See the first-ever tour of the shipwreck of HMS Erebus

hello my name is Ryan Harris and I'm an underwater archaeologist with Parks Canada and we have a real treat for you today as you're going to be the first people in the entire world to witness a live broadcast for the wreck site of ancient myth Erebus one of the two ships from the lost search on Franklin expedition of 1845 enjoyed underwater here today when my colleague from the underwater archaeology team Jerry boy is doing the camera work and also my Leading Seaman Caleb Hoover from the Royal Canadian Navy fleet diving unit Atlantic it's gonna making sure that our ability our breathing hoses don't fall on the wreck site to damage the wreck the three of us are gonna take you on a guided tour of this remarkable shipwreck site and we're going to make some several strategic stops to show you some of the most interesting parts of the wreck go ahead won't you follow me so here is the first stop on our tour of HMS Erebus and this is pretty much the first one of the first features we saw when we inspected the site with a remotely operated vehicle or underwater robot last September what you see here [Music] our two brass 6-pounder Canada we're able to determine the caliber of the guns by measuring the diameter the bore of the gun so these cuts would each shown a six pound cannonball now you might ask yourself why does an exploration ship have cannons on board well at the same time it was also a Royal Navy ship and it was sentient into the Arctic with a bit of a bore of it with leave of one 12-pounder at two six pound to six pounder cannons after it was meant to go through the Northwest Passage Erebus and terror were meant to go all the way back to England boy in the Pacific and you they'd never do what or what situation they might be in where they would actually have to defend themselves so these two beautiful guns wear a clear indication at the outset that we were indeed looking at a row baby vessel here we are at the stern of the ship this pict ever to my left is the stern PO and this is the runner post the tempo to which the runner was attached one of the most interesting things about HMS Erebus is that along with HMS terror it was one of the first two ships to be modified to have a screw propeller for polar navigation the ship was provided with twelve days of coal and they were told to only use the steam engine when there was no wind for drive the sales or when they had to get through a temporary opening in the ice called a lead so they didn't want to have the propeller in place all the time because it would just slow them down so what we see it here is the mechanism by which the propeller can be raised and lowered and in and out of position so these bronze tracks allowed the two plane and propeller did he lift it up through an opening or a well in the deck when it wasn't in use the point of this is that when they were overwintering in the Arctic the ice could tear away the rudder post or the propeller and they would actually fill up this space this COBE the propeller aperture is where the propeller would turn right we're looking at you and they'd fill it up with wood to protect the storage area the winter next we're actually going to proceed up to the top of the upper deck and take a look where the men would have walked on the ship let's go now we're on top of the quarterdeck this is the part of the deck okay with kelp now where the officers would have controlled the ship what I'm looking at here is the rectangular outline of a skylight this is actually a window that would have looked out into the word room where the senior officers would have taken their meals officers like commander T and Smith's jeans the second-in-command Stephen Stanley the ship's surgeon on Airbus and left head at Graham Gor first left in it this large cylindrical object beside this guy light is actually the ship's tiller this is the log to Tromp should that would have allowed the ship's wheel or the helm to actually turn the rudder back and forth to steer the ship so this pillar would have gone all the way back to the top of the rudder of the rudder head it's very long it's over 12 feet it's made out of bronze to be quite strong this is because when they added the propeller to Erebus in 1845 they had to make the ship a little bit longer so they needed a longer tiller [Music] a little bit farther forward of the skylight over the Wardrobe we this feature of the upper deck this is the tallest part surviving on the wreck of HMS Erebus this is actually the ship's capstan the couch dad was essentially a large barrel that would turn on his axis and it was used to provide mechanical advantage preventing the ship's heavy sails and yards the various spores for controlling the course of the ship the gas that would also be used to assist the witless father for and retrieving the ship's heavy anchors and anchor chain let's proceed farther forward towards the mast [Music] here we are at the side of the main mast the tallest of the three and mass on the ship the top of his butt broke it off this does begin to it say when Erebus sake they founded the following spring but only to the point where they could see the mass still sticking above the surface of the water so the broken off the main mass shows how the ice violently carried the pass away soon after it sank on either side of the main mast are these interesting features here [Music] this is the portside bilge pump these are the pumps that sucked water right out of the fill so these tubes here so they can get it out of the hole any wooden ship takes on water and if it is a pump don't regularly the ship will sink so this attractive brass bilge pump is actually a patented bassy bilge pump there be two tubes it's forced air down one tube and suck water out the other at the double action pump what we don't know is how a semester of is sick possibly after the last crewman left the ship there is no one left to pump it out anymore and it gradually filled and sing you

Channel: Calgary Herald

Views: 22,806

Keywords: archaeology, franklin expedition, hms erebus, northwest passage, parks canada, royal geographical society, ryan harris, sir john franklin, calgary, calgary news

Id: ZxH18XKqt-k

Length: 9min 51sec (591 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 24 2018