Archaeologists have discovered 275 artifacts in the wreckage of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. About informs artnet news.
HMS Erebus and HMS Terror are some of the best preserved wooden shipwrecks in the world. Under the command of explorer Sir John Franklin, both ships left England in 1845 with 128 crew members to seek a passage over the North Pole connecting the Atlantic and Pacific. None of the expedition survived, and events on the ships can only be judged from the records left behind. It seems that the ships got stuck in the ice and then the crew died trying to reach the people in the ice. The wreckage of the ships of the lost Franklin expedition lies near Gyoa Haven in the Arctic.
In the 2022 season, scientists conducted 56 two-hour Erebus dives in 11 days. In the butler’s pantry, archaeologists found dishes, as well as the lieutenant’s shoulder straps and a lens from someone’s glasses. The most valuable find was, as archaeologists call it, a leather-bound volume with “beautifully embossed and fountain pen hidden inside its cover, like a diary put on a bedside table.”
Additionally, investigators entered the officers’ quarters for the first time. Second Lieutenant Henry Thomas Dundas found a green box with drawing tools in le Wescont’s cabin. All 275 artifacts are currently under review at the Parks Canada lab in Ottawa.