Ship found in Arctic 168 years after doomed Northwest Passage attempt

[malaise]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/12/hms-terror-wreck-found-arctic-nearly-170-years-northwest-passage-attempt
<snip>
The long-lost ship of British polar explorer Sir John Franklin, HMS Terror, has been found in pristine condition at the bottom of an Arctic bay, researchers have said, in a discovery that challenges the accepted history behind one of polar exploration’s deepest mysteries.

HMS Terror and Franklin’s flagship, HMS Erebus, were abandoned in heavy sea ice far to the north of the eventual wreck site in 1848, during the Royal Navy explorer’s doomed attempt to complete the Northwest Passage.

All 129 men on the Franklin expedition died, in the worst disaster to hit Britain’s Royal Navy in its long history of polar exploration. Search parties continued to look for the ships for 11 years after they disappeared, but found no trace, and the fate of the missing men remained an enigma that tantalised generations of historians, archaeologists and adventurers.

Now that mystery seems to have been solved by a combination of intrepid exploration – and an improbable tip from an Inuk crew member.

[ProfessorPlum]

1. Cool - I recently read Dan Simmons "The Terror"

which was about this expedition. It's great that they found it.

[linuxman]

2. SAME!

Love that book. Fell in love with the history and the story. SOOOO cool that they found it!

[malaise]

3. It's fascinating

Guess they chose today's anniversary date for these amazing details complete with photos.

[Brother Buzz]

4. The fabled Northwest Passage...again

Can a geographer explain how they knew there was a passage? Heck, even Drake damn near busted up his ship looking for it from the west in 1579. They had to know it existed. Was it mentioned in ancient secret writings, or something?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. They did not know it. It's called EXPLORATION. They hoped there was one.

"Basic research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing." Werner von Braun, 1957.

[Xithras]

10. Bering

Vitus Bering confirmed that Asia and North America were separate landmasses in the early 1700's. By the mid-1700's the Russians had mapped the entire northern coast of Eurasia and their maps strongly suggested that the Arctic Sea completely separated North America and Eurasia across the pole.

From there it was a matter of hope. Bering's expeditions confirmed that the northern coast of Eurasia was navigable, at least briefly, during the summer. Because the northern coast of North America appeared to be at a lower latitude than the north coast of Eurasia, this widely raised hopes that the northern coast would have an ice free seaway. They knew where the Bering Strait was, they knew where Baffin Bay was, and it seemed likely that there was water connecting the two.

So, a bit of deduction and a whole lot of hope.

[Brother Buzz]

13. So who put the buzz in Drake's ear a hundred years before Bering?

I'm convinced they knew it was there, but how?

[muriel_volestrangler]

30. Perhaps you should unconvince yourself that they *knew*

They hoped it was there, and hoped that could give them a trading route to China and the East Indies. They may have expected it was there, because they didn't expect America to be as big as it is (you'd think a big continent would be better known by those outside it, but close - I'm a little surprised the Chinese or Japanese hadn't explored more of the coast near the Bering Straits).

They also got exploration wrong - Frobisher thought he had discovered a strait, but all he found was the bay in Baffin Island that now has his name. And many claimed there was ice-free sea at the North Pole, right up to the nineteenth century. Some guesses turned out right, others didn't.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

22. Louis and Clark were searching for it through the middle of the continent too.

[Brother Buzz]

27. They weren't looking for a sea passage, silly

Just two rivers with a minimal portage between them. They almost found one too, but they were 10,000 years to late.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

28. They had a boat fetish back then.

[Retrograde]

29. Wishful thinking played a big role

if there were a navigable route between Northern Europe and Asia it would be good for trade with Asia. Back then, getting from, say, Britain to China or India involved going around the tip of Africa, or for the more foolhardy, across the Atlantic, than around the tip of South America, then across the Pacific. If they could cut even a month off a six month or more one-way trip it would make trading trips more profitable. There were a lot of uncharted inlets along the Greenland and Canadian coasts, and if they could just find the right one...

There actually is a sea passage along the northern Canadian coast, but until recent decades it was iced over most of the year.

