British Ship Found in Arctic

British Ship Found in Arctic

Canadian archaeologists found the remains of a British ship abandoned in the Arctic more than 150 years ago after it was sent to find two vessels that went missing in their search for the elusive Northwest Passage.

The wreck of the HMS Investigator was detected with the help of sonar technology in the relatively shallow waters of Mercy Bay, off Canada's Banks Island.






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Sample of British Ship

It was sitting upright about 36 feet down on the seafloor and was "in surprisingly good condition," said Marc-Andre Bernier, the head of underwater archaeology at Parks Canada. "The reason we were so lucky in a way was because the ship had not moved too much from the place it was abandoned," he was quoted as saying in London's Daily Telegraph.

Jim Prentice, Canada's minister of the environment, told the BBC: "It's an incredible sight ... a remarkably intact British sailing vessel."

The Investigator, captained by Robert McClure, had been sent from Britain to search for two ships lost in an ill-fated expedition headed by Sir John Franklin to find the Northwest Passage.

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