THE REAL TERROR IS A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE
After 168-year wait to learn ship’s fate, world left to wonder a few days more
Bad communication has been the over-arching narrative ever since Sir John Franklin’s expedition ships went missing in 1848 on their quest to discover the Northwest Passage — a problem that persists to this day.
First, the expedition leaders failed to leave behind any clues about where they went after abandoning their ships, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror. Then, most British admiralty-sponsored searchers and others ignored clues related to them by the Inuit, or never bothered to ask them at all. Those who did report what the locals had to say were ignored.
So, it seemed almost fated that a failure to communicate dogs the recent discovery of the Terror by the Arctic Research Foundation on Sept. 3.
The foundation kept it a secret for eight days before bothering to let the Canadian government know about the discovery earlier this month. That was despite the fact the private foundation — Jim Balsillie, the founder of BlackBerry, was supposedly a partner in the search — was led by Parks Canada, assisted by the Coast Guard, the Navy, the Canadian Hydrographical Service and Environment Canada. During those eight days, the foundation continued to use a remotely operated vehicle, exploring the wreck, which was declared a national historic site even before it was found.
It did so knowing full well that who owns the Terror (along with its sister ship, which was found in 2014) and any artifacts is in dispute. It is the subject of delicate and potentially nasty negotiations involving not only Canada and Britain, but Nunavut and the Inuit.
On Monday, Arctic Research Foundation CEO Adrian Schimnowski told Postmedia News it had been a conscious decision to keep the Canadian government in the dark. Parks Canada had “no discovery protocol or media protocol” in place, he said.
“Lovely,” Parks Canada Minister Catherine McKenna’s spokesperson responded when told that. “I don’t think that is actually accurate.”
That wasn’t the case in 2014 when the Erebus was found. Private-sector partners had to sign strict confidentiality agreements. And even though no news of the discovery leaked, it sparked murmurings that the private partners took too much credit for the largely publicly funded find.
This year, a private foundation took all the credit.
Schimnowski revealed it in great detail to the Guardian, which published its story Sept. 12 — one day after the government was notified.
The Guardian’s Paul Watson reported that a remotely operated vehicle had been manoeuvred through an open hatch and into the ship.
“We have successfully entered the mess hall, worked our way into a few cabins, and found the food storage room with plates and one can on the shelves,” Schimnowski wrote in an email from the research vessel Martin Bergmann. “We spotted two wine bottles, tables and empty shelving. Found a desk with open drawers with something in the back corner of the drawer.”
Meanwhile, Parks Canada’s underwater archeologists were nearly 100 kilometres south at the Erebus site, along with their sonar and remote sensing equipment.
“As soon as we were notified, we mobilized,” the team’s leader, Marc-Andre Bernier, said during a teleconference on Monday.
They didn’t get to the Terror site — found in the aptly, but previously, named Terror Bay — until Sept. 16.
The following day — two weeks after the initial discovery — the archeologists finally had a chance to dive the wreck and do the work necessary to confirm it is indeed the Terror.
In the eight days the Arctic Research Foundation had the wreck to itself, it sent the remotely operated vehicle down multiple times to explore the ship, and was able to gather clear photographic evidence of what it had found.
By the time Parks Canada divers arrived, there had been days of sustained winds of over 90 kilometres an hour. The water was turbid and visibility was poor.
Archeologists managed only three dives on the wreck, which is thickly covered in sediment. Still, what they were able to determine conclusively is that this is indeed the second Franklin ship — a fact Bernier confirmed Monday.
“We acknowledge that there was a delay in information coming our way and we look forward to improving communication,” Bernier said stiffly during the conference call.
Whether this communications snafu has complicated Canada’s at-times testy relationship with other claimants is difficult to assess.
Earlier this year, the territorial government refused to issue dive permits to Parks Canada unless Ottawa gave up the authority to retrieve whatever artifacts it wants. Nunavut even threatened to have Parks Canada’s divers arrested by the RCMP if anything was taken from the Erebus or the ocean floor.
The Kitikmeot Inuit also claim a right to determine the fate of the artifacts under its land claims treaty, while the British have claimed anything of outstanding significance to the Royal Navy.
Aside from that, it may also be time to reconsider whether, without strict monitoring, the discovering and preserving of history is too valuable to be entrusted to private foundations.