Engraving showing HMS 'Assistance', 'North Star' and 'Resolute'; the three main vessels of Sir Edward Belcher's Arctic Searching Squadron, 1852. This squadron to the Arctic in search of Sir John Franklin's ill-fated Arctic expedition of 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