Discovery of HMS Erebus diary may reveal fate of doomed crew

A JOURNAL salvaged from the wreck of HMS Erebus could lead to a wealth of revelations about the fate of its doomed crew, historians hope.

HMS Erebus and its sister ship, the Terror, were trapped in Arctic sea ice in the far north of Canada while searching for the elusive Northwest Passage in the mid-1840s.

After being stuck for more than a year, the crews abandoned their ships and tried to reach safety overland. They did not succeed and are believed to have resorted to cannibalism to survive.

The disappearance of the ships gripped Victorian society, with Charles Dickens and the widow of Sir John Franklin, the wife of the expedition leader, leading a campaign for action.

Multiple expeditions were dispatched, but it was not until 2014 that the wreck of the Erebus was found. The Terror was discovered two years later.

The pandemic delayed efforts to salvage items from the wrecks, but divers were finally able to reach the Erebus last September. The ship is considered more vulnerable than the Terror, which sits in much deeper water.

Archaeologists working for Parks Canada recovered 275 artefacts, including the journal, a lieutenant’s epaulettes still in their case, and a lens from a pair of eyeglasses.

Ken Mcgoogan, a historian on the expedition, told CBC News, a Canadian broadcaster, that the journal would prove a key test of whether other documents in the ship might be readable, such as a logbook or other records that could fill in some of the mysteries surrounding the expedition.

Ryan Harris, a diver with Parks Canada, said that the leather-bound journal was “one of the most remarkable finds of the summer”.

“We came across a folio – a leather book cover, beautifully embossed – with pages inside. It actually has the feather quill pen still tucked inside the cover like a journal that you might write in and put on your bedside table before turning in,” he said.

“We’re quite excited at the tantalising possibility that this artefact might have written materials inside.”

News that the crew had resorted to cannibalism, gleaned from local Inuits, scandalised Victorian society. It preferred to believe the surviving crew had been murdered by the tribesmen.

‘We’re excited at the tantalising possibility that this artefact might have written materials inside’