Details
BRITISH ARCTIC EXPEDITION, 1875-1876
Manuscript journal by an unidentified seaman on board Alert, 15 July 1875 - 31 July 1876, 12 leaves, 4to, on blue paper, stitched into a single gathering (incomplete, lacking continuation, p.1 discoloured, some wear to margins throughout, horizontal tears up to 75mm to last 3 leaves).
The journal recounts the outward voyage (chiefly in terms of wildlife shot), and the freezing of both Discovery and Alert into winter quarters (not without its dramas: 'had we not been able to reach there before the Pack Met -- it would have been good bye "Alert"'), the near-loss of a first exploratory party when the pack ice dissolves, the preparations for the winter ('Awings [sic] being spread the deck covered in snow and gravel to make it set hard to about 18 inches thick & funnel lowered. Settled down finally for the winter'), and, in a long and interesting section, the sledging expeditions, including a table of 'Equipment of eight Man sledge Provisioned for an absence of forty five days', as well as a list of names of sledges for the 'Spring Travelling'. There is a feeling description of the travails of the cook on sledging duty ('the Poor Cook as [sic] the worst time of anyone for the day he is Cook'), and of Commander Markham's furthest north ('May 12th Hoisted the Union Jack on the Most Northern limit of the Globe ever attained by civilized man or in fact so far as our knowledge goes by mortal man ... the Union Jack being hoisted and banners displayed, three cheers where [sic] given for Old England') and of the arduous journey back, battling with scurvy.
The expedition, in the vessels Alert and Discovery under George Nares, was chiefly intended to reach the North Pole, at a time when there was erroneously thought to be an open polar sea and land extending far to the north. The expedition chose the route through Smith Sound, and froze in to winter quarters: the following spring a number of sledging parties were sent out, two exploring respectively the coasts of Ellesmere Land and of Greenland, and one, under Commander A.H. Markham, whose attempt to reach the pole, on broken pack-ice drifting south almost as fast as they were marching north, ended at 83°20' N. Incipient scurvy persuaded Nares to call off the whole expedition early in the summer of 1876.
Manuscript journal by an unidentified seaman on board Alert, 15 July 1875 - 31 July 1876, 12 leaves, 4to, on blue paper, stitched into a single gathering (incomplete, lacking continuation, p.1 discoloured, some wear to margins throughout, horizontal tears up to 75mm to last 3 leaves).
The journal recounts the outward voyage (chiefly in terms of wildlife shot), and the freezing of both Discovery and Alert into winter quarters (not without its dramas: 'had we not been able to reach there before the Pack Met -- it would have been good bye "Alert"'), the near-loss of a first exploratory party when the pack ice dissolves, the preparations for the winter ('Awings [sic] being spread the deck covered in snow and gravel to make it set hard to about 18 inches thick & funnel lowered. Settled down finally for the winter'), and, in a long and interesting section, the sledging expeditions, including a table of 'Equipment of eight Man sledge Provisioned for an absence of forty five days', as well as a list of names of sledges for the 'Spring Travelling'. There is a feeling description of the travails of the cook on sledging duty ('the Poor Cook as [sic] the worst time of anyone for the day he is Cook'), and of Commander Markham's furthest north ('May 12th Hoisted the Union Jack on the Most Northern limit of the Globe ever attained by civilized man or in fact so far as our knowledge goes by mortal man ... the Union Jack being hoisted and banners displayed, three cheers where [sic] given for Old England') and of the arduous journey back, battling with scurvy.
The expedition, in the vessels Alert and Discovery under George Nares, was chiefly intended to reach the North Pole, at a time when there was erroneously thought to be an open polar sea and land extending far to the north. The expedition chose the route through Smith Sound, and froze in to winter quarters: the following spring a number of sledging parties were sent out, two exploring respectively the coasts of Ellesmere Land and of Greenland, and one, under Commander A.H. Markham, whose attempt to reach the pole, on broken pack-ice drifting south almost as fast as they were marching north, ended at 83°20' N. Incipient scurvy persuaded Nares to call off the whole expedition early in the summer of 1876.
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