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GB ....................
there probably are not many, if any, bodies on that ship.
There are old reports from the Arctic, from Inuit and from some of the early expeditions, that the ships drifted around for a couple of years, and that many, if not all, the men left the ships to attempt to walk overland.
quote from one article in Wikipedia ..............
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"In April 1859, sledge parties set out from Fox to search on King William Island. On 5 May, the party led by Royal Navy Lieutenant William Hobson found a document in a cairn left by Crozier and Fitzjames.] It contained two messages. The first, dated 28 May 1847, said that Erebus and Terror had wintered in the ice off the northwest coast of King William Island and had wintered earlier at Beechey Island after circumnavigating Cornwallis Island. "Sir John Franklin commanding the Expedition. All well ", the message said.
The second message, written in the margins of that same sheet of paper, was much more ominous. Dated 25 April 1848, it reported that Erebus and Terror had been trapped in the ice for a year and a half and that the crew had abandoned the ships on 22 April. Twenty-four officers and crew had died, including Franklin on 11 June 1847, just two weeks after the date of the first note. Crozier was commanding the expedition, and the 105 survivors planned to start out the next day, heading south towards the Back River.
This note contains significant errors; most notably the date of the expedition's winter camp at Beechy Island is incorrectly given as 1846–47 rather than 1845–46.
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A number of graves have already been found.
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GB
I don't think that anyone is suggesting diving down to disturb any remains, but sometimes the discovery of such wrecks can add to the history of a Nation.
The finding a few years ago of the HMAS Sydney, which sank without trace during WW2 and with no survivors, completed a puzzle nearly seventy years old.
This also brought closure to still living relatives, and descendants, of the sailors
The site of HMAS Sydney has been declared a War Grave and is protected from any unauthorised activity
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As much as I am fascinated by the search for the ships it does worry me that it is essentially a grave yard for the brave men and in some ways should they be disturbing it.
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Sylvia,
What wonderful news for Canada, and all Canadians.
I have the utmost respect and admiration for the early explorers of any Country.
Setting out into uncharted territory, never knowing what they were going to face, or if they would ever return; yet they still went.
I often think about some of the early explorers of Australia, which even today provides extremely harsh conditions, as does Canada.
As we sit in our comfortable homes we tend to forget what some have endure to make it possible
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Another mystery that is on the way to being solved .....................
what happened to the two ships of the Franklin Expedition back in 1845.
Franklin was trying to find his way through the North West Passage, up in the Arctic.
Expeditions after expeditions have failed to find any sign of what happened to the ships, and to Franklin and many of his men.
Now searches funded by the Canadian government has found signs of one of the ships .............. which seems to be in pretty good shape.
Is Franklin's body still aboard is one of the questions being asked???
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/lost-franklin-expedition-ship-found-in-the-arctic-1.2760311
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