The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic launched a new exhibit with photos and interactive videos from the HMS Erebus and the Franklin Expedition.
Videos taken inside HMS Erebus, one of the two ships lost during the ill-fated Franklin expedition in what is now the Canadian Arctic, gives a close-up look at one of the maritime history’s great mysteries.
Among the debris is a section of the ship’s lower deck, including a chest, with a writing desk in the background. At the front or bow, of Erebus, the camera pans past a post full of barnacles, to the galley — and a white-ish object identified as the stove, used to melt water and feed the crew.
Divers who’ve combed through the wreckage say much of it is well-preserved, thanks to the icy waters of the Victoria Strait.
“Swimming over the decks, you feel as if you are just on an old house,” says Thierry Boyer, a Parks Canada diver. “The floors are just perfect. You can see all the wood grains and everything. It’s breath-taking to see.” Boyer was on hand at Halifax’s Maritime Museum of the Atlantic for the opening of an interactive exhibit that simultaneously went on display at nine other museums across the country.
The story of the Franklin Expedition has been revived, since an expedition led by Parks Canada located Erebus two years ago — a find considered by some the “discovery of the century.”
“It’s difficult to put us in the period of Franklin,” said Gerry Lunn, curator of exhibitions for the Maritime Museum Of The Atlantic. “But, this story was huge when it occurred.”
The newly-released video joins a trove of artifacts retrieved from Erebus, including the ship’s bell, a cannon, sword hilts, and dishes.
To watch video, please click here
Source: Global News
