A cruise ship carrying more than 1,000 tourists traversed the northern ocean of North America for the first time this year. The ice is no longer what it once was scientists think that the Arctic will be reliably ice-free and navigable in the summer by the middle of the century, if not earlier. The story of the ships’ loss and eventual finding reveals how much the Arctic, and our relationship with this frontier, has changed in just a few decades. Last month, the second big piece of the mystery fell into place when an Inuit ranger and a team of explorers announced that they had located HMS Terror - in near-pristine condition, not far from the Erebus - at the bottom of the Northwest Passage. It was not until 2014 that the first traces emerged, when divers located a shipwreck that they identified as HMS Erebus, named after the spiritual limbo between Earth and hell. The Inuit, native residents of the North, tell tales of the three-masted ships caught in ice and of men afflicted by scurvy and going hungry, until finally they broke the biggest taboo of humankind: cannibalism.ĭespite search efforts, neither ship was found. (AP/Parks Canada/The Canadian Press)Īlmost two centuries ago, 134 men set sail on two British naval ships to discover the fabled Northwest Passage, a trade route through the Arctic linking Europe to the riches of the East. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the find on Sept. `Michael Palin is a cracking good companion on this journey of ambition, longing, triumph and tragedy.Experts revealed side-scan sonar image of fabled British explorer ship, HMS Erebus, on the sea floor in northern Canada. the age of adventure lives on' - Alanna Mitchell, author of The Spinning Magnet: The Force that Created the Modern World and Could Destroy It `Michael Palin is a cracking good companion on this journey of ambition, longing, triumph and tragedy. simply terrific writing by Michael Palin.' - Roy MacGregor, author of Original Highways: Travelling the Great Rivers of Canada `What more could a reader ask for? Fascinating mystery, chilling adventure, compelling characters. Palin has given us a fascinating account of extraordinary courage' - Charlotte Gray, author of The Promise of Canada: People and Ideas that Shaped Our Country `One robust little tub of a boat, two death-defying voyages to the ends of the earth. The Erebus story is the Arctic epic we've all been waiting for.' - Nicholas Crane Vividly recounting the experiences of the men who first set foot on Antarctica's Victoria Land, and those who, just a few years later, froze to death one by one in the Arctic ice, beyond the reach of desperate rescue missions, Erebus is a wonderfully evocative account of a truly extraordinary adventure, brought to life by a master explorer and storyteller. The ship was filled with fascinating people: the dashing and popular James Clark Ross, who charted much of the `Great Southern Barrier' the troubled John Franklin, whose chequered career culminated in the Erebus's final, disastrous expedition and the eager Joseph Dalton Hooker, a brilliant naturalist - when he wasn't shooting the local wildlife dead. Michael Palin - Monty Python star and television globetrotter - brings the remarkable Erebus back to life, following it from its launch in 1826 to the epic voyages of discovery that led to glory in the Antarctic and to ultimate catastrophe in the Arctic.

In 1848, it disappeared in the Arctic, its fate a mystery. HMS Erebus was one of the great exploring ships, a veteran of groundbreaking expeditions to the ends of the Earth.

Erebus ship