Franklin ship believed found
HMS TERROR: Discovery of Arctic exploration vessel could change historic narrative
HMS Terror, the second missing ship of the doomed Franklin Expedition, has been found, according to Canadian Arctic explorers.
The Arctic Research Foundation, funded by Jim Balsillie, former co-CEO of Research In Motion, says it found the wreck on the bottom of Victoria Strait in the Western Arctic, although Parks Canada, the main government partner in the search, refused Monday to confirm the find.
The foundation revealed extensive detail about the well-preserved find, much of it gathered through underwater video and photos.
It told British newspaper The Guardian that three masts of the vessel are broken, but still in place. The bowsprit — a long spar at the bow — is unbroken, and many of the glass panes in the captain’s cabin are still in tact.
Inside the vessel, the cameras found wine bottles, a desk with an open drawer, and other objects from daily life aboard.
On the deck they found a ship’s bell. More crucially, there was a smokestack extending up from a spot that matches the location of the engine Terror carried for extra power in pushing through ice.
Adrian Schimnowski, spokesman for the Arctic Research Foundation, relayed the news to his wife, Oksana, a former staffer with the foundation who now works with Polar Knowledge Canada.
The submerged wreck was found on Sept. 3, she said, but the group had to make sure it had the right ship.
“They had to steam back to Cambridge Bay, a full day away,” to get more equipment, Oksana Schimnowski said.
Then they had to return with remote-controlled video equipment to examine the ship. The need for safety in the Arctic also made the searchers work slowly.
“Erebus and Terror were what they called bomb vessels,” she said.
These were ships carrying heavy mortars, and they had reinforced hulls that were judged useful for work in Arctic ice.
“They were the only two bomb vessels known to have sailed in the Arctic, and that made identification easier,” she said.
Parks Canada said the department was excited by reports of the find but did not provide official confirmation, saying that finding the Terror “would be important for Canada;” and that “Parks Canada is currently working with our partners to validate the details of the discovery.”
Terror’s sister ship Erebus was found in September, 2014.
Franklin’s two ships left England in 1845 but became stuck in the ice of Victoria Strait. With the ships still icebound in 1848, the survivors tried to go south over land to safety, but all 129 men, including Franklin, died.
Erebus was found far to the south of where a last note from the doomed officers was left on land. For years searchers looked near the northern part of King William Island, but Erebus sank south of the island, close to where Inuit tradition said it sank.
Now Terror, too, has apparently shown up far south of the original search area, though not as far south as Erebus. Terror lies in Terror Bay, a name that predates this find.
The searchers say the hull is sitting upright in some 24 metres of water.
The historical narrative is that the sailors abandoned the ships after they became stuck in the ice and then died as they marched south.
But Schimnowski told The Guardian that the ship appeared to be locked down tight.
“This vessel looks like it was buttoned down tight for winter and it sank,” he told the paper. “Everything was shut. Even the windows are still intact. If you could lift this boat out of the water, and pump the water out, it would probably float.”
The condition of the ship led to Balsillie proposing a different version of events — that the Terror was shut down by the crew, who then tried to sail Erebus south.