The Terror

During the Age of Exploration, European powers sought to find more efficient trade routes to Asia. The southern route around Africa proved successful, and a passage around South America, the Strait of Magellan, was identified in 1520. In the following centuries, attention turned to the possibility of a “Northwest Passage,” or a northern maritime shortcut connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. By the end of the 1700s, early expeditions had found many dead ends, but not a continuous navigable waterway. Nevertheless, the allure of the Passage persisted and became a matter of national pride, especially for Britain, to find it. The British Admiralty in the early 19th century, led by figures like Sir John Barrow, pushed to chart a complete route through the Arctic.

By the 1840s, the search for the Northwest Passage began to focus on a relatively unexplored region of the Canadian Arctic archipelago. Sir John Franklin, a British naval officer and explorer, was chosen to lead what was hoped to be the expedition to navigate the remaining segment of the passage. The ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, had recently returned from Antarctic exploration and were outfitted with the latest technology. They featured reinforced hulls to withstand pack ice and were equipped with auxiliary steam engines and screw propellers to propel them when winds were calm or ice conditions required extra power.