There is a lot of progress being made
Posted by Sane Spirit on Thursday, September 20, 2012
Under: In the News
"Work is going well ... (but) we haven't found the ships yet," Marc-Andre Bernier said in a telephone interview after leaving the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Sir Wilfrid Laurier last week.
What they have found in a search on land are more artifacts from the ill-fated expedition. At Erebus Bay, where at least a dozen members of the Franklin crew are known to have died, more human remains have been recovered.
"They did find a human tooth, and some bone and a toothbrush," Bernier said. "These were really exciting finds."
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Sir John Franklin set out from England on May 19, 1845, on a mission to find the Northwest Passage through the Arctic. He had two Royal Navy ships - the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror - a crew of 135, and provisions for what was expected to be a three-year journey.
In August 1845, two European whaling ships had a chance meeting with the Franklin Expedition as they waited to cross Baffin Bay to Lancaster Sound. That would be their last contact with the outside world.
In 1859, a search party hired by Lady Jane Franklin found a message left in a cairn on Victory Point, King William Island. The ships had become trapped in the ice in Victoria Strait in late 1846, and remained there for a year and a half.
The message said Sir John Franklin died on June 11, 1847, and by the following spring another 24 members of the crew had perished. In April 1848 the rest of the crew left a note saying they were to set out on foot, for a destination they would never reach.
There have been many efforts to find the lost ships, to no avail.
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Whether or not the ships are found, there is a lot of progress being made in mapping the sea floor in that region - an important task of the expedition, he said.
"As we know, unfortunately, with the variability and the changing of the climate in the North, the ice coverage seems to be diminishing which means that there are more areas becoming exposed that are uncharted," Bradley said. "And with more vessels being used in the North, the requirement to map the sea floor becomes even greater.
Bones and artifacts found, but so far no ships
What they have found in a search on land are more artifacts from the ill-fated expedition. At Erebus Bay, where at least a dozen members of the Franklin crew are known to have died, more human remains have been recovered.
"They did find a human tooth, and some bone and a toothbrush," Bernier said. "These were really exciting finds."
[,,,]
Sir John Franklin set out from England on May 19, 1845, on a mission to find the Northwest Passage through the Arctic. He had two Royal Navy ships - the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror - a crew of 135, and provisions for what was expected to be a three-year journey.
In August 1845, two European whaling ships had a chance meeting with the Franklin Expedition as they waited to cross Baffin Bay to Lancaster Sound. That would be their last contact with the outside world.
In 1859, a search party hired by Lady Jane Franklin found a message left in a cairn on Victory Point, King William Island. The ships had become trapped in the ice in Victoria Strait in late 1846, and remained there for a year and a half.
The message said Sir John Franklin died on June 11, 1847, and by the following spring another 24 members of the crew had perished. In April 1848 the rest of the crew left a note saying they were to set out on foot, for a destination they would never reach.
There have been many efforts to find the lost ships, to no avail.
[,,,]
Whether or not the ships are found, there is a lot of progress being made in mapping the sea floor in that region - an important task of the expedition, he said.
"As we know, unfortunately, with the variability and the changing of the climate in the North, the ice coverage seems to be diminishing which means that there are more areas becoming exposed that are uncharted," Bradley said. "And with more vessels being used in the North, the requirement to map the sea floor becomes even greater.
Bones and artifacts found, but so far no ships
In : In the News