Canadians Find Wreck of Ship That Helped Trace Northwest Passage in Arctic

By Alexandre Deslongchamps - Jul 28, 2010 12:52 PM EDT Wed Jul 28 16:52:35 UTC 2010

Canadian archeologists this week found the wreck of the HMS Investigator, which was part of an expedition by British explorer Robert McClure and was the first to sail the last portion of the Northwest Passage in the Arctic.

The HMS Investigator was found using sonar equipment on July 25 in Mercy Bay in Aulavik National Park, Marc-Andre Bernier, an archeologist with Parks Canada, told reporters today. The team, which included members from Parks Canada and researchers from the University of Western Ontario and Memorial University, was looking for the wreck and a nearby cache of provisions transferred from the ship.
“This is the ship that sailed the last leg of the Northwest Passage and in doing so, McClure and his crew were credited” with finding the passage, Bernier said, adding that the ship was found within 15 minutes of the start of the search. The ship “seems to be in fairly good condition,” Bernier said.
The HMS Investigator, which was on an expedition looking for Sir John Franklin and members of his 1845 voyage, was abandoned in 1853 after it was trapped in ice for two years. The cache played an important role in Inuit culture after they began to use some of the materials and resources left behind, Bernier said.

“The Inuit came back for at least a generation after to harvest some of the materials that were there,” Bernier said. “It’s part of their history and heritage.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Alexandre Deslongchamps in Ottawa at adeslongcham@bloomberg.net.