1980's National Geographic Arctic Shipwreck article. Anyone remember it?

OldManC · January 02, 2009, 02:40:12 PM

A picture Uwe posted in a Gibson thread reminded me that I hadn't asked here yet about something I'm trying to find.

In 1983 or 4 National Geographic had a cover story and wonderful article on a ship that (going from a 25 year old memory) became stuck in ice while traversing the arctic region and, while not sinking, was still shipwrecked when it became frozen, literally, in time. When it was found, the bodies of some on board were found mummified by the dry frozen climate. They were so well preserved that the piercing blue eyes of one 100 years dead sailor became the main thing you saw when looking at the cover that month. It gave me a recurring dream for years that involved digging up various relatives that had passed on to see how they were faring. Weird, I know, but I was only 18.

Anyway, I would really love to find that article or any additional information on the ship and sailors it told of. Does this ring a bell for anyone here? Can you point me to where I might satisfy my morbid curiosity?

As an aside, I've tried National Geographic's website but had no luck there or with any other internet searches...

If anyone can help me I figured it would be my bass brothers here. Thanks!

Bass VI · January 02, 2009, 08:35:37 PM

George,
If I remember correctly, it was a British ship and they were trying to find a Northwest passage. Some misfortune befell them, winter came early or the just blew it as to where they were. As it was they were stuck, and it seems like the canned food ( which was a new invention that they felt would make such a long voyage possible ) was contaminated with lead, which led ( no pun really! ) to some pretty psychotic behavior ( cannibalism ) IIRC, when the ship was discovered some of the crew had been living aboard it and others had made a camp some distance away, others still had left to try to "walk out". I also seem to remember some politics being involved as to why the British government took so long to mount a rescue. I know there was a NG special about it or perhaps Discovery channel. I remember the cover picture too! ( although I never had an urge to dig anyone up to check that out

)
I wish I could remember the name of the ship that would probably solve everything.

Hope that helps a little,

Scott ( BassVI )

OldManC · January 02, 2009, 08:39:20 PM

Thanks Scott. It's a start!

Bass VI · January 02, 2009, 08:54:40 PM

Found it! I think

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7564570.stm

Darrol · January 02, 2009, 09:08:46 PM

Clive Cussler's newest book in the Dirk Pitt series called Artic Drift kind of revolves around the two ships and their fate.

Lightyear · January 02, 2009, 09:09:14 PM

Try your local library - I know this sounds quaint but a good reference librarian can find most anything. Libraries in Utah should be even better as most all of the library management/cataloging software is developed, marketed, sold and supported out of Utah.

You might get lucky and they might have the issue you want cataloged in their reference section. At my wife's library they toss tons of donated NG's as they get donated constantly and they don't need 50 copies of every issue.

eb2 · January 03, 2009, 11:25:03 AM

I remember that quite well. Bass VI summed it up pretty nice. There was a TV program on it as well. The thing I remember was a small group of the early lead poisoned were surviving outside the ship, and had buried some including a dead soldier. The researchers had dug up one of them, and his skin and hair were pretty well preserved, along with his bright red uniform coat. Also, one of his legs had deteriorated, and it was evidence of a short thawing period in the Arctic. Which would be surprising outside of the global warming scenario, but does happen.

By the way, has anyone noted that National Geographic has decided to "hip" up its cable channel by introducing the name NAT GEO. Cool, baby.

Lightyear · January 03, 2009, 11:56:32 AM

I mentioned your plight to the missus and she went into uber librarion mode

- spouting gibberish about data bases and old school book form index of NG that her libray still has. She says she will try to access her libraies dat base from home - if she can't get in or doesn't find it she'll work on it Monday when she's back to work.

OldManC · January 03, 2009, 02:14:59 PM

Man, you guys are great! With his initial information I found the article posted by Scott and read through that before finding it linked here along with the other suggestions. Lightyear tell your wife I would be greatly indebted to her if she were able to find more. I'm hoping to track down that back issue once I know the month and year as well.

Thanks guys!

Darrol · January 03, 2009, 03:40:06 PM

I found something that you might be looking for regarding John Franklin and the expedition involving the HMS Terror and HMS Erebus. It mentions "Franklin Saga Deaths: A Mystery Solved? National Geographic Magazine, Vol 178, No 3, Sep 1990" as a source.

http://www.answers.com/topic/john-franklin

Lightyear · January 03, 2009, 07:36:44 PM

Quote from: OldManC on January 03, 2009, 02:14:59 PM
Man, you guys are great! With his initial information I found the article posted by Scott and read through that before finding it linked here along with the other suggestions. Lightyear tell your wife I would be greatly indebted to her if she were able to find more. I'm hoping to track down that back issue once I know the month and year as well.

Thanks guys!

She did a search from home , with the earlier criteria, and she came up with a dozen articles but none sound like the right one - the only one close was a sunken vessel. Do you think that the ships names, and captains name , are correct? If so I'll ask to search again with the new info.

Here's the closest thing she found today. I don't see how they get a 400 year old ship from and 1850's shipwreck?

"National Geographic July 1983
Exploring a 400 year old ship under Arctic ice
Explores sea-vessel Breadalbane that was submerged in the Northwest Passage of Canada in 1853. Nickname of the vessel given by the author; Circumstances that led to wreckage of the vessel."

rubato · January 06, 2009, 01:15:20 AM

every national geographic that ever was comes up on ebay. there are 2446 of them at the moment. most of the listings have cover shots and listings of the articles inside. some people put more detail in their ad for a $2 magazine than others do for a $2000 bass. if you do a search by year, you'll likely find it.

Bass VI · January 12, 2009, 10:07:07 PM

George,

Being the lifelong PBS nerd that I am ( years of Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, Monty Python and Brit-coms ) I noticed that Nova is doing a show about the search for the Arctic Passage, and sure enough the commercial had a shot of your frozen sailor. It's airing Tuesday at 7:00 here in OKC ( central time ) you might want to check your listing or go to http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/

Scott ( BVI )

OldManC · January 13, 2009, 12:15:52 AM

Thanks, Scott! I'll have my wife DVR it.