The remains of HMS Erebus on the seafloor. and lost sometime in 1846. Erebus was located off the coast of King William Island in Nunavut by Parks Canada archaeologists guided by Inuit experts in 2014, and Terror was found in waters near a different part of the island two years later. As commissioned ships of the Royal Navy, the wrecks were still property of the United Kingdom, but as early as 1997 the UK
had agreed that it would give ownership of the vessels to Canada. As part of the negotiated agreement, the United Kingdom will retain ownership of 65 artifacts related to the expedition found on land and aboard Erebus when it was first discovered. The signing ceremony commemorating the assignment of ownership paid tribute to Louie Kamookak, who died in March. Mr. Kamookak was credited with sorting through the Inuit oral histories related to the wrecks to identify their locations. A team from Parks Canada will be returning to the site this summer for further study. (Parks Canada: www.pc. gc.ca/en/culture/franklin; Inuit Heritage Trust: www.ihti.ca/eng/projectsn.html) … The 112-year old Maine-built schooner Mary E was relaunched in May, after spending a good part of the last year out of the water at the Derecktor Robinhood shipyard in Georgetown, Maine. Mary E, a 73-foot wooden Mary E
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fishing vessel built in Bath in 1906, was acquired by the Maine Maritime Museum in spring 2017 and was immediately sent for a major overhaul. A crew led by master shipwright Andros Kypragoras replaced her frames and re-planked the hull above the waterline and the deck. When the vessel is ready for sea trials, she will be powered by a new 6B-210HP Cummins diesel that was donated by Cummins Northeast in Portland. Mary E is thought to be the oldest Bath-built wooden sailing ship still afloat. She spent her early years working in the fisheries out of Block Island off the coast of Rhode Island. She later spent a number of years as a passenger vessel in the Maine Windjammer fleet
and running tours and trips out of various ports before coming back to Bath. Maine Maritime Museum will re-rig her at the museum’s grounds. After a recommissioning ceremony scheduled for 9 June, Mary E will be based at the museum campus along the Kennebec River and will sail during the summer months, conducting educational programming and representing the museum and Bath—the “City of Ships.” (243 Washington St., Bath, ME; Ph. 207 443-1316; www.mainemaritimemuseum.org) … The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Maryland, and Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut, are partnering on a new initiative to eliminate single-use plastic on both museum campuses. Single-use plastics are designed to be used only one time before being thrown away or recycled, and are a major source of marine debris. As both organizations make the shift towards environmentally-friendly alternatives, the CBMM and Mystic teams are also developing resources to help other institutions eliminate singleuse plastic, based on the best practices established through the partnership. (CBMM, 213 N. Talbot Street, St. Michaels, MD; Ph. 410 745-4951; www. cbmm.org. Mystic, 47 Greenmanville Ave., Mystic, CT; Ph. 860 572-0711; www.mysticseaport.org) ... In April, the retired ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 opened as a luxury hotel in Dubai. Launched in 1967 in Clydebank, Scotland, the ship made her maiden voyage for the Cunard line in May of 1969; she served as Cunard’s flagship until ceding that title to Queen Mary 2 in 1984. QE2 was requisitioned by the British governQE2 Hotel in Dubai
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After almost two years of negotiations, the British government has turned over ownership of the wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror to Canada and the Inuit Heritage Trust. The two ships, which carried explorer Sir John Franklin and his team on a scientific expedition to the Arctic in 1844, were trapped in ice
(continued on page 48) SEA HISTORY 163, SUMMER 2018