illuminator newsletter #38
Upcoming: Northwest Passage conference in Vancouver.
Upcoming: 26 April 2025.
For those in the area, Vancouver’s upcoming Shipwrecks conference this year focuses on the Northwest Passage. Parks Canada’s previous diving chief, Marc-André Bernier, had originally been scheduled to speak here in 2020, effectively delayed this many years by the pandemic. Unfortunately no online broadcast seems to be available.
https://uasbc.com/shipwrecks-conference
Since the last issue.
6 February 2025.
Anchors and Propellers. By David C. Woodman.
Dave Woodman has a new article evaluating an Erebus ice anchor and Terror’s propeller in terms of whether the ships were remanned. Woodman’s article publishes the first ever public photograph of Terror’s propeller, and includes comments from Parks Canada’s underwater archaeology team manager Jonathan Moore.
https://www.aglooka.ca/anchors-and-propellers/
19 February 2025.
Four Rusty Tin Cans in Three Different Sizes. By Peter Carney.
Peter Carney has a new article analyzing the Goldner cans in the Franklin relic collection at Bath’s Royal Literary & Scientific Institution. The surviving fragments of the labels allowed Carney to piece together a few more of the original words for his Goldner label reconstruction, with the updated version shown at the end of the piece.
https://erebusandterrorfiles.blogspot.com/2025/02/four-rusty-tin-cans-in-three-different.html
6 April 2025.
The inscription on the Erebus Bay boat stem. By Logan Zachary.
I have a new article out today analyzing the boat stem’s inscription from “the Boat Place”, arguing for a different reading of the Roman numerals.
https://www.illuminator.blog/p/boat-stem.html
11 March 2025.
An Arctic medal auction by Noonans Mayfair included a photograph on glass of John Park, a seaman on John Ross’s Victory voyage. Besides being a rare portrait of a crewman from the Northwest Passage saga, Park acted as the expedition’s barber. Trained first as a hairdresser – and with years in Prince Regent Inlet to practice – it’s possible that this man created James Clark Ross’s elaborate coiffure.
From John Ross’s expedition narrative:
Being asked by me, “What was the most remarkable event in his life?” he answered, that he “had shaved the Duke of Devonshire in a gale on board the Glasgow.” I then asked, “Were you not on board her at the battle of Navarino?” he replied, “Oh, yes, but that was nothing.”
https://www.noonans.co.uk/auctions/calendar/837/catalogue/980862/
Last Word.
I recently came across this postcard advertisement, suggesting that their meat extract’s healthy effect on your children is the nutritional equivalent of naval officers from icebound ships going hat in hand to the Inuit for meat.
Based on similar series, this was published either in the late 19th century or very early 20th. Link to download full resolution image: (link).
Four months til dive season.