HMS EREBUS CONTROVERSY RAGES ON

14 May 2017: First off apologies for the delay in posting. We have been on the road and beyond busy. But here we are back again with a follow on to an earlier piece on the two Franklin expedition ships, HMS Terror and HMS Erebus, which you will recall were found last year in the Arctic Ocean in Canada. We mentioned that England had "grabbed" the recovered artifacts for exhibit there rather than in Canada which left the Canadians and the Native People - the Inuits - a bit bereft since the items and the wrecks were found in Canadian waters. Here now a follow on to that story.

map of wreck locations

Sir John Franklin's 1845 Arctic expedition was intended to find the last link in the Northwest Passage to the Far East, but his two ships were beset by ice, and were later abandoned and sank. Every crew member perished, and the disappearance of the expedition triggered a series of Victorian-era searches, none of which fully explained the disaster.
Traditional Inuit knowledge, generally ignored by Western searchers for more than a century, was critical in finally locating the wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror in 2014 and 2016.
HMS Erebus was found off the Adelaide Peninsula, while HMS Terror was located well to the north, in a bay off the southwest coast of King William Island.

Canada spent millions of dollars to recover artifacts from HMS Erebus, the sunken wreck from the 1845 Franklin expedition to the Arctic that was finally located in 2014 — but it still doesn't own the collection almost three years later.

And most of those objects, now restored at taxpayers' expense, are leaving Canada next month for their first public exhibition — in Britain, which remains the legal owner of the HMS Erebus treasures.

Parks Canada says yearlong negotiations with the British government have yet to produce a deal to transfer ownership rights to Canada.

Buttons recovered at HMS Erebus wreck show a crowned anchor surrounded by a rope edging, a motif that was found on Royal Navy tunic buttons after 1812. Thirty-eight objects such as this are headed to Britain next month for a major exhibition. (Parks Canada)

A sword handle recovered from the HMS Erebus wreck this summer poses 'significant conservation challenges,' Parks Canada says, because it is 'delicate and complex.' (Parks Canada)

"Discussions with the government of the United Kingdom on the transfer of the Franklin artifacts are ongoing," Parks Canada spokeswoman Meaghan Bradley said this week.

Ownership talks began in earnest in May 2016 with officials of the National 

Museum of the Royal Navy, in Portsmouth, England, based on a 1997 Canada-U.K. memorandum of understanding (MOU).

That MOU, signed before HMS Erebus was discovered and before its sunken sister ship, HMS Terror, was located in 2016, says Britain owns everything. But it also stipulates that the British government agrees to transfer ownership to Canada of all recovered objects, except those significant to the Royal Navy, as well as any gold. (No gold has yet been discovered.)

Bell from Erebus in conservation in pure fresh water

'Unique discussions'

It's unclear why the talks are taking so long. Bradley calls them "relatively unique discussions," adding that Parks Canada "hopes to have the transfer completed as soon as possible."

The delay has left Inuit groups, who also claim ownership rights, in the lurch.

"We're not really kept in the loop," said Ralph Kownak of the Inuit Heritage Trust in Iqaluit, Nunavut. "Who owns it is still a good question. That's still being discussed."

The Canadian Museum of History is spending $1.2 million to support this traveling exhibition, which won't arrive in Canada until 2018, long after Canada's 150th birthday celebrations have concluded.

Instead, the Erebus trove is going on display July 14 through to Jan. 7, 2018, at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, a venerable institution that is providing other elements that draw on its own Franklin relics. The Greenwich exhibition will be in English only.

Canadian taxpayers will cover the costs of shipping the artifacts to Britain, insuring them, and providing a team to set them up, including their hotel and travel costs.

The Canadian Museum of History, which is paying for an English-language souvenir catalogue for sale only in Britain, will itself display the exhibition next year, March 1 to Sept. 30, 2018.

English, French and Inuktitut versions of the catalogue will be available for the Canadian leg. Afterward, the exhibition moves to two other yet-undisclosed venues in Canada, in late 2018 and most of 2019. Parks Canada says some of the components may be shown in Nunavut.

Dives planned

Parks Canada archeologists are currently at the site of HMS Terror, which sits on the seabed underneath about two metres of sea ice. Marine archeologists are using two remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) to photograph and video the exterior.

No diving is planned this spring, but divers are scheduled to visit HMS Erebus and HMS Terror in late summer to recover further artifacts from both ships.

The agency says it has hired local workers from nearby Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, to help with the logistics, specifically creating the ice hole through which the ROVs will operate.

You know this story is far from over and Maritime Maunder will keep you updated as new facts are released. 

That'll do it for now; until next time, 

                                   

                                              Fair winds,

                                                        Old Salt