Prime Minister Stephen Harper says one of Canada's greatest mysteries now has been solved, with the discovery of one of the lost ships from Sir John Franklin's doomed Arctic expedition.
"This is truly a historic moment for Canada," Harper said.
Harper made the announcement at Parks Canada's laboratories in Ottawa during a photo op after yesterday's announcement that two artifacts from the 19th-century Franklin expedition were found on an island in Nunavut.
At this point, the searchers aren't sure if they've found the HMS Erebus or HMS Terror. The wreckage was found on Sept. 7 using a remotely-operated underwater vehicle recently acquired by Parks Canada.
On Monday, the government of Nunavut announced that a team of archeologists from Nunavut found an iron fitting from a Royal Navy ship, "identified as part of a boat-launching davit, and bearing two broad arrows," on an island in the southern search area, the territory's government said.
A TV screen grab of a sonar image showing the wreckage of a ship believed to be one of Sir John Franklin's ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. (Parks Canada/CBC)
A wooden object, "possibly a plug for a deck hawse, the iron pipe through which the ship's chain cable would descend into the chain locker below," was also found.
"The iron fitting was lying on the shore, adjacent to a rock, a large rock, and the wooden artifact was a bit farther away, a bit farther from the shoreline," archeologist Doug Stenton told CBC News.
Stenton headed a three-member Nunavut team that found the objects on an island in the Queen Maud Gulf near Nunavut's King William Island on Sept. 1. The searchers say it's the first such artifact found in modern times.
"The beauty of where they found it is it's proof positive of Inuit oral history," CBC chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge, who has covered the Franklin search for many years, said Tuesday.
An iron fitting from a Royal Navy ship, identified as part of a boat-launching davit and bearing two broad arrows, was found on an island in the southern search area. (Douglas Stenton, Government of Nunavut)
"The Inuit have said for generations that one of their hunters saw a ship in that part of the passage, abandoned and ended up wrecking …. It's exactly where this guy said it was."
The question now is whether these discoveries bring the project closer to finding more evidence of what happened to the Franklin expedition.
"I think absolutely it takes us closer," said CBC Radio's David Common, who has also covered the search in the past.
"It has been … a personal priority, a personal interest for the prime minister. And that's in part why we see so many more ships this year than in years past."
A close-up reveals the Royal Navy broad arrows stamped at the base of the davit heel. The number 12 is also visible. (Douglas Stenton, Government of Nunavut)
The two ships of the Franklin expedition disappeared during an 1845 search for the Northwest Passage. They were the subject of many searches throughout the 19th century, but the mystery of what happened to John Franklin and his men has never been solved.
The expedition has been the subject of songs, poems and novels ever since.
In 1845, Sir John Franklin and 128 sailors embarked from England to find the Northwest Passage aboard the ships Erebus and Terror.
Search parties later recorded Inuit testimony that claimed one ship sank in deep water west of King William Island, and one ship went perhaps as far south as Queen Maud Gulf or into Wilmot and Crampton Bay.
Parks Canada's Ryan Harris briefs Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on efforts to find the Franklin expedition aboard the HMCS Kingston west of Pond Inlet on the Eclipse Sound last month. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)
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