In 1845, Captain Sir John Franklin led a British voyage consisting of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror to traverse the unnavigated section of the Northwest Passage. After not returning for three years, it was determined the entire expedition had perished. However, a letter discovered after a decade soon became “the most important object” in the hunt for the lost vessel.
Found in a cave near Beechy Island, the incredible discovery was revealed during Channel 4’s new documentary “Hunt for the Arctic Ghost Ship”.
The narrator detailed earlier this month: “More than a decade after the expedition disappeared, a second vital clue was found left by Franklin’s men in an icy cave.
“This precious piece of the Franklin puzzle is now held at the National Maritime Museum in London.”
Claire Warrior, who works at the museum, explained: “It was standard naval practice to issue this kind of note with a standard blank form that would be filled in when necessary.
“The notes were then placed in tubes like these so they could be just left for people to find information about the expedition.”
Dr Huw Lewis-Jones detailed how the discovery was vital to understanding more about what went wrong for Sir John.
He added: “The note’s an incredible document, the only written record of the fate of the Franklin crews.
“How can a piece of paper hold such fortune in its hand?
“This is the most important object that has been recovered.”
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“Nine other officers and 15 men had also passed away, something had gone seriously wrong.”
Several pieces of evidence over the 174 years since the expedition was lost inspired the Parks Canadian search team to use sonar scanning technology on the area the ships were last believed to have been.
The series went on the explain how the team made a breakthrough on September 9, 2014.
The narrator added: “But without the ships themselves, this remains one of the world’s most enduring maritime mysteries.
“In 2014, archaeologists mounted the biggest modern search for the wrecks, combining 21st-century technology and previously dismissed eyewitness accounts, they made an astonishing discovery.
“After more than a century of searching, one of Franklin’s lost ships is coming back from the dead.”
Ryan Harris, the lead archaeologist on the project was stunned by the find.
He said during the series: “My colleague and I were manning the sonar station.
“We were both looking at the sonar monitor and there it comes.
“It was the unmistakable outline of a shipwreck, there was no doubt over what it was.
“It wasn’t even halfway onto the screen before you [we] knew what you [we] were looking at.
“I jabbed my finger at the screen and lunged forward and said: ‘That’s it.’”
When the divers headed down, they found the ship preserved an in good condition.