HMS Investigator was a merchant ship purchased in 1848 to search for Sir John Franklin's ill-fated Northwest Passage expedition.

Built at Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Greenock on the Firth of Clyde, and running 422 tonnes, Investigator was purchased by the Admiralty in February 1848 and was fitted for Arctic exploration by R. & H. Green at Blackwall Yard on the River Thames.

On a separate expedition she was commanded by Robert McClure,[4] but the ship became trapped in the pack ice at Mercy Bay adjoining Banks Island.

[2] The following year, she was inspected by crews of HMS Resolute, still frozen in, and reported to be in generally fair condition despite having taken on some water during the summer thaw.

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.

[9][10] The team arrived on Banks Island in the Beaufort Sea on 22 July and began a sonar scan of the area three days later, based on the original Royal Navy records of the position of the ship when it was abandoned.

"[12] Her hull lies partially buried in silt and the cold Arctic water has prevented the outer deck from deteriorating quickly.