# Northwest Passage question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northwest-passage-question/832796>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 19, 2019, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northwest-passage-question/832796 "2019-04-19T23:38:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2019, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northwest-passage-question/832796/41 "2019-08-28T15:12:37Z")

</div>

I’m curious as to what paperwork they might find, and whether or not it might still be readable.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2019, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northwest-passage-question/832796/42 "2019-08-28T15:52:06Z")

</div>

I read it was potentially charts and messages. Due to the cold water and large amount of silt Parks Canada hopes the environment minimized decomposition. It would be interesting to see the directions picked, the back tracking etc,.

[Link](https://www.canada.ca/en/parks-canada/news/2019/08/government-of-canada-releases-remarkable-images-of-the-wreck-of-hms-terror.html)

> [@](#):
>
> Parks Canada’s Underwater Archaeology Team reports that HMS Terror has been well-preserved by the cold deep water of Terror Bay and layers of protective sediment. In fact, sedimentation provides the best conditions for preservation as it allows for an environment with less oxygen (anaerobic), which helps preserve organics, like paper.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northwest-passage-question/832796.md?page=2)