Toronto, Sep 10 (IANS): Canadian underwater archaeologists have found the wreckage of one of the two British exploration ships, which were part of the famed Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin's doomed expedition 170 years ago.

The wreckage was found in the Arctic Ocean off the north coast of Canada using a remote operated underwater vehicle recently acquired by Parks Canada, an agency of the Canadian government, a report on the website cbc.ca said.

"It is a very substantial wreck," said Ryan Harris, an underwater archaeologist with Parks Canada, adding that the wreck was "indisputably" one of Franklin's two ships.

"Sonar images from the waters of Victoria Strait, just off King William Island, clearly show wreckage of a ship on the ocean floor," Harris maintained.

The team is yet to find which of the two lost ships has been discovered.

Two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, were abandoned in 1845 after they got trapped in the polar ice.

Several searches through the 19th century attempted to find the lost ships but failed.