In the frigid waters of the Canadian Arctic, nearly 100 meters beneath the surface, lies a ship seemingly untouched by time. Despite the passage of more than a century, she is more or less intact, except for a gaping hole in her starboard side. Two of her masts still rise from the seabed.
The ship is Breadalbane, the world’s northernmost known shipwreck, and also one of the best-preserved wooden ships ever found in the sea. She lies approximately 1,000 km south of the North Pole.
The Breadalbane and Phoenix beset in ice. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Breadalbane was built by the firm of Hedderwick and Rankin in 1842-1843 in a shipyard on the Clyde River near Glasgow, Scotland. She was named after Breadalbane, a region of the Scottish Highlands. She was roughly 125 feet from bow to stern and displaced about 430 tons. She was sturdily built, of a bewildering variety of woods, drawn from all over the British Empire and beyond: African and American Oak, Quebec Rock Elm, Red and Yellow pine, as well as English and Welsh oak.
Unlike the sleek clipper ships that would later dominate the seas, Breadalbane was designed not for speed but for the economical transport of cargo. Her bows were bluff, her proportions broad and generous to accommodate capacious holds, and her lines plain and practical rather than elegant.
For much of her career, Breadalbane sailed between Europe and British India transporting all kinds of goods. In spring 1853 Breadalbane was called into service by the Royal Navy and sent to the high Arctic area of Resolute Bay (now in Nunavut) to carry supplies to Sir Edward Belcher's expedition, which since 1852 had been searching for the ships and men of the Franklin Expedition.
In 1845, the British explorer John Franklin sailed into the Arctic aboard HMS Erebus and HMS Terror in search of the Northwest Passage. The expedition vanished without a trace. Britain responded with one of the largest rescue efforts in naval history, sending ship after ship into the polar seas. Belcher's squadron was the Royal Navy's last and largest search expedition.
Breadalbane left the Thames Estuary on 19 May 1853, fully loaded with provisions for the search expeditions, and arrived at Disko Island, Greenland, on 8 July, where she met up with her powerful consort, the HMS Phoenix. Unlike the Phoenix, which was a screw propulsion ship, Breadalbane was not updated with steam engines and screw propellers. Instead, she was towed through adverse winds and dangerous ice by the Phoenix.
The ships arrived near Beechey Island off the southwest coast of Devon Island on 8 August. Beechey was the place where the Franklin crews had spent their first winter of 1845-46, onboard their frozen-in ships. It was now being used as a staging base for the Belcher expedition ships. Breadalbane and Phoenix had brought much needed supplies to the isolated Royal Navy crews confined to Beechey for many months. After the ships were unloaded, drifting ice began to close in on the region. On 21 August, a slab of ice pierced the Breadalbane on the starboard bow.
Breadalbane and Phoenix landing stores at Cape Riley. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The 21-member crew rapidly evacuated the ship taking along with them whatever supplies they could salvage. Within fifteen minutes, the vessel sank to the floor of the Barrow Strait.
For more than 125 years, the wreck remained lost beneath the ice-choked waters of the Barrow Strait. The Arctic preserved her in extraordinary condition. The freezing temperatures slowed decay, while the darkness and lack of shipworms protected the wooden hull from the destruction that usually consumes shipwrecks.
In 1978, Canadian physician and explorer Joseph B. MacInnis led an expedition to search for the long-lost vessel. Using side-scan sonar, the team searched the waters south of Beechey Island. Finally, after 3 years of searching, the sonar revealed the unmistakable outline of a ship resting upright on the seabed, nearly a kilometer and a half south of Beechey Island.
The expedition found the wreck was almost intact. Two masts still stood upright. The copper sheathing on the hull gleamed faintly in the cold water. A deckhouse remained in place. Inside, divers later discovered a compass, signal lamp, and the ship’s wooden steering wheel. The ship was wrapped in soft, pink coral.
Later, the ship's wheel was recovered and turned over to Parks Canada for preservation and display.
Today, the wreck of Wreck of Breadalbane National Historic Site of Canada is protected as a National Historic Site of Canada. Historians consider it invaluable not only because of its connection to the Franklin search expeditions, but also because it offers a rare glimpse into mid-Victorian seafaring life.
References:
# Breadalbane (ship). Wikipedia
# Breadalbane Part 1: Wrecked near the Top of the World. War searcher
# Breadalbane. The Canadian Encyclopedia
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