A rare watercolour by Admiral Sir George Back shows HMS Terror anchored near a cathedral-like iceberg in the waters around Baffin Island, while a smaller boat is rowed nearby. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ho-Canadian Museum of Civilization (Gatineau, QC)
The second ship from Sir John Franklin’s doomed 19th-century search for the Northwest Passage has been located.
“I can confirm it has been found,” Aleta Brooke of the Arctic Research Foundation, one of the groups involved in the search, said Monday.
Few details were immediately available about the discovery of the remaining vessel from Franklin’s 1845 quest for the passage.
Parks Canada’s mission brief for this year’s search says a small flotilla of ships sailed for the Arctic at the end of August and were to return by mid-September. The search vessels included the Canadian Coast Guard’s icebreaker Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the Royal Canadian Navy’s HMCS Shawinigan, the Arctic Research Foundation’s Martin Bergmann and Parks Canada’s Investigator.
The wreck of Franklin’s other ship, the Erebus, was found in 2014 about 11 metres below the surface in the Queen Maud Gulf, along the central Arctic coastline.
The Erebus appeared to be well-preserved. A sonar image projected at a media conference after the discovery showed the ship five metres off the sea floor in the bow and four metres in the stern.
The ship was found off the Adelaide Peninsula on the central Arctic coastline, southwest of the community of Gjoa Haven.
The mission brief said this year’s search for the Terror was to focus on the waters of Victoria Strait — further north than the Erebus’s tomb between Victoria and King William Islands.
Franklin and his entire crew of 129 men disappeared during an 1845 quest for the passage. The mystery gave rise to many searches throughout the 19th century.
The story of Franklin has inspired generations of Canadian artists and writers: from songwriter Stan Rogers to novelist Mordecai Richler.
Beginning in 2008, Parks Canada has led numerous expeditions to find the ships.
Ownership of both the Erebus and Terror has been transferred to the Canadian government. Both resting spots are considered historic sites.