The barnacle-encrusted hull of the supply ship Breadalbane is revealed in waters off Beechey Island. Photograph: Operation Nunalavit/Flickr
Posted on 05/01/2014 9:24:57 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
- Breadalbane sank in 1853 on search for Franklin expedition -
- Wooden three-master is well preserved in icy waters -
Canada has released underwater images of the world's most northernly shipwreck – a three-masted merchant ship that went down 161 years ago after becoming trapped in Arctic ice.
The Canadian Armed Forces and Parks Canada produced the footage over six days, lowering a remotely operated HD camera through a hole in the sea ice, to capture images of a barnacle-encrusted hull and anchor from the ocean floor.
“It's rare to have such a detailed view of a shipwreck from 1853,” Jonathan Moore, a senior underwater archaeologist for Parks Canada, said in a statement. “We anticipate more discoveries and insights as we pore over the collected information.”
The Breadalbane sank in the Barrow strait in August 1853, after becoming trapped in packed ice near Beechey Island in what is now Nunavut. The ship was a supply vessel for ships searching for traces of the doomed Franklin expedition.
Captain John Franklin was searching for a route through the Northwest passage when his ship also became icebound. The entire crew of 128 was lost.
The Breadalbane was the last and the largest of a series of ships sent out by the Royal Navy to discover Franklin's fate. It also got trapped in fast-moving Arctic ice, and sank within 15 minutes.
The 21 crew abandoned ship; all were eventually rescued. The Breadalbane remained undiscovered in 100 metres of water until 1980.
It has since been declared a national historic site in Canada.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
The barnacle-encrusted hull of the supply ship Breadalbane is revealed in waters off Beechey Island. Photograph: Operation Nunalavit/Flickr
wow... the deep blue waters scare me... i find them even more mysterious than outer space...
Wow. Global warming trapping ships in the ice even back then.
Beat me to it! :)
Nunuvut! A great place for a time-share resort.
LOL.
Home of my ancestors, BTW!
This is really interesting to me. These old ships, and their dire endings in the deep.
The other day I watched this fascinating video about the Flying Dutchman on Youtube. Extremely well done:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNMgBxjegQc
Amazingly that place is a tourist destination (okay, not for many).
When you are too far north for the Tundra to grow, you have gone too far.
Even the Inuit part of me hates the cold. So now I live in Florida!
My Beloved Daddy taught me Arctic Survival Skills though. It will help me in the coming ice Age! :-)
The north slope of Alaska is also a tourist destination.For some.
Canada Ping!
For me, I had to be paid to visit it.
I got to experience wind chill of -72°F and actual temps of -48°F.
I miss that work, just not the temps so much.
By the way, I did the Resolute work from Alaska. It was far colder in Resolute with much tougher design criteria than the North Slope.
I doubt it. It is so cold that far north very little grows, and that would limit food sources for fish. Tundra would not grow there like it does on the Alaskan North Slope.
Might be some other factors that bring in the fish, I just don’t know.
Shivering timbers, Batman!
“My Beloved Daddy taught me Arctic Survival Skills though. It will help me in the coming ice Age! :-)”
Well, when they fix global warming and the ice age ensues, and they have no backup plan, you should be ok.
In 1997 I wrote an instrumental on the Franklin Expedition as involving Adolphus Washington Greely. It’s called “Polar Patrol” and can be found on the recording “Transmogrified,” by Uncle Art.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
