An update to a previous post. An Inuit family says a box that was hidden for over 80 years in the Arctic contains documents linked to the doomed Franklin expedition and has just turned the box over to the the Canadian Conservation Institute.  In the mean while, the search for Franklin’s ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, has resumed as the Canadian government has sent a Parks Canada icebreaker into a three-week expedition into the waters near Gjoa Haven where the ships are believed to have sunk.

Search begins for British explorer’s lost ships

Two British naval ships belonging to the renowned explorer Sir John Franklin – lost 165 years ago while navigating the famed Northwest Passage – are once again at the centre of an intense search.

Not only has the Canadian government sent a Parks Canada icebreaker into a three-week expedition into the waters near Gjoa Haven, but local Inuit in the remote Arctic hamlet are also touting the possible excavation of some alleged lost journals.

Organisers today hope to unearth these ancient journals – believed to have been buried in an ancient cairn by Inuits some time over the past century – which may offer clues to the whereabouts of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, which set sail from England in 1845 under Franklin’s command.

Before becoming trapped in the ice, the state-of-the-art ships were part of a mission to discover the elusive Northwest Passage between Europe and Asia via the Arctic archipelago, now part of Nunavut in Canada.

The official dig for the alleged artifacts on King William Island is near to where the Franklin ships are believed to have been abandoned; it is hoped that the journals will shed light on the vessels’ location.

Although Franklin’s 129-man crew left two messages in the Arctic at a cairn for any rescue mission, according to naval protocol, the details of their last position was either never recorded or has yet to be found.

Inuit brothers Andrew and Wally Porter from Gjoa Haven – a hamlet with a population of just a few hundred people – claim that their grandfather, George Washington Porter, buried the papers 60 years ago for prosperity.

Thanks to Alaric Bond for passing the article along.