Shipwreck Hunting

In August 2013, the Fara Heim expedition launched a search to find ships lost in the 1697 Battle of Hudson Bay. Watch this video taken with the expedition’s drone camera.

The Fara Heim expedition, led by Johann Sigurdson of Winnipeg and David Collette of Cincinnati, used advanced search technology to look for the wreckage of the Pélican and the Hampshire.

Both ships went down at the mouth of the Hayes River on Hudson Bay during a fierce battle between French and English forces in 1697.

Because of the shifting topography of the area, the Pélican is believed to be buried on shore, while the second ship may be covered by mud or sand at the bottom of the Hayes River.

The team used ground penetrating radar for the ground search and a magnetic anomaly detection system for scanning the riverbed. They did not find traces of the wrecks, but they hope to renew the search in 2014.

This video, narrated by David Collette, was taken with a flying drone camera. It gives a good view of the topography of the Hayes River at low tide. Warning: The camera is shaky!

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