Ulsterman Francis Crozier’s doomed ship found in Arctic

The second of two ships led by an Ulsterman on a heroic expedition into the Canadian Arctic 170 years ago has been found beneath the icy seas by a research vessel. The ship located was HMS Terror, one of two led by Co Down man Francis Crozier on a doomed expedition to navigate and chart the Northwest Passage, an unforgiving stretch of sea. Two ships, the HMS Terror and HMS Erebus, set off on the expedition in May 1845 but neither would return. Instead, the 129 men on board both ships were to meet a grisly end when they became trapped in ice in perhaps the worst tragedy of all the polar expeditions. For 170 years, the location of the two vessels has been a mystery, with numerous failed attempts to locate the lost ships in the years following their disappearance. The Arctic Research Foundation said in Canada that the HMS Terror has now been located, following on from the 2014 discovery of the HMS Erebus. Adrian Schimnowski, the expedition leader of the research ship that located the HMS Terror, said it was ”a perfect time capsule”. The Terror was discovered in 26 yards of water in a small indentation on the coast of King William Island known as Terror Bay, west of the community of Gjoa Haven. Canadian Rear-Admiral John Newton said the two Franklin ships were found about 31 miles apart from each other. In overall command of the ill-fated polar expedition was Sir John Franklin, a distinguished… [Read full story]