VIDEO: CAF Captures Footage of Sunken Merchant Ship

Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) personnel deployed on Operation NUNALIVUT 2014 have captured exciting new footage of the sunken merchant ship Breadalbane, a National Historic Site of Canada.

The Breadalbane, a three-masted merchant ship, was built in 1843 at Glasgow, Scotland. In 1853, the Breadalbane became trapped in packed ice and eventually sank in the Barrow Strait near Beechey Island, Nunavut, while supplying ships involved in the search for Captain John Franklin’s lost expedition.

With the assistance of Parks Canada’s Underwater Archaeology Service and SeaBotix Inc., clearance divers from the Royal Canadian Navy Fleet Diving Unit (Atlantic) used multiple remotely operated vehicles to capture HD footage of the wreck.

“Six days of diving with remotely operated vehicles this year have given us an up-to-date view of an incredible wreck that preserves a moment of time in Canadian history. We’ve learned a huge amount about the wreck during this project, and it’s rare to have such a detailed view of a shipwreck from 1853. We anticipate more discoveries and insights as we pore over the collected information”, said Jonathan Moore, Senior Underwater Archaeologist, Parks Canada.

Operation NUNALIVUT is an annual premier High Arctic operation that is conducted by Joint Task Force (North), combining Air, Land and Maritime operations to exercise interoperability and Arctic skill-sets. Parks Canada, Natural Resources Canada (Polar Continental Shelf Program), the Government of Nunavut, and SeaBotix Inc. have all been valuable players in this year’s operation.

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Press Release, April 28, 2014; Image:Joint Task Force North