Francis Crozier, as a British naval officer, accompanied Parry in his second, third, and four polar voyages. He carried out other expeditions to both the Arctic and Antarctic. He was with Franklin in his last arctic voyage as Second in Command. He was the Captain of the Terror (Franklin was on the Erebus).

Crozier was born at Banbridge, Ireland. Like so many of the naval officers of the day, he joined the navy at a young age, age 13. His service brought him to both the waters of the Pacific, the antarctic (four years with James Clark Ross, indeed with the Terror and the Erebus) and in the arctic. By 1837, Crozier attained the rank of commander, in 1841 a captain. [By 1845, he was a very experienced arctic explorer, and when one considers the whole story of the Franklin Expedition (1845-8), it cannot be helped when one speculates, that if Crozier was appointed to lead, the result might have been different.]

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