OTTAWA, CANADA—According to The Globe and Mail, a bronze bell has been recovered from the wreck of HMS Erebus, one of two ships lost during Sir John Franklin’s expedition to the Arctic to search for the Northwest Passage. The bell, dated 1845, was found on the ship’s upper deck, where it would have been struck every half hour, day and night, to keep time and signal the changing of the crew’s watches. The bell is also marked with a “broad arrow,” a symbol of the Royal Navy and the British Government. It is being kept in fresh water and will be carefully cleaned over the next 18 months to remove the salt from its surface. HMS Erebus was discovered in the Queen Maud Gulf earlier this fall. Further exploration of the wreck site will resume in the spring. To read about the discovery of HMS Investigator, the doomed vessel dispatched to search for HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, see ARCHAEOLOGY's feature "Saga of the Northwest Passage."
