Canadian scientists have identified, after 157 years, the famous British ship Rescue «Investigator», which was lost in the Arctic, while attempting to find traces of a previous expedition.

Archaeologists have identified well-preserved wreck of a ship at a depth of only 11 meters in Mercia Bay of Banks Island. Using soundings devices within 15 minutes they found the boat, but the bodies of three sailors.

The «Investigator» was trying to find for two ships of the legendary British captain John Franklin, the “Fear” and “Erebus, which had sailed in 1845 in order to find the fabled Northwest Passage, but never returned to their bases. The identification of the harbor that would unite the Atlantic to the Pacific through the Arctic ice had become an obsession in Franklin.

Until recently, to occur with climate change, the passage was navigable, but still opens rarely.

The ships ‘Erebus’ and ‘Terror’ were never found. However, there are signs that Franklin tried to lead those of the 130 men survived to pass the ice foot. Legend even says that some sailors to survive resorted to cannibalism, eating their dead comrades.

The captain «Investigator», Robert Makliour, and most of the 60 crewmen were rescued when the ship trapped in ice in 1853. But had to wait three years to locate them and save them.