CBC News
has been following the Franklin Expedition for years.
He's been on those ships searching the Arctic for clues,
including the one at the centre of this new discovery.
And he joins me now live in studio
with some new information on this story.
I've been bothering my producers all day
because I'm a little bit of a Canadian history buff,
so I'm kind of obsessed with this.
So what have you learned?
Well, a number of things I've got to say, first of all.
First of all, the ship was actually--
whatever this is was located on September 3rd
and they've been working to confirm it ever since.
Parks Canada is now leading that confirmation process,
as they would have to, but it wasn't found by Parks Canada,
it was found by the Arctic Research Foundation,
which is a group that works in concert with Parks Canada,
did so on the finding of Erebus two years ago.
I've got to declare, as I've done many times before,
that I'm actually on the advisory board
of the Arctic Research Foundation,
because like you, I've been fascinated
by this story for years.
ARF, as we call it, have their own vessel,
the Martin Bergmann, that's named after
a good friend of mine who died in a plane crash in Resolute
five years ago.
But those onboard the Bergmann found this
in an area called Terror Bay in the Northwest Passage.
And it has every appearance, and I just a few moments ago
witnessed some video footage, which we'll be able to air
a little later, um--
We actually have it now, I don't mean to interrupt you--
I just wanted to let you know that.
That's fantastic, because there are some elements here
when you see it, that's the bell from Terror,
and it looks almost identical to the bell that was on Erebus,
which is one of the other reasons that they're looking
very comfortably at making the conclusion this is it.
There's also a smokestack here, I'm not sure if we can see it
in here, and the stack came out of the steam engine.
There it is there. Which was something new to vessels
of that era in the 1840s that could be powered
very slowly by steam.
But nevertheless, that's one of the other areas.
But the ship is in quite incredible shape
when you consider how long it's been underwater.
Um, but this vessel, the Terror, they were convinced--
one of Franklin's two ships-- they were convinced
it was destroyed by the ice.
Well, it's actually in remarkable shape,
you wouldn't necessarily know it from this video,
but it is in great shape.
That smokestack, you could tell it's a smokestack.
Exactly, yep.
And so, you know, those who found it
once again led, just as it was with Erebus,
by Inuit oral history.
One of the fellows had remembered seeing something
at a certain point, nobody seemed to have taken it
too seriously, until the Bergmann people said,
"Okay, well let's go there, we'll go to that exact spot."
And within-- literally within hours,
they stumbled right on top of it.
And...
and so here we go with another, you know,
fascinating little slice of Canadian history.
Unbelievable. So what makes discoveries like this
and the Franklin Expedition in general
important news for Canadians?
Well, think of it a couple of ways.
They were looking for the Northwest Passage,
which was the dream of every explorer who came to Canada.
That's why Canada was discovered: they weren't looking
for Canada, they were looking for what they called
the Orient in those days.
So at the time, the Franklin Expedition,
which was one of the biggest, more than 120 guys on it,
was lost.
That started a process of rescue missions
that lasted almost 50 years, dozens of rescue missions.
You know, talk about the Malaysian Air flight
that went missing? That was nothing compared
with what they went through trying to find the Franklin.
And through those expeditions,
we actually saw our country unfold.
Canada actually became much bigger on the map
partly due to those expeditions searching for the Franklin,
both through the Arctic and also up through the provinces
and heading north by land.
So you know, there are all kinds of great stories attached
and you know them, Andrew, because you're a student
of all this, too, that are quite fascinating.
And it's, you know, full dedication to these people.
It's a non-profit, private enterprise,
The Arctic Research Foundation had done a great job
Mhm.
on being a part of locating both these two vessels.
I don't know if I can ask you this,
but is this-- do we--
are we pretty sure?
I mean, what else could it be?
You need the final confirmation, but you know,
it's not like there were a lot of vessels
that sank 160 years ago that were built like this,
right length, you know, the setup with the steam engine,
the ship's bell, all that point--
you know, I've talked to the people onboard the Bergmann,
they're like 100 per cent convinced.
And these aren't just rookies out for the first time
looking for stuff, like there were some on the last expedition
these guys have been part of this process for years now.
They know what they found.
But Parks Canada will make the final determination.