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.

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Documents
  • Digital Photogrammetric Recording of HMS Erebus (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Thierry Boyer.

    This is an abstract from 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 use of 3D digital recording methods is now commonplace in underwater archaeology and one of the more established and accessible methods is without a doubt digital photogrammetry. This technology has been used in conjunction with other techniques to...

  • HMS Erebus Material Culture: Reaching Out to Individuals in Shipwreck Historical Archaeology (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Charles Dagneau.

    This is an abstract from 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 discoveries of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror promise long-waited answers to lingering mysteries of the 1845 Franklin Expedition. Archaeological study of the HMS Erebus wreck site (as well as initial exploration of the HMS Terror wreck) demonstrate the...

  • Planes, Chains and Snowmobiles: A Decade of Parks Canada Underwater Archaeology in the Canadian Arctic (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Marc-André Bernier.

    This is an abstract from 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. In 2008, Parks Canada’s Underwater Archaeology Team launched an Arctic search program, principally to locate the wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, the ships of Sir John Franklin’s 1845 expedition. Over the years the program blossomed to the point...

  • The Wreck of HMS Erebus: A Fieldwork and Research Update (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jonathan Moore.

    This is an abstract from 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. HMS Erebus is situated amongst islands and reefs in Wilmot and Crampton Bay, off the west side of the Adelaide Peninsula, Nunavut. Since the wreck’s discovery in 2014, Parks Canada’s Underwater Archaeology Team has completed a multi-year site...

  • The Wreck of HMS Terror (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ryan Harris.

    This is an abstract from 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. This paper will present a preliminary archaeological examination of the wreck of HMS Terror, discovered in September 2016, in the aptly (but coincidentally) named Terror Bay, along the southwestern shore of King William Island, Nunavut. To date, Parks...