Franklin Expedition search called off
Jack Linthicum
Pics of the artifacts discovered 9 years ago at the citation.
Franklin Expedition search called off
Last Updated: Friday, July 10, 2009 | 11:09 AM CT
CBC News
Artifacts discovered nine years ago of the ill-fated Franklin
Expedition.Artifacts discovered nine years ago of the ill-fated
Franklin Expedition. (CBC)
A government-sponsored search for Sir John Franklin's missing ships in
the High Arctic has been scrubbed this summer, but private
entrepreneurs hope to score an archeological coup by conducting their
own search in late August.
Ottawa announced last August it was mounting an effort to find
Franklin's two ships, the Erebus and Terror, which went missing more
than 160 years ago.
Some graves of the crew members have been discovered over the years
and relics have been uncovered.
But the search for the missing ships has become a potential prize —
made even bigger when then Federal Environment Minister John Baird
announced Ottawa was backing a search and that experts would be
relying on Inuit knowledge to aid the search.
On Thursday, Parks Canada's senior marine archeologist, Ryan Harris,
confirmed the official search for the Franklin ships has been called
off for this summer.
Harris said Parks Canada had asked the navy for ship time but there
won't be a Canadian Forces ship in the vicinity and the search team
was unable to get time aboard one of the Canadian Coast Guard's
icebreakers.
"Unfortunately this particular season, Coast Guard had other
scientific programs that they had to prioritize. But we intend to
continue with the survey next year. The Coast Guard remains a very
important partner for us in this three-year project."
Gjoa Haven historian Louis Kamookak, who is part of Parks Canada's
Franklin team, says it was a three-year project and is disappointed
that it is on hold this year.
"Briefly I talked with the guy from Parks [Canada] and what I'm
hearing is that this summer the icebreaker has some other
commitments."
Nine years ago, Kamookak approached the crew of the the RCMP ship St.
Roch II. He invited the skipper, RCMP Sgt. Ken Burton, to see some
remains from the Franklin Expedition on the shores of one of the Todd
Islands.
Locating ships would be big news
Unlike other remains found over the years, the Todd Islands graves
were located quite far south from where Franklin's two ships were
believed to have been stuck in the ice.
Other sites showed signs of cannibalism, and that the 128 members of
Franklin's crew died of disease and lead poisoning soon after they
abandoned their ships.
The Inuit say they have known about this site since the 19th century,
but Kamookak thinks others could well find Franklin's ships first.
For example, Rob Rondeau, a marine archeologist with Alberta-based
ProCom Diving Services, has teamed up with a British archeologist to
conduct their own search for Erebus and Terror in late August.
"We're quite confident based on the research that we've done that we
have a pretty good idea of where the remains of the two ships are,"
said Rondeau. "We'll actually be using some state-of-the-art sonar
equipment."
Rondeau said Britain remains fascinated with the Franklin story and
locating the ships would be big news in the United Kingdom and in
Nunavut.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2009/07/09/north-franklin.html
Beausaber
wrote:
> Pics of the artifacts discovered 9 years ago at the citation.
>
I wonder how much scientifically useful information would xome to
light if the ships were found. After all, we're only talking about a
century and a half ago, not millenia. After all, the causes of the
Franklin disaster are pretty well known. Sounds like a great photo op
and an eight day wonder for the press, rather like Ballard's location
of the Titanic (BTW, when did people stop using "the" in ships name
son this side of the Atlantic?) - but at least in his caseit was a
chance to develop and prove technology such as deep water ROV's.
Richard Casady
<jackli...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>Other sites showed signs of cannibalism, and that the 128 members of
>Franklin's crew died of disease and lead poisoning soon after they
>abandoned their ships.
Lead poisoning? That would be the solder in the recently invented
tinned steel food can? Read something about that happening in the
Antarctic as well.
Casady
Jack Linthicum
wrote:
Parks Canada offered role in search for Franklin ships
Last Updated: Monday, July 13, 2009 | 6:17 PM CT
The search for Sir John Franklin's long-lost ships in the Northwest
Passage could become a partnership between the Canadian government and
an Alberta-based firm, if federal officials agree to come aboard.
A government-sponsored search for the Erebus and Terror, which
disappeared in the High Arctic more than 160 years ago, was cancelled
this summer because underwater archeologists with Parks Canada were
unable to secure the services of a coast guard icebreaker.
