HMS Investigator, abandoned in the Arctic 155 years ago during a search for Sir John Franklin's expedition, has been found.
Parks Canada archeologists looking for the ship found it 15 minutes after they started a sonar scan of Bank's Island's Mercy Bay in the Northwest Territories, said Marc-Andre Bernier, chief of Parks Canada's underwater archeology service.
"When the team arrived [on July 22], the whole bay was covered in ice," Bernier said. "On July 25, the team had an opening in the ice.... It happened to be where the ship had been abandoned."
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Amazing Discoveries
The wreck of HMS Investigator lies on the bottom of Mercy Bay. The recently discovered ship was abandoned in the Arctic 155 years ago.
Parks Canada
AP
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They started a sonar scan of the area identified by British navy accounts as the spot where the ship had been left. They used a torpedo-shaped scanner, towed behind a Zodiac inflatable boat, which sends out sound waves and produces an image of the floor of the bay.
"After 15 minutes, they basically had an image of the wreck," Bernier said.
"It's in good condition," he said. "Very good condition, actually - surprising condition."
The ship is upright in about 11 metres of water, its bottom buried in sediment if it's still there, and the upper deck under about eight metres of water.
While the masts are gone and the bulwarks - the sides of the ship that extend above the deck - are mostly gone, likely damaged by ice, there is potential to find smaller artifacts, Bernier said.
"This is very cold water. That helps preservation as well," he said.
The archeology crew has no plans to raise the ship. They will do a thorough sonar scan of the area, then send a Remotely Operated Vehicle, similar to the ROVs used to take pictures of the BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, to take pictures.
"The work really starts now for the archeologists," Bernier said.
The Investigator, captained by Robert McClure, was sent in 1850 to search for Franklin's crew and their two ships, the Erebus and Terror.
The Investigator became trapped in ice at Mercy Bay for more than two years. Crew members eventually abandoned ship and were rescued by a Royal Navy sledge team.
In the end, McClure and the Investigator succeeded where Franklin failed - they are credited with finding the Northwest Passage.
"This is the ship that confirmed and nailed the existence of that passage," Bernier said.
Before leaving the ship, the crew buried much of their cargo on Banks Island. The location of their cache was known and is also being investigated by the archeologists, who have also found the gravesites of three crewmembers who died of scurvy in April 1853.
Franklin's party disappeared while searching for the Northwest Passage in 1848, following their captain's death partway through the expedition. Their ships haven't been found, despite numerous searches. Parks Canada is planning another search for the Erebus and Terror in August.
This Google Map illustrates where HMS Investigator was found this week. It also shows where Parks Canada has been searching for HMS Erebus and HMS Terror.
