Unusual tour visits sites of tragic shipwrecks
In 1845, Captain Sir John Franklin led an Arctic expedition to find the Northwest Passage with two ships and 129 men. They all perished after getting stuck in the ice.
The HMS Erebus and HMS Terror were lost for more than a century and a half as tales of cannibalism and starving white men traipsing across the frozen wasteland were passed down through generations of Inuit, the Orange County Register recounts.
“We are proud our people gave stories to find the ships,” says Leo Uttaq, an elder at Gjoa Haven, a remote settlement closest to the shipwrecks about 130 km away whose name in Inuktitut means “place of plenty blubber.”
Now you can go exploring in the area on a tour led by Adventure Canada, a travel agency of sorts that takes people to less-thanusual locations.
A fare of USD$10,995 lets you hop aboard the Ocean Endeavour on a 17-day expedition leaving from Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, zigzagging your way through the icy islands of Northern Nunavut and the Northwest Passage. The 137-metre ship is outfitted with 20 Zodiac boats that you and the rest of the passengers will pile into to get up close to the areas that claimed the lives of those men 172 years ago.
On the Zodiacs, you’ll be taken directly above the shipwreck of the Erebus. It may be a bit difficult to see through the icy water, but a team of divers will be sent down with cameras relaying their images to screens on the boats for you to watch, while also pinging the GPS location of the HMS Terror, roughly 80km away.
The Terror remains upright on the ocean floor with panes of glass and the wheel still intact, according to marine archaeologist Ryan Harris.
“You never see that on shipwrecks anywhere,” Harris says. “It’s a breathtaking scene.”
You can set sail in September 2020 if you book soon. Just remember, you’ll need to get to Greenland before hopping aboard the ship.
Over the course of 5,300 km, you’ll encounter wildlife such as orcas and polar bears while observing them in their natural habitat. Stops will be made along the way to historical sites dating back to the Thule period about 700 years ago, when the ancestors of the Inuit lived.
One of those is where the crew spent the winter of 1845-46 and three of Franklin’s men are buried. Their tombstones were fashioned out of wood, then finished with bronze plaques with the names.
A crew of eight experts will also take part in the voyage, educating travellers on the fascinating facts behind the ancient expedition and surrounding area. There will also be stops in Inuit communities where they’ll entertain you with music, dancing and stories.
You’ll encounter the Guardians, Gjoa Haven men hired by Parks Canada to protect the wrecks from looters and trespassers, and hear how elders blessed the ships by sprinkling sand over them from an ancient Inuit burial site when it seemed archaeologists might be disturbing the lost souls.
As Tamara Tarasoff from Parks Canada noted: “There is no evidence of human remains on the ships yet.”