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UK / Canada: The HMS Erebus and HMS Terror leave England for the Northwest Passage, never to return. Anonymous engraving, 1845

UK / Canada: The HMS Erebus and HMS Terror leave England for the Northwest Passage, never to return. Anonymous engraving, 1845

Franklin disappeared on his last expedition, attempting to chart and navigate a section of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic. The icebound ships were abandoned and the entire crew perished from starvation, hypothermia, tuberculosis, lead poisoning and scurvy.

In September 2014, the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, announced that the wreck of HMS Erebus, one of the two ships from Franklin's final voyage, had been rediscovered.

On 12 September 2016, it was announced that the Arctic Research Foundation expedition had found the wreck of HMS Terror south of King William Island in Terror Bay and in 'pristine' condition.

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