Dan Simmons' The Terror - ship found.

MaeZe · Aug 30, 2019

I'm not sure which forum to put this in but who here has read Dan Simmon's The Terror?

‘Frozen in time’: Eerie footage inside 170-year-old shipwreck from lost Arctic expedition

Simmons wrote The Terror based on a real historical event. He's an incredible writer as many of you know. (I wasn't impressed with the made for TV movie but the book was great.)

Archaeologists have obtained unprecedented footage of an Arctic shipwreck “frozen in time” for more than a century and a half.

Video from inside HMS Terror reveals china plates and bottles still stacked on shelves, eerily well-preserved officers’ cabins and weapons still in their racks.

Tantalisingly, scientists believe that paper and photographic records of the ship’s last years may still be intact inside cupboards and desks aboard the wreck.

“Artefacts have been essentially frozen in time for approximately 170 years” thanks to frigid temperatures and sediment build-up, said Parks Canada in a statement.

Terror was one of two ships in a doomed expedition to complete the navigation of the Northwest Passage, which left England in 1845 and was led by Sir John Franklin.

Friendly Frog · Aug 31, 2019

I haven't read the book, may have to look out for it now, but I did see a documentary a few months ago of the expedition on which they finally located the ships with radar.

But the story of the final expedition of the Terror and the Erebus is pretty wild: geting icebound, crew dropping like flies, cannibalism while dragging a canoe filled with chocolate, an abandonned ship that starts moving again... There is certainly enough story material there.

They even think they can still lift documents from the Terror. That would be quite a feat and may shed some light on what exactly did happen. I wonder whether they will have to develop a totally new sea rover that can open drawers. I guess they migh be a little stuck after all that damp.

Coddiwomple · Aug 31, 2019

Ooh that’s sooo coooool! Thanks for sharing it. I read The Terror and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Such an engrossing episode of history, and the way Simmons interwove that history with unforgettable characters and supernatural aspects is truly amazing.

Kjbartolotta · Aug 31, 2019

Thanks for sharing, love anything Franklin Expedition related. And I liked the show, but nowhere near the book.

I had two conversations alone in the last week where someone I know attributed the expedition's fate to naming the ships Terror and Erebus. I know they were former bomber ships, but man those are bad names for a polar expedition.

Victorians: Because No One Ever Suffered Blowback From Hubris.

PostHuman · Aug 31, 2019

I loved this book and hated what the characters were doing. Perhaps one of the most excruciating yet highly enjoyable novels I've ever read.

Cobalt Jade · Aug 31, 2019

Haven't read the book, but I do wonder, why back then. why anyone would name a ship The Terror? Or Erebus? Seems like a jinx from the start.

Kjbartolotta · Aug 31, 2019

Cobalt Jade said:
Haven't read the book, but I do wonder, why back then. why anyone would name a ship The Terror? Or Erebus? Seems like a jinx from the start.

They were warships (Hecla-class, also pretty metal) which explains the doomy-sounding names. But you'd think they'd change them for the expedition, naming one of your ships in a polar expedition after what's essential an elder god of ice and darkness sounds like it'll create issues.

Alessandra Kelley · Sep 1, 2019

I got all excited about this a few years ago when the second wreck was discovered:

https://absolutewrite.com/forums/sh...e-to-mystery-of-doomed-1848-Arctic-expedition

Cobalt Jade said:
Haven't read the book, but I do wonder, why back then. why anyone would name a ship The Terror? Or Erebus? Seems like a jinx from the start.

They were originally British warships, refitted for exploration. They kept the scary names.

The HMS Terror was one of the British warships which bombarded Fort McHenry at the Battle of Baltimore in 1814, inspiring Francis Scott Key to write the Star-Spangled Banner.

The inauspicious names do make for an extra frisson of horror at what happened, of course.

As a side note to a side note, the wrecks were pinpointed and logged (although the Inuit knew about them all along) because Canada is asserting its sovereignty over the Northwest Passage because global warming.

Friendly Frog · Sep 4, 2019

Oh so that's why the wrecks were turned over to Canada, I did wonder about it.

The documentary I saw wryly commented that if the British coming over to discover the fate of the expedition afterwards had paid a little more attention to what the Inuit were trying to tell them, much of the mystery of the ship's disappearance would have been solved much quicker. Ouch.

Dan Simmons' The Terror - ship found.

MaeZe

Friendly Frog

Snarkenfaugister

Coddiwomple

shipwrecked in antiquity

Kjbartolotta

Potentially has/is dog

PostHuman

Cobalt Jade

Kjbartolotta

Potentially has/is dog

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian

Friendly Frog

Snarkenfaugister