Canadian Team Begins Biggest Search Ever For HMS Erebus, Terror, Lost In 1847 In Arctic

[hatrack]

The Canadian government is set to embark on the biggest search ever for the fabled British shipwrecks Erebus and Terror, which were lost in the Canadian Arctic in the 1840s during the ill-fated Franklin Expedition and are today ranked among the world's greatest undiscovered prizes of marine archeology.

Canwest News Service has learned that a Parks Canada-led search is scheduled to begin this month in waters off King William Island, where the two ships under the command of legendary Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin became locked in heavy ice that eventually doomed the entire crew of more than 120 men. The disappearance of Franklin and his men caused a sensation around the world at the time, and rescue ships were dispatched from Britain throughout the 1840s and 1850s.

EDIT

Earlier this year, a Montreal writer set to publish a book on Inuit oral chronicles from the era of Arctic exploration revealed to Canwest News that she had uncovered fresh clues about the possible resting place of the Franklin ships. Dorothy Eber said stories she gathered placed one of the ships close to the Royal Geographical Society Islands, a significant distance west of favoured search targets closer to King William, O'Reilly and Kirkwall islands.

A 1997 expedition, which included Grenier and B.C. Franklin enthusiast David Woodman, turned up several copper sheets on a small island off the Adelaide Peninsula. The copper sheets appeared to be ship cladding, and tests conducted in recent years - combined with research into Inuit oral history - point to a strong possibility that the metal came from one of Franklin's lost ships.

EDIT

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=1bdaedfc-d974-4cfb-85a9-4f0aa29f08c1

[depakid]

1. They've already found some remains:

Scurvy and lead poisoning from tinned meat. Not a pleasant way to go...

[demosincebirth]

2. Read the book and it was.quite interesting