A ship that disappeared with its famed British explorer in the Arctic over 160 years ago was found Sunday by Canadian archaeologists in what is being called a landmark moment in Canadian history.
The HMS Erebus and HMS Terror became part of marine legend when the ships, their owner Sir John Franklin and 128 crew members disappeared during a daring Arctic expedition in 1845.
A remotely operated underwater vehicle obtained by Parks Canada found one of the long-lost vessels sleeping in the Victoria Strait off King William Island, The Guardian reported.
"This is truly a historic moment for Canada," Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said according to The Guardian. "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."
Archaeologists do not yet know if the remarkably preserved vessel is the HMS Erebus or Terror. A day before the ship was found, the Parks Canada team found a tiny fragment from the Franklin expedition in the King William Island search area.
Not much is known about what happened to Franklin and his crew of officers when they sailed from Britain on a doomed expedition to find a route from the Arctic to Asia, called the Northwest Passage. Legend says the men were forced to eat each other before they died.
But experts think the crews abandoned the ships when they became lodged in the ice near King William Island in 1848, The Guardian reported.
Rescuers scoured the area for years in search of any sign of Franklin and his ships. The last search attempt was in 1859. Recovery efforts were resumed in 2008 with six Parks Canada-led searches of the area's seabed.
Harper said this year's search, one of the largest, incorporated new technology without which the ship could have been missing for another 160 years.
"With older technology you could have been very close to this and not seen it at all," Harper said according to the Toronto Star.
