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Lorenzo
Trad climber
Portland Oregon
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“Ice Ghosts” by Paul Watson (2017) is about the most recent you’ll find.
Some about the expedition, some about Canadian motives in claiming the find( territorial, oil and gas ), some about Inuit historian Louie Kamookak’s (RIP) role in preserving oral Inuit traditions about the wrecks and the Franklin crew.
Good read. You may find parts of it not on topic for what you are looking for.
I think you can get it as an ebook.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Outside the Asylum
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 2, 2019 - 05:55pm PT
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Captain Noon also spoke highly of Ice Ghosts, and showed a slide showing all the known relics of Erebus and Terror found so far. Dots on the map of King William Island. Lots of dots. And in a few other places to the south. The interesting thing being that few artefacts have been found in the area in which Erebus was found, which was well to the south of where they thought she would be. Suggesting perhaps that she was finally abandoned well before she sank?
When they found Erebus, they were "mowing the lawn" in the water to the west. Meaning running the side scan radar back and forth on parallel tracks, to see what was below. Before the wreck was found, they were looking around on the land - as they always do - and someone found a large metal hoop-like thing, which they were able to identify as having been from the Royal Navy due to it having an arrow. It was a gaff holder, IIRC, but Noon didn't say anything about how it could have gotten there from the wreck.
Michael Palin's new book Erebus is the story of that vessel, and so to a considerable extent that of Terror and in due course the Franklin expedition. Quite readable, but it may not add a lot to the story.
It'll be interesting to see what the archaeologists come up with. So to speak. And how they interpret it, in context of all the information.
I've met several Inuit and Greenlanders. They have a reputation for robust senses of humour. It seems possible that Sammy Kogvik, knowing that there was a strong oral tradition of masts/wood sticking out of the water at Terror Bay (in say the 1850s), got fed up with the idiot kabloonas who planned to search elsewhere, and so made up a story to get their attention. After all, there was wood sticking out of the water, just not quite so recently.
Yes, it's hard to work out a cost/benefit for this, although clearly there are other agendas besides archaeology and history. With global warming, Canada needs to increase its Arctic capabilities, and its one way to generate interest.
The one that's harder to figure out is the retrieval of Maud, and return of her to Norway, at ginormous cost. Lots of romance, but negligible addition to archaeology or history - there's little about her that wasn't already know. Also, her deck was at or just below the surface, so she was thoroughly pounded by ice, to the point of being not much more than a pile of planks.
And yes, there really was a photo of a sextant on Erebus.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Outside the Asylum
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 13, 2019 - 01:18pm PT
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Speaking of instruments and measuring, I chatted with a friend today, who works in remote sensing. World level stuff, way above my pay grade. I asked why, given that Erebus and Terror contained large chunks of iron, the wrecks couldn't have been located with an airborne magnetometer, rather than sidescan sonar. The short answer is that the magnetometer is subject to an inverse cube relationship, in terms of distance from a target, whereas the sonar is only inverse cube. That, plus the logistics of operating the aircraft on a tight grid pattern - 100 m intervals or less - and keeping the aircraft up for long periods, make sonar the preferred method.
Edit: Erebus and Terror had steam engines, in fact converted railway engines. Weighing several tonnes each. Lots of iron to look for, although as point sources they couldn't be located from a distance with a magnetometer.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Feb 13, 2019 - 01:27pm PT
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Other than some small cannon, a stove, and presumably a forge that doesn’t sound like a lot.
Granted, it is more dense than what is normally found in nature but maybe not enough to
merit an extensive search? And a 100 m aerial search pattern? Really?
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Outside the Asylum
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 14, 2019 - 01:08pm PT
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In other news, SA Agulhas has been positioned at the location where Endurance sank for several days, and is searching for the wreck using an Underwater Autonomous Vehicle and side scan sonar.
Shackleton's skipper, Frank Worsely [Worsley?], was a very skilled navigator and used a sextant and chronometer to calculate the precise co-ordinates of the Endurance sinking - 68°39'30.0" South and 52°26'30.0" West.
The ship is almost certainly within a few nautical miles of this point - and there is every chance it is in reasonable condition.
In about 3,000 m.
Update: Agulhas has lost contact with the UAV, and the search has ended.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/14/search-for-shackletons-endurance-called-off-after-loss-of-submarine
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BruceHildenbrand
Social climber
Mountain View/Boulder
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Feb 14, 2019 - 02:17pm PT
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105 years later the Antarctic proves that it is still a difficult proposition! Here's my SWAG. The ROV got tangled up in the rigging of the ship and it caused widespread failure of it's systems:-)
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Feb 14, 2019 - 05:59pm PT
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For Toker Villain and all you nautical geeks, check out Randall Reeves and his: The Figure 8 Voyage – Around the Americas and Antarctica in one ...http://figure8voyage.com/a-committed-sailor/
Randall is on his 2nd attempt for this bold endeavor, bailed last year into Hobart from storm damage, sailed back to San Francisco and now well into his second attempt, 131 days and counting, and last I saw becalmed off the South island of NZ.
Excellent sailor, excellent boat for this and well worth following his progress......
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i-b-goB
Social climber
Nutty
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Feb 14, 2019 - 06:07pm PT
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Holy Moli, guido!
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Lorenzo
Trad climber
Portland Oregon
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Feb 15, 2019 - 02:46am PT
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Speaking of Endurance, today marks Ernest Henry Shackleton’s birthday (1874-1922)
Lift a glass of Guinness for the guy.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Outside the Asylum
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 7, 2019 - 10:48pm PT
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Tonight's talk at the maritime museum was by Rob Rondeau, a marine archaeologist - although he's from Saskatchewan. Mostly about Roald Amundsen, but he was in Cambridge Bay when they were raising Maud, and involved in the first part of the search for Terror and Erebus. (Thought I'd reverse their usual order.) The usual interesting stuff.
He has also worked in Norway, including searching for wrecks of World War II and other planes off the coast, and looking for the remnants of the Latham 47 plane which Amundsen, Dietrichsen and others were in when it disappeared in 1928. They searched a substantial area near Bjørn Øya, where a number of anomalies have been detected, mainly by trawlers.
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BruceHildenbrand
Social climber
Mountain View/Boulder
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A cool fact about Amundsen is that he was the first person to reach both the south(by land) and the north(by air) poles.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Outside the Asylum
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 20, 2019 - 10:30am PT
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Some cool photos found recently at the hut at Cape Evans. They were taken by Shackleton's Ross Sea party during 1914 - 17, with the negatives recently found and developed. Plus the NZAHT has lots of other neat stuff on its website.
https://www.nzaht.org/pages/ross-sea-party-photos
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