Universal History Archive/Getty Images
In a few weeks, Marc-André Bernier and six other Parks Canada underwater archaeologists will ply the ice-choked Victoria Strait in Canada’s High Arctic in search of what may be the North’s most infamous—and, if Ottawa has its way, significant—maritime disaster: the lost Franklin Expedition.The annual hunt, the fifth since 2008, will be the biggest and most high-profile ever, consisting of nearly a dozen government departments and private sponsors. If they get lucky, Bernier and his team could shed new light on a 170-year-old mystery that’s long captivated the public imagination. The abridged version: Sir John Franklin, an accomplished naval officer and Arctic explorer, set sail from England in 1845 in the hope of charting a route through the Northwest Passage, but neither he nor his 128 men returned. Subsequent expeditions to find Franklin’s two iron-clad war ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, turned up bits and pieces of a horrific tale. Both ships became trapped in ice and, despite three years’ worth of provisions, crew members may have ultimately resorted to eating their dead comrades. “This would be a really interesting find,” Bernier says. “It’s pivotal in the European exploration of the Arctic. The loss of that expedition triggered many other expeditions, resulting in a lot of other finds.”...Continue reading...
Related: Harper joins search for lost ships of Franklin expedition
No comments:
Post a Comment