Parks Canada discovered Erebus last year and have dove the wreck confirming it's provenance. At that time, Terror remained lost. Now she's been found and her identity confirmed. An interesting fact, possibly, is that HMS Terror was originally a bomb ship used by the British in the War of 1812 against Fort McHenry in mid September 1814 and which inspired Francis Scott Key to pen what would become our National Anthem. She was converted for use in the Arctic and made 2 expeditions there.
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| HMS Terror on her 1st Arctic voyage
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The Canadian Government has
confirmed that it has in fact found the wreck of the HMS Terror, the
second ship of the ill-fated 1845 Franklin Expedition to find the Northwest
Passage.
Parks Canada confirmed Monday
the wreck located in Nunavut’s Terror Bay just off King William Island is that
of HMS Terror. The confirmation was made by Parks Canada’s Underwater
Archeology Team based on a side-scan sonar survey and three dives to the wreck,
which included additional surveys of the wreck using multi-beam echosounder.
Earlier this month, Britain’s
Guardian newspaper reported that a team from the Arctic Research Foundation, a
private and non-profit group participating in the hunt for the famous
shipwreck, had discovered the HMS Terror in pristine condition at the bottom of
a bay. The Canadian Government was yet to confirm the report however.
Franklin’s first ship, the HMS
Erebus, was discovered in 2014 approximately 100 km south of Terror Bay.
Sir John Franklin along with
his 128 crew aboard the HMS Terror and HMS Erebus all
died after the vessels became stuck in ice during a search for the Arctic
passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
The findings help shed light on one
Canada’s greatest mysteries.
Truly an amazing discovery!
Until next time,
Fair Winds,
Old Salt
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