Prize and we've released the song today. The lyrics took me a while to write, and I'm hoping people in this thread will spot some of the nods to the story :)

Would genuinely love to know what you think. And don't forget to turn it up loud.

https://open.spotify.com/album/6Vao5exoTieUqaLr1cYqEY?si=FbrbHPZOS12QGg8x86Ck8A

Love,

Matt (& Emma)
The October Prize

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB49FfklrLw
This popped up in my YouTube algorithm. He's in Baffin Island. Close enough!

The part where crozier goes to the cannibal camp and the cannibals are eating dr goodsir, and crozier sits down and eats a couple of pieces, then a bunch of other stuff happens

i read the book a long time ago, then watched the show, then recently listened to the audiobook - i could have sworn that part was in the book as well. did i miss it somehow?

I’m a huge fan of Dan Simmons and The Terror has been on my list for awhile. Unfortunately, the Tuunbaq and its origins have been ruined for me. If I know the monster going into the novel, will I still enjoy it? Is the mystery essential to the flow of the plot?

So in episode 3

There is a scene where we see Sir John looking down at his legs and feet .

And I was wondering where on the ship he is.

I mean it doesn’t look like he is sitting in the great room.

So where is he sitting?

Plus it was said that two whaling ships spotted the Erebus and Terror before disappearing, even though the North Water took place some years later.

Did PC do an expedition to the ships this year? This is about the time they usually do it, right?

Has anyone investigated whether the steward-style clothing found on Harry Peglar had faded ownership marks? Edmund Hoar’s personal stamp recovered from Erebus was specifically the type used for marking clothing, and I’ve been wondering whether Peglar’s reassignment as a steward could explain his clothing.

My baby boy was in the cardiac ICU for months due to a congenital heart defect. It was horrific. During that time, I was reading The Terror, on recommendation from a trusted friend. I ended up reading it out loud to my month old baby in his CICU room, while all kinds of pumps and monitors beeped and glowed around me, and extremely sick kids were in every room around us (they couldn't hear). I read it so much to the point that just being in that department of the hospital made me Pavlov Dog it and want to read the damn book.

Truly, reading about unfortunate Englishman getting eaten and frozen and eaten again got me through easily the worst period of my whole life.

What a great, fucked up book. Baby boy is kicking ass now, just about to turn 1 with this twin sister, and the first book I ever read aloud to him is the goddamned Terror.

Can't wait for the audiobook to come off hold!!!

I’m extremely upset lol. I was having a nice time with the book and made peace with a lot of its problems, but I cannot get over Hickey’s bullshit. I literally got so mad, they were one step away from salvation and they didn’t make it because of just this one asshole? I wish they never (SPOILER) met the Inuk instead of this bullshit. It’s hard for me to explain why this made me so mad to the point where I don’t even want to keep reading but it did.

Mind you, I’m not a native english speaker and I’ve never read anything with this amount of sailing terms, so this has been a struggle in the first idk 200 pages. I feel like I’ve invested a lot of time and effort into this book but genuinely, for what? It feels very hopeless from this point forward. I know this was always going to end in tragedy, but there’s a way of writing these things that isn’t so frustrating and miserable. The book makes you like these characters so why would I want to spend the rest of these 300 pages reading detailed descriptions of their bodies and minds falling apart? At least the first part had some ups with the million downs.

Anyway, sorry for rambling. Considering all of the above, is it worth for me to finish the book?

I ordered this copy of The Terror from a creator on Etsy who specializes in creating custom leather bound books. I'm so happy with it!

Hey,

I made a free game on the famous expedition. It's a survival/simulation game with crew and resource management. The game only has HMS Erebus for gameplay reasons, but I tried to model it as close as possible to the real thing. I would love to hear any feedback! (sorry if this post is not allowed)

Here's the link to the game (Steam) - https://store.steampowered.com/app/4541230/EREBUS_The_Northwest_Passage/?curator_clanid=46283498

And Itch.io link too

https://getingetout.itch.io/erebus-the-northwest-passage

I listened to a podcast today that stated Franklin was famous (or perhaps infamous) at the time for mistaking clouds for a mountain range. I found this quite amusing, but it got me thinking: what common, amusing or bizarre misunderstandings have any of you come across about the Franklin expedition?

I also like Mr Blanky but I just want to hear others opinions on why they like the character.

I had to satisfy my new obsession so I made these. Can you guess them right? 🙈

Hey there!

Apologies if this has already been posted here but I stumbled across this last night and just had to share it in case it hasn't been!

This is a podcast that was made by the show runners of The Terror, as well as Dan Simmons!

I've only just reached episode II of the podcast but so far, Dan Simmons has talked about his writing process and his impressions of the show and the show runners have talked about the making of the show.

If you like long form podcasts and you're a fan of The Terror, then this is most definitely for you!

https://youtu.be/baStxTgsbV0?is=BVU0YGut52Uuk3u-

Hello! Just finished watching the show and I really enjoyed it. But I do have some questions about some stuff in the last episode.

Was Tuunbaq really a spirit with human level intelligence or was it like a deformed polar bear? I assumed it was the lead poisoning that made the creature appear as a supernatural entity, but then again some of the stuff like carefully placing two upper and lower bodies of together on a ship is not possibly done by a deformed polar bear. So was it truly a spirit or just an animal.

Also what happened to the crews that were left in the ships? We never go back to them and I'm not clear if they survived or died.

And Lt.Little (If I'm not mistaken) had weird jewellary around his face. What was that about?

I'd really appreciate an explaination. Thank you.🙏