Illustrated autograph journal kept by Commander Albert Hastings Markham, Captain of HMS Alert, and second-in-command of the British Arctic Expedition under Sir George Nares on the Discovery, Markham's journal kept on board the Alert during the expedition itself and recording the sledge journey in which he achieved the record of Farthest North; with NUMEROUS WATERCOLOURS AND INK DRAWINGS executed during the expedition bound in, plus a run of EPHEMERA PRINTED ONBOARD in the Arctic (see details below), originally written in softbound stationer's notebooks and later bound-up for Markham in two volumes, some 720 pages in all, on lined paper, some very light foxing and minor dust-staining but overall in fine fresh condition throughout, half dark blue morocco over pebbled boards, upper covers stamped in gilt with the Markham arms (azure, on a chief or, a demi-lion rampant issuant gules) surmounted by their crest (the lion of St Mark sejant gardant supporting a pair of horse hames), spines lettered in gilt, light wear to binding, 4to, Portsmouth to Spithead via the Arctic, 29 May 1875 to 14 October 1876

'A BITTER ENDING TO ALL OUR ASPIRATIONS' – THE LAST BRITISH EXPEDITION TO THE ARCTIC ATTAINS THE FARTHEST NORTH, AND SETS THE PRECEDENT FOR CAPTAIN SCOTT. The British Arctic Expedition was jointly sponsored by the Royal Navy and the Royal Geographical Society and was the last of the great British expeditions to the Arctic. It was commanded by Sir George Nares in the Discovery, with Albert Markham in the Alert as his second in command; it being Markham who led the sledge party that attempted to reach the North Pole, and established the record of the Farthest North, Latitude 83°20'26" N, a record that was to stand for two decades until broken by Nansen in 1895. The expedition was also of importance in that it helped lay to rest the theory of an Open Polar Sea around the North Pole.

A sketch of the background to the expedition is given on the Scott Polar Research Institute website: 'When the two vessels and 129 officers and men of the Franklin Expedition disappeared without trace in 1847 whilst searching for the north-west passage, official Arctic exploration was virtually shelved by the British government for twenty-five years. In 1874, however, the political climate had changed and the government, under pressure from two Franklin search veterans, Clements Markham, Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, and rear admiral Sherard Osborn, agreed to finance the British Arctic Expedition. Organised by the Arctic Committee of the Admiralty and ostensibly a voyage of scientific discovery and general exploration, popular opinion deemed its major aim as the conquest of the North Pole... The expedition had reached a farthest north, a considerable portion of the north Greenland coast had been mapped and some significant scientific data had been gathered. Despite this, the expedition would mark the end of the Admiralty's interest in Arctic exploration' (British Arctic Expedition 1875-76).

Not only was the British Arctic Expedition the last of the government-sponsored expeditions to the Arctic, thus standing at the end of one tradition, but in some significant respects it anticipated expeditions to the Antarctic early in the following century, in what has become known as the Heroic Age. In the words of Max Jones: 'Scott was the last of a line of polar pioneers from the Royal Navy, which included James Cook, John Franklin, John Ross, James Clark Ross, Leopold McClintock, George Nares, and Albert Markham. Albert's cousin Clements Markham, president of the Royal Geographical Society, had propelled Scott into the public eye at the head of the Discovery Antarctic expedition (1901–4), which Clements had been determined would be led by a naval officer' (ʻBritish Antarctic Expedition', ODNB). Albert was especially close to his first cousin Clements who, as has been noted, was a moving force behind the 1875-6 expedition (travelling with it as far as Greenland, for which he forfeited his job at the India Office), just as he was in promoting Scott's career and launching the Discovery expedition. Albert's parents had emigrated to America when he still young, and he joined the Navy when he was fifteen. When he was not at sea, he lived with Clements (eleven years his senior) and his wife at 21 Eccleston Square, from where he was to date the preface to his printed account of the expedition, The Great Frozen Sea, in 1878.

For a modern perspective of the British Arctic Expedition, see Andrew Gordon: 'The project was a heroic, hopeless attempt on the North Pole, sponsored jointly by the Royal Geographical Society, of which Clements Markham was now secretary, and by the Admiralty. The expedition "epitomized both the best features of British exploration and the worst". It nearly became a classic British disaster from a failure to learn the dietary lessons of previous expeditions, and from the early escape or death, due to incompetence, of the dogs that were to have pulled the sledges. Undaunted, Albert Markham, gave it his best shot; and his men stolidly hauled their heavy loads northwards and progressively fell victim to scurvy. They were away for ten weeks. Their provisions were medieval, and although there was ample lime juice onboard the ships, the labour and fuel involved in thawing it out every day had persuaded Markham to leave it behind. When they got within 400 miles of the Pole (a record which stood for twenty years) he planted the flag in the snow, sang The Union Jack of Old England, and started the long stumbling journey back. They endured appalling privations, were reduced to crawling on hands and knees, and were lucky only one of their number died... The expedition left two dangerous legacies for future British polar endeavour: a distrust of dogs; and a romanticization of the camaraderie, as Clements Markham saw it, of muscle-power' (The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command, 2013, p. 209).

