{"id":697,"date":"2014-09-11T01:06:26","date_gmt":"2014-09-11T08:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/lateraltruth\/?p=697"},"modified":"2014-09-11T01:06:26","modified_gmt":"2014-09-11T08:06:26","slug":"found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/lateraltruth\/2014\/09\/11\/found\/","title":{"rendered":"Found!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/lateraltruth\/files\/2014\/09\/franklinSonar.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-698\" src=\"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/lateraltruth\/files\/2014\/09\/franklinSonar-300x187.jpg\" alt=\"franklinSonar\" width=\"300\" height=\"187\" srcset=\"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/lateraltruth\/files\/2014\/09\/franklinSonar-300x187.jpg 300w, https:\/\/skepticink.com\/lateraltruth\/files\/2014\/09\/franklinSonar.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Found!\u00a0 One of the ships of the ill-starred <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Franklin's_lost_expedition\">Franklin Expedition<\/a> has been located, nearly 170 years after she set sail from England in search of the Northwest Passage, and about 167 years after the last of her crew perished miserably in the unforgiving Arctic.\u00a0 After literally dozens of search missions, starting in 1848\u2014about the time that starvation, cold, scurvy, and probably a soupcon of lead poisoning finished off the men of the <em>Erebus<\/em> and <em>Terror<\/em>\u2014a joint effort headed by Parks Canada has at last <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/lost-franklin-expedition-ship-found-in-the-arctic-1.2760311?cmp=rss\">spotted the wreck<\/a> in about the place the Inuit always said she sank.\u00a0 Kudos, then, to Parks Canada, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, the Arctic Research Foundation, the Canadian Coast Guard, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Government of Nunavut, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/north\/franklin-find-proves-inuit-oral-history-is-strong-louie-kamookak-1.2761362\">the Inuit<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n<p>Painful as it is to share any interest whatsoever with the science-muzzling <a href=\"http:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/1525428\/harper-joins-hunt-for-lost-franklin-ships\/\">Prime Minister Stephen Harper<\/a>, the Franklin Expedition has always fascinated me. \u00a0What a story. \u00a0Hubris and failure.\u00a0 Cannibalism and the crushing Arctic cold.\u00a0 The tragic strew of archaeological remains along the west and south coasts of King William Island, the ship\u2019s boat filled with bones and bizarre choices, the patchy but entirely plausible evidence from the Inuit.\u00a0 As a junkie for historical mysteries, I have to say: this is one of the big ones, right up there with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/las\/physci\/poston\/everest\/\">George Mallory\u2019s<\/a> assault on Everest, and the fate <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Percy_Fawcett#Fawcett.27s_bones.3F\">of Percy Fawcett<\/a>.\u00a0 And now that the wreck has been found, I\u2019m looking forward to seeing what details can be filled in.<\/p>\n<p>Here, in celebration, is Stan Rogers and his classic, <a title=\"Northwest Passage\" href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=a_7Pv5YshQ8\"><em>Northwest Passage<\/em><\/a>, one of Canada\u2019s unofficial national anthems.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_699\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-699\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/lateraltruth\/files\/2014\/09\/starvationcove.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-699\" src=\"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/lateraltruth\/files\/2014\/09\/starvationcove.jpg\" alt=\"Last stand at Starvation Cove\" width=\"640\" height=\"416\" srcset=\"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/lateraltruth\/files\/2014\/09\/starvationcove.jpg 640w, https:\/\/skepticink.com\/lateraltruth\/files\/2014\/09\/starvationcove-300x195.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-699\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Last stand at Starvation Cove<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Found!\u00a0 One of the ships of the ill-starred Franklin Expedition has been located, nearly 170 years after she set sail&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-skepticism-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/lateraltruth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/lateraltruth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/lateraltruth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/lateraltruth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/lateraltruth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/lateraltruth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/lateraltruth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/lateraltruth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/lateraltruth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}