Hunt for Franklin echoes old battle for ownership of Northwest passage

Last Modified: 19 Aug 2008
By: Helene Cacace

The explorer Sir John Franklin disappeared as he hunted for the Northwest passage and as the ice melts a Canadian expedition now seeks to recover him, More4 News reports.

And there's an irony. Just as Franklin and his crew were seeking to exert British sovereignty over the Northwest passage, so too in the modern age Canada is seeking to uphold its sovereignty over an area that may soon become an open sea.

Somewhere in the harsh arctic wastes of Canada, stand two preserved 19th century sailing ships.

On board are the frozen bodies of crewmembers, men of the 1840s from London, Liverpool and Belfast, looking still to the pole to this day, asleep by their hide-covered sledges and holding fast to the jagged webbing of their spectral vessels.