Posted on 08/24/2012 3:43:20 AM PDT by Loyalist
CAMBRIDGE BAY, Nunavut — The search for the remnants of an ill-fated British expedition that failed to cross the Northwest Passage — and a seminal moment in Canada’s history on Arctic sovereignty — will start anew.
In the coming weeks, a group of researchers will scour Canada’s Arctic waters to find Sir John Franklin’s two ships, Erebus and the Terror, led by a ship named for an Arctic researcher who perished in a plane crash last year.
The renewal of Parks Canada’s search for the lost Franklin vessels, anticipated last week by Postmedia News, follows three recent federal expeditions that failed to locate Erebus and Terror but ruled out huge swaths of the Arctic Ocean seabed as possible resting places for the sunken ships.
That fact alone should increase the chances of success this year, and discovering one of the wrecks would generate massive international attention because of the tragic history surrounding the Franklin saga and the enduring mystery of the ships’ whereabouts.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalpost.com ...
The Franklin Expedition remains one of exploration's greatest mysteries: just how did the best outfitted Arctic expedition of its time turn to a complete disaster, ending in possible madness and cannibalism among the last survivors?
The irony is that the expeditions sent to find survivors discovered and mapped much more of the High Arctic than Franklin's would have, had he survived.
ping
They know lead poisoning was an issue; they were optimistic that canned food, which wasn’t available before, would get them through rough spots. All it did was sicken them and prolong their agony (they were stranded for a couple of years).
I saw a special on this; it was very depressing. Inuits were the last to see them alive, and talked to one group (which had separated from a nearby group when they began eating their dead).
Canada Ping!
I wonder if history would have been altered if they named their ships "Radiance" and "Security?" Words mean something.
Definition of TERROR. 1: a state of intense fear . 2. a: one that inspires fear : scourge b: a frightening aspect c: a cause of anxiety :
Definition of EREBUS. 1: a personification of darkness in Greek mythology . 2: a place of darkness in the underworld on the way to Hades .
Dan Simmons ought to be happy.
Great book, BTW.
The documentary crew took x-rays of the exhumed corpses before thawing them out, and the medical types were quite perplexed by what they saw until they could peel away the thawed materials.
IOW, the doctor at the time, understandably, just dumped the organs back into the body, so the x-rays didn't match what was expected.
I'm pretty sure lead helped screw up Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated South Pole expedition.
The tins of fuel staged along the way were soldered with lead, and they leaked/evaporated.
Sorry - forgot to mention Stan Rogers “Northwest Passage” as the content of my link in post #8 - give it a listen...;^)
While I’m not opposed to this type of research, we should be looking forward, not back.
Money used to add to a new deep sea submersible, or a new probe to one of the planets would be a better use for this money
dogeared
dogeared
Incredible; could you imagine the stones (or desperation) of the men signing on to those missions?
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Thanks Squawk 8888. And, I'm getting a Stan Rogers flashback. |
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I sorely miss Stan Rogers.
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