In their submerged setting, Her Majesty’s Ship (HMS) Erebus and HMS Terror remain exposed to hydrodynamic forces generated by tides and wind-driven storms, posing risks to their structural stability and long-term preservation. These risks are expected to increase as climate change alters Arctic environmental conditions, including the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.

To assess these threats, Nunami Stantec Limited was retained by the Parks Canada Underwater Archaeology Team to evaluate wind, wave, and water-level exposure at the wreck sites using numerical modeling of publicly available environmental data and anecdotal field observations for validation. A significant storm event from September 2015 was simulated to characterize storm‑driven currents, wave orbital velocities, and near‑bed forcing at wreck depth. Climate change scenarios incorporating projected relative sea level rise were also incorporated into the numerical modeling to assess potential impacts of future storm events which may increase hydrodynamic forcing. The findings improve understanding of hydrodynamic physical hazards affecting HMS Erebus and HMS Terror and assist informing ongoing scientific observations and investigations at both sites.

Health factors have long been suspected in the loss of the Franklin expedition but documentary evidence from the expedition is scant.  A sole informative record described the expedition as “All Well” in May 1847, although ice-bound since September 1846.  But by the time the ships were deserted in April 1848, unexplained mortality had occurred which disproportionately affected officers.  Now, Inuit testimony and data from the crews’ remains and medical logs of other expeditions allow historical, forensic and statistical investigations of the cause and timeline of morbidity from departure in May 1845 to spring 1848.  A current focus is nutritional deficiencies which gradually affected Naval provisions to cause scurvy and cardiomyopathy whose debilitating effects worsened when rations lacked sufficient calories to sustain hard physical exertion.  Other Arctic expeditions could mitigate the risk by hunting fresh game, but the Franklin crews’ ice-bound isolation impeded hunting so that debility and mortality increased over winter 1847/48, and after deserting the ships.  Other theories including lead poisoning, botulism and trichinosis are not supported by evidence including X-ray imaging of remains, statistical modelling and contemporary records.  Nutritional deficiencies plausibly explain the loss of the Franklin expedition, but the disproportionate deaths of officers remain unexplained.

Knowledge shared by Natchilik Inuit, past and present, from the Kitikmeot Region was essential to locating the wreck sites of HMS Erebus and Terror. Shortly thereafter, the Wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror National Historic Site of Canada Inuit Impact and Benefit Agreement was signed outlining the importance of co-management, monitoring, and partnership between Parks Canada and Inuit of the region. 

This cooperation led to the expansion of the Nattilik Heritage Centre. Opened June 2025, it houses offices, multipurpose community spaces, a studio for oral histories, a makerspace, and storage for belongings and artifacts. Further, it was determined that selected artifacts excavated from the shipwrecks would be displayed in a purpose-built NHC exhibition where oral histories of local Inuit share how explorers affected traditional ways of life. "Unlocking the Ice” showcases artifacts from the shipwrecks alongside historic and contemporary Inuit belongings with a narrative that centers Natchilik knowledge. 

Jennifer Ullulaq, Campbell Cameron, and Sarah Beam-Borg will outline how collaboration with NHC staff and engagement with local Community guided this project and harnessed the power of co-creation built on trust and passion. A dynamic hub for cultural heritage, the NHC serves as a powerful model for shared stewardship throughout the region.

Between 2014 and 2024 Parks Canada’s Underwater Archaeology Team and its partners completed ten underwater archaeological field projects at the wreck of HMS Erebus. Collectively this comprised both open-water and through-ice operations, almost 700 dives, detailed 3D site recording, excavation, material culture research and site environment studies among other efforts. This paper will give a summary of the fieldwork and research completed on this iconic wreck and the progression of logistics, methods and multi-disciplinary work over ten years of study. It will also discuss the main research questions that guided the project and summarize what was learned through this archaeological investigation. Further, it will set-up other papers within this session, point to technical innovations, and outline our longstanding collaboration with Inuit partners.

On April 25, 1848, at a bleak spot on the northwest coast of King William Island, Captain Francis Crozier penned just eight words outlining his plan for the 105 sailors he commanded who, three days before, had deserted their ships: “start on tomorrow 26th for Backs Fish River”. Almost everything known about what the 105 actually did immediately before and after he wrote those words comes from archaeological evidence: material remains deposited or created by those sailors, including their own bodies, complemented only by some vital Inuit observations deriving from brief encounters with some of the survivors on the south coast of the island. Over the past 17 decades archaeological evidence has slowly been documented by many Inuit, by a long series of Euro-American searchers who travelled to this region, and by a very few professional archaeologists. Over those decades a much larger body of interpretations and hypotheses has also accumulated, at a pace far faster than the accumulation of actual archaeological evidence. This paper will seek to review on a broad scale some of the interpretations and hypotheses that have been proposed in light of what that accumulated archaeological evidence shows, and especially what it does not show.