This article is over 5 years old and may contain outdated information.

People & Culture

New book tells the story of the life of — and search for — the HMS Investigator

  • Nov 20, 2013
  • 472 words
  • 2 minutes
Expand Image
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Three minutes. That’s how long it took to solve a 163 year-old mystery.

“It was just disbelief that it happened so quickly,” says underwater archaeologist Ryan Harris. In 2010, he led a Parks Canada team that discovered the remains of the HMS Investigator, lost in Canada’s Arctic since its crew abandoned ship more than a century and a half ago.

Expand Image
Ryan Harris (Photo: Parks Canada)

Now a new book chronicles the turbulent life of the HMS Investigator. As “Lost Beneath the Ice: The Story of the HMS Investigator” reveals, after a year of preparation for the search, it took just three minutes to spot the sunken ship using sonar. At the time, Harris says, they were just testing the equipment to make sure all systems were running.

The book spans the life of the ship, from its Victorian-era voyage to its present-day, whirlwind discovery under the ice of Mercy Bay, Northwest Territories. With text by Andrew Cohen, historical sketches, and photographs from Parks Canada, the book paints a vivid picture of then and now.

“It juxtaposes the challenges and perils of Arctic exploration in the mid-19th century with the challenges of Arctic scientific research today,” says Harris. “While we don’t have to face the same perils and prospects of death, we do have to cope with the ice and weather and the remoteness of the location.”

In 2011, Harris’s team returned to that remote location to view the ship up close. They completed more than 100 dives to the wreck over nine days. The photos they took of the ship and the artifacts they found — laid out in “Lost Beneath the Ice” — tell the end of a story that began in England, where the Investigator set out for the Arctic as a search party.

Expand Image
Some of the artifacts found on the ship (Photo: Parks Canada)

It was a rescue mission gone wrong. Captain Robert McClure started aboard the Investigator in January 1850 in search of the lost Franklin expedition that had set sail for the fabled Northwest Passage five years earlier. The search was short-lived. Uncooperative conditions meant the ship’s fate was soon sealed in the unforgiving ice of the north. It was stuck.

Captain and crew ultimately opted for rescue aboard another vessel. They left the Investigator to sink to a watery grave beneath the ice that had trapped them in the first place.

That’s where Harris and his team found it.

It is an important find but, as Harris told Canadian Geographic, it is a secondary prize. He plans to do what Captain McClure never could: find the lost ships of the Franklin expedition.

Read more about the expeditions to find the HMS Investigator in the July/August issue of Canadian Geographic.

Advertisement

Help us tell Canada’s story

You can support Canadian Geographic in 3 ways:

Related Content

Erebus and Terror in the Antarctic

History

The Franklin Expedition’s ships: The HMS Erebus and HMS Terror

Franklin’s ships were hardened veterans of polar travel, and technological marvels of their age

  • 312 words
  • 2 minutes
sir john franklin route arctic

Exploration

Archaeologists to resume search for Sir John Franklin’s HMS Terror

Parks Canada’s Underwater Archaeology Team is planning a reconnaissance mission of the HMS Erebus and will continue its search for HMS Terror at the end of August

  • 605 words
  • 3 minutes

People & Culture

With old traditions and new tech, young Inuit chart their changing landscape

For generations, hunting, and the deep connection to the land it creates, has been a mainstay of Inuit culture. As the coastline changes rapidly—reshaping the marine landscape and jeopardizing the hunt—Inuit youth are charting ways to preserve the hunt, and their identity. 

  • 5346 words
  • 22 minutes
The work table with finished parts, plans, tools, and materials for the construction of a model of the iron storage tank located in Terror's stern.

History

Building a scale model of HMS Terror

On condition of anonymity, Canadian Geographic photo editor Jessica Finn caught up with the man building Terror.

  • 764 words
  • 4 minutes
Advertisement
Advertisement