Researchers in Canada have been exploring the wreck of the ill-fated Franklin Expedition. The voyage departed from England in 1845 to chart the Northwest Passage.
Evidence recovered from beneath the bitter cold of Canada’s Arctic Ocean will shed new light on the final days the ill-fated expedition of the British polar explorer Sir John Franklin, who disappeared with his crew in 1845.
Parks Canada and Inuit researchers announced on Wednesday the results of a study of the HMS Terror – including “groundbreaking” new images from within the incredibly well-preserved ship – and raised the possibility that logs and maps have remained intact and legible after nearly 170 years underwater.
Over several weeks in early August, the researchers launched 3D-mapping technology to survey the wreck site off the the coast of King William Island in Nunavut.
For the first time ever, the team was also able to make seven trips inside the ship by piloting a remotely operated vehicle through the ship. Nearly 90% of the ship’s lower deck – including the areas where the crew ate and slept – were accessible to the vehicle. In total, the expedition was able to study 20 separate rooms.
“The impression we witnessed when exploring the HMS Terror is of a ship only recently deserted by its crew, seemingly forgotten by the passage of time,” said Ryan Harris, a senior archeologist for Parks Canada, in a statement.
Capt Francis Crozier and 13 other senior officers were photographed in May of 1845. The complete set of 14 portraits will be auctioned by Sotheby’s.
Two images in the set, including Capt Crozier’s, are missing from the only other original collection of these portraits known to exist.
At the request of Sir John’s wife Lady Jane Franklin at least two sets of 14 daguerreotypes, or early photographs, were taken on board HMS Erebus in the days before the ships’ departure. The portraits were made by the Beard Studio, founded by pioneering photographer Richard Beard.
One of the sets is currently held by the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) in Cambridge, but it lacks images of Capt Crozier, commander of HMS Terror, and Robert Sargent, a mate on HMS Erebus. To date, historians have only had access to copies of these two men’s daguerreotypes.
Franklin researchers had long speculated as to whether the second, complete, set of original daguerreotypes survived. The 14 portraits that have now emerged for auction were owned by Franklin’s descendants.
The sale is estimated to fetch between £150,000 and £200,000.
HMS Terror, originally a Royal Navy warship, was built in 1813. Coincidentally, the wreck of the vessel was discovered in Terror Bay in 2016. The wreck of HMS Erebus was located in 2014.
The Franklin explorers brought their daguerreotype camera with them. Mr Smith says that marine archaeologists are hopeful that images taken during the expedition could be recovered from the device, if it were ever found.
Such discoveries after nearly 80 years are amazing …
