HMS Terror discovery a big day for the history books, but what about sovereignty?

This has been a good week for those who worry that Canadian history stands out for its blandness compared to the epic stories of our neighbour to the south.

The discovery of the HMS Terror, coming two years after the finding of its sister ship HMS Erebus, fills in a major hole in the story of the Franklin Expedition, the British Arctic voyage that disappeared 170 years ago while attempting to navigate the Northwest Passage.

The lost Franklin ships have long been a goal for Arctic explorers and an inspiration for Canadian storytellers, but former prime minister Stephen Harper made finding the ships a priority of his government in 2008, with the subtext of reinforcing Canada’s claim on the Northwest Passage (disputed by the United States) and in general over the resource-rich Arctic.

But while the expedition successes may be drawing Canadian headlines to the region, in the end it’s more a victory for Canadian historians than Arctic claims, says Rob Huebert, an Arctic expert and professor at the University of Calgary.

“It’s a historical and nationalist piece of the puzzle. This is a continuation of the mythology of how Canada was formed. How we have the European explorers, coming through struggling against the odds, and ultimately paying with their lives,” he says.

“(But) you see people saying that this is another piece of the sovereignty puzzle. Well, not entirely.”

Initially reported in the Guardian, the Terror was discovered on Sept. 3 about 100 kilometres north of the discovery site of the Erebus, after a tip from an Inuk crew member on the research vessel who had seen the ship’s mast sticking through the ice while on a fishing trip years earlier.

Both the location and ship’s condition contradict previous assumptions about its fate, as it was found in a bay on the south side of King William Island, instead of north of the island, where it was presumed to have been crushed by sea ice. Indeed, searchers found it in what appeared to be near-perfect condition, which could alter historians’ understanding of the fate of the crew.

“It adds in a lot of pieces,” Huebert says.

“One of the big questions that’s going to be answered is did they all just abandon the ships and then try to start making their way southward? Did the ship sink beforehand?”

But the excitement of the most recent search has also been in the context of Canada’s desire to cement its claim on the passage, the once mythical trade route that promises to become increasingly passable as Arctic ice retreats. Canada considers the route to be in Canadian waters, while the U.S. considers it an international strait. And of course, Russia has in recent years been increasingly noisy about its own ambitions for developing the riches of the Arctic.

The Harper government long took the position that the expedition’s historical ties to the Northwest Passage strengthen Canada’s claim to the waterway. Parks Canada said it’s working with its partners to “validate the details of the discovery.”

Huebert, however, doubts the location of the ships does much to firm up any Canadian claims.

“All these vessels are found close enough to the islands… they’re being found easily within the (current) territorial waters, so it doesn’t really extend in that particular context,” he says.

And while both ships have now been found, there’s still plenty of information yet to be gleaned from examining the artifacts.

“They are historically, culturally and nationalistically very important to Canada, but in terms of the international legal sovereignty issues… I don’t expect to see the physical discovery of the ships to ever really be introduced into any court case between Canada and the United States over the status of the waters.”

Jeff Ruhl, an instructor at Carleton University who has researched the Harper government’s efforts in the North, agreed that it’s difficult to see concrete benefits of the discovery to the sovereignty argument.

“I think it’s always been kind of a performative thing. A demonstration that the Canadian state is active in the North, with projects in the North that involve different agencies of the state,” he says.

“It’ll be interesting to see how the Trudeau government frames the discovery of it.”