New Parks Canada reports released.
8 December 2025.
HMS Terror Underwater Archaeological Survey April 2017. By Charles Dagneau & Jonathan Moore.
Underwater Archaeological Survey of HMS Terror and Excavation of HMS Erebus in 2019. By Charles Dagneau & Jonathan Moore.
Two more previously private archaeology reports were released today by Parks Canada’s Underwater Archaeology Team. One covers the survey of Terror through the ice in Spring of 2017 (link), while the other covers the highly productive 2019 regular dive season that visited both ships (link).
Highlights/first impressions:
The 2019 report contains the first full-resolution release of the wonderfully detailed Terror lower deck plan (on page 19).
The 2019 season had intended to recover the (massive) Erebus propeller — and was only stopped by running out of time.
These reports bring a wealth of new images of the Terror. However, as usual for that ship, much of this imagery is very hazy and murky, and requires some squinting. There are nonetheless new photos (2019 report, page 26) of the Terror’s desk and the huge wooden hoop identified by Riddell’s magnetic equipment list (see Illuminator Newsletter #41), which the report mentions is a whopping 3m/10ft across.
Confirmation a long-suspected identification of a momentary view in the 2019 tour video of Terror (italics mine): “The shelves on the starboard side are mainly empty except for what appear to be degraded book bindings.” [Link to that exact moment in the tour video.]
In a story I’ve never heard told before: years before Sammy Kogvik, Parks Canada recorded that Gjoa Haven resident James Qitsualik reported seeing a ship in shallow water on the eastern side of Terror Bay (2017 report, page 9). Land and helicopter searches were carried out in two different years following this, but both times, Terror managed to stay hidden.
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