Skip to main content

A ship from Sir. John Franklin's ill-fated attempt to discover the northwest passage has been found by the Victoria Straight Expedition.

Open this photo in gallery:

Image of the heel of the davit. British Royal Navy broad arrows and the number 12 are visible near the base.

1 of 13
Open this photo in gallery:

View of the heel of the davit as first discovered.

2 of 13
Open this photo in gallery:

Canadian Coast Guard pilot Andrew Stirling holds the heel of the davit, the first evidence of a Franklin shipwreck found during the 2014 terrestrial surveys led by the Government of Nunavut.

3 of 13
Open this photo in gallery:

Archaeologist Douglas Stenton of the Government of Nunavut recovering a portion of the deck hawse plug.

4 of 13
Open this photo in gallery:

Close-up of the Royal Navy broad arrows stamped at the base of the davit heel. The number 12 is also visible.

5 of 13
Open this photo in gallery:

Frozen body, preserved in perma frost, one of the crew from the Franklin expedition.

6 of 13
Open this photo in gallery:

Frozen body, preserved in perma frost, one of the crew from the Franklin expedition.

7 of 13
Open this photo in gallery:

Print shows two ships, probably the Enterprise and the Investigator, ice bound in Baffin Bay off Devil's Point in the Arctic; the crews work to break up the ice and tow the ships to open water.(Printed by Day & Son). Illus. in: Ten coloured views taken during the Arctic expedition of Her Majesty's ships "Enterprise" and "Investigator," under the command of Captain Sir James C. RossLibrary of Congress

8 of 13
Open this photo in gallery:

Second Franklin Search Expedition - Ships locked in ice, listed to its side, wintering in Barrow Strait, 1850-1851. Watercolour drawing by George Frederick McDougall.George Frederick McDougall.

9 of 13
Open this photo in gallery:

A sea floor scan reveals one of the missing ships from the Franklin Expedition in an image released in Ottawa on Tuesday September 9, 2014.

10 of 13
Open this photo in gallery:

A sea floor scan reveals one of the missing ships from the Franklin Expedition in an image released in Ottawa on Tuesday September 9, 2014.

11 of 13
Open this photo in gallery:

Skulls of members of the Franklin Expedition, discovered and buried by William Skinner and Paddy Gibson in 1945, at King William Island, N.W.T. (now Nunavut), are shown in this photo from the National Archives of Canada Collections.The Canadian Press

12 of 13
Open this photo in gallery:

Parks Canada's Ryan Harris explains the find from the Victoria Strait Expedition in Ottawa on Tuesday September 9, 2014. The PMO says one of the lost ships from Sir John Franklin's doomed Arctic expedition has been found.SEAN KILPATRICK/The Canadian Press

13 of 13

Interact with The Globe