Our journal, kept by the expedition's second-in-command and the man who actually made the attempt on the Pole, has claim to be the principal first-hand account of that expedition; and is one of the most important records of polar exploration remaining in private hands.

Composition and Physical Make Up of the Journal

The journal was written by Markham while on board his ship in the Arctic and, as an added bonus, bound into the first volume is a watercolour showing the cabin where it was written. Clear evidence that it was written at the time, and on board the Alert, is to be found on the fly-leaf of the first volume. Here he has entered the date underneath his signature: "A H Markham/ May 24th 1875" (adding below, in a different ink and clearly at a later date: "To August 22nd 1875./ Vol. 1"). Turning overleaf, we find the volume starting: "Saturday May 24th/ Punctual to the hour on the day named the Arctic ships destined for the exploration of the unknown regions culminating at the North Pole steamed out of Portsmouth harbour..."

Markham kept his journals in roan-covered notebooks, as supplied by stationers of the period, and of which several examples survive in their unbound state (see for example the Guernsey diary, below). They were afterwards bound up in morocco. Thus, within each of the morocco-bound volumes, we find a sequence of numbered gatherings, each of which represents an original stationer's notebook. Added to these are his sledging journals. These are the exception to the general rule, in that these were written up from the original notes on his return to ship, as the entry for 15 September 1875 makes plain: "It is a perfect treat to be again sitting at my writing table in my cosy little cabin, for although I have not been long away from the ship, still in the period we were absent, we have encountered work of no ordinary description and have endured, I might almost say sufferings, of a nature that we had hitherto not anticipated, but I must not anticipate, but relate events as they occurred... I have had my first sledging experience, and find that it is no easy matter to keep a journal with a temperature down nearly to zero, or in a gale of wind, but I intend writing it here verbatim, without altering a word or sentence". The principal sledging journal, recording his attempt on the Pole in the spring of 1876, is in two sections, the first headed: "Sledging Journal. Spring Campaign/ 1876", running from 3 April to 2 June; the second: "Sledging Journal. Vol 2/ Commencing June 2nd 1876" and breaking off on 13 June; with the journal not being resumed until his return to ship on 25 June. The Scott Polar Research Institute holds two of the notebooks carried with Markham while sledging, including his 'Notebook and Sledging Journal 3 April – 8 May 1876' (MS 396/1 and 2).

Publication of the Journal

The journal was drawn on for Markham's account of the expedition, published as The Great Frozen Sea (1878), where some of the watercolours and much of the printed ephemera are reproduced (see lists below). The printed version is by no means a verbatim transcript, but rather more a paraphrase-cum-summary, with a great deal left out. Much of this is just the sort of trivial detail that makes the original so engaging; as for example a passing reference to the sheepskin that he had been given by his shipmate's mother, Lady Mary Egerton, which he had in the cabin with him and which, he says, "even now as I am writing I have in use". He has the born diarist's gift of making one feel as if one were there in the cabin with him; such a gift might well, were the original journal ever to be published, make it of wide appeal.

A like example is to be found in the entry made on 5 September 1875, at the outset of his first reconnaissance journey: "I am now writing under difficulties. I am in my bag, and the men are getting into theirs, jolting my elbow at every move – the temperature inside the tent is only 8° and my fingers are aching with cold". In terms of immediacy this ranks high among records of polar travel. As this journal was clearly written for himself, in the knowledge that any published version would be thoroughly edited, Markham could afford to allow himself the occasional Pooterish moment, as in the endearing honesty with which he records his reaction to news that he had been selected to take part in the winter theatricals that he had been so keen in promoting: "the managing committee, having selected a farce named ʻTurn him out', to be performed by the Officers, have actually allotted me the part of Susan a Servant Maid!! I suppose I must put a good face on the matter and get through the best way I can – I had a look today at the drop scene I had painted at Portsmouth, and was rejoiced to find it quite uninjured" (Markham, it seems, was spared, there being no record of this particular entertainment being staged.)

