Two ships sailed into the Canadian Arctic carrying enough food, equipment, and confidence to survive for years.

Neither ship returned.

For generations, searchers followed scattered documents, abandoned camps, human remains, and stories preserved across Inuit communities. The expedition’s final movements remained uncertain, and the ships themselves seemed to have disappeared beneath an immense landscape of ice and water.

Then, more than 160 years after the vessels were abandoned, both wrecks were found.

They were HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, the two ships of Sir John Franklin’s 1845 expedition to find a navigable Northwest Passage through the Arctic. Their discoveries in 2014 and 2016 answered one of the expedition’s greatest questions—but they also created many new ones.

A Voyage Equipped for Years in the Arctic

The Franklin Expedition departed Greenhithe, England, on May 19, 1845, with 134 officers and crew members.

The two vessels were not ordinary wooden sailing ships. Both had already operated in polar waters and were strengthened for the difficult conditions expected in the Arctic. They also carried steam engines, heating systems, preserved food, scientific equipment, and supplies intended to last at least three years.

At Disko Bay in Greenland, five men left the expedition and returned home aboard a support vessel. That reduced the final complement aboard Erebus and Terror to 129 men.

From Greenland, the ships continued west into what is now the Canadian Arctic. European whaling vessels encountered them in Baffin Bay in July 1845. Those brief sightings became the last confirmed contact between the Franklin Expedition and the outside world.

The expedition spent the winter of 1845–1846 near Beechey Island. Evidence later found there showed that three crew members had died during that first Arctic winter.

When the ice opened, the ships moved south and west.

Their goal was to navigate through the channels surrounding King William Island and connect the known eastern and western sections of the Northwest Passage.

Instead, the sea ice closed around them.

Trapped Near King William Island

In September 1846, Erebus and Terror became trapped in ice northwest of King William Island.

Being caught temporarily was not unusual for an Arctic expedition. Ships often remained frozen in place through the winter and resumed sailing after the summer thaw.

This time, however, the ice did not release the vessels.

The ships remained trapped through 1847. During that period, Sir John Franklin died on June 11, 1847. Command passed to Captain Francis Crozier of Terror, with Captain James Fitzjames of Erebus taking a leading role.

By April 1848, the situation had become desperate.

A message later discovered in a stone cairn reported that nine officers and 15 crewmen had died. The surviving 105 men abandoned the ships on April 22 and planned to travel south toward the Back River, then commonly called the Great Fish River.

That short message, now known as the Victory Point Note, became the most important written record left by the expedition.

It explained when the ships had become trapped, confirmed Franklin’s death, and identified the crew’s intended direction of travel.

But it did not explain what happened next.

No member of the Franklin Expedition is known to have returned alive.

A Search That Continued for Generations

When the expedition failed to return, Britain organized an enormous search effort.

More than 30 Arctic expeditions participated in the official search between 1848 and 1854. Twelve major expeditions were sent in 1850 alone. The searches mapped large areas of the Arctic and recovered important traces of Franklin’s route, but they did not locate the ships.

European searchers gradually found camps, graves, equipment, written records, and human remains.

At the same time, Inuit witnesses shared accounts of encounters with Franklin’s men and information about ships seen in locations far from where many European searchers expected them to be.

In 1854, explorer John Rae learned from Inuit that a group of approximately 40 white men had been seen travelling south along the western coast of King William Island. Inuit also reported evidence that members of the expedition had died farther south.

Other oral histories described a large ship sinking in waters near the Adelaide Peninsula.

For years, much of this information was dismissed, misunderstood, or forced into European maps that did not accurately reflect Inuit place names and geographical knowledge.

The eventual discoveries of Erebus and Terror demonstrated how important those histories had been.

Inuit Knowledge Changed the Search

Modern searches did not begin with an empty map.

Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit—knowledge developed and passed between generations—preserved information about the expedition’s movements, encounters with crew members, and the locations of ships.

Parks Canada worked closely with Inuit historian Louie Kamookak and residents of Gjoa Haven and Cambridge Bay. Search teams revisited accounts that European investigators had collected during the nineteenth century and compared traditional place names with modern geography.

In 2008, Parks Canada’s Underwater Archaeology Team established two major search regions.

One was in the north, near the known abandonment point of the ships. The other lay farther south, where Inuit accounts indicated that a ship had been seen and had sunk.

The search involved side-scan sonar, autonomous underwater vehicles, boats, helicopters, divers, archival documents, and land-based archaeology.

But the technology was only effective because researchers were looking in areas supported by historical and Inuit evidence.

The breakthrough came in 2014.

HMS Erebus Appears on the Sonar Screen

During the 2014 search season, a Government of Nunavut archaeology team found two artifacts on an island in the southern search area.

The objects appeared to have come from a Royal Navy ship. Their location strengthened the connection between the search area and Inuit accounts of a vessel near the Adelaide Peninsula.

Parks Canada redirected its sonar search.

On September 2, 2014, a clearly recognizable shipwreck appeared on the screen.

The wreck was located approximately 80 kilometers south of King William Island, northeast of O’Reilly Island. Its position was near the location described in Inuit oral history.

Divers and remotely operated equipment documented the site. Distinctive features and recovered objects helped establish the wreck’s identity as HMS Erebus.

Among the most recognizable early finds was the ship’s bell. It carried the Royal Navy’s broad-arrow mark and the date 1845—the year the ship was prepared for Franklin’s final expedition.

After more than a century and a half, one of Franklin’s ships had finally been located.

The discovery was historic, but one major problem remained.

Where was HMS Terror?

The Second Ship Was Not Where Searchers Expected

After finding Erebus, Parks Canada’s Underwater Archaeology Team divided its work between documenting the wreck and continuing the search for Terror.

The most logical search location appeared to be near the place where the expedition had abandoned the ships in April 1848. Sonar teams concentrated on areas north of the Erebus wreck, especially around Alexandra Strait.

But local Inuit information pointed toward another possibility.

A ship had reportedly been seen in Terror Bay, west of Gjoa Haven. The Arctic Research Foundation investigated that information and located a wreck there in September 2016.

Bad weather delayed the Parks Canada team, but archaeologists soon reached the site to verify the discovery.

The sonar image was extraordinary.

The wreck appeared upright on the seabed. Its bowsprit, masts, deck structures, and helm could be distinguished in remarkable detail.

During three days of diving, archaeologists compared the ship’s construction with nineteenth-century plans. The wreck possessed specific features—including a double-wheeled helm and iron bow protection—that identified it as one of Franklin’s vessels.

On September 18, 2016, Parks Canada confirmed that the wreck was HMS Terror.

The ship rested in approximately 24 meters of water and was in unexpectedly good condition.

Its location also created a new mystery.

Terror was found far from the place where the surviving crew had reported abandoning both ships in 1848.

Someone may have returned to the vessels.

A Ship That Looked Almost Ready to Sail

The preservation of HMS Terror surprised archaeologists.

Its upright hull, enclosed interior spaces, and relatively shallow resting place created the possibility that important objects—and perhaps written documents—might remain inside.

In 2019, Parks Canada used a remotely operated vehicle to explore the interior systematically. Over seven ROV dives, the team investigated 20 cabins and compartments.

The expedition recorded rooms, furnishings, shelves, plates, bottles, instruments, and closed storage areas. Cold water, darkness, and limited biological activity had protected much of the ship’s interior.

The images gave viewers an extraordinary impression.

Terror did not look like a ship shattered by a violent impact. It appeared to have settled upright and remained largely enclosed.

Yet the wreck itself could not reveal why it had travelled to Terror Bay.

Had part of the crew reoccupied the ship after the 1848 abandonment?

Did they manage to move it south under sail, steam, drifting ice, or some combination of forces?

Was it operated by a small returning group while others continued travelling overland?

Those questions remain open.

The Wrecks Do Not End the Mystery

Finding both ships solved the question of where Erebus and Terror ultimately sank.

It did not provide a complete account of the expedition’s final years.

The Victory Point Note stated that both vessels were abandoned northwest of King William Island in April 1848. However, both wrecks were eventually found much farther south.

That suggests the ships moved after the note was written.

How they moved remains uncertain.

The vessel described in Inuit accounts may have been occupied for some time after the main abandonment. Witnesses also preserved stories about encounters with crew members and objects recovered from the ships.

The wrecks therefore support the value of Inuit oral histories while requiring researchers to reconsider a simple narrative in which all 105 survivors left the ships permanently and travelled south together.

The final journey may have involved several groups, attempted returns to the ships, changing plans, and movement across sea ice, coastlines, and vessels.

Artifacts Are Reconstructing Daily Life

Archaeologists have recovered hundreds of objects from HMS Erebus.

These include dishes, personal items, officers’ equipment, weapons, scientific instruments, clothing-related objects, and pieces connected to the operation of the ship.

In 2024, Parks Canada archaeologists completed 50 dives over 13 days at the Erebus wreck. Recovered objects included a bronze sextant with a hardwood handle, found in the lower-ranking officers’ cabin area. The instrument would have been used to measure the angle between the horizon and a celestial body for navigation.

Each object is recorded in its original location before recovery. It is then photographed, stabilized, studied, and conserved.

The position of an artifact can be as important as the object itself.

A plate inside a cabinet, an instrument near an officer’s cabin, or clothing stored in a chest may help archaeologists understand who occupied a space and whether the ship had been prepared for abandonment, reoccupation, or another season in the ice.

Parks Canada notes that thousands of artifacts may remain across the two wrecks. Some researchers hope sealed areas could preserve written documents, although no surviving shipboard journal explaining the expedition’s final movements has been announced.

Protecting the Sites With Inuit Partners

The two wrecks now form the Wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror National Historic Site.

It is the first national historic site in Nunavut cooperatively managed by Inuit and Parks Canada. Inuit Guardians help monitor the remote wreck areas, support archaeological operations, observe environmental conditions, and protect the sites during the open-water season.

Access is strictly controlled.

The wrecks are archaeological sites, protected cultural places, and resting places associated with the loss of 129 expedition members. Ordinary visitors cannot simply travel to the coordinates and dive on the vessels.

The partnership also changes how the Franklin story is presented.

It is no longer told only as the tale of British explorers disappearing into an empty wilderness.

The region was neither empty nor unknown. Inuit had lived, travelled, hunted, observed changing ice, and passed knowledge through generations long before Franklin arrived.

Their accounts helped explain the expedition’s fate and ultimately helped locate both ships.

What May Still Be Found

The future of Franklin research lies in combining several forms of evidence.

Archaeologists can map the wrecks, study artifacts, examine construction damage, and compare objects with Royal Navy records.

Historians can revisit journals, letters, supply lists, maps, search reports, and nineteenth-century interviews.

Scientists can analyze materials, food remains, bones, environmental conditions, and the biological processes affecting the wrecks.

Inuit knowledge-holders can continue interpreting places, routes, environmental behavior, oral histories, and historical encounters that written British records did not preserve.

No single source is likely to answer every question.

The most convincing reconstruction will come from placing them together.

Two Discoveries—and Many Questions Left Beneath the Ice

The discoveries of HMS Erebus in 2014 and HMS Terror in 2016 were not lucky accidents.

They resulted from years of research, difficult fieldwork, modern underwater technology, partnerships across many organizations, and Inuit knowledge that continued to point toward the ships long after the expedition disappeared.

Both wrecks now rest within protected waters near King William Island.

They have revealed bells, instruments, cabin interiors, dishes, weapons, clothing, and the physical spaces where Franklin’s men lived and worked.

But the central human story remains incomplete.

Why did the ships move after they were abandoned?

Who returned to them?

How long did some crew members survive?

What route did each group follow?

Could a sealed drawer, cabinet, or officer’s desk still contain a written account?

More than 170 years after the expedition vanished, the Arctic has finally returned both ships.

What happened to the people aboard them is still waiting to be fully understood.