Explorers trace steps of Victorian adventurer whose lovesick widow mapped the Arctic

A team of explorers set off yesterday to retrace the doomed steps of a British adventurer whose plight gave rise to a moving Victorian love story and helped to chart the Arctic.

The team of eight is following the journey in 1845 of Sir John Franklin, who took two ships and 128 men on a trip to find the North-west Passage through the Arctic sea off Canada to the Pacific. One aim of today's expedition is to find out how many of the stories about the group's end – of lead poisoning from their new-fangled "canned" food (in lead-lined tins) and cannibalism at their last known spot, Starvation Cove – are true.

Franklin's disappearance spurred his distraught widow, Jane, to underwrite more than 30 expeditions to find him in a campaign that lasted 11 years. She failed but the expeditions led to the area being mapped in detail. Later, he was discovered to have died in 1847.

"My interest in Jane was fuelled when I saw her bust in the Royal Geographical Society," said Rebecca Harris, who is leading the expedition. "I decided to put my first expedition together in her memory and pay tribute to one of the greatest tragedies and love stories of all time."

The team left from Victory Point on King William Island, where Franklin's ships were abandoned. They hope to travel to Starvation Cove,where Franklin's bones, boots and an upturned boat were eventually found.

Among those on the expedition is Ralph Baker-Cresswell, a roofing contractor and a descendant of one of Franklin's men. "Our expedition will, I hope, be interesting to the many people who have studied the original expedition and have pondered the mysteries surrounding the deaths of these brave men," he said.

The team is using modern gear. Ms Harris said: "You can never recreate what Franklin's men suffered, and it would be foolish and arrogant to think you could get anywhere near it. We will find it tough enough with the kit we have."