Mercy Bay facts for kids

Mercy Bay is a cool waterway in the Canadian Arctic. It's in the Northwest Territories of Canada. This bay is like an arm of the big M'Clure Strait. It sits on the northeast side of Banks Island. Another bay, Castel Bay, is close by to the west. Both Mercy Bay and Castel Bay are part of Aulavik National Park.

HMS Investigator and Its Arctic Adventure

The Search for the Northwest Passage

In September 1851, a ship named HMS Investigator got stuck in the ice of Mercy Bay. Its captain was Robert McClure. He was on an important journey. He was looking for the Northwest Passage. This was a sea route through the Arctic connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Captain McClure was also searching for the lost expedition of Sir John Franklin. Sir John Franklin's ships had disappeared in the Arctic.

The Investigator remained trapped in the ice. By 1853, the crew had to leave the ship behind. They traveled over the ice by sled. They made their way to Melville Island. There, another ship found them and rescued them.

Finding the Investigator Again

Many years later, in July 2010, Parks Canada archaeologists went looking for HMS Investigator. They were using special equipment called sonar. Sonar uses sound waves to find things underwater. Just fifteen minutes after starting their search, they found the ship! It was right there in Mercy Bay, off Banks Island.

The archaeology team did not plan to raise the ship from the water. Instead, they used their sonar to map the area carefully. They also sent down a remotely operated vehicle. This is like a robot submarine with cameras. The Canadian archaeologists found the ship "largely intact." This means it was mostly in one piece. It was sitting upright in about 25 feet of clear Arctic water. The ship's tall masts were gone. They were probably broken off by the thick ice.

Images for kids

• 

  Investigator in Mercy Bay

• 

  Capt. M'Clure's monument at Mercy Bay