Archeologists diving the HMS Investigator, a 19th century shipwreck in the Canadian Arctic, have brought back artifacts they hope will reveal details about the lost Franklin expedition. The former merchant ship made two voyages to the Arctic in search of Sir John Franklin’s storied voyage, but was abandoned in 1853 after becoming trapped in the Arctic ice. The ship was discovered in 2010 in Mercy Bay off Banks Island in the Beaufort Sea.

A team of six divers, including one from the U.S. Parks Service, conducted more than 100 dives in water temperatures ranging from -2C to +2C.“I’ve been doing this for over 20 years. This was probably the most phenomenal and exciting project — for all of us” said Marc-Andre Bernier, chief of underwater archaeology services.

This year, the ice in Mercy Bay opened up enough to allow divers nine straight days of unimpeded underwater exploration. Sixteen pieces were recovered, primarily to evaluate their overall condition and protect them from the ravages of time and ice. They included ship’s fittings, copper hull plates, a British marine musket from 1842 and a pair of shoes plucked from the deck of HMS Investigator, just eight metres beneath the freezing Arctic waters.

The hull plates, one of which was lined with insulating felt, were particularly valuable archaeologically, as they will help identify pieces found elsewhere and perhaps point searchers toward Franklin’s lost ships. In addition to the cold water, the fine state of preservation was due to the sediment filling the vessel’s interior.

The HMS Investigator was purchased and refitted by the British Admiralty in 1848, the same year the ship accompanied HMS Enterprise on James Clark Ross’s expedition in a futile search for Franklin. During the second trip, the vessel became ensnared in the ice, before being abandoned three years later on June 3, 1853.

Still trapped a year later, crews of the HMS Resolute inspected the Investigator and reported it to be in fair condition, despite having taken on water during the summer thaw. The Investigator’s captain, Robert McClure, kept a log of the journey while ship’s surgeon Alexander Armstrong published his own account in 1857.

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