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.

Comments

Who names those ships?

[mirix]

Names like HMS Erebus and HMS Terror are kind of asking to sink with all hands on deck, aren't they?

Must be British humour or something...

Re:Who names those ships?

[CeasedCaring]

Erebus == Greek god of Darkness

Re:Who names those ships?

[ledow]

Yes, but HMS Please Don't Hurt Me doesn't have the same kind of ring to it.

Re:Who names those ships?

[Dr Caleb]

The HMS Terror was also involved in the War of 1812 under the command of John Sheridan it lay siege on Balitmore, which led to a poem by Francis Scott Key and then inspired "The Star Spangled Banner".

These ships are as much a part of US history as they are of Canadian.

Biggest archaeological event?

[grouchomarxist]

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.

Re:Biggest archaeological event?

[Savage-Rabbit]

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?

Re: Biggest archaeological event?

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Uh, what about:

1) the finding of the undisturbed royal tombs of the 21th and 22nd dynasties in Tanis in 1940?

2) the finding of the Nag Hammadi library in 1945?

3) the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls near Qumran around ~1950?

4) the finding of an extremely well preserved chalcolithic European in 1991?

5) the finding of Qin Shi Huang's Teracotta Army in 1973? (Which is probably nothing compared to what we'll find in the undisturbed tomb one day.)

Perhaps also, sort of: 6) the discovery in 1973 that the corroded lump of rock found in ~1900 and lying in a Greek museum for decades is actually an Ancient Greek mechanical astronomical computer.

And besides these "grade A+ finds", could also point to "regular" "grade A finds" like Gobekli Tepe, the Staffordshire hoard, the aspherical Viking lenses found at Visby, etc. etc.