Description of Historic Place

Erebus and Terror National Historic Site of Canada is located in Erebus Bay, near King William Island, Nunavut. The site, in what is now the Canadian Arctic, comprises the remains of two 19th-century three-masted, wooden vessels, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. Manned by Captain Sir John Franklin and his crew during an attempt to navigate and map a Northwest Passage through the Arctic, both vessels were eventually trapped and wrecked by pack ice. Official recognition refers to the 200-metre radius around the hull of each ship.

Heritage Value

Erebus and Terror site was designated a national historic site of Canada in 1992 because:
- of the ships’ association with Franklin's last expeditions.

In 1845, Captain Sir John Franklin sailed from the United Kingdom in search of a Northwest Passage through what is now the Canadian Arctic. He and his crew travelled aboard the 370-tonne HMS Erebus and the 340-tonne HMS Terror, each of which had been refitted and strengthened for polar service and contained equipment to conduct zoological, botanical, magnetic and geologic surveys. Originally designed as sail-powered naval mortar bomb vessels, these wooden ships were of extremely strong construction. For Franklin’s expedition the vessels were fitted with iron sheathing at the bow and equipped with a 20-horsepower steam engine and a single screw propeller, capable of moving the ships at 4 knots.

Other than a chance encounter with a whaling vessel in 1845, Franklin, his crew and his vessels were never seen again. There were several unsuccessful search and rescue operations; however, no news of the crew was discovered until fifteen years later. In 1859, Captain William Hobson of the HMS Fox found a message in a cairn on King William Island. The message gave the locations of the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror and stated that in 1846 the crews were preparing to over-winter while the ships were lodged in pack ice. There was also a message penned by the captain of the Terror and dated 17 months later. He recorded that the ships had been stuck in the ice for a year-and-a-half, and that Franklin and several crew members had perished. The survivors were making for Back’s Fish River, to the southeast, but were never heard from again. Captain Sir John Franklin was designated as a person of national historic significance in 1945 because of his explorations in the Canadian Arctic during the 19th century.

Sources: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes, November 1992; October 2006.

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that contribute to the heritage character of the site include:
- its location in the Canadian Arctic, in Erebus Bay, Nunavut;
- any remains of the the wooden construction of the vessels, the iron sheathing at the bow, the copper hull sheathing, and the 20-horsepower steam engine with a propeller drive;
- the integrity of any surviving or as yet unidentified archaeological remains which may be found within the site in their original placement and extent, including tools, personal effects, armaments and any other nautical paraphernalia.