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NUNAVUT - Fighting high winds and stormy water, explorers recently located remnants of copper sheeting believed to be from the doomed ships of Sir John Franklin.

This was "a very significant find," said Robert Grenier, chief of underwater archaeology for Parks Canada.

Grenier spoke to reporters on Sept. 26, shortly after returning from a six-week expedition in the area of O'Reilly Island. This was the first of three trips planned by Parks Canada to search for the ships' remains.

More than 160 years have passed since the ill-fated quest by British explorer Sir John Franklin to discover the Northwest Passage. His ships - the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror - and crews of more than 100 men never returned.

Inuit traditional knowledge has long pointed to the ship's presence in the King William Island area.

The copper fragments found this year were likely left over by Inuit cutting uluit, harpoon heads or qulliq. Their presence indicates a large supply of the material which is not found naturally in the area, according to Grenier.

However, the crew had expected to find more complete sheets of the metal, located during a previous expedition. Grenier said he suspects those were stolen, although he declined to say by whom.

Despite that setback, the poor weather conditions and some icebreaker side tasks - like a mission to rescue two local families - the researcher said he was satisfied with the progress made this summer.

Grenier pointed to new sonar maps generated of the seabed in the area of interest, which will allow them to travel closer to the sites next time out.

"We're armed with a new confidence for the 2009 campaign," he said.

The weather in August and September was the worst in anyone's memory for this time of year, according to Louie Kamookak.

The Gjoa Haven resident has played a large part in the search for Franklin's ships, although he did not accompany the crew this time out.

For the past 25 years, Kamookak has crisscrossed King William Island and surrounding area, searching for clues to the ships' fate.

He has interviewed many elders on their memories of the ship's arrival and the use of copper in tools and even trading over the century or so following the ship's disappearance.

"Where they've been looking is based on these traditional stories," Kamookak said, adding he plans to accompany the research crew next year.

Much of Kamookak's own research has centred on place names in the area.

"A lot of the islands and place names were related to legends, like one named for 'a boat place,' where the ship was said to be afloat," he said.

Next summer, he would like to see a search conducted in the area of an island called Keevevok, which means "sank," he said.

"It's only something that happened that was kind of unusual that Inuit would name the place for," he said. "Every annual hunting spot has a place name, but Keevevok, there's not a lot of islands named 'sank.'"