Farthest North

To the modern reader, the entry for Wednesday, 10 May 1876, which should have marked Markham's triumph, finds distinct echoes in the entries that Captain Scott – cousin Clements's famous protégé - was to make in his last diary: "Reluctantly, very reluctantly I have, after very serious consideration and due consideration with Parr arrived at the conclusion that this must be our most northern camp – I feel mean & small! Now totally different are the realization of my hopes of a year ago! To be the leader of such a glorious expedition, with the ball apparently at my feet asking only to be rolled on, and yet to experience such a total failure – God knows that our want of success cannot be attributed either to a lack of energy or perseverance. I am satisfied in my own mind, no matter what the world may say, that the quotation [engraved] on my staff ['I dare do all that may become a man:/ Who dares do more is none'] has been fully carried out. My reason for not advancing further northwards are manifold – in the first place another man George Winstone, one of Parr's crew, is complaining of his legs & is only just able to drag, this with five totally prostrate and four more, out of my small band of 15, exhibiting decided symptoms of the same complaint, it would be folly, nay sheer madness, on my part to attempt pushing on, for if they were to break down altogether I should hardly be able to move at all... It is a bitter ending to all our aspirations! Although we have accomplished so little, I must do my brave companions the justice to say, that no man under the existing circumstances could have done more" (the printed version being much abbreviated and tidied-up lacks a good deal of the original's impact).

Open Polar Sea

Although the general public assumed that the sole purpose of the expedition was to attain the Pole, this was not in fact the case; its aim being more broadly scientific: among its objectives being to settle, once and for all, the question of an Open Polar Sea. This was a region of open water round the North Pole which had been hypothesised since the days of Barents and Hudson and upon which the practical attainment of a North West Passage depended. The sea's existence was coming under increasing doubt in the course of the nineteenth century after the failure of Franklin and his successors to navigate it, but hopes for its existence had revived in the 1850s and 1860s with claimed sightings by the American explorers Elisha Kane and Isaac Israel Hayes. It was Markham, as much as anyone, who was finally able to lay the theory to rest. (Even so, his first-hand experience was not enough to stop what had become an American obsession and one final, doomed, attempt to find the non-existent sea in 1879-81 by George Washington De Long: see Hampton Sides, In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette, 2015). Entries for 15 and 16 April 1876 make plain that no such sea existed, as well as giving some idea of the conditions endured by Markham and his sledging party:

"Saturday April 15th/ Blowing a N. Wy gale, with a remarkably low temperature -35° and considerable drift, rendered travelling quite out of the question. Extreme wretchedness and almost abject misery is our lot to-day – We derive no heat from our tent robes, they are frozen so hard, and the temperature inside the tent is -22°! It is rather remarkable that we have today experienced a lower temperature during a gale of wind than we did the whole winter on board the ship, which seems conclusive evidence that there is no open water either to the North.d or West.d of us. By not turning the Cooks out until late, I have economized a meal, doing away with lunch. Shirley is no better, his ankle is swollen and knee very puffy – after having dressed it with turpentine liniment, I bandaged it. Too cold to write./ Easter Sunday – April 16th/ Wind still blowing fresh, though it has moderated considerably, still it is so cutting & piercing that the men would be unable to face it, and there is so much drift that it would be impossible to see our way through the hummocks, I therefore deemed it prudent to remain encamped. We have all unanimously come to the conclusion that this has been the most wretched and miserable Easter Sunday that any of us have ever passed. I have had no feeling in my feet for the last 40 hours and sleep is out of the question. 48 hours in a gale of wind in one's bag off [Cape] Joseph Henry with a temperature 67° below freezing point, is not pleasant! Despite the cold we did not neglect the usual toast last night, also the 1st anniversary of the ship's commissioning and the Captain's birthday – we gave the latter three cheers, which was taken up by the 'Victoria's', and then we commenced to cheer each other by way of cheering up our spirits..." (the entry continues with a hair-raising account of how they continued the march that day, dragging the scurvy-struck Shirley with them).

The Journal's "Profound Secret"

In contrast to Markham's achievement and his sledging party's heroism in reaching Farthest North, the expedition gained a measure of notoriety for the outbreak of scurvy among the sledging party that set off in the spring of 1876 and which then manifested itself among the crew, and which caused the expedition to be abandoned a year earlier than had been planned. After initially receiving a hero's welcome, the returned expedition was bitterly criticised and a public report instituted, which was to run to some 500 pages, followed by a debate in Parliament; the report concluding that 'We attribute the early outbreak of scurvy in the spring sledging parties of the Expedition to the absence of lime-juice from the sledge dietaries'.

