After more than 150 years of searching in Canada’s northern wastes, they’ve found one of the ships from Franklin’s Lost Expedition which attempted to plot a course across the Northern Passage only to meet with disaster, the fate of the ships and crew something we could only guess at.
It’s not known yet whether it’s the *HMS Terror *or the HMS Erebus, but what an incredible historical find for Canada.
We were just discussing this in the Canadope thread.
A very interesting find after 159 years of searching.
The Prime Minister of Canada has just announced that the latest search has found one of the Franklin ships, sitting on the sea floor in the high Arctic: Lost Franklin expedition ship found in the Arctic.
The Franklin Expedition in the 1840’s was an attempt by the British Navy to find a North-West Passage through the Arctic seas north of Canada’s northern coast. It failed, and the two ships were never found. All the men involved died. The British government then poured tremendous resources into searching for the Franklin expedition. Various artifacts have been found over the years, including the graves of some of the sailors, but not the ships.
Successive Canadian governments have poured a lot of resources into the search for HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, the two lost ships. Today’s announcement came with a scan of one of the ships, sitting upright on the sea floor, in the waters of Victoria Strait, off King William Island.
One significant point is that it confirms the oral history of the local Inuit. One old Inuit interviewed in the early part of the 20th century told of seeing a ship trapped in the ice off King William Island, and that it eventually sank.
Wow. Just wow. This was a major find for underwater archaeology, in one of the most forbidding environments imaginable. Winter will be closing in soon up there, and the ice will cover the strait again, while the ship rests on the bottom as it has for nearly two centuries.
Already a thread on the subject.
Another thread.
I’ll suggest a merger.
Indeed, and she’s remarkably well preserved too. There has been speculation that both ships were crushed to splinters by ice or ravaged by fire, but it looks - more or less after 160 years - intact. I can’t wait to see what they find out from the site, which Canada wisely made a National Historic Site even before it was found.
ETA; Glad I’m not the only one exited. Sat bolt upright when I saw the news.
As outlined in the wikipedia article, it’s believed that some of the crew survived for up to two years on King William Island. It’s cold and forbidding territory (even by Canadian standards 
), as indicated by the community profile for Gjoa Haven, the only permanent settlement on the island:
The wiki article also gives a chilling summary of how the crew members likely died:
Good article from Peter Mansbridge, the CBC’s lead anchor, on the significance:
And Stan Rogers, bless’im:
I don’t find the map in the wiki article on King William Island very helpful. There’s a good map in the article on the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. King William Island is the green one just off the north coast of Nunavut, in the centre of the map.
Wow. What an important find!
hmm - I meant to link directly to the map.
There is one complicating factor: the ordinary salvage law doesn’t apply to wrecked war ships, which remain the sovereign property of the relevant government in perpetuity. Since the ship was a Royal Navy ship, it is still the property of the British government. Any attempts to explore the ship itself will probably need consent from the British government.
(This was an issue when Ballard discovered the Bismarck. The German government immediately asserted sovereign rights to the wreck and forbade any exploration or salvage. That’s why there aren’t pieces of Bismarck on tour, like there are for Titanic.)
Wonder how long it’ll take for them to determine whether she’s the Erebus or the Terror, I’ve a hunch she’s the Erebus but that’s just my gut talking.
ETA;
Can’t imagine any reason the British would deny such consent, wouldn’t the legalese have been sorted out when Canada declared it a Historic Site? The Bismarck is a war grave, rather a different circumstance.
Thank you, came to post the same link!
Went home for lunch today and saw the report about the Franklin expedition on the CBC news. Played the song for my 4 month old son as part of his rite of passage as a Canadian man. He listened solemnly, according our unofficial national anthem its due respect.
I’ve not seen any mention of discussions with the British government. Declaration that it’s a Canadian Historic Site probably gives it protection from salvage under Canadian law, even if Canada can’t claim the ship itself.
It’s not the fact that Bismarck is a war grave, but a war ship, that excludes it from the ordinary salvage laws. This ship, whichever one it is, is still Her [Britannic] Majesty’s Ship.
Great story.
Will this find in any way help locate more on land remains of the crew?
Searchers have already found three graves already, on Beechey Island, well to the north of the location of the wreck, where the expedition over-wintered the first year. They were probably the first three to die. The corpses were extremely well-preserved after a century and a half in permafrost. There’s a famous photo of one of them, when they opened his coffin for an autopsy about fifteen years ago - can probably find it somewhere on the web.
Searchers in the 19th century also found skeletal remains on King William Island, and a life boat that was being used as a sledge. That was one of the indicators that the wrecks might be in the area of the Island.
The current expedition also found a few artifacts from the ships on the shore of King William Island, just recently.
I don’t know if further human remains would still exist, this long afterwards. Given the stress that the crew faced, just trying to survive, they may not have had the energy to try to bury bodies. And there are polar bears…
I read a book a few years ago, detailing the various Northwest Passage expeditions, which I cannot find the name of. Fascinating book. I think someone here on the Dope recommended it.
Are you certain about that? Sub U-853 was sunk off Rhode Island, and is a fairly popular (and dangerous) scuba diving site. Or does the fact that it was sunk by its enemy (the USA) during an active war affect its salvage status?
