Erebus pics8/3/2023 ![]() ![]() So far, though, the other reinforced wooden ship that set sail with Erebus in 1845 - HMS Terror - remains missing. Until now, that has been one of the great mysteries of the Canadian North - just what did happen to Sir John Franklin and his 128 crewmembers as his expedition came to its grim demise in the late 1840s.Ī big clue in the mystery is the wreck of HMS Erebus, found last year in a location indicated by Inuit oral histories. "It will have many clues that will lead to the demise and what happened to the crewmembers." "This shipwreck is proving to be very rich in artifacts," says Schimnowski. (Dan Bard/Royal Canadian Navy)Ī lot of kelp was also cleaned off the wreck, and detailed measurements, documentation and photos were taken in preparation for the retrieval of artifacts. Parks Canada underwater archeologists prepare to dive to HMS Erebus on Aug. It was another reminder of how unpredictable the forces of nature can be in the Arctic - the same forces that were so central to the ultimate demise of the expedition led by Sir John Franklin to find the Northwest Passage in the 1840s. Underwater archeologists had to use markers and lines to find their way around the wreck when they returned. Underwater visibility that had rivalled something more typical of the tropics deteriorated, with visibility falling to half a metre after the storm. "It's reflective of how quickly the Arctic can change," says Adrian Schimnowski, operations director of the Arctic Research Foundation, a non-government partner in the search. Numerous artifacts, ranging from plates and mariners' tools to wood, lead, copper and glass objects, were located and documented - and in some cases were moved around and became more difficult to recover after a fierce Arctic storm rolled through during this year's search season. Marc-André Bernier, Parks Canada's manager of underwater archeology, sets a marine biology sampling quadrant on the port side hull of HMS Erebus. ![]()
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