Franklin Expedition - Lost ship discovered

Well this is fascinating. Canadian researchers who have been looking for the ships of the lost Franklin Expedition, which were last seen in the 1840's have found a shipwreck that might be one of the two vessels. Here's a link. Fascinating story, as they've never been able to find any trace of the expeditions records. It'll be interesting to see - if this is HMS Erebus or HMS Terror - what they can recover from the wreck.

Wow! Lost treasure.... And just in time for " national,talk like a pirate day"! ...( sept 19)

I have mixed feelings on this one .

Announcing the find, Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper said: "This is truly a historic moment for Canada. This has been a great Canadian story and mystery and the subject of scientists, historians, writers and singers, so I think we really have an important day in mapping the history of our country."

"Franklin's ships are an important part of Canadian history given that his expeditions, which took place nearly 200 years ago, laid the foundations of Canada's Arctic sovereignty," he said.

It wasn't Canadian because it was a full 20 years before Canada became a nation . But just like the Russians having to up date Canada's knowledge of contemporary geography with Crimea ,one has to understand our past history . I found it interesting that they were looking for the passage .I wonder what maps they were using ..I noticed that someone else made it through 50 years later so the Arctic seems to fluctuate on the amount of ice it has . They had small wooden boats back then but even todays ice breakers can have a hard time up there . Oh well good find op .

originally posted by: the2ofusr1
I have mixed feelings on this one .

Announcing the find, Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper said: "This is truly a historic moment for Canada. This has been a great Canadian story and mystery and the subject of scientists, historians, writers and singers, so I think we really have an important day in mapping the history of our country."

"Franklin's ships are an important part of Canadian history given that his expeditions, which took place nearly 200 years ago, laid the foundations of Canada's Arctic sovereignty," he said.

It wasn't Canadian because it was a full 20 years before Canada became a nation . But just like the Russians having to up date Canada's knowledge of contemporary geography with Crimea ,one has to understand our past history . I found it interesting that they were looking for the passage .I wonder what maps they were using ..I noticed that someone else made it through 50 years later so the Arctic seems to fluctuate on the amount of ice it has . They had small wooden boats back then but even todays ice breakers can have a hard time up there . Oh well good find op .

They didn't have any maps - the area was largely unknown and there was still a prevailing theory that there might be a navigable passage that could be used every summer by commercial or naval vessels. The problem was that there was such a maze of islands there that no-one had previously been able to find it. The other problem is that the ice in the Arctic isn't anchored to anything, so it tends to blow around a bit depending on the weather and the wind. You can have a passage between two islands that's fine one summer, but which is choked with ice the next. What seems to have happened (and we're going on old weather records and conjecture here) is that the ships wintered at one spot in the ice, but then the ice didn't melt - or perhaps didn't melt enough in the area around them - thus trapping them in the same spot. It seems to have been a colder than normal few years in the area and the ice kept coming down from the North. They were unlucky.

Very unlucky .I read through the comments on the linked piece .It's was interesting to hear some of the history buffs filling in some of the back ground to the ships and the other explores that were doing the same type of work.tks a reply to: AngryCymraeg

a reply to: the2ofusr1

It's a topic that's always fascinated me, ever since I first read about it. The thought of a fully-equipped expedition going into the Arctic and then vanishing is a chilling one. Especially when you get to how they slowly discovered the truth about what had happened - the trail of bodies, the abandoned life boats, the debris left from the camps, the stories that the Inuits told and above all - and most horrifying - the evidence of cannibalism. It's all one giant Arctic horror story really!

It does make for a interesting subject .The revisions to the truth are a bit telling as well .I would imagine their next step is to identify which of the two ships it is .Then there will be a search for the other . It,s a big space up there but the clues may be in the Inuit's accounts ,seeing they were eye witnesses .I wonder also if there may be some records still discernible on-board the ship in some sort of a water tight vessel . a reply to: AngryCymraeg

I've never heard of this. Thanks for that. Reading up on this(very fascinating), I wondered if this is the basis of the Monty Python sketch?

originally posted by: the2ofusr1
It does make for a interesting subject .The revisions to the truth are a bit telling as well .I would imagine their next step is to identify which of the two ships it is .Then there will be a search for the other . It,s a big space up there but the clues may be in the Inuit's accounts ,seeing they were eye witnesses .I wonder also if there may be some records still discernible on-board the ship in some sort of a water tight vessel . a reply to: AngryCymraeg

The records are an interesting factor - people have been searching for them for years, in the hope that the officers might have left them in a cairn or something. There would have been a lot of paper - charts, journals and so on. Unfortunately nothing's been uncovered on land, leading many to believe that they might have left everything on the ships when the crew finally abandoned them. And we don't know exactly where they all went - some survivors might have made it back onto mainland Canada, only to die of hunger and exhaustion in some place that will never be discovered. It's a vast area of wilderness.

The bell for HMS Erebus has been recovered. There's a nice video that goes along with the article @ the link below.

The bell of the HMS Erebus, the recently re-discovered flagship of the doomed Franklin Expedition, has been brought to the surface, Parks Canada announced.

Huffington Post

originally posted by: quercusrex
The bell for HMS Erebus has been recovered. There's a nice video that goes along with the article @ the link below.

The bell of the HMS Erebus, the recently re-discovered flagship of the doomed Franklin Expedition, has been brought to the surface, Parks Canada announced.

Huffington Post

Very interesting - thanks for the link! Terror can't be too far away then. It'll be interesting to find out what kind of investigation they're planning for next summer.

a reply to: AngryCymraeg

Yes, it will. I will keep following the developments and post any new info here.