_-_HMS_%2527Erebus%2527_in_the_Ice%2c_1846_-_BHC3325_-_Royal_Museums_Greenwich.jpg) Erebus in the Ice, 1846, byFrançois Musin | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMSErebus |
| Namesake | Erebus |
| Ordered | 9 January 1823 |
| Builder | Pembroke Dock, Wales |
| Laid down | October 1824 |
| Launched | 7 June 1826 (1826-06-07) |
| Fate | Abandoned 22 April 1848,King William Island |
| Wreck discovered | 2 September 2014,Wilmot and Crampton Bay |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Hecla-classbomb vessel |
| Displacement | 715.3 long tons (727 t)[1] |
| Tons burthen | 372 tons (bm) |
| Length | 105 ft (32 m) |
| Beam | 29 ft (8.84 m) |
| Installed power | 30Nominal horsepower[2] |
| Propulsion | Sail,steam engine |
| Complement | 67 |
| Armament | |
| Official name | Wrecks of HMSErebus and HMSTerror National Historic Site |
| Designated | 2019 |
HMSErebus was aHecla-classbomb vessel constructed by theRoyal Navy inPembroke dockyard, Wales, in 1826. The vessel was the second in the Royal Navy named afterErebus, the personification of darkness inGreek mythology.
The 372-ton ship was armed with twomortars – one 13 in (330 mm) and one 10 in (254 mm) – and 10 guns. The ship was refitted as an exploration vessel and took part in theRoss expedition of 1839–1843. She was abandoned in 1848 during thethird Franklin expedition. The sunken wreck was discovered by the CanadianVictoria Strait expedition in September 2014.[3]
After two years' service in theMediterranean Sea,Erebus was refitted as an exploration vessel forAntarctic service, and on 21 November 1840 – captained byJames Clark Ross – she departed fromVan Diemen's Land (nowTasmania) for Antarctica in company withHMSTerror. In January 1841, the crews of both ships landed onVictoria Land, and proceeded to name areas of the landscape afterBritish politicians, scientists, and acquaintances.Mount Erebus, onRoss Island, was named after one ship andMount Terror after the other.
The crew then discovered theRoss Ice Shelf, which they were unable to penetrate, and followed it eastward until the lateness of the season compelled them to return to Van Diemen's Land. The following season, 1842, Ross continued to survey the "Great Ice Barrier", as it was called, continuing to follow it eastward. Both ships returned to theFalkland Islands before returning to the Antarctic in the 1842–1843 season. They conducted studies inmagnetism, and returned withoceanographic data and collections ofbotanical andornithological specimens. The plants were described in the resultingThe Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror in the years 1839–1843, under the Command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross.
Birds collected on the first expedition were described and illustrated byGeorge Robert Gray andRichard Bowdler Sharpe inThe Zoology of the Voyage of HMS Erebus & HMS Terror. Birds of New Zealand, 1875. The revised edition of Gray (1846) (1875). The future botanistJoseph Dalton Hooker, then aged 23, was assistant-surgeon toRobert McCormick.[4]
On May 19, 1845, HMSErebus and HMSTerror leftGreenhithe, England on a voyage of exploration to the CanadianArctic, under SirJohn Franklin.[5] Both ships were outfitted withsteam engines from theLondon and Greenwich Railwaysteam locomotives. That ofErebus was rated at 25horsepower (19 kW) and could propel the ship at 4knots (7.4 km/h). The ships carried 12 days' supply of coal.[6] The ships hadiron plating added to theirhulls.
Sir John Franklin sailed inErebus, in overall command of the expedition, andTerror was again commanded byFrancis Crozier. The expedition was ordered to gather magnetic data in theCanadian Arctic and to complete a crossing of theNorthwest Passage, which had already been partly charted from both the east and west but had never been entirely navigated.
The ships were last seen by Europeans enteringBaffin Bay in August 1845, by two whaling vessels. The disappearance of the Franklin expedition set off a massive search effort in the Arctic. The broad circumstances of the expedition's fate were first revealed whenHudson's Bay Company doctorJohn Rae collected artefacts and testimony from localInuit in 1853. Later expeditions up to 1866 confirmed these reports.
