Beechey Island

Beechey Island is on the north side of Lancaster Sound off the southwest corner of Devon Island at the entrance to Wellington Channel in the Arctic Archipelago. At low water it is joined to the larger island by a narrow gravel isthmus and forms the northwest side of Erebus Bay. The island is small, only 2.5 km across, but its steep shores, rising to a flat plateau 244 m high, make it a prominent landmark. Sir John Franklin's ships spent the winter of 1845-46 at the island, and during the subsequent search for Franklin it was used as a supply depot and rendezvous. In 1980 the world's northermost known shipwreck, the Breadalbane, was found offshore.