Ok took me a while to get everything running as my FreeBSD experience is lacking to say the least.
I wasn't even able to find the zfs pool I am trying to recover.
I created a test zfs pool to make sure I was at least on a rudimental right path and that worked as expected and I was able to find this newly created test pool.
Strangely enough the troubling zfs pool feels like its degrading with every passing day. Seems like the data is gone after all. :p