Breadalbane (ship)

Breadalbane (right) and Phoenix off Beechey Island, Canada, by Edward Augustus Inglefield
History
United Kingdom
NameBreadalbane
NamesakeBreadalbane, Scotland
OperatorMcNeil & Co.
BuilderHedderwich & Rowan
Launched1843
Crushed by ice: 21 August 1853 (1853-08-21)
General characteristics
TypeMerchant ship
Tons burthen428 bm
Length38.1 metres (125 feet)
Beam7.3 metres (24 feet)
Depth of hold5.5 metres (18 feet)
Sail planBarque

Breadalbane was an 1843 British three-masted merchant barque that was crushed by ice and sank in the Arctic in 1853. Notable as one of the northernmost shipwrecks known,[1][2][3] she is also considered one of the best-preserved wooden ships ever found in the sea due to slow deterioration in the cold Arctic water.[4] Historically, Breadalbane is considered to be a time capsule.[1]

On 21 August 1853, she became trapped by an ice floe and was crushed. She sank to the bottom of the Northwest Passage near Beechey Island in Lancaster Sound, approximately 500 miles (800 km) north of the Arctic Circle.[5][6] Her entire crew of 21 abandoned ship in time and were rescued by her companion, HMS Phoenix.

In August 1980, the wreck was discovered by a five-man team led by Joe MacInnis working from the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Sir John A. McDonald. Three years later it was designated a national historic site of Canada because the ship was used in the search for John Franklin's lost expedition.[7]

  1. ^ a b MacInnis, Joseph B. "Breadalbane". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Arctos_Canadensis was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Archives & Special Collections". Ryerson.ca. Archived from the original on 6 August 2011. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  4. ^ Payne, Doug (15 January 1981). "Technology lights up an Arctic shipwreck". New Scientist. 89 (1236). Reed Business Information: 136–139. ISSN 0262-4079. Retrieved 23 December 2011.
  5. ^ Anchorage Daily News – 15 September 1981
  6. ^ Andrew H. Malcolm (3 January 1982). "A Find That Would Shiver Anyone's Timbers". NYTimes.com. Arctic Regions. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  7. ^ "HistoricPlaces.ca". HistoricPlaces.ca. 13 June 1983. Retrieved 23 August 2011.