Colin Bradley, PhD, PEng, Department of Mechanical Engineering presents on the preparation and execution of the 2012 Arctic mission to search for Sir John Franklin's lost vessels, with a particular emphasis on the technology currently being used to map the seafloor and hunt for the wrecks. The Ocean Technology Laboratory has been developing underwater technologies and engaged in a wide spectrum of UVic-led projects since 2003.

Due to the importance of Sir John Franklin’s 1845 voyage to Canada’s history of Arctic navigation and exploration, the two lost ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, are designated together as a national historic site of Canada (the only such “undiscovered” national historic site). Locating these shipwrecks offers unprecedented information on the search for the Northwest Passage and the exploration of Canada’s North. In the summer of 2012, the Parks Canada-led search for the Franklin vessels enlisted the University of Victoria’s Ocean Technology Laboratory. The Faculty of Engineering team employed an autonomous underwater vehicle, equipped with bathymetric side-scan sonar, to map the ocean floor at depths that are unsafe for divers. The high resolution acoustic imagery is being used to detect and identify artifacts of archaeological significance.

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