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Fresh images of HMS Terror shipwreck could clear up lingering mysteries
Parks Canada has released new images from the first underwater exploration of the shipwreck of the HMS Terror. The ongoing study of the shipwreck and its artifacts should shed more light on Captain Sir John S. Franklin's doomed Arctic expedition to cross the Northwest Passage in 1846. Franklin's two ships, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror, became icebound in the Victoria Strait, and all 129 crew members ultimately died. It's been an enduring mystery that has captured imaginations ever since. Novelist Dan Simmons immortalized the expedition in his 2007 horror novel, The Terror, which was later adapted into an anthology TV series for AMC in 2018. (Season 2 of the TV show, set in the Japanese internment camps of World War II, is currently airing.)
The Terror was actually a repurposed warship, having survived the War of 1812 among other skirmishes. The expedition set sail on May 19, 1845 and was last seen in July 1845 in Baffin Bay by the captains of two whaling ships. Historians have managed to piece together a reasonably credible rough account of what happened. The crew spent the winter of 1845-1846 on Beechey Island, where the graves of three crew members were found. When the weather cleared, the expedition sailed into the Victoria Strait before getting trapped in the ice off King William Island in September 1846. Franklin himself died on June 11, 1847, per a surviving note dated the following April. It's believed that everyone else died while encamped for the winter, or while attempting to walk back to civilization.
[...] The remains of the HMS Erebus were discovered by Parks Canada in September 2014, just west of O'Reilly Island, with the help of a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). Almost exactly two years later, an Arctic Research Foundation team found the wreck of the Terror, in Terror Bay, off the southern coast of King William Island, some 62 miles (100 km) from where historians had expected it to be. There had been rumors of sightings in the area, particularly from Inuit hunters, and one reported that he'd seen a mast jutting from the ice in that area a few years earlier. That proved to be the tip the foundation's team needed; it took them just 2.5 hours to locate the Terror.
[...] They captured footage not just of the exterior but also of the interior crew's cabins and captain's quarters. The team is especially excited about the latter location, since they expect to find preserved written documents, hopefully gleaning valuable information about the fate of the ship and her crew, along with details about their lives abroad the ship. They've already identified intact map cabinets, a tripod, and two thermometers. The only area they weren't able to explore were the captain's sleeping quarters.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Sunday September 01 2019, @10:26AM (2 children)
There have been many theories about what happened to the men from Franklin's expedition. Lead poisoning has been a favourite as people got a phobia about lead in the 1980's and wanted as much "evidence" as possible about how bad it was, and the Franklin expedition was grist to their mill. In fact millions of people were drinking water from lead pipes in cities at this time and did not lose their minds, and examination of such bodies as have been found has not shown lead poisoning.
I think that anyone on a ship stuck in ice thousands of miles from civilisation, for years, eating bully beef and going hungry when it ran out, is likely to do things that might seem irrational to us, like eating each other. Certainly they had been eating an unhealthy diet even though it was the best that science could come up with at the time. I think I would have gone with the party walking south in the end.
Whatever the food or psychological angles, ultimately they were stuck in the ice with no prospect of rescue. It was not going to end well. Ironically there were Inuit around who were managing to live their lives, but there seems to have been little contact with them. The ships carried silver and stuff for doing deals with natives, perhaps to buy food or get guidance, but we do not know if this was done. If ship's logs are found it might throw light on this.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday September 01 2019, @12:45PM
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday September 02 2019, @01:11AM
Yes, agreed, but with this modification: many people have lead pipes, or copper pipes joined with lead-based solder, and have very little lead in their drinking water. But that's because the lead develops a protective coating.
However, for example in Flint, Michigan, the water authority changed the source, and the new different chemistry, including different pH, (alkaline vs. acid) eroded that protective coating and leached lead into the drinking water.
It is thought that the chemistry of the canned food dissolved some of the lead, which would then of course be in the food. IIRC, scientists did lead testing on bone and hair samples from Franklin's men.
Yes, I've always been curious about the Inuit, why Franklin and company didn't get their help. I believe Inuit eat raw seal, and Franklin's men might not have done well on that diet.
Regardless, it must have been hell.