The last of the two ships from the ill-fated Sir John Franklin expedition has been found. From the Toronto Star:
HMS Terror, second ship from doomed Franklin Expedition, found in Terror Bay
Thanks to an Inuk Ranger’s sharp memory and a little luck, researchers are a major step closer to knowing the fates of two ships that vanished nearly 170 years ago in Canada’s wide and savage Arctic.
The second of the two Franklin Expedition shipwrecks was found earlier this month, Arctic Research Foundation expedition lead Adrian Schimnowski confirmed Monday.
“We found (HMS) Terror,” Schimnowski told the Star via via satellite phone from Gjoa Haven, Nunavut.
“We found Terror in Terror Bay.”
HMS Terror was one of two Royal Navy ships that set out in 1845 on the ill-fated quest led by Sir John Franklin to find the Northwest Passage to Asia. The ships became trapped in thick Arctic ice and all 129 crew members died. The other ship — HMS Erebus — was located in September 2014 in the Queen Maud Gulf, along the central Arctic coastline.
Readers will know that I have always been fascinated by the extreme places of this planet of ours - the polar regions, the ocean, the mountains. This discovery brings closure to one of the epic stories of polar exploration.
The great Stan Rogers wrote this song - even today it gives me chills:
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