The shipwreck of the HMS Terror found incredibly well preserved

Having sunk beneath the icy surface of the Arctic Ocean over 170 years ago, the wreck of H.M.S. Terror remained a subject of fascination for many years. Along with its companion vessel, the H.M.S. Erebus, the Terror vanished in 1845, along with the entire company of 129 officers and men going on the ill-fated Franklin Expedition to find the elusive Northwest Passage. The tale served as the basis for AMC’s The Terror, starring Game of Thrones stars Ciaran Hinds (Mance Rayder) and Tobias Menzies (Edmure Tully). Over the years, many rescue missions failed to locate anything more than a few haunting clues: a handful of skeletons, abandoned equipment and evidence of cannibalism.

The locations of the ships remained a mystery until Erebus was found in 2014. The Terror was located in its underwater grave near Canada’s King William Island in 2016.

The Terror remained largely untouched until an expedition by Parks Canada, done in coordination with local Inuit officials. A set of seven dives were undertaken in August. They’d been waiting for a period of clear water and calm seas, and jumped when the elements gave them the opportunity. Using underwater drones, the team managed to explore almost every interior space, astounded by the remarkably preserved state of the vessel.

Watch the fascinating Parks Canada guided tour inside the H.M.S. Terror wreck below:

“The ship is amazingly intact,” Ryan Harris, the lead archaeologist on the Parks Canada mission, told National Geographic. “You look at it and find it hard to believe this is a 170-year-old shipwreck. You just don’t see this kind of thing very often.” Working fast to maximize their weather window, the team’s divers expertly maneuvered remote-control drones into the wreck through the main hatchway and missing skylights in the captain’s stateroom, officer’s mess and the crew’s cabins.

“We were able to explore 20 cabins and compartments, going from room to room,” Harris said. “The doors were all eerily wide open.” What the archaeologists saw stunned them: shelves still holding dinner plates and glasses, beds and desks in position, and wooden cases still full of undisturbed contents. The survival of the cases, many of them buried under sediment, suggests there may be much more to find, as Harris explains:

"Those blankets of sediment, together with the cold water and darkness, create a near perfect anaerobic environment that’s ideal for preserving delicate organics such as textiles or paper. There is a very high probability of finding clothing or documents, some of them possibly even still legible. Rolled or folded charts in the captain’s map cupboard, for example, could well have survived."

Only one cabin remained inaccessible to the drones: the door was shut to Captain Crozier’s sleeping quarters (Sir Francis Crozier commanded Terror, while expedition commander Franklin used Erebus as his flagship). “I’d love to know what’s in there,” mused Harris.

He’s equally intrigued by the possibility of finding expedition photographs. “And if there are, it’s also possible to develop them. It’s been done with finds at other shipwrecks. The techniques are there.”

What exactly happened that doomed the Franklin Expedition has long remained a mystery. The tale recently served as the basis for AMC’s The Terror, starring Game of Thrones stars Ciaran Hinds (Mance Rayder) and Tobias Menzies (Edmure Tully). Over the years, many rescue missions failed to locate anything more than a few haunting clues: a handful of skeletons, abandoned equipment and evidence of cannibalism.

1845: The ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror used in Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated attempt to discover the Northwest Passage. Original Publication: Illustrated London News pub 24th May 1845 (Photo by Illustrated London News/Getty Images)

The recent discovery of the two largely intact ships has raised as many questions as it has answered. “There’s no obvious reason for Terror to have sunk,” Harris says. “It wasn’t crushed by ice, and there’s no breach in the hull. Yet it appears to have sunk swiftly and suddenly and settled gently to the bottom. What happened?”

"We noticed the ship’s propeller still in place. We know that it had a mechanism to lift it out of the water during winter so that it wouldn’t be damaged by the ice. So, the fact that it’s deployed suggests it was probably spring or summer when the ship sank. So, too, does the fact that none of the skylights were boarded up, as they would have been to protect them against the winter snows."

Taking into account the short Arctic diving season, it’ll take years for archaeologists to completely explore, categorize and analyze the treasures they find inside Terror. Harris is determined and optimistic. “One way or another, I feel confident we’ll get to the bottom of the story.”

1847: Members of the Arctic expedition led by British explorer Sir John Franklin (1786 – 1847) on their attempt to discover the Northwest Passage. The expedition was beleaguered by thick ice and Franklin died in June 1847 and most of the team died of starvation. Original Publication: From an 1895 painting by W Thomas Smith. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

On an added note, it’s possible that the body of Sir John Franklin might still be aboard Terror or Erebus. Franklin died early during the expedition (June 11, 1847), so his remains were likely interred somewhere amidst the unforgiving tundra of King William Island.

However, the British did like to carry their fallen heroes home. When Admiral Horatio Nelson was killed at the Battle of Trafalgar, his body was placed inside a brandy barrel so it wouldn’t decompose during the journey back to England. In essence, Nelson’s corpse was pickled in a confection of brandy and ethanol. Did the crew of the Franklin expedition think to try to preserve the remains of their famous leader for eventual burial in Britain? Unlikely. But the possibility remains that the long-dead and pickled Franklin still waits in a barrel behind that closed sleeping quarters door on Terror. Something to look forward to.

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