Posted on 11/10/2014 3:27:42 PM PST by robowombat
Bronze Bell from Long-Lost Arctic Shipwreck Revealed by Megan Gannon, News Editor | November 10, 2014 03:13pm ET
Divers recovered a bronze bell from the wreck of the HMS Erebus, a British ship that was missing for nearly 170 years after an ill-fated expedition to the Canadian Arctic.
In 1845, British Royal Navy officer and explorer John Franklin led more than 100 men on a quest to find a Northwest Passage connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. But they never completed their mission; in 1846, their ships — the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror — became trapped in ice near King William Island in northern Canada.
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Since 2008, Parks Canada led six searches for the sunken vessels. The agency finally succeeded this year, after capturing sonar images of a wreck in the eastern part of the Queen Maud Gulf.
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"The locating and identifying of this ship goes a long way [toward] solving one of Canada's greatest historical mysteries," Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement at the time.
The bell is clearly marked with the Royal Navy's broad arrow symbol, and the date 1845 is also embossed on its surface.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Pingaling
Should be fun to see when its restored. It doesn’t look bad now - not much happened in that cold water.
Today is the anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
“Today is the anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
That’s interesting. Of course this story brought that to mind.
Sad ending for the ship’s crew and Captain.
But just think of all that has happened in the world since these brave men in their wooden ships were lost in the Arctic. Amazing world. Amazing time capsule.
The gales of November came early.
Marooned in frozen hell with no way home and a stash of canned goods that’s going to make you psychotic from lead poisoning except you don’t know it... Terror and Erberus indeed, their ships were poetically named.
Just about 15 years later men started sailing in metal hull ships and would begin to use steam power.
I watched a documentary on this years ago; depressing as Hell. If there had been a small number of men they would have survived (natives could have taken them in). The natives that found them moved on because they had to hunt for their own families and had no way to feed so many men.
One of the natives described how the men had split into two camps, with one resorting to cannibalism; the other warned the natives to avoid them. It took those men a long time to die (because of their provisions).
Who was Edmund Fitzgerald? Anyone know? (I read who he was.)
Some bigwig at the firm that owned the ship, correct? Wasn't it an insurance company that owned her?
This discovery is notable to those in the railroad history community because one of these 2 ships was, in fact, steam powered by a boiler that had a previous life as one of the very first steam locomotives ever built.
Note: this topic is from 11/10/2014. Thanks Hegemony Cricket.
CANADIAN PRESS file photo
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29457728
http://www.leaderpost.com/technology/Archeologist+describes+haunting+dive+Erebus/10258366/story.html
Parks Canada underwater archaeologist Filippo Ronca measures the muzzle bore diameter of one of two cannons found at the site of HMS Erebus, identifying it as a brass six-pounder. [Ottawa Citizen]
Dives are expected to reveal whether the wreck is that of HMS Terror or HMS Erebus
Canada Ping!
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![Parks Canada underwater archaeologist Filippo Ronca measures the muzzle bore diameter of one of two cannons found at the site of HMS Erebus, identifying it as a brass six-pounder. [Ottawa Citizen]<](http://postmediaottawacitizen2.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/cannons-and-loose-timbers-on-the-starboard-stern-diver-fili.jpg)
