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Northwest Passage Exploration Ship Found
Kittenman writes: The BBC (and several other sources) are carrying the news that the Canadian government has found the sunken remains of one of Sir John Franklin's ships (either the Erebus, or the Terror), that went missing in the 1840s, causing sensation in Victorian London. Sir John and his entire crew were never seen alive again. The search for traces of the expedition went for over ten years in the 19th century, partly led by Sir John's widow. The discovery has been called the biggest archaeological event since the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb.
Erebus == Greek god of Darkness
I'm no archaeologist, but I doubt most archaeologists would claim this discovery ranks that highly. The person making the claim is an expert on the Franklin expedition, so he's bound to be a bit biased. It certainly sounds interesting, but we know a lot about Britain in the 1840s. I think the bigger archaeological discoveries involve civilizations we don't know much about.
True, I'd rate this wreck much higher. It told us a wealth of things about ancient trade routes, the nature of cargo, how it was stowed, ship design in 3400BP, ... the list goes on, and they were all things that were mostly just make educated guesses at before. Then there is this a 1500 year old Roman transport just sitting there perfectly in tact. It makes you wonder what else is sitting there on the bottom of the Black Sea perfectly in tact: A Greek or Roman trireme, still sitting there with the oars in place and two Ballistas still standing on the deck? A Phoenician transport with it's cargo of perishables still in tact? A bronze, copper or even neolithic period merchant vessel? Something much, much older?
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
http://www.thehistoryblog.com/
These two vessles started off their military life as Bomb (Motar) ships which were traditionally named after Volcanoes, in this cases Mounts Terror & Erebus in Antarctica. (Unsurprisingly Wikipedia is wrong to claim Erebus was named directly after the Greek deity)
The nature of Mortar ships means they were built with disproportionately strong hulls for their (Ketch) size making them particularly suitable as Polar exploration vessels as the age of strife subsided.