[Mike__M]

6. This follows the story of Franklin's other ship from two years ago

The Inuit Were Right: Shipwreck Find Confirms 168-Year-Old Oral History

The discovery of a ship that had been missing since 1846 has at least partially solved one of Canada's favorite mysteries; what's more, its location confirms the veracity of Inuit accounts that never squared with the accepted version of what happened.

The Inuit testimony was discounted by many, and for decades—now generations—the final fate of the Franklin wrecks was unknown, or at least unverified.

Now, one of the ships has been discovered, in shallow waters in an area called Utjulik, just as the Inuit oral accounts had maintained.

"For us Inuit it means that oral history is very strong in knowledge, not only for searching for Franklin's ships but also for environment and other issues," Louie Kamookak, an Inuit historian, told CBC News.

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/09/10/inuit-were-right-shipwreck-find-confirms-168-year-old-oral-history-156837

and also

PMO downplayed rich Inuit link to discovered Franklin ship

The Franklin expedition ship found by researchers on the Arctic seabed has a detailed and colourful history within Inuit oral tradition, yet the Inuit garnered only one 17-word sentence among the press releases and backgrounders released by the Prime Minister’s Office at the time after Tuesday’s announced discovery.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the discovery of the submerged shipwreck Tuesday. The hunt for the Franklin ships, which were last seen by European eyes in 1845, has been a priority for the Harper government. Parks Canada led six searches for the ships since 2008.

Yet, the general public wouldn’t know about the key role Inuit oral history played in the selection of the search area by reading the information posted on the PMO’s website. There, the role of the Inuit in the Franklin saga is mentioned only in passing.

Oh, well. When their cities are underwater maybe they'll try harder to pay attention.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Stephen Harper was an arrogant c(C)onservative who hated the guts of First Nations people. . . nt

[malaise]

9. One more racist scumbag

Good riddance to him

[malaise]

8. Very good point

There is very little respect for indigenous peoples on this planet

[KittyWampus]

11. WOW! That is absolutely amazing and I am excited to read more about it.

[FailureToCommunicate]

12. One of the best,and haunting,songs...

https://g.co/kgs/

[malaise]

14. That's the first time I ever heard that

Thank you - haunting indeed

[FailureToCommunicate]

16. "Trad" song, but the Bothy Band did it, and SO many others, justice.

[malaise]

18. You know there are a lot of songs about tragedies

at sea

[OnlinePoker]

15. This past week Northabout came through the same area

They encountered almost no ice in the southern part of the Passage and have now passed into Baffin Bay on their way home. They will have fully circumnavigated the Arctic in one summer when they get back to Bristol.

http://polarocean.co.uk/

[malaise]

19. That's good and bad

Bad because the ice is melting

[Bucky]

17. I'm sure it's Obama's fault

I'm just waiting for Sean Hannity to tell me how.

[TheOther95Percent]

20. I hadn't heard this song in years, but this thread made me YouTube it. Enjoy.

Chorus:

Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea;
Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savage
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea.

Westward from the Davis Strait 'tis there 'twas said to lie
The sea route to the Orient for which so many died;
Seeking gold and glory, leaving weathered, broken bones
And a long-forgotten lonely cairn of stones.

(chorus)

Three centuries thereafter, I take passage overland
In the footsteps of brave Kelso, where his "sea of flowers" began
Watching cities rise before me, then behind me sink again
This tardiest explorer, driving hard across the plain.

(chorus)

And through the night, behind the wheel, the mileage clicking west
I think upon Mackenzie, David Thompson and the rest
Who cracked the mountain ramparts and did show a path for me
To race the roaring Fraser to the sea.

(chorus)

How then am I so different from the first men through this way?
Like them, I left a settled life, I threw it all away.
To seek a Northwest Passage at the call of many men
To find there but the road back home again.

[malaise]

21. New to me as well

Thanks

[FailureToCommunicate]

23. Stan Rogers was a terrific singer/songwriter I got to hear many times...

Alas, he died tragically back in 1983 aboard a plane that caught fire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Rogers

[malaise]

24. He was so young

Wow - fix your typo 1983.
Sang songs for his people

[FailureToCommunicate]

25. fixed

[malaise]

26. :-)