This is not the place to rehearse in detail arguments concerning the outbreak – factors such as the replacement in Admiralty procurement of Mediterranean lemons (that had served Nelson's navy so well) with much less effective West Indian limes and the hazy medical understanding of the disease's causes then still prevailing (Vitamin C being not yet then isolated). Lind's work of 1754 notwithstanding, the disease went on to plague the sledging party on Scott's Discovery expedition, nearly killing Shackleton, and may well have contributed to the death of Scott and his party when returning from the Pole in 1912; in this respect Scott being, as in so many others, the heir of Markham and Nares.

The official enquiry into our expedition was posited on the fact that scurvy first made itself manifest in the spring of 1876. Neither of the published journals by Nares nor Markham contradicts this; indeed, Markham states that the first signs of illness manifested themselves in his sledging party on 14 April 1876, although they did not diagnose this as being scurvy until 2 May (Great Frozen Sea, pp.317, 336). This statement is borne out by the manuscript journal (although tact has prompted omission from the printed text of Markham's rueful observation: "I would not have cared so much if they had only remained well for another fortnight, as our time for turning back is drawing nigh"). Nor does his frank confession of bewilderment, such as that expressed on 4 May, find its way into the printed record: "Porter has still to be carried & so also has Francombe whose legs are very bad; Pearce & Hawkins are worse and Shirley is unable to walk without assistance. I wish I knew the cause of this terrible disease, for such it seems to be – I am inclined to think, if it is not scurvy, that it may be induced by having to toil through such deep snow assisted by the heavy weights the men have to drag: should such be the case we shall all probably be laid up".

In the printed account, Markham gives it as his opinion that 'The seeds must have been sown during the time, nearly five months, that the sun was absent, and we were in darkness', that is to say between early October and the end of February (p. 370). This however ignores an entry in the manuscript journal, dated 1 November 1875, and written with slightly less fluency than normal, which records: "Monday Nov. 1/ Held monthly medical inspection of Ship's Company. With the exception of the frost bites, the result was satisfactory. Scorbutic symptoms I regret however to say were discovered on one man, Kemish the Ward Room Steward – this is however being kept a profound secret, Moss [Alert Staff Surgeon] not even being aware of it; the Captain [Nares] & myself are the only two to whom the doctor [Colan] has imparted the unpleasant intelligence; fearing that it might produce a panic amongst the men. Its appearance can only be attributed to the lengthened illness of this man, his general bad state of health, his disposition, want of sufficient out door exercise (although he has his two hours exercise regularly every day with the remainder of the ship's C.o) and perhaps his neglecting to eat".

There is no corresponding entry in Markham's printed account. But, turning to that published by Nares, we find the following: 'November 1st. – After the monthly medical inspection to-day, Dr. Colan reports everyone in perfect health with the exception for one man, the wardroom steward: he should never have been brought here' (Narrative of a Voyage to the Polar Sea, 1878, vol. i, p. 187; the entry continues 'A glass of beer [an antiscorbutic] is now issued in the evenings twice a week. On the other five evenings a second allowance of rum will be issued during the winter'). Such was the stigma associated with the disease that even Scott hesitated before describing its outbreak in his report on the Discovery expedition, nevertheless one does wonder what the critics of our expedition would have made of it had Markham's journal fallen into their hands, and by the fact that Markham and Nares were well aware that scurvy had broken out among the ships' crews months before the sledging party had even set out for the North Pole. Markham's declaration in The Great Frozen Sea (pp.237-8) that 'we had no reason to expect that we should suffer from that dread disease, scurvy, any more than did our predecessors' is, at the very least, open to question.

Illustrations

The two volumes of Markham's Arctic journal contain a wealth of illustrations. These it seems were inserted by him when the volumes were bound up on his return home, but were actually drawn when in the Arctic. They include wash drawings, watercolours and pen-and-ink sketches, the latter mostly of scenes from the Alert's Arctic Theatre (and some marked as being by other hands than Markham's). While the quality of the theatrical sketches is distinctly amateur, sometimes charmingly so, the watercolours show a competency typical of the period when midshipmen were trained in watercolour to record topographical features and coastal profiles. They are as follows:

