HMS Wanderer

In "Thin Ice", April 29, 2018, there are disputes about control of the Arctic Ocean, now that climate change is melting the icecaps and making the Arctic navigable. These days it is reasonably feasible to navigate the Northwest Passage.

Canada puts in a claim to sovereignty over much of the Arctic Ocean due to the recent discovery of the sunken ship HMS Wanderer, sunk while searching for the North Pole in 1848.

And of course everyone who knows the relevant history knows that this is inspired by two sunken ships that were discovered in the Canadian Arctic, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, that were lost looking for, not the North Pole, but the somewhat more reasonable goal of the Northwest Passage - even though in the 1840s the Northwest Passage had a lot more ice and was lot less passable.

In 1845 an expedition of 129 men & boys (and possibly a few women according to DNA tests on some of the bones) under Sir John Franklin entered the islands and waters north of Canada, searching for a route through the Northwest Passage, and disappeared from sight. Searches for the missing expedition began in 1848.

Erebus and Terror were trapped in ice in September 1846 off King William Island and were abandoned in April, 1848, as the crews marched overland toward civilization. They all died.

In 2014 the sunken HMS Erebus was discovered, and the sunken HMS Terror was discovered in 2016, well preserved in the chilly waters.

Season one of the television series The Terror involves the Franklin Expedition.

The series' first season begins with the Royal Navy's polar explorer ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror having recently left Beechey Island, heading south toward King William Island into uncharted territory, seeking the Northwest Passage. The ships are soon stuck, frozen and isolated, and those aboard must survive the harsh weather conditions and each other, while being stalked by an elusive menace.