Found at last - Franklin Arctic ship discovered

There can hardly be an Arctic misadventure or mystery more remembered in song and legend than the 1845 exhibition led by John Franklin to Canada’s Northwest Passage.

Two ships, the Erebus and the Terror and their crews totalling 128 men, were lost when they were held fast in frozen but drifting ice fields. Franklin’s widow sponsored several rescue missions giving the affair an air of high romance which was tainted by rumours of cannibalism among the last of the stranded crew to die. Anyone with even a flitting interest in folk music will know several versions of the drama. Canada has announced that, after nearly 200 years, the wreck of one of the ships has been found and some of the deck structures are intact, although the main mast had been lost. The discovery suggests that nothing is ever really lost forever on this relatively small planet, it is just mislaid.

The discovery may offer some tiny shred of comfort to the relatives of those lost on Flight MH370 which disappeared six months ago this week. Let’s hope however, that they do not have to wait so very long for answers.