Scroll over to page 6 of 13 in the gallery below.
Warning: It’s a graphic picture of a corpse, so if you’re not into that sort of thing then don’t click over.
Warning! Only click to page 6 if you can handle frozen corpses.
Well Hell, the British sank her!
Thanks, Leaffan - that’s what I was thinking of.
Even if folks don’t want to go to picture # 6, the first five pictures sure show how desolate King William Island is. And that’s in the summer! Trying to survive there in the winter, without adequate supplies… :eek:
Those defrosted corpsicle pics seriously creeped me the hell out when they were first published.
“No, Tommy. It Wasn’t the Franklin Mint. Anyway…”
I thought that was the theme to “Hockey Night in Canada”?
The site is very, very close to the “Approximate location of ships when deserted” on one of the maps in Beattie and Geiger’s 1987 classic Frozen in Time. Indeed, much, much better than the previous search areas. Chalk one up for the historians?
No, the British government will just not claim jurisdiction. A fascinating joint bit of history that we’ll defer to the locals. Still, hardly “the biggest archaeological discovery the world has seen since the opening of Tutankhamun’s tomb almost 100 years ago”. It’s surely not even the most important discovery in Canadian archaeology in that period.
John Torrington. The link has a link to the documentary film at the bottom.
Nitpick…those graves have actually been known since 1850, when the first rescue expedition to find anything at all occurred.
The first underwater video of the wreck has been released. No news yet on whether she’s the Terror or Erebus.
Cool! What is all that trash floating around in the arctic ocean?
Thanks!
Algae, mostly, I think. It clumps up, especially when there’s been an algal bloom. Possibly something like marine snow, though that term usually applies to detritus sinking into water deeper than surface light penetrates.
Some of it might also be silt stirred up by activity around the wreck, but it doesn’t look like they’re disturbing too much.
I wonder if the vertical wall on the right at the end is (part of) the hull, if that is the case the ship is in remarkable shape.
I believe you’re correct; initial reports describe the hull, and structure, to be in very good shape.
On a morbid note it’s probable that there are remains of the crew on board, when they had to abandon ship there were likely crewmen who were immobile and who could not be moved.
If you want some good nightmare fodder - seriously, don’t click unless you have a strong stomach, John Torrington wasn’t the only body found on Beechey Island, two others were well preserved John Hartnell who died aged 25 and William Braine who died aged 32.
How likely is it that they’ll be able to tell which ship it is? I know cold water can preserve artifacts quite well (this sort of thing happens all the time in the Great Lakes) but how likely is it that the ship’s name or other identifying characteristics might still be discernable?
I read somewhere that the two ships had quite different auxillary steam engines. So if those are preserved, they ought to be able to tell which it is.
Erebus was also a bit larger than Terror, as well as being newer.
She’s the Erebus, Franklin’s flagship.
Oddly, nothing in the article explained how they identified her.
(And the “comments” section is even more depressing than usual .)