Photo to the right: Pilot Rommel Zulueta, San Diego State University, and Robert Schwemmer, Maritime Heritage Coordinator, West Coast Region Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, at the airport in Barrow preparing for Seahorse Islands flight in a Sky Arrow 650TCN survey aircraft.

Click on the plane icons below to view the aerial shots taken at that location.

Shipwreck remains have been discovered in the Point Franklin region, but without whaling craft associated with the remains it's more difficult to determine if the vessel was engaged in whaling or other commercial activities in the Arctic. Submerged shipwrecks still waiting to be discovered may offer clues to their whaling seafaring past, with artifacts such as large iron try-pots used to render (boil) the whale blubber.

Point Franklin shipwreck. Photo: Robert Schwemmer/NOAA	Point Franklin shipwreck. Photo: Robert Schwemmer/NOAA

Captain Frederick William Beechey of the Royal Navy, wrote on August 15, 1826, "a cape, which proved the most distant land seen from the ship, I named after Captain (Sir John) Franklin, Royal Navy, under whose command I had the pleasure to serve on the first Polar expedition." His map shows "Point Franklin." It is interesting to note that it was just two days later when Sir John Franklin named his "farthest point" after Captain Beechey.