Rob Rondeau, a marine archeologist with ProCom Diving Services, told
CBC News he contacted Parks Canada officials on Monday morning to
invite them to join his own search for the Erebus and Terror, slated
to begin in late August.
Rondeau said he is awaiting an answer from the federal agency.
"Since learning that they're not going to be able to go on their
expedition … I'm now looking at the possibility of trying to include
somebody from Parks Canada in our survey," he said.
Rondeau is working with a British archeologist on his search for the
ships, and will send remotely operated and autonomous underwater
vehicles to search in the Northwest Passage.
He said the British remain fascinated with Franklin's disappearance
and locating the ships would be big news in both England and in
Nunavut, where the remains are believed to be located.
Only traces found to date
In 1845, Franklin had set out from England aboard the vessels, hoping
to explore and map the Northwest Passage. Neither he nor any of his
128 crewmen ever returned.
In the years since Franklin disappeared, only traces of the expedition
have ever been found.
Last year, then environment minister John Baird announced the federal
government would back a three-year search for the Erebus and Terror,
to be led by Parks Canada and using traditional knowledge from Inuit
in the area.
This year would have marked the second year of the project, had it not
been cancelled.
In Gjoa Haven, one of several Nunavut communities along the passage,
Mayor Joanni Sallerina said he was disappointed to hear the
government's search was scrubbed this year.
"After making a commitment, a three-year commitment to the community,
and not informing us formally through a letter stating that they
weren't going to be doing the Franklin research, it's unfortunate
because this would have benefited the community," he said Monday.
Sallerina said many local elders were involved in the government
search, so the cancellation was a blow to the community.
'More heads are better than one'
Rondeau said the search would benefit from a collaboration between
ProCom and Parks Canada — a view shared by Vickie Aitok, manager of
the Arctic Coast Visitors Centre in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut.
"I mean, more heads are better than one, always," Aitok said. "That
actually would be a good partnership to have them team up to look for
these ships."
Author Ken McGoogan, who has written extensively about the Franklin
expedition, said Canada could benefit greatly if Franklin's lost ships
are found at last.
"With the opening up of the Northwest Passage, there is an
opportunity, it seems to me, to attract more people, to bring more
money into the North if you will," he said.
Rondeau said his team will set up a base camp on the north end of King
William Island, and be at sea for two weeks beginning at the end of
August.
If the team's theories about where the Erebus and Terror are located
are correct, he said they can find the vessels within a few days.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2009/07/13/franklin-search-procom.html
j...@cix.compulink.co.uk
<d3d3d016-8c13-4d49...@33g2000vbe.googlegroups.com>,
jackli...@earthlink.net (Jack Linthicum) wrote:
> He said the British remain fascinated with Franklin's disappearance
Bit of an exaggeration, that. Most people here have never heard of it.
> and locating the ships would be big news in both England and in
> Nunavut, where the remains are believed to be located.
It would be news of interest in England. It would get on TV, for a day
or two. A documentary or so would get made about it. But that would be
about all.
> If the team's theories about where the Erebus and Terror are located
> are correct, he said they can find the vessels within a few days.
That's quite a significant "if".
However, the point of this post is a book recommendation: Dan Simmons'
horror novel _The Terror_ concerns the Franklin expedition. It is
definitely not history, but its atmosphere of the "heroic" age of arctic
exploration, is very convincing.
--
John Dallman, j...@cix.co.uk, HTML mail is treated as probable spam.
La N
<j...@cix.compulink.co.uk> wrote in message
news:PdmdnZ1ilJk-VsHX...@giganews.com...
> In article
> >
> However, the point of this post is a book recommendation: Dan Simmons'
> horror novel _The Terror_ concerns the Franklin expedition. It is
> definitely not history, but its atmosphere of the "heroic" age of arctic
> exploration, is very convincing.
>
One of the best books I've read on the subject is "Lady Franklin's Revenge:
A
True Story of Ambition, Obsession, and the Remaking of Arctic History" by
Ken
McGoogan.
- nilita
Jack Linthicum
wrote:
Pictures at the citation.
