3D Printing

The Mysteriously Sunken HMS Erebus Resurrected with 3D Printing

The namesake of the HMS Erebus is the Greek god of primeval darkness. On April 1st, 2015 the lost ship that sunk off the coast of King William Island, Canada in 1845, surfaced from the depths using 3D printing technology. Canadian geospatial software company CARIS, geomatics technology support center TECTERRA, and officials from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, joined together to unveil high-precision 3D printed models of the Erebus in Fredericton, New Brunswick on Wednesday. Sir John Franklin’s lead ship was discovered last September in Queen Maud Gulf using a remotely operated underwater vehicle, but, until now, the public haven’t had a glimpse of this mysterious archeological find.

“It’s an honour to see Canadian software used to map this significant and historical shipwreck, and the added element of 3D printing provides an innovative means of transforming a scientific dataset into a product that a much broader audience can directly appreciate,” said CEO and President of CARIS, Dr. Salem Masry.

Multibeam sonar data collected by Canada’s Fisheries and Oceans Hydrographic Service was used to construct the models. New Brunswick-based CARIS is credited with the innovative software that allowed bathymetric measurements to be processed with seafloor mapping details to be exported to TECTERRA’s 3D printer.

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The models are scaled representations of the doomed vessel, once the lead ship of Sir John Franklin sent out to gather magnetic data of the Canadian Arctic and to successfully chart the elusive Northwest Passage. 130 people, including Captain Franklin, died on the expedition, when the ship became icebound and was abandoned by its crew. Crew members tried to walk across the ice to nearby King William Island, at the time populated with native Inuits. The crew died of hypothermia, starvation, or disease before anyone found them, though a massive search was launched to discover their whereabouts. There were several false leads over the years about where the ship ultimately rested,  but it seems now that the most credible source was from the local Inuit inhabitants of King William Island. Accounts of white men walking across the ice, off the coast of the island, by local Inuits had been handed down through generations.

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Not only do the 3D models show the superficial structure of this mysterious ship, but they also provide highly detailed modeling of the wooden beams, anchors, and other materials surrounding the wreck. As a diving expedition to further explore the HMS Erebus is slotted for later this month, these precisely detailed 3D models will prepare divers from the Royal Canadian Navy’s Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic for their upcoming operations.

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TECTERRA, CARIS, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada are thrilled to be a part of such an groundbreaking undertaking. Science and new technology are finally bringing the truth about one of the greatest Maritime mysteries. Representatives of Canada’s Parliament agree, as Fredericton, New Brusnswick representative, Keith Ashfield, opined, “The model created here in New Brunswick by an innovative company will play a major role in the ongoing efforts to explore, research and understand one of Canada’s greatest mysteries.”