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Erebus wiki franklin6/21/2023 However, you decided to resign so that your son could take part in the expedition, gather experience at sea and gain recognition in the eyes of the Admiralty. You were chosen to lead an expedition prepared by the Royal Navy, which would sail under the North Pole and reach East Asia. They were offering you fame, prestige and a place in history. The year 1845 was supposed to be a breakthrough. It's so important for children in these communities to see that and for us to share these stories.The nightmare you'll experience in Terror is based on a true story. You get them exposed to this environment through photos that you don't normally see and it just creates this huge spark of creativity. "Seeing a diver floating above the wreck and seeing this huge hull gives you a sense of size and scale," says Schimnowski. The photos were particularly intriguing for local children. "It helps build new bridges and trust with the communities and we hope we continue to be a little more transparent in sharing the science that we are doing." Parks Canada and the Arctic Research Foundation presented the results of this year's search efforts, along with photos from the wreck site, to residents in the Nunavut communities of Cambridge Bay and Gjoa Haven, an action Schimnowski considers important. "The data they gathered will be analyzed by the Canadian Hydrographic Service to help modernize the nautical charts," Parks Canada said. The agency was "pleased with the progress that was made," even though the location of Terror is still unknown after the searchers' latest efforts.Ĭameras were poked inside openings in the deck of HMS Erebus to capture images of the interior of the 19th-century reinforced wooden vessel. This year, another 500 square kilometres were searched, "the most productive season to date," Parks Canada said. ![]() Search efforts for it have focused on waters further north in Victoria Strait. 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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