Watercolours:
"Ye Commander's, and Nellies [Markham's black retriever], cabin/ H.M.S. ʻAlert'", image 75 x 112mm.
"A native of Greenland/ harpooning ye lively seal", 115 x 198mm.
"ʻYe Loom' [i.e. Loon]/ (Aria [Uria] Brunnickii)", with sketches of a dog (presumably Nellie) on reverse, 177 x 122mm.
"Ye Polar Bears/ (Ursus Maritimus)" [compare The Great Frozen Sea, facing p.52], 120 x 175mm.
"Ye Arctic Mollies/ (Precellaria Glacialis)" [fulmar petrel], 170 x 220mm. [compare Great Frozen Sea, p. 406], 170 x 220mm.
"Ye graceful Arctic Tern/ (Sterna Arctica)", 132 x 195mm.
"Ye little Lemmings/ (Mgodes lemmus)", arched top, [Great Frozen Sea, p. 242, reduced version featuring only two lemming], 97 x 165mm.
"ʻA Sledging Scene/ Under Sail'", 125 x 175mm.
"Ye Arctic Hare/ Lepus Glacialis", 175 x 124mm.
"A Floeberg cracked by intense cold", 145 x 220mm.
"In difficulties", showing a dog-sledge in difficulties [Great Frozen Sea, p. 151], 122 x 175mm.
"1876 Spring Campaign", showing nine sledge flags [Great Frozen Sea, fold-out coloured plate, facing p. 159], 174 x 204mm.
"'Westward Ho' Valley/ Latitude 82.40' N.", 165 x 204mm.
AHM on sledging expedition, 194 x 150mm.
"Near the Depot. Cape Joseph Henry", 140 x 195mm.
"Northwards Ho", 165 x 210mm.
Arctic scene, showing the expedition ships, 140 x 200mm.
"Our most Northern Camp", another Arctic scene, showing ships, 170 x 215mm.
"Lat 20. 26 N/ The most northern position reached by Man – May 12. 1876", 120 x 204mm.
Snow bunting [Great Frozen Sea, p. 359], 175 x 175mm.
Eskimo woman with dog [?Nellie], 150 x 200mm.

Pen and ink, some with coloured inks or wash:
"Looms and Mollies", 212 x 182mm.
"Ferocious Bruin", 110 x 180mm.
"Ye indignant Walrus", 115 x 185mm.
"Ye ʻcanine troupe' performing a melodious concert", 80 x 176mm.
ship and deck plan, showing cuts made in the ice, 158 x 170mm. [Great Frozen Sea, p. 100], 157 x 168mm.
fold-out diagram on grid paper representing the north and south horizons, marked off with the "Track to represent the path of the Moon – above & below both horizons", from 1 September to 2 January [1875/6], 126 x 410mm.
similar fold-out diagram on grid paper representing the north and south horizons, similarly marked off, from 4 January to 31 April, 126 x 410mm.
"Ye agile musk oxen./ (ʻOvibos moschatus')" [Great Frozen Sea, p. 121], 135 x 215mm.
"Preparing for a start with the Dogs", 162 x 205mm.
view of Flagstaff Point, [Great Frozen Sea, p. 179], 175 x 125mm.
"A.H.M. as ʻAlderman Grumbedon Gruffin'..." by "W.R." [i.e. Lieutenant Rawson, see below], 167 x 125mm.
"Lieut. W. Rawson as Vilikins", 150 x 128mm.
"Vilikins and his Diana", with George LeClerc Egerton [later Scott's sponsor] as Baron Boski, 130 x 152mm. (full stage view showing proscenium arch and lighting)
"Commander Markham R.N./ H.M.S. Alert", 80 x 140mm.
"H.M.S. Alert. Winter Quarters. 1875-6", showing her awnings, [?by Rawson], 135 x 205mm.
Aladdin (2), 125 x 130mm. and 144 x 110mm.
"Captain Feilder as Widow Twankey", 120 x 110mm.
"A.H.M. as Abanazer the Jew", 97 x 90mm.
"C.A.G. as Aladdin", 115 x 90mm.
"A.H.M. as Abanazar the Magician", 200 x 160mm.
Arctic Bears and Grisly Bears stage scene, 74 x 120mm.
Vignette wash showing the Alert rigged as winter quarters heading manuscript verses welcoming home the sledging party, on the reverse of the homecoming menu, headed "Marco Polo [AHM's sledge]/ Lat. 83o 20' 30", 29 June 1876, 8vo, 280 x 204mm.
"My most northern camp" [this shows the most northern camp of the party, HMS Alert, 12 May, 1876; it forms the basis of the small oil by R.R. Beechey in the National Maritime Museum, where a catalogue note states that ʻThe subject matter and small, intimate composition are not typical of Beechey's style of grand seascapes, which makes proving the attribution difficult': this difficulty being accounted for by the fact that Beechey is copying Markham; another version by Markham drawn in 1878 is in the National Library of Australia and is inscribed on the reverse 'This picture the original from which it was drawn was painted by Admiral Beechey'; see also Great Frozen Sea, facing p. 346], 118 x 170mm.