Divers involved in Franklin expedition say the 2023 season 'highly productive'

If it's possible to look through the eyes of the past, Jonathan Moore has done it.

The manager of a team of Parks Canada underwater archeologists excavating the rediscovered ships of the doomed Franklin expedition once held in his hands the lens from a pair of eyeglasses fetched from the deep. Then he held it up to his own eye.

"I wear glasses," Moore said. "I know that would have been an incredibly important personal possession.

"It certainly struck me as a connection with that individual. Some of these specific artifacts are incredibly evocative."

Moore was summing up what he called a highly productive season of excavation on the Erebus, one of Sir John Franklin's two ships that set out from England in 1845. Neither it nor the Terror — nor the 129 men they carried — ever returned.

More than 30 expeditions sought them, to find only a few artifacts, graves and ghastly tales of cannibalism.

Through Inuit oral history and high-tech surveys, Erebus was found in 2014, just off the northwest coast of King William Island in Nunavut. The Terror was found two years later. The discoveries made global headlines.

Since then, Parks Canada's underwater archeology team has been excavating both ships. Last summer was a good season.

"We had excellent weather, excellent underwater visibility," said Moore.

That allowed the team to make 68 dives. Heated diving suits with air pumped from the surfaced allowed some of those dives to last for hours.

Climate change, however, is shifting the terms of the work. Less sea ice means the wrecks are more vulnerable to waves and currents generated by winter storms, Moore said.

"There's noticeable change to the wreck," he said. "In 2018, part of the upper deck flipped over. We're getting evidence of artifacts moving around and timbers shifting."

To track the changes, the team documented the site with thousands of high-resolution digital photos and produced precise three-dimensional models. It's working with Edmonton-based engineering firm Stantec to model the currents and other disturbances influencing the site.

The Erebus, in much shallower water than the Terror, is most at risk. That's why last summer's dives focused on it. The disturbance had revealed a tantalizing new target.