Editing HMS Investigator (1848) (section)

== Legacy ==
[[File:Investigator in Mercy Bay.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Invalids are evacuated from HMS ''Investigator'' in [[Mercy Bay]], by [[Samuel Gurney Cresswell]], the ship's artist, who commanded the sledge party depicted.]]
Oral traditions of the [[Inuit]] tell stories of the ship. The abandoned ship was a source of copper and iron for the indigenous people in the area; metal nails were missing from smaller boats on the shore when they were discovered.<ref name="CBC" /> One Inuit account from 1910 noted that "one year she had still been on the beach and the next year she was gone without a trace."{{sfn|Stefansson|1922|p=361}} When Canadian anthropologist [[Vilhjalmur Stefansson]] reached [[Mercy Bay]] during his [[Last voyage of the Karluk|1915 voyage to the Arctic]], he failed to find her remains.

After meeting the Inuit who made pilgrimages to the wreckage, he suggested a link between the ''Investigator''{{'}}s stranding and the absence of [[muskox]]en on [[Banks Island]]. He speculated that the Inuit had killed off the animals for food during their journeys to and from the wreckage over the 40&nbsp;years since abandonment. The muskoxen have since repopulated the island and now number nearly 50,000.<ref name="Edmonton Journal">{{cite news|last = Struzik|first = E.|date = 2010-07-25|access-date = 2010-07-26|title = In Far North, a missing ship could hold the key to a century-old muskoxen mystery|work = [[Edmonton Journal]]|url = https://edmontonjournal.com/technology/North+missing+ship+could+hold+century+muskoxen+mystery/3320673/story.html}}</ref>