HMS Terror wreck gets historic site protection

Ottawa has set aside nearly 60 square kilometres of seabed off the coast of Nunavut to keep gawkers and scavengers away from one of Canada’s most famous shipwrecks.

The HMS Terror is one of two ships from the Franklin expedition that became trapped in ice in the Arctic in 1845, ultimately leading to the deaths of all 129 men on board, including expedition leader Sir John Franklin.

The locations of the wrecked ships were one of Canada’s greatest unsolved mysteries until September 2014, when the first of the two ships, the HMS Erebus was found south of King William Island.

The HMS Terror was found almost exactly two years later, in September 2016, north of the HMS Erebus.

Both ships are in pristine condition despite resting beneath the sea for more than 170 years and the artifacts that remain have immense value.

This month, the federal cabinet ordered the National Historic Sites of Canada be amended to add 57.8 square kilometres of seabed encompassing the HMS Terror. A similar order was made for the sea bed around the HMS Erebus in 2015.

Nobody is allowed to visit the sites without permission. Not that getting there is easy. King William Island is more than 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle in Nunavut, and boasts just one small settlement — the Inuit hamlet of Gjoa Haven — on its southeast edge.

The HMS Terror lies 24 metres beneath the surface of the water in Terror Bay. The HMS Erebus is11metres below the surface.

Inuit guardians were posted at both wreck sites throughout the ice-free season to protect them.

The sites are also monitored with help from the RCMP, Department of National Defence, Transport Canada, the Canadian Space Agency and the Canadian Coast Guard.