Arctic explorers may have come up empty-handed in the search for Sir John Franklin’s lost shipwrecked vessels, but the research they did will help future mariners navigating the treacherous the Northwest Passage.
But in a bit of Arctic irony, work done during the search in Nunavut will help future mariners navigating through the icy and dangerous waters where HMS Erebus and HMS Terror may have gone down.
Hydrographers who were part of the search gathered enough depth and multi-beam sidescan sonar data to create a preliminary electronic chart that expands the area for safe navigation in Alexandra Strait, reducing travel time and saving fuel costs for vessels in the area.
Andrew Leyzack, the Canadian Hydrographic Service’s hydrographer-in-charge during the Franklin search, says this past summer’s result is significant.
Not only will it help reduce travel time for vessels around King William Island by six or seven hours, but it could also provide an alternative navigation route in case of ice in the lower Victoria Strait.
“The time savings and the fuel savings are considerable,” says Leyzack, who noted the new route could also be useful if a vessel runs into trouble.
“In the event of a search-and-rescue call, it just cuts off that much more time if the responding vessels could transit this route as opposed to going all the way around the Royal Geographic Society Islands.”
The new chart – which Leyzack likens to a multi-lane highway replacing a dirt road – will guide ships from Victoria Strait to Storis Passage and comes as the Canadian Hydrographic Service faces increasing demands for mapping and updating navigational charts for the Arctic.
This story is posted on Alaska Dispatch as part of Eye on the Arctic, a collaborative partnership between public and private circumpolar media organizations.
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Source: Alaska Dispatch
