G'day again,
A revision of my posting above which was done at work relying on memories of what I'd read years ago:-

I should have said that I liked to think that "Lady Franklin's Lament" was written by one of the sailors involved in the search for Franklin I should have allowed for it arising from one of the earlier searches. It's quite right that Lady Franklin's searches were not the first. However the last verse (was this a later version of the song?) shows an awareness of Lady Franklin's activities.

Barry, does Colcord give a date for the song?

My latest reference to Franklin's expedition is the above mentioned newspaper article dated 27/9/1984 showing the frozen body of Petty Officer John Torrington, aged 20 at the time. Some tissue samples were taken and the remains were carefully replaced as Art says. The results of the autopsy may have been reported here but if so I missed it. Presumably this is where the evidence of lead poisoning came from.

Cheers,
Alan