Northwest Passage
On the trail of the Arctic's most enduring mystery
HMS Erebus and HMS Terror leave England, never to return, in this 1845
artwork. The Canadian Press
Katherine O'Neill
EDMONTON — From Wednesday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Wednesday,
Jul. 15, 2009 05:08AM EDT
A marine archeologist from landlocked Alberta has set his sights on
finding two of the world's most coveted shipwrecks: the long-lost
Royal Navy vessels from the doomed 19th-century Franklin expedition.
Rob Rondeau and his small team plan to travel to the central Arctic
archipelago later this summer to launch a privately funded underwater
search.
The race to find the fabled shipwrecks has been continuing for more
than 160 years, but Mr. Rondeau is confident his group's research and
use of state-of-the-art sonar will solve the vexing mystery.
Parks Canada was supposed to dispatch its own marine archeologists to
the Arctic later this summer as part of a high-profile, three-year
search for the ships that began last year. It scrubbed this year's
effort because no government vessel was available.
While most modern-day Franklin hunters, including Parks Canada, have
focused their attention on areas southwest of King William Island, Mr.
Rondeau is confident the shipwrecks are in fact located north of the
island, in the waters of Larsen Sound.
Franklin maps
The missing ships, HMS Terror and HMS Erebus, were part of an 1845
British expedition led by Sir John Franklin to map the Arctic and
locate the fabled Northwest Passage to Asia.
The vessels and their crews never returned, and since the late 1840s,
dozens of search efforts, both public and private, have been mounted
to answer one of the Arctic's greatest riddles. Graves of some of the
crew and wreckage from the expedition are all that have been
recovered.
The search for the Franklin expedition over the decades has become a
lifelong obsession for many people around the world, but Mr. Rondeau,
who is head of Alberta-based ProCom Diving Services, said he picked
the project primarily to test newly developed sonar equipment in the
Arctic.
"That was the first priority. I'm not a Franklin-phile," he said
during a telephone interview from his home in Coronation, about 290
kilometres southeast of Edmonton.
Mr. Rondeau said the plan is to find the ships, which have already
been designated national historic sites, this year and return next
summer, possibly with a mini-submarine, to photograph and research
them further.
"All the work we are doing is non-intrusive - it's look but don't
touch," said Mr. Rondeau, who has worked on locating and recovering
shipwrecks around the world.
"This isn't a salvage mission. This is full-on archeology - and
philanthropy, to a certain extent."
The expedition is being backed by several sponsors, including Canadian
North Airlines, Nunavut Eastern Arctic Shipping Inc. and Discovery
Channel Canada, which is sending a documentary crew along on the
search. Mr. Rondeau also invited the head of Parks Canada's underwater
archaeology service to join them this summer. Parks Canada declined
the invitation yesterday.
The search will be launched in early September from Taloyoak, Nunavut,
a small, mainly Inuit community located on the Boothia Peninsula.
Jayko Neeveacheak, a 39-year-old Taloyoak resident, has been hired to
help Mr. Rondeau's team and to find an Inuit guide. He said this is
only the second time that a search for the expedition has been
launched from his community, and that most head out from Gjoa Haven,
at the southeastern tip of King William Island.
Most Inuit in his community grew up hearing about the lost Franklin
expedition but few spend any time looking for signs of it, Mr.
Neeveacheak said.
"We know the stories, but it doesn't really matter to people around
here. They like to go out on the land and that kind of stuff."
***
Lost in the ice
The first attempts to find Franklin's ships were rescue missions, and
began within three years of the expedition leaving England.
* 1848-1859 - Numerous expeditions were launched, including the
first, which was paid for by the British government and led by Arctic
explorer Sir James Clark Ross . During this period, human remains and
relics were found. Stories that some of the crew resorted to
cannibalism also began to surface. In the late 1850s, an expedition
funded by Franklin's widow, Lady Jane Franklin, and led by Leopold
McClintock found a note left by crew members on King William Island.
They wrote that Franklin had died in 1847, the ships were abandoned a
year later and the remaining crew were attempting to walk overland for
help.
* 1860-1869 - American explorer Charles Francis Hall led two
searches after receiving a tip, which later turned out to be wrong,
that survivors existed.
* 1878-1880 - The American Geographical Society sponsored an
expedition led by U.S. Army Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka.
* 1967 - Canadian soldiers took part in "Project Franklin" to mark
Canada's centennial. They conducted air, land and sea searches