Arctic shipwreck reveals new details of tragic 1845 expedition

Canadian researchers have released dramatic images of the HMS Terror, which has been “frozen in time” after sinking about 170 years ago during an Arctic expedition in which famed British explorer John Franklin perished.

The warship vanished alongside the HMS Erebus during Franklin’s storied mission that left Britain in 1845 to discover the Northwest Passage linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The Terror’s 129 crew members abandoned ship in 1848 and died while attempting to walk to safety across the Arctic.

The Erebus was located in Victoria Strait in 2014, while the Terror was found under 80 feet of water two years later in what is now known as Terror Bay, off King William Island, Nunavut.

Underwater archeologists have spent a week exploring the Terror and in a statement said they were shocked to discover its “extraordinary state of preservation” during the dives.

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They believe the captain’s desk, map cabinets and boxes could contain materials preserved by the deep, frigid water, which may shed light on what exactly happened to the expedition, according to AFP.

“Sedimentation provides the best conditions for preservation as it allows for an environment with less oxygen, which helps preserve organics, like paper,” the statement said.

Project director Ryan Harris said the prospect of learning the mission’s secrets was “very tantalizing.”

“Written materials could shed all kinds of light on what happened, the chronology of events, when the ships parted company and how they got to where they were found abandoned,” he said.

Video footage shows beds and desks, shelves with plates, glass bottles and stemware in what is believed to have been the officers’ mess pantry.

Rows of shelves with intact plates, bowls and glasses also can be seen in the sailors’ quarters.

Harris said the ship was upright on the sea bottom, its propeller in place. No anchors had been dropped, and skylights were not boarded up to protect from the harsh Arctic climate.

“It looked like it was in operating condition, and suggests with other clues that the ship sank unexpectedly and was deserted very, very quickly,” he said.

Susan Le Jeune d’Allegeershecque, British high commissioner to Canada, said she hoped the ship’s excellent condition “will mean that there will soon be answers to so many questions about the fate of the Franklin Expedition,” according to CNN.