Stories told of ship seen in bay before HMS Terror was found
Inuk crew member's memory prompted Arctic Research Foundation to modify search
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Monday, September 19, 2016
UQSUQTUUQ/GJOA HAVEN
The Inuit of the Kitikmeot region have been talking about seeing a boat at the bottom of Terror Bay for years.
Sammy Kogvik of Gjoa Haven on the research vessel Martin Bergmann quietly convinced Arctic Research Foundation operations director Adrian Schimnowski to head out to Terror Bay where Sir John Franklin's second lost ship, HMS Terror, was found Sept. 2. - photo courtesy of the Arctic Research Foundation |
But the often-told stories didn't become reality until a British newspaper broke the story on Sept. 12 that the HMS Terror, Sir John Franklin's second lost ship, was found by a crew aboard the Arctic Research Foundation vessel Martin Bergmann far away from Parks Canada's planned search area.
The news took Canada by surprise.
Gjoa Haven historian Louie Kamookak said he's never come across the idea that a wreck might have been there from the oral histories he's collected from elders over the years.
"It's only in the past maybe 10 years that I've been hearing stories from the people in town of modern sightings of the ship. Actually being able to see it under the water, and the mast. And one story where someone was flying from Gjoa Haven to Cambridge Bay and saw an outline of the ship as he flew over Terror Bay," said Kamookak.
Fred Pederson of Cambridge Bay, chairperson of the Franklin Interim Advisory Committee, has heard a similar story of a sighting from the air.
"I've heard that as well. And someone else, actually, had seen a mast sticking out of the ice, as well, I think a couple of years before Sammy Kogvik saw it there. So those stories have been circulating around Gjoa Haven for a bit, kind of unconfirmed and maybe people unsure if they'd be believed or not," he said.
Then one fateful day, Sept. 2 to be precise, Canadian Ranger Sammy Kogvik and Arctic Research Foundation operations director Adrian Schimnowski stood chatting on the deck of the Research Vessel Martin Bergmann.
"At one o'clock we departed Gjoa Haven and headed west through Simpson Strait. Sammy and I were on the bridge with some of the crew members. We were looking out the windows and he was pointing out these tales of the landscape, really good hunting spots, where his family's cabins are, where friends' cabins are, abandoned equipment way in the distance. He just had a keen description of every little thing that we saw," said Schimnowski.
That's when Kogvik opened up about a mast sticking out of the ice on Terror Bay seven years prior.
"The look in Sammy's eyes when he was telling the story. He definitely saw something. I had also heard different versions of this story in Gjoa Haven. Because Sammy had actually had a photo taken of him holding the mast, even doing a bear hug. It was just so real that we couldn't not look with Sammy. He was basically asking us that we should try and go."
Schimnowski describes that moment as "an arrow pointing us in the direction to where the ship would be.
"A moment where you just knew this was very important to do."
The Bergmann and crew headed out to Terror Bay, named in 1857 by the McClintock Arctic expedition sent by Lady Jane Frankilin to search for her husband.
Once there, the Martin Bergmann searched and searched, but eventually gave up. It was time to leave and meet up with the rest of the Franklin search partners. They began sailing out of the bay.
"And after 15 minutes of sailing, we sailed right over the wreck. And that's pretty amazing because the sonar only projects a beam the width of the Bergmann, which is 28 feet. So if we were off 50 feet to either side we would not have seen it," said Schimnowski, who adds underwater video shows the ship to be in pristine condition.
The wreck had yet to be verified by Parks Canada as of press time.
"For myself, a mystery seeker, it's kind of sad (the wreck has been found). But I still have a strong feeling, from oral history, that the captain of the ship may be somewhere, on the land instead of in the ships. It will take years before we even know what's on the ships," said Kamookak.
Schimnowski, a mystery seeker himself, agrees there are many more finds in the Arctic.
