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One of two ships lost during an arctic expedition in 1845 has finally been found.
British explorer Sir John Franklin, his 128 man crew, and their two ships vanished more than 160 years ago searching for a route through the Canadian Arctic to the Pacific. Due to melting Arctic ice, the Northwest Passage has recently begun to open up.
In 2008, a century after the search for Franklin ended, the Canadian government announced a new mission to find his two missing ships, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror. The move was in part as an effort to assert Canadian sovereignty over the very passage that the legendary Victorian explorer was trying to discover.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the discovery on Tuesday, heralding the findings as an important moment in the history of the country.
This has been a great Canadian story and mystery and the subject of scientists, historians, writers and singers so I think we really have an important day in mapping the history of our country."
Harper has made finding the ships a national priority by financing multiple years of expeditions for the nearly 200-year-old vessels, The Wall Street Journal reported.