"Everything left in perfect order": HMS Investigator’s Material Culture

Author(s): Marc-André Bernier; Ryan Harris

Year: 2013

Summary

Prior to the Investigator’s abandonment in June 1853 much of its provisions, stores, and the ship’s boats were cached ashore. Shortly thereafter the crew loaded sledges with gear and rations for an eastward journey to other Royal Navy ships. Additional items were landed in May 1854 when the ship was revisited. Otherwise everything that had been on the ship was sealed-up under the hatches. During the 2011 survey a host of artefacts were found exposed on and around the ship’s hull, ice having ruptured the weather deck.  This paper will illustrate not only a representative sample of collected artefacts but also items left in situ. It will describe on-site finds handling, how the underwater assemblage relates to the on-shore cache site, and laboratory analyses. The latter have revealed insights into the ship’s voyage as well as Royal Navy material culture as found on a mid-nineteenth century Arctic discovery ship.

Cite this Record

"Everything left in perfect order": HMS Investigator’s Material Culture. Marc-André Bernier, Ryan Harris. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Leicester, England, U.K. 2013 ( tDAR id: 428189)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

min long: -141.003; min lat: 41.684 ; max long: -52.617; max lat: 83.113 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 726