Mercy Bay

Bay in the Northwest Territories, Canada

Mercy Bay

HMS Investigator in Mercy Bay

Mercy Bay

Location| M'Clure Strait
Coordinates| 74°05′02″N 119°00′10″W﻿ / ﻿74.08389°N 119.00278°W﻿ / 74.08389; -119.00278﻿ (Mercy Bay)[1]
Ocean/sea sources| Arctic Ocean
Basin countries| Canada
Settlements| Uninhabited

Mercy Bay is a Canadian Arctic waterway in the Northwest Territories. It is a southern arm of M'Clure Strait on northeast Banks Island. The mouth of Castel Bay is less than 20 km (12 mi) to the west. These bays are a part of Aulavik National Park.

## HMS Investigator

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Capt. M'Clure's monument at Mercy Bay

In September 1851, Captain Robert McClure's ship, HMS Investigator became ice trapped in Mercy Bay during the McClure Arctic expedition while searching for the Northwest Passage and Franklin's lost expedition. By 1853, it was finally abandoned in the bay. The crew sledged over ice to Melville Island, where they were rescued.[2]

In July 2010, Parks Canada archeologists looking for HMS Investigator found it fifteen minutes after they started a sonar scan of Banks Island, Mercy Bay, Northwest Territories. The archaeology crew had no plans to raise the ship. They did a thorough sonar scan of the area, then sent a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROUV).[3] The Canadian archaeologists found the ship "largely intact", sitting upright, approximately 7.6 m (25 ft) under the Arctic Ocean. Its masts were missing, probably sheared away by the ice.[4]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Mercy Bay". Geographical Names Data Base. Natural Resources Canada. 3 September 2024.
2. ^ "European exploration". Parks Canada. Retrieved 2 November 2008.
3. ^ "Abandoned 1854 ship found in Arctic". CBC News. 29 July 2010. Retrieved 29 July 2010.
4. ^ "BBC News - Canadian team finds 19th Century HMS Investigator wreck". Bbc.co.uk. 28 July 2010. Retrieved 29 July 2010.

## External links

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* Media related to Mercy Bay at Wikimedia Commons
* Video: Discovery of HMS Investigator

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Bays of the Northwest Territories

* Burnett
* Castel
* Darnley
* De Salis
* Deans Dundas
* Franklin
* Hadley
* Hecla and Griper
* Jago
* Marie
* Mercy
* Moore
* Purchase
* Sabine
* Storkerson
* Thesiger
* Walker
* Wynniatt

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