Arctic shipwreck indentified by Canada as HMS Erebus

Eilís Quinn, Eye on the Arctic @arctic_eq
Posted: Thursday, October 2, 2014 at 20:21 — Last Updated: Monday, October 6, 2014 at 18:56
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A sea-floor scan shows one of the two long-missing Franklin ships. The masts have been sheared off by ice over the many decades, but the vessel appears otherwise to be in relatively good condition. (Parks Canada /The Canadian Press)

The long-lost shipwreck discovered last month in the Canadian Arctic has been identified as the HMS Erebus, the very ship captained by explorer Sir John Franklin.

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the announcement on Wednesday.

“I am pleased to announce today that the Franklin Expedition ship located by the Victoria Strait Expedition in September has been identified as HMS Erebus,” Harper said in a news release. “The locating and identifying of this ship goes a long way to solving one of Canada’s greatest historical mysteries.”

The HMS Erebus, along with HMS Terror, set sail from Great Britain in order to find the Northwest Passage in 1845. But after years without communication, search parties were dispatched but were unable to locate the ships.

Subsequent searches over the following decades turned up clues but the ships were never found.

Since 2008, Parks Canada has led six searches for the lost vessels. The most recent one resulted in locating the HMS Erebus.

The site of the HMS Terror is still unknown.

Eilís Quinn, Eye on the Arctic

Eilís Quinn is an award-winning journalist and manages Radio Canada International’s Eye on the Arctic news cooperation project. Eilís has reported from the Arctic regions of all eight circumpolar countries and has produced numerous documentary and multimedia series about climate change and the issues facing Indigenous peoples in the North.

Her investigative report "Death in the Arctic: A community grieves, a father fights for change," about the murder of Robert Adams, a 19-year-old Inuk man from Arctic Quebec, received the silver medal for “Best Investigative Article or Series” at the 2019 Canadian Online Publishing Awards. The project also received an honourable mention for excellence in reporting on trauma at the 2019 Dart Awards in New York City.

Her report “The Arctic Railway: Building a future or destroying a culture?” on the impact a multi-billion euro infrastructure project would have on Indigenous communities in Arctic Europe was a finalist at the 2019 Canadian Association of Journalists award in the online investigative category.

Her multimedia project on the health challenges in the Canadian Arctic, "Bridging the Divide," was a finalist at the 2012 Webby Awards.

Her work on climate change in the Arctic has also been featured on the TV science program Découverte, as well as Le Téléjournal, the French-Language CBC’s flagship news cast.

Eilís has worked for media organizations in Canada and the United States and as a TV host for the Discovery/BBC Worldwide series "Best in China."

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Arctic shipwreck indentified by Canada as HMS Erebus

The long-lost shipwreck discovered last month in the Canadian Arctic has been identified as the HMS Erebus, the very ship captained by explorer Sir John Franklin.

Related stories from around the North:

Eilís Quinn, Eye on the Arctic

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The long-lost shipwreck discovered last month in the Canadian Arctic has been identified as the HMS Erebus, the very ship captained by explorer Sir John Franklin.

Related stories from around the North:

Eilís Quinn, Eye on the Arctic

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