Joined: 02/05/2008 Posts: 341
|
After 150 years, the HMS Investigator – which was abandoned in 1853 during a search for Sir John Franklin’s lost expedition to the Northwest Passage – has been recovered by Canadian archeologists, according to an article on yahoo.com. The Investigator was discovered in Mercy Bay, Banks Island. Along with the vessel, archeologists found three bodies of sailors, who apparently died of scurvy. The vessel is said to be in good condition and is located in shallow water. Yahoo.com spoke with Marc-Andre Bernier, Parks Canada's head of underwater archaeology, who said “This is the ship that sailed the last leg of the Northwest Passage." Sailing in 1850 into a strait that now bears the ship captain’s name, the crew found themselves blocked by ice each time they tried to exit into the Beaufort Sea; they survived three winters in the area before they were rescued by the crew of the HMS Resolute. Bernier said that the site will remain protected and that archeologists will use the same technology used to find the Investigator to locate the HMS Erebus and the Terror, two vessels in Franklin’s convoy that are still missing. Read the full story here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100729/ap_on_re_ca/cn_canada_franklin_ship_found
|