"HMS Erebus or Terror found?" Topic

One of the Franklin Expedition ships has finally been found.
bbc.co.uk/newsround/29146684
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I enjoyed the novel "The Terror" by Dan Simmons, which I understand is to be made into a TV film.

It is interesting to note that each of the vessels had
been constructed originally as bomb (mortar) vessels,
armed with (each) a 13 inch and 10 inch mortar.
Originally built in 1826. During WWI, a pair of
Monitor-class ships was built carrying the same
names (Erebus and Terror)

They'd been refitted with iron plating and steam engines
for the Franklin expedition.

Supposedly they were chosen for the expedition because '
'bombs' were going out of service in the RN and because
their bows had been reinforced to withstand the shock of
firing mortars, thus making them in theory more suited
to butting their way through ice.

It's been getting a lot of coverage here (Canada). The sequence of chance events that let them nail down a better search area was interesting – they needed a random island for a navigation beacon, they had spare room on the helicopter so a couple of archeologists were invited along, the helicopter pilot liked history and helped them search the random island and found some relics and knew not to disturb them, which led the archeologists to figuring the relics hadn't been moved there in the subsequent years by the Inuit.

Also nice to see the Inuit's oral traditions being validated. I work in a completely different field, but I had a mentor drill into me to take seriously the observations of locals/laypersons/natives, just be wary of their conclusions/causal connections.

HMS Terror has a unique connection with the US as well as Canada It was one of the bomb vessels that participated in the 1813 attack on Baltimore This of course is commemorated in the line ; "And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air," as found in "the Star Spangled Banner"

HMS Terror was converted into an exploration ship due to its extra strong timbers required for its use as a bomb vessel, She participated in several voyages to both the Arctic and Antarctic under various commanders The last voyage was under Franklin with the ship being lost in 1848

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