“The Terror” co-producer and co-showrunner David Kajganich reports that the remains of both of the actual ships have been found in the Arctic in recent years, allowing for even more accurate detail to be shared via the replica. “He produced a lot of drawings for his model that he allowed us to have, and we adapted them to make them into our ship,” says McKinstry, who also sourced blueprints from London’s National Maritime Museum. McKinstry made as faithful a replica as he could, with help from Matthew Betts, a Canadian archaeologist who had been working on a model of the Terror for years. “We didn’t have space, time or money to build both ships, so we built one that we modified to become the Terror or the Erebus by changing the stern, changing the signs, changing the dressing, changing some of the companionway entrances - minor details that you would notice,” the production designer says.

Much of the series was shot on a soundstage at Stern Film Studio near Budapest, where McKinstry constructed a multipurpose vessel. “It sounded fascinating and like a real challenge right from the start, knowing that we were obviously going to be studio-based,” says production designer Jonathan McKinstry. The doomed voyage leaves two ships, the HMS Terror and the HMS Erebus, trapped in ice - and their sailors tormented by a mysterious and terrifying predator. Blending history with speculative fiction, AMC’s new series “ The Terror,” based on Dan Simmons’ novel of the same name, follows a British Royal Navy expedition into the Arctic in the mid-1800s as it searches for the Northwest Passage.

Matthew betts hms terror