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Erebus
Franklin expedition
schwatka
Victoria Strait Expedition
When will Franklin searchers discover that dead body on Erebus?
Showing posts with label Victoria Strait Expedition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Victoria Strait Expedition. Show all posts
Erebus
northwest passage
Parks Canada
Sir John Franklin
Terror
Victoria Strait Expedition
Searching for John Franklin: 2015 should bring major revelations . . .
Why are people highlighting the search for the Terror?
That’s what I found myself wondering. The most
exciting discoveries will almost certainly be made aboard the Erebus. Last September, with winter
coming on, time ran out before Parks Canada divers could investigate that long-lost
Franklin vessel. When they return this year, they will have time to look
around.
Will they find any readable records? Journals,
logbooks, letters? Even daguerrotypes (antique images) would be immensely
valuable. Such documents could revolutionize our understanding of what happened
to the Franklin expedition. For those interested in the history of Arctic
exploration, they constitute the Holy Grail.
Second question: Will the divers find any dead
bodies? Some Inuit claimed they boarded one of the ships and discovered the remains
of a large man. John Franklin was a large man. He commanded the expedition from
the Erebus. His remains have never
been found.
So, what does the Erebus have to tell us? For this year’s search, that should logically be top
priority. Finding the Terror has to be secondary. Inuit testimony suggests that it was crushed by ice and
then sank. Chances are that it looks less like the still-extant Erebus than like a debris field.
Why, then, focus on locating the Terror? Wait, I think I see it.
Back in 1992, the Erebus and the Terror were
designated National Historic Sites, wherever they might be located. The undeclared
hope was that, when found, the ships could be upgraded into UNESCO World
Heritage Sites. Such a designation would strengthen Canada’s hand with regard
to controlling the waters of the Northwest Passage: you can’t have oil tankers sailing
willy-nilly over a world-heritage site.
As a Canadian environmentalist (yes, we exist!), I support that position. But here is
the rub: the location of the Erebus,
off the Adelaide Peninsula, does not help matters. It is outside any potential
shipping lane. So that would be why finding the Terror remains crucial. Most informed observers think it will be found in Victoria Strait off the west coast of King William Island.
And, given the effects of climate change, that waterway does constitute a
possible shipping lane.
Where does that leave us? Both objectives are high
priority -- one to resolve a haunting mystery, the other to strengthen Canadian
control over disputed waters. Bring on the summer melt!
Canadian Geographic
Erebus
Sir John Franklin
Victoria Strait Expedition
Canadian Geographic celebrates the discovery of Franklin's Erebus
The December issue of Canadian Geographic is billed as a "special collector's edition," and rightly so. It is built around the recent discovery of Erebus, the long-lost ship of Sir John Franklin, pictured above on the right. Contributors include John Geiger, Wade Davis, Leona Aglukkaq, Fergus Fleming, Noah Richler, Russell Potter and yours truly. Put it this way: the magazine contains at least a book's worth of reading. To whet your appetite, here is how my own contribution begins . . .
By Ken McGoogan
The
discovery of one of Sir John Franklin’s lost ships reminds us that Canadian
history does not exist in a vacuum. It demonstrates that the demise of the 1845
Franklin expedition was far more complex and protracted than we knew. And it
vindicates not just the Inuit but also, and equally, the Arctic explorers who
charted our northern archipelago while searching for the Royal Navy ships. For
Canadians, most of whom live along the American border, the discovery means we
have to rewrite a foundational myth that underscores our national identity as a
northern people.
Obviously,
the story of Franklin and the search he inspired belongs to British history.
But that narrative belongs equally to Canadian history, albeit with a different
emphasis, if only because so much of it happened in what would later become Canadian
territory. Even those chapters that arose elsewhere, because they affected what
occurred here, belong to our history
The
discovery of the ship demonstrates that the so-called “standard reconstruction”
of what happened to the lost expedition has to be radically rewritten. British
historians created the original story around the “Victory Point Record,” the
only written document ever recovered from the expedition. . . . .
To read the rest, and much else besides, you will have to dash out and buy a copy. I do mean dash. These puppies will not last long.
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