Arctic funeral and moon dogs. 19th-century artwork of a funeral held in the Arctic, with moon dogs (paraselene) in the background. This funeral took place during the expedition led by British Royal Navy explorer Francis Leopold McClintock on the steam yacht 'Fox' (centre left) to find the remains of the lost Franklin expedition of 1845. This funeral was for leading stoker Robert Scott, who died and was buried at sea on 4 December 1857 from injuries in a fall two days earlier. The body, on the sledge, was placed in a hole cut in the ice. In May 1859, a communication was found by the McClintock Expedition in a cairn left by the Franklin Expedition near King William Island.