Sunken 19th century British ship discovered in Arctic waters off Canada

One of two British ships that set out to find a northwest passage to Asia in the 1840s has been found, the Canadian prime minister announced Tuesday.

|
Parks Canada, via The Canadian Press/AP
This image released by Parks Canada, on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014, shows a side-scan sonar image of ship on the sea floor in northern Canada. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Tuesday, Spt. 9, 2014, that one of two fabled British explorer ships, the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, that disappeared in the Arctic more 160 years ago has been found. The ships were last seen in the late 1840s. The Prime Minister said it remains unclear which ship has been found, but images show there's enough information to confirm it's one of the pair.

One of two British explorer ships that vanished in the Arctic nearly 170 years ago during a search for the fabled Northwest Passage has been found, Canada's prime minister announced Tuesday in a discovery that could unlock one of history's biggest mysteries and swell Canadian pride.

Last seen in the 1840s while under the command of Rear Adm. Sir John Franklin, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror have long been among the most sought-after prizes in marine archaeology and the subject of songs, poems and novels.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office said the well-preserved wreck of one of the vessels was found Sunday with the help of a remotely operated underwater vehicle. It was 11 meters below the surface near King William Island, about 1,200 miles northwest of Toronto.

Harper said that it is unclear which ship it is, but that sonar images yielded enough information to confirm it was one of Franklin's.

"This is truly a historic moment for Canada," said Harper, who was beaming, uncharacteristically. "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."

Harper said the discovery would shed light on what happened to Franklin's crew.

Franklin and 128 hand-picked officers and men disappeared after setting out in 1845 for the Northwest Passage, the long-sought shortcut to Asia that supposedly ran from the Atlantic to the Pacific by way of the harsh, ice-choked Arctic.

Historians believe the ships were lost in 1848 after they became locked in the ice near King William Island and the crews abandoned them in a hopeless bid to reach safety. Inuit lore tells of "white men who were starving" as late as the winter of 1850 on the Royal Geographical Society Island.

For many years afterward, Franklin was seen as a Victorian-era hero.

Dozens of searches by the British and Americans in the 1800s failed to locate the wrecks, and some of those expeditions ended in tragedy, too. But they opened up parts of the Canadian Arctic to discovery and ultimately spied a Northwest Passage, though it proved inhospitable to shipping because of ice and treacherous weather.

Canada announced in 2008 that it would look for the ships, and Harper's government has poured millions into the venture, with the prime minister himself taking part in the search.

Harper's government made the project a top priority as it looked to assert Canada's sovereignty over the Northwest Passage, where melting Arctic ice in recent years has unlocked the very shipping route Franklin was after.

Canada says it owns the passage. The US and others say it is international territory.

Ryan Harris, an underwater archaeologist helping to lead the Parks Canada search, said a sonar image shows some of the ship's deck structures, including the main mast, which was sheared off by the ice when the vessel sank. He said the contents of the ship are most likely in the same good condition.

The next step is to send divers to explore the ships and any artifacts. The exact location of the wreck was not disclosed for fear of looters.

The discovery comes shortly after a team of archeologists found a tiny fragment from the doomed expedition — an iron fitting that once helped support a boat from one of the ships.

The search for an Arctic passage to Asia frustrated explorers for centuries, beginning with John Cabot's voyage in 1497. The shortcut eluded other famous explorers, including Henry Hudson and Francis Drake.

No sea crossing was successful until Roald Amundsen of Norway completed his trip in 1903-06.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Sunken 19th century British ship discovered in Arctic waters off Canada
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0909/Sunken-19th-century-British-ship-discovered-in-Arctic-waters-off-Canada
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe