Bell Recovered from Wreck of HMS Erebus

The ship's bell recovered from the recently discovered Franklin Expedition shipwreck, HMS Erebus, was unveiled by the Honorable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of the Environment and Minister responsible for Parks Canada.

The artifact was recovered during dives and archaeological investigation by Parks Canada's underwater archaeology team in September. The bell was found on the deck adjacent to the ship's displaced windlass (a form of anchor winch), above which it was originally mounted. Since then, the bell has been undergoing conservation stabilization and additional research.

The bell is intact and generally in very good condition. Two embossed markings - introduced when the bronze bell was first cast - are evident on the artifact: a Royal Navy "broad arrow" indicating property of the British Government, as well as the date "1845."

"The bell of HMS Erebus provides a tangible and compelling connection to the Franklin ships and is an important part of naval and Canadian history,” Aglukkaq said. “The recovery of this important artifact is the crowning achievement for an incredibly successful 2014 search campaign that has captivated Canadians and the entire world."

Minister Aglukkaq also released new multi-beam sonar images that were crucial to the identification of the wreck as HMS Erebus. The data to produce these highly accurate, 3D-representations of the wreck as it stands on the seabed were collected in September by the Canadian Hydrographic Service (Department of Fisheries and Ocean) concurrently to Parks Canada's dive operations.

There have been six major Parks Canada-led searches for the lost Franklin Expedition ships since 2008, covering many hundreds of square kilometers of the Arctic seabed.

The initial discovery of a ship belonging to the Franklin Expedition, made by side-scan sonar towed from the Parks Canada research vessel Investigator, was confirmed on September 7, 2014, using Parks Canada's remotely operated vehicle. On September 30, 2014, it was confirmed that the ship is HMS Erebus.

Parks Canada underwater archaeologists - the first to lay eyes on the ship in nearly 170 years - conducted seven dives to the shipwreck over two intensive days of on-site investigation, taking diagnostic measurements, high-resolution photography, and high-definition video. The artifact was identified during the very first dive on the site, and recovered during the very last dive.

The HMS Erebus bell is being stored in an environmentally-controlled and physically secure location at the Parks Canada archaeological conservation laboratory in Ottawa. The bell is currently immersed in a bath of distilled water, the chemistry of which is monitored daily to detect any changes in the condition of the artifact. It will undergo a lengthy conservation treatment perhaps taking 18 months or longer.