Photos Released of 150 Year Old British Navy Ship

A British navy ship abandoned and lost in Canadian Arctic waters since the mid-19th century has been found in relatively good shape at the bottom of a bay.

Parks Canada has released images of the HMS Investigator, found late last month at the bottom of Mercy Bay. The bay is located in the Northwest Territories' Aulavik National Park. The discovery is part of two Canadian archaeological missions to locate the Investigator and two other ships.

The HMS Investigator was the first ship to sail the last leg of the Northwest Passage, the Arctic sea route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The structure of the ship lies on the bottom in relatively shallow water and is in good condition.

Royal Navy Capt. Robert McClure led the 66-man HMS Investigator on an 1850 expedition through Arctic waters to rescue two other ships -- the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror.

Those vessels, led by explorer Sir John Franklin, were lost in the Arctic during an 1845 voyage to discover a northwest passage.


The HMS Investigator became "locked in ice" and eventually had to be abandoned in 1853.

As part of its mission to find the Investigator, archaeologists wanted to document the land sites tied to the ship's mission. The crew found the grave sites of three crew members who died of scurvy.