HMS Erebus and HMS Terror in the Arctic. These two British naval ships made up Sir John Franklin's 1845 expedition to find the Northwest Passage, a sea-route between Canada and the Arctic that links the Atlantic to the Pacific. The ships were steel- fronted to help them push through ice. They were sailing vessels, but also equipped with a small steam engine and a propeller. The remains of the Erebus and records of the expedition were found in 1859. After being trapped in sea ice for 3 years, the remnant of the crew of 135 had abandoned ship to travel south. There were no survivors. Artwork published in the 1880s in Pictorial Chronicles of the Mighty Deep.