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Parks Canada searchers were still scouring Arctic waters for the long-lost HMS Terror more than a week after the wreck was found by their private counterparts.

That’s because no one had told them the search was over.

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What happened to the message depends on whom you ask.

The private Arctic Research Foundation, funded by Jim Balsillie, former co-president of Research In Motion, found the wreck of the missing Franklin Expedition ship on Sept. 3.

The Arctic Research Foundation’s announcement that it had found the historic wreck reached news media across Canada Sept. 12.

Parks Canada said Monday that’s almost the same time its own searchers in the Arctic first heard of the remarkable find.

“The government of Canada learned about it on the 11th,” said Parks Canada’s chief underwater archaeologist, Marc-André Bernier. “This is when we put our team in gear.”

By this time the private foundation’s searchers had returned to their base, picked up more equipment, and returned to spend days investigating the wreck in good conditions. They sent down remote-controlled video and captured clear images of the sunken ship. Parks Canada, meanwhile, had been criss-crossing an area many miles away, where there was no sign of a wreck, for more than a week.