A great Canadian mystery could be solved next month, as the University of Victoria joins Parks CanadaB次元官网网址檚 search for the lost ships of Sir John Franklin in the Northwest Passage.

In 1845, 129 men set sail on the HMS Terror and HMS Erebus to explore the Northwest Passage and find a safe route from Europe to the Orient. The Franklin expedition was meant to last three years but after just 18 months, the vessels disappeared.

On Aug. 9, a three-person engineering and operating team from UVicB次元官网网址檚 Ocean Technology Lab, along with their autonomous underwater vehicle, the Bluefin-12 will join a crew from Parks Canada to search the waters off NunavutB次元官网网址檚 King William Island.

B次元官网网址淚n cold water like that, these ships are fairly-well preserved, so we hope that there will be a significant amount of them left,B次元官网网址� said Alison Proctor, spokesperson for the UVic lab.

Pre-programmed with co-ordinates and monitored during each mission, the $800,000-vehicle will move 100 per cent autonomously when submerged.

B次元官网网址淭he vehicle is smart enough to know when somethingB次元官网网址檚 going wrong and it will surface and let us know that it encountered something,B次元官网网址� Proctor said of the Bluefin-12, which usually operates in Saanich Inlet.

B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檙e now headed up to completely unfamiliar territory,B次元官网网址� she said. B次元官网网址淚 think weB次元官网网址檙e all going to be surprised at what is thrown at us and weB次元官网网址檙e going to have to adapt fairly quickly. It wonB次元官网网址檛 be freezing conditions for the crew to endure, but it will definitely be harsher than weB次元官网网址檙e used to.B次元官网网址�

The search marks Parks CanadaB次元官网网址檚 third attempt at locating FranklinB次元官网网址檚 ships. In 2010, a Parks Canada research team found the HMS Investigator, one of the vessels that had been searching for the missing Franklin expedition when she sank 155 years ago.

nnorth@saanichnews.com