The Wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror

The Wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror are from Sir John Franklin’s 1845 expedition in search of a Northwest Passage. The disappearance of these ships became one of history’s greatest mysteries, capturing the attention of Canadians and people worldwide for over a century and a half. Between 1848 and 1880, a succession of expeditions pursued traces of the ships and 129 men. No survivors from either ship were ever found, but the search did result in the mapping of large tracts of what is now the Canadian Arctic. Inuit knowledge provided essential clues about the fate of the Franklin Expedition and helped search teams locate the wrecks in 2014 and 2016. These important archaeological sites shed new light on the tragic events of the Franklin Expedition as well as on this era of exploration in general.

HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, under the command of Sir John Franklin, left Great Britain in May 1845 on a much heralded search for a Northwest Passage. By this time, Europeans had charted large sections of the Arctic Archipelago and the northern coast of North America, and expectations were high for the success of Franklin’s expedition. The two former bomb vessels were retrofitted for Arctic travel, outfitted with up-to-date technology and equipped for a three-year voyage. On the west coast of Greenland, Erebus and Terror took on supplies, and crew members sent what would be their final letters home. In August 1845, Franklin’s ships had a chance meeting with two whaling vessels in Baffin Bay. For the 129 members of Erebus and Terror, this was their last meeting with Europeans. These men and officers would last be seen alive by Inuit, with whom they had occasional encounters.

When the ships with their officers and crews failed to return, an extensive search was launched. Eventually Inuit accounts led searchers to King William Island. In 1859, Lt. William Hobson of the steam yacht Fox, which had been chartered by the determined Lady Jane Franklin, found a sombre message left in a cairn. The message revealed that the ships had become stuck in the ice in late 1846 and remained so for a year and a half, and that Franklin and several crew members had perished. The survivors were deserting the ships and making for Back’s Great Fish River, far to the southeast. The crewmen were never heard from again. Further searches found skeletons, graves, and relics. Interest in the fate of the ships continued throughout the 19th and into the 21st centuries.

In 2014, during the sixth year of Parks Canada’s renewed search effort for the missing ships, search teams found the wreck of HMS Erebus. Its location in the Queen Maud Gulf, off the west coast of the Adelaide Peninsula, confirmed Inuit traditional stories and archaeological evidence about the fate of Franklin’s men. Two years later, the wreck of HMS Terror was located further north also as a result of local Inuit knowledge. Both wrecks are intact and, with their historical shipboard articles, they provide interesting new information on the events of the expedition.

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