Quest continues for artifacts
Parks Canada plans for future of Franklin ships as debate over ownership continues
Derek Neary
Northern News Services
Monday, August 28, 2017
GJOA HAVEN
Parks Canada will search for more artifacts from the Franklin ship HMS Erebus this summer, but it's not yet settled who owns them.
The Government of Canada remains in talks with the Government of the United Kingdom, where the Franklin ships originated, over ultimate possession of historic objects recovered from the wreckage site.
The Inuit Heritage Trust also has a stake in the matter as the Nunavut Agreement states that any artifacts found in the territory belong to the Inuit through the heritage trust, explained Fred Pedersen, chair of the Franklin Interim Advisory Committee.
He said he's "definitely" confident the issue can be settled without the involvement of international courts.
In the meantime, "Parks Canada and the U.K. are deciding where the exhibitions (of artifacts) are being located and for how long, but once the ownership issue is settled and the Inuit Heritage Trust has ownership and control of them, then they'll be making the decisions," Pedersen said.
In the coming weeks, Parks Canada expects to send a dive team to a shoal near the Erebus to scour the depths for more relics from the ship, which, like its sister ship HMS Terror, became locked in Arctic ice in the mid-1840s and eventually sank. All 129 crew members from the vessels perished in the frigid conditions. Their mission was to traverse the Northwest Passage.
Parks Canada's plans for this season also include sending a remotely-operated vehicle underwater to explore inside the hull of the Erebus, discovered in 2014, in hopes of obtaining imagery of the coal storage bunkers and the steam engine.
Artifacts identified in past dives include brass cannons, a cast-bronze bell, and the handle of a sword.
In the years ahead, Parks Canada is aiming to remove the artifacts as well as sediment and some timbers to access other portions of the ship, such as the officers' cabins, according to Meaghan Bradley, a communications officer with Parks
Canada.
There is no plan to raise the ship, Bradley said.
As for HMS Terror, the "next steps will consist of continuing to analyze data from previous dives, and plans for future research," she added.
Parks Canada's 2017 budget related to the Franklin ships won't be finalized until the end of the operational season, Bradley noted.
