Engraving showing Captain James Fitzjames's cabin aboard HMS 'Erebus', pictured shortly before departure, 1845. In 1845 the British Admiralty sent two polar exploration ships, HMS 'Erebus' and HMS 'Terror', to look for the Northwest passage round the northern coast of Canada. The expedition, commanded by Sir John Franklin, disappeared from view late in 1845 and none of the men were ever seen again. In fact the ships made it to the King William Island region, then got stuck in the ice.