Searchers not told of wreck find
Federal crew miles away for more than week after HMS Terror found
Parks Canada searchers were still scouring Arctic waters for the longlost HMS Terror more than a week after the wreck was found by their private counterparts.
That’s because no one had told them the search was over.
What happened to the message depends on whom you ask.
The private Arctic Research Foundation, funded by Jim Balsillie, former co-president of Research In Motion, found the wreck of the missing Franklin Expedition ship on Sept. 3.
The Arctic Research Foundation’s announcement that it had found the historic wreck reached news media across Canada on Sept. 12.
Parks Canada said Monday that’s almost the same time its own searchers in the Arctic first heard of the remarkable find.
“The government of Canada learned about it on the 11th,” said Parks Canada’s chief underwater archaeologist, Marc-André Bernier. “This is when we put our team in gear.”
By this time the private foundation’s searchers had returned to their base, picked up more equipment, and returned to spend days investigating the wreck in good conditions. They sent down remote-controlled video and captured clear images of the sunken ship. Parks Canada, meanwhile, had been criss-crossing an area many miles away, where there was no sign of a wreck, for more than a week.
In a statement Monday night, Adrian Schimnowski, the chief executive of Arctic Research Foundation, said his company told the Prime Minister’s Office about the discovery.
“In the absence of a discovery or communications protocol for the 2016 search season, when clear evidence of the discovery was available, ARF notified the PMO and shared all the evidence with them. They in turn told us they would disseminate our information inside the government,” he said.
The Parks Canada searchers finally set out for the actual wreck site Sept. 13. Bad weather stalled them until they were able to examine the wreck on Sept. 16, 17 and 18, at which point the brief summer season of open water ended.
They didn’t get good images of the wreck because heavy weather had stirred up sediment and made the water murky.
Schimnowski was aboard his foundation’s ship when it made the discovery.
When Parks Canada finally heard the news, “There was a lot of silence,” he said. But he added that later there was “celebration and joy.”
Schimnowski said his foundation doesn’t yet have firm plans for next summer’s exploration season. “We have all winter to work with the Franklin Expedition team to come up with the next plan. Typically every winter we get together and plan the next steps.”
A spokeswoman for Catherine McKenna, minister for Parks Canada, told the Citizen the lack of communication was likely due to the difficulty of telecommunications in the North.
Parks Canada had been nearly silent after the Arctic Research Foundation made its initial announcement.
In a conference call Monday with reporters, Bernier confirmed the two groups of searchers weren’t talking to each other at the most crucial time.
“We acknowledge that there was a delay in the information coming our way,” he said. “Obviously we continue to look forward to improving these communications in the Arctic. But as soon as we were notified, we mobilized.”
Bernier also confirmed Monday the wreck is indeed HMS Terror.
The wreck’s upper deck is heavily covered by silt and marine life, Bernier said. But the wreck “has a number of design specifications that were common to both HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, including three masts, iron bow sheathings and a double-wheeled helm. There are no wrecks other than HMS Erebus with these features in the region.”
Erebus was found in 2014.
The archeologists were able to dive on one day, but they couldn’t see through the intact windows because of murkiness. However, “there was much to behold in terms of the ship’s fittings and structures,” said archeologist Ryan Harris.
Experts say the good condition of the hull, and the water’s cold, low-salt conditions, should help to preserve artifacts inside, and perhaps even documents such as a ship’s log.
They saw no sign of bodies of the crew.
A Parks Canada media staffer said she didn’t know the cost of the expedition. It has been going on every summer for years and involves Parks Canada, the Coast Guard, Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian Ice Service.
Parks Canada says the week it spent looking at the wrong part of the ocean will at least provide useful information for navigation.