John Hartnell was an able seaman aboard HMS Erebus during the Franklin expedition. The Description Book of the HMS Volage gives his height as 5 feet 11 ½ inches, remarkably tall for the time and a full three inches taller than his younger brother. It also says that he had a sallow complexion, hazel eyes, and black hair, the last of which was confirmed by the exhumations carried out in the 1980s.