He said: “This decision puts unnecessary extra pressure on Britain’s steelmakers. Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey warned that removing the measures could trigger the closure of UK mills – and force the Navy to buy from overseas when constructing vessels.

Labour will force a vote on the issue on Monday following an Opposition Day debate. Senior industry figures fear the move will throw the sector into fresh jeopardy as it struggles to compete with foreign rivals.

The Tories are poised to axe defences aimed at protecting UK manufacturers from cheap foreign imports. But they had enough supplies for about three years, and British expeditions were experienced at overwintering in the Arctic.Slashing safeguards on British steel risks sending plants which produce metal for Royal Navy warships out of business, Labour warned tonight. They couldn’t rely on local people for meat, clothing, and oil, as other expeditions had. It was also, at times, breathtakingly beautiful, with dazzling colours and glowing skies.įranklin’s ship was trapped in the ice in a remote and desolate area, which Inuit rarely visited, calling it Tununiq, ‘the back of beyond’. The Arctic could be a place of freezing fog and heaving seas, and the expedition crews were sometimes at the mercy of the immense pressure of the sea-ice and the unpredictable behaviour of icebergs. Unfamiliar wildlife might be glimpsed, such as narwhals (which were called ‘sea-unicorns’), and splashes of botanical life, including vivid yellow poppies. Using these, we can come as close as we possibly can to understanding what the crews of Erebus and Terror might have seen and felt.Įxpeditions set off in the spring, so that they could get as far as possible before the winter, when their progress was halted. We don’t yet have any of the journals or logbooks that would have been written aboard ship.īut we do have lots of evidence from other sources about what the men might have gone through. The short answer is, we don’t know what life was really like.

Fresh metal warship fresh metal forces