Researchers deploy drone, ROV to find wreck off Baffin Island
CALGARY — Matthew Ayre was transcribing logbooks from British whaling ships in March when he became intrigued by entries describing a whaler that wrecked off the east coast of Baffin Island early in the last century.
Ayre says most of the hundreds of whaling ships that sank in the North Atlantic over the years were crushed by ice in deep water and never found. But sitting in front of him were entries giving a good description of the spot where one vessel, the Nova Zembla, might be resting near shore.
Combined with newspaper accounts from the time, Ayre says, it became possible to narrow down the search area to a reef off a beach in Baffin Bay.
“It’s at that point I realize it’s quite shallow and it’s quite accessible,” said Ayre, a climate historian with the Arctic Institute of North America at the University of Calgary. “I said, ‘You know, we might be able to find this,’ and we went from there.”
An underwater archeologist, Mike Moloney, who works across the hall from Ayre, was not quite as optimistic but agreed to help. They secured funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, then hitched a ride in August on a tourist expedition ship that agreed to stop near the site while they set forth in an inflatable boat. The catch? The ship had a schedule to keep and could only give the shipwreck hunters seven hours, so they had to work fast.
When Ayre and Moloney arrived at the reef Aug. 31, they noticed wood on the beach that resembled a ship’s timbers, but conditions prevented them from going ashore, so they launched a drone to get a closer look. They realized the timbers were a mast, a yardarm, and a piece of a ship’s rib. Using the wind and waves as a guide, they narrowed down where on the reef to look and launched a remote-controlled underwater camera.
Ayre says one of the historical accounts said the Nova Zembla dropped its anchor in an unsuccessful attempt to lighten its load and free itself from the reef.
“Almost immediately we found an anchor and an anchor chain right where these accounts said it would be,” Ayre said.
Time was up and they had to return to the ship. They reviewed their underwater video and are confident they found the Nova Zembla. They’re planning to return to the site next year.
“I really want to find personal effects from the sailors themselves, if there are any — sea chests from the sailors themselves,” Ayre said. “They’re likely not in one piece, but you never know, we might get lucky.”