_trapped_in_the_ice%2c_Nattilik_Heritage_Centre%2c_Gjoa_Haven%2c_September_2019.jpg)
Both ships had become icebound and had been abandoned by their crews, totaling about 130 men, all of whom died from a variety of causes, includinghypothermia,scurvy andstarvation while trying to trek overland to the south. Subsequent expeditions until the late 1980s, andautopsies of crew members, also revealed thatErebus andTerror's shoddily cannedrations may have been tainted by bothlead andbotulism. Oral reports by local Inuit that some of the crew members resorted tocannibalism were at least somewhat supported byforensic evidence of cut marks on theskeletal remains of crew members found onKing William Island during the late 20th century.[7]
In April 1851, the British transport shipRenovation spotted two ships on a large ice floe off the coast ofNewfoundland. The identities of the ships were not confirmed. It was suggested over the years that these might have beenErebus andTerror, though it is now certain they could not have been and were most likely abandonedwhaling ships.[8]
On the 15 August 2008,Parks Canada, an agency of theGovernment of Canada, announced aCan$ 75,000 six-week search deploying theicebreakerSir Wilfrid Laurier, with the goals of finding the ships and reinforcing Canada's claims regardingsovereignty over large portions of the Arctic.[9][10] The search was headed by underwater archeologist Robert Grenier, of Parks Canada, and local historian Louie Kamookak, who had collected Inuit oral histories related to the wreck, as well as working with the written records. Kamookak, who died in 2018 at the age of 58, was made an officer of theOrder of Canada and a member of theOrder of Nunavut for his work.[11][12][13]
The wreckage of one of Franklin's ships was found on 2 September 2014 by a Parks Canada team led by Ryan Harris and Marc-André Bernier.[14][3] On 1 October 2014, it was announced that the remains were those ofErebus.[15] Recovery of theship's bell was announced on 6 November 2014.[16] On 4 March 2015, it was announced that a diving expedition onErebus, by Parks Canada andRoyal Canadian Navy divers, would begin in April.[17]
Although the exact location was not released, Nancy Anilniliak, the Field Unit Superintendent of the Nunavut Field Unit, has restricted access to a 10 by 10 kilometres (6 mi × 6 mi) square area in Wilmot and Crampton Bay, to the west of theAdelaide Peninsula. The area runs from Point A (68°14′44.8″N98°52′22.3″W / 68.245778°N 98.872861°W /68.245778; -98.872861 (point A)) to Point B (68°17′44.2″N98°40′17.9″W / 68.295611°N 98.671639°W /68.295611; -98.671639 (point B)) to Point C (68°13′15.4″N98°32′16.2″W / 68.220944°N 98.537833°W /68.220944; -98.537833 (point C)) to Point D (68°10′16.5″N98°44′19.3″W / 68.171250°N 98.738694°W /68.171250; -98.738694 (point D)).[18]
On 12 September 2016, it was announced that the wreck of HMSTerror had been found submerged in Terror Bay, off the south-west coast of King William Island.[19] The wrecks are designated aNational Historic Site of Canada with the precise location of the designation in abeyance.[20][21][22] On 23 October 2017, BritishDefence Minister SirMichael Fallon announced that the United Kingdom would transfer the ownership of both ships to Canada, retaining only a few relics and any gold, along with the right to repatriate any human remains.[23]
In September 2018, Parks Canada announced thatErebus' condition had deteriorated significantly, with a 14 metres (46 ft) section of the upper deck detaching from the ship, flipping over, and moving towards the stern. Parks Canada attributed the deterioration to "an upwards buoyant force acting on the decking combined with storm swell in relatively shallow water". It was then confirmed that the United Kingdom will own the first 65 artifacts brought up fromErebus while the wrecks of both ships and other artifacts will be owned by Canada and the Inuit.[24] Taking advantage of "sublime" weather conditions in the summer of 2019, Parks Canada were able to recover a number of artifacts fromErebus, namely personal items belonging to members of the crew, which were unveiled at Parks Canada's conservation lab in Ottawa in February 2020.[25] The planned exploration of the wreck sites in 2020 was cancelled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, with access to the wrecks restricted to the Inuit Guardians keeping watch on the sites and for those with harvesting rights in the surrounding waters. Underwater archaeology team leader Marc-Andre Bernier remarked that Parks Canada was "concerned aboutErebus", given the wreck's shallower depths and the earlier reports of damage.[26] Parks Canada's Underwater Archaeology Team returned to the wrecks in May 2022, after a two-year postponement caused by the pandemic; particular attention would be paid to any further damage toErebus, due to her shallower depths.[27][28] Recovered fromErebus during the 2022 season were 275 items, most prominently a leather-bound folio discovered in the steward's pantry. The Parks Canada team has expressed the hope that deciphering its contents, whatever they might be, may bode well for future discoveries of written materials from both ships.[29][30]
%2c_2019.jpg)
On 5 September 2019, passengers of Adventure Canada onMS Ocean Endeavour were the first members of the public to visit the site of the wreck of theErebus.[31] The wreck site is within theWrecks of HMSErebus and HMSTerror National Historic Site and is managed jointly by Parks Canada and local Inui, and public access to the site is not usually allowed.[32] The visit by Adventure Canada passengers was a trial by Parks Canada in creating a visitor experience for the wreck site.[31]
HMSErebus is featured, often alongside HMSTerror, in fictional works that use the Franklin expedition in their backstories, such as:
A big clue in the mystery is the wreck of HMS Erebus, found last year in a location indicated by Inuit oral histories.
"Franklin's ships are an important part of Canadian history given that his expeditions, which took place nearly 200 years ago, laid the foundations of Canada's Arctic sovereignty," Mr. Harper said.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
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