Lost Franklin Ship

The search for the Northwest Passage has been a much sought-after goal of explorers for over four centuries dating back to the late sixteenth century. Most of the expeditions into the far north ended in tremendous hardship and quite often the deaths of the entire crew members of the vessels.

 

The Franklin Expedition of 1845-6 was no different than many others. The loss of Sir John Franklin's vessels Erebus and Terror, along with all 129 men, began a flurry of activity that eventually led to the successful navigation of the Passage in 1903-6 by Roald Amundsen.

The ultimate demise of the Franklin expedition is still a bit of a mystery but a big piece was just uncovered this week with the very exciting discovery of one of the two ships in Franklin Strait in Arctic Canada. See photo above from an underwater rover. It is still so new that we do not know which ship it is but that news will emerge and I will post a full account here soon...