The Wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror National Historic Site of Canada: 2016-2019 Underwater Archaeological Investigations

Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "The Wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror National Historic Site of Canada: 2016-2019 Underwater Archaeological Investigations," at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The Wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror National Historic Site of Canada commemorates Sir John Franklin’s 1845 Royal Navy expedition in search of a northwest passage. Erebus and Terror, two converted bomb vessels that were exquisitely equipped and provisioned, carried Franklin and 128 men into the heart of what is now Canada's Arctic archipelago. The ships became trapped by ice in 1846, Franklin died in 1847, the ships were deserted in 1848 and no one survived a southward retreat. Erebus was relocated in 2014 and Terror in 2016 following searches led by Parks Canada in conjunction with many partners. This symposium will: outline recent Parks Canada shipwreck research in the Arctic; present interim archaeological results from the wrecks of Erebus and Terror from 2016-2019; outline selected methods and approaches employed; and point to what we have gleaned so far about the Franklin Expedition from these two remarkable wrecks.

Other Keywords
Erebus • Franklin Expedition • Terror • Photogrammetry • 3D Recording

Temporal Keywords
Nineteenth Century

Geographic Keywords
Alberta (State / Territory) • Nunavut (State / Territory) • Massachusetts (State / Territory) • New York (State / Territory) • Yukon Territory (State / Territory) • New Hampshire (State / Territory) • Idaho (State / Territory) • Maine (State / Territory) • British Columbia (State / Territory) • Wisconsin (State / Territory)