Franklin voyage second ship found

Explorers have found the wreck of HMS Terror, the second of two British ships that vanished in the Canadian Arctic 170 years ago. Terror and HMS Erebus, found in September 2014, disappeared during Sir John Franklin’s quest for the fabled Northwest Passage in 1845

Detailed map

ATLANTIC OCEAN

ARCTIC OCEAN

CANADA

Arctic Circle

GREENLAND

Baffin Bay

Baffin Island

500km 310 miles

May 19, 1845: Expedition led by Sir John Franklin sets sail from England with 128 officers and men

Jul 26: British whalers are last Europeans to sight expedition

1845-46: Ships winter at Beechey Island. Three crew members perish

Sep 1846: Ships trapped in ice in Victoria Strait, remaining stranded as ice fails to melt during summer
of 1847. By April 1848, Franklin and 23 others are dead

Apr 1848: Ships abandoned – survivors thought to have headed south, resorting to cannibalism in attempt to stay alive. Men died from hunger, scurvy or lead poisoning, caused by eating badly tinned food

Sep 2014: Erebus found in area where Inuit oral history had long said large wooden ship sank

Victoria Strait

Queen Maud Gulf

Sep 3, 2016: HMS Terror found in pristine condition on seabed of uncharted Terror Bay

Artifacts and human remains found in subsequent explorations

King William Island

Source: Arctic Research Foundation

Pictures: The HMS Terror on July, 14 1837. Engraving by George